WWE Survivor Series 2018 Final Rating: Raw Gets The Clean Sweep Over SmackDown
WWE Survivor Series 2018 is officially in the books after a night that featured some high-quality matches, notwithstanding an overall strangely-booked pay-per-view.
Not many knew what to expect out of WWE Survivor Series 2018, but after the dust had settled, this show wound up offering a little bit of everything, some being good and some being bad.
The main card kicked off with the women’s Survivor Series elimination match pitting Team Raw against Team SmackDown in a match that saw several lineup changes along the way. This match had its moments, but it just felt a bit flat compared to what it could have been. The WWE decided to roll with Nia Jax’s heat from the crowd by having her win the match for the red brand as the sole survivor.
Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins took on United States Championship Shinsuke Nakamura up next in a match that had a lot of potential. Despite a slower start, this match lived up to a lot of its hype with a very good encounter between these two elite superstars. They dished out everything in their respective arsenals before The Architect hit The King Of Strong Style with a stomp to get the clean win with no Dean Ambrose sighting.
The tag team division took center stage when Raw Tag Team Champions, The Authors Of Pain battled SmackDown Tag Team Champions, The Bar. This was probably the worst overall match of the night, but it still wasn’t bad. The whole Drake Maverick urinating on himself thing was ridiculous, but AOP managed to get the win in a decent match.
The Cruiserweight Championship followed when Buddy Murphy defended his title against Mustafa Ali in what many consider to be the match of the night. This was a phenomenal show of athleticism and high-risk action from start to finish and after an intensely-physical battle, Murphy managed to retain his title.
The men’s Survivor Series elimination match was up next with Team Raw battling Team SmackDown in what turned out to be a strange, but captivating, match. Samoa Joe was eliminated quickly by Drew McIntyre, and while that was a bad move, it gave McIntyre more heat. The red team couldn’t get along whatsoever, and things broke down because of it.
Shane McMahon hit Braun Strowman with a flying elbow drop from the top rope all the way through the announce table, but he wasn’t finished there. Shane O’Mac also executed a coast-to-coast and attempted another before Strowman took him out. The match came down to Shane as the final member of the blue team before Strowman got the win for his team. He was then attacked after the match briefly by Baron Corbin.
A WrestleMania-caliber match followed when Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey took on Charlotte Flair in what turned out to be arguably the match of the night depending on who you ask. This was a tremendous battle that was physical, hard-hitting, and arguably the best match Rousey has had so far. But the finish is what has everybody talking.
Charlotte abruptly hit Rousey with a kendo stick on the outside, causing the disqualification. However, The Queen wasn’t finished there and she brutally attacked The Baddest Woman On The Planet after that point. This appears to be the return of heel Charlotte and that could be exactly what she needs given how much momentum Becky Lynch has after her character transformation.
The main event closed out the show when Universal Champion Brock Lesnar took on new WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. Bryan tried playing mind games and getting under the skin of Lesnar, but that would quickly come back to haunt him. The Beast Incarnate absolutely decimated the WWE Champion for several minutes straight, but Bryan was able to mount a comeback and the entire match changed.
After the ref was temporarily taken out, Bryan hit Lesnar with a low blow and followed it with a running knee. It looked like it was going to be a repeat of when Bryan won the title, but Lesnar barely kicked out. However, Bryan wasn’t finished there and he got an abundance of offense in on Lesnar. Just when it looked like Lesnar was going to tap out to the Yes Lock, you quickly realized Bryan was on borrowed time.
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The Universal Champion managed to get things back in his favor and after one F5, Lesnar defeated Bryan to close out the show with a very good match. And with that, one of the weirdest pay-per-views in a long time came to an end. This wasn’t a bad show, in fact, it was a good show overall.
However, there were several moments that were strange, to say the least. The finish of the AOP match with Maverick urinating himself was strange. Shane O’Mac being the final remaining member of Team SmackDown and Team Raw winning despite literally fighting each other was strange. Charlotte vs. Rousey ending in a disqualification was strange, but that finish ended up benefiting Charlotte more than a traditional finish would have.
Arguably the strangest takeaway was the fact that the WWE is trying to build Bryan as a mind game-playing, cowardly heel, but he gets booked as a babyface with a babyface comeback and crowd reaction. Not to mention, SmackDown didn’t receive a single win over Raw on the main card and got swept 6-0.
What message does that send to the WWE universe? It’s basically saying that the blue brand isn’t even a close second to the red brand, which is a strange philosophy to work towards. The booking was definitely odd at times, but this year’s Survivor Series was able to overcome a lot of it with stellar in-ring work.
Next. WWE Survivor Series 2018 Results. dark