WWE: Clash of Champions should replace Survivor Series as a Big 4 PPV
By Amelia N
Ever since it first aired way back in 1987, Survivor Series has been a staple of WWE’s PPV calendar.
The November showcase quickly became one of WWE’s most important events of the year, joining the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and SummerSlam in what became known as the “Big 4” Pay-Per-View events each year.
In recent times, though, Survivor Series has weaned in its importance, owing partly to the rise of a significant amount of “B” events that WWE pad their calendar out with to ensure maximum revenue … I mean “storyline progression” … and partly due to the company neglecting what made the event so important and must-see in the first place.
The last instalment of Survivor Series to really matter, in terms of impact on the WWE landscape at the time of the event, was probably the 2014 edition; more commonly remembered as The One Where Sting Debuted. Outside of that historic main event, though, the rest of the event was the epitome of filler, and you have to go back as far as 2010 to find a Survivor Series that really felt like it mattered. The more recent instalments of the PPV have been nothing but a highly transparent excuse for the Creative staff to phone it in for a month or so building up to the event;
"“I dunno, just do Raw vs SmackDown again?” “But we could do something signifi… Ah you’re right, forget it, just do Raw vs SmackDown.”"
The laziness of this recent trope is amplified into even more stark obviousness with the brand split and the even more recent Wild Card Rule thrown into the mix as well. Wrestlers have switched brands with startling regularity due to drafts, Superstar Shakeups, and the Wild Card Rule that has given the entire main roster freedom to go to whichever show they want.
This has rendered the apparently-still-in-effect brand split utterly obsolete, we’ve still been expected to buy into the idea that, every November, the barely there divisions between Raw and SmackDown suddenly become thicker than blood and both rosters despise the other, for no reason other than that they’re arbitrarily assigned to one or the other, even though that could change in two months, and only changed last time six weeks ago.
The overall lack of fan interest in Survivor Series in the past decade or so, coupled with WWE Creative’s obvious indifference towards the PPV, have rendered the entire concept redundant. It should be consigned to history and replaced in the “Big 4” calendar with a showcase that can consistently have a significant impact on the landscape of the product moving forward; that showcase being Clash of Champions.