WWE Survivor Series: 5 ways to raise the Pay Per View’s stakes
By BRETT HUSSEY
Ah, it’s that time of year again. Widely regarded as one of the biggest dates on the wrestling calendar, WWE Survivor Series is just around the corner and we have officially entered the season of “brand supremacy”, for literally no reason at all.
While the men’s and women’s five-on-five elimination matches have proved to be exciting and interesting in the past at WWE Survivor Series, what are they fighting for at the end of the day? Bragging rights? The overly used term of “brand supremacy” seems to be the only “reason” these Superstars are donning the red or blue (or oddly missing this year, gold) on the annual American Thanksgiving weekend event.
The whole concept is a bit bizarre to begin with but is even more strange when you consider that WWE stars like Kevin Owens, Sheamus, and AJ Styles were literally just traded to their current respective brands and are now fighting for their band with nothing at stake, whatsoever.
With that said, let’s take a look at what can be done to make these classic elimination matches mean something again.
#30 Spot in the Royal Rumble Match
In the WWE Universe, the Royal Rumble is one of the most popular and anticipated events of the year and is a brilliant way to elevate talent and officially begin the road to WrestleMania. With the success of the higher seeding in the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches, why not award the winning team of each Survivor Series elimination match the coveted final spot in the Rumble matches in January?
This could create potential scenarios and intrigue leading up to the Rumble, including creating angles on the winning brand to determine who gets the spot, or even granting the final spot to the actual “sole survivor” from each match. Sprinkle in a little controversy to a finish in one of the matches, and you might even have a bit of a feud come out of Survivor Series, leading up to the Royal Rumble match.
While this may take away from the intrigue and “surprise” of who the number thirty entrants might be in each match, it resolves a consistent long-term booking issue and also would even boost the long road to WrestleMania a little bit more. Not to mention, the number thirty entrants haven’t been overly “surprising” in years, anyway.