WWE Survivor Series 2021! This anticipatory event will be full of thrilling eliminations and unforeseen sole survivors that encapsulate the ideals of bragging rights and the ultimate brand war between Raw and SmackDown. Without further ado, the following will provide match card predictions for this year’s Survivor Series, including the ultimate score and the winning brand.
WWE Survivor Series 2021 will take place on November 22, 2021, at 7 p.m. E.S.T., live on the WWE Network. Here are the full match card predictions.
Damian Priest vs. King Mahal [Mid Card Champions Brand Warfare]
Damian Priest vs. Shinsuke Nakamura seems to be the plan for Survivor Series this year. However, they are both babyfaces, so WWE will likely find a way to execute a title change for either the U.S. or IC Title before this PPV. Damian Priest seems like a formidable U.S. Champion who won the title at SummerSlam, retained it at Extreme Rules, and has defended it consistently on Raw each week. He is in a much safer position than Nakamura, who has not won or defended the title on any PPV this year and very rarely defends it on SmackDown each week.
Clearly, the WWE cares very little about the IC Title nowadays, so a title change is more likely on some random SmackDown. Mahal is poised to win the KOTR tournament and he will be a SmackDown superstar after the Crown Jewel PPV in Saudi Arabia. Since Nakamura was the original King of the Ring, it would make sense for Mahal to not only win the crown but also use that momentum to dethrone Nakamura and win his first IC Title in his career. This means that Mahal will be the key swerve going into Survivor Series once he encounters Damian Priest.
Damian Priest should and will defeat Mahal in this mid card champions brand warfare. Priest has picked up sufficient momentum to become a future main eventer, and it would be completely asinine to stop that now. On the other hand, Nakamura’s contract is expected to terminate this month. It is not known whether he has re-signed or not, but it would not be too far fetched to foresee him losing the IC Title before this PPV if he ends up leaving WWE. Hopefully, he leaves so that he can be a rightful main eventer elsewhere rather than remain a glorified mid carder in WWE.
Prediction: Damian Priest (1-0)
RKBro vs. Usos [Tag Champions Brand Warfare]
RKBro has been the more entertaining tag team champions this year, so they should continue their momentum with a victory over the Usos. It can be argued that Usos should win this match to continue the momentum of the Bloodline. It can also be argued that Usos should win to maintain the legitimacy of the tag division by avoiding a loss to a makeshift tag team like RKBro. However, Usos have already taken many losses to makeshift teams, such as Big E & Finn Balor as well as Big E & Drew McIntyre, so their momentum is already ruined.
Meanwhile, RKBro has maintained their momentum and developed such a compelling story as a unit. Henceforth, a victory for RKBro here would not be a bad idea. Orton will likely turn on Riddle on the road to WrestleMania to set up a match between them. That is very likely the end goal because Orton and Riddle are merely singles stars who were thrown together as a tag team, and the intention here is to either put over Riddle as a future main eventer or send him back to the mid card where he can somehow regain the U.S. Championship. The latter is more probable.
Prediction: RKBro (2-0)
Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown [Tag Team Survivor Series Match]
Team Raw: Apollo Crews & Azeez (c), Mysterios, Alpha Academy, Street Profits, Dirty Dawgs
Team SmackDown: The New Day (c), Happy Corbin & Moss, Viking Raiders, Los Primos, Hit Row
The WWE does not usually book tag team survivor series matches because they do not have enough tag teams. However, it seems that they do have enough tag teams in each division now that they called up Hit Row and created new tag teams, such as Los Primos and Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss. Consequently, it would be a sensible addition to this year’s PPV as a booking methodology to showcase all of the tag teams the WWE cares little about. SmackDown has the superior tag division, so the blue brand should and will be victorious here.
Prediction: Team SmackDown (2-1)
Bianca Belair vs. Charlotte Flair [Women’s Champions Brand Warfare]
Assuming Bianca Belair regains the Women’s Championship from Becky Lynch after that ill-advised decision at SummerSlam, she will move on to Survivor Series as the Raw Women’s Champion to battle Charlotte Flair. Although the winner of the Queen’s Crown Tournament should dethrone Charlotte since Charlotte is the original Queen, Charlotte is not scheduled to defend her title before the new rosters are set in place. Henceforth, a title change in that scheduled triple threat match to assure that a babyface battles Charlotte at Survivor Series is more likely.
It’s always difficult to bet against Charlotte, but Bianca Belair needs this win to not only bounce back from her SummerSlam fiasco but also to prove that she has evolved since she last battled Charlotte in NXT. WWE planted the seeds for a future Bianca Belair vs. Charlotte showdown on Raw recently. Hopefully, that comes to fruition at Survivor Series. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte and Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte have been done too many times due to WWE’s proclivity to book the horsewomen in every title match. Belair vs. Flair is still fresh and worthy of a spot on this PPV.
Prediction: Bianca Belair (3-1)
Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown [5 vs. 5 Women’s Survivor Series Match]
Team Raw: Becky Lynch (c), Liv Morgan, Carmella, DouDrop, Zelina Vega
Team SmackDown: Sasha Banks (c), Shayna Baszler, Naomi, Sonya Deville, Toni Storm
For some peculiar reason, Team SmackDown has never won a women’s survivor series match since the brand split in 2016. Hopefully, that changes this year because the SmackDown Women’s Division is absolutely stacked. Of course, there is the major caveat involving the egregious booking of some of these superstars, such as Shayna Baszler and Toni Storm. However, they can still bounce back with a big victory here. SmackDown has the superior women’s division, so the blue brand should and will be victorious here.
Prediction: Team SmackDown (3-2)
Big E vs. Roman Reigns [Men’s Champions Brand Warfare]
Big E vs. Roman Reigns is a lock for Survivor Series due to the seeds already being planted during draft week as well as the babyface-heel dynamics already being maintained. Big E has not yet been built to defeat Roman Reigns yet, so this is an inevitable victory for The Tribal Chief. Nonetheless, this should still be a positive for Big E’s career because it will be a great match to showcase Big E’s main event potential.
Hopefully, this loss will lead to a redemptive win for him down the line (i.e. WrestleMania 38) in what would be a “winner takes all’ match for both world titles, especially since it is now unlikely for The Rock to show up after this match and set up a Mania program with Reigns. The future of the WWE would be brighter with Big E dethroning Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 38, merging the world titles, and thereby merging the divisions that no longer need a brand split.
Prediction: Roman Reigns (3-3)
Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown [5 vs. 5 Men’s Survivor Series Match]
Team Raw: Finn Balor (c), AJ Styles (w/Omos), Seth Rollins, Keith ‘Bearcat’ Lee, Kevin Owens
Team SmackDown: Drew McIntyre (c), Happy Corbin (w/Moss), Ricochet, Ridge Holland, Jeff Hardy
In this year’s draft, Raw absolutely destroyed SmackDown in the main event scene of the men’s divisions. As AJ Styles once said in the 2017 draft: “SmackDown makes them. Raw takes them.” Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Seth Rollins, Keith ‘Bearcat’ Lee, and Kevin Owens might as well clean sweep Team SmackDown because it’s not even close. Clearly, Raw has the superior men’s division, so the red brand should and will be victorious here.
Prediction: Team Raw (4-3)