Last night (November 22nd, 2020) the WWE held their 34th annual Survivor Series event. This makes it the second longest running PPV after only WrestleMania (a fact that I didn’t realize). It took place at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, and featured WWE’s virtual fan viewing experience called ThunderDome. It marked the final PPV from Amway before the ThunderDome relocates to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida due to the start of the 2020–21 NBA season. It also marked the 30th anniversary of the WWE debut of the one and only Undertaker who happens to be my all time favorite character.
I’ll be honest here… I’m not a huge fan of Survivor Series. It’s by far my least favorite of the ‘Big Four’ PPVs for a few reasons. First and foremost there’s rarely any stakes as there’s no titles on the line (most of the time). Also, I’m not a huge fan of tag team wrestling and even less so a fan of ‘team’ matches which is what Survivor Series is built around.
With that context out of the way… let’s get into it.
Survivor Series 2020
- The Miz won and 18-man Dual Brand Battle Royal on the preshow
- Team Raw (AJ Styles, Braun Strowman, Keith Lee, Riddle, and Sheamus) Defeated Team SmackDown (Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, King Corbin, Otis, and Seth Rollins) – Survivor Series Match
- The Street Profits Defeated The New Day
- Bobby Lashley Defeated Sami Zayn
- Sasha Banks Defeated Asuka
- Team Raw (Lacey Evans, Lana, Nia Jax, Peyton Royce, and Shayna Baszler) Defeated Team SmackDown (Bayley, Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, Natalya, and Ruby Riott) – Survivor Series Match
- Roman Reigns Defeated Drew McIntyre
Survivor Series Thoughts
As I said in the intro, I’m not a huge fan of this PPV right out of the gate primarily due to lack of stakes. The preshow starts with a battle royal that The Miz wins but really is just a way to get folks onto a PPV card. If I’m being honest here I’m sort of surprised that they’d go out of their way to get so many people together just due to COVID but WWE has proven that they really don’t care.
I do have to say I appreciate the appearance of the Gobbledy Gooker. Sure Undertaker debuted 30 years ago, but so did the Gooker.
The traditional Survivor Series matches always fall flat for me. I just don’t like the format. That being said, I have to say I enjoy Lana getting the win here after being put to off to the side early in her match. Sure it was silly but it actually did a decent job of forwarding a story they’ve been telling.
I don’t think anyone really gives a shit about the ‘Raw vs. Smackdown’ aspect of this show. WWE has long been trying to make us care, I just don’t think anyone does. I spose looking at the outcomes Raw ‘won’ the night. Meh.
For the most part I’m not a huge fan of Champion vs. Champion matches unless both titles are on the line. When they’re not the matches just sort of feel like ‘filler’. That was the case here for me when it came to the ladies (Sasha vs. Asuka), the mid card titles (Lashley vs. Zayn) and the tag champs (Street Profits vs. New Day). What I DID appreciate was that we actually got finishes in all three of these matches. I would have been really pissed if we got screw jobs on top of no stakes.
The stand out wrestling match of the night was CLEARLY Roman vs. Drew. These guys went back and forth for nearly a half an hour and gave us a perfect example of what a match between two big men can be. I’ve been on the Roman train for quite some time but I’ve got to say I’m absolutely loving him now and Drew is at the top of his game as well. GO WATCH THIS MATCH.
I’m not sure what I was expecting out of The Undertaker’s farewell. He’s called ‘The Phenom’ for a reason. We got the ring filled with his greatest opponents (and his buddies) and the one and only Vince McMahon. Then we got a brief video package and Taker made his way to the ring to say goodbye and say that it was time for him to “rest in peace.” They didn’t set anything else up. There were no dramatics. There were no tears (except almost by Vince). It was simply goodbye to one of the best to ever set foot in a WWE ring. He retired the GREATEST character in the history of professional wrestling… and I’m glad I got to watch it live. I sincerely hope that was the last we saw of him. He deserves it.
One specific thing I have to point out… there was a moment where Taker did his Taker thing. Got down on one knee and they showed a ‘hologram’ of Paul Bearer against the smoke. It was… amazing. I popped hard and for that moment I was nothing but a wrestling fan enjoying my all time favorite.
Thank you Taker… you’re the best.
Buy WWE: Survivor Series 2020 (DVD)
Did you watch Survivor Series? Let me know what you thought in the comments below!
