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WWE Survivor Series is the one time of the year where WWE's two brands, RAW and SD Live go head-to-head in direct competition. We are just 1 week away from the inter-brand warfare and WWE has already announced some mega matches for the event. The announced match card goes as follows -
#1 Men's Team Raw vs Team SmackDown - Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre and two TBD (Raw) vs Daniel Bryan, The Miz, Shane McMahon, Samoa Joe and Rey Mysterio (SmackDown)
#2 Women's Team Raw vs Team SmackDown - Alexa Bliss and four TBD (Raw) vs Charlotte Flair, Carmella, Naomi, Asuka, and Sonya Deville (SmackDown)
#3 WWE Cruiserweight Championship - Buddy Murphy (c) vs Mustafa Ali
#4 Tag Team Champions - AOP (Raw) vs The Bar (SmackDown)
#5 Mid-card Champions - Seth Rollins (Raw, IC title) vs Shinsuke Nakamura (SmackDown, US title)
#6 Women's Champions - Ronda Rousey (Raw) vs Becky Lynch (SmackDown)
#7 Heavyweight Champions - Brock Lesnar (Raw, Universal Champion) vs AJ Styles (SmackDown, WWE Champion)
#8 10-on-10 tag team's elimination match - Team Raw vs Team SmackDown - five TBD (RAW) vs The New Day, The Usos and 3 TBD (SmackDown)
RAW emerged victorious in the last two editions of Survivor Series in 2016 and 2017. Here are 2 reasons why they need to win the entire thing in 2018 and two reasons why the blue brand should win:
#1 RAW should win - It is the flagship show
The basic reason why RAW has emerged victorious in the earlier two editions is that the WWE Creative wants the WWE Universe to believe that RAW is their flagship show and that SmackDown is the "B" show. Looking at the booking of WWE Crown Jewel where Shane McMahon took the World Cup to SD Live it seems like RAW will be having the upper hand at Survivor Series. It has always been seen that the brand having lesser momentum heading into Survivor Series emerges victorious and RAW has always been low on momentum ahead of the inter-brand warfare.
#1 SmackDown should win - They have the better roster
With Roman Reigns out of RAW, SmackDown's roster certainly now has bigger stars than RAW. Looking at the superstars on the blue brand they have Daniel Bryan, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, The Miz, Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro, Sheamus, Randy Orton, The New Day, The Usos, Rey Mysterio on the males side. While the female division has Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Asuka, Carmella and many other stars. They certainly have the best roster any brand has had since the brand split in 2016.
It would be extremely hard to book them facing a defeat against a depleted RAW roster. Seeing the team, it seems like all the 3 traditional matches would be won by the blue brand and this time WWE should give SD Live the brand supremacy it deserves.
#2 RAW should win - Their champions have received an invincible booking
While they may have weaker line-ups in the traditional tag team matches, one cannot ignore the fact that no superstar on SD Live can win against the red brand's champions. Their Universal Champion Brock Lesnar has only lost to Roman Reigns in the past 2 years while Ronda Rousey has never faced a defeat in WWE. The AOP recently won the Tag Team Champions after a dominant run in NXT and Seth Rollins is the most popular champion amongst the WWE Universe.
Even if WWE book an interference angle in the "Champion vs Champion" matches, it would make no sense as it may just hinder the match quality and the superstar interfering in the match would ultimately cost his/her brand in the bigger picture. Except for the mid-card champions' match, there's no other match where an interference can be imagined so WWE should keep away from booking interferences.
#2 SmackDown should win - AJ Styles and Becky Lynch are "hard-working" champions
AJ Styles has been the WWE Champion since the past 1 year and has rarely taken a clean pinfall despite wrestling at every PPV, house show and SD Live episode. On the other hand, the Irish Lasskicker is the best thing of the entire WWE currently and makes her presence felt every Tuesday night. A defeat at the hands of a part-timer Brock Lesnar for the second consecutive year may diminish AJ's dominance on the blue brand. Also, Becky Lynch after her heel turn has been unstoppable and has played her role as an anti-hero to perfection. Losing a match against Ronda Rousey will hurt her on-screen character.
Also, Read - 10 Superstars who won the same title twice in 2017
The Bar and Nakamura may not be affected much after eating a pinfall at Survivor Series at the hands of AOP and Seth Rollins but AJ and Becky should not lose their matches to part-timers. WWE Creative have booked themselves in a corner at Survivor Series 2018 and it would be interesting to see which brand wins the 2018 inter-brand warfare.
