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WWE’s annual battle of brand supremacy will take place on November 24 when Superstars from RAW, SmackDown and NXT face each other in multiple matches at Survivor Series.
Five Triple Threat matches have been announced between the three brands, while there will also be one-on-one matches for the WWE Championship (Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio), Universal Championship (“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan) and NXT Championship (Adam Cole vs. TBC).
Last year, RAW defeated SmackDown 6-0 in matches on the main PPV, which prompted Shane McMahon – the SmackDown Commissioner at the time – to promise “big changes” on the blue brand. However, as it turned out, no changes were made, and Team Blue’s horrific Survivor Series performance ended up meaning nothing.
Fast forward to 2019 and, although the addition of NXT to the brand battle has brought extra excitement to this year’s event, it still feels like something needs to be on the line in these matches to make fans cheer for either RAW, SmackDown or NXT.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five stipulation ideas that WWE should consider using to make the PPV more interesting.
#5 Every winner qualifies for the 2020 Royal Rumble
Including RAW, SmackDown, NXT, NXT UK and 205 Live, there are more brands and more Superstars in WWE now than at any time in the company’s history.
While this is obviously great for certain Superstars’ television time, it also means there is going to be a lot of competition for Royal Rumble places in both the men’s and women’s matches in 2020.
In the past, WWE has forced certain Superstars to compete in Royal Rumble qualifying matches in the weeks leading up to the show, while other Superstars – even people who frequently lose – were randomly allowed to enter.
Perhaps WWE could take advantage of the increasing number of Superstars by announcing that everybody who wins a RAW vs. SmackDown vs. NXT match will be granted a spot in the 2020 Royal Rumble.
The only complication here would be if the winner of the women’s Triple Threat still held their title by the time of the Rumble, but they could still enter with the aim of unifying the women’s titles at WrestleMania 36.
#4 Surviving members choose Royal Rumble entry positions
In 2018, the following Superstars emerged from the Survivor Series elimination matches as survivors: Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Nia Jax, Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley.
The Usos’ impressive feat of outlasting nine other tag teams in the 10-on-10 elimination match meant nothing at all, while Jax ended up challenging Ronda Rousey for the RAW Women’s Championship at the following month’s pay-per-view, TLC, but that was already due to happen regardless of her Survivor Series performance.
As for Strowman, McIntyre and Lashley, they continued feuding after Survivor Series, but their victory seemed insignificant compared to the other developments in their ongoing storyline at the time.
Simply put, WWE desperately needs to make these elimination matches mean something, especially for the members of teams that are still surviving at the end.
It would be difficult to guarantee a future title opportunity for every surviving team member, so how about WWE allows every survivor to choose their number in the 2020 Royal Rumble? Some might opt for #1 to prove they can outlast everyone, while others might choose to enter towards the end.
#3 Tag team match winners become Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions
Nine titles are currently exclusive to WWE’s 'main roster', plus another five in NXT and three in NXT UK. On top of that, the Women’s Tag Team titles, currently held by RAW’s Asuka and Kairi Sane, can be defended on any of WWE’s shows.
Needless to say, there are far too many titles in WWE right now, and the tag team storylines on both RAW and SmackDown have been very repetitive and, quite frankly, dull for the best part of two years.
In 2017, there was a real revival (no pun intended) of tag team wrestling on RAW and SmackDown, with teams including The Bar, The New Day, The Hardy Boyz and The Shield taking part in some memorable matches throughout the year.
Nowadays, it is clear that the men’s tag titles on RAW and SmackDown are a very low priority for WWE, which is why it would make sense if the company mirrored what is going on with the Women’s Tag Team titles by unifying the RAW, SmackDown and NXT Tag Team titles in the Viking Raiders vs. The New Day vs. The Undisputed Era match at Survivor Series.
This might not be a popular suggestion for some readers, especially NXT fans, but having one set of Tag Team Champions on WWE programming would make the tag titles so much more meaningful.
#2 Cain Velasquez banned from Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio
The current WWE Championship storyline began back on the season premiere of RAW on September 30 when Brock Lesnar decided to attack Rey Mysterio and his son, Dominik, in the opening segment of the show.
Four days later, following Lesnar’s nine-second victory over Kofi Kingston on SmackDown to win the WWE Championship, Mysterio introduced Cain Velasquez to the WWE audience for the first time.
Velasquez, who defeated “The Beast” during their time in UFC, attempted to exact revenge for Lesnar’s attack on his godson, Dominik, by challenging his former MMA rival for the WWE Championship at Crown Jewel. However, the match only lasted two minutes before Velasquez tapped out.
Looking ahead to Survivor Series, Mysterio will challenge Lesnar for the WWE Championship in a No Holds Barred match, which means everything is legal, including interference from other Superstars.
This, of course, means Velasquez could potentially get involved and essentially turn the match into a 2-on-1 handicap encounter.
To prevent this from happening, perhaps WWE could add an extra stipulation stating that the two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion is not allowed to interfere, or else Mysterio will get disqualified.
#1 Overall brand winner headlines WrestleMania 36
Becky Lynch has been very outspoken about how she does not care about WWE’s battle of brand supremacy between RAW, SmackDown and NXT at Survivor Series.
“The two of them, Bayley and Shayna [Baszler], they’ve been running back and forth yelling about whose brand is better. I don’t give a b******s about brand supremacy. The brands don’t care about us. I don’t understand why this is a thing.”
The RAW Women’s Champion’s comments, which you can watch in the video above, were praised by a lot of fans on social media after Monday’s episode of RAW, simply because she said what many people are thinking every time WWE pushes the annual battle between the company’s brands.
RAW won 6-0 in main PPV matches last year, and what happened next? Nothing. The event was fun to watch, especially the Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair and Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan matches, but everything went back to normal as soon as the PPV ended.
If WWE really wants to up the stakes, how about the overall winning brand from the five RAW vs. SmackDown vs. NXT matches at Survivor Series is given the right to headline WrestleMania 36?
Granted, this might cause all kinds of chaos from WWE’s booking perspective, but it would certainly make fans and Superstars care about the outcome of the Survivor Series matches!
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