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Becky Lynch sure is quite the sore loser.
WWE Survivor Series was a really fun night of wrestling. The addition of NXT to this pay-per-view was a brilliant choice, added a unique layer to all the matches, and provided opportunities to make new stars. The NXT Championship match along with the two Survivor Series elimination matches were Sunday night's stand outs. It certainly helps that Chicago wrestling crowds always help make for a great night of wrestling.
As I am still figuring out why Rey Mysterio didn’t use that pipe like twenty more times, I will try to distract myself and present my list of the top five most surprising moments of WWE Survivor Series 2019
#5 Raw’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Night
Poor RAW. They just couldn’t catch a break on Sunday night, could they?
Last year, the Red Brand had a clean sweep over SmackDown. RAW has usually been pushed as WWE's superior brand, but that was not the case on Sunday night in Chicago. This year the only saving grace was The Viking Raiders, who won their Tag Team Triple Threat Match against SmackDown Tag Team Champions The New Day and NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Era. Congratulations are in order for Erik and Ivar.
A common theme throughout the night was a lot of bad luck among the RAW superstars. Asuka caused Charlotte’s elimination in the Women’s Survivor Series match and the Empress of Tomorrow simply abandoned her team. AJ Styles was about to win his match, but was pushed out of the way by Roderick Strong at the last second. Becky Lynch was out of the ring as well, while Shayna Baszler won her match via submission. Seth Rollins even lost his match clean to an NXT star.
It is certainly a surprise to see Raw losing so much after a dominant 2018 Survivor Series. I am curious how or if it will be addressed in coming weeks.
#4 No Title Changes
Maybe it was just too much to expect one of the three major title reigns to come to an end on Sunday night.
In hindsight, the booking choices made real logical sense. Adam Cole seems to be building for a future NXT Championship feud with Tommaso Ciampa, so it makes very little sense to have him lose the title now.
Brock Lesnar never was going to lose his title after a month to an underdog like Rey Mysterio. And, it would be very bad for The Fiend’s character to lose so quickly to Daniel Bryan after a WWE Universal Championship reign of less then a full month. I do know we all could still do without that annoying red light for all of his matches, though.
It makes you wonder why the WWE didn’t simply give us a match between Adam Cole, The Fiend and Brock Lesnar on Sunday night. It would have been a fun match with a lot more unpredictable booking options. But I guess sometimes the real surprise is simply extending title reigns for your world champions. It was an interesting choice on a very unique night of professional wrestling.
#3 Adam Cole and Pete Dunne Steal the Show
It was certainly weird to see Michael Cole calling an NXT Championship match. But at the end of the day, it was just what you would expect from a NXT Championship match. It was the match of the night and very exciting throughout.
Pete Dunne and Adam Cole are among two of the best workers in the WWE. However after their brutal matches on Saturday night, you would have been blamed for wondering if they could put on a true show the very next day. Well, they delivered and then some. It was an incredibly fast paced match that lasted just over 14 minutes. The counters were incredible. The Panama Sunrise onto the ring apron was unreal. The finish of countering the Bitter End into another Panama Sunrise was just about perfect.
Adam Cole is quickly making his case for being one of the best wrestlers in the world. He has been putting on some of the best matches in the world this year. And his November matches on Raw, Smackdown, NXT, Takeover and Survivor Series are nothing short of remarkable. Kudos to Adam Cole for finishing this incredible month the right way.
#2 The Dominance of NXT
It is easy to be very negative in watching professional wrestling. We, the fans, don’t always get what we want out of the booking. So it was quite easy to imagine that NXT, the so-called developmental brand, would lose constantly to Raw and Smackdown on Sunday night. To the surprise of many, NXT dominated the show on Sunday night.
It was even more surprising how they actually did it. Sure Io Shirai and Candice LeRae did a bit of distracting to help the Women’s Survivor Series Team win, but Rhea Ripley still defeated Sasha Banks. It continued with Roderick Strong’s clean victory over both AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura in the Triple Threat match. It ended in impressive fashion with Shayna Baszler making Bayley tap out in the main event of Survivor Series. If you had NXT winning four matches on Sunday night, you are likely lying.
The Chicago fans were behind NXT throughout the night and it was impressive to see them be so dominant against the main roster men and women. It is so rare to see the WWE actually push new talent over its established stars. It is something all of us would like to see more often. Glad it occurred at Survivor Series on Sunday night.
#1 Keith Lee’s Star Making Performance
If there was one star that was truly made on Sunday night it was Keith Lee. Lee got off to a rough start in NXT due to injuries to himself and his potential rivals. That changed during Survivor Series weekend.
He had the opportunity to showcase his unique athleticism in the WarGames match on Saturday night. Little did we know that was just an appetizer for Survivor Series itself.
It was certainly a shock to see Lee as the last member of the NXT brand standing. The final three competitors were Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Keith Lee. That didn’t seem like a possibility for a major pay-per-view in 2019.
The surprises continued when Lee pinned Rollins clean. That crowd was about to explode, as he had a near fall against Roman Reigns. Reigns got the win for Team SmackDown, but Lee looked like a star standing against some of the biggest players in WWE. It was one of the best surprises in one of the best main rosters pay-per-views in a long time. I am sure all of us look forward to seeing where the stars created on Sunday night go from here.
What did you think of the matches on Sunday night? Head on over to our main page and submit your ratings now!
