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The 2019 WWE Survivor Series PPV is officially in the books, and for the first time ever, RAW was pitted against SmackDown and NXT in the annual PPV classic. NXT emerged victorious at the end of the night, with 4 match wins.
Last year's Survivor Series winner, RAW, swept the night shutting out SmackDown. This year, the Red brand received only one match win the entire night, and finished in last place among the three brands.
The PPV was, of course, not without controversy. For the second time this year, WWE's women main evented a "big four" PPV, with Shayna Baszler defeating Becky Lynch and Bayley to cap off a historic night for the NXT brand.
Despite Baszler's big win, however, the match was criticized by a majority of fans as somewhat disappointing, given the tremendous action which preceded the bout earlier in the night.
Given the above, let's take a look at five things WWE did right at this year's Survivor Series PPV.
#5 Sasha Banks did not lose "cleanly" to Rhea Ripley
The 2019 WWE Survivor Series PPV opened with a Women's Traditional Tag Team Elimination match, and this time around, the bout featured the women of NXT.
The night before Survivor Series, Rhea Ripley, along with her Survivor Series partners Io Shirai, Candice LeRae and Bianca Belair, participated in a history-making WarGames match, and Ripley's team overcame insurmountable odds to win the night.
At Survivor Series, Ripley once again proved she is the future of the WWE Women's Division when she overcame another set of odds to win the match for team NXT.
The bout came down to Ripley vs Sasha Banks, and WWE booked the finish well by having Candice LeRae and Io Shirai return to the bout to help Ripley defeat Banks, thereby giving NXT the victory.
#4 Shayna Baszler won the main event
Judging by the online reaction to this year's WWE Survivor Series PPV, most fans were left disappointed with the main event, which featured a Champion vs Champion vs Champion Triple Threat bout pitting Becky Lynch vs Bayley vs Shayna Baszler.
The bout capped off what was already a long night of WWE action, and the three women, who appeared poised to have a great Triple Threat match, seemed to move slowly through the bout, creating minimal stakes and pacing the bout at a tempo which left a lot to be desired.
In the end, Shayna Baszler was able to submit Bayley, giving NXT the win in the main event, and an overall PPV win with 4 total match victories.
Looking past the actual main event match itself, it was a smart move to have Shayna Baszler win the main event, as she is in need of a spotlight on the main roster as NXT moves ahead with its venture on the USA Network. It was important to shine Baszler in the same light as talents such as Bayley and Lynch, as Baszler has had a historic and very memorable run as the NXT Women's Champion.
#3 NXT won the night
Thousands of theories pertain to why NXT won the night at this year's WWE Survivor Series PPV, and one of the leading hypotheses will undoubtedly be that WWE booked NXT to win in order to try and beat AEW in the ongoing Wednesday night battle for brand supremacy.
I for one, however, do not buy into the theory that Survivor Series was simply an attempt to stifle AEW, but rather WWE doing its best to promote a third brand, which is trying to establish its footing on the USA Network as a live two hour broadcast.
I'm sure WWE expected NXT to perform better from a ratings standpoint when the show moved to USA Network, so booking the NXT talents to appear on a "big four" main roster PPV event is a smart way to help establish the Superstars of NXT as more recognizable names.
Triple H maintained publicly that WWE will be reverting back to a hard brand split following Survivor Series, so unless he is lying, fans of the true NXT product should have little to worry about as it pertains to main roster talent and booking compromising NXT.
#2 Adam Cole retained the NXT Championship
Adam Cole has undoubtedly established himself as the "employee of the month" in WWE, having wrestled several match of the year candidates in recent weeks.
Cole kicked his impressive month off with a big win over Daniel Bryan on WWE SmackDown, and then went on to have a great showing over the weekend in the WarGames match and at WWE Survivor Series.
Some people felt it was a bad move to have Cole cleanly defeat Pete Dunne considering Cole was banged up from the night before, but Dunne was also reeling from his impressive Triple Threat match win at WarGames and looked great in defeat at Survivor Series.
In the end, it was smart to have Cole defeat Dunne at Survivor Series, as Cole, in addition to Roderick Strong, who also had an impressive win at Survivor Series, can carry some much needed momentum into NXT this week and the weeks beyond.
Triple H claims Adam Cole is the future of WWE and with his impressive win at Survivor Series, and impressive overall performance in the past couple weeks, it's hard to argue with his assessment of the NXT Champion.
#1 Both traditional Elimination Tag Team matches delivered
Typically, the odds are stacked against Survivor Series as a "brand warfare" PPV, as fans have felt for several years that the idea of RAW vs SmackDown is not very potent, and tend to carry very little about which brand wins the night.
Last year, RAW swept SmackDown, winning every interbrand match on the show, but just one year later few fans remember the achievement and it's certainly not talked about on WWE TV.
In addition to the above, the teams for RAW and SmackDown are typically not official until just days before the PPV, which does not allow for a solid build to the elimination matches, and can further make the feel unimportant or often times confusing, teaming babyfaces with heels.
In the case of this year's PPV, the addition of the NXT teams elevated both the Women's and Men's Elimination matches, and the bouts ended up delivering the goods, and providing budding Superstars such as Keith Lee, the opportunity to shine on main roster television.
What did you think of the 2019 WWE Survivor Series PPV? Remember, now you can rate RAW, SmackDown and NXT matches on Sportskeeda!
