Gimmick Some Lovin': The Survivor Series Match

The Match

Prior to this match, Strowman had battled exclusively with local enhancement talent and forgotten undercarders like Sin Cara; here he is pinning a former WWE US, Intercontinental, and World Champion for the match's first elimination

It's tough to figure out how to cover this match for two main reasons.

First, this match is long, but that's one of its biggest virtues. Past Survivor Series matches had attempted to squeeze as many as nine eliminations into the timeslot of a standard one-on-one contest, resulting in sequences where a wrestler's night might be ended by a clothesline, or by receiving a single finisher (and no other moves) from an opponent.

This match, including entrances, clocks in at over 64 minutes, and manages to not feel bloated in doing so. Storylines are given the opportunity to breathe, and no elimination feels pointless or out of place. They fit together nicely to tell a very well-built story throughout the match.

The other thing which makes this match hard to cover is the sheer amount of action it contains; like with the War Games contest, there are very few times when men aren't battling or a story isn't being told (the fans, however, do not let Roman Reigns forget when he's not actively participating, chanting "Roman's sleeping" and "Wake up, Roman!" during a rest spot). Trying to play-by-play this match is like trying to describe a piranha feeding frenzy at times.

It's a good problem to have; as a self-contained contest, this match features so much quality action that the best way to parse it all out is to look at each individual elimination in order.