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It is Thursday the 8th of November 2018 and WWE wrapped up their weekly programming last night with NXT, NXT UK and 205 Live. Raw and Smackdown aired from Manchester, England this week as the build to Survivor Series kicked off.
Both brands announced their team captains and matches for the final "Big Four" show this year. However, because of the recent pay-per-view shows in Australia and Saudi Arabia, the WWE have left themselves with only two weeks to build towards the show.
In my opinion, it's a bit too short of a build to get fans invested in the show, but on the other hand, the style of the show really doesn't need a complex build.
Raw and Smackdown were both good shows this week. Kurt Angle and Drew McIntyre had a great match on Raw and Rey Mysterio had a decent match with Andrade Almas. Here are the top 5 Wrestlers/Teams this week.
#5 Authors Of Pain (AOP)
The Authors of Pain became the new Raw Tag Team Champions on Monday night when they beat Seth Rollins in a handicap match. Rollins was forced to defend the titles alone because of his current rivalry with Dean Ambrose.
It is a good return to form for AOP who have been very underutilized since their call-up from NXT. It was a great way to take the titles of Rollins and kick-start AOP. I think that Rollins got too much offence during this match. It really should have been a straight squash.
There would have been no harm done to Seth's credibility if he had been squashed by two monsters, it would only have made AOP look stronger. Also, when did WWE start calling them just "AOP" and not "Authors Of Pain"?
#4 Ronda Rousey
Ronda Rousey will face her biggest challenge yet at Survivor Series. The Raw Women's Champion will face the Smackdown Women's Champion Becky Lynch. Ronda came out and cut a great promo this week.
She put over Becky as a great wrestler but said that Becky was not ready to face her. She called herself a "Natural Born Killer" and reminded Lynch that she had faced tough competition before and honed her skills in that type of environment.
Ronda continues to impress me. Her in-ring style is already great and improving with every match but her mic skills are improving as well. Her promos still sound a little uneven but overall she manages to get her point across. She will only get better with time.
If/When she turns heel in the future she will be able to cut scathing promos on her opponents. Ronda vs Becky is the standout match at Survivor Series and fully deserves to main event the show.
#3 Elias
Elias was fantastic on Raw this week. He interrupted Dolph Ziggler and proceeded to sing a song about the "Showoff". The UK crowd went crazy for Elias and he played it perfectly. He began strumming "Seven Nation Army" along with the chants of "Oh Walk With Elias".
Elias is OVER! WWE need to be careful how they approach this situation because they could make Elias a major mid-card star or they could kill off his momentum with one wrong move.
Elias and Ziggler had a decent match. The two don't really have natural chemistry together. The match took too long to get going but once they reached the final few minutes and the crowd heated up again it became a fun match.
Elias got a massive win here. They need to give him a spot in the Survivor Series tag match, he really deserves it. Not having him on the show would be ludicrous.
#2 Drew McIntyre
Drew McIntyre beat Kurt Angle clean with the ankle lock! This match was not a great match but it told one hell of a story. Rather than letting Angle ride the wave of momentum from his in-ring return they had him face huge adversity.
McIntyre absolutely humiliated Angle and showed the fans that Kurt is not the man he once was. It was one-sided and brutal. It looked more like an execution than a wrestling match. It felt like the end of Angle's run.
He would really need a good story and match to rise from the ashes here. On the other hand, it made Drew McIntyre. This one match has established him as a major force in the WWE.
I can see Drew being the sole survivor of the Raw team at Survivor Series and I think he has a massive 2019 ahead of him. He could win the Rumble and headline Wrestlemania for all we know. The sky is the limit for Drew McIntyre at the moment!
#1 Becky Lynch
Becky Lynch is "The Man"! She is, without a doubt, the best thing going in the WWE today. Her promo was nothing short of excellent. She said that it was cute of Ronda to poke fun at the jobs she has held before the WWE but she is here and is the true champion.
She said that she is coming for Ronda's arm at Survivor Series and not the other way around!
This is what happens when you let wrestlers off the leash and stop making them learn off a script. The promo portrayed her as an underdog that fans want to support, even if her attitude is of someone fans may not want to support.
As good as Ronda is on the mic, Becky is slaughtering her. Even on Twitter, she is destroying poor Ronda!
Her new "The Man" shirt is very reminiscent of Stone Cold's "Austin 3:16" one. This match should be the main event of Survivor Series. Everything after it will just fall flat. This is the match with the most hype surrounding it. The interesting question is who will win?
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