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During tonight’s Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia, the WWE announced that this year’s Survivor Series would be slightly different to previous years. For the last three years, since the return of the brand split, Survivor Series has featured Raw versus SmackDown matches. This year, the plan is to go one further and add NXT into the mix.
I reached out to sources within WWE to ask their reasons for this decision. One source explained that it had been in the works for a while but the decision itself can come late in the day, possibly as a reaction to falling ratings during NXT’s Wednesday night two hour show.
Low global star power was cited as one of the reasons for the addition of Finn Balor in the debut installment of the show but with ratings dropping faster than anticipated another shot of star power may be required. Exposing talent to a Survivor Series audience, and the build on Raw and SmackDown that comes with it could achieve that.
Another source added further reasons for the choice, mentioning that the amount of time left until Survivor Series means that they do not have long to build up the matches and thus needed an extra string to the bow. The amount of rematches, including Lesnar versus Rollins and Styles versus Nakamura at current could also contribute to an overall lack of interest in one of the WWE’s biggest annual events.
Finally, a third source simply stated the following:
"WWE makes stars better than anyone. We want good ratings on Wednesdays, so we're going to show off the stars NXT has."
The new addition certainly adds a lot of exciting possibilities to the event. With all championships unavailable for competition due to all champions being involved in Wargames matches, we can be sure of who will represent NXT - Shayna Baszler and the Undisputed Era. Only the newly renamed NXT Cruiserweight Championship could be up for grabs during Takeover and that is unlikely to be involved in the Survivor Series pay per view.
Of course, there is a lot of excitement to be had for Seth Rollins and Adam Cole sharing a ring, or Becky Lynch and Shayna Baszler. How they will build to these matches should make all three shows must see in the coming weeks.
