Review for WWE Survivor Series 2019

Welcome to NXT Promotion: The PPV.

Survivor Series over the last few years has been just a Raw vs. Smackdown PPV, but this time, NXT have joined the fray and this has made it all the more interesting.

For those who don't know, WWE has a developmental system called NXT. This is where a lot of the Superstars from today have come from. The alumni of NXT reads like a Who's Who of Wrestling (Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, Charlotte, Becky Lynch and so many more). However, their shows had been mostly hidden in the background, something that only the avid wrestling fans would watch. This is until the NXT show debuted on normal TV. Now, they are something to take seriously and this PPV was their first chance to do that.

The World Championships from each brand was defended in a normal match. It is a shame that they did not go with the Brand war which was the theme for the rest of the PPV. If I'm honest this makes all three matches stand out like sore thumbs and feel like they are not necessary. Brock Lesnar against Rey Mysterio for the WWE Championship was a mess. Making it No DQ was supposed to help Rey and all it did was prove how useless he is against something as strong as The Beast. It is a shame that this match didn't any differently.

'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt faced off against Daniel Bryan in a pretty good match, but it again felt a little out of place and the feud between them was never given much time to breathe. It is a shame they didn't carry on with the feud with The Miz, which was much more interesting. The match was good and they both worked well together, but again the ending was a little bland.

Finally, NXT Champion Adam Cole faced Pete Dunne in a fantastic display of technical wrestling. Both have had great matches in the past and this was no different. I was enthralled by this and it was the best of the three matches.

AJ Styles (US Champion) faced Shinsuke Nakamura (Intercontinental Champion) and Roderick Strong (NXT North American Champion) in the match of the night. If this had been the main event it would have deserved it. All three had an amazing match and one that I was thrilled to have to watch again. If you need any reason to watch this PPV then look no further than this match.

The Women's Champions from each brand faced in the main event (another first) with Raw's Becky Lynch, Smackdown's Bayley and NXT's Shayna Baszler. This was a good match, but at times it felt like this would have been much better as an elimination match. The ending was a little predictable and was a little disappointing because of it.

The two Survivor Series matches suffer from the same thing: Triple Threat Rules. I have said this until I am blue in the face that tag matches do not work when there is more than two teams, the rules make no sense and this was the case for both. I am glad that they split them up throughout the night as back to back would have been horrible. Of the two the Women's was at times unwatchable which is a shame when you consider the amount of talent in the ring, but it just felt a mess to watch.

The men's one was a bit better, maybe this was because the teams felt more evenly matched and even the newcomers from NXT were great to watch like the awesome Keith Lee (who was able to hang with the likes of Roman Reigns). The match felt more even throughout and there wasn't the feeling that this was just another easy win for the bigger brands.

Saying that, NXT won most of their matches and won Four of the Seven Brand matches. On the Bluray it also includes the three matches from the Kickoff show. It is a shame that they don't include anything else as a lot of the promotion into this PPV was fantastic. Personally, I would have at least included the debut of the NXT show or some of the invasion highlights.

There is a Ten Tag Team Battle Royal which was fine, but a little short for what it was and with such a focus on tag teams throughout maybe should have been another women's or maybe a singles match.

The NXT Cruiserweight Championship was up for grabs with Lio Rush (NXT) facing Akira Tozawa (Raw) and Kalisto (Smackdown) in another Triple Threat. This was a pretty good match from them, though I do wish it had been on the main card and given a little more time as these three were a joy to watch.

Finally (in another Triple Threat) the Tag Team Champions The New Day (Smackdown) faced The Viking Raiders (Raw) and The Undisputed Era (NXT). This was a good match, despite my earlier grumble on the rules. All three teams worked well and I think the winner was an interesting choice considering.

If they are to do this again maybe they should rename the PPV 'Triple Threat: The PPV'. The PPV had some great moments and some great matches. The AJ/Nakamura/Strong match was fantastic and worth buying this for alone. If you are a fan of tag team wrestling and triple threat matches, then this is the perfect PPV for you.