Road to Survivor Series 2017 - I

Summer Slam was here.

Survivor Series is coming in November from Houston.  It’s the 4th ever WWF PPV from Houston (the first Rumble, WM 17 and 25)

We’ll split this in half (there are 10 matches on the card).  Half now, half in October.  The show’s in November, as you probably know. 

WWF Title: Samoa Joe v. AJ Styles v. Prince Devitt (Guest referee – Bryan Danielson)

No DQ: Dean Ambrose v. Tyler Black (w/Bullet Club)

Shinsuke Nakamura d. Bobby Roode

Womens Title: Becky Lynch (w/Anderson and Gallows) v. Charlotte Flair (w/Strong)

Full Circle (Orton/Cena) v. Sheamus/Mizanin

We're gonna talk about the four Bullet Club matches all together here.

RAW the night following Summer Slam begins with the Horsemen – for a year and a half it has been the Bullet Club, dominating the first segment – but tonight, there’s a new WWF Champion, and his name is Samoa Joe.

The Horsemen (Joe/Roode/Charlotte/Strong) hit the ring – I’d expect an overwhelming reaction; Samoa Joe winning the WWF Title is an emotional experience and Joe is going to let them applaud; there is a cohort of fans who have traveled 15 years with Samoa Joe to get to this exact moment, and since his WWF career has really been the push/pull of “I don’t even want to win your stupid title” up to and including the creation of Dark Ride Wrestling and his own Championship belt – it’s just a special moment.

Joe says he’s just going to say this once…”thank you” .  That’s going to lead to another round of chanting – which is interrupted by AJ Styles. 

The former Champ comes to the middle of the ramp and says this is a lovely moment – and he hopes Joe enjoys his lovely moment – because he’s exercising his rematch clause, and at Survivor Series, he’s taking back his title.

Before Joe can respond – the Bullet Club music hits again – and the rest of the squad comes out, now including Tyler Black, who…shockingly…joined them the night prior.

They stay at the top of the ramp – so, it’s AJ at midramp – the Horsemen in the ring.

Devitt says, “first of all, AJ, let me introduce myself – I’m Prince Devitt, the leader of the Bullet Club” (AJ and Devitt have not been in the same place at the same time in a full year) “I’d also like to introduce you to the newest member of the Bullet Club – Tyler Black”

(that allows the fans to react to Black’s turn)

Devitt then makes it clear that AJ didn’t know that Black was joining the same way AJ didn’t know that Becky Lynch was joining – and why should he, because AJ isn’t the real leader of the Bullet Club – Devitt is.

Devitt says another thing AJ doesn’t know is that the rematch clause from his contract isn’t a rematch clause for AJ Styles – it’s a rematch clause for the Bullet Club.  And as the leader of the Bullet Club, Prince Devitt will be taking on Samoa Joe for the WWF Title at Survivor Series.

AJ says Devitt can call himself the leader of the Bullet Club all he wants – but Devitt was gone for a year, and for that year, it’s AJ Styles who kept the Bullet Club on top – AJ Styles who wore the WWF Title.  And if Prince Devitt wants that belt – he’s got to go through AJ Styles.

AJ starts walking up the ramp – like it’s all about to go down right now.

Devitt tells him to slow down.  Devitt says lets do it like this – we will ask every single member of the Bullet Club who should get the shot at the title – and if every single member says it should be Prince Devitt – then AJ will step aside, like a leader should, and defer to the wishes of the team.

AJ stops…thinks….and…agrees.

Devitt asks each member – Black says “Devitt”…Lynch says “Devitt”…Anderson and Gallows, in one voice say…Devitt…

And then he gets to Nakamuara, who says “Nakamura.”

Devitt says “Shinsuke…you don’t understand…it’s either me or AJ…”

Nakamura then gets into Devitt’s face…”You don’t understand.  I said Nakamura.”

Devitt: I thought we had an understanding.

Nakamura:  You and me had understanding.  I don’t know him (pointing to Black…it was clear last  night that Nakamura was surprised by Black’s turn)

So – there’s tension all the way around – broken up by Joe. 

He says as entertaining as this is – he’s going to solve it; at Survivor Series, he’ll defend the title against both AJ and Devitt in a Triple Threat Match.

And that ends that segment.

Danielson’s added about midway through the build – he has been AJs chief antagonist over the past year; AJ claiming he’s the “best wrestler in the world” – there’s an AJ promo in early October where he’s feeling himself “it doesn’t matter whether I pin Devitt or whether I pin Joe” (it’s Triple Threat rules – one fall) “I’m walking out of Houston as a 2 time WWF Champion and, more than that, the Unquestioned Best Wrestler in the World”

That draws Danielson out – it’s their first interaction since Summer Slam.

Danielson says something’s missing..he can’t quite place it…its AJ’s title belt..did he leave it back at the hotel…

AJ says that’s funny.  AJ likes jokes.  Here’s a joke.  Who has 2 thumbs and cant wrestle anymore.  You.

Danielson and AJ are full nose to nose.  “AJ..we’ve known each other a long time, so I hope you can tell when I’m serious.  And I’m being serious when I say this…stop knocking on my door.  If you keep knocking on my door…one day….I just might answer.”

(and that line gets some buzzzzz going).

AJ laughs – cocks his fist as if to hit Danielson – Danielson doesn’t flinch. 

AJ laughs again.  Starts to exit.  Danielson says “shoot..I almost forgot to tell you why I came out here in the first place.”

AJ doesn’t break stride, doesn’t look over his shoulder, keeps walking.

Danielson reveals that he’ll be the special guest referee for the title match at Survivor Series.

AJ stops, to sell the impact of that, but doesn’t look back.

In the build, we move away from “AJ vs. the Bullet Club” and instead re-divide; AJ is most often with Nakamura.  They tag together a couple/three times, allowing AJ to save Nakamura a couple/three times, once a normal “Nakamura’s getting double teamed in the ring, AJ saves” and another from a full scale Horsemen beat down.

This gives us a few things – it adds a tick of a babyface shine to AJ, as he’s coming to someone’s aid.  

It adds a tick of a babyface shine to Nakamura, as he’s on the short end of a beatdown.  It adds an edge to the Horsemen, who, while they are babyfaces, are never pure babyfaces, because they’re always the Horsemen.  It allows Roode to get some steam heading into his Nakamura match.  And it brings AJ and Nakamura closer together – Nakamura was, like the rest of the Club, entirely in Devitt’s pocket – but he was out of the loop on the decision to recruit Black, and he might think that within that alliance, adding one more mouth to feed might drop him in the pecking order – and so he moves closer to AJ in this build.

Devitt and Black are always together in the build.  Black repeatedly refers to Devitt as the Next WWF Champion, making clear on which side he’s going to stand in the title match.  Devitt is all steam in the build, if he’s in a match in any configuration; singles/multi-man/mixed tag – he’s the one who gets the fall.  There’s a lot of Prince Devitt getting his hand raised in the build. 

Black does multiple in ring interviews with Renee (who has never been acknowledged as being with Ambrose IRL) and establishes why he turned on Ambrose.  Black didn’t kill the Shield, Ambrose killed the Shield.  Black lay in a hospital bed for weeks, rehabbed for months – and did his brother stand beside him to plan their return, to plan their revenge against Langston?  Nah.  Ambrose put himself ahead of the Shield.  Ambrose put himself ahead of me. 

Black says he didn’t make this choice – Ambrose made this choice – all Black needed was a new home.  Black says Devitt, his new best friend, his real brother, reached out, and they made a deal – if the Bullet Club beat The Shield at Summer Slam that would show once and for all that the Shield was really dead, and then Black would join the winning team.  Because that’s what winners do – winners win – and no one wins more than the Bullet Club.

There’s another interview, about halfway through the build, where Black says he doesn’t think they’ll see Ambrose for awhile – but while he’s gone – there isn’t anything Ambrose can do that Black can’t do better – and maybe Renee would like to find out.

And that brings out a wild Ambrose – he hits Black with full velocity and starts driving his head into the canvas, over and over – Devitt, who is right there, as always, is unable to pull him off – he waves to the back and Anderson and Gallows run in, and eventually they’re able to pull Black from the ring. 

We only see Ambrose one more time in the build; Danielson makes their Survivor Series match a No DQ and rules that Ambrose can’t step foot in an arena until Survivor Series for everyone’s protection. 

Ambrose does a go home week promo, it’s taped Shield style with the phone camera and Ambrose in the full Shield gear.  He says it took him a second, but he realizes who Tyler is.  Tyler’s a guy who can’t stand on his own.  Tyler started with GDI, left them to join Underground, saw that Ambrose was the baddest dude in the prison and cozied up to him, and now that a bigger gang looks like they’ve taken control of the yard, he’s made himself their fish.  Tyler’s a pussy and now everyone sees it.  

And the Shield isn’t dead.  As long as Dean Ambrose’s heart’s still beating, the Shield is alive, and we’ll see how many hearts are still beating after Survivor Series, Tyler.

The women go home about halfway through to do a sports build for their match; we’ve been building Becky and Charlotte since Mania, so they don’t need much more interaction – let’s watch them each kick heavy bags for a few weeks in training montages and then throw them in the ring.

The go home is the only time we see the whole Bullet Club together for a 7 on 7.

AJ, Devitt, Black, Nakamura, Anderson, Gallows, Lynch

v.

Joe, Roode, Strong, Charlotte…

…and they need 3 partners.  Who will they be?

The Usos.  Roman/Jimmy/Jey

Unease, obviously, between Horsemen and Usos.  Unease, obviously, between AJ and Devitt.

The babyfaces go over; Black inadvertently takes out Nakamura and he gets pinned by Roode. 

We get some good physicality between Usos and Anderson/Gallows – Usos are the tag champs, Anderson and Gallows always say they’re the best tag team alive, regardless of what program they’re in, so while the two teams have never had prior interaction – that animosity plays out.  Roman (who is now more heelish than not, and we’ll discuss that in part 2 when building the tag title match) does some flexing on Joe in a “maybe I want that belt you got” sort of way.  AJ and Devitt have only two interactions, they each have occasion to tag the other and there’s a long pause and then a hard hand slap followed by a stare after both exchanges. 

After the pinfall, Nakamura, once he recovers, gets in Black’s face – Devitt tries to explain that it was an accident and Nakamura slaps his hand away – that gets Anderson and Gallows in Nakamura’s face and draws AJ to defend Nakamura – they all are face to face to face to face to face and then the Horsemen attack – even though there are only 3 male Horsemen, the distraction allows them to clean house and knock the entire Bullet Club from the ring.  And that’s how the build ends – Devitt, AJ, Nakamura, and Black, all competing at Survivor Series – all scowling on the floor as the united Horsemen stand strong in the ring.

The only other match we’re covering today is the opening tag – Full Circle continues to roll on and now they will be taking on the brand new team of Sheamus and Mike Mizanin; similar to the IRL joining of Sheamus/Cesaro, they are doing a kinda comedic mismatched thing.  Sheamus introduces Mizanin to rugby, to barroom brawls – Mizanin takes Sheamus to…like a shooting of Floribama Shore or some similar MTV happening.  I see like a montage where Sheamus shows Mizanin a collection of hockey jerseys and Mizanin shows Sheamus a collection of Cuck ball gags. 

That’s the first half of the card:

WWF Title: Samoa Joe v. AJ Styles v. Prince Devitt (Guest referee – Bryan Danielson)

No DQ: Dean Ambrose v. Tyler Black (w/Bullet Club)

Shinsuke Nakamura d. Bobby Roode

Womens Title: Becky Lynch (w/Anderson and Gallows) v. Charlotte Flair (w/Strong)

Full Circle (Orton/Cena) v. Sheamus/Mizanin

In a month – we’ll look at the second half:

IC Title: Brock Lesnar (w/Heyman) v. Kurt  Angle (w/ Shelton Benjamin)

Tags Titles: Tornado Match: Usos (Roman/Jimmy/Jey) v.New Day (Langston/Kingston/Woods)

The Tres Bon Mask Challenge: El Generico v. Kalisto

Claudio Castagnoli (w/Gargano) v. Kid Canada

Asuka  v. Bayley  

See you in a month, when we'll also peek in on Dark Ride, which has a title change.