It’s an enormous card, 12 matches, and during the build the
expectations for quality are built very, very high – if Summer Slam was maybe
not a top quality card (and don’t get me started on next year) there’s a lot of
talk about how maybe, Wrestlemania 2020 is actually in November, 2019.
We’ll cover half now.
Half in October.
Here’s half the card:
WWF Title: Tyler Black (w/Renee) v. Shinsuke Nakamura
Bullet Club (Lynch/Anderson/Gallows) v. Horsemen
(Flair/Strong/Roode) v. New Day (Banks/Langston/Kingston)
IC Title: Ricochet (w/BWI) v. Adam Cole
Losing Manager Leaves Town: GDI (O’Reilly/Fish w/Maria) v.
Clique (Lee/Riddle w/HBK)
Tag Titles: Shoot Nation (Gable/Nemeth w/Angle) v.
Steen/Mysterio
Brock Lesnar (w/Angle) v. Walter (w/Heyman)
WWF Title: Tyler Black (w/Renee) v. Shinsuke Nakamura
Bullet Club (Lynch/Anderson/Gallows) v. Horsemen
(Flair/Strong/Roode) v. New Day (Banks/Langston/Kingston)
-Samoa Joe had been gone since Mania, returned at Summer Slam in an analyst role; it’s made clear this is temporary, he will be cleared to return in January, and he remains a Horseman. Joe’s the RAW analyst in the build for Survivor Series, and as the on again/off again Bullet Club v. Horseman feud returns with Flair and Lynch as the headliners, Joe is clearly partisan.
Lynch/Anderson/Gallows/Kushida mix in various combinations with Flair/Strong/Roode (Devitt’s gone entirely the rest of the calendar year, Black isn’t in the physical end of the program as he is readying for this title defense, but when there’s some type of Bullet Club promo he is front and center). Nakamura v. Black is built largely through vignettes, clip packages – Black essentially replaced Nakamura in the Bullet Club, Nakamura lost his WWF Title not to Black, but to Styles, so this is Nakamura’s first shot at Black. Each gets one match during the build to go over strong against someone. There’s a RAW where Black gets in Joe’s face, irritated with something he said on commentary – Joe stands and the two go face to face. They build to a 4x4 match – Lynch/Anderson/Gallows/Black against Flair/Strong/Roode and a mystery partner, clearly assumed to be Joe. Black pulls out, replaced with Kushida, Black says he’s to smart to get take a chance that Samoa Joe will cheap shot him right before he needs to defend his title. Joe makes clear it’s not him – in fact, Joe says he does not know who the mystery partner is, but he is not cleared until January.
On match night, the Bullet Club
enters first – and then one at a time come the Horsemen – as the mystery
partner is yet to be announced – Black stands smirking in front of Joe at the
announce table – waving for Joe to enter the ring --- but Joe’s not the mystery
partner – it’s Nakamura, and he comes to the ring. Black’s shocked – and Joe is also surprised and
a little irritated, Joe/Nakamura is a long, long feud – and that his stable
would turn to his biggest WWF rival clearly doesn’t sit well with him. The Horsemen go over here, Nakamura pinning
Kushida. The New Day comes in at the end
of the program, say during a mixed tag with Gallows/Lynch against Roode/Flair –
and they stomp out both sides postmatch to be added to the three way.
So – it’s Black/Nakamura, rivals even when they were
stablemates – meeting for the WWF Title.
And it’s Lynch/Flair – stablemates turned rivals turned occasional allies
but still always rivals, with the throw in of Banks, in exactly that same spot. The three way mixed tag is an elimination
match. Only one team will “survive”.
Losing Manager Leaves Town: GDI (O’Reilly/Fish w/Maria) v.
Clique (Lee/Riddle w/HBK)
-BWI/GDI/Clique have been feuding; out of that comes these two matches – Ricochet/Cole is sold as a heavy workrate match – two young wrestlers on the great Survivor Series stage fighting over the IC Title – and the tag match has real stakes; the winning manager earns a tag title shot to use at the Rumble in any way they wish and the losing manager leaves town.
There’s a lot of historical stuff here, Maria
and Punk really starting GDI well over a decade ago – Survivor Series coming
from Chicago – and then all the HBK history.
One of them will be leaving the WWF forever; the other one, well, they
will be managing a team wrestling for the tag titles at the Rumble. Both of these matches should just be out-freaking-standing.
Brock Lesnar (w/Angle) v. Walter (w/Heyman)
-Steen’s rehabilitation tour continued with his defeating
Crews at Summer Slam – Rey (shooting a movie) returns against Rusev in this
build; Rey goes over – Strowman then attacks Rey – save by Steen. That’s enough to set up a tag match; and
obviously given the animosity Rey has shown Steen in the past, that’s a teaming
that isn’t expected, but Steen’s been building this equity now for many, many
months. Rey/Steen perform well together;
there’s no tease of dissention and they go over. That leads to a 4 way – winners get the tag
shot at Survivor Series – it’s Revival/Viking Raiders/Trash/ and
Rey/Steen. Viking Raiders eliminate
Revival first – Revival then cheap shots Viking Raiders, setting up their
elimination by Trash. Rey/Steen then go
over Trash to earn the tag title shot at Survivor Series. That allows for some Angle/Rey stuff given
that they are from the same generation – and some Nemeth stuff with both Rey
and Steen, as he’s had feuds with both men.
-The reason Lesnar isn’t defending the tag titles is because
he’s got a big singles match. Angle is
the guest on a Heyman Hustle – clearly, that’s a much publicized event, Lesnar/Heyman
were together for years, they separated in what was called a contractual
dispute (Ronda made a dollar more than Lesnar) but Heyman grabbed Walter as a
new client and clearly looked to position him as “the next big thing” – Walter won
the Dark Ride title, Heyman skipped Lesnar’s Triple Crown ceremony; Lesnar grew
closer to his original mentor Angle. Angle
doesn’t come alone for the Heyman Hustle; Benjamin/Lashley are all with
him. Heyman pokes the bear during the
interview – taking shots at Brock, clearly hitting sensitive areas and building
tension until Heyman says there’s a special guest – Walter comes down to the
ring – Walter lays his Dark Ride Title belt down – Walter looks to go nose to
nose with Angle – but Benjamin and Lashley stand in between – Walter clotheslines
both men over the top rope until he’s face to face with Angle – and Lesnar’s
music hits.
Lesnar to the ring – Heyman smiles – Lesnar/Walter nose to
nose – Heyman starts the hype here “At Survivor Series – the Next Big Thing
against Yesterday’s News”
Walter doesn’t give up the Dark Ride belt – he has two
successful title defenses in the build, going over Hero – the second match
needs to be the very best, longest match they can have. That will be discussed more next month.
Lesnar has one match, just buries someone into the
earth.
That’s half the card…
WWF Title: Black v. Nakamura
-Former Bullet Club rivals meet in what should be a good
one.
IC Title: Ricochet v. Cole
-Their stables are feuding – and this match should really be
excellent
Tags: Shoot Nation (Gable/Ziggler) v. Rey/Steen
-Not only is Rey/Steen obviously a pairing with some
intrigue – you want to see Gable in this type of high profile match against
high profile opponents.
Lesnar v. Walter
-It’s a cliché, but this is for sure a main event anywhere
in the world – and it’s happening at Survivor Series.
GDI (Fish/O’Reilly) v. Clique (Riddle/Lee)
-the manager leaves town stip is just gloss; this is a real
workrate matchup you want to see
Bullet Club v. Horsemen v. New Day
-largely storyline stuff, but you always like to see these 3
women in some type of combo, and Roddy Strong gets to mix it up at a big show.
