Road to Survivor Series 2021, Part 1

Here's Summer Slam

Survivor Series 2021 is November from Brooklyn.

This is really sold as a New York City show; there aren’t MSG PPVs anymore – so this is really home base for the promotion on a PPV level, it’s Sammartino, it’s Steamboat, it’s the WWF in NYC.

10 match show. 

1.       WWF Title: Matt Riddle (w/HBK) v. Sami Zayn

2.       IC: AJ Styles v. Tyler Black v. Shinsuke Nakamura v. Prince Devitt

3.       Tag Titles: Usos v. Tag Match Survivors

4.       Loser Leaves Town: Claudio Castagnoli v. Kevin Steen

5.       Falls Count Anywhere: Roman Reigns v. Drew McIntyre v. Bobby Lashley v. Langston

6.       Nick Nemeth v. Apollo Crews v. Sheamus v. Professor Woods

7.       Survivors Tag Match:  Defiance (Orton/Priest)/Viking Raiders/Twisted Sun Gods

                                        v

                                        Blood Warriors International (Ricochet/Alexander)/Shoot Nation (Benjamin/Gable)/Street Profits

8.       Womens’s Survivor Series Tag Tournament:

Rhea Ripley/Shayna Baszler v. Sasha Banks/Bianca Belair

9.       Women’s Survivor Series Tag Tournament:

Becky Lynch/Charlotte Flair v. Liv Morgan/Natty Neidhart

10.   Winners Match

 

WWF Title: Matt Riddle (w/HBK) v. Sami Zayn

-I tend to like pretty heavy handed top card angles; matches are life/death, characters take wrestling very seriously; a world title match is basically the apocalypse and then we do it again in 3 months.  Riddle is not that – he’s not doing comedy, really, really not a fan of top card comedy, but because he doesn’t carry the weight of the world into the ring, he’s a real counterpoint to most WWF Champs.  Riddle’s cool, unbothered, untroubled, lacking the glass cutting intensity that is the template for my top card guys. 

Zayn’s bringing a lot of that weight of the world into this match – he went over Steen in the blowoff Cell match at Mania, gone since then, his demeanor in this face v. face matchup is it’s all been building to this – his whole career, all the “underdog El Generico” stuff – having to fight his way up the ROH card, fight his way to WWF, winning the IC and tag belts – surviving the loss of his mask, becoming a referee – climbing all the way back to beat Steen and stand on top of the Cell in the main event of Mania…..none of it matters if he doesn’t beat Riddle at Survivor Series in New York – win the WWF Title, win the Triple Crown – stand at the top of the sport. 

Riddle says cool – that’ll be good for you, probably you’ll lose, but it would be cool for you if it works out. 

Michaels is who adds the edge to Riddle’s programs – Michaels says Zayn doesn’t have enough asshole in him to win the WWF Title – he goes through a list of guys (including himself) and says you gotta be a little bit of an asshole to win this title, and Zayn’s just too nice, he’s never heard anyone say anything about El Generico other than he’s the best guy in the locker room.  The best guy in the locker room is rarely also the best wrestler in the locker room. 

So, that’s the program – no physicality between them, Riddle doesn’t get heated like that – Zayn’s heated, Steen’s argument for taking the Generico mask was Zayn had to get meaner to be the WWF Champ, he went over Steen – and here’s Michaels basically saying the same thing.  Does Zayn have it in him to take Riddle’s title?

 

2.       IC: AJ Styles v. Tyler Black v. Shinsuke Nakamura v. Prince Devitt

-Its Bullet Club time; these former stablemates, who have gone their separate ways, hook it up here for the IC belt – and that’s the program, it’s “I was the real leader” – “it’s your fault the Bullet Club broke up” “maybe one day..” – it’s variations of all the kind of talk that one might get, hints of reunions, hints of “we are never ever getting back together” – the Bullet Club talk isn’t going to stop until Wrestlemania, this is the start of a thing and not just a thing for this PPV, so we have to pace ourselves, but that is the story – the Bullet Club is a valuable legacy, a thing worth fighting over.  It's a workrate match; all four guys probably view themselves as best wrestler in the promotion - Styles and Nakamura have Triple Crowns; For Black, of course, he is still an IC short of the Triple Crown, meaning he could earn one at Survivor Series.  

 

3.       Tag Titles: Usos v. Tag Match Survivors

-Usos regained the tag belts at Summer Slam, with aid from Roman – and that’s the storyline, as they don’t have opponents yet.  Roman is at peak Roman, he is “I need to find people who can get on my level, who can even look up high enough to see my level” – and eventually, he directs that energy to the Usos.  They’re a little incredulous – they’re multi-time tag champs, but Roman says that’s because he’s always there to get them over the top – and that’s been fine in the past, they’re blood, he wants to help – but Roman’s a little busy now, times have changed, God mode and whatnot – and so the Usos are gonna need to step it up.  This is, understandably, irritating to the Usos, they make it clear they don’t want Roman near their title match.  Usos will be wrestling the two men who “survive” the 12 man tag earlier in the night, I’ll discuss that a little later. 

 

4.       Loser Leaves Town: Claudio Castagnoli v. Kevin Steen

Short version: Claudio and Steen were stabled with Generico and Pac; it blew up, Claudio and Pac on one side, Steen/Generico on the other – the feud ended with Steen beating Pac in a Loser Leaves Town.  The whole thing just seemed to take all the fight out of all 4 of them, more sad than triumphant by the time Pac walked out the door.  Lot of miles since then – including Steen/Zayn disrupting Claudio’s Triple Crown ceremony earlier in the year because they couldn’t stop fighting even for that short time.  Steen’s now alone – he’s been through another emotional breakup this year, the implosion of his stable with Black and Danielson – both he and Black are still heels, they didn’t fight – but look, the whole thing was just too much, the huge Mania losses, Danielson abandoning them in the War Games match over the summer, Danielson leaving the promotion.  There’s a lot of trauma here, Steen has been gone since that War Games match.  It’s Claudio who brings this fight – he/Gargano/Ciampa are doing their Kings of Wrestling babyface act – Steen gets programmed with Ciampa after Summer Slam, it’s a good, violent program, they both get wins – Steen goes over at the end, it leads to a Claudio save – and that leads to Claudio/Steen promos that recap their history – and Claudio just stops at some point and says no – how many years have just died in feuds with Kevin Steen – Claudio turned his back on the fans, on a singles career that made him a hugely popular WWF Champion and started calling himself Trash – all because of this poison, this toxicity that is Kevin Steen.  Claudio gets really personal – Steen destroys everything around him, it can’t be a coincidence that this last GDI blew up just like GDI blew up before – and the only thing they had in common was Steen.  Claudio says he isn’t going to spend the next year, two years, going back and forth like he did before, like Zayn just did.  One match – that’s it – Loser Leaves Town. 

 Steen doesn’t really want it – “just leave me alone, Claudio, damn” – but Claudio pushes it, and Steen says fuck it, lets go.  And so they’re gonna go; Steen's reluctance is important here - you want to see the evident wear on his face, in his gait, he should seem nearly empty - whereas Claudio is supremely motivated, supremely confident - Claudio is ready to finally, once and for all, rid the WWF of Kevin Steen.  

5.       Falls Count Anywhere: Roman Reigns v. Drew McIntyre v. Bobby Lashley v. Langston

6.       Nick Nemeth v. Apollo Crews v. Sheamus v. Professor Woods

-For years, there’s been some variation of Usos/New Day/Hooligans and more recently (like the last couple of years recently) Shoot Nation.  There’s been a separation – Reigns, McIntyre, Langston always circling each other as the representatives of their respective factions.  Those factions are programmed against in each other in multiple permutations in this build.

During Covid – Reigns found another gear – reflected in win after win – most recently back to back PPV wins over Lashley.  During that time, he’s been clear the rest of the roster isn’t at his level – he needs to see some improvement (the unasked question would be – why, why would he want better opposition – the subtext is AEW – it’s a wrestling war now, Reigns is really saying he’s the man to lead the WWF during wartime, but he needs aid, that’s subtext, but that’s the changed circumstance that might lead one to want to see WWF have more good wrestlers, were you a WWF wrestler who believes you are in a war). Reigns challenges Hooligans, challenges Shoot Nation, challenges New Day – someone, anyone, needs to get on his level. 

That eventually is too much – and McIntyre/Lashley/Langston just beat the hell out of Reigns after a promo during a RAW, that alignment is only temporary – eventually the program shakes out that we’ll have two four way matches at the PPV, the big men in one match, their smaller stablemates (plus Crews, from Defiance) in another.  Think of it as starting with Reigns v Everyone else and then everyone else getting mad at each other. 

We’re going to stop there for this month; I was going to make part 2 the best matches in SSeries history, instead, I’ll cut the build in half.  See you in October