Road to Survivor Series 2019 - Part Two

Part 1

A reminder, here are the 6 matches already set up for Survivor Series 2019 in Chicago.

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/Alexander) 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)

And here's the rest of the card: 

AJ Styles v. Tommaso Ciampa

The American Dragon Bryan Danielson v. Pete Dunne (w/Nigel)

Women's Title: Bayley v. Shayna Baszler (w/Horsewomen)

Women's Number One Contender: Asuka v. Shirai v. Sane v. Storm 

Revival v. Viking Raiders

Elimination Match (Surviving Team Battles Following Night, Winner Earns Tag Shot at Wrestlemania): Team Reigns: Reigns/Strowman/Kalisto/Priest/Rush v. Team McIntyre: McIntyre/Tozawa/Dorada/Ali/Ford

Let's break these matches down.

AJ Styles v. Tommaso Ciampa

The American Dragon Bryan Danielson v. Pete Dunne (w/Nigel)

-AJ is the ace of the promotion; 2 time WWF Champ, Triple Crown winner; Danielson was the prior ace, but then he got hurt, returned, lost the big showdown match with AJ, then lost to him again, then lost to Lesnar - and facing Brock can change a person.  Danielson changed, started to take short cuts, he argued he hadn't changed - he was always the adaptable guy, the guy who could wrestle any style - and now the adaption requires he take some alternate measures to win matches.  Those explanations turned into explaining wrestling to other wrestlers - even stopping matches in the middle to make those explanations.  There's a thin line between helpful veteran who everyone loves and Jesus will this guy just shut the fuck up? 

-Ciampa and Gargano were partners, part of  GDI and when it split, they chose opposite sides, that led to a bitter feud which led to two significant Ciampa injuries.  He returned in this build, said his neck was never going to okay again, any match could be his last.  So, he needed to change the way he thinks about his career, he's not pursuing championships - he's not building to anything at all.  Any match could be his last.  So - he challenges Gargano, says it's one last time - and he beats him.

-AJ says this is the kind of guy he wants to wrestle - a guy who wrestles like it's his last match, who will give him everything he has.  And that's the match, it's all babyface, but there's a desparation in Ciampa that gives him a little menace. 

-Danielson wrestles Trent Seven, stops the match in the middle for a tutorial. This infuriates Nigel - they have all the teaching they need, Bryan, thanks.  And that leads to a series of promos unfolding the years that have passed since their ROH wars, Nigel going to TNA and winning that title, Nigel having to retire prematurely, Danielson "doing him a favor" by hiring him when he was WWF Commissioner.  It's enough to establish the "Danielson just thinks he's better than other people/other people just don't understand things, and Bryan's willing to explain them, but you can't make a horse drink" dynamic.  

-Strong workrate matches here in the middle of this card; Styles v. Ciampa, Danielson v. Dunne, main events anywhere in the world, one might say.

-Gargano is doing a thing with his partner Claudio, Claudio's old partner Hero, and Zelina Vega's rudo team, Garza and Carillo (no masks) called Dioses del sol Retorcidos (Twisted Sun Gods). But that will be discussed in the Rumble build.  

Women's Title: Bayley v. Shayna Baszler (w/Horsewomen)

Women's Number One Contender: Asuka v. Shirai v. Sane v. Storm 

-In addition to the mixed tag discussed in part 1, two other women's matches on the card.  Asuka had a long title run, culminating in her beating Rousey in the money match at Mania.  She's still undefeated, doing the full Goldberg gimmick.  However - the Horsewomen (led by Baszler, with the addition of Ripley) took Asuka out after running Rousey out of the promotion.  So, the title was vacated and Bayley won it at Summer Slam.  This is "I'm a Hugger" Bayley, pure white meat babyface.  Bayley was, of course, stomped out by Baszler and her crew and so there's this match.  It's exactly what you'd expect, Bayley is always an underdog and remains so here, against the monster, monster heel Baszler.  Bayley gets some solid, good workrate match, win in this build (she beats like Natty, that kind of thing) and Baszler just squashes a couple of women, really breaks them in half, Clubber Lang style (like Alexa, that would be good, just finishes her) If when asked her prediction for Survivor Series, Baszler responded "my prediction?  Pain" that's the vibe  

-However - Asuka is back, that happens late in the build; the plan is a 3 way, all babyface match, winner gets the title shot at the Rumble - with best friends Shirai and Sane and also Toni Storm.  One fall to a finish.  However, in the last couple of weeks, a special announcement that a 4th woman would be added - and it's the newly medically cleared Asuka. Good workrate match, with the possibility that Asuka could lose her undefeated streak - even if she's not involved in the finish, given the match stips.

Revival v. Viking Raiders

Elimination Match (Surviving Team Battles Following Night, Winner Earns Tag Shot at Wrestlemania): Team Reigns: Reigns/Strowman/Kalisto/Priest/Rush v. Team McIntyre: McIntyre/Tozawa/Dorada/Ali/Ford

-Standard tag program during the build, Revival v. Viking Raiders (I keep typing War Machine, it's a substantially better name, like Tommy End level better, but I'm letting it fly by) Revival are heels, Raiders are the babyfaces, they each beat the other in the build and this is positioned as the blow off .

-And Finally...

Everyone in the 5x5 match (first such match in Survivor Series history) is part of a tag team (almost) it's an elimination match; whomever "survives" on the winning team will face off on RAW the following night to earn a tag title shot at Wrestlemania.

The Reigns team is nominally the heel team, the Usos have been feuding with Hooligans since Roman's return from illness, Hooligans are mostly babyfaces, Usos are mostly heels (ideally, that would be flipped, but McIntyre is needed on the babyface side for the next year) and so the McIntyre team is the babyfave team.  Priest and Rush is a heel tag act (think IRL Enzo and Cass for the dynamic between the two) and you know that Ali and Dorada are together, they're the babyface act feuding with them.  Strowman is half of Gods of Carnage, originally, one of the guys from AoP was going to be the 5th member, he's injured very, very late and Kalisto, despite being all babyface, is inserted in that lineup, it is his first match since Mania - he no longer has a tag partner and the idea is he is searching for one 

Tozawa is, of course, part of BWI, and Ford is Montez Ford, half of the Street Profits, doing their IRL gimmick.  Whomever survives on the winning team squares off on RAW the next night - winner earns a tag title match at Wrestlemania. 

And that's the card.  

WWF Title: Tyler Black (w/Renee) v. Shinsuke Nakamura

Brock Lesnar (w/Angle) v. Walter (w/Heyman)

IC Title: Ricochet (w/Alexander) v. Adam Cole

Tag Titles: Shoot Nation (Gable/Nemeth w/Angle) v. Steen/Mysterio

AJ Styles v. Tommaso Ciampa

The American Dragon Bryan Danielson v. Pete Dunne (w/Nigel)

Women's Title: Bayley v. Shayna Baszler (w/Horsewomen)

Losing Manager Leaves Town: GDI (O’Reilly/Fish w/Maria) v. Clique (Lee/Riddle w/HBK)

Women's Number One Contender: Asuka v. Shirai v. Sane v. Storm 

Revival v. Viking Raiders

Bullet Club (Lynch/Anderson/Gallows) v. Horsemen (Flair/Strong/Roode) v. New Day (Banks/Langston/Kingston)

Elimination Match (Surviving Team Battles Following Night, Winner Earns Tag Shot at Wrestlemania): Team Reigns: Reigns/Strowman/Kalisto/Priest/Rush v. Team McIntyre: McIntyre/Tozawa/Dorada/Ali/Ford

I mean, come on?  It's on the WWF Network!  What more could you ask for?

Coming in November from Chicago.  Survivor Series 2019

Road to Survivor Series 2019 - Part One

Summer Slam is here.

Survivor Series 2019 is coming to you from Chicago in November.  It is the 131^st WWF PPV and the 33^rd Survivor Series.

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”. 

 IC Title: Ricochet (w/BWI) v. Adam Cole

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.

 Tag Titles: Shoot Nation (Gable/Nemeth w/Angle) v. Steen/Mysterio

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.

 Next month – the other half.  Bryan Danielson has a singles match. AJ Styles has a singles match.  Bayley defends the Women’s Title.  Asuka returns.  There’s a 5x5 Elimination Match.  Coming in October