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

Summer Slam 2021

The build is here

Summer Slam 34 comes to you from Las Vegas.  It is the 138^th WWF PPV.

(Dark: Nakamura d. Devitt, 

Kings of Wrestling (Claudio/Gagano/Ciampa) d. British Strong Style (Dunne/Bate/Seven), 

Dark Ride Wrestling Title: Walter d. Joe)

Cold open on Heyman w/Walter, post his dominant title defense over Samoa Joe, which does wrap up Joe’s run in WWE.  Heyman says you won’t see the best wrestler in the world later tonight, you won’t see him on Mondays, you won’t see him on Fridays, you sure as hell won’t see him in AEW (It's a wrestling war, lean into it) where you’ll see the best wrestler in the world – this man – Walter - is only on Dark Ride Wrestling, which is also, the only place you’ll see Paul Heyman.  Heyman drops the mic – Walter holds the title belt over his head – and we get the opening highlight package featuring previews of the four title matches to come tonight.

To ringside for the announcers: Scott Stanford, calling his 5^th PPV, Steve Regal, calling his 25^th, and Nigel McGuinness, calling his 12^th.

1. NO. 1 CONTENDERS MATCH: USOS (Jimmy/Jey) d. HOOLIGANS (McIntyre/Sheamus)

-Battle of two former champions; winners to go on later tonight to face Defiance for the titles, latest chapter in the long war that also includes the New Day – Hooligans, babyfaces, Usos, heels, but there’s been a lot of respect shown from both sides in the program, head nods of respect postmatch (Sheamus takes the fall).  Maybe one notes a glance by McIntyre of disappointment at his partner’s dropping the fall here, but it isn’t mentioned by commentary.  Usos will move on and face Orton and Priest later tonight. 

2. NO DQ: ROMAN REIGNS d. BOBBY LASHLEY 

-We're told that the Usos/Shoot Nation are barred from ringside.  Reigns/Lashley/Kingston/McIntyre have been grouped together for years, but since the start of the Covid era, Reigns has elevated, and he’s been clear that the rest of the roster needs to get on his level if they want to continue to sit at his table – he opens the match with his “acknowledge me” heat seeking promo – Reigns beat Lashley at Mania, so this match does a lof of outside the ring stuff – someone goes through the Spanish announce table, there’s fighting in the crowd – but again, Reigns goes over – the Usos return to the ring postmatch, the 3 posing – another big night for the Uso faction, and it’s not done yet. Nemeth/Benjamin/Gable come to ringside and aid Lashley to the back postmatch.

3. BECKY LYNCH/CHARLOTTE FLAIR d. ALEXA BLISS/NIKKI CROSS

-Becky/Charlotte/Banks/Paige were 4-Ground, they came up through the developmental ranks and really launched the modern women’s division.  They split apart, feuded in various combinations, the Flair/Lynch feud couldn’t be contained, leading to a Montreal Match at the Covid Mania where Lynch submitted to Banks and left the promotion for over a year.  Coincidentally, a Horsewomen attack of Flair the next night took her out of the promotion for over a year – upon their mutual return, Lynch and Flair have realigned, recognizing their feud had consumed their careers, their lives really, and launched a new alignment in the form of a tag team (there’s not a formal women’s tag division) this is basically a squash match, the story being how well Lynch and Flair are working  together (they’re doing an asskicking babyface thing – Flair cut her hair; think Blackpool Combat Club, they really lay some pipe to their opponents…in fact, tomorrow, they’re going to enter under the tag name Fight Forever, let’s sell some shirts, new music, new gear, Fight Forever, there was another name here first, this isn't a change, the other name was a placeholder - I've got another stablename to debut after Survivor Series -- the name I like, The Culture, which would be for a Black stable, is one I've been sitting on for a year and there's still no obvious entry point to use it) Cross takes the fall, it will lead on TV to Bliss splitting with Cross and joining Morgan.  Unclear where Lynch and Flair are going next, but it appears it will be together. 

4. TYLER BLACK d. LANGSTON

- Langston sends Kingston/Woods to the back while on the ramp, he's going this alone. The Shield was Black/Ambrose/Langston, they held the tag titles for two+ years until Langston turned on the team (a callback to the way Neidhart turned on Bret/Davey Boy decades before to end their long run) Black wound up turning on Ambrose to join the Bullet Club, and eventually run Ambrose from the promotion.  Langston would join New Day, they would eventually become babyfaces, while Black would become a shitbag heel and here we are.  For a year+ Black was aligned with Danielson/Steen in a GDI reboot, but all 3 men lost huge matches at Mania, and over the summer, Danielson turned on them in a War Games to join the rival GDI faction – Black submitted Danielson in that match, sending Danielson out of the promotion – the toll of that seems to have frayed the Steen/Black relationship, Steen has not been seen since War Games, the GDI carnage seems to have swallowed everyone whole.  Black wins the hard fought matchup, it’s definitive, the announcers selling hard that this may be the real end of the Shield rivalry, that Black stands atop the trio. 

 

Clip package: every Women’s Match at Summer Slam:

 

2014: AJ Lee getting the fall on Paige

2015: A number one contenders match, Charlotte/Becky/Sasha doing

2016: Women’s Title Match, Banks and Flair brawling around ringside, Flair taking Banks’s title

2018: Rousey stiffing the hell out of Flair inside the cage

2019: 4 corners tag match, Bayley hitting a high spot on Stratus

2020: Women’s Title Match, Banks taking Asuka’s belt – and Bayley getting the fall on Mandy

5. WOMEN'S TITLE: RHEA RIPLEY (w/Horsewomen) d. BIANCA BELAIR 

5

     -Ideally this has a big match feel – Belair’s hot, she’s beaten Baszler twice, she got the fall in the War Games match, she’s got all the babyface steam and the crowd would really want to see her go over here.  But she doesn’t – Ripley is the current killer heel champ, she took Banks’s title at Mania and she keeps it here – the other 2 Horsewomen were intimidating on the outside, getting in some stomps on Belair at a critical moment, but the finish is clean – Ripley getting the fall and keeping her belt to the disappointment of the crowd – even as hot as Belair was, it’s going to take something beyond that to take the belt from Ripley.

 

Each Tag Title Switch at Summer Slam:

 

1989: Rockers beating the Brainbusters in the cage

1990: The Orient Express taking from Rude/Jannetty

1996: Bart Gunn/Marc Mero taking from Austin/Dustin

1997: The Road Warriors taking the belts from Owen/Davey Boy

1998: Rock/DLo taking from the New Age Outlaws in a 3 way.

2000: It’s a TLC match, Edge/Christian take from the Hardys, the Dudleys and Hunter/Waltman also in that match

2002: Benoit/Guerrero, in the masks, taking from Jericho/Storm

2004: RVD/Rey taking from Flair/Batista

2007: Trevor Murdoch/Lance Cade taking from Juventud/Super Crazy

2009: Division One takes from Dead Men Walking

2015: The Langston turn – aiding Sheamus and Wade Barrett in taking from The Shield

2016: Trash taking from the Usos

2018: Bullet Club (Styles/Black) taking from The Revival

6. TAG TITLES: USOS (Jimmy/Jey) d. DEFIANCE (Orton/Priest w/Crews)

-The _113th__ tag champs in WWF history are The Usos, it’s their third title reign.  Crews gets in an interference spot early in the match – later in the match he attempts another one, Reigns comes to the ring and kills him dead, the finish is not long after – enouugh that the announcers put over Roman's crucial role in securing the title win. Reigns grabs both belts – lingers a long time in looking at them, before handing them to Jimmy and Jey and raising their arms in victory.

 

Every IC Switch in Summer Slam history

 

1995: Ladder Match, Shawn regains the title from Razor

1998: Submission Match – Austin wins the Triple Crown, submitting Shamrock

1999: Waltman taking from Snow, DLo also in that match

2000: Jericho regaining the belt from Eddy in a 2 of 3 Falls match

2001: Tajiri taking from Austin, Lance Storm in that match

2002: Shawn takes from RVD, its his 4^th IC Title. 

2003: Tajiri wins again, taking from Rey

2004: Jericho takes from Eddy again, London is also in that match

2009: Shawn’s 5th belt, still the record in 2021, he takes from Rey

2010: Johnny Nitro takes from Matt Sydal

2013: Dean Ambrose takes from Nick Nemeth

2016: Rusev takes Generico’s belt

7. IC TITLE: AJ STYLES d. REY MYSTERIO

-No switch this year – pure babyface matchup, just for workrate/historical purposes, the announce makes clear you never know when we might be seeing Rey Mysterio’s last shot at a singles title, the clip package just showed him in an IC match back in 2003 – this is 2021 – he’s fighting for the IC Title right now – but Styles is too much in the end, keeps his belt.

 

Every WWF Title Switch at Summer Slam:

 

1991: Davey Boy taking from Curt Hennig

1998 Cactus winning the triple crown, taking from Owen Hart in a match with a bunch of fire

2005 Rey winning the triple crown, taking from Eddy in a 2 of 3 falls match

2006 Ric Flair taking from Rey

2007 Rey regains, taking from Booker T

2010 Edge, who is about to challenge for the title in the main event, winning the triple crown, taking from Jericho

2013 Danielson, in a cage, regaining the belt from Brock

2015: Kevin Steen takes from Brock

2017: Samoa Joe’s last WWF match may have been in a dark match tonight – 4 years ago he won the WWF Title from AJ

8. WWF TITLE: CARNAGE MATCH: MATT RIDDLE (w/HBK) d. THE GOD OF CARNAGE EDGE

-No switch tonight – this is as wild a brawl as they can have – that’s what Edge does now, having taken the God of Carnage nickname from Wyatt at Mania and assuming some variation of the “powers” that go along with it (less IRL Fiend, more IRL Undertaker, but I see the potential for it to be silly as opposed to a value add to Edge and ideally the match layout reflects that – less “did Edge vanish” and more “Edge does the zombie sit up, how are you supposed to pin this guy”) – they use ladders, tables – whatever stuff that can be broken, let’s break – and at the end – Riddle gets the fall – keeps the belt – the show ends with Riddle and Michaels together in the ring – Michaels holding the bloody Riddle up as Riddle raises the title belt high.

 And that’s our that. 

Next month– the build to Survivor Series 2021; in October, the 20 best matches in Survivor Series history.  In November – Survivor Series 35, with the main event – Matt Riddle, defending the WWF Title against Sami Zayn.