Sports
WWE Survivor Series 2019 Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights
0 of 3Credit: WWE.comFor over three decades, WWE Survivor Series has provided fans with unforgettable, controversial and company-altering moments, and Sunday night in Chicago, with the battle for brand supremacy expanding to include NXT, there was certainly potential for more.A main event for the WWE Championship pitting the consummate underdog, Rey Mysterio, against the dominant…
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Credit: WWE.com
For over three decades, WWE Survivor Series has provided fans with unforgettable, controversial and company-altering moments, and Sunday night in Chicago, with the battle for brand supremacy expanding to include NXT, there was certainly potential for more.
A main event for the WWE Championship pitting the consummate underdog, Rey Mysterio, against the dominant beast, Brock Lesnar, and a Universal Championship bout featuring “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt defending against Daniel Bryan headlined a show that also featured inter-brand wars between the best of Raw, SmackDown and NXT.
Which brand emerged victorious, did any championships change hands, and what did the outcomes mean for the WWE product as it prepares to close out the decade?
Find out with this recap of the 2019 Survivor Series extravaganza.
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Credit: WWE.com
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, The Street Profits, and Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins represented Raw. The Revival, Heavy Machinery, Lucha House Party, and Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode represented SmackDown. Breezango, The Forgotten Sons, and Imperium's Marcel Barthel represented NXT.
A Battle Royal pitting teams from Raw, SmackDown and NXT kicked off the night's inter-promotional action. The rules were simple: Once a Superstar was eliminated over the top rope, the entire team was sent packing.
Typical battle royal chaos ensued early. The Forgotten Sons, Lucha House Party and Ryder and Hawkins were early eliminations but did little to clear up the numbers in the squared circle.
Ziggler and Roode eliminated Imperium while The Revival and The O.C. teamed up to dump Otis, sending Heavy Machinery to the back. The Revival also eliminated Breezango, leaving NXT with no entrants left in the match.
Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder's run of dominance ended with The Street Profits sending them packing. That left the Profits and The O.C. representing Raw and Ziggler and Roode from SmackDown. That is, until The Showoff sent Gallows to the floor with a superkick.
The Street Profits were poised to win following a beautiful frog splash from Ford, but an alert Roode sent him over the top rope to give SmackDown its first win of the night.
Result
Ziggler and Roode won
Grade
D
Analysis
With no real story to speak of and no build whatsoever, this was mostly just a bunch of guys throwing punches and kicks with nothing substantial in between.
Ford's frog splash was outstanding and The Street Profits are a team of the future, but Ziggler and Roode are in a position to serve a higher-profile purpose on SmackDown as associates of King Corbin so it made sense that they earned the win here.
A little more forethought into the match and this might have meant more and, maybe, even have been a better experience all around.
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Credit: WWE.com
More cross-branded action dominated the Survivor Series Kickoff Show as Lio Rush defended the NXT Cruiserweight Championship against SmackDown’s Kalisto and Raw’s Akira Tozawa in a Triple Threat match.
The action was fast and furious early, as expected, with none of the three competitors establishing dominance. The champion thwarted a concentrated effort by the challengers to dethrone him, dropping them with a double handspring elbow. He followed it up moments later, fending off an attack by Tozawa to deliver a double arm drag from the top rope, driving the air from his challengers in the first real high spot of the match.
A series of near-falls ensued and Kalisto nearly picked up the win and title. The former United States champion did manage to deliver Salida del Sol but a Shining Wizard from Tozawa broke up the pin. The Japanese competitor scaled the ropes and came off with a senton but had his own pinfall attempt broken up by Kalisto in a bit of turnabout is fair play.
The action broke down, Kalisto dropped Tozawa with another Salida del Sol and Rush followed with The Final Hour. He pinned the masked Superstar, scored the pinfall victory and retained his title.
Result
Rush defeated Tozawa and Kalisto
Grade
C
Analysis
This was a fine example of what happens when three guys, no matter how talented, are thrown out in front of a half-empty arena with no backstory, nor rhyme or reason, for existing.
The effort was there, there were a few fun spots, but the fans did not care and it hurt the effectiveness of what Rush, Kalisto and Tozawa were trying to accomplish.
The cruiserweight title and division as a whole have been treated as afterthoughts, a sideshow even, and until that changes, it is impossible to expect fans to invest in characterless, heatless matches no matter how good those involved may be.
That this was a battle between three babyfaces, with no one slowing things down to build heat, only further hurt its ability to get over with the fans.
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Credit: WWE.com
Less than 24 hours after a brutal, violent and unforgiving War Games match, NXT tag team champions Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish battled SmackDown tag team champions The New Day and Raw tag team champions The Viking Raiders in the third and final Kickoff Show match.
The heels found themselves on the receiving end of a beating at the hands of Erik, Ivar, Kofi Kingston and Big E early, their bodies still racked with pain. A face-to-face showdown between The New Day and The Viking Raiders allowed Fish and O'Reilly a momentary reprieve.
The NXT duo capitalized on that reprieve, O'Reilly nearly tapping Kingston out to a kneebar. Erik and Ivar exploded back into the match, though, overpowering the competition. Former WWE champion Kingston withstood it and fought both Erik and O'Reilly off.
The Raw tag champs rolled as Erik slammed Ivar off the apron and onto the opposition. A nasty kick by Fish, though, stunned the smaller Raider and opened him up to a buzzsaw-like assault by the NXT titleholders.
Action broke down late with hot tags to Ivar and Big E creating red-hot babyface comebacks. Late, Kingston launched himself off the top rope and wiped out O'Reilly, Fish and Ivar while Big E blasted Erik with a nasty spear through the ropes.
Kingston tried for Trouble in Paradise on the floor but he caught the ring post, leaving The Viking Raiders and Undisputed Era to renew their rivalry.
Ivar dodged the high-low from the heels and the Raw tandem picked up the win with the Viking Experience.
Result
The Viking Raiders defeated The New Day and Undisputed Era
Grade
B
Analysis
This was a fun, energetic and fast-paced tag team match that never really bogged down. The high spots were great, the big men threw their bodies around as if they were cruiserweights and Undisputed Era bumped all over for the opposition.
Kingston starred, though his presence in this match instead of the higher-profile PPV matches made his WWE Championship reign feel like an even more distant memory.
Unlike the two matches before it, this felt like a pay-per-view-worthy match that set the tone for the rest of the night's action. If everything that follows is even comparable in match quality, this is going to be a phenomenal night of professional wrestling.
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