The following editorial was written by Geoffrey Rowland and does not reflect the opinions of WrestleZone as a whole. We encourage you all to discuss Geoff’s thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post or by tweeting him @Geoff_Rowland
RAW, Smackdown lackluster heading into Survivor Series
Coming off of Roman Reigns shocking announcement and a very lackluster Crown Jewel event that seemed to leave its featured veterans reeling from injury, WWE RAW and SmackDown Live! felt very uninspired on tape delay this week.
The oversaturation of the market with Evolution and Crown Jewel in such close proximity to Survivor Series has just left one of the “Big Four” events in the WWE just one week away with practically no build.
RAW gave us the same old storyline of the top face, now apparently Braun Strowman after his two-month heel run, going against the weak authority figure of Baron Corbin. The two have to form an uneasy alliance as RAW fields its team to face a Smackdown team in a traditional Survivor Series match.
It is forced and will be a clunky match for supremacy between the two shows. With RAW having just three competitors lined up for its side right now, that will be addressed this week, likely with Bobby Lashley filling one of the two remaining spots and it would not be surprising to see Kurt Angle find his way onto the team after his loss to Drew McIntyre in a battle to take the captainship from Corbin.
Yes, that makes plenty of sense! A perfectly capable in-ring performer like Corbin tabbing McIntyre to beat up an old legend to decide the captain of a team in a whole two week build up for one of the flagship events? Sure, why not?
Of course, Ronda Rousey is still carrying the women’s division and the build up for a match against a bitter Nia Jax has begun. This should be interesting and The Baddest Woman on the Planet’s match against Becky Lynch at Survivor Series could steal the show as the champion vs. champion affair definitely has the most intrigue and most angles the WWE could go with it.
Hopefully, it is not an easy win for Rousey as Lynch could really jump to megastar status with a strong performance. With the two women’s teams for the 5-on-5 match between RAW and Smackdown not being set yet, this match could feature some sort of interference from Jax or Charlotte Flair, but hopefully the match gets to stand on its own two feet.
Authors of Pain taking the tag team titles off of Seth Rollins was a positive move and they have really hit their stride in a division that has been less than stellar as of late. Seeing them in the champions vs. champions match against The Bar will be a nice change of pace and is a good match that is tough to predict.
This also frees up Rollins to face Shinsuke Nakamura in what should be a barn-burner of a match that will likely end in some sort of Dean Ambrose run-in, setting up The Shield members for a long feud that could go all the way to WrestleMania 35.
It is nice seeing he King of Strong Style getting a little more air time heading into Survivor Series, but the blue brand is still driven by AJ Styles and Becky Lynch … with Daniel Bryan and The Miz always lurking.
