WWE Survivor Series 2016 Review

Fantasy warfare just got real. The rematch over 12 years in the making, Brock Lesnar looks to avenge his WrestleMania XX loss against Goldberg in the biggest main event in Survivor Series history.

Match 1: Traditional Survivor Series Elimination - Team Raw (Bayley, Alicia Fox, Nia Jax, Sasha Banks & Charlotte) vs. Team SmackDown Live (Becky Lynch, Naomi, Alexa Bliss, Carmella & Natalya)
With the Team SmackDown Live captain in Nikki Bella getting attacked from behind, Natalya stepped up to the plate and took over for her. This is the first Raw vs. SmackDown Live contest of the night with Charlotte leading the charge for the red team. Fine opening match here to get the crowd warmed up for a night full of brand warfare matches. Becky Lynch would eventually be the last one standing for Team SmackDown Live as she had to go against both Charlotte and Bayley. Despite putting up a good fight, Bayley hit Lynch with a Bayley-to-Belly to secure the win for her team. Afterwards, Charlotte sends Bayley a message by beating the living daylights out of here. That team comradery only lasted as long as it could.
Winners: Team Raw
Sole Survivors: Bayley & Charlotte
Rating: **3/4

Match 2: WWE Intercontinental Championship - The Miz (c) vs. Sami Zayn
The Miz defeated Dolph Ziggler on an edition of SmackDown Live in their 56th match against each other to capture the Intercontinental Championship and must defend it against Raw's Sami Zayn. Solid match here with Miz working on the leg of Zayn and warming him up for a Figure Four. Miz looked to have the win secured when he had the lock in place but Zayn was able to power out and eventually lock Miz in his own version of it. Maryse created a distraction by ringing the bell at ringside and Miz was able to roll Zayn up as he had thought he had won via submission.
Winner: The Miz
Rating: ***

Match 3: Traditional Survivor Series Elimination - Team Raw (Enzo, Big Cass, The Shining Stars, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Sheamus, Cesaro, & The New Day) vs. Team SmackDown Live (Heath Slater, Rhyno, Breezango, The Usos, The Hype Bros & American Alpha)
Watching this match made me forget how many dumb gimmicks there were at the time for the tag team division. What the hell were The Shining Stars all about? Or The Hype Bros? Regardless, here we are in a Traditional Survivor Series Elimination match with the tag teams. If one member of a tag team gets eliminated, then their respective tag team would be eliminated from the match. Loved the start of the match where both Breezango and The New Day were both eliminated very quickly to cause quite a stir for the match and made things interesting. But let's cut to the chase, the main part of this match came when the last two teams were in play, Sheamus & Cesaro against The Usos. So many nearfalls that had me guessing and so many cool spots from both sides with Cesaro being the main standout of them all. They had the crowd reeling.
Winners: Team Raw
Sole Survivors: Sheamus & Cesaro
Rating: ***1/2

Match 4: WWE Cruiserweight Championship - Brian Kendrick (c) vs. Kalisto
Brand warfare spills into the Cruiserweight division as the champion in Brian Kendrick must win in order to retain both his title and the entire division on Monday Night Raw. If Kalisto wins, he brings both the title and the division over to SmackDown Live. As usual with guys on 205 Live, this was a fast-paced match with the crowd virtually not paying any attention. Great action between the two here with it spilling to the outside for a bit and finally back inside with a highlight being Kendrick dropping Kalisto from the top rope and putting him in his Captain's Hook finisher. However, Baron Corbin comes out of nowhere and attacks Kendrick from behind before catching a flying Kalisto and hitting him with an End of Days for the disqualification finish. If they were trying to improve the lacking division, then this really does no favors for them. They were having a great match and it completely got overshadowed by having Corbin coming in and causing a wreck.
Winner: Brian Kendrick
Rating: ***

Match 5: Traditional Survivor Series Elimination - Team SmackDown Live (Shane McMahon, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, AJ Styles & Dean Ambrose) vs. Team Raw (Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens)
For the first time since 2005, Raw and SmackDown go head to head to determine the top brand of the WWE. I loved the feud back then and while 2016 couldn't really match that intensity, I still appreciated the efforts and loved that this was back. Oh, let's just forget about Bragging Rights. Much of the story in this one was focused on if AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose could coexist for their team as they had a match approaching at TLC in a couple weeks. They couldn't... and it made sense. Styles had the chance to break up a pin attempt against Ambrose and didn't which drove team captain in Shane McMahon nuts. Eventually, Ambrose would make his way back to the match and briefly reform with his former Shield brothers to powerbomb Styles though the announcers table. Awesome. All the eliminations made sense with McMahon's being the nastiest as he took a Spear in midair from Roman Reigns that legitimately knocked him out. Sweet spot that made me bite my tongue as I saw McMahon hit the floor hard. It came down to Reigns fighting his way against both Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt. Reigns looked to Spear the living daylights out of Wyatt before Orton came in and took the Spear for him which allowed Wyatt to hit a Sister Abigail on Reigns to score the win for him and Team SmackDown Live. Fun match that saw JBL totally kill the finish by screaming, "Raw wins!" It's edited on The WWE Network if you're wondering. Loved the eliminations and absolutely loved that finish. The main problem I had was how long it went, I felt like they could have shaved off a few minutes as it kind of felt like it was just not going to end near the finish.

Winners: Team SmackDown Live
Sole Survivors: Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton
Rating: ****

Match 6: Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg
If there was one word to describe this main event, it would be epic. Going back to 2016, I actually don't even remember the last time I was this excited for a main event in quite some time. The build, the history and the atmosphere had me on my toes for this one. Fantasy warfare just got real, the rematch over 12 years in the making is finally happening. The crowd was hot as soon as Brock Lesnar's music hit and the confident look he had in his face as he awaited Goldberg gave me chills. Once Goldberg's music hit, it was almost hard to believe it was actually happening. The bell sounded and as Lesnar attacked first, Goldberg easily pushed him down and surprised him with a Spear! Crowd was in disbelief as Heyman was crying on Lesnar's behalf. Goldberg followed it up with another Spear and a Jackhammer to shock the entire world and defeat Lesnar in less than a couple minutes. Not sure if Goldberg was capable of wrestling a longer match or not, but I loved this. I always wondered what a big WWE main event would be like if this happened and it couldn't have happened for a better match than this. Goldberg celebrates in the ring with his son in what will go down as the biggest main events in Survivor Series history. Wow.

Winner: Goldberg
Rating: n/a

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
This is probably one of the WWE's stronger efforts into the fall classic in quite some time. I absolutely love the fact that the brand warfare feud is back and they really put in a full effort in making it a good one despite some a couple questionable booking spots. But perhaps the biggest standout to me would be the main event, a shockingly short match with Goldberg making one of the most memorable returns to the ring in the history of the company.

Rating: 8/10