5 reasons why Survivor Series 2017 was the worst finish in the PPV's history

When all said and done, Survivor Series 2017 was a passable show by the WWE. There was some really nice action inside the ropes, and we got to see matches and face-offs we didn't expect for quite some time, if at all.

However, it's only fair to judge a PPV based on how it left you feeling, and usually, this means the main event has to deliver. Sadly, the main event of this show was a disaster, both in terms of booking and long-term implications.

In order to get to grips with what exactly went wrong, here are five reasons why the finish of Survivor Series 2017 was one of the worst in the company's history:

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#1 Shane McMahon didn't deserve to be the final member of Team Smackdown

The wrong guy in the right place

With an event like Survivor Series, the ability to book matches was complicated by the fact that we essentially had heels and faces fighting each other. Neither Team Smackdown nor Team RAW officially went into the bout as the good or bad guys, and to be fair to the WWE, it can be difficult in such a situation to decide what to do with whom.

However, towards the end of the match, Shane McMahon found himself in a position usually reserved for the sympathetic babyface. When you're trying to get the crowd behind someone, you stack the odds against them, and even if they don't get the job done, they will look like a warrior worthy of the fans' respect.

So why was the decision taken to have Shane in that position? Considering there were other members of that team such as Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura who are still finding their feet in the company and need as much crowd support as possible, wouldn't it have been a better idea to have them be the last member of Smackdown to be eliminated?

Yes, you might say this probably lined things up for some kind of showdown between Triple H, Shane McMahon and/or Kurt Angle for Wrestlemania, but they could have done this in so many other ways - why here?

#2 Three out of the final four were part-timers

A company for old men

In addition to the fact that the WWE wasted such a strong opportunity to portray somebody worthy as the sympathetic babyface at the end of the match, the problem was made so much worse by the inclusion of Triple H and Kurt Angle on the opposing side of the ring.

This meant that three of the final four men involved in the main event of Survivor Series were part-time talents who have contributed very little in terms of in-ring action this calendar year. It seems the WWE had no interest in telling a lasting story with any of its newly promoted NXT stars and decided to just look ahead at what could be done with a bunch of guys that will only be around until Wrestlemania.

This could have been a great way to plant some seeds for a future bout between Nakamura and Roode or Cena and Samoa Joe, for example, but nothing of the sort ended up happening. Yes, we might still get these matches at some point, but are fans going to care as much if the build-up is not as effective?

Thankfully Braun Strowman did make it to the end of the match and ended up looking dominant over everybody else. But that is merely a saving grace to the otherwise frustrating scenario that we got.

#3 Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were made to look far too weak

The two stooges

On a night that so desperately needed more interventions, the decision was taken to have Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens interfere in the main event. This made sense from a storytelling point of view - the pair are upset at their management for being sent home from an overseas tour. This will likely lead somewhere, which can only be seen as a positive.

However, the manner in which the pair came into the match made them look far too weak. Their involvement didn't really lead to any eliminations and they were soon chased off by a half beaten Shane McMahon - barely even a 2 on 1 situation.

Owens even had to eat an RKO from Orton in the middle of the ring, making the whole affair look even more like a failure. Sure, there will be repercussions in the following weeks, but from a kayfabe point of view, why should anyone on the Smackdown roster even care what they did considering they made no impact on the match whatsoever?

This run in just seemed to confirm that the WWE had no real interest in being logical about the main event and were just relying on knee-jerk responses to certain people squaring off against each other - this was lazy booking by the company.

#4 It didn't do enough to get Braun Strowman over

A confused Monster

Even Braun Strowman's beatdown of Triple H, which many are seeing as the one saving grace to this main event, didn't really do enough to save the WWE's blushes. Yes, The Monster Amongst Men was left standing tall at the end, but was he really made to look that strong overall?

His involvement in the match was fairly minimal - there seemed to be more in-ring time for Triple H and Kurt Angle than Strowman, which is completely back-to-front when you consider what the company are trying to do with him.

While the whole business with Triple H, Shane McMahon and Kurt Angle was going on, Braun was just left to stand there looking perplexed. Again, the focus was far too much on the wrong people, leaving Strowman very little to brag about over the next few weeks and months.

And where do the company now go with Strowman? Is a match between him and Triple H on the cards? If it is, are they really going to base an entire program on the fact that The Game didn't allow Strowman to get the pinfall on Shane? This would look fairly weak and petty and wouldn't set the feud up very well at all.

#5 It's all about the McMahons... again!

McMahon-mania

Leaving Shane as the last Superstar in the Smackdown team was perhaps ill-advised. The fact that the men standing opposite him were Triple H and Kurt Angle was an example of the company being even more short-sighted than usual. And considering two of those three men are members of the McMahon family ought to fill every WWE fan with utter dread.

Clearly, the WWE are keen to build up some kind of programme involving different members of the McMahon family. A lot of the lead up to this match at Survivor Series surrounded Stephanie and Shane, the two commissioners of RAW and Smackdown, respectively.

When Triple H was thrown into the occasion, you knew something was going to go down between the brothers in law, and that is exactly what we got. This means the fallout of the match is going to involve the McMahon family quite predominantly. Stephanie will be bragging about how she got one over on her brother, and will be thanking her husband for getting the job done.

If there's one thing fans are sick and tired of when it comes to the WWE, its the fact that the McMahon family are simply overused in terms of storyline. If we get a showdown between Triple H and Shane McMahon as a featured Wrestlemania match it'll be yet another PPV where the owners walk away with all the attention.