8 biggest botches from WWE Survivor Series 2017

Survivor Series is one of the Big 4 annual WWE pay-per-views, made super special by its four-hour main broadcast. If you're a glutton for punishment, you maybe even tuned in to the two hours of pre-show to take up a full one-fourth of your day in front of the screen watching wrestling. It was at times a long and arduous show, so congratulations on making it through the whole night. Now it's time to process the night that was.

To be expected, there were the expected highs of the night, including many fun faceoffs in the main event as well as AJ Styles' performance in his match versus Brock Lesnar. Also to be expected were the many lows of the night, which we affectionately refer to as botches.

These moments included the confusing elimination of Alicia Fox, the not-so-spinny Tornado DDT against the Universal Champion, and an unsuccessful cannonball off the turnbuckle against Braun Strowman.

All of those moments and more lie ahead, to forever live in infamy. Let's relive them all together.

---

#8 Kalisto's entrance

Oh dear, Kalisto.

This former Cruiserweight Champion doesn't have the most stellar reputation when it comes to botches, so this entrance doesn't exactly help him clear his name. On the way to the ring during the kickoff off, he did his usual run then flippy jump off of the trampoline. He had slightly more difficulty on this occasion than usual.

There Kalisto was, with his belly seemingly frozen to the top rope. He eventually rebounded as if we were all simply experiencing a glitch in the matrix. Enzo Amore then went on to defeat him with the Cruiserweight Championship on the line, effectively eliminating him from contention.

#7 Botched pinfall

To be fair to the referee here, he did not botch this pinfall. Alicia Fox's shoulders were down for long enough for him to count to three, so he did exactly that. He's got a job to do. However, looking at the way Naomi tried to immediately transition this into a submission hold, it's safe to speculate that maybe the pin wasn't the intended elimination for the Raw team captain.

Naomi still went for the next move so the officer had to shove Alicia out of the ring to keep the match going. What was probably supposed to happen was that Naomi was going to submit Fox, leading directly into the submission of Naomi by Sasha Banks that happened right after this anyway.

#6 Not quite Miz's catchphrase

United States Champion Baron Corbin scored the first big win for SmackDown Live, defeating Intercontinental Champion The Miz in a match that put neither man's title on the line. After the match, Corbin was given the opportunity to speak to Renee Young for a brief in-ring interview. She asked him about stopping the potential sweep, which is when he chose to take a jab at his opponent's own catchphrase.

Instead of telling The Miz that he made his mouth go "shut," he instead used the word "closed." That was almost correct, but just off enough to sound strange. Just imagine if The Rock came back and some young upstart that wanted to make a name for himself told The Great One to "know your role and close your mouth." It doesn't have the same effect.

#5 Missed big boot

The SmackDown Women's Champion and the Raw Women's Championship battled each other in this interpromotional contest, which was a fair enough match. There were given more than enough time and put on one of the better matches of the night. The problem, however, came in the final moments when Charlotte tried to set up Alexa Bliss for her Figure Eight.

The setup for the signature Flair submission was a big boot, yet the gap between her foot and Alexa's body was pretty wide. And yes, the point of wrestling is to make it look like you're kicking someone in the face without actually kicking people in the face, but this was a noticeable divide. Bliss might've felt the gust from her foot but that would've been it.

#4 Botched Tornado DDT

It's hard to blame this botched Tornado DDT on AJ Styles because it appeared that Brock didn't rotate along with the move as AJ stepped into the turnbuckle. Perhaps this was a simple communication issue but either way, it looked like it worked out bad for both competitors. Not only did Lesnar quickly rotate a little too late with a man's arm wrapped around his neck, but Styles' face visibly smacked hard into the mat. That had to hurt.

Even with this botched move (and one more about to follow), these two delivered well on a huge first time ever matchup. WWE even spared us a Jinder Mahal run-in, allowing for a clean finish. AJ keeps continuing to prove how he's one of the best wrestlers on the planet today and Survivor Series was no exception.

#3 Brock sent himself out of the ring

It's hard to process how all of this is even possible. Brock Lesnar went for a lariat against AJ Styles, who was positioned next to the ropes. Possibly due to the tremendous momentum that The Beast Incarnate puts behind his punch, his entire body hurled into the face of The Phenomenal One and he paid for it.

The mechanics don't really add up, but Lesnar was somehow dumped out of the ring for his troubles. It's hard to even argue that Styles initiated this scoop over the top rope because it looked like he whiplashed himself in the process. Necks aren't supposed to bend the way that AJ's does in this moment.

#2 Cannonballs won't stop the monster

Immediately before Bobby Roode was eliminated from the main event Survivor Series match, he attempted a unique offensive manoeuvre against Braun Strowman. He dove cannonball-style towards his much larger opponent with very little success. Why would he even attempt this unorthodox attack? He was lucky he didn't land on his head.

Judging by the way Strowman tried to catch Roode, it appeared that the former NXT Champion intended to jump directly into a suplex setup. That didn't work out, so he was promptly eliminated right after this. It's hard to tell if Bobby would've spent much more time in the match had this dive went a little smoother, but the audible that was called resulted in his departure.

#1 Relatable Braun

After witnessing the final few minutes of the main event 5-on-5 men's elimination match, it's safe to say that everybody can sympathize with this facial expression from Braun Strowman. The most blatant botch in this booking was the sheer overdose of McMahon family drama infused into the ending. Everybody knew that some of these issues would be addressed, but the Triple H/Shane drama became one giant wet blanket to close out the show.

Also, the sort of double cross by Hunter against Kurt Angle was another layer of this storyline botch. This probably will add to the eventual firing of Kurt as the Raw GM by Stephanie, a future plot device that WWE thinks fans care way more about than they actually do. Also, the strange acting by Triple H to play the Braun Strowman inclusion was just odd.

The only satisfying part of it all was when The Monster Among Men attacked the WWE COO to close out the show. At least there was a mild attempt to send the fans home happy.