5 surprises offered by Survivor Series 2018

Now that was a strange strange PPV. From the start to the end, WWE Survivor Series was all about chopping and changing. Be it replacing Becky Lynch and AJ Styles, or bumping up Charlotte to a match against Ronda.

If one word could be used to describe this PPV, it has to be - "unpredictable". So unpredictable that the matches were changing at the drop of the hat. But even then, there were some things you could expect will happen.

But before we go there, one honorable mention - did anyone expect the WWE 205 General Manager, Drake Maverick, to wet his pants at any point in time? In a PPV where there were a lot of weird things happening, this would still be near the top of the pyramid.

The fact that it would help AOP win their match against The Bar is a different story, but Drake Maverick wetting his pants? No one saw that coming.

Okay, so with that out of the way lets have a look at 5 occasions where Survivor Series managed to surprise the viewers.

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#1 Dean Ambrose doesn't feature in the Nakamura vs Rollins match

Dean Ambrose took a day off on Survivor Series

Seth Rolling vs Nakamura, a match between two of the best performers in WWE. A match which should have been built up as a war of the best, but it wasn't really built as anything.

The only thing expected from this match was Ambrose at some point in time getting involved in the match, either causing a DQ or helping Nakamura win the match.

Throughout the match it just seemed like most of the anticipation was just waiting for Ambrose to come in and cause some kind of interference. But hey, as it turned out Ambrose took a day off and was sitting at home. So when Rollins hit the curb stomp and got the pin, it was a bit of an anticlimactic end to a poorly built up match.

#2 Charlotte Flair beats up Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey was given one hell of a beating by Flair

Now, who saw this coming? Even before the Rousey massacre, it was still a very aggressive and competitive match between Flair and Ronda. Ronda had blood coming out of her mouth, both women didn't want to give the other even an inch, and it was a super competitive match.

But once Charlotte got disqualified and started smashing Ronda with a stick, it was just a shock for everyone. No one could really fathom what was going on, and what got into Charlotte.

Ronda on her part was given a serious beating with knocks from the stick, and the chair shots on her neck. She left the ring all roughed up and bloodied, and not many had a clue of what had just happened.

On a passing note though, for The Baddest Woman On The Planet, she does cry a lot, doesn't she?

#3 Braun gets pawned again

For the second year in a row, Braun was used by the Authority to win the match

Team Raw was expected to dominate Team SmackDown, that happened. Braun Strowman and Drew Mcintyre were supposed to be the last men standing, that happened as well.

What was not expected was Baron Corbin running away from the clutches of Braun Strowman at the end of the match after a shot from behind.

What it meant was that for the second year in a row, Braun would leave Survivor Series with a sour feeling, as he got pawned into the match by Stephanie McMahon.

He came into the match and inflicted most of the damage to the SmackDown team himself, and even wrapped it up by pinning Shane, but couldn't at any point after winning put his hands on Corbin who ran away after hitting Braun from behind.

#4 AJ Styles sits this one out

Somewhere towards the end of the match, Styles was expected to make an appearance

It just seemed a perfect platform. Brock had just won the title recently, and him picking the loss wouldn't have fared well. Bryan himself had just won the title last week and him losing the match would have put a dent on his momentum.

The match started like any typical Brock Lesnar match, with Brock throwing Bryan around like a teddy bear all over the ring. Finally, when he hit the F-5, it did seem like this would be the ultimate destruction of Daniel Bryan.

But Brock didn't complete the fall, and in due course Bryan got the low blow which got him back into the match again. Loads of flying knees, kicks and submission moves later, you just expected out of nowhere AJ styles would make an entrance and cost Bryan the match.

It would have provided the perfect fire to their feud, but WWE went the other way and let Brock have the win clean. Maybe they missed a trick here.

#5 Raw thrashes SmackDown 6-0

You can clearly see the difference between the star power on both brands

Raw is the preferred brand in WWE right now. You can clearly see the difference between the star power on both brands. You can clearly see which championship gets a bigger push.

A glaring fact is that since the last Survivor Series, the Universal Championship leads the WWE Championship 3-0 in terms of the main events featured in when both have been contested in a PPV.

But still, 6-0? Is the SmackDown roster this bad? What is WWE trying to portray here? Yes both the championship matches could not have been messed with, as Brock and Ronda were always going to come out victors in their respective matches.

But surely a match between the men's Team Raw (which had almost every wrestler feuding with the other one) and Team SmackDown could have gone the other way. SmackDown could have been portrayed as a team that was united, and they could have sneaked a win there.

Maybe it's a harbinger for a heel turn for Shane? Whatever it may be, that was some whooping for SmackDown!