5 things you missed in the Survivor Series main event

Last night's main event match was full of missed moments
Last night's main event match was full of missed moments

WWE presented the 31st annual Survivor Series event from Houston, Texas and many fans felt that the main event of the match was one of the worst in the history of the event.

The ending of the event seemingly didn't make any sense for the event itself, because it was another example of WWE trying to plant seeds for feuds in the future before they have finished the rivalries that are currently happening.

Whilst there were a number of controversial moments in the tag match for last night's main event there were also a number of things that the WWE Universe probably missed in the match that lasted for almost an hour.


#5 The crowd reaction for Finn Balor vs Shinsuke Nakamura

Finn Balor versus Shinsuke Nakamura was teased last night
Finn Balor versus Shinsuke Nakamura was teased last night

SmackDown Live has been teasing a potential matchup between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura for so long, that the WWE Universe must have forgotten that there is also another dream match on the cards if Nakamura ever decided to switch brands.

Last night, Nakamura was tagged into the match to go toe-to-toe with former Universal Champion, Finn Balor, and the crowd reacted to the tag like it was the best possible way to start the match-up. Balor and Nakamura know each other well from their days in Japan, but it seems that WWE has now realised that this could be another fantasy match for the future.

The company booked a fantasy match between Balor and AJ Styles at last month's TLC event when they were left with no replacement for Bray Wyatt, so it will be interesting to see if the company decide to book this match in the near future as well.

#4 John Cena and Triple H have no brand loyalty

John Cena will do anything to stand out
John Cena will do anything to stand out

John Cena was made part of the SmackDown Live team for Survivor Series just over a week ago, in what was a controversial choice for Commissioner Shane McMahon. The last time Cena was seen on WWE TV, he was part of Monday Night Raw and it seems that the former World Champion refused to show any kind of brand loyalty last night.

John Cena and Triple H were the only two men in the match who didn't wear a SmackDown or Raw shirt to show which team they were representing. Every other member of the team was dressed in either red or blue with their team's shirt.

Cena stood out all the way through the match as the only star not wearing his team's colours and it seems that this could lead to him returning to Raw in the future and then claiming that he was never actually loyal to the SmackDown brand.

There is no other reason why Cena didn't put on the blue shirt unless he really wanted to promote his own shirt over the importance of the match, which doesn't bear thinking about.

#3 Was WWE's main roster making a statement?

Was there a deeper meaning to the match last night?
Was there a deeper meaning to the elimination order last night?

Whilst every member of the watching audience saw that Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode and Samoa Joe were the first three participants in the tag team match who were eliminated, it seems that it has been pointed out that there could have been a method in WWE's madness here.

Finn Balor was also the second man eliminated for team Raw after SmackDown had already had John Cena eliminated, so he could also be added to the mix here as well.

The one thing these four men have in common is the fact that they are all former NXT Champions, and are all the most recent Champions as well. It seems that WWE could have been making a point here about how annoyed they were about NXT: Takeover once again upstaging the main roster with their War Games event on Saturday night.

WWE is known to sometimes lower themselves to this level of petty behaviour, so even though it does seem a little bit too far for a global recognisable company, it could have been completely intended in the way it was presented.

#2 John Cena buried the Coup De Grace

John Cena took a Coup De Grace from Finn Balor in last night's main event
John Cena took a Coup De Grace from Finn Balor in last night's main event

John Cena was already a controversial addition to the traditional Survivor Series Elimination match last night and it seems that the 16-time World Champion has managed to anger a number of WWE fans following his involvement in the match because he took Finn Balor's Coup De Grace and stood back up.

The move has kept many full-time members of the WWE locker room down and was the move that made him the inaugural Universal Champion back at SummerSlam in 2016. But it seems that Cena once again had to prove that a finisher isn't really a finisher in a match against him.

Cena stood up after the move and then took an Angle Slam before he was finally eliminated, in what many of the WWE Universe have claimed was definitely overkill for a part-time superstar.

#1 Triple H putting over the talent that he created

Triple H put over both Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura
Triple H put over both Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura

Triple H becoming the final addition to this match on the Raw side, which came as quite a shock, because it has become well-known now both on and off-screen that he is the brains behind NXT, and he would be forced to go up against a number of stars that he created at Full Sail University.

Not only did The Game do a fantastic job of setting up a match between himself and Kurt Angle in the future, but he also put over many of the stars that see him as their mentor. Triple H tagged in early in the match to attempt to neutralise Nakamura but failed before going head to head with Bobby Roode, and The Glorious One was able to show The King Of Kings why he was trusted with the NXT Championship.

It could also be argued that Triple H also put over Braun Strowman, who started out his career in NXT as a rosebud for Adam Rose. It seems that Triple H came back to plant seeds for a rivalry with Kurt Angle, but in the process, he was able to put over some of WWE's next top stars who have him to thank for taking a gamble on them and bringing them to the company, to begin with.

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Edited by Nishant Jayaram
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