What a night. What a fight.
Survivor Series 2016 ended up being one hell of a show, one that even left casual fans marking out at the end with the Goldberg-Lesnar match. The night was a lot more focused on wrestling than WWE shows usually are and it worked. The live crowd was hot throughout with WWE booking the night to perfection.
We all went into the night with certain expectations and some idea of who would win and the order of the eliminations. However, WWE blew us all out of the water and most of the night was full of surprises – one after the other – from small ones like Baron Corbin interfering to the huge mark out moment of the night when Goldberg destroyed ‘The Beast’ Brock Lesnar.
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With Royal Rumble season around the corner, results from tonight will go quite a way into shaping the road to Wrestlemania and with that in mind, let’s take a look at the winners and losers from Survivor Series.
LOSERS
4: The Cruiserweight Division
To be fair to Kalisto and Brian Kendrick, their match was excellent. However, it was ruined when Baron Corbin interfered near the end, almost for no reason, to cost Kalisto the match and hand Kendrick the win by DQ.
The Cruiserweight Division has failed to light up Raw and the first new WWE Cruiserweight Champion, TJ Perkins’ run with the belt was brief and extremely disappointing. Perkins was on fire during the WWE Cruiserweight Classic but his time on the main roster was lackluster at best.
Kendrick beat Perkins last month to win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship and although his veteran heel presence has helped, ending crucial PPV matches with mindless DQ finishes makes both Kendrick and the Cruiserweight Division look weak.
3: Sasha Banks
Sasha Banks put in a good performance during the 5-on-5 women’s Survivor Series match but her early elimination means that she made the unfortunate half of this list.
Sasha headlined Hell In A Cell along with Charlotte last month only to be the 4th woman eliminated last night during Survivor Series. She was attempting a Back Stabber on Natalya when, thanks to help from Alexa Bliss, Natalya rolled her up and eliminated her.
Both Sasha and the live crowd looked shocked at her early elimination.
2: The New Day
The New Day may be on the way to becoming the longest reigning WWE Tag-Team Champions of all time but they had a terrible night in Toronto. Not only did they come out to a near non-existent reaction from the crowd, they also did almost nothing in the match.
Kofi did play a part in eliminating Fandango but he got superkicked seconds later with New Day getting eliminated less than a minute into the match.
Did Big E do anything? Don’t think he had the chance.
1: Brock Lesnar
New Day are lucky. No one will remember their tragic elimination thanks to the main event.
Brock Lesnar faced Goldberg in what was supposed to be a match for the ages, only to be beaten in under two minutes by a man more than a decade his senior.
Goldberg rocked Lesnar early with a Spear before hitting him with another as he proceeded to get up. Paul Heyman’s face told the story as Goldberg lifted Lesnar and hit his patented Jackhammer to pull off the win. A terrible night for the former WWE, NJPW and UFC champion. One that he’ll want to forget as soon as possible.
WINNERS
4: Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyatt has been a victim of his booking for the last couple of years. From losing big matches to losing to veterans like Kane for no reason, Wyatt could have been a much bigger star today had it not been for eating so many pinfalls.
However, Wyatt was booked to perfection last night along with his new ‘follower’ Randy Orton. Wyatt and Orton stood unbeaten and tall for Team SmackDown as they beat Team Raw in the 5-on-5 elimination match.
Wyatt even did the honours of finishing off Roman Reigns with a Sister Abigail to pick up the final elimination for his side. Wyatt and his family hasn’t looked this strong in years and I hope this storyline with Orton as part of the family continues, at least for a while.
3: Braun Strowman
When Braun Strowman started his squash matches on WWE Raw after the draft, fans criticised the angle saying it was a push designed to hide his greenness in squash matches.
However, after last night, WWE fans have to agree that Strowman’s push has worked. Strowman not only came off as a threat last night, he came off as Team Raw’s secret weapon. Strowman had an incredible match, taking out several members of Team SmackDown and came out looking as an almost unstoppable force.
His elimination came after Randy Orton RKO-d him on the announce table, followed by a flying elbow drop from Shane McMahon. In fact, Strowman would have probably beat the 10-count if it hadn’t been for James Ellsworth who grabbed onto Strowman’s foot as he attempted to re-enter the ring.
2: The Miz
The Miz has really come into his own since Maryse joined him on the Raw after Wrestlemania. Together, WWE’s resident Bonnie and Clyde, have risen to the top of SmackDown Live’s card with Maryse helping her husband retain the Intercontinental Championship on a number of occasions, including helping him win it back from Dolph Ziggler last week on SmackDown 900.
Going into Survivor Series, no one expected the Miz to retain his championship with many speculating that Miz had only won the title back so that Zayn could win it from a heel. However, that wasn’t the case as Miz beat Zayn with a roll-up after a massive distraction from his wife.
If Miz continues at this rate, could he get elevated to the blue brand’s main event scene soon?
1: Goldberg
Without a doubt, the biggest winner from Survivor Series was Goldberg. Goldberg demolished Brock Lesnar in the main event in under two minutes with two Spears and a Jackhammer.
Goldberg’s return to the WWE has been a fairytale so far and it looks like this won’t be the last we’ll see of Goldberg with a spot in the Royal Rumble match a distinct possibility.
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