WWE Survivor Series 2018: Star Ratings For All 8 Matches

The build to this year's Survivor Series was very strange.

Since Braun Strowman destroyed and or castrated the entire RAW Tag Team division on the go-home show, the 20-man Tag Team elimination match became less a match to determine which brand boasts the best division, but rather a contest in which The Colóns were the fifth-most protected tag team out of 10. That’s ‘The Colóns’, who had wrestled literally once on camera all year.

Seth Rollins more or less told us all that he didn’t have time to worry about his match with Shinsuke Nakamura, which either telegraphed Dean Ambrose’s run-in or reflected creative’s apathetic approach to the match. At least The Miz found time to cut a promo in his car, Seth.

Tamina Snuka, and this ruined any immersion in the brand warfare premise, not that anybody gives a toss about that, entered the Women’s match having represented and felt a loyalty towards RAW for...just over a month. Tamina Snuka also entered the Women’s match at the expense of Bayley and Sasha Banks. Or she had; both entered the match on the night, because we’re balls-deep in utter chaos right now.

WWE engineered a rare, must-see, this-is-going-to-be-f*cking-awesome level of hype—and it was born from an accidental botch and what was, if only on principle, a mind-boggling heel turn.

Again: strange old build. But was the show itself f*cking awesome?

Yes.

Yes it was.

It is impossible to care about Epico Colon. Confronted with a man not particularly intimidating, Kalisto botched a handstand spot, especially glaring, since he was showing off, and then he seemed to tweak his knee. If this wasn’t a shoot, it was an ugly and confusing work. Brilliantly, Xavier Woods called on Epico to sweep the leg.

We were in so-bad-it’s-good territory mere moments after the opening bell.

Kalisto did marginally better lucha things, injured knee and all, before the Colons and the B-Team were ejected in short order as the fodder they are. Reminder that one of these fodder teams reigned with the Tag Tram Titles earlier this year. Chad Gable attempted to pin Eric Young—genuinely forgot his name, typing that—before realising he wasn’t the legal man.

This was a right bloody mess for a while, but as the field heightened in quality, so did the action. Chad Gable’s Chaos Theory on Big E (!) looked incredible, and we can only really pick out the moves because this was an unapologetic, substance-free spot-fest. Chad Gable German suplexed an Uso from the top turnbuckle to the outside. That was worth a quarter of a star alone.

This was damn entertaining by the finish, but as became clear on the main show, the filler match was literally meaningless: it didn’t even count towards the score!

Star Rating: ***1/4