10 Terrible Booking Decisions From WWE Survivor Series 2016
A fun show with some horrible decision-making behind it.
If the job of a wrestling company is to create memorable moments that leave your jaw on the floor, then WWE did just that with the 2016 edition of Survivor Series. What was once considered one of the promotion’s “Big Four” has fallen to the wayside in years past, eclipsed in importance by shows such as TLC and Money in the Bank. Not so this time round.
This year’s show featured the gimmick of having the two competing rosters of Raw and SmackDown facing off against each other for brand supremacy. Three elimination matches between the best each show had to offer would decide who came out on top in the first year of the brand split.
Raw won the night 2-1, with both the tag team and women’s matches going their way while the men’s singles bout saw the SD competitors come out on top. But the real main event of the night was Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg in a rematch from WrestleMania XX.
While last year’s Survivor Series was one of the worst WWE shows in recent memory, this one was better on many levels but ended with one of the most bizarre booking decisions the company has EVER made. In fact, the entire night was littered with many such questionable choices. Let’s dive into those right now.
10. Goldberg Squashing Brock Lesnar
We’ve got to get this one out of the way because it is the biggest WTF moment in wrestling since… actually there may not be a bigger one. In the lead up to the match fans had braced for the inevitable bout that was to come. Goldberg hadn’t wrestled in nearly two decades, Brock isn’t exactly a performer capable of carrying someone, and their styles are far too similar to create a visual contrast.
We expected WWE to work some magic and try to get around the obvious limitations, but no one single observer on the planet believed WWE would have Goldberg squash The Beast in a minute flat without allowing him to get any offence in.
There are rumors of a rematch and Goldberg has now been signed to appear at the Royal Rumble, but none of that matters. The visual of the unstoppable monster that WWE invested nearly years in has now been shattered. Presumably the goal was to have someone finally vanquish Lesnar and become a megastar in the process. I sincerely doubt the idea was for that rub to go to a 50-year old guy who hasn’t wrestled in years, who left the company on bad terms and won’t be good for much more than a nostalgia pop.
So where do they go from here with Brock? The magic of having one of the younger guys – AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Finn Bálor – come along and beat him is done. Over with. There’s no getting that back. And something tells me WWE is going to massively regret it. All for a brief “WTF” reaction at the end of an insignificant pay-per-view.