12 WWE Survivor Series 2017 Impulse Reactions
It's good, but it's not The One
The 31st edition of the November tradition had the makings of being one of the best ever WWE pay-per-views after an explosive month. Especially when an even more explosive McMahon dropped bombs on original plans.
When Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt were replaced by Kurt Angle and AJ Styles respectively just 48 hours before October's Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view, the seismic adjustments had a once-in-a-generation feel to them. As it turned out, WWE would pattern their next four week's worth of television on the shock and awe.
Initially announcing Champion Vs Champion matches to feed into the broader Raw Vs SmackDown Live! arc, the company then switched all bar one of them through frantic title changes. Elsewhere, red and blue men and women's elimination teams were assembled for five-on-five wars. Then retooled and reshaped in the final week before the show.
It was disorder unlike any build-up in recent memory, and it manifested itself in the company generating rare unmissable air it so often craves. The actual quality of the show would quickly determine if WWE could keep said momentum over the notoriously difficult festive period though.
Already running short on goodwill with audiences after their announcement that Raw will go live on Christmas Day, the company must provide the type of television that will make fans want to slip away from family festivities to indulge in some Monday Night madness. Their own Thanksgiving spectacular suggested they might have just enough of the winning formula to do so.
12. Red Vs. Blue
There was much to criticise about the way WWE went about kicking off inter-brand hostilities on the post-Tables, Ladders and Chairs edition of Monday Night Raw. It was bad enough that '#UnderSiege' seemed as much about selling a slogan you could shove on a purple t-shirt if you couldn't decide between Red and Blue, but SmackDown Live!'s raid of the Raw locker-room overspilled in sizzle without so much as a sliver of steak.
Though no motivation was ever established for why exactly Shane McMahon's sapphire squad were so willing to die for such a legless cause, it at least promised a ruby Tuesday for 'The Boy Wonder's brand when Kurt Angle eventually elected to return fire.
With the title matches already locked in based on whomever happened to be holding the belts at the time, the Red/Blue chasm was resultantly strong enough to build the show around from the off. With a ludicrous five-man commentary booth, vibrant contest graphics that looked like trading cards and a post-match scoreboard, WWE went all out to preserve the thin veneer of brand warfare for the night.
Wrestlers themselves got in on the act too, with some outstanding and outlandish gear choices to put over their position for the night. Special praise must be afforded to Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Bálor for their luxurious blue and red variants that were right out of a PlayStation 2 game's alternative attire menu. It was a slight shame not everybody got the memo...