WWE Survivor Series 2016: 10 Reasons To Be Concerned
Suplex Sh*tty.
Survivor Series 2016 is hardly an exciting proposition. As it stands, it more closely resembles Bragging Rights, with the forced and stakes-free insertion of a RAW Vs. SmackDown rivalry, than it indicates a winning return to the formula of old.
While it does bear remembering that those classic elimination matches of the event's late eighties heyday did not require stipulations to carry them, fans have been spoiled in the interim. The 2001 event decided the fate of the very company. The 2003 iteration deftly incorporated several RAW stars into a choice overarching storyline. Everybody had a reason to be there. Nobody fell clumsily from a ring apron to make way for a non-wrestler to take their place. The Survivor Series event has lost its lustre precisely because subsequent elimination matches have been rendered inconsequential in comparison.
The trite storyline justification for this year's elimination matches - a petty game of sibling oneupmanship, essentially - could be excused, had the brand extension been in play long enough for it to feel like a novelty. But of all the possible mini-matches, in the men's singles elimination bout in particular, not one comes close to the promise of Shawn Michaels Vs. Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 21.
But hey, the show is scheduled to run for six hours, so it must be special...
10. It's Six Hours Long
Six hours is a long time. Even WrestleMania 32 - the main portion of which overran - could not withstand the epic duration. WWE didn't help themselves by prolonging Shane McMahon's obvious Hell In A Cell stunt with fifteen minutes of unnecessary and incongruous MMA-influenced filler, but irrespective of that, it was just far too long.
On paper, the SummerSlam 2016 card was miles more appealing than Survivor Series, and even that was a chore to sit through. Never has there been more WWE action on TV - extending the length of its Big Four Pay Per Views is absolute madness in a wrestling landscape littered by overexposure. It's as if Vince McMahon has finally gone full troll. The only answer to too much wrestling is MORE WRESTLING!
It's pure laziness on WWE's part. WWE are asking fans to infer Survivor Series as a "Big Four" Pay Per View event purely because of the marathon run time, when they'd be best served promoting it as something unmissable themselves.
It's hard to even gauge how they'll fill the time, especially since Goldberg Vs. Brock Lesnar likely won't exceed ten minutes. Just how long is that ten-team tag match going to be?