10 Dream Survivor Series Matches That Should Have Happened

5. Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown

In 2005, fans of WWE watched this very match unfold before their eyes at the Survivor Series event. On that night, Randy Orton was the sole survivor for the third consecutive year, pinning Shawn Michaels to pick up the win for the blue brand. As much fun as that match may have been, however, it came at a time when Raw and SmackDown no longer had different identities. There was a time, shortly after the brand extension of 2002, in which Raw and SmackDown were two entirely different shows. Raw was very sports-entertainment heavy, with absurd storylines trumping the actual in-ring content of the show, while SmackDown was all about the wrestling, with story mixed in for good measure. Raw had the focus and attention of Vince and Stephanie McMahon and Brian Gewirtz while SmackDown was Paul Heyman's baby, and it showed. The latter was clearly the superior show, combining all of the elements that make for a superb product and as a result, SmackDown became more popular than Raw. No, really. As shown in the 2014 DVD release "Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name is Paul Heyman," SmackDown actually began beating Raw in terms of viewership, meaning more people subscribed to and appreciated Heyman's booking philosophies than those of the McMahons and Gewirtz. Unfortunately, fans were never treated to a battle of the brands, likely because those in power were content with letting the shows build their own identities rather than rushing them into war with one another. Now, some twelve years after witnessing the rise of SmackDown, one cannot help but wonder what would have happened if the two brands took to the ring for a high profile match three years earlier than the contest that unfolded in 2005. Who would have made up the teams? Well, Raw's most dominant stars consisted of Triple H, Chris Jericho, Booker T, Kane and Rob Van Dam. The argument could be made for Shawn Michaels but he was still very much coming off his back injury at the time that this match would have taken place. SmackDown would have featured the likes of Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar putting their differences aside to wage war with the brand valued more by management than their own. Would the technical wrestling of Angle, Benoit and Guerrero and the sheer power and brute force of Lesnar and Undertaker be enough to overcome the cerebral nature of Triple H and the drive and determination of Jericho, RVD and Booker? The more important question is whether The Game would be able to prevent his team from falling apart, especially considering the fact that he spent months making the lives of his partners a living hell in 2002.