10 Things WWE Regrets About Survivor Series
6. Devaluing The Very Concept
WWE and autumn go together like fish and red wine: a fine ingredient ruined with a acidic aftertaste of retconned booking and a spate of joyless, cheap, and unsatisfactory finishes.
Chief Strategy & Financial Officer George Barrios simply accepts it as part of the WWE package. He knows WWE underperforms as WrestleMania is at its furthest away - but the absence of a genuinely unmissable attraction between SummerSlam and Royal Rumble is as to blame as the natural lull. Is "natural" even an appropriate descriptor? Wrestling is a work. WWE should force the audience to care all-year 'round, with absorbing storylines (that end as well as they begin, unlike Brock Lesnar Vs. Braun Strowman) - especially when they don't grant performers a much-needed offseason.
Survivor Series 2017 isn't a genuinely unmissable attraction. The inter-brand title bouts are underwhelming in the extreme. This year's male traditional elimination match is going to be awesome - but the weeks of leaps in logic just to get there probably aren't worth 50 minutes of excitement.
Here's hoping WarGames is a dry run for the main stage - or at least is so good that the demand becomes unavoidable - because we need something to anticipate in the now-dreaded cold months.