12 WWE Survivor Series 2017 Impulse Reactions

9. Flawed Genius

Triple H Shane McMahon
WWE.com

The five-on-five Women's Survivor Series match looked on paper to be one of the night's biggest disappointments, not least as fans continue to nervously anticipate the company's mishandling of Asuka. Even including her in the match raised eyebrows from those that rightfully believed that the 'Empress Of Tomorrow' shouldn't be anywhere near Raw's horribly booked rank-and-file. And as it turned out, she wasn't.

Imperfectly perfect, the teams raised their games to tell a Survivor Series story Dads (including this one) could be proud of.

The match wasn't without botches. Alicia Fox and Naomi mangled...something that clouded their eliminations, and Nia Jax still isn't good at everything she should be, but the rest of the field were excellent in the small doses they were afforded. Spunky captain Becky Lynch was toppled early by her old mucker Bayley. 'The Hugger' herself faced an early bath, drawing shock (and possible frustration?) from bessie mate Sasha Banks. Normally duck-egg wallpaper on SmackDown Live!, Tamina was taking no sh*t as a one-night killer there to be eventually killed by Raw's deadliest weapon. These were brilliant character-based moments the Survivor Series used to be such a good vehicle for before agents got lazy with the gimmick.

And most importantly, the doubters were silenced for a night. Asuka looked awesome in victory, the best in class, exactly as she should. The whole spectacle was a resounding success.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett