5 Ups & 9 Downs From WWE Survivor Series 2021

6. Brand Supremacy Gets Shafted

AJ Styles
WWE.com

After listening to all the chatter from announcers and authority figures talking up the importance of Raw and SmackDown establishing “brand supremacy,” and after Adam Pearce removed both Mysterios from Team Raw to give them a better chance of winning, what did it add up to on PPV?

NOTHING.

The announcers and authority figures didn’t mention once how Raw was on pace for a clean sweep (during the main PPV) until the main event. It never factored into the narrative how Raw won everything, including the battle royal, up until Roman Reigns toppled Big E. If you were keeping score, Raw won 5-1, 5-2 if you counted the kickoff show match.

Like it or not, WWE has made Survivor Series all about which brand wins more matches and looks stronger. Pearce even mentioned Raw’s clean sweep last year in the lead-up to the PPV.

But instead, the focus was on the damn egg. What an incredible company.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.