7 Match Star Ratings For WWE Survivor Series 2020
2. Women's Traditional 5-On-5 Elimination Match
An uneven match that, to its credit, tried to play with the subplots that the genre enables, it wasn't great and it rested on a visual gag to its overall detriment.
The omni-f*cked mechanics that plague WWE undid what was, in theory, good or at least progressive. The big-star-gets-eliminated-first trope isn't a bad story to tell, but it's not as if Peyton Royce is getting the big push on the back of it. WWE's general directionless apathy meant it lacked any gravity. It will mean nothing, so it meant little.
There's an arbitrary quality to how Shayna Baszler is booked in these tag scenarios - the theoretical submission killer will passively eat chains of offence or even visual pins - that underscores how thoughtless and random so much of WWE's output is. When WWE "protected" her with a DQ finish, it didn't much resonate as a cue to continue taking her seriously because they don't.
Some might argue that this is blanket jaded thinking that should not overwhelm the analysis of a match in isolation. But it all matters, and if you pay attention, you are invariably punished. The match wasn't worked particularly well enough to allow you to switch off and get swept up. It was hard, for example, to bemoan the state of tag team wrestling in WWE when the New Day and the Street Profits stole the show.
An unfocused and forgettable match, the quality and excitement heightened considerably when Bianca Belair realised her athletic doyen persona wonderfully in the closing stretch. She looked awesome.
And then she was counted out to enable the sight gag that was Lana, passenger, standing victorious having done nothing.
Good.
Good babyface characteristic.
You know, AEW gets sh*t for its treatment of women, but WWE would never dream of booking a finish like this in a men's match.
Star Rating: ★★¼