On a card designed to prove brand supremacy, we get The Usos vs Sheamus and Cesaro, in a battle between the SmackDown Live tag team champions and Raw tag champs respectively. Just two weeks prior, the match was scheduled to have Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins representing Raw, but on November 6th, The Bar captured their third Raw tag team titles thanks to a distraction from The New Day.
The match features two very different tag teams. At least in how they formed. The Usos are twin brothers who have never had any sort of real singles careers. A staple of WWE’s tag division for the 2010’s, Jimmy and Jey are five time tag team champions. One of those reigns was ended by Cesaro and his partner at the time, Tyson Kidd. The brothers are coming fresh off of a great feud with The New Day.
Sheamus and Cesaro, on the other hand, were just floating around the upper/mid card with nothing really going on. After the two tied in a best of seven series, they were put together as a tag team. Originally playing the classic “odd couple” role, Cesaro and Sheamus showed up at the same bar during the first Raw after last year’s Survivor Series. Though the two were originally there to celebrate never having to team up again, a brawl broke out. The Bar were brought together through a mutual hatred of xenophobia and enjoyment of fighting. Ever since, they have either been in the tag title picture or been used as the measuring stick. After all, they don’t raise the bar, they are The Bar.
When it comes to in-ring style, the two teams should put on an entertaining match. The Usos work at a fast pace, and have become more of a brawler duo since they changed from face-paint-Usos to Day-One-Ish-Usos. The Bar employ a very bruising, brawling style of offense. Both teams put on at least four-star matches in their last two pay per view appearances. The opponents each team faced in those matches are similar enough to their Survivor Series opponents that we can expect the same level of performance. On any other card, this would be right at the top of potential match of the night contenders. Unfortunately for these four men, the rest of the night looks like it was pulled straight from WWE 2K18. Still, there’s a chance that The Usos vs Sheamus and Cesaro is one of the matches everyone is talking about Monday morning.
So who wins this one? Sheamus and Cesaro were given this title reign to help move towards match between The New Day and The Shield. The Usos, on the other hand, have been running the SmackDown Live tag division so well that I can’t imagine they lose here. Add in the WWE wanting to keep things close between the two shows, and this match seems like a foregone conclusion. I’ve got Jimmy and Jey turning the Toyota Center into the Uso Penitentiary. Score one for team SmackDown Live.
