For the first Survivor Series of the brand split, we were lucky enough to get an absolutely fantastic Survivor Series match. Featuring the biggest names from both brands and Shane McMahon, WWE put its whole weight behind the build for this contest. The segments leading up to the match created genuine tension between the brands and excitement among the audience.<\/p>\n
Clocking in at a staggering 52 minutes, this was a saga of a match, but one that was necessary. There were no quick eliminations in this match, with the first taking place 16 minutes into the contest. This match took its time, allowing each participant to look strong in the process. There was some great back-and-forth action throughout the contest. There was chemistry on both sides of the ring, and it made for perhaps the most entertaining of Survivor Series matches.<\/p>\n
Having Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt go over was the cherry on top here. It was an unexpected and welcome twist to a great match. One that had a main event program gained a lot of steam heading into WrestleMania.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Brock Lesnar was not exactly known for having long matches. He was a sprint rather than a marathon competitor, and only when he was given the right opponent would greatness occur.<\/p>\n The larger wrestlers couldn\u2019t bump for him as the smaller ones could. Which is exactly why his Champion vs Champion tilt against A.J. Styles was such an entertaining affair.<\/p>\n Anything that Styles touches is going to turn to gold. He is one of the best wrestlers on the planet and could drag a good match out of a broomstick if motivated enough. Luckily, Brock Lesnar was no broomstick and was more than capable of putting in the work.<\/p>\n He and Styles put together a tight 15 minutes, seeing the Phenomenal One work on the legs of The Beast. A move that nearly saw him take the victory, but it was the power of Brock Lesnar that shone through.<\/p>\n At this point in Brock Lesnar’s career, the victory was almost a sure thing, but the journey that he and A.J. Styles took to get there was the best match of either man’s WWE tenure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first few years of the brand split saw only Raw and SmackDown getting the chance to establish their dominance. After 3 years, NXT, WWE\u2019s newest brand, decided that it was time to throw its hat into the ring. It gave us a card filled with 3-way dances and a card that produced one of the best triple threats in WWE history.<\/p>\n Becky Lynch, Bayley, and Shayna Baszler worked similar styles but varied enough to keep the action exciting from start to finish. Becky Lynch and Bayley had history in spades, but this was the first time that all three women had shared the ring. All three were at the height of their characters, and this was as big a match as could be promoted.<\/p>\n It was a grand time watching them struggle not for their brands but for their own egos.<\/p>\n When all was said and done, Baszler was the one to walk away victorious. It made sense as she was utterly dominant on the black and gold brand and needed to remain that way in our eyes. Any of the three women would have made a great choice. It was a great choice to main event the first and only time NXT entered Survivor Series.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seeing these two men in the ring was never going to surprise anyone, but what did was the dynamic that was presented. A few weeks prior, Daniel Bryan shocked the world by turning heel to win the WWE Championship, a move that no one thought possible. It was also a shift that led to the rare heel versus heel contest that main evented the evening.<\/p>\n As with the A.J. Styles match, this was going to be one where Bryan would try to avoid the sheer power of Brock Lesnar. The Beast dominated the early going, to no one\u2019s surprise, and it appeared to be a squash. That was until Bryan resorted to the low blow to gain the advantage.<\/p>\n The crowd was locked in the entire time, especially when Daniel Bryan moved to the ground game, nailing the Beast with his running knee. It was a masterstroke to have the crowd believe, even for a short period, that Bryan was going to win the match. The match was formulaic, but if it isn\u2019t broke, there is no need to fix it.<\/p>\n Very few times does an all-heel match work as well as this one did. It was a shame that Bryan and Lesnar weren\u2019t given more chances to entertain the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The mid-card scene was on point in 2018. The names were just as big as the main event players, and judging from this banger of a contest, their matches were just as great. Shinsuke Nakamura and Seth Rollins were the epitome of what these divisions were.<\/p>\n Big names who would always show up when the bright lights were on, and none were brighter than the Survivor Series.<\/p>\n This match was a slow burn that crescendoed into a furious ending. The feeling-out process took some time, but it highlighted storytelling over action. There was a game of one-upmanship about, and both men wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n It was great to see them start with some basic wrestling that leads into the second act. There was a fantastic understanding of how to build toward the end, and nothing was slow enough to lose the crowd.<\/p>\n When we moved into the finale, there were a few false finishes that felt legit. Nakamura and Rollins were evenly matched, and WWE could have gone either way with the winner. The crowd was into it, and the audience at home was into it. This is a hidden gem in the annals of Survivor Series.<\/p>\n More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0for more on WWE Survivor Series: WarGames and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the significant news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Main Event, as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WWE Survivor Series has experienced many changes in its storied history. It began with your traditional 5-on-5 elimination matches. That gimmick stuck for years before the format began to change. Every type of match was used for the show, and when WWE leaned into its 2016 brand split, the format changed once again. Wanting to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":147029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7205,25,26,4,5,3],"tags":[8701],"class_list":["post-147026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-raw","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-nxt","category-wwe-universe","tag-wwe-survivor-series"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147026"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147030,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147026\/revisions\/147030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/11\/22-39-1024x577.jpg\")
Brock Lesnar vs AJ Styles (Survivor Series 2017) <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Becky Lynch vs Shayna Baszler vs Bayley (Survivor Series 2019) <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Brock Lesnar vs Daniel Bryan (Survivor Series 2018)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Seth Rollins vs Shinsuke Nakamura (Survivor Series 2018) <\/strong><\/h2>\n