Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Triple Threat from Smark Out Moment, where three of us get together to discuss three questions based on one big topic going down in the week of professional wrestling.

This week, Robert DeFelice, Jordan Chaffiotte, and Callum Wiggins will be giving their thoughts on all that transpired at this year's Survivor Series.

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Raw swept SmackDown if you don't like tag teams. So, what happens now? Let's discus...


WIGGINS: For the match alone and not any shenanigans surrounding it, the best match, in my opinion, was Brock Lesnar vs Daniel Bryan. A fitting main event to a strong night of wrestling, it demonstrated not only that Bryan is one of the best wrestlers in the world, but that Lesnar is right up there with him when he's motivated and in an intriguing contest.

There were several good matches that also deserve credit, especially Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte Flair and Buddy Murphy vs Mustafa Ali. But I think for the sheer storytelling, the epic nature of Daniel Bryan's comeback and the novelty of this being likely the only time we will ever see this match, Lesnar vs Bryan lived up to the hype and then some.

CHAFFIOTTE: I was generally pretty impressed with Survivor Series from an in-ring perspective. Most of the matches had really good plotting and some great spots. My favorite, obviously, was Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey. It was probably Ronda's best performance both as a wrestler and a performer. Charlotte absolutely could carry her opponent but it didn't feel like that. I love it when the ladies put on harder hitting matches than most of the men.

Charlotte's so much more fun as a heel, you can tell she knows she's not relatable but gets the heel persona. Ronda's had that beating coming for a while as far as I'm concerned. It's interesting to me that even with her out with injury, this program is still so much about her. This was the best move considering and I'm willing to wait and see what they do next before judging this turn. I'm excited to see the effect it has on the dynamic between Charlotte and Becky.

DeFELICE: SFor me, it was definitely the Daniel Bryan vs Brock Lesnar match. It was a great match that went from a one-sided beatdown to a very competitive bout in which Brock Lesnar sold like a champ. Echoing the sentiments of Callum, it's always fun to see Lesnar in a match where he's actually motivated. The amount of offense that Brock Lesnar allowed Daniel Bryan to get on him speaks to the respect that Brock Lesnar has for Daniel Bryan and Daniel Bryan’s ability as a performer.

The story of this match was then accentuated by Daniel Bryan's wonderful promo on Smackdown where he declared that he actually won the match against Brock Lesnar because he allowed Brock Lesnar to beat whatever was left of the ‘old’ Daniel Bryan out of him. A wonderful story, much like the story last year between Brock Lesnar and AJ Styles, and I hope that one day we get to see the two of them dance again.

Honorable mention goes to the Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey match. This was a great contest while it lasted and I really enjoyed the story that came out of it. A lot of people feel like this is just WWE trying to force Charlotte Flair into a Twitter role because they see how well it works for Becky Lynch, but I think that everybody having a little bit of edge in the women's division isn't the worst thing and will actually enhance the stories going forward.


DeFELICE: ow that I have had some time to digest WWE Survivor Series and two episodes of Raw and SmackDown each, I feel bad but I'm looking forward to the most is for Monday Night Raw to lose the Baron Corbin GM storyline, and I'm very interested to see how the women's division shakes up by WrestleMania, because we have a lot of intertwining angles still between the Raw and SmackDown divisions.

However, I really think I'm looking forward to learning what direction they will go in with Daniel Bryan for WrestleMania. Daniel Bryan is completely dedicated to the angle that he is a new man, and now I think that it leaves the door open for a lot of interesting challenges for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania, should Daniel Bryan hold it the whole way through. How good would Daniel Bryan vs John Cena be with this new version of Daniel Bryan? What about Daniel Bryan facing Royal Rumble winner Finn Balor in a contest where both men are driven by indulging their inner demons? The possibilities are endless, and the intrigue for me is running at a maximum high.

WIGGINS: IThe odd thing about Survivor Series is there doesn't need to be a lot of storyline progression, as it's just one brand against the other. And while I enjoyed the show itself and it had many good matches, it hasn't added any excitement to any of the feuds WWE appears to be building up. And that feeling has grown immensely after the following episodes of Raw and SmackDown.

The Ronda Rousey/Charlotte Flair angle was a great moment, but that's all it was - Rousey was squashing Mickie James the night after no-selling her injuries, while the thought that WWE is trying to transfer Becky Lynch's heat onto Flair is a recipe for disaster. Flair needed a change in character, but she won't be able to take Lynch's place.

Meanwhile, Braun Strowman's build has been unnecessarily muddled, the nature of the Nia Jax push is pretty stomach-churning to watch, there's little on the horizon it seems for any of SmackDown's championships, and there was no follow-up to SmackDown being swept. So, I think we'll look back on Survivor Series 2018 as a night of fun moments that meant nothing the night after.

CHAFFIOTTE: It's gotta be Daniel Bryan as a heel champion for me. I came into wrestling in 2013, Bryan was my first favorite wrestler, and his retirement was heartbreaking to me. Seeing him back has been great but there was something missing. He wasn't at that same peak as WrestleMania 30, maybe he never will be again. Leaning into it and turning him heel is such a gutsy move, I love seeing that boldness from WWE. I've found it to be a lot more believable than I would've expected. That speaks to Bryan's ability as a performer, I have no doubt that he designed this character himself. Not to mention, turning "fight for your dreams and your dreams will fight for you" into a heel catchphrase is genius.

It's got to be him vs the Miz at WrestleMania, right? I never would've imagined that we would be looking at the Miz as the face against Daniel Bryan, but Miz and Mrs. has really changed my opinion of him. If they push the guy we see on that show, the workhorse who is one of the most decorated wrestlers in the company, I'd buy into it.


CHAFIOTTE: 6-and-1. It's nice to see WWE admitting they don't care about tag teams. I thought the whole concept of the sweep was kind of dumb, especially looking at those Survivor Series 5-on-5 teams. SmackDown clearly put together better teams than Raw did. Honestly, I buy into the rumors that they will end the brand split in October when SmackDown goes to Fox. So none of this actually matters.

DeFELICE: I believe what surprised me the most is the lack of any type of capitalization on this whole issue. Shane McMahon just kind of shrugged it off and that to me is a mistake. There are rumors that they're just holding off until the new year because this will come into play for Shane by WrestleMania, but I kinda don't think that people will even care by that point.

The popular rumor and innuendo suggest that when SmackDown moves to Fox, the network is only interested in the SmackDown brand and does not want to co-promote anything about Monday Night Raw. This gives me hope for the Brand's foot as that is truly what a brand split is and can create some interesting developments going forward.

WIGGINS: Not really - it's not like I get surprised at this point that they treat Raw as the superior brand. I was probably churlish in hoping that it would lead to some storyline development on SmackDown, but I guess at this point I should stop making that mistake.

At the end of the day, while I consider myself a SmackDown fan due to my own personal history watching the show growing up, I don't really get invested or emotional about either main roster show at this point to have an opinion on them. So Survivor Series didn't hurt my opinion of the SmackDown brand, rather it reinforced my belief that neither show nor anyone on them, really matter in the grand scheme of things.