WWE Survivor Series 2018: Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan, Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair

Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/18/wwe-survivor-series-2018-brock-lesnar-vs-daniel-bryan-ronda-rousey-vs-charlotte-flair/

Welcome to POST Wrestling’s coverage of the Survivor Series from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Feedback can be posted on the POST Wrestling Forum.

Wai Ting and I will be doing a Survivor Series POST Show later tonight. If you are a Double Double, Iced Capp, or Espresso member of the POST Wrestling Café, you can log in right after the Survivor Series and watch our POST Show live.

The kickoff show featured Jonathan Coachman, Jerry Lawler, Beth Phoenix, and David Otunga on the panel.

In the locker room, Alexa Bliss was with the Raw women’s team and said they would beat SmackDown and humiliate them. Nia made a crack about what she did to Becky Lynch’s face. Ruby Riott mocked Natalya over Jim Neidhart’s sunglasses and Natalya attacked her. Alexa threatened to remove them from the team if they don’t get along.

Baron Corbin and Paige joined the panel and were interrupted by Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush. Rush said that Lashley was “art” and Michelangelo chiseled his pecs. Lawler legitimately cracked up Rush with a joke.

Charly Caruso interviewed Charlotte Flair about the match with Ronda Rousey, Charlotte said one-day social media loves her and the next hate her, “tonight isn’t about social media.” She said she is the only one that can hold up the four (fingers) because it’s her birthright. No one can lace her boots and event the baddest woman on the planet will bow down.

Naomi was with the women’s team in the locker room and R-Truth walked in pretending he’s the fifth member of the team. They explained he wasn’t a woman and complained about Naomi bringing science into this. Naomi then introduced Mandy Rose as the fifth member.

Drake Maverick was interviewed on the panel and was being asked questions as both the 205 Live commissioner and the heel manager on Raw. Jerry Lawler tried to crack a Hobbit joke and Maverick cut a promo on him. Some of these panel chats are just brutal and Maverick tried to take it seriously.


Booker T. replaced Lawler for the second hour of the kickoff show.

There was a promo that ran for Lars Sullivan and promoted that he was “coming soon”.

The New Day came out handing out blue pancakes. They cut a promo before the match with the audience booing mentions of Monday Night Raw. They introduced the SmackDown teams. Sanity looked silly wearing the blue SmackDown t-shirts like everyone else.

THE USOS, BIG E & XAVIER WOODS, KARL ANDERSON & LUKE GALLOWS, ERIC YOUNG & KILLIAN DANE & THE COLONS VS BOBBY ROODE & CHAD GABLE, THE REVIVAL, THE B TEAM, KALISTO LINCE DORADO & THE ASCENSION

Corey Graves believes The Ascension is “on the precipice of something great”, meaning Graves calls Raw, SmackDown and a third show no one else is watching with The Ascension.

Chad Gable said Team Raw is here and they were booed and would kick off Survivor Series with a win. The entire Raw team did the “Glorious” pose with Roode.

Kalisto looked like he tweaked his left knee early in the match, but he kept going. They worked the knee. Primo & Epico were eliminated after the Shatter Machine by the Revival. Then, it got so confusing as Dorado and Gran Metalik were on the apron and Metalik replaced Kalisto.

Anderson rolled up Bo Dallas with a schoolboy for the next elimination.

Gable hit a moonsault into a neck breaker by Roode onto Eric Young for the next elimination.

Woods lifted E onto his shoulders and he came off with a splash on top of Viktor to eliminate the Ascension, setting them back on their precipice of greatness.

Dorado countered the Magic Killer and then a chokeslam attempt by Gallows into a stunner. Dorado and Metalik hit stereo Asai moonsaults to Gallows & Anderson on the floor. Metalik pinned Anderson after a top rope Swanton and the audience booed the elimination.

Jimmy pressed Dorado into the air for a Samoan drop by Jey but it was very awkward and Dorado was pinned.

It was down to Roode & Gable & The Revival and The Usos & New Day.

E came in with several belly-to-belly suplexes to Dash Wilder. Gable was tagged in and hit the Chaos Theory to Big E. ending with a Roode neck breaker for a near fall.

Dawson hit a suicide dive, Woods with a dropkick through the ropes, Wilder hit a tornado DDT to Woods and then E speared Wilder off the apron to the floor. Roode back body dropped Gable to everyone on the floor. Roode teases a dive but was stopped with a superkick by Jey Uso.

Gable took Jimmy Uso and hit a German suplex off the top to everyone on the floor.

E caught a Gable moonsault and they hit Up Up Down Down to pin Gable.

Woods tried top rope elbow and launched him into a Shatter Machine and was eliminated by Wilder.

This left The Revival and The Usos.

The Revival hit the Power & Glory superplex and splash but Jey made the save.

The Usos hit several superkicks to both, Jimmy hit a splash while cocking his fist as a tribute to Roman Reigns and pinned Scott Dawson to win.

WINNERS: THE USOS AT 23:16

When it got down to an eight-man tag for the final ten minutes it turned into a strong match. This was a great showcase for a ton of guys that receive minimal television time and displayed how much talent can be found in this division.

Alexa Bliss said that Natalya and Ruby Riott were off the team and they would be replaced by Sasha Banks and Bayley.


CARMELLA, NAOMI, MANDY ROSE, SONYA DEVILLE & ASUKA VS NIA JAX, TAMINA, MICKIE JAMES, SASHA BANKS & BAYLEY

During Nia Jax’s entrance, she referred to her fist and is going to play up what she did to Becky Lynch. They are calling her the “Face Breaker”.

The whole arena started chanting for Becky Lynch at the beginning.

Everyone brawled and Tamina caught Naomi with a superkick for the first elimination in 1:30. Carmella immediately rolled up Tamina and she was out. Carmella started a dance break after pinning Tamina.

Rose came in and landed a flying knee to Jax.

Deville hit a sliding knee to Mickie James, Rose blind tagged in and stole the cover to eliminate James.

Carmella mocked Banks and then turned into the Bayley-to-belly for the next elimination.

Banks was tagged in and applied the Bank Statement to eliminate Rose.

Deville hit a terrible spine buster to Bayley, Jax saved and the audience booed Jax vociferously. Banks then came off the apron with a Meteora to Asuka on the floor.

Deville and Bayley fought on the floor, she hit a Bayley-to-belly and both were counted out.

Nia Jax and Sasha Banks remain on Raw and Asuka for SmackDown.

Asuka hit a German suplex onto Banks. Everyone cheered when Jax was hit with a hip attack and fell off the apron. These two were the highlight of the match thus far.

Nia Jax shoved Banks off the top and into Asuka Lock and Banks tapped out.

Jax hit a series of leg drops to Asuka and a Samoan drop to pin Asuka.

WINNER: NIA JAX AT 20:15

I didn’t think this was very good excluding the Sasha Banks and Asuka interaction near the end.

Nia Jax got lots of heat so, in a bizarre way, the Becky Lynch incident will help Jax as well and gets a strong heel primed for Ronda Rousey.

I thought there was a lot of sloppiness in the match and it was clear where some of the inexperienced women stand.

Stephanie McMahon was with Baron Corbin and called last Monday a black mark on his career. She wants Corbin to lead Raw to a clean sweep tonight, confirming that Stephanie didn’t bother watching the kickoff show. Shane McMahon and Paige entered, Corbin compared them to LeBron James and called them “overrated and overhyped” and made fun of AJ Styles and Becky Lynch being removed from the show.


SETH ROLLINS VS SHINSUKE NAKAMURA

Early on, Rollins did Nakamura’s mannerisms telling him to “come on” and stealing Rysuke Taguchi’s gimmick.

Nakamura took over after a kick to the face as Rollins attempted a dive to the floor.

Rollins dumped Nakamura over the top onto the edge of the apron on the way down. Rollins landed three consecutive suicide dives.

Nakamura hit Rollins with a running knee to the ribs in the corner. He tried for a rear-naked choke, Rollins escaped and hit a superkick that rocked Nakamura. They each took turns with big strikes onto the other. Nakamura countered a clothesline into an armbar and Nakamura applied a triangle and Rollins broke free with a buckle bomb.

Nakamura hit the Landslide for a two-count. Nakamura went to the top and was caught with the superplex into Falcon Arrow combination from Rollins.

Nakamura misses with a Kinshasa attempt and took the Ripcord knee that Nakamura kicked out of. Rollins missed with a frog splash and took the Kinshasa to the back of the head for a big near fall. He went for another and was hit with a superkick, Rollins missed with a stomp on the first try, avoided a Kinshasa and hit the stomp on the second try to pin Nakamura.

WINNER: SETH ROLLINS AT 21:28

It took a while to get going but hit their groove late in the match and turned into a very strong match. I thought it was Nakamura’s best in a long time. The audience got invested after the Kinshasa near fall. Easily the best match so far.

THE AOP VS SHEAMUS & CESARO

Drake Maverick and Big Show are in the respective corners.

Cesaro and Sheamus double teamed Rezar at the beginning. Rezar stopped Cesaro from using the Cesaro swing on Akam.

Enzo Amore was sitting ringside with a wig on, he was removed by security and the audience started chanting for him.

Sheamus landed a running knee to Rezar and knocked Akam to the floor. Sheamus hit a Brogue kick onto Rezar, but Maverick placed his foot on the rope to stop the count.

Drake ran away from Sheamus and ran straight into Big Show, who choked him and led to Maverick pissing his pants.

AOP took Sheamus and pinned him with their neck breaker and powerbomb combination to pin Sheamus.

WINNERS: THE AOP at 9:04

The match was average and never seemed to build any momentum. The Drake Maverick spot was just incredibly lame.


BUDDY MURPHY VS MUSTAFA ALI FOR THE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE

Ali hit a somersault dive off the top to the floor. Ali was shoved off the turnbuckle and his back crashed into the barricade on the floor. Murphy went to work attack Ali’s back.

Ali was sent to the floor and Murphy landed a huge tope con giro. Back in the ring, Ali came back with a reverse huracanrana and a two-count.

Ali hit a tilt-a-whirl into a draping DDT off the middle rope that looked great. Ali climbed to the top for the 054 but was sent off to the floor and hit his face on the apron.

Murphy cleared the announcer’s desk and Ali leaped onto the desk and hit a Spanish Fly off the table to the floor. This generated a “205” chant. Murphy stopped another 054 and hit a cheeky Nando’s kick.

After avoiding it the first time, Ali leaped into a knee off the turnbuckle followed by Murphy’s Law and Murphy got the win.

WINNER: BUDDY MURPHY AT 12:20 TO RETAIN THE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE

This was great, a solid showing from both men and the there was a portion of the audience that was really into it by the end.

Kayla Braxton tried to interview Daniel Bryan and he just smiled and walked off without commenting on the match with Brock Lesnar.

The same promo from the kickoff show for Lars Sullivan aired again.

BRAUN STROWMAN, DREW McINTYRE, DOLPH ZIGGLER, FINN BALOR & BOBBY LASHLEY VS THE MIZ, SHANE McMAHON, REY MYSTERIO, SAMOA JOE & JEFF HARDY

Shane McMahon is the only one on the show to escape wearing the goofy team shirt. Jeff Hardy subtly ditched the shirt.

Joe went for the Coquina clutch to McIntyre, he escaped and hit the Claymore to pin Joe in the first 30 seconds. The audience was furious with the fast elimination of Joe.

Shane McMahon was tagged in and started punching Dolph Ziggler before eating a dropkick. Ziggler hit a Zig Zag and Miz saved McMahon. Michael Cole called Ziggler’s dropkick the most beautiful in sports entertainment.

McIntyre and Strowman kept arguing and they came to blows. Everyone got involved and it featured Mysterio landing a 619 onto Strowman and the place exploded.

Shane McMahon cleared the announcer’s desk, the SmackDown team placed Strowman onto the table and McMahon put him through it with a flying elbow.

The audience loved Miz and chanted that he was awesome.

Balor went for a foot stomp and Miz and slipped and fell on top of Miz.

Balor was in with Mysterio and it was very good. Balor climbed to the top and missed the coup de grace, Balor was placed onto the ropes, hot the 619 and pinned Balor with the springboard splash.

Lashley stopped a 619 attempt to McIntyre. Lashley rag-dolled Mysterio around the ring.

Hardy went for a Swanton and landed onto Ziggler’s knees.

Ziggler was placed into the corner, Shane hobbled into the ring and climbed up the turnbuckle and hit the Coast-to-coast dropkick onto Ziggler and eliminated him.

Shane has nothing left, Miz tags him and gets him to deliver another Coast-to-coast and is stopped with a clothesline in mid-air from Braun Strowman. Cole yells, “Shane-O-Splat”.

Strowman eliminated Jeff Hardy with a powerslam. He stopped a 619 attempt and eliminated Mysterio with a powerslam as well.

Miz tried to run away from Strowman and he ran into the barricade, was brought into the ring and eliminated with another powerslam from Strowman.

It’s Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre & Bobby Lashley against Shane McMahon.

Strowman just lifted McMahon and beat him with a powerslam.

WINNERS: BRAUN STROWMAN, DREW McINTYRE & BOBBY LASHLEY AT 24:10

Baron Corbin attacked Strowman and left with McIntyre and Lashley to celebrate.

Charly interviewed Seth Rollins, he said his mind has been elsewhere but had to be focused on Nakamura tonight or else he would get his head kicked off. Charly informed Rollins he would be defending the Intercontinental title against Dean Ambrose at TLC on December 16th. Rollins said that Ambrose won’t have anything to hide behind at TLC.

RONDA ROUSEY VS CHARLOTTE FLAIR

There was a chant for Becky when the match started.

Charlotte defended the armbar, and they had several grappling exchanges with neither getting the better of it. Charlotte ran her hard into the buckle and had a set up for an STF applied. Charlotte elbowed Rousey in the face and she began to bleed. Rousey attempted the Minoru Suzuki armbar in the ropes.

Rousey climbed to the top and was knocked down. Rousey fought her off and from the top turnbuckle rolled Charlotte into an armbar and moved to a triangle. Charlotte stood up and applied a Boston crab and then attempted the figure-four and could not apply it.

Charlotte attempted a moonsault from the top and landed on Rousey’s feet. Rousey was speared, and Rousey kicked out at the last second.

Charlotte applied the figure-four, but Rousey turned it over and they rolled to the floor. Charlotte attacked with lots of chops inside the ring.

Rousey hit PIPER’S PIT, the standing reverse kata guruma finally has a name. Charlotte went to the floor and was recovering, Rousey chased after her and Charlotte attacked her with a kendo stick for the disqualification.

Charlotte continued attacking her with the kendo stick.

WINNER: RONDA ROUSEY BY DQ AT 14:11

This was a terrific match with a weak ending as they didn’t want to beat either. Charlotte snapped and tried to use a chair but was stopped by the referee.

She returned to the ring and hit the Natural Selection onto a chair. The audience chanted “Yes” and started enjoying this a lot. Charlotte attacked the referees and received a bigger reaction. She placed the chair around Rousey’s neck and stomped the chair.

They started to chant, “Thank you, Charlotte”.

Rousey was glaring at the crowd on her way to the back, refused help and yelled at a fan that “you are not a man”.


BROCK LESNAR VS DANIEL BRYAN

Bryan runs at Lesnar with a dropkick to the knee when the bell rang.

Lesnar eventually got a hold of Bryan and suplexed him right onto his neck and it looked terrible. Lesnar dragged him into the ring, tried to start a Suplex City chant and delivered a second release German. Lesnar followed with belly-to-belly suplexes and sent him to the floor.

Bryan is dead and Lesnar is toying with him. The audience started chanting, “same old shit” at Lesnar. It went on forever, Bryan finally started too kick Lesnar off his back.

He went for an F5 and it knocked the referee down and Bryan hit a low blow and Busaiku knee for a great near fall.

Bryan attacked him with kicks and stomped the head. Lesnar was sent to the floor and Bryan was caught on a pescado but shoved Lesnar into the post and a flying knee off the apron. Bryan tried a suicide dive, was caught and driven into the post. Lesnar missed Bryan with the steps and they fell on top of Lesnar.

Bryan attacked Lesnar’s knee and wrapped it around the post.

Bryan hit the repeated dropkicks and was able to apply the Yes Lock after Lesnar’s knee gave out. Lesnar broke the grip, but Bryan attacked with crossfaces and re-applied his grip. Bryan moved to a triangle but Lesnar lifted him up and hit the F5 to win.

WINNER: BROCK LESNAR AT 18:44

Hey guys long time listener first time poster. Just wanna get right into it. WWE just turned Charlotte into Becky Lynch. Correction, they made Charlotte over by giving her the same push as Becky but better. So this is how you get people over now? Your a babyface if ur a badass heel and ur a heel if you just suck. Part of me feels that they might still do Charlotte vs Ronda at WrestleMania as this was there way of putting Charlotte back in the spotlight. Also, Bryan vs Brock WTF!? I’d need a whole other paragraph to discuss that match 6 Enzos out of 10.

Thought the Charlotte angle was done very well. Feels as if that was the exact match minus signature moves that was laid if for Becky with the exact same ending. Now with the flip of Becky to face this past Tuesday and Charlotte a clear heel, I’m curious to see if this halts Becky’s momentum. Daniel Bryan looked like a he landed wrong on the first suplex and I was genuinely scared seeing his eyes. He worked us all. I hope. Cheers guys!

Charlotte vs Rousey was defiantly the match of the show even with its non-finish. Incredibly well done with a surprise twist ending. I’m looking forward to where Charlotte and Rousey go now. And especially badass heel Charlotte vs badass face Becky which is exactly how it should be.

I watched the AJ Styles 365 after the PPV and it was a much more entertaining hour than any part of the PPV.

Isn’t it weird though that WWE put up a special of Dean Ambrose last night and AJ tonight and neither was on survivor series? I think their presence was definitely missed.

This was an extremely puzzling show booking wise. Why did they completely refuse to acknowledge the tag team match?? Why would you eliminate Samoa Joe so quickly? Why would you think a grown man pissing himself is good television? As usual, the PPV following Takeover really just puts into perspective how great NXT is. I get the feeling the giant beatdown of Ronda was exactly what they had in store for Becky and it’s a real shame that this moment was taken from her. I also really wish Ronda would get wrestling gear she doesn’t need to readjust every few moments, it really takes me out of all her matches and I’m always scared we’ll get a wardrobe malfunction during those grappling exchanges. The main event had me intrigued with Bryan changing his mannerism and taunting Lesnar, bit of a shame to slow his new momentum with a loss, but that’s the story of Survivor Series Very average show, the goofy colored t-shirts have got to go.

Seriously, this show disappointed on so many levels. Nakamura vs Rollins felt waisted. I mean WWE has a talent for taking something special and just pounding it into nothing.

The show had a guy piss himself…poorly. seriously WWE you can’t even pull off a decent pant wetting?

The Rousey vs Flair match made no sense at all. It’s like they didn’t even try to change the booking of the original plan for the match and just gave Becky’s character to Charlotte because they really wanted to have that beat down of Rousey for some babyface sympathy. Which, totally backfired because we could hear fans chanting “You deserve it.” At Ronda as she limped backstage. It made no sense for Flair, but would have made sense for Becky. But to hell with logic in our storylines, the audience will be too dumb to notice or will forget in 24 hours.

The best match on the show was the 205 Live segment. Just an average cruiser weight match between two guys who worked their ass off and gave us a Wrestling Match.

The totally one sided classic Survivor Series 5 vs 5 was basically a squash. The only thing that could have made it worse would have been if Shane actually made a comeback and won it on his own. At least they didn’t do that…but boy would I have not been surprised if they did.

And then the main event was a clusterfuck of Brock rag-dolling Bryan for most of the match with Bryan somehow enjoying it, only to mount some half assed comeback before getting pinned. Is this how Heel DB is going to be booked going forward? (hey kids, wanna know who the bad guy is? He’s the one hitting the other guy in the dick and smiling when he loses.) And you know there will be no explanation other than DB has “snapped”. There will be no long term pay off with him getting redemption or his comeuppance. I half expect him to drop the belt back to AJ on Tuesday. In fact I’m calling it. AJ will invoke his rematch clause and win his belt back on Tuesday night…before 9pm.

I’m actually going to cancel my network subscription…as much as I love NXT, I can’t stand what the “main roster” Does to them. I dread guys like Alister Black and Undisputed Era getting called up to the main roster because they will just become silly catch phrase spouting caricatures of the wrestlers they are in NXT.