WWE made an announcement last night, two big matches for the upcoming 2019 edition of WWE Survivor Series matches. Unsurprisingly, we’ll be seeing the traditional big team, elimination WWE Survivor Series matches, one involving men and one involving women. However, the word ‘traditional’ is somewhat oxymoronic here. Because in coinciding with having three brands fighting now instead of two, we’ll be seeing quite the break from tradition to say the very least.
You see, it won’t be Raw vs. SmackDown, or even Raw and SmackDown banding together to fend off an invading NXT. Instead the trend of three-way bouts between the rosters will be continuing.
For the first time in the 30+ year history of this event, we will be seeing three-way Survivor Series matches; 5 vs. 5 vs. 5.
This of course means that Raw, SmackDown and NXT will all be fielding five-person teams for these two bouts. Thus far, we only have a fraction of the field confirmed. Of the 30 people who will be taking part in these matches, we know just four.
Seth Rollins will be acting as captain of Team Raw for the men’s match. It’s said that his team will be revealed come Monday on Raw. Looking at the spoilers, I don’t think it was officially stated to the live crowd, but the likes of Kevin Owens and the Street Profits look likely. Considering the OC were the first stars of either brand to invade NXT, it’d make sense to me if they were involved as well, AJ atleast seems probable enough.
Sasha Banks is the captain of Team SmackDown for the women. Last night, we saw Carmella and Dana Brooke earn their way onto Sasha’s team with a qualifying win over Fire & Desire. It’s sorta impossible to imagine Charlotte not being on that team.
Looking at last night, I would guess that Roman Reigns and King Corbin will be fighting over who captains the men’s SmackDown team, which might in turn lead to it slanting more face or heel heavy than it otherwise would’ve been.
No one from NXT has officially thrown their name into the hat yet. The likes of Keith Lee, Matt Riddle & Tommaso Ciampa are strongly associated with the invasion though so they’re fairly likely.
While the names involved will be interesting, it’s hard to imagine how these matches will actually work.
15 people in each match. If we presume three people in the ring at the same time, that of course means 12 folks on the apron in three different corners. That’s gonna look odd, and will prove difficult to shoot at the very least. I hope they’re ready to give these matches boatloads of time, because even something like 15 minutes bell-to-bell would probably come off as rushed and meaningless in a case like this. But honestly, it’s gonna be a struggle for these to not come off as a mess, no matter how careful they are with timing and producing them.
It’ll be different if nothing else, and filled to the brim with talent who will surely be putting their all into whatever they get to do. And when these matches inevitably break down the chaos of that will be fun to watch I’m sure.
Sure hope they know better than to make these four corners rules though…
