Women's Traditional 5-on-5-on-5 Survivor Series Tag Team Match
This started off pretty roughly & awkwardly, and it remained that until the little showdown between Io & Kairi happened. After that the match is pretty good for the most part, save from some all around awfulness by Carmella. I think the biggest compliment I can say is that the almost-30-minutes flew by as if it was 10 or something. Good match! ***1/4
AJ Styles vs. Roderick Strong vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
2015 me would be salivating over this, seeing that these fellas were the absolute top-3 for me back then outside of D-Bry. Anyways this was pretty good. Some awkwardness & dead flow, but that is always to be expected in three way dances. I definitely think it also dragged quite a bit by the end, and comparing it to the opener, it actually felt longer than that one, which is quite something since it was over 10 minutes shorter in reality. Shoutout to Shinsuke who was the MVP in my eyes, really liked him just kicking AJ & Roddy around, roughing them up. **3/4
Adam Cole vs. Pete Dunne
They go for some double bodypart-targeting with Dunne going after Cole's elbow, and Cole getting back into things by going after Dunne's taped up knee, but as was to be expected of these two, they of course pretty much completely no sell all of that & have their little indy movezfest instead. Apronspots, "epic!!11" sequences & shitty strikes galore. I guess I could say this was better than I expected it to be, because I genuinely enjoyed the beginning stuff w/ the attacks on Cole's arm & Dunne's knee, but it still was FAR from good, for goddamn sure. *3/4
Daniel Bryan vs. The Fiend
The Fiend's matches vs. Rollins were extremely silly, but if there's one person in the entire pro-wrestling industry that can be trusted to make all of that shit work, it's Daniel Bryan. And he sure made all of it more-than-work here. The match starts off fun w/ Bryan immediately rushing Fiend with those kicks & corner dropkicks, but the Fiend takes over quick. His control segment is solid; Wyatt has always had some nice viciousness to his offense, and Bryan sure does his best to make everything lashed out at him look all the more vicious. Then--THEN! the match really picks up when Bryan busts out his big comeback; that ROAR after the Missile Dropkick fired me (& the crowd) the fuck up -- the whole atmosphere after that went from 0 to 100 real quick w/ the Chicago crowd going crazy for Bryan, and that added so much magic to the whole thing. The chants during the YES Kicks & especially the Busaiku Knee corner set-up were amazing. Talking bout amazing stuff -- they definitely did the Fiend no-sell stuff MUCH better here than w/ Seth (wow, what a surprise lmao) -- I actually liked that after each no-sell pop-up, Bryan just went back to it again, each kick sequence more vicious looking & sounding than the one before. Then there's the two AWESOME counters during the finishing stretch; first Bryan countering the Mandible Claw into an Armbar on the ropes, and then the last nearfall w/ the roll-up reversal to a Sister Abigail attempt. A GREAT PIECE OF BUSINESS ALL AROUND w/ the GOAT doing his thing & all. ****
Men's Traditional 5-on-5-on-5 Survivor Series Tag Team Match
For the most part, this was very enjoyable & on par w/ the women's SurSer Tag Match, but then the final showdown between Reigns & Keith Lee happens, and it gets elevated to greater heights. What an awesome ending to an awesome match, that was. ***1/2
Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio
There was pretty much no way this wasn't gonna be a banger. BORK is BORK when in control, and REY is REY taking a beatdown, which creates for a wonderful dynamic + then there's the super hot finishing stretch from the Dominick run-in on. Quality stuff. ***3/4
Bayley vs. Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler
EXTREMELY underwhelming main event. Would've worked better if it didn't have to follow all the other matches, but even if it didn't, it still would've been the heatless, awkward bore of a bout that it was. *
