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Survivor Series coming up has got me thinking how much of an enigma the event actually is.
Since, I want to say 2017, the build up to Survivor Series always felt like nothing actually matters and you can totally skip WWE all together in November and not miss anything, the Saudi shows are more consequencial than Survivor Series at this stage.
The blame was originally on the brand vs brand warfare forcing the wrestlers to suddenly feud with someone else for a month before back to business and 2019-2021 only made it worse when the draft was in October which meant brand loyalty was already non-existent and there wasnt even any authority figures to drive the feud and Wargames is meant to serve the fix to it but it hasn't, just the style of the build up has changed to grabbing a bunch of wrestlers either all in the feud or from different ones, pit them in a match and its all done and forgotten.
However, what I mentioned here really doesn't add up. For starters 2016 Survivor Series was also brand vs brand but didnt have the same issue as later renditions had, this most likely due to the main event instead being Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg, there was interbrand Championship matches and it was off Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon power struggle at the beginning of the year as a sort of pay off to that storyline.
Then there is also pre-2016 where the traditional Survivor Series matches were build the same way the War Games matches have been but didn't have this problem with the event. Looking back, the one difference maker is from 2003 to 2015 the traditional Survivor Series Tag Matches that were the main selling point of the event were 2004, 2005 and 2014. 2004 and 2014 had stakes involved (all involving the control of Raw coincidentally) while 2005 was the blow off match of the original brand warfare storyline and had dire consequences afterwards. Every other Survivor Series Tag match was either thrown together at the last minute or was part of the midcard handling all the midcard feuds as a sort of novelty, and the main selling point was the World Titles matches. The War Games editions however have all been Main Event focused matches but don't have any stakes or have any blow off to it, the storylines all continue as if nothing happened which is especially weird with how brutal this match up is compared to the traditional Survivor Series match and with the exception of 2024, all involved the World Champions.
Survivor Series seems stuck in this weird limbo where its has the same issues as 2009 surge of gimmick PPVs (and in some cases worse) however because its part of the big 4 and was one of the earlist PLEs Survivor Series is tied down to by tradition like the Royal Rumble is which Royal Rumble avoids this due to its tradition involving a massive price thats an easy plot device to justify.
There really isnt a solution to this I can think of, you either have to have every November have some plot the revolves around the gimmick match to resolve it, make it a pit stop hot pot for multiple rivalries or have it be a midcard afterthought. Changing the match type to War Games didnt solve anything.
Since, I want to say 2017, the build up to Survivor Series always felt like nothing actually matters and you can totally skip WWE all together in November and not miss anything, the Saudi shows are more consequencial than Survivor Series at this stage.
The blame was originally on the brand vs brand warfare forcing the wrestlers to suddenly feud with someone else for a month before back to business and 2019-2021 only made it worse when the draft was in October which meant brand loyalty was already non-existent and there wasnt even any authority figures to drive the feud and Wargames is meant to serve the fix to it but it hasn't, just the style of the build up has changed to grabbing a bunch of wrestlers either all in the feud or from different ones, pit them in a match and its all done and forgotten.
However, what I mentioned here really doesn't add up. For starters 2016 Survivor Series was also brand vs brand but didnt have the same issue as later renditions had, this most likely due to the main event instead being Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg, there was interbrand Championship matches and it was off Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon power struggle at the beginning of the year as a sort of pay off to that storyline.
Then there is also pre-2016 where the traditional Survivor Series matches were build the same way the War Games matches have been but didn't have this problem with the event. Looking back, the one difference maker is from 2003 to 2015 the traditional Survivor Series Tag Matches that were the main selling point of the event were 2004, 2005 and 2014. 2004 and 2014 had stakes involved (all involving the control of Raw coincidentally) while 2005 was the blow off match of the original brand warfare storyline and had dire consequences afterwards. Every other Survivor Series Tag match was either thrown together at the last minute or was part of the midcard handling all the midcard feuds as a sort of novelty, and the main selling point was the World Titles matches. The War Games editions however have all been Main Event focused matches but don't have any stakes or have any blow off to it, the storylines all continue as if nothing happened which is especially weird with how brutal this match up is compared to the traditional Survivor Series match and with the exception of 2024, all involved the World Champions.
Survivor Series seems stuck in this weird limbo where its has the same issues as 2009 surge of gimmick PPVs (and in some cases worse) however because its part of the big 4 and was one of the earlist PLEs Survivor Series is tied down to by tradition like the Royal Rumble is which Royal Rumble avoids this due to its tradition involving a massive price thats an easy plot device to justify.
There really isnt a solution to this I can think of, you either have to have every November have some plot the revolves around the gimmick match to resolve it, make it a pit stop hot pot for multiple rivalries or have it be a midcard afterthought. Changing the match type to War Games didnt solve anything.
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