We saw this when Triple H defeated Sting at Wrestlemania XXX. It was symbolic of the official end of WCW’s final essence. Tonight we saw that again, both in the main event and the champion vs. champion match.

AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar

WWE Champion AJ Styles applied everything in his arsenal and more to try and takedown the Beast. After a back-to-back bout and several failed F-5 attempts, finally connected with the finisher to put down Styles. You knew something was up when Lesnar destroyed Styles from the beginning.

Once Styles mounted plenty offense to level the playing-field, it was essentially smoke and mirrors.

WWE teased a Styles victory only to have Lesnar win. In short, TNA lost to WWE in one of it’s “Big Four” PPV.Yes, TNA is still active, as Impact Wrestling. The reality of the matter is that TNA is dead. Impact Wrestling is only the shell of what was a great wrestling promotion.

5-on-5 traditional Survivor Series match

For the first time in ages, Survivor Series ended with the traditional 5-on-5 tag-team elimination match. Without a doubt, it will come down as one of the best traditional tag-team elimination matches. The battle for “brand supremacy” has always been the story behind most of these matches. In this case, it was also about company supremacy.

Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Samoa Joe, and Finn Balor were the main attractions of the main event.

One would think that this was the perfect time for Nakamura and the TNA alumni had a huge chance to shine in a major WWE PPV. Nope. Instead, we saw Nakamura, Roode, Joe, and Balor eliminated just as they were individually building momentum. Three of them were eliminated in a row, before Cena sacrificed himself, only to have Balor as the last WWE “competitor.”

Nakamura and Roode were the first men eliminated after running powerslams by Strowman.

With a comfortable 2-1 lead, Raw’s Samoa Joe stepped up to the plate against John Cena. Surprise surprise, the ‘Cena vs. Joe’ dream match (as per the commentators) was short-lived as Cena pinned Joe within five minutes.

Finn Balor met his end at the hands of Randy Orton. For the sake of family Dominance, HHH “betrayed” Raw by hitting the pedigree on Kurt Angle for a McMahon pin.

Only three men in remained, all WWE talent. Shane McMahon was the last man representing the Blue Brand for a brief moment, before being wasted by HHH.

The whole match was strikingly similar to the 2001 Survivor Series main event; “Team WWF vs. The Alliance”. It mainly consisted of WWF talent and only two non-WWF talent (ECW’s Rob Van Damn and WCW’s Booker T). The match was entertaining, but the message was very clear; the event’s purpose was to reinforce the fact that Vince’s company reigns over all; well at least in his eyes. We saw the same message in this year’s Survivor Series, Triple H and Braun Strowman are the sole survivors for Team Raw over Team SmackDown Live.

WWE reigns supreme

Whether if you agreed with the Results or not, you can’t argue that those matches did not feature quality in-ring content throughout the night, and it was also a newsworthy show. For the time being, we can only wonder what path will Raw and Smackdown based on the results.
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