5 mistakes WWE has made with Survivor Series this year

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the piece are those of the writer's and do not necessarily reflect those of Sportskeeda's

The Survivor Series PPV is one of the WWE's marquee annual events. The second large-scale pay-per-view event to be created after WrestleMania, the annual event is typically one of the most anticipated events of the year.

There was a time when the WWE was looking at dropping Survivor Series from their event schedule, but in recent years the event has regained some popularity thanks in part to including more Survivor Series style matches, where you have two teams, of 4-5 competitors each, competing against each other in a tag-team/elimination style match and pitting the RAW and SmackDown brands against each other.

Major emphasis has been placed on the rivalry, with brands invading each other's show much to the fans' delight, but this year it feels like the WWE has not put much effort into this event. When comparing it to how it treats its other 3 marquee events, Survivor Series feels unimportant.

Here's a list of five mistakes the WWE has made with this year's Survivor Series.

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#5 Too little promo time

Crown Jewel

Throughout October, the WWE was busy heavily promoting the Super Show-Down event in Australia, Evolution and Crown Jewel, which happened on Nov 2nd.

Survivor Series is happening barely two weeks after the Crown Jewel show and prior to Crown Jewel, there was neither mention of the annual event nor story development leading to the brands squaring off against each other.

Both Evolution and Crown Jewel were history-making events. Evolution for being the first all-women event and Crown Jewel happening despite global controversy and concern about the WWE putting on an event in Saudi Arabia. Naturally, both events got a lot of promotional time and media attention

In comparison, the Survivors Series PPV has traditionally been one of the WWE’s 4 marquee annual events, along with The Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and SummerSlam, so one would assume the promotion and hype for the event would be on the same level.

Historically, Survivor Series has brought us major debuts, returns, heal turns, reunions and some of wrestling’s biggest moments including what some feel changed wrestling forever, The Montreal Screw Job. Survivor Series has played a major role in the WWE's history, so to give it next to no promotion or hype is puzzling.

A two week lead time for this event just doesn’t feel like Survivor Series is being given the respect it deserves. So much effort was put into Crown Jewel and Evolution that in comparison, Survivor Series feels like an afterthought.

Why should the WWE Universe even care? We’ve seen RAW vs SmackDown before, but at least the previous brand encounter was hyped up and built up properly. If last year’s Survivor Series, RAW vs SmackDown was a blockbuster movie, this year’s Survivor Series would be a sequel, released directly to video.

#2 Saying it is something it isn't

RAW vs Smackdown

One of the main promotional taglines used to hype up to this year’s Survivor Series has been that it is the only time of year that you will see RAW and SmackDown competitors face each other. The same promotional angle was used last year and yes, this is the only event where every match features RAW vs SmackDown matches, but it isn’t the only time of year where we see this ‘rare’ phenomenon.

The Royal Rumble features wrestlers from both RAW and Smackdown competing against each other. The same can be said for The Andre The Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania. You could argue that those matches are different because in those competitions it is every man for themselves and brands don’t matter, but mere weeks ago at Crown Jewel, we saw wrestlers from each brand competing against each other.

The World Cup Tournament had members of the RAW and SmackDown rosters facing each other. Shane McMahon even made the tournament into a RAW vs SmackDown event when he told the competitors from SmackDown that if one of them didn’t bring the crown back for SmackDown they would be fired.

Does the WWE really think that it’s viewers don’t remember what happens from one event to the next? And as we mentioned earlier, because there is next to no time to promote this year’s Survivor Series, two weeks isn’t enough time for fans to invest in a brand rivalry, especially with the card changing continually. What do WWE fans really have to look forward to?

#3 Last minute changes

Becky Lynch

At last year’s Survivor Series, no one was really interested in seeing Brock Lesnar versus Jinder Mahal and luckily for the fans, AJ Styles won the title and was automatically inserted into the match with Brock Lesnar. With Roman Reigns giving up the title and Brock Lesnar regaining the title at Crown Jewel, WWE fans were in line to see AJ Styles vs Brock Lesnar again.

The WWE Universe was looking forward to this re-match…oh but wait…days before Survivor Series Daniel Bryan turned heel and won the title from AJ Styles?!? Sure, fans want to see Lesnar vs Bryan but at the expense of not getting to see Lesnar vs Styles 2? And with only days before the event, how are fans supposed to get behind this?

This wasn’t the only last-minute change. Due to an injury that occurred during the “SmackDown Invasion” angle on this past Monday’s episode of RAW, Becky Lynch is no longer medically cleared to wrestle. Replacing her in the match against Ronda Rousey is Charlotte Flair.

Earlier this year, Becky Lynch was supposed to turn heel, but when she did the fans refused to ‘boo’ her and instead catapulted her to a whole new level of ‘fan favorite’. Even when she attacked Ronda Rousey in the locker room, a typical heel move, the fans cheered and started chanting her name. Fans wanted to see Rousey vs Lynch. This could easily have been the most anticipated match on the card.

Now a Rousey-Lynch confrontation goes back to the ‘dream match’ category and fans are left with Rousey vs Flair, which fans aren't upset about, but most assumed Rousey vs Flair would be saved for WrestleMania and not be something announced 4-5 days before the event.

#4 Is Survivor Series simply an afterthought?

Survivor Series Logo

With the little turn around time between Crown Jewel and Survivor Series, it feels like no real effort has been put into Survivor Series. The main theme of the event is once again brand vs brand. With no real rivalries or storylines developed, the brand vs brand angle feels like just another incarnation of last year’s Survivor Series.

Even matches fans are excited about don’t feel as exciting as they should be. Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura is a dream match, but Seth is more focused on his rivalry with Dean Ambrose, rather than preparing for Shinsuke. If the wrestlers don't care about the match, why should the fans?

On the tag-team side, the WWE had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to have enough tag-teams to compete against each other in the Tag-Team Survivor Series style match. Half the teams haven’t been seen on TV in months. The Colons??? And does anyone actually want to see AOP versus The Bar? AOP has been floundering since coming up from NXT and The Bar haven't even been living up to their own catchphrase.

#5 Lack of continuity

Team Raw?

Similar to last year’s Survivor Series, even arch-enemies will forget and put aside their rivalries for the sake of being on Team Raw or Team SmackDown. This year is no different. Crown Jewel, Evolution and even the RAW and SmackDown episodes that followed those major events, showcased or debuted some pretty intense rivalries… rivalries that we, as the viewers are now expected to forget for a couple of weeks and then pick up again once Survivor Series is done.

Ruby Riot has just started an intense rivalry with Natalya, with the basis for the rivalry involving the recent passing of Natalya’s father, WWE Legend Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, but for Survivor Series they have to be partners.

Finn Balor is on a team with wrestlers he has been competing with on and off for the past year. One of these rivalries intensified moments before Finn was asked to be part of the RAW team, with none other than the duo he was just fighting with.

AJ Styles is supposed to just forget about losing the title to Daniel Bryan for a couple days until Survivor Series is done? There's possibly more to this, like an injury we haven't been told about yet. The concept of RAW vs SmackDown is great and should make for great storylines, but instead, the WWE has been lazy with booking the event.