Survivor Series

It’s almost time for the 30th Survivor Series.  The brands of RAW and Smackdown Live will battle for brand supremacy.  In years past, the two brands would battle in several elimination tag matches for bragging rights (wink).  The matches, however, went by the wayside when the brand split stopped mattering.  Since the brand split was re-introduced last year, RAW and Smackdown Live found themselves battling it out in a series of inter-promotional match-ups yet again.

Last year’s incarnation of the event made a ton of sense.  The brand split was fresh and both shows wanted to quick establish that they had better talent.  However, the shows rarely interact since that event.  Of course, WWE can’t ever find a logical reason to utilize a gimmick PPV.  Instead, they chose to shoe horn the gimmick at the expense of years of character development.

Under Siege

Kurt Angle worked out a deal with Shane McMahon to have AJ Styles fill-in for Bray Wyatt  (the victim of rogue viral meningitis) against Demon Finn.  The next night, it’s revealed that Kurt worked out an extension to keep AJ for one more night.  Shane visits Kurt, unexpectedly.  Kurt thanks Shane for loaning out AJ, but makes a slight dig about the Smackdown roster in the process, prompting  Shane to utter a thinly veiled threat that Kurt better keep his eyes open because RAW could be “hashtag Under Siege.”

Shane actually said that. A man in his 40s threatened another man in his 40s with a hashtag.  Sure enough, the Smackdown Live roster attacked just before Kurt could reveal the members of the 5 men in the Men’s Elimination match.

Becky Lynch acted like a bloodthirsty savage.  Chad Gable gleefully attacked his former partner Jason Jordan.  Baron Corbin, The Lone Wolf, looked really happy to be included in group activities.  Carmella, who has a magic brief case that gives her a title match, was patting Smackdown Women’s Champion Natalya on the back.  Bobby Roode and Dolph Ziggler, who have a grueling 2-out-of-3 falls match on the horizon, were happy to be fighting side by side.  The set-up of the attack was baffling and confusing.

Why are these characters going against their own established motivations?  What are these brands even fighting for?  We discus all that and more on this episode of The Accidental Wrestling Fan.