RAW Men’s Survivor Series team clean sweep the SmackDown Men’s team to register the first win of the night at Survivor Series 2020.
The position of a match is very important to a structure of the show. The opener sets the tone for the night with the other matches adding to it until it eventually culminates in the main event and if tonight’s opener is anything to go by then SmackDown is in for a long long night.
Also read: What matches will open and close the show tonight?
Survivor Series 2020 main show opened with the RAW Survivor Series team taking on the SmackDown Survivor Series team. The Red team featured some of the biggest offensive powerhouses in Braun Strowman, Keith Lee, Sheamus and agile alley cats in Riddle and AJ Styles.
SmackDown on paper was the weaker of the two but still had top stars in Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, Baron Corbin and Otis. What the Blue team lacked in terms of brute strength, they made up for it in their cohesiveness.
RAW was a mess heading to the show. Members bickered in the lead up with every RAW highlighting their lack of unity and team spirit. The team looked like they would explode early on in the match. Apart from the initial hiccup however, they operated like a well oiled machine with every single member of the team picking up a pin to clean sweep their opponents.
RAW Men’s Survivor Series team clean sweep the SmackDown Men’s team
Styles and Uso opened for their sides before everyone got a quick offense in. Owens then reluctantly tagged Rollins in who surprisingly offered himself to Sheamus before being the first to be eliminated.
For the Greater Good… ❓ 👀 👀@WWERollins sacrifices himself at #SurvivorSeries! 😮#TeamRaw #TeamSmackDown pic.twitter.com/rIJBrz4hVZ
— WWE (@WWE) November 23, 2020
A cool moment between Otis and Lee soon followed before Owens began distributing Stunners all around until Styles caught him with a Phenomenal forearm for the elimination.
Baron soon followed Owens after a twisting senton from Riddle.
Down to just two members, Otis ran amuck the Reds. An Overhead belly-to-belly takes AJ Styles out! Discus lariat for Matt Riddle, a belly-to-belly for Keith Lee! The former Money in the Bank holder was finally taken out by Strowman with a running powerslam.
Jey took over from Otis and fought valiantly against the other 5. A defeat seemed imminent but the Samoan wasn’t ready to go out without a fight. He caught Styles on the top rope with a superkick but Lee tagged himself in without Jey noticing.
The first NXT double champion caught Jey midair before laying him out with a devastating Spirit Bomb for the surprise clean sweep.
🧹🧹🧹🧹🧹#TeamRaw @AJStylesOrg @BraunStrowman @WWESheamus @SuperKingOfBros & @RealKeithLee pulls off the CLEAN SWEEP of #TeamSmackDown! #SurvivorSeries pic.twitter.com/j2973U0EYL
— WWE (@WWE) November 23, 2020
All in all, it wasn’t the best wrestling match and looked a little slow at times. However, it was entertaining despite the one sidedness of the match and that is perhaps the most important aspect of putting on a show. It is a little worrying though that the SmackDown Men’s team is yet to win a match since 2016.
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