After tonight’s Smackdown Live, there have been eight matches officially announced for Survivor Series on November 18 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. As has become tradition over the last few years, this year’s Survivor Series will once again consist of inter-brand matches between Raw and Smackdown.
In addition to the previously announced match between Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey and Smackdown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, there will be three additional champion versus champion matches, two traditional five-on-five Survivor Series matches, a five-on-five tag-team elimination match, and WWE Cruiserweight Championship match.
On the November 5 episode of Raw, Baron Corbin, the acting Raw general manager, announced Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, and Braun Strowman as the first three members of Raw’s men’s team. The two remaining members of Raw’s men’s team will be selected on the November 12 episode of Monday Night Raw.
On tonight’s Smackdown Live, Smackdown’s Commissioner Shane McMahon and General Manager Paige announced that The Miz and Daniel Bryan would be the co-captains for Smackdown’s men’s team. The captains would pick Shane McMahon, Rey Mysterio Jr., and Samoa Joe to join Smackdown’s team, giving the Smackdown brand a complete team. Outside of Shane McMahon, the rest of Smackdown Live’s team has extensive ties to Southern California. Rey Mysterio and Samoa Joe are from the area, The Miz trained at Orange County’s UPW, and Daniel Bryan lived and wrestled extensively in the area in the2000s.
For the women’s five-on-five match, Baron Corbin named Alexa Bliss as captain of Raw’s women’s team on the November 5 episode of Raw. Bliss will be in a non-competing capacity due to injury. The Raw women’s team is scheduled to be announced on the November 12 episode of Raw.
Tonight’s Smackdown Live saw Smackdown General Manager Paige reveal Carmella, Naomi, Charlotte Flair, Sonya Deville, and Asuka as the members of Smackdown’s women’s team.
The four champion versus champion matches at Survivor Series are scheduled to be Raw Champion Brock Lesnar versus Smackdown Champion AJ Styles, WWE Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins taking on WWE United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, Raw Tag-Team Champions AOP (Akam and Rezar) facing Smackdown Tag-Team Champions The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus), and the aforementioned match between Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch. This will be the second straight Survivor Series that Brock Lesnar and AJ Styles have met as champions of their respective brands.
At the 205 Live tapings after tonight’s Smackdown, for the episode scheduled to air tomorrow, it was announced WWE Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy will be defending his title against Mustafa Ali at Survivor Series. Ali won a number one contender’s match against Tony Nese on the October 31 episode of 205 Live. The cruiserweight championship match is the only non inter-brand match to be announced for the event.
Survivor Series will be taking place on November 18 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and will air live on the WWE Network.
