With major changes to the card after tonight’s Smackdown Live in St. Louis, MO, the lineup is mostly set for Sunday’s WWE Survivor Series in Los Angeles. The biggest changes came in the men’s and women’s champion versus champion matches, with Charlotte Flair replacing Becky Lynch due to injury, and Daniel Bryan taking AJ Style’s place after winning the WWE Heavyweight Championship.
Smackdown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch was injured during a brawl at last night’s Monday Night Raw, where she suffered an apparent broken nose and a concussion. Due to her injuries, she is not medically cleared by WWE to wrestle. At tonight’s Smackdown Live, in story-line, Lynch selected Charlotte Flair as her replacement to take on Ronda Rousey.
Later on tonight’s Smackdown, Daniel Bryan defeated AJ Styles tonight to become the new WWE Heavyweight Champion. The finish saw Styles accidentally bump into the referee when Bryan dodged a Phenomenal Forearm. Bryan then delivered a low-blow to Styles while the referee wasn’t looking and hit the running knee to get the pin. After the Bryan continued to attack Styles and stomped on his head. With Bryan winning the title, he will now face Universal Champion Brock Lesnar in the non-title champion versus champion match at Survivor Series.
Styles’ title reign lasted 372 days after defeating Jinder Mahal on the November 7, 2017 episode of Smackdown to win the championship. This is Bryan’s first title reign since he was medically cleared to return to the ring earlier this year, and fourth overall.
With Daniel Bryan and Charlotte Flair being placed into singles matches at Survivor Series, there were also changes made to the Raw versus Smackdown team elimination matches. Jeff Hardy will be taking Daniel Bryan’s place on the Smackdown men’s team while Charlotte Flair’s spot on the Smackdown women’s team is yet to be filled.
Also at tonight’s Smackdown, The Usos finished selecting their team for the tag-team elimination match by adding Sanity, The Colons and Anderson & Gallows. The New Day was previously announced for Team Smackdown. Team Raw will consist of Lucha House Party, Bobby Roode & Chad Gable, The B-Team, The Ascension, and The Revival.
Here is the current lineup for Survivor Series:
- WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. WWE Champion Daniel Bryan (non-title)
- WWE Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair (non-title)
- Team Raw (Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Braun Strowman, Finn Bálor, and Bobby Lashley) (with Baron Corbin and Lio Rush) vs. Team SmackDown (The Miz, Shane McMahon, Rey Mysterio, Samoa Joe, and Jeff Hardy)
- Team Raw (Mickie James, Nia Jax, Tamina, Natalya, and Ruby Riott) (with Alexa Bliss, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan) vs. Team SmackDown (Carmella, Naomi, Sonya Deville, Asuka, and TBA)
- WWE Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins vs. WWE United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (non-title)
- Raw Tag Team Champions AOP (Akam and Rezar) vs. Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) (non-title)
- Team Raw (Bobby Roode and Chad Gable, The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson), The B-Team (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel), Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado, Kalisto, and/or Gran Metalik), and The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor)) vs. Team SmackDown (The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and/or Xavier Woods), Sanity (Alexander Wolfe, Eric Young, and/or Killian Dain), Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, and The Colóns (Epico Colón and Primo Colón))
- WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Mustafa Ali
WWE’s Survivor Series takes place on November 18, 2018 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The kickoff show is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. pacific. The event will air live on the WWE Network.
