Classic Match: Team RAW vs. Team SmackDown, Survivor Series 2016
RondaRousey.com’s Classic Match series takes a closer look at significant and super cool matches from wrestling history.
In our profile of 2014’s classic Survivor Series match, we examined a snapshot of a pre-brand split world. This time, we’ll look at the first such event of the current era, in which Survivor Series became the pay-per-view where RAW and SmackDown would battle for brand supremacy. In the 2016 main event traditional five-on-five men’s elimination match, former and current friends and enemies faced off to prove themselves in the new WWE landscape.
In the aftermath of the brand split, RAW and SmackDown had cultivated their own distinct identities, also creating their own memorable moments. Monday Night RAW, run by Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley, remained WWE’s flagship show. It got the entire Cruiserweight Division in the split, held the Universal Championship (with champion Kevin Owens), and made history by hosting the first-ever Women’s Hell In a Cell match (between Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks).
In contrast, SmackDown, led by Commissioner Shane McMahon and GM Daniel Bryan, was the “land of opportunity.” Becky Lynch was their first women’s champion, lovable underdogs Heath Slater and Rhyno were their inaugural tag team champions, and the AJ Styles, still new to the company, represented them as the WWE Champion. Shane and Bryan were rightfully confident in what they had achieved and on October 11, 2016, challenged RAW to three traditional Survivor Series matches (men, women, and tag teams).
Stephanie accepted the challenge and the teams for the men’s elimination match began to form. On the October 31 edition of RAW, Braun Strowman won a battle royal to earn a spot on the team, and Roman Reigns was added due to his status as United States Champion. After extensive lobbying, Universal Champion Kevin Owens and his best friend Chris Jericho were appointed co-captains. Seth Rollins later rounded out the bunch. The team of rivals was tested by competing in a fatal five-way and facing off against Raw tag teams. They looked strong, as long as they could get along.
The SmackDown team was announced all at once the following night by Daniel Bryan: AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, two-thirds of the new Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton), and Baron Corbin. Corbin was quickly removed from the team due to a combination of being uncooperative and an injury, leading to Shane McMahon replacing him. (Shane called this “leadership by example.”) A week later, James Ellsworth was appointed the team’s mascot, to the distress of Styles. Whether enemies Ambrose and Styles could get along for the entirety of a match was still up in the air, but both Edge and The Undertaker did their best to instill team unity (and fear of loss).
Teams red and
Come match time, both teams start off seemingly evenly-matched in terms of skill, and it takes a while for there to be an elimination. Owens and Styles face off, champion vs. champion, to start the match. We see Jericho vs. Styles, Ambrose vs. Rollins with their tumultuous history, and Jericho back in against Ambrose to both wrestle and berate him (“YOU OWE ME $15,000”) for destroying his prized light-up jacket. The cracks in Team RAW start to show when Jericho gestures for a tag to a fresh opponent against Ambrose, but nobody tags in. The ex-Shield brothers Rollins and Reigns do show some quality teamwork against Shane McMahon though, but it’s not enough for an elimination.
After Jericho halts the set-up of a Dirty Deeds on Owens, there’s finally a breakthrough in the match. As both teams start to brawl, Strowman tags himself in, unbeknownst to everyone but Owens. Various dives and topes take out everyone outside the ring, and back inside, old rivals Styles/Reigns and Rollins/Ambrose continue to fight. Styles and Ambrose, set to wrestle for the WWE Championship in a few weeks, start arguing and shoving each other. More focused on this feud, Ambrose doesn’t seem ready to play the legal man for his team; so Strowman hits him with a running powerslam and pins him for the match’s first elimination, without Styles trying to break the count. Now it’s red 5, blue 4.
Although
Though Wyatt tries to get Strowman back under his control, Strowman maintains his avowed independence and takes it to his former mentor. He clears an announce table to attack Wyatt on it, but eats an RKO out of nowhere from Randy Orton, at this point believed to be a loyal member of the Wyatt Family. Orton and Wyatt clear the main commentary table and hold Strowman down for an epic diving elbow drop from a loopy Shane, and it deserves the “This is awesome” chant it receives.
The referee starts the count as Styles helps Shane, SmackDown’s legal man, back into the ring. But Braun, shockingly, is counted out after two hands emerge from under the ring and grab one of his legs. 4-4.
These hands are revealed to belong to none other than James Ellsworth. The mascot just took out the monster, and the monster is not happy. Ellsworth tries to escape, but Strowman throws him off the entrance ramp into a pit of production equipment.
The teams are even for now, but the most volatile half of the RAW team, co-captains Jericho and Owens, are about to explode. Jericho and Shane get near-falls on each other, and then Jericho (now with a bloody nose) tags in against Styles. Both men counter each other’s finishers, but when Styles gets Jericho far enough into the setup for the Styles Clash, Owens runs in and hits him with the List of Jericho. This ends up doing more harm than good because it’s directly in front of the ref, who disqualifies Owens. 3-4.
Jericho argues with the ref and hurries to recover the pages of his treasured list. While he’s distracted, dejectedly watching Owens exit, Orton is tagged in for SmackDown and hits him with an RKO. 2-4.
Now it’s just the recently-realigned Rollins and Reigns against Wyatt, Orton, Styles, and Shane, but there are much less capable duos you could have in the ring at a numbers disadvantage. However, it’s not long before there’s another game-changing moment.
Shane is on a roll against Reigns and gets the time to ascend to a top turnbuckle for one of his signature coast-to-coast dropkicks—only for it to be countered with a spear! The impact of the move is so severe that the ref actually stops counting Roman’s pin at the two-count, and Shane is eliminated via ref stoppage. 2-3.
Reigns is also affected by the high-impact spear and is easily manipulated into the blue corner to take more damage. Rollins is able to tag in for an impressive sequence against Styles, and by the time Orton interferes, Reigns is able to defend his teammate. The wrestlers from RAW set up for what looks like it will be two-thirds of a Shield powerbomb on an announce table, but Styles takes them both out.
The WWE Champion then poses in the ring… but just because his biggest enemy on the SmackDown team was eliminated, that doesn’t mean said enemy stopped wanting to beat him up. Soon enough, Ambrose runs back into the arena and attacks Styles from behind. Security tries to force the “Lunatic Fringe’ away from the ring, but Reigns and Rollins take them out, and The Shield is temporarily reunited by a common enemy and the heat of battle. Extremely revved up, The Shield powerbomb Styles on the Spanish announce table and it’s awesome. Rollins rolls Styles back in the ring for a pinfall elimination, and now it’s 2-2.
Reigns and Rollins stand back-to-back in the ring, two-thirds of The Shield against two-thirds of The Wyatt Family, updated iterations of old enemies. But it wouldn’t be a Wyatt Family match without shenanigans, and Luke Harper appears on the apron. The distraction is enough for Wyatt and Orton to attack our heroes from behind, and the numbers disadvantage soon takes its toll. When Rollins goes for a frog splash onto Wyatt, Orton catches it into an RKO, and Wyatt pins him. Now Reigns is the sole survivor of the RAW team.
The crowd is also against Roman, chanting “Let’s go, SmackDown” as he struggles up the steps and gets back in the ring. He does his best (which, when it’s even a beat up Roman Reigns, is pretty impressive) and manages to counter a Sister Abigail, but can’t capitalize after his own finishing move. Holding his midsection, Reigns sets up for a spear, but Orton shoves Wyatt out of the way, taking the blow for himself. Wyatt quickly grabs Reigns for a Sister Abigail to win the match.
Harper rolls
Survivor Series 2016 set the new standard for this PPV in a post-brand split world. While the question of which brand is best is really up to the individual viewer to decide, the red vs. blue Survivor Series shows reveal the true nature of alliances and rivalries on each show when wrestlers are forced to work together. Fans now know to expect clashes within the five-on-five elimination match teams as well as moments between RAW and SmackDown wrestlers who usually don’t interact.
You can go back and revisit this match (and the entirety of Survivor Series 2016) on the WWE Network.