Survivor Series (2021)

The 2021 Survivor Series was a professional wrestling event produced by WWE. It was the 35th annual Survivor Series and took place on November 21, 2021, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The event aired via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming, marking the first Survivor Series to livestream on Peacock, and featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The theme of the event was brand supremacy and featured wrestlers from the two brands against each other; this was the final Survivor Series to carry the brand supremacy theme as well as the traditional Survivor Series matches. It was also the last major WWE PPV and livestreaming event to carry the term "pay-per-view" as WWE began to use the term "premium live event" for these major events beginning with Day 1 the following month.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The card was highlighted by two traditional Survivor Series elimination matches: Raw's men's and women's teams were victorious over SmackDown's. In the main event match, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Big E. In other prominent matches, Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) defeated SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), and in the opening bout, Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch defeated SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair. The event also commemorated the 25th anniversary of The Rock's WWE debut at the 1996 Survivor Series where a 25-man dual-branded battle royal took place in honor of the occasion; Raw's Omos won by last eliminating SmackDown's Ricochet. Raw won brand supremacy by winning five of the seven matches, only excluding the pre-show and main event matches. The event also had a promotional tie-in with the Netflix film Red Notice, which stars The Rock, though The Rock himself did not appear at the event despite rumors before the show suggesting that he would have appeared.

The event received mostly negative reviews from fans and critics alike, with both Survivor Series matches receiving mixed reviews whilst the battle royal was heavily panned, and even direct criticism being geared towards the buildups and the promoting of the event. The event was voted by readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as the Worst Major Wrestling Show of 2021.

Production

Background

Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling event produced every November by WWE since 1987. The second longest running pay-per-view (PPV) event in history (behind WWE's WrestleMania), it is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble, originally referred to as the "Big Four", and as of August 2021, it is considered one of the "Big Five", along with Money in the Bank. The event is traditionally characterized by having Survivor Series matches, which are tag team elimination matches that typically features teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. Announced on August 16, 2021, the 2021 event was the 35th Survivor Series and was scheduled to be held on November 21, 2021, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide and the WWE Network in international markets, it was the first Survivor Series to livestream on Peacock after the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March. Tickets went on sale on September 24 through SeatGeek.

Since WWE reintroduced the brand split in July 2016, Survivor Series has also centered around competition between wrestlers from Raw and SmackDown for brand supremacy. In addition to traditional Survivor Series matches between the brands, the champions of Raw face their SmackDown counterparts in non-title matches, which began at the 2017 event. The 2021 Survivor Series featured Raw's WWE Champion against SmackDown's Universal Champion, the Raw Women's Champion against the SmackDown Women's Champion, Raw's United States Champion against SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion, and the Raw Tag Team Champions against the SmackDown Tag Team Champions. The 2019 event had also featured the NXT brand - being elevated to third main brand status with its debut on USA - involved in the competition, making all brand supremacy matches triple threats. NXT was removed from the 2020 event due to COVID-19-related issues, and in September 2021 was repositioned to its previous status as the developmental brand for the main roster under the "NXT 2.0" banner.

Storylines

The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

On November 6, WWE revealed both Raw and SmackDown's team members for the men's Survivor Series match. Team Raw's members were announced to be Seth Rollins, Finn Bálor, Kevin Owens, Rey Mysterio, and Dominik Mysterio. On the November 8 episode of Raw, WWE official Adam Pearce noted that every member of Team Raw was a former world champion, except Dominik. In turn, Pearce scheduled Dominik to face Bobby Lashley where the winner would be on the team; Lashley defeated Dominik. After Rey was seemingly injured during a match with Lashley the following week, Pearce removed Rey from Team Raw and replaced him with Austin Theory. For Team SmackDown, its members were announced as Drew McIntyre, Jeff Hardy, King Woods, Sami Zayn, and Happy Corbin. On the November 12 episode of SmackDown, Hardy defeated Zayn in a match where the loser would be removed from the team. The vacant spot was filled the following week by Sheamus, who defeated Cesaro, Jinder Mahal, and Ricochet in a fatal four-way match to earn the spot.

Also on November 6, WWE revealed both Raw and SmackDown's team members for the women's Survivor Series match. It was announced that Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, Carmella, Queen Zelina, and one-half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Rhea Ripley, would represent Team Raw. Team SmackDown's members were revealed to be Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler, Shotzi, Natalya, and Aliyah. On the November 12 episode of SmackDown, however, WWE official Sonya Deville removed Aliyah from the match seemingly due to her relationship with Naomi, who had been at odds with Deville. On November 18, Deville revealed via WWE's social media that Toni Storm would fill Team SmackDown's vacant spot.

A prominent rivalry heading into Survivor Series was between WWE Champion Big E and Universal Champion Roman Reigns. On the September 17 episode of SmackDown, Big E interrupted a promo by Reigns, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), and Paul Heyman of The Bloodline. Reigns and Big E then posed with their belts, leading to a tag team match where Big E was victorious. Later that night, he told Heyman and Reigns that he would face the Universal Champion at Survivor Series before The Usos attacked him. This led to a six-man tag team match pitting The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods) against Reigns and The Usos on the September 20 episode of Raw, which The Bloodline won after interference from Bobby Lashley. This led to a triple threat match where Reigns defeated Big E and Lashley, who Reigns pinned. With The New Day resuming their feud with The Usos in late October, on November 8, it was announced that Big E would face Reigns one-on-one at Survivor Series.

Also on November 8, it was announced that Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch and SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, who have had a long history with each other, would face each other at Survivor Series.

For the remaining champion vs. champion matches, on November 15, WWE announced Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) and Raw's United States Champion Damian Priest vs. SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, the latter of which was scheduled for the Kickoff pre-show on the day of the event.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Rock's WWE debut at the 1996 Survivor Series, a 25-man dual-branded battle royal was scheduled to take place at the 2021 event.

Event

Pre-show

On the Survivor Series Kickoff pre-show, SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (accompanied by Rick Boogs) faced Raw's United States Champion Damian Priest. Priest controlled the match early while Boogs played his guitar to try and distract Priest. Priest performed a Falcon Arrow for a near-fall. Nakamura countered a Chokeslam with his knee. Priest performed a South of Heaven for a nearfall. Priest attempted The Reckoning, but Nakamura countered with an armbar. In the end, Priest broke Boogs' guitar over his knee and hit Boogs over the head before accidentally hitting Nakamura with it and getting himself disqualified, thus Nakamura won, giving SmackDown the first match of the night.

Also during the pre-show, WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mr. McMahon arrived at the arena holding what he said was a real Cleopatra golden egg, which was part of a promotional tie-in with the Netflix film Red Notice, which stars The Rock.