Last night, WWE hosted Survivor Series as well as NXT TakeOver: War Games the previous night, so this is a fresh week for WWE. Raw and SmackDown can focus on their own brands again while NXT continues to build the future.
Monday Night Raw (11.20.17)
In the preview for Monday Night Raw, WWE does not provide any answers. Instead, they create questions based on the events of Survivor Series, but it does help us get a good indication of what might happen tonight.
At Survivor Series, Raw ended up winning the battle for brand supremacy by Team Raw winning both elimination matches, The Shield defeating the New Day, and Brock Lesnar defeating AJ Styles. However, most of Raw’s champions failed to find a victory. Sheamus and Cesaro lost to the Usos, The Miz lost to Baron Corbin, and Alexa Bliss failed to defeat Charlotte Flair. It will be interesting to see how this affects their momentum in defending their respective titles down the line.
As for the victors, this leaves both five-person teams, The Shield, and Brock Lesnar. It is safe to assume that Lesnar won’t be back until the Royal Rumble in January to defend the Universal Championship. The Shield might try and cash in their rematch against Sheamus and Cesaro for the Raw Tag Team Championships, but that leaves out Roman Reigns if they don’t apply the Freebird Rule.
The big story coming out of Survivor Series involves only one full-time Superstar: Braun Strowman. Kurt Angle was trying to eliminate Shane McMahon to win the main event match, but Triple H hit Angle with a Pedigree to give McMahon a free elimination. Then, The Game hit his brother-in-law with a Pedigree to win the match and steal all the glory. After the match, Strowman then destroyed HHH with two running powerslams and stood tall to close the show. It will interesting to see how that affects Raw tonight.
SmackDown Live (11.21.17)
While Raw had nothing announced in advance, there was a match scheduled for this week’s episode of SmackDown Live before Survivor Series had even started. A few weeks ago, AJ Styles captured the WWE Championship from Jinder Mahal to earn his spot in the match against Brock Lesnar. Mahal wants his championship rematch this week, with the slight advantage of Lesnar destroying the Phenomenal One only two nights prior.
Like with Raw, there is only speculation about what the remaining titleholders will do. Baron Corbin successfully defended the United States Championship last week against Sin Cara, then he defeated The Miz to give SmackDown their first win of the night yesterday. He could see some potential challengers in the likes of Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, or even a member of the New Day.
When it comes to the SmackDown Women’s Championship, it is only a matter of time before Natalya uses her rematch clause as well, considering she only lost the title to Charlotte Flair last week. There is still the wild card in Carmella, who has been securely holding onto the Money in the Bank briefcase for months.
Lastly, there are the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. The Usos are one of the best tag teams in the world and the proved it even further by defeating Sheamus and Cesaro last night. They had a weird title defense a couple weeks ago against Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin that ended by referee’s decision, so that program might pick back up. If not, it is time for Breezango to finally get some attention. Perhaps the debuting/returning Bludgeon Brothers (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) will play into the title picture.
There are still two main even caliber talents that need addressing: Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. After being left off the main card of Survivor Series entirely, Zayn and Owens attacked Shane McMahon in the main event to help Team Raw secure the victory. They believe that there is a conspiracy against them and it doesn’t seem like they are stopping anytime soon.
205 Live (11.21.17)
While there may be nothing advertised for 205 Live this week, there is an open spot for the Cruiserweight Championship #1 Contender for the first time since Kalisto joined the division. Enzo Amore successfully retained against Kalisto at Survivor Series and it is time for another face to get a chance. This could be a great time for Mustafa Ali, Cedric Alexander, or Gran Metalik to have a proper program.
WWE NXT (11.22.17)
The NXT right after a TakeOver event is always a little underwhelming, but at least there is something scheduled for the show this week. After both Ruby Riot and Sonya Deville failed to defeat Ember Moon in a triple threat match, some trash talk between them has led to a match this week.
