WWE Survivor Series 2017 is being headlined with a ten-man tag match. But with only one participant under the age of 35, is WWE setting itself up for future trouble?
On Sunday, November 19, Wwe Survivor Series 2017 will finally go down. It’s been a fascinating, if sometimes frustrating, build to the annual pay per view. The hostilities between the Raw and SmackDown brands have dominated programming for the past several weeks. And it all comes to a head in a few days.
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One of the most anticipated matches is the traditional 5 on 5 Survivor Series elimination match. Five of the top stars on Raw will go up against five of SmackDown Live‘s best. There’s no shortage of star power on either side of the bout. Raw is sending Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, and the recently returned Triple H. SmackDown Live counters with Shane McMahon, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, and “free agent” John Cena.
But taking a closer look at the teams, there’s a potential problem in who’s being featured. Like I said, there’s a ton of star power, but that may be the problem. This match – an all out war for “brand supremacy” – is tailor-made for creating a new superstar. Anyone who has a great showing to prove their roster is the best should be able to shoot up the card in no time. Think Dolph Ziggler back in 2014. (Yeah, yeah, I know how that eventually ended up, but at the beginning Dolph was The Man.)
Instead of finding young superstars to elevate through such a match – like Jason Jordan, who was briefly on Team Raw – WWE is going for the tried and true. Everyone on either team has proven themselves, whether in WWE or elsewhere, to be able to hang in the main event scene. But because of that, there’s two teams of superstars with combined ages of over 200!
The youngest superstar in the match is Strowman, at 34. Five of the competitors are at least 40. One is a Hall of Famer, and not a full time superstar. Two others are part timers, who serve the company in other capacities behind the scenes. And another is basically a part time wrestler at this point in his career.
But there was no room for Jordan, or Sami Zayn, or Kevin Owens, or Tyler Breeze or Fandango, or anyone from 205 Live – you get the picture. At some point in the near future, WWE is going to shoot themselves in the foot when they realize there’s no one with enough star power to replace these aging superstars.
We’ve probably seen The Undertaker wrestle for the last time (maybe not, but probably). Brock Lesnar most likely won’t be around after WrestleMania 34. Cena has already started working on a more part time basis. Who’s around to step up and fill in for those tremendous competitors?
There’s only so many times Kurt Angle can be trotted out for a match – his body is beaten and broken after years of competition and substance abuse. Triple H will eventually get to a point when “biker dad” will be a fantasy, and not something he can turn on at will. Even guys like Balor (36), Joe (38), and Orton (37) will eventually have to start slowing down, as all have had injury issues in the recent past.
It’s a real missed opportunity for WWE to make a new star at Survivor Series. Hopefully, before too long, someone in the company realizes that these athletes will eventually break beyond repair, and someone needs to be groomed to fill the void.
Besides Roman Reigns – he’s good, but there needs to be more than just The Big Dog.
