Match of the Night – Survivor Series 2017 “Brock Lesnar vs. A.J. Styles”

Survivor Series started off with a tough start right out the gate. For starters it had to follow NXT Takeover which is always going to make things difficult. On top of that the show was very good but mostly forgettable. The matches were fun but most of them didn’t stand out.

This was an issue I was certain was going to occur. While the idea of a champion vs. champion match is fun… a four hour pay per view without any chance of title changes will always cause  the tension to be a little low. Do we really care about the fictional battle between two TV shows? It’s not like the winner of Survivor series was gonna stay on the air and everyone else would be fired. It was a very weird show in that sense.

Before I discuss this match (which was definitely the only stand out in my eyes) I want to draw attention to the main event which really shined a bright light on an overwhelming issue with WWE. The main event’s survivor series match basically involved all the guys who’ve been in the company for well over 10 years eliminating 4/5 of the newer generation wrestlers right out the gate to basically have a bunch of 40 year old men fight it out. It’s a shining example of some of the things that WWE is still doing very wrong. On the plus it set up a few future matches that I’m stoked for, definitively made Braun Strowman a babyface and gave more fuel to Owen/Zayn’s “Land of Opportunity is bullshit” stance. How much Opportunity is there when your final 3 guys are well established superstars from yesterday-year? Anyway I hope they do something with it.

Now to Brock vs. A.J.

At first I thought this match was a disappointment. The A.J. Styles super-fan in me was just frustrated. Here was Brock just manhandling arguably the most over babyface in the company. The announcers even made sure to bring up how much it resembled John Cena getting his ass handled to him at Summerslam. I sat with a knot in my stomach.

Then the tide changed and I realized that it was a brilliant match playing with our past expectations and building a sense of false hope. There was a point where I genuinely thought … “Holy Shit! It’s gonna happen! A.J. is going to beat Brock clean!”

Of course that didn’t happen but that’s not the point. More than any other match last night, this is the match that made me believe. Looking at a few other people’s twitter and Facebook updates, I wasn’t the only one.

The highlight of the match was when Brock was caught in A.J’s Calf Crusher. They teased Brock tapping. Heyman stood on the sidelines looking genuinely concerned that his Beast would tap and then Brock provided the most violent and incredible defense. Brock grabbed A.J’s head and began to lift his head up and down repeatedly smashing the back of his head into the ring until he let go. It was brutal and amazing. When Brock finally got in his F5 for the win the crowd exploded in cheers, not necessarily because they liked the result but because respect deserves respect. The match was fucking baller.

What this also highlights is how amazingly Brock has been booked over the last few years, but most specifically since Wrestlemania. Him and Goldberg put on a much better match than we had any business getting and while people will continuously complain that the champion is never around it doesn’t matter. When Brock IS around, it matters. There has never been a wasted Brock Lesnar appearance in 2017. Every time he’s there, it matters.

Every match Brock has builds this “will this be the one” feeling. Brock has these nail-biter matches. Deep down we all know that he’s most likely going to hold the title until Wrestlemania and then drop it to the Big Dog. At this point we’ve all just come to this realization and begrudgingly accept it, yet every match be it Brawn Strowman or Samoa Joe, we have a split second where we believe just for a second that they’re about to flip the script.

Last night was no exception. If you only watch one Survivor Series match tomorrow, at least check this one out.