Hello AW Universe,
NXT TakeOver: WarGames is in the books, and the main roster has their work cut out for them to outshine the Saturday night card. Honesty, the card is a little overbooked, and Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown— and NXT for that matter– have been nothing but schmoz finishes and brawls leading into this weekend.
Still, this could turn out to be an incredible event, so here are rundowns and predictions for Survivor Series live in Rosemont.

NXT Championship
Adam Cole Vs. Pete Dunne

Pete Dunne won the Triple Threat match against Damien Priest and Killian Dain at NXT TakeOver: WarGames to earn this opportunity. Survivor Series has a pretty stacked card, so I doubt this match will get the time it normally would at an NXT TakeOver. This is more of a showcase of these two wrestlers to the wider WWE Universe, so they’ll do well even with a limited time slot. There’s no way Adam Cole drops this title after the massive push he’s been getting on all three shows.
Winner: Adam Cole
United States Champion Vs. NXT North American Champion  Vs. Intercontinental Champion
AJ Styles Vs. Roderick Strong Vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

This has the potential to be the match of the night– which is generally the case for the “workman’s titles”– as all three wrestlers are some of the best workers in WWE. It will be interesting to see how they book this, and which direction they decide to roll with in terms of which brands they decide to hand wins to. The way they’ve really pushed on this NXT invasion, then they have to pick up a win somewhere, and this is where I could see that happening. All three will put in a fantastic match, and AJ Styles can still look strong while eating a pin and putting the younger talent over.

Winner: Roderick Strong
Men’s Traditional Survivor Series Triple Threat Elimination Match
Team Raw Vs. Team NXT Vs. Team SmackDown

So apparently Shawn Michaels is going to announce the NXT team on Sunday Night Heat so it’s hard to predict exactly how this will go. Or does it matter? I suppose the most fascinating factor here is what the deal with Kevin Owens is now: he accepted the fourth spot on Ciampa’s deal last night in the men’s WarGames match, so is he an NXT wrestler now whose still representing Monday Night Raw? Hopefully this match gets close to an hour like the Team Raw Vs. Team SmackDown match in 2016 (though that had the benefit of a Goldberg/Brock Lesnar main event that last 90 seconds) as this is really stacked with all-star talent. Despite who will be on the NXT team– does Adam Cole wrestle a third match in two nights?– I would argue that Team Raw has the better team– again, assuming Kevin Owens remains on it– but SmackDown is the flagship show now. Roman Reigns stands tall with Mustafa Ali when it’s all said and done.

Oh, and just so I have it on the record, my guess for Team NXT: Dominik Dijakovic, Keith Lee, Finn Balor, Tommaso Ciampa, and… Owens? He has to be involved here somehow, and Raw will be looking for a replacement some match time (Samoa Joe?).
Winners: Team SmackDown
Women’s Traditional Survivor Series Triple Threat Elimination Match
Team Raw Vs. Team NXT Vs. Team SmackDown
 

I’m not sure exactly how and when Team NXT was announced– somewhere on social media I can only assume– but we now have the two winners from the women’s WarGames match, Rhea Ripley and Candice LeRae, along with enemies Io Shirai and Bianca Belair, and NXT UK wrestler Toni Storm. This seems to be yet another vehicle to putting Rhea Ripley way over, so though I’m not entirely convinced that NXT will win this, Ripley will look strong until the end. SmackDown is likely going to pick up the most wins, and I want to lean towards them winning here too, but I see Charlotte barely getting the best of Ripley in the end.
Winners: Team Raw
Raw Tag Team Champions Vs. NXT Tag Team Champions Vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions
The Viking Raiders (Ivar & Erik) Vs. The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) Vs. The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston)

I don’t know how much there is to say about this match. All three teams are solid, and will work a superb match. The Viking Raiders infiltrated NXT so they seem to be getting the biggest push, but simply based on the fact that I think SmackDown has to pick up another win, this one is going New Day’s way.
Winners: The New Day
Raw Women’s Champion Vs. NXT Women’s Champion Vs. SmackDown Women’s Champion
Becky Lynch Vs. Shayna Baszler Vs. Bayley

This match has probably been given the most actual storyline, beginning with Becky and Shayna (literally) facing off, and then inserting Bayley into the feud with some chair-shots (which honestly could use some work). If the Styles/Strong/Nakamura match isn’t match of the night, then this one will be. Even after Baszler going through WarGames last night and taking a pump-handle slam through propped-up chairs, she is going all-out in this one. Part of me thinks that Bayley is going to pick up this win, both to swerve the audience and to give SmackDown another win. But, I want Becky to win this, continuing a feud with Baszler as she eventually drops the NXT Women’s Championship to Rhea Ripley and moves up to Monday Night Raw to feud with Becky. I’m going with my heart rather than my head on this one.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Universal Championship
“The Fiend” Vs. Daniel Bryan

Who says long-term storytelling doesn’t exist in WWE anymore? This feud is calling back to before WrestleMania XXX where Bryan, at the height of the “Yes” Movement, infiltrating the Wyatt Family and took them down from the inside. I also can’t get enough of Bryan refusing to give in to the crowd and restart the “Yes” Movement is the best storytelling in WWE right now. “The Fiend” has a fancy new belt, and is the strongest looking character in WWE right now, so he ain’t dropping that, but it’s going to be a good match. Like AJ Styles, Bryan is such a good worker that he can eat a pin, simultaneously keeping himself looking strong and putting Wyatt even more over.
The only hope here is that we are spared that red light. Please, no more.
Winner: “The Fiend”
WWE Championship
(No Holds Barred, No Disqualification)
Brock Lesnar Vs. Rey Mysterio

With the hardcore stipulation attached to this match, Rey will get some offence in with a lead pipe or a chair, so this match won’t be a squash by any means. But, even with that being said, and even if Cain Valesquez, makes a run-in, Lesnar ain’t dropping his title either. I bet this will a surprisingly good match, but the ending is inevitable.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
Enjoy Survivor Series everyone!