WWE Survivor Series 2015 — celebrating 25 years of the Undertaker — airs live on WWE Network (and pay-per-view somewhere still, assumedly) this Sunday, Nov. 22. The show is headlined by the semi-finals and finals of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament, as well as a Brothers of Destruction and Wyatt Family tag-team showdown and more.
Here’s the current Survivor Series 2015 card, according to the official website. There’s a lot left to announce, unless they’re giving three hours to five matches.
WWE Survivor Series 2015 Card:
1. WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Semi-Finals Match: Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio
2. WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Semi-Finals Match: Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens
3. WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Finals: Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2
4. Divas Championship Match: Charlotte (c) vs. Paige
5. The Brothers of Destruction vs. 2 opponents chosen by Bray Wyatt
As always, here are our staff predictions and analysis. There’s a lot of room on this show and a lot could happen, so take our “EVERYBODY’S TURNING ON EVERYBODY” fantasy booking with a grain of salt. Be sure to pop down into our comments section and let us know who you think’s winning what, and which matches will be added to the card at the last minute. Sasha Banks vs. Natalya? Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler?* A traditional 5-on-5 elimination tag team match with The New Day and somebody? We’d be down for all of that.
*Edit: This was added on Smackdown, so we’re adding it to the post. If it wasn’t here the first time you scrolled through, scroll through again!
Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler
What Should Happen: Hey, this was added on Smackdown, so we’re adding it here. This is essentially Dolph Ziggler vs. the Ghost of Dolph Ziggler Future … or maybe the original Dolph is the Ghost of Ziggler Past, and he’s wrestling the present? I’m not sure. It’s the Ghost of Shawn Michaels Present vs. The Ghost of Shawn Michaels Future. There you go.
Anyway, this should be the sleeper match of the show, assuming they get some time and really get to play with it. This is the kind of match that can make or break Breeze on the main roster, and Ziggler’s been broken down and built back up so many times it barely matters. I’d give the win to Breeze, because my inclination is to ALWAYS give the win to Breeze.
What Will Happen: If you know anything about Tyler Breeze, it’s that he doesn’t win important matches. He should get the win here, but I think we’ll get Ziggler pulling a surprise win out of his ass somehow. Let’s just hope he doesn’t go all the way to “taking a selfie of Tyler’s unconscious body” yet, and the post-match stuff is limited to Ziggler walking backwards up the ramp while Summer Rae freaks out.
Staff Predictions:
David D. – This also has potential to steal the show. I think Breeze wins via chicanery and the feud continues to an event that people really care about. Or they just wrestle on Smackdown for four months.
Austin Heiberg – Survivor Series is about traditions, so I’m going to honor my long-standing NXT tradition of picking Tyler Breeze to win while knowing full well he won’t. He’s going to be okay, guys… right? Right?!
Jessica Hudnall – Hopefully Ziggler tries to reason with Breezus and say that they aren’t so different, They are both athletic, handsome blond Fight Mans, so hey, why not put aside their differences and Just Be Pals? Then Breeze kicks Dog Ziggler’s face off because c’mon, Tyler would never have noodle hair.
Danielle Matheson – Why aren’t they a tag team called “Gentlemen Prefer Being Blonde?” Is it because Tyler’s mane is actually annoyingly brassy, and someone that self-obsessed should probably look into a cooling platinum rinse? Summer, come get your boy. The rules of hair care are simple and finite, but I will take brassy yet classy over the concerning root situation Zigs has got going on.
The Brothers of Destruction vs. 2 opponents chosen by Bray Wyatt
What Should Happen: You can’t have a pay-per-view dedicated to 25 Years Of The Undertaker and have The Undertaker lose his match, can you? I mean, you’re WWE so yeah, of course you can, but you probably shouldn’t. The “Bray chooses 2 opponents” stipulation is a real Spin The Wheel, Make The Deal situation, where you can insert powerful guys and have them destroy the Brothers of Destruction to build up something for Royal Rumble/WrestleMania season, or you can put in Harper and Rowan and have it be as underwhelming as possible and have them lose. If you’re going to honor Taker and assumedly set up something for a bigger show down the road, I’d say give the Brothers a win here to make them look like the biggest, toughest, most unbeatable duo ever, then splinter it or have them get run over during a different, better build.
What Will Happen: That “what should happen” stuff makes too much sense to me, so I’ll pick Taker and Kane. I don’t see the logic in having Undertaker Week and a dozen tribute videos to the man if you’re gonna have him lose to Bray Wyatt and an irradiated Rosebud. Besides, you can have the Brothers of Destruction win clean and still have plenty of time post-match to do the spooky bullsh*t storytelling.
Staff Predictions
David D. – The Brothers of Destruction win here thanks to lightning strikes from heaven. God hates this pay-per-view by the by. Stroman might run in at the end and take out Undertaker, leaving the door open for that match at WrestleMania if they want it.
Austin Heiberg – This is NOT how I wanted this to play out. It should have been the entire Wyatt Family vs. the Brothers and two mystery opponents under traditional Survivor Series rules. Wyatt’s all cocky and doing his zealot laugh and suddenly the lights go out and OH SNAP IT’S FINN BALOR AND STING. Ugh, I have to lower my expectations. ‘Taker and Kane for the win, obviously.
Jessica Hudnall – Braun and Luke make sense to me, since Braun is the size of six horses, while Luke isn’t Erick Rowan, and Erick Rowan is always the worst possible option. On the flip side, Rowan would negate Kane nicely, if one poop is capable of negating another poop. I’ll say the Wyatts win this one, just so that next month, Kane and Undie can bring in the Little Brother they’ve been mentoring for years, Baron Corbin.
Danielle Matheson – Spooky old man fights!! Ohhh, I want to love this, please be crazy enough to let me love this. So many possibilities as to who the opponents could be. Two holograms of Bray Wyatt! Two children stacked on top of each other in a druid robe and a sheep mask, and an actual sheep in a druid robe and child’s mask! Or…Luke Harper and one of the other ones. Whatever. I feel like this feud is one of the only times WWE will have license to go off the board and get as weird as possible, and I want that. Just get weird as f*ck. If people have gone along with the Undertaker as an undead dude for this long, we can suspend disbelief for him to fight with the shell of Husky Harris inhabited by a demon who got jealous that Kane might be the Devil’s favourite son. Winner: Bray Wyatt’s minions, if only so they have time to continue the feud and actually have some fun with it.
Divas Championship Match: Charlotte (c) vs. Paige
What Should Happen: You pissed off the gentle WWE Universe by adding dead kid heat to your Divas Championship contract signing, so now’s the time to pay it off. If Charlotte starts this match with a collar-and-elbow tie-up, she should be stuffed into a crate and mailed back to OVW. I want fists, brawling, maybe even a little blood. I’m not like YEAH, LADIES SHOULD BLEED, but if you reference my brother in a promo and he died of a heroin overdose and is my reason for being here, I’m punching you in the face until it changes colors, you know?
What Will Happen: As much as I like Charlotte, her reign as Divas Champion started with all the heat sucked out and stayed cold boogers on a paper plate, so Paige should get the win here. She’s got Charlotte emotionally compromised, she’s got years of experience playing mind games with impressionable folks to get what she wants — thanks for letting her absorb your powers, AJ — and she’s got a Christmas movie to promote. Isn’t it weird that WWE can send a lady out to do promotion for a family Christmas film AND mock a lady’s dead little brother in the same week?
Staff Predictions
David D. – Who the f*ck knows what WWE has next in this angle. WWE got so much attention that I wouldn’t be surprised if they have Bodie or D’Angelo Barksdale do a run-in here. I guess Charlotte wins and we all feel worse about ourselves and wrestling.
Austin Heiberg – Don’t piss into the wind, don’t tug on Superman’s cape, and don’t aggravate a Flair. Charlotte needs a statement win, and she’ll get one here. Hopefully she’ll drag Sweet Saraya and the Zebra Kid into this somehow.
Jessica Hudnall – Wait, my options here are Not $A$HA and Also Not $A$HA? That’s some butts, you guys. Some major butts. Let’s go with blonde Not $A$HA to retain the title, but seriously, WE WANT $A$HA! (Clap, clap. Clap, clap, clap)
Danielle Matheson – They’ve been so desperate to protect the heat on Paige and the maligned Flair family, mostly because it’s the only real heat this could have gotten. WWE didn’t show their work in giving this a logical build-up, so now we have to forget about established canon and the weird, jealousy-laden twists and turns because Paige made a bunch of Flairs cry. Woopity-doo. Charlotte retains.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Semi-Finals Match: Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens
What Should Happen: This is the closet thing left we have to a “surprise” in the title tournament, but as much as I’d like to see Owens get a surprise win and shake things up, it doesn’t make any sense. This whole tournament was built around the Reigns/Ambrose final and someone’s sudden but inevitable betrayal. I’d open the show with this, have them tear it up, then have Owens stick around to get all indignant and defend his IC strap. You’ve only got five matches and The Shield’s pulling double-duty, so why can’t he KO? Have him work two matches in a night and then give Melissa Joan Hart the finger.
What Will Happen: Ambrose wins. Like I said, he has to. It’s the point of the tournament.
Staff Predictions
David D. – This has the potential to be match of the night. Ambrose has been looking great and Owens is not lazy at all, dammit. The safe thing to do here would be to just have Owens win and lose clean to Reigns in the final. But I think we’re destined for an Ambrose/Reigns main event.
Austin Heiberg – Whoa, who put in this old Tournament of Death DVD? I’m banking on this match being a lot of fun, but I really don’t think we’re doing anything other than Ambrose vs. Reigns in the finals. Sorry, Kevin… still a huge fan, but I think we can only do the dual-champ thing once in a blue moon. I’ve got Dean.
Jessica Hudnall – Sorry Dean-O, the power of your dirtbike theme song won’t save you here. Owens is going to throw Ambrose around a lot. He might even collect a pinky finger just for the heck of it.
Danielle Matheson – A match to burn the internet to the ground! Everything in my brain still leads to BUT WHAT IF THE SHIELD MEMBERS DID A THING so I’m practically auto-picking Dean in this scenario. The only guarantee is, this is going to be way better than Del Rio-Reigns, unless SHIELD THINGS happen, probably the match of the night.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Semi-Finals Match: Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio
What Should Happen: I’ll be honest, if Del Rio defeats Roman Reigns here it’ll be the most shocking thing that’s happened in WWE in years, and might actually cause me to turn off my TV and watch it later. I’m not even a big Roman Reigns fan, but holy sh*t, if WWE sends dead-eyed Alberto Del Rio and his dead-everything-else MexAmerica storyline to the finals, someone in creative had a stroke.
There isn’t an imaginable scenario where Roman Reigns should lose this. I don’t care if you like him or not. Maybe “Dario Cueto secretly took over WWE and snuck El Patron into the finals to take the WWE World Heavyweight Championship,” but if that happens it’s a whole other conversation.
What Will Happen: Del Rio takes 55 minutes to set up his corner double-stomp, only for Roman to do a big sit-up and Superman Punch him in the face. If Roman can somehow push himself out of the corner into an upside-down spear on the way down, that’d be lovely. Roman wins strong, hopefully in 5 minutes or less, and Del Rio goes back to his busy schedule of staring off into the distance while “The Sounds of Silence” plays in his head.
Staff Predictions
David D. – Alberto goes over clean here. SIKE I LIED. Del Rio started off with some great matches but has sort of cooled off and become just another guy again. This match could really get him back on track if it’s great. Still, Roman wins. Duh.
Austin Heiberg – Earlier this year, I said to anyone who would listen that my favorite thing about wrestling in 2015 was Alberto Del Rio finding his smile again and reclaiming his spot as lucha royalty. But now, in a move far too typical for me, I have to take that all back. This new, disinterested Alberto makes me sad, and I don’t think even his lucrative new contract includes anything about two titles at once. Reigns to the finals is a foregone conclusion here.
Jessica Hudnall – Pardon my lack of wit or humor, it’s not that I don’t care, but c’mon, it was always going to be Roman in the finals. Besides, we learned last week that armbars have a 0 percent success rate when going up against PUNCHES TO THE DANG FACE.
Danielle Matheson – Is there a more foregone conclusion that the Handsome Yet Inexplicably Wet Prince going over Del Rio? Like, really. I feel like I would have just as much of a chance at beating Reigns as Del Rio does. Oh my god, can you even imagine me trying to wrestle Roman Reigns? Just giggling and miming him jerking off his wrist and chasing him around with a towel trying to dry his hair shouting C’MERE WET BOY. I feel like the prelude to me getting superman punched into oblivion would still probably be a more interesting match than what we’ll get here and actually hey WWE let me do that I’ll bring my own towel and everything.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Finals: Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2
What Should Happen: Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose, and we finally get an answer to the question we’ve been asking for a month. Which one of these guys ends up selling out to Triple H, going Corporate, and turning their back on their “brother?” I’d rather see it be Ambrose, because the image of Corporate Dean Ambrose all bathed and cleaned up and acting like a snobby asshole is something I REALLY want to see, but also because it’d give Reigns an actual emotional reason to chase the championship besides “I’m the guy they want chasing the championship.” At the same time, Corporate Reigns might be what Roman needs to turn him from the Third Uso into the Second Rock.
You know what else would be fun? Owens surprising Ambrose in the semis and pinning him, only for Ambrose to return in the finals and screw over Reigns. That’d be surprising in two different directions. Plus, it’d give Owens that WrestleMania main-event he was promised when he helped Seth Rollins out a few weeks ago. Note: this is not happening.
What Will Happen: Man, I don’t know. This one’s too close to call. I have to play the odds and say Roman. No matter what, I’m excited to see which (if any) trigger they pull. I still want them to do the Finn Balor/Samoa Joe thing and have the tournament end clean, and do the turn on Raw.
Staff Predictions
David D. – Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose. So many possibilities here, so little time. I’ve gone back and forth on this for a bit so my answer will probably change between now and Sunday. However, I think the end result is Sheamus cashing in and winning – furthering the narrative that Reigns just keeps getting robbed. How does Sheamus do it? I think Roman beats Ambrose, then Ambrose turns and beats him up, allowing Sheamus the opening to cash in. OR Reigns and Ambrose are knocked out a la Reigns/Lesnar and Sheamus comes in and cashes in during the match. Roman gets fed up and attacks Ambrose. Did I just make two predictions to the same match? Yes. Do something about it.
Austin Heiberg – Ugh, this was so easy before all the backstage chatter of plans changing. There WILL be a turn here, that much seems obvious. Dean would be the better heel, but Roman going corporate would be more cathartic and send Ambrose further down his loose-cannon spiral. I have to believe Reigns will buy in and win his first WWE Championship. Or, you know, Sheamus could just crash the party and pick the bones. Lord knows we all wanted to see a Sheamus/Reigns/Ambrose match at Wrestlemania rather than the climactic, final implosion of The Shield. WHY CAN’T HUMAN KNEES LAST FOREVER?
Jessica Hudnall – Roman Reigns VERSE Kevin Owens for the Double You E championship! And guess what, gang? Kevin is gonna win this dang thing, for two reasons: One, Kevin Owns and two: John Cena will be back sooner than Seth Rollins, so now we can have Cena Versus Owens Part Two, This Time For a Thing That Actually Matters.
Danielle Matheson – SHIELD MEMBERS DO A THING. That and Roman wins. Just like Roman is physically better at leaning and and taking a brutal offense, he’s much better standing up and leting heels throw verbal bombs at him than he is at tossing them back. Let Dean Ambrose be the one torn about joining the Authority out of spite. Let him be their option C. It opens up so many more creative paths than “Roman furrows his brows a bunch because he doesn’t know whether to be good or evil or if he remembered to turn the stove off before he left the house” and I want to go down all of them.
