UPDATE: Mere moments after this post went public, reports emerged that this match has been pulled from the Survivor Series card entirely, due to injuries Becky suffered during last night’s Raw segment. I’m not sure what this leaves that can make Survivor Series particularly exciting, but obviously Becky’s health comes first. For the record, I still stand by everything I said here in theory, even if the discussion has probably been rendered moot.
Let’s talk about Survivor Series. It’s coming up this Sunday, and thanks to the crunch of Super Show-down, Evolution, and Crown Jewel, it feels like there’s barely been time for a build. Although I really believe there’s potential in the brand versus brand gimmick, WWE’s never done a great job of selling that like it matters. Especially with the same two guys, A.J. Styles and Brock Lesnar, holding the top two belts as last year. Don’t get me wrong, their match might have been my favorite Lesnar match ever, but that doesn’t mean I’m all that excited to see them do it again.
So here we are, with less than a week to go before Survivor Series, and the matches have been coming together, but I’m not so sure about the level of excitement. That is, until something happened last night on Raw. To be sure though, it took a while to get there. We’d already seen Ronda Rousey cut a misbegotten promo about how Becky Lynch (who’s two days older than her) is an entitled, oversensitive millennial. We’d seen Brock Lesnar do his usual thing with Heyman, and we’d seen Seth Rollins, although everything going on with him right now is about Dean Ambrose, not about Shinsuke Nakamura, who he’s actually facing on Sunday.
The segment building to the women’s traditional Survivor Series match was pretty good, especially since it featured a surprise Bayley versus Sasha Banks match. But it was only after that ended, with minutes left in the show, when everything changed. A wild Evil Dead-esque camera shot led us into the women’s locker room, where Ronda Rousey was already struggling against Becky Lynch’s armbar. Immediately, what had been a lackluster episode of Monday Night Raw became exciting, thanks to the presence of the Smackdown Women’s Champion.
The excitement continued as Becky made her way out to the ring where seven Raw heels were waiting. Then the rest of the Smackdown women’s roster appeared, and it turned into a brawl. Even as most of women in WWE fought all at once, though, it never stopped being about Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey. When Ronda came out as if to save the rest of her division, Becky beat her down with a steel chair. And as you already know, Becky got her face busted open at some point, so she was covered in her own blood even as she took down Raw’s golden goose. Even if WWE doesn’t want to show off Becky’s bloody face in this PG era, the image of The Man standing bloodied amidst the crowd that cheered her on, her arms raised in triumph, will be an iconic moment forever, not just in Becky’s career, but in wrestling.
So that brings us to our central question: Who’s going to main event Survivor Series 2018? Surely not A.J. Styles versus Brock Lesnar, the sequel. I supposed it could be a Survivor Series match like it was last year, but with the Tag Team match scheduled for the pre-show, there will be plenty of room to put the men’s and women’s matches earlier on the card without bumping them up against each other. Obviously there’s no possible reason to believe it might be the Tag Champs’ match, the Cruiserweight match, or Rollins versus Nakamura.
There’s clearly only one good choice here. Becky Lynch versus Ronda Rousey should absolutely be the main event. This isn’t the time to worry about “making history” or however they want to frame throwing a bone to the women’s division this time. These aren’t just any two women. This is the woman WWE wants to push as a huge star fighting the woman who’s pushed herself to become a huge star whether WWE wants it or not. This is the most over, most exciting rivalry on the card, and they deserve the main event because Becky has earned it and Ronda has done her best to keep up. If ever there’s a time to normalize women being in the main event without making it a huge deal, this is it. Whether the match ends the way every fan wants it to end, or the way WWE seems more inclined to let it end, at least give these women the respect of the slot they deserve.
