Elton's Weekly Wrestling High Spots and Botches: November 15-November 21

High Spots: Kevin Owens has snapped...AGAIN! And that’s just how I like the big French-Canadian. Owens gave Big E a piece of his mind and let it be known that his return to heeldom is all Big E’s fault. That change to his character is infinitely more interesting than his previous babyface persona, plus it gives Big E the perfect killer heel to feud with besides Seth Rollins. If Owens is truly booking it to AEW once his WWE contract comes up in January of next year, then I can totally see him doing some of the best work of his career as Raw’s resident menace until then. The Street Profits and Alpha Academy have wrestled each other a thousand and one times on Smackdown already, but I never get tired of it. They had yet another matchup here and it ended up being another highlight of this show (no shock there). I would have preferred seeing Chad Gable and Otis getting the win, but I get that Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins had to get the W as it looks like they’re next in line for a shot against RK-Bro. Otis’ continued growth as a terrifying brute is fascinating to me - I hope he gets a big singles push in the future to truly capitalize on his new and improved character.

Owens got to show out with the homie Finn Bálor in an unsurprisingly delightful matchup. Finn definitely went above and beyond to incapacitate Owens with a stiff running dropkick that sent him right into the ringside barrier. But Owens fought off all the punishment done to him and eventually took his foe out of the game with a nasty Stunner. Those two men just don’t have it in ‘em to have a bad match, especially when it’s against each other. That was some damn good stuff there! We got yet another change to the Survivor Series Men’s lineup and this time it resulted in a far more sensible addition to the Raw side. Bobby Lashley and Rey Mysterio had a pretty good main event that saw the Lucha Libre pioneer look great against his larger opposition. There were some sloppy moments here and there, but they weren’t bad enough to fully take me out of the match. Lashley’s Full Nelson destruction of Rey-Rey forced Adam Pierce’s hand as he replaced him with Austin Theory. You’ll get no complaints from me there!

Botches: As I mentioned in my last set of wrestling highlights, this year’s build to Survivor Series has been highly confusing and a complete bust. And sadly, the lackluster road to WWE’s annual November PPV continued here. The Brand Split is practically meaningless these days, so I wasn’t shocked by The Usos randomly running onto Monday Night Raw to get the drop on Big E and the Raw Tag Team Champions. Setting up a tag match between the SmackDown Tag Team Champions against the WWE Champion and Riddle could have been halfway decent, but it only lasted two minutes thanks to a run-in from Seth Rollins. Then we got a six-man tag that added Randy Orton and Rollins to the mix. But that match didn’t really hit for me like I thought it would due to the lame DQ finish that led into it and the overall lack of excitement surrounding it concerning Survivor Series’ horrible build. 

Bianca Belair is “Black Girl Magic” personified. But even she can’t create greatness out of thin air when she’s forced to work with the always terrible Tamina Snuka. Their match sucked, but I won’t place an ounce of blame on Bianca for that outcome. Tamina just stinks out the joint every time she’s booked to wrestle or even speak. I’ve long since stopped caring about Becky Lynch these days. Her comeback hasn’t recaptured any of the fire she had before her long hiatus and her Survivor Series matchup with Charlotte Flair is one of the least interesting bouts booked for the PPV. I’m not too keen on watching Becky take on Liv Morgan, either - Liv’s been through hell and back due to WWE’s odd booking decisions regarding her career. But Liv's dueling promo with Becky just fell flat here, in my opinion. And as for a future matchup between the two, I’m fairly confident in feeling that it won’t be all that good. Nikki A.S.H. and Zelina Vega wrestled for two minutes & some change and I was completely uninterested for the entirety of it. I had that exact same feeling moments later once Rhea Ripley battled against Carmella. It pains me to say this, but the Raw women’s division was a complete misfire in every segment it was a part of here.

I think I’m ready to see AJ Styles move on from his whole partnership with Omos now. It started out fine, but I’ve grown a bit tired of watching Omos move around the ring as slow as possible and pull off his generic big man offense. The Dirty Dawgs got treated like nothing but annoying mosquitoes by the larger Omos - Ziggler got caught with a Military Press Drop and a Phenomenal Elbow to end his suffering. And through it all, I couldn't help but feel that AJ is much better served doing something else at this point besides screaming commands at his oversized tag team partner/personal bouncer.

High Spots: Man, the overall run time for most of the matches on this episode ran a bit too short for my tastes. Some of those matches were decent and on their way to being more than serviceable before they ended out of nowhere. Case in point - Dexter Lumis vs. Tony D’Angelo. That one lasted no more than three minutes, yet it still turned out to be a satisfactory encounter. And I may be the only one who feels this way, but it was really the best bout of the entire evening. The crowd was hot for it since they adore both men’s gimmicks (I only rock with Dexter’s unhinged ass!) and the action put on display by both men was highly exciting in some parts. I’m all the way here for a rematch between those two with 10+ minutes attached to it. After Dexter pulled away with the win, Carmello Hayes and Trick Williams hit the ring to get their shots in on the crazed man. This post-match beatdown added even more heat to the future matchup between Hayes and Johnny Gargano - speaking of that enticing matchup, Pete Dunne is also going to be a part of the proceedings on the next episode. FIRE!

Joe Gacy’s gimmick annoys the hell outta me, but I gotta admit - the man can go once the bell rings. So his little backstage run-in with NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong has me thoroughly intrigued for a future matchup between the two. Speaking of old Roddy Boy, he and his Diamond Mine stablemates got engaged in a solid six-man affair with Jacket Time (good lord, that name…) and Odyssey Jones. The Creed Brothers continue to get better and better, as evidenced by this action-packed affair. That was another case of a match that I wish got a wee bit more time, however. There’s nothing better than watching Andre Chase get beaten like a government mule (shout out to “Good Ol’ JR!”). Xyon Quinn smashed him pretty quickly, which provided a rare case of me not complaining at all about a short match’s runtime. Xyon didn’t get to celebrate his victory for too long since Legado del Fantasma put his ass down. Santos Escobar made his return and did right by his leading lady Elektra Lopez by KO-ing Xyon on top of a metal grating. Ay, I’m not gon hold you - a match between Xyon and Santos would slap!

Kyle O’Reilly and Von Wagner continued to be the world’s most unnatural duo, but they still had an adequate match with Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, folks - the match was just a bit too short to really be anything other than alright. Von’s lame-ass finisher is nothing more than a transitional move that needs to be changed ASAP! Kyle got himself a win though, so at least there’s a silver lining in that end to the match. Tomasso Ciampa knew exactly what he was doing when he told Bron Breakker that he has less than a 33 and ⅓% chance of ever beating him for the NXT Championship! I’m sure that line caused Scott Steiner to come up out of his chair and scream various expletives at his TV. Nice little callback to Scott’s infamous TNA promo there. I can’t wait to see a runback of Tomasso and Bron’s first NXT Championship match in the near future.

Botches: I kinda wish LA Knight was on the main roster mixing it up with Raw or SmackDown’s top stars on the microphone. I feel like he’s much better served delivering some verbal put-downs on the likes of Kevin Owens or Xavier Woods instead of wasting his breath on Grayson Waller. This feud just feels so beneath him, honestly. I don’t hate Grayson by any means, though. But sticking LA with him isn’t the sort of feud that someone of LA’s caliber should be saddled with nowadays. Cameron Grimes is another NXT 1.0 talent that deserves to prosper on the main roster, too - watching him participate in a supremely boring game of poker and get torn to shreds by the equally dull Duke Hudson was the very definition of tedious. That whole feud is just a complete waste of Cameron’s talents and nothing worth getting excited about. 

“Lashing Out with Lash Legend” has already taken the (dis)honor of being the worst talk show in wrestling this year, but it continued to litter my TV screen with steaming piles of trash here. We got corny-ass jokes galore and cringy interactions with the host once Grayson hopped onto the scene. Just some terrible stuff all around, honestly. Speaking of unfunny and cringeworthy, MSK’s horrible vignettes made their unwelcome return here. Their continued search for their inspirational shaman is completely insufferable. Persia Pirotta practically massacred two jobbers in a handicap match. I usually enjoy stuff like that, but Persia’s generic offense and unremarkable look left me feeling a bit uninspired. Persia’s tall, pretty...and that’s about it. Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai have never been all that interesting when it comes to their in-ring skills. So watching those two face each other in the main event didn’t really captivate me. Toxic Attraction and Cora Jade don’t do anything for me either, so I was left yawning for far too long during that post-match brawl between them and the match’s participants. Getting a WarGames match between that lineup of ladies doesn’t fill me with a lot of hope for what’s to come...

High Spots: Post-PPV shows are usually never this good. But here comes AEW with one of its best episodes of Dynamite to date just a few days after its Full Gear show. We got everything here - good to great matches, exciting teases of future matchups, and some incredible promos. One of the most intriguing feuds that got set up on this episode was the one between MJF and CM Punk. MJF rubbed it in the fans’ faces and let ‘em know that he’s AEW’s best wrestler and greatest talker on the mic. Then...CM Punk’s music hit and the crowd came unglued! All Punk did was waltz into the ring, look MJF dead in the face, ignore his attempt at a handshake, and walk off while smiling sarcastically at him. Not one word was spoken on Punk’s behalf and I’m perfectly fine with that ‘cause it’s the perfect tease for what’s to come between Punk & MJF on the microphone. Virginia’s hometown champion Adam Page came out to talk his cowboy shit and rejoice over his AEW World Championship win. His next challenger hit the ring and showed everyone just how easy it is for him to switch up his character to that of a heel in an instant. I loved how Bryan mentioned the word WrestleMania and got showered by boos from the amped-up crowd. A pull-apart brawl between the champion and challenger got me super hype about their eventual meeting, whenever that may be.

Bryan stayed in “throwback ROH killer heel” mode as he locked up with Evil Uno in a pretty cool affair. Uno put up a good fight, but Bryan was just too much for him to handle - Bryan yelled the F word at the top of his lungs as he kicked Uno’s ‘effin head in and got one of the quickest submission calls from the ref I’ve ever seen. Bryan’s looking to take out every member of the Dark Order before he faces Adam. I can’t wait to see Bryan rekindle one of his old ROH beefs by squaring up Colt Cabana in Chicago. The wheels are officially turning when it comes to a potential battle for “Elite” leadership between Kenny Omega and Adam Cole. Kenny alluded to him taking some time away from the ring - he told The Young Bucks to hold down the fort while he’s gone. Adam spoke up pretty fast and told Kenny that he’ll step into his leadership role for the time being. This caused an awkward moment between the two when Kenny noted that he was talking to Matt and Nick Jackson, which told me that Adam’s going to try some slick shit when it comes to his position within the Elite.

New Japan’s “Stone Pitbull” and new NEVER Openweight Champion Tomohiro Ishii made his AEW debut alongside Orange Cassidy against The Butcher & The Blade. This match gave me exactly what I wanted when it was first announced - a stiff, big-man war between Tomohiro and The Butcher. The Butcher looked good against Tomohiro, but he ultimately fell in defeat. The Blade caught a mean Brainbuster from Tomohiro and the crowd loved watching it in front of their very eyes. The TBS Women’s Championship Tournament kept rolling on with a banger of a match between Nyla Rose and Hikaru Shida, who are two women that have developed some great chemistry with each other. This match got a good amount of time to blossom into something awesome and made good use of it thanks to some smart storytelling and well-paced action. Hikaru's knee came into play during the whole match and got damaged even further by Serena Deeb during a run-in attack. Nyla’s misplaced Swanton Bomb into a steel chair almost cost her the match, but she eventually got over it and tapped Hikaru out with a rare Stretch Muffler. Great stuff there!

Lio Rush & Dante Martin had another dope outing and this time it was against The Acclaimed. Things started out on a high-flying note before the match went into hyperspeed thanks to Lio’s amazing agility and synergy with Dante. Max Caster and Anthony Bowens looked adequate in there, that’s for sure. But they just weren’t ready to get rid of their much quicker foes. Lio’s Frog Splash is a thing of beauty, isn’t it? Afterward, Team Tazz kept trying to make their case for Dante to become the newest member of their stable. We still haven’t gotten an answer yet, but I’m guessing Dante declines it and gets himself embroiled in a fresh feud with the FTW Champion Ricky Starks. I’m so here for it! As far as upcoming matches go, Adam Cole & Bobby Fish vs. Jurassic Express & Jade Cargill vs. Red Velvet sound like future barnburners for the next episode of Rampage. Side note - Bobby Fish getting stopped by The SuperKliq before he dropped the Undisputed Era’s catchphrase during his backstage promo had me in tears! That eight-man tag between Andrade El Idolo, FTR, and Malakai Black vs. Cody Rhodes, the Lucha Brothers, and Pac sounds like it's also gonna be one for the ages on the next episode of Dynamite. And I feel the exact same way about Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Garcia.

Jay Lethal’s very first match in AEW took place in the main event and it was a damn good one! The former ROH regular got into it with Sammy Guevera for the TNT Championship and definitely sent the crowd home happy. Sammy’s ribs played a huge part in how the match unfolded as Jay worked it over and even had the ref consider ending the match to keep Sammy from further injury. Sammy fought through the pain and brought the fight to Jay, which resulted in both men going back and forth to keep the crowd attentive and loud from bell to bell. The opening exchange of pinning cradles, Sammy’s ill-timed Shooting Star Press right into Jay’s knees, and Sammy’s crash & burn Swanton Bomb into a nearby table all got big pops outta me! It really looked as if Jay was going to win the TNT Championship in his AEW debut, but Sammy stayed in the fight and eventually KO’d his challenger with several flying knees & his Go to Hell finisher. Jay lost in her very first AEW match, but I have no reason to complain about that - both men had an excellent match and proved that the TNT Championship scene is full of greatness.

Botches: Darby Allin vs. Billy Gunn? I’m not too keen on that match being anything other than a big bowl of meh...

High Spots: Josh Alexander vs. Minoru Suzuki was everything I hoped it would be - a brutal, hard-hitting contest that perfectly played to both men’s strengths. The elbow shots were extra stiff, the chest slaps echoed through the arena, and the submission exchanges had me & the crowd on the edge of their seats. I think they should have saved this one for Turning Point so it could have gotten even more time to flourish on the violence scale. I’m still satisfied with what I got here, though! That C4 Spike Josh planted Minoru with is gonna be in every “OMG wrestling movez!” compilation vid from this point forward. At the start of this episode, we got a pretty decent X-Division affair between Steve Maclin and Laredo Kid. Steve’s at the very bottom of my list when it comes to my favorite Impact Wrestling roster members, but I’ll give him credit where credit is due - he and the young luchador did some fine work with each other. My money’s on Trey Miguel retaining his X-Division Championship at Turning Point even with Steve’s late addition to the match.

Chris Sabin and Ace Austin talked real spicy to each other during a backstage segment. It all led to both guys getting booked in a match at Turning Point and it also resulted in Madman Fulton getting thrown into a freezer. You hate to see it! Sorry about your damn luck, big guy. Moose and Eddie Edwards are set to do battle for the Impact World Championship at Turning Point - they showed their immense hatred for one another with a big brawl that was full of the intensity you expect from both guys. Eddie got pummeled atop the ring apron, but he recovered enough to take the fight to Moose with some nasty chair shots. Eddie almost catapulted himself off a tall ass ladder right through Moose on a table, but the Impact World Champion peaced out before that could even happen. Now I’m way more excited about that main event going down since it's been changed to Full Metal Mayhem!

I really expected the worst from Doc Gallows vs. Hikuleo, but they genuinely surprised me with their big hoss battle. It was way better than it had any right to be - both men didn’t do anything too fancy and just relentlessly clobbered each other. On the promo front, Deonna Purazzo and Eric Young shined on the mic during their respective segments. I can’t wait to see what Madame Deonna decides to do next and I’m extra curious about what EY has in store for Heath & Rhyno at Turning Point. Mickie James and Mercedes Martinez also did some fine promo work hyping up their Knockout Championship bout on PPV.

Botches: The IInspiration will forever be Stan’d by yours truly. But I gotta put ‘em in the botches section for their severely below average meeting with the Undead Bridesmaids. I get that it was put in place to build up the Knockouts Tag Team Championship match at Turning Point against the Decay. But I think that whole ordeal would have been better served as a dueling promos segment instead of that sad excuse for a match. That six-man between Fallah Bah, Hernandez, and Johnny Swinger vs. Black Taurus, Crazzy Steve, and The Demon did not need to happen. I understand why it had to happen, but it was the drizzling shits and had no business taking up time on this show. WCW’s failed Demon experiment shouldn’t be a thing in 2021, plus Hernandez and Johnny Swinger are beyond cringe at this point. You can probably guess that I want no parts of Wrestle House 2...

High Spots: Roman Reigns done pushed King Woods far enough! With The Usos’ assistance, our “Tribal Chief” destroyed his throne, crushed his priceless crown, and assaulted him at the start of the show. Even still, Woods came out at the end of the night looking for all the smoke with Roman. One man came out to even the odds in the 2021 King of the Ring’s favor, however - THE WWE CHAMPION, BIG E! We finally got to see Raw and SmackDown’s respective champions come to blows in a preview of their Champion vs. Champion Survivor Series clash. By the time Jimmy and Jey Uso ran in, they got caught with a combined offensive from Big E and King Woods FTW! Big E turned his back for a split second and got dropped with a Superman Punch, though. But a Spear attempt from Roman almost got him dropped by a Big Ending. That hype ending definitely got me a bit more invested in that Survivor Series main event now!

That Fatal Four Way match was an awesome showcase of two veterans who are always in prime fighting form, one terrible veteran that continues to be a huge waste of space, and a high-flying superstar that deserves to be spotlighted even more. Ricochet went sky high as usual, Cesaro took Jinder Mahal for a long Big Swing ride, Sheamus brutalized the opposition the only way he knew how, and Jinder...looked good taking a 630 Senton. Ridge Holland's run-in distraction came into play to help Sheamus get the win, which came as no surprise. That result has me chomping at the bit for a future clash between Cesaro and Ridge - I just know both men’s stiff uppercuts and elbow shots are gonna ring off so damn loud in whatever arena they choose to do battle in. Someone must have taken notes from the Shang-Chi movie ‘cause we got a pretty sweet comic book origin story for Xia Li. Who knew she had such a tough upbringing? I’m pretty excited to see her kick people’s heads off on Friday Nights real soon as “The Protector.”

So Sasha Banks and Shotzi tried to end each other just a few days before their tenure as partners at Survivor Series. They got embroiled in a hell of a fight that gave me a better look at Shotzi’s improvement in the ring. Sasha went extra hard with the Diving Meteora’s, but Shotzi made sure to respond in kind with plenty of offense aimed at Sasha’s injured arm. I liked what I saw there and am totally open to seeing this feud go a bit longer after Survivor Series. Sasha got the first W via submission, so let’s hope Shotzi stays angry enough to request a rematch with her at some point. At the other end of the women’s division spectrum for the Blue Brand, Toni Storm finally got an answer from SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair regarding a future matchup. I hope we’re getting that war between the two on the next episode of SmackDown. Toni’s been MIA for far too long, so it’s about time she got to appear more often on Friday nights.

Botches: Sonya Deville’s heel authority figure gimmick continues to be insufferable - it’s easily the worst part of the show lately. The tag match between Naomi & Aliyah vs. Shayna Baszler & Natalya barely lasted a minute before a screwy ref counted extra fast in favor of the heels. I don’t see any reason why that match needed to end so soon and with such a shitty result to boot. Call me crazy, but I actually wanted to see Jeff Hardy and Madcap Moss get at least five to six minutes for their first-time matchup. I get why it was so short (gotta keep SmackDown’s Survivor Series teammates strong!), but it ended on a lame small package. At least we got a Swanton Bomb and a Claymore Kick out of the post-match proceedings, I guess.

A match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Angel should go way longer than a minute and some change, wouldn’t you all say? Two international talents of that caliber should be going at it for damn near 20+ minutes! I was highly disappointed by the short run time given to them and wish they’d gotten more time to give me just a slither of hope about SmackDown’s midcard potential. The Intercontinental Championship is just there for show at this point and doesn’t really play into anything going on on this show any longer, sadly...

High Spots: Jade Cargill and Red Velvet got some good chemistry forming between them, I see! It makes sense since they looked pretty good against each other during that whole mixed tag match that also featured Cody Rhodes and Shaq. Their TBS Women’s Championship Tournament match ended up being a hard-fought contest between the two ladies that did two admirable things - it made Jade look a bit better as she got to compete in a longer match this time and Miss Red did a great job of fighting from underneath as the ultimate underdog. Red Velvet looked to have it a few times, but Jade shook off all the damage done to her and eventually put her smaller foe in the dirt. 

We ended up getting a strong main event between Adam Cole and Bobby Fish against Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus). Seeing two of NXT’s previous Undisputed Era members come together once again to do some damage on the AEW stage brought a nostalgic tear to my eye. Jungle Boy looked crisp as always, but it was Luchasaurus that stole the show once again thanks to his crowd-popping hot tag comeback. The Young Bucks distraction took a while to come to an end, but Christian Cage eventually ran them off. Adam left his boy Bobby behind to get choked out by Jungle Boy’s Snare Trap, so it looks like Adam could care less about his former stablemate after all. Since this feud doesn’t look like it’s over quite yet, I think it’s about time Adam and Christian mix it up for the first time ever to keep the story going.

Botches: I could have lived without that Billy Gunn vs. Darby Allin match, to be honest. It wasn’t horrendous by any means - I enjoyed watching Darby land a Coffin Drop on Billy’s two sons and I for sure got a kick out of the crowd sending “ASS MAN!” and “ASS BOY!” chants at Mr. Gunn. But everything moved at a snail’s pace while Billy was in control and there just wasn’t a whole lot going on. Darby got the win as expected. But The Gunn Club stood tall at the end, which tells me that this feud isn’t over just yet. This just feels like a huge step down for Darby as far as new beefs go. Darby and Sting certainly deserve better in that department. And I don’t know about y’all, but CM Punk vs. QT Marshall is the last thing I wanna see on my TV screen.

High Spots: I’ve been kinda iffy on New Japan Pro Wrestling this year - the roster’s been way too stagnant without too many fresh faces in rotation, some of the booking decisions have been puzzling, and the extra quiet Japanese fans (who have been forced to clap instead of cheer due to the pandemic) are all factors that have brought my interest levels down immensely. But now that we’re on the road to WrestleKingdom 16, my interest in NJPW is starting to come back a bit. That event is actually going to be three days next year and, so far, Shingo Takagi vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on Night One and the winner of that match facing Will Ospreay for the same title on Night Two has been locked in place. 

Night Three has me super amped though ‘cause it’s going to be a night filled with inter-promotional bouts between NJPW and Pro Wrestling NOAH. My man Okada got extra disrespectful during the promo vid for that event when he said “do Olympic athletes keep tabs on what the local amateur athletic club is doing? Of course not.” Go Shiozaki might have to pull up on his ass for talkin’ so spicy about his home promotion! I can’t wait to hear about the full card for that NJPW vs. NOAH WAR!

Impact Wrestling’s latest installment of Turning Point was a quality event, I must say. Moose/Eddie Edwards, Chris Sabin/Ace Austin, Mickie James/Mercedes Martinez, and (shockingly!) W. Morrissey/Matt Cardona stood out as the most satisfying matches of the evening. On top of all those inspired performances and the rest of the card’s solid affairs, the walking behemoth formerly known as NXT’s Bronson Reed made his Impact debut as Jonah. And he did it by crushing Josh Alexander with repeated running sentons and two diving splashes. The former Impact World Champion just can’t catch a break, can he? Shout out to Jonah for getting a simultaneous bag from NJPW and now Impact!

Botches: Sigh…"budget cuts" reared their ugly head once again as we got yet another round of WWE talent releases. This group of former WWE Superstars is another sad reminder of the uncreative department known as WWE creative and just how fractured the NXT to main roster pipeline still is for most call up’s. To see John Morrison go from competing at WrestleMania 37 in a match with Bad Bunny to being relegated to backstage Yoga sessions to now being released is disheartening. And the fact that Hit Row (who you guys know I have no love for) got called up weeks prior and are now all gone is pretty insane. NO LOVE LOST FOR JAXSON RYKER, THOUGH!

So as always, here are my suggestions for which companies I’d like to see some of these released wrestlers go to now and what some of them should do with their careers next:

- John Morrison to All Elite Wrestling

- Top Dolla to something else besides professional wrestling

- Ashante Thee Adonis to Impact Wrestling

- Isaiah “Swerve” Scott to All Elite Wrestling

- Tegan Nox to Impact Wrestling

- Drake Maverick to something else besides professional wrestling

- Shane Thorne to New Japan Pro Wrestling (to reunite with Mikey Nicholls and get TMDK back together!)

- Jaxson Ryker to something else besides professional wrestling

So the 2021 Survivor Series was just...middling at best. Like, the main event between Big E and Roman Reigns was cool and all. But it ended on a pretty flat note as everyone expected The Rock to show up and tease a match between him and the "Tribal Chief" at next year's WrestleMania. The rest of the show kinda matched the lackadaisical vibes of the build given to it, honestly. The Battle Royal was only there to promote Pizza Hut, the Women's Elimination Match went on forever, the Kickoff Match ended on a lame DQ, Vince McMahon starred in nothing skits with a movie prop, etc. This show was a definite far cry from the excellent 2019 Survivor Series, that's for sure...