The thirtieth annual Survivor Series took place this past Sunday and this card had the makings of an absolutely phenomenal night. Two title matches and three traditional Survivor Series elimination matches that pitted Smackdown vs Raw, topped off by a blockbuster main event. Now, did it live up to the hype? Sort of. The only way to find out is to break every match down. So, let’s get to it.

The first match of the evening was the Smackdown vs Raw women’s match. Captain Nikki Bella was pulled from the match due to being attacked prior to it, so Coach Natalya replaced her. This was a good look in Canada to have a Canadian participate in the match. A bit of a surprise was having Sasha Banks be eliminated early in the match, but it did nothing to hurt her credibility, so it was fine. There were great showings by Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and surprisingly, Nia Jax. Jax looked like a monster like she very well should have. Although Team Smackdown had some great individual showings, it was Team Raw who was victorious in the end. Charlotte and Bayley were the sole survivors, but Charlotte quickly turned on her partner, likely setting up a feud between the two in the near future. Overall, this match may had been the worst of the three elimination matches, but it was still very solid.

Following that match was the Intercontinental Championship match between Smackdown’s champion The Miz and Raw’s challenger Sami Zayn. This match had all the makings to steal the show, and for the most part, it really did. There was great storytelling with the villainous Miz targeting the leg of the plucky underdog Sami Zayn. Both of the men worked a great, technical match. However, the finish was a bit odd. Zayn had Miz in a submission and Miz’s wife Maryse rang the bell to fool Sami Zayn into believing that he had won. Then, Miz rolled him up for the three count. It will be interesting to see if Sami finds his way over to Smackdown, if he finds a storyline on Raw, or if he once again fades into oblivion.

Next came the Raw vs Smackdown Tag Team elimination match. This match honestly went way better than expected. The team captains and tag team champions of Raw The New Day were quickly eliminated which was a shock on it’s own. There were also definitely some stars in this match. These included the always impressive American Alpha, who had some amazing spots, The Club, who wrestled at a top level, Cesaro and Sheamus, whose antics ended up winning Raw the match, and most surprisingly, The Usos. In the end, Team Raw was victorious thanks impart to Cesaro and Sheamus. After the match, they were rewarded a tag team championship match in the future. This match fell into the middle of all of the Survivor Series matches, so it was very good indeed.

What followed was the Cruiserweight Championship match where the fate of the Cruiserweight division was on the line. Brian Kendrick, the champion from Raw, defended his title against Kalisto, the challenger from Smackdown. Whoever won, their show would be the new home of the division itself. Honestly, this match was wrestled very well. Both Kalisto and Kendrick are great workers, so it was no surprise that this match was good. However, another tainted finish happened here as Baron Corbin interfered and allowed Brian Kendrick to retain his title via disqualification. The most likely reason that he did so was to get payback on Kalisto for injuring him, therefore knocking him out of the Survivor Series match. The match was good however, so there really shouldn’t be too many complaints.

What should’ve been the main event of the evening was the men’s Survivor Series match that was absolutely tremendous. The match went almost a full hour, and from bell to bell, it was exactly how a marquee Survivor Series match should have been worked. Braun Strowman looked like a monster throughout, even eliminating Dean Ambrose. They kept him strong by having him be eliminated via countout thanks Smackdown mascot James Ellsworth’s interference. Owens and Jericho both looked like stupid idiots (pun intended) as their eliminations both involved the List of Jericho. However, that was a fine way to get Owens out of the match early without him looking weak. Shane McMahon added an element to the match that made it that much better with the highflying moves. He dropped an elbow on Braun Strowman through the announce table and also went for a Coast to Coast on Roman Reigns, but he was picked out of the air by a vicious spear. Another highlight of the match was the AJ Styles elimination that happened after a Shield mini-reunion. Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns from Team Raw got some assistance from Styles’ bitter rival, Dean Ambrose. The three former members of The Shield then hit the classic triple powerbomb on Styles through the table for a definite mark-out moment. In the end however, Team Smackdown was victorious after Seth Rollins received an RKO after going for a frog splash, then Roman Reigns received a Sister Abigail from Bray Wyatt. It was odd to see the Wyatts stand tall at the end of such a blockbuster match, but it could be said that most things were done correctly in this bout.

Now, the main event. This literally can’t be sugar coated. This was the worst booking decision 2016 by far. Bringing Goldberg back to beat the biggest beast in the WWE in just over a minute was absolutely stupid. Lesnar has been on a tear, and it might have been acceptable for him to lose in a solid ten to fifteen minute bout. But to have him lose in a squash match was the dumbest thing that could’ve possibly happened. Why would WWE not give that win over Brock Lesnar to someone who needed it like Kevin Owens or Shinsuke Nakamura? It was terrible. The apparent reasoning for Goldberg winning in such dominant fashion was to make him look strong going into the Royal Rumble match. Newsflash WWE, he would have looked strong even if he would’ve lost! Dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb. And what does Brock Lesnar do from here? Who in the world knows? It was an idiotic decision that will come back to bite WWE in the long run.

So, overall, Survivor Series was pretty good. Aside from that debacle of a main event, it was a great show. Hopefully WWE can keep it up into Wrestlemania season and beyond.