WWE Survivor Series 2016: Best Finishes for Each Match on the Card

The Raw and SmackDown rosters will collide at WWE Survivor Series 2016 to determine who has bragging rights over the other, but there's more than just ego on the line.

Survivor Series needs to prove itself worthy of maintaining its status as one of the Big Four alongside SummerSlam, Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.

While there are only a few matches scheduled for the event, three of them should last a long time, meaning a ton of weight has been put on those matches' shoulders.

Not only do they all need to be entertaining enough to keep the audience interested from start to finish, but they also need to set up future storylines for each individual brand, as well as not diminish the losing teams.

There are many ways this could go wrong and only a handful of strategies where Survivor Series could go right.

Properly balancing the scales in favor of a great pay-per-view is easier planned out in hindsight, but there are still some pitfalls WWE should be sure to avoid and some ideas that seem like surefire hits.

Let's take a look at what may be the best course of action for all of the matches at WWE Survivor Series 2016.

Tag Team Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match

Credit: WWE.com

In the grand scheme of things, the only Survivor Series match that matters is the final one, as the tag team and women's variations will be dependent upon each other.

Typically, whenever there is a three-point system such as a 2-out-of-3-Falls match or, in this case, three separate matches, whichever side wins the first will lose the second to keep things interesting.

Because of that scenario, this match should be booked more to benefit particular tag teams rather than the winning side as a whole.

Team Raw and Team SmackDown will gain nothing of notoriety, but the winners who stand tall can take big leaps in their brand's divisions.

The Shining Stars, Breezango and The Hype Bros won't be among the proud, as they will be sacrificial lambs. The same can even be said for Cesaro and Sheamus, who will argue and lead to their own downfall.

But there's one team above everyone else who could use the momentum: Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.

On SmackDown's side, American Alpha and The Usos have more credibility than Heath Slater and Rhyno, so they'll have no trouble finding an excuse to compete for the belts soon enough.

With Raw, however, Anderson and Gallows spent the past few months taking many steps back and losing their tough exterior in favor of terrible jokes that nobody laughed at.

Enzo Amore and Big Cass are insanely popular with the audience and need no more favors. They can be eliminated, and nobody will think differently of them. They're safe from needing to be protected.

The same can even be said about The New Day. While an argument can be made that it should lead its team to victory because of its prominence, it's about to break Demolition's record for longest tag team title reign in December.

With such a huge achievement coming up roughly three weeks after Survivor Series, enough attention will be placed on it, but nobody is being built up as viable contenders to dethrone it in the process.

Having Gallows and Anderson be the sole survivors of Team Raw will give them something to gloat about and a reason for them to challenge The New Day yet again at Roadblock.

This win will be the first step in the recovery of The Club to get it back on track as the menacing threat it was several months ago.

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match

Credit: WWE.com

Something fishy is going on here, as WWE never jumps through this many hoops for no reason.

It's been teased that The Miz will be traded to Raw, with Sami Zayn coming over to SmackDown, but the end result can't be anything that leaves both the Intercontinental Championship and United States Championship on the same brand.

By that rationale, Raw cannot be victorious unless something else is afoot.

One option is to go the simple route: The Miz retains by cheating in some way, SmackDown keeps the title and Zayn gets a pat on the back for putting up a good fight before being screwed over.

If WWE is feeling more daring, though, there could be a different approach that requires some more finesse.

Theoretically, if Zayn and The Miz switch rosters, with the title staying on SmackDown, that would mean something would need to go down to be the impetus for the trade.

It was teased that Stephanie McMahon doesn't like Zayn after she told him as much and said she would have preferred Rusev be the one to get the title shot. Another backstage segment to further that point should happen on the pre-show, but everything should escalate.

Before the title match takes place, McMahon and Daniel Bryan should have a chat, saying they wish they had the other person on their roster instead. They can agree that Zayn will go to SmackDown, with The Miz going to Raw as an even trade, and whoever wins the championship match gets to bring the belt over to his new side.

Bryan doesn't have to cheer for the guy he doesn't like, and McMahon can put her faith behind a heel who is more her speed.

Unfortunately for McMahon, Zayn would come out victorious, and SmackDown would have a new, strong babyface and the belt.

The most important facet of booking the best finish for this match isn't about which one of the two competitors wins; rather, it's which brand has the title.

As long as SmackDown keeps the Intercontinental Championship—whether it's by The Miz cheating to retain or Zayn somehow switching rosters—the best-case scenario will have happened.

Women's Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match

Credit: WWE.com

As mentioned before, whichever side wins the tag team match will likely lose the women's match so that the score can be tied going into the finale.

Keeping that in mind, if Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson stand out as the victors of Team Raw, SmackDown's women should be declared the winners here.

Alicia Fox is an easy elimination, and Nia Jax should put on a good show, but she can be counted out or disqualified in some fashion to keep her looking strong.

Naomi and Carmella are the two women on Team SmackDown who can take the fall and get out of the way quicker without needing any true focus put on them, despite how talented they are. It would be particularly nice to see Naomi shine a bit, but history has shown it's not going to happen.

While there's no love lost between Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch, Team SmackDown showed a lot of unity this past week, while Team Raw seems ready to crumble at a moment's notice.

This is all because of Charlotte Flair's ego, which should be the downfall of her team, as it was emphasized that all eyes will be on her to take responsibility of what happens.

Naturally, if Team Raw wins, Flair will claim the victory was all her doing, but if it loses, she'll place the blame on everyone else. That's the nature of her character and any heel in that situation.

But that villainous disposition should be the reason why Sasha Banks and Bayley—arguably the two most popular women in the company right now—aren't hugging it out as the two survivors at the end.

Flair should do something to cause the two of them to be eliminated, and when she's on her own, either Lynch or Nikki Bella should pin her. Perhaps both of them can still be in the mix, as it's a little too dramatic for every Survivor Series match to end with one sole survivor.

It's not necessary, but for an extra added zing, if Bliss was the woman to pin Flair, it would still give SmackDown the win, but it would also drastically boost her stock and the case for why she should get another title match against Lynch.

Also, if WWE wants to change things up, the presence of Natalya as the team's coach has been a foreboding omen that doom would come to the team, but if that didn't come to pass and it was Dana Brooke—the extra on the sidelines for Team Raw—who interfered, that would be a nice twist.

The partnership of Brooke and Flair has run its course, so it would be fun to see the two feud after the champion takes out her frustrations on her protege for having cost her the match, leading to a feud between the two while Bayley is built up even more for her inevitable win over Flair.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match

Credit: WWE.com

It's hard to argue that Kalisto deserves to be the next cruiserweight champion after spending so much time away with an injury, cutting terrible promos during the draft before that and having two horrible United States title reigns earlier this year, but strap yourselves in because that's going to happen.

With 205 Live happening on Tuesday nights directly following SmackDown, those wrestlers will need to travel with the blue brand instead of continuing to stay on Raw.

The only reason this match is even happening is to try to give an excuse for the switch between rosters, which is why the stipulation that the entire division comes over if Kalisto wins was built into it.

Since he's the babyface, there isn't even room for flexibility in how he'll win, as he isn't going to cheat or get the belt as a byproduct of some kind of distraction or interference.

Kalisto is simply going to hit his finisher and pin The Brian Kendrick, and that will be the end of the story.

Since this is entirely being set up just to transition the cruiserweight division over to Tuesday nights, the title change is the best finish, as it avoids making anything too complicated.

Many could argue that this is a bad idea to take the title off Kendrick so fast or that other people should have been in line before Kalisto, but these are the cards WWE has dealt.

Where the division goes from here is what people need to pay more attention to, as the responsibility of 205 Live's success will be on The Lucha Dragon's shoulders following Survivor Series.

The one thing WWE has to avoid doing is making this a squash match, as there's no point in making Kendrick look bad. This should be a hard-fought contest, with both men looking strong and Kalisto getting lucky in the end.

Men's Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match

Credit: WWE.com

While nothing is actually on the line other than bragging rights, Team SmackDown has to come out of Survivor Series looking like the stronger brand.

WWE will never admit it, but SmackDown has never been able to escape the pressure of being what fans see as the "B show."

As entertaining as it might be—and after all those years where the SmackDown Six were some of the best performers in the company—the only reason the brand split is even happening right now is because nobody was watching SmackDown.

With the move to Tuesday nights, people needed a reason to have to tune in, so by splitting the rosters, WWE forced the viewers to try to treat them as equals and to spread out the wrestlers in the hopes that nobody will have all of their favorites on one show.

Raw will always be the flagship show, which is why people like Brock Lesnar and Goldberg show up there instead of SmackDown, which needs adrenaline shots once in a while to seem like it can be viewed as a parallel instead of a subordinate.

So how does Team SmackDown win this? It has a weaker team on paper.

If this was a Lifetime movie, it would be Shane McMahon up against all odds before he gets the pin for his team and proves himself the fighting leader. That shouldn't happen. In fact, he shouldn't even be in this match at all, which is a shame for Baron Corbin.

Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton can't be the saviors of their squad, so it needs to come down to either AJ Styles or Dean Ambrose as the man who gets to say he did the job.

At some point in this match, Braun Strowman should be booked the same way as Nia Jax, where he has a great showing but is eliminated through something that doesn't hurt his persona. Being counted out while brawling with Randy Orton could be a great way around that.

There will be a temptation to have Roman Reigns look strong, but not many people want to see that, and if WWE turns this into a means to promote him, it will backfire.

Seth Rollins should put on a good show, too, while Chris Jericho should be there for some levity with James Ellsworth and others.

In the end, there's no better way to get the crowd pumped than for the two champions to be the final two competitors. AJ Styles against Kevin Owens is a heel vs. heel scenario that WWE tends to avoid, but in this case, that's what makes it fun.

Survivor Series has a tradition of pairing people up as wild cards and being promoted as the only time of the year where you can see matches you wouldn't normally see, so why not carry that idea over into this year's edition?

For a brief respite of the typical hero and villain story, this would be an opportunity to have the fans get up out of their seats to just cheer which wrestler they prefer. Styles and Owens are both bad guys, and the WWE Universe should support both Raw and SmackDown equally, so it removes all of the politics of the win.

If it comes down to Reigns against anybody, the crowd will probably cheer for SmackDown. If it comes down to Rollins against Styles, everybody will want Raw to win just because the last guy is a babyface.

After everything goes down, it should be Styles standing tall, having led his team to the promise land.

Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar

Credit: WWE.com

Goldberg fans aren't going to like this, but the best finish for the main event is for Brock Lesnar to go over.

Who benefits from Goldberg winning this match?

Lesnar doesn't come out of a loss looking stronger than before. Goldberg won't be hanging around to use this victory to propel the rest of the roster, either.

If Goldberg wins, he'll be 2-0 against The Beast, and then he'll retire, while Lesnar will need to make up some ground heading into WrestleMania season.

However, if Lesnar wins, he'll have avenged his loss, evening the score between the two and giving him yet another huge name to add to the list of people he's conquered.

The trickiest part is not why Lesnar should win, but how it should go down.

Rarely does a humiliation from The Beast mean anything anymore. When he destroyed Randy Orton, it was a bore, and it didn't make people suddenly take him seriously because he had already done more than that beforehand.

Nothing will top his win over The Undertaker, so the pizzazz of trying to look dominant should be pushed aside in favor of just having a good match, which is something that didn't happen the last time these two faced off.

Keeping things entertaining in a way that fans won't be disappointed in the quality of the match itself is more important than the finishing touch, which should just be something as simple as Lesnar hitting an F5 for a three-count.

If someone interferes or there's a screwed up pinfall or anything that taints the victory, the fans will feel like it was done just to protect Goldberg and cheat them out of a true finish, which is not something to play around with after so many people are skeptical that this could even be a decent match.

WWE should book this as a regular match between two juggernauts where one of them—in this case, Lesnar—overpowers the other and wins with no caveats or lingering questions.

How would you like to see these matches go down? Do you agree or disagree with the ideas presented here?

Tell us your fantasy booking scenarios in the comments below.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.