WWE Survivor Series 2016: Updated Match Card, Stars to Watch at PPV

With WWE Survivor Series 2016 less than a week away, things are starting to heat up between the red and blue brands. 

Dubbed "Fantasy Warfare Becomes Reality," the latest edition of Survivor Series pits WWE's two brands—Raw and SmackDown Live—against one another for ultimate supremacy. 

On Monday night, fans got a taste of the action, as the men's teams from Raw and SmackDown tangled to end WWE's flagship program. 

It should be a lock that the crossovers continue through Tuesday's episode of SmackDown, the show's 900th episode.

As of Tuesday morning, the card for Survivor Series reads as follows:

• Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg
• Traditional Survivor Series men’s elimination match: Team Raw (Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, Chris Jericho, Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins) vs. Team SmackDown (AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton and Shane McMahon)
• Traditional Survivor Series women’s elimination match: Team Raw (Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Nia Jax and Alicia Fox) vs. Team SmackDown (Nikki Bella, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Naomi and Carmella)
• Traditional Survivor Series tag team elimination match: Team Raw (The New Day, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, Sheamus and Cesaro, Enzo Amore and Big Cass and The Shining Stars) vs. Team SmackDown (Heath Slater and Rhyno, The Usos, American Alpha, The Hype Bros and Breezango)
• Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn (WWE Intercontinental Championship; brand rights to title)
• The Brian Kendrick vs. Kalisto (WWE Cruiserweight Championship; brand rights to cruiserweight division)

With many of the top stars in the company competing against each other on one card, it's tough to pinpoint just who will stand out from the crowd. However, there are a few Superstars fans should keep their eyes on, as their fates at Survivor Series will cause ripple effects for the futures of these brands. 

Let's take a look at three such Superstars.

Braun Strowman

Credit: WWE.com

Of the five members of Raw's men's team, only Strowman doesn't have a reported feud moving forward, which makes him the most interesting member of this squad. 

According to Figure Four Online (h/t Marc Middleton of Wrestling Inc), WWE plans to pit universal champion Kevin Owens against United States champion Roman Reigns following Survivor Series, possibly at the show's Roadblock pay-per-view in December. 

The other two members, Seth Rollins and Chris Jericho, are reportedly headed for a match at the same event, as announced by Pittsburgh's PPG Paints Arena, home of the Roadblock event (h/t WhatCulture).

So where does this leave Strowman? It's hard to see Strowman being eliminated early in the match, given how dominant he's been since the brand split. On the other hand, he's the most expendable member, given that his teammates are all booked against one another moving forward. 

Plus, this will be Strowman's coming-out party in WWE. While he's seen action as a member of The Wyatt Family, he'll be in the ring against the top Superstars WWE has to offer. Strowman needs to prove he can handle himself against the best.

A strong showing by Strowman could springboard him to bigger and better matches heading into WrestleMania season. It wouldn't be out of the question to see Strowman face off against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33 should the big man impress, a match that PWInsider.com reported some WWE officials wanted to set up for WrestleMania 32 (h/t Middleton).

Kalisto

Credit: WWE.com

When WWE announced the formation of its cruiserweight division, many believed Kalisto would be among the Superstars to benefit.

Unfortunately, the draft found the high-flying luchador on the wrong side of the brand split, relegated to an afterthought on SmackDown Live before a back injury sidelined him this summer. 

There's no telling why WWE has decided to switch course and put the cruiserweight division in brand limbo. Since their debut, the cruiserweights have delivered outstanding matches but have received little to no fanfare. Part of this could be due to lackluster character development among the division as a whole, but another factor is the lack of existing Superstars in the division. 

Superstars like Kalisto, Neville, Sin Cara and even Sami Zayn could have helped the division flourish in its initial debut while also bringing along the newest crop of Superstars such as T.J. Perkins, Cedric Alexander, Rich Swann and others. Instead, WWE made the decision to redux the Cruiserweight Classic, minus the show's biggest draws, Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr. 

Now, Kalisto is the biggest beneficiary of that WWE misstep. Since debuting, Kalisto has gone up against much larger foes and was limited by the abilities of his competitors. Sure he hit big spots, but the remainder of his wrestling ability was negated by size. 

By competing against cruiserweights, Kalisto can shine. He's best suited to compete against the likes of The Brian Kendrick, Perkins and Gran Metalik instead of Baron Corbin, Rusev and others. 

In addition, adding the cruiserweight division to SmackDown would help both brands. For Raw, it's addition by subtraction. There's already an overloaded roster with heavy emphasis on the main event and tag team divisions. It never made sense to add a division to Raw, seeing as how that brand's roster was already larger than SmackDown following the draft.

SmackDown, on the other hand, could use the influx of talent a cruiserweight division would bring. It would also draw a clear distinction between brands, helping draw more viewers and, in turn, better ratings.

The Women of SmackDown

Credit: WWE.com

Since the brand split, the women of Raw have been getting all the attention (and credit) for moving women's wrestling into the mainstream. 

There's no doubting that Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair and Bayley have been tearing it up on Monday nights, and Nia Jax is a force who will soon have to be reckoned with in the main event. 

Meanwhile, SmackDown's women's division seems to be focused more on storytelling outside the ring rather than inside the squared circle. It hasn't helped that SmackDown women's champion Becky Lynch was sidelined with an injury for a few weeks or that Total Divas star Eva Marie was suspended by WWE for a violation of the wellness policy immediately after the draft. 

SmackDown has given newcomers Alexa Bliss and Carmella chances to flourish, but even in NXT, those two played second fiddles to their Raw counterparts, Banks, Bayley and Jax. 

Survivor Series is a chance for the women of the blue brand to show they can stand toe-to-toe with the presumably superior women of Raw. There's plenty to work with. The veterans of SmackDown—Nikki Bella, Naomi and Natalya, in a non-wrestling role—have proved their worth against the women who will stand across the ring from them, and Lynch is the brand's champion, even if she isn't captaining the team. 

It falls on Bliss and Carmella to prove that their call-ups during the draft weren't premature. They'll be able to tangle with the cream of the crop that the Women's Revolution has to offer in Flair, Banks and Bayley and show the WWE Universe that they're just as capable of putting on spectacular matches as their counterparts.