WWE Survivor Series 2020: Breaking Down Men's and Women's Team Matches
Raw and SmackDown will collide at Sunday's WWE Survivor Series, with the champions from each brand going head-to-head alongside the traditional men's and women's elimination matches.
However, the build for this year's battle for brand supremacy has been a mess.
With the event scheduled for this weekend, the clock is ticking for WWE to figure out all the unknowns, for teams to find some kind of cohesion and for Raw and SmackDown to get their acts together.
There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle, so let's break down everything we know so far about both the red and blue brand's teams ahead of this weekend's pay-per-view.
Replacement Teammates
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Originally, Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke were scheduled to be on Team Raw, but plans have changed.
The Golden Goddess was forced out of the contest by an injury inadvertently caused by Nia Jax. WWE must have decided it wasn't worth having her tag team partner involved without her, so Brooke was written out following an attack by Reckoning from Retribution.
Rather than have the faction member fill her spot, WWE official Adam Pearce randomly announced Peyton Royce and Lacey Evans would fill the gaps.
On Friday's SmackDown, it seemed Chelsea Green was set up to win the Fatal 4-Way and earn a spot on her new brand's team, but she also suffered an injury during that match.
As the surprise newcomer who could have used this as a momentum boost, it's logical to assume Green was the intended victor of that match. That isn't known for sure, though, and Liv Morgan could have still been scheduled to win just as she did.
If Morgan was just an on-the-fly replacement for Green, SmackDown's team is shaping up to look quite different than originally conceived.
Missing Team Members
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As it stands, there are still three empty spots on SmackDown to fill: two for the women's team and one for the men's.
Natalya has been adamant she should not only be on the team but also its captain. However, she's failed to win multiple qualifying matches. Knowing WWE, though, she'll probably find her way onto the team by winning the next one.
The other woman for SmackDown is anyone's guess.
WWE either has to call up an NXT talent like Santana Garrett, Vanessa Borne or Mercedes Martinez to fill the role, stick Bayley or Carmella onto the team, or have yet another person who failed to win qualifying matches get a second chance.
Given the circumstances with Royce now being on Team Raw, it makes sense for Billie Kay to be on Team SmackDown so those two can face off at some point in the match, even if it's just for a quick comedic moment.
As far as the men's team goes, there are numerous Superstars who could fit the bill. All WWE needs to do is book another qualifying match and pick a winner.
Aleister Black, Big E, Chad Gable, Dominik Mysterio, Lars Sullivan, Murphy and Otis are all viable candidates, although Murphy is already set to face Seth Rollins on Sunday.
Sullivan is the best pick for bringing brute strength to the team, while Big E and Otis have enough raw power to justify their names, too. Ideally, it will be one of those three, but anyone on this list could do.
Weak Links
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Although each group is supposed to represent the best the brand has to offer, there will always be a weak link to every Survivor Series team.
As Royce and Evans are only last-minute replacements, they would be easy picks for the bottom of the totem pole on Raw's women's team. However, it's actually Lana who holds that distinction.
Lana has the least experience in wrestling, the worst win-loss record and has been at odds with Jax and Shayna Baszler for months. Evans and Royce may not be best friends with the women's tag team champions, but they stand a better chance at getting along with them than Lana, who is likely to be put through a table by the end of the night.
There isn't a definitive weak link on the Raw men's team unless you count how AJ Styles has done a terrible job as team captain. He's proved himself entirely unable to unite his teammates, who perpetually fight among themselves.
SmackDown's teams aren't completed, so it's impossible to say what the weak links are for the blue brand.
In theory, the fact that there are still spots to be filled is the weak element, as the teams won't be able to form a bond without knowing who else they're fighting alongside.
Team Anchors and Potential Sole Survivors
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There are always Superstars who stand out above the pack as anchors who hold the line in the fight.
The elimination matches are decided in favor of the brand to whom the last person standing in the ring belongs.
If there is one wrestler from all four teams who could get this distinction in 2020, it's Bianca Belair. She was the first member of Team SmackDown established and one of the more dominating figures in the division.
Being the sole survivor would give The EST of WWE a major boost in momentum that she could carry into a possible Royal Rumble or Elimination Chamber victory and a subsequent title match at WrestleMania 37.
The men's teams have no obvious sole survivors or anchors. Raw has five impressive Superstars who could all outlast the competition, with Braun Strowman (a former sole survivor) and Keith Lee (the last remaining member of Team NXT last year) as the most likely options.
The SmackDown men's team's final member could be their ace, particularly if it's Lars Sullivan.
Predictions
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If WWE does book one team per side to win the elimination matches, look out for the women of SmackDown to be victorious with Belair and the men on Raw to win under the leadership of Styles.
The Raw women's team has had too much in-fighting to make them the favorites, while the men's team has had similar issues but may still prove too powerful to overcome nevertheless.
Overall, though, it's a coin flip. The teams in both matches can win, which is what makes this year's contest far more interesting than an obviously one-sided affair.
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.
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