Let's take a look at the three Raw vs. Smackdown Survivor Series elimination tag team matches.
Women:
Raw: Charlotte Flair (team captain), Sasha Banks, Bayley, Nia Jax, & Alicia Fox
Smackdown: Nikki Bella (captain), Becky Lynch, Carmella, Alexa Bliss, Naomi. Coach: Natalya.
Charlotte has yet to taste defeat on PPV. That should change in this match, because I can't see "Nature Girl" there at the end. What I don't like is Natalya being reduced to being a coach. Why can't she be in the match in her native Canada?
That would be because Vince McMahon would prefer to push Nikki ahead of Natalya, and even ahead of Lynch, the Smackdown Live! women's champ. Rightfully, Bella & Lynch should be co-captains. Then, you have the NXT graduates on both teams. Granted, Smackdown has a slightly deeper women's division, even though Eva Marie is likely to be away making another movie before returning to action, preferably in a better gimmick. Jax has been a beast, literally, since being called up. How either team can co-exist with all the personal issues that need to be turned aside pro tempore is the real story here.
The pick: Raw. Survivors: Jax, Banks.
Tag teams:
Raw: The New Day (captains), The Shining Stars, Sheamus & Cesaro, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, & Enzo & Big Cass.
Smackdown: Rhyno & Heath Slater (captains), The Usos, American Alpha, Breezango, & The Hype Bro's.
Again, the overarching plot is to force feuds to the side on both teams. Because Raw doesn't have depth in the division, this is why the Shining Stars (Colon cousins) are in after cheating to beat Golden Truth on Raw a couple of weeks back. What hurts Raw here is they don't really have enough athleticism, depending especially on who represents New Day in this match. You'd have to have Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods representing the New Day, as they along with Cesaro are the only fliers on Team Raw. McMahon's obsession with establishing the New Day as the longest reigning tag champs of all time has screwed Gallows & Anderson badly, as they should be the champions right now.
Smackdown, as we saw Tuesday, is loaded with speed, youth, and energy. We saw depth in the division in a 16-man tag. If anything were to happen to any of the first five teams, you'd have someone like the Vaudevillains ready to step in. By comparison, Raw is moldy bread in this case.
Pick: Smackdown. Survivors: American Alpha, Hype Bro's.
Main event:
Raw: Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho (co-captains), Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, & Seth Rollins.
Smackdown: AJ Styles (captain), Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, Shane McMahon. "Mascot": James Ellsworth.
Part of me doesn't see Shane-O-Mac in this match at all. Something would happen to him at the last minute, opening the door for someone like Undertaker, Luke Harper, Kane, or even.....John Cena to step in. Can't see Ellsworth as an emergency sub, even if it is for a quick, cheap pop. Undertaker won't be happy if they lose, with rumors of Orton or Styles to feud with the Deadman post-Survivor Series, and do we need Undertaker vs. Wyatt Family again?
Can't see "JeriKO" continuing beyond this match. This will be another star-making match for Strowman, but the question is how he'd fare against his former "brothers" in the Wyatt Family. Can Reigns & Rollins, former tag team champs, co-exist as a team all over again? Smackdown doesn't have those kind of questions, although one wonders what the end game is for Orton and the Wyatts, as the Viper fits in with the swamp pigs about as well as oil does with snow. Styles looks like choirboy, albeit a rude one, next to the Wyatts.
Pick: Smackdown. Survivor: Styles.
Of course, I could be wrong.
