Survivor Series 2020: Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre Deliver Before Undertaker Says Goodbye

The Kickoff battle royal is functional rather than memorable, but it gives Survivor Series a low-stakes way to begin the Raw-versus-SmackDown scoreboard. The field is packed with midcard names, so the match is less about sustained individual stories than brief exchanges and eliminations. Several wrestlers get recognizable moments, but the crowded format prevents any one sequence from gaining much traction until the final stretch. The Miz ultimately survives and eliminates Dominik Mysterio to give Raw the first point of the night. It is perfectly acceptable pre-show wrestling and useful for establishing the brand-supremacy theme, but there is little reason to revisit it outside a full-event watch.

The men's elimination match is energetic and easy to follow, but the clean sweep makes the competitive balance disappear earlier than it should. Seth Rollins deliberately sacrifices himself to Sheamus in the first major angle, leaving SmackDown shorthanded and immediately pushing the match toward a lopsided story. Kevin Owens, King Corbin and Otis all fall in sequence while Team Raw stays intact, and Jey Uso is left to fight alone against five opponents. Jey's comeback stretch gives the match its best drama, especially when he dodges AJ Styles and tries to create an opening. Keith Lee finally catches him in midair and finishes with the Spirit Bomb, completing the 5-0 sweep.

The Street Profits and New Day deliver one of the card's most satisfying matches because the bout is built around respect rather than a contrived brand grievance. Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods bring the more established team chemistry, while Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins are presented as the younger champions trying to prove they belong on the same level. The match escalates naturally through counters and tandem offense without needing outside interference. The Street Profits eventually catch Woods with an electric-chair blockbuster combination to score the pin, and the post-match handshake reinforces the generational handoff theme. It is clean, athletic and one of the few matches on the show where the brand-supremacy concept adds rather than distracts.

Lashley versus Zayn is primarily a character segment wrapped around a short match. Zayn spends most of the bout trying to avoid a direct fight, arguing with the referee and searching for ways to exploit the Hurt Business at ringside. That approach fits his paranoid heel character, but it also means the match never develops into a serious champion-versus-champion contest. MVP eventually blocks another escape attempt and sends Zayn back toward the ring, where Lashley traps him in the Hurt Lock and forces the submission. The result protects Lashley as the dominant athlete and gives Zayn plenty of complaining material afterward, but the wrestling itself is thin.

Banks and Asuka work a smart, compact match built around familiarity and counters rather than trying to imitate a pay-per-view epic. Both women have enough history together that even simple transitions feel earned, and the match spends most of its time moving between submission threats and quick pinning combinations. Asuka repeatedly looks for the Asuka Lock, while Banks tries to create openings for the Bank Statement without overcommitting. The finish comes through another sequence of counters, with Banks catching Asuka in an inside cradle for the clean pin. The result is brief but satisfying, and the absence of interference makes it stand out positively on a card where several other finishes rely on outside factors.

The women's elimination match has good individual pieces but an awkward central story that overwhelms the competitive side of the match. Peyton Royce gets a useful early moment by eliminating Bayley, while Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan all receive stretches that hint at future potential. The Raw team, however, spends much of the match forcing Lana to stand on the ring steps and stay out of the action, turning her eventual survival into a joke rather than an athletic triumph. The finish compounds that problem when Shayna Baszler is disqualified and Nia Jax and Bianca Belair are counted out, leaving Lana as the sole survivor without actually defeating anyone. The result advances a storyline, but it is not a satisfying Survivor Series finish.

Reigns and McIntyre produce the night's clear best match by treating the champion-versus-champion concept like a genuine battle for status. McIntyre is freshly restored as WWE Champion, while Reigns is still establishing the Tribal Chief persona, so neither man can afford to look secondary. The match develops patiently through heavy strikes, power counters and repeated finisher escapes, and McIntyre's Claymore near the end feels like a legitimate match-ending moment before the referee is knocked down. Jey Uso then returns despite Reigns ordering him to leave, creating the opening for a low blow, superkick and guillotine. McIntyre passes out rather than submits, preserving his strength while giving Reigns the victory and reinforcing the family-control story.