WWE Rumors: Reported Reason Why Survivor Series Kickoff Match ‘Didn’t Count’

There could be a very simple reason why RAW “swept” SmackDown at Survivor Series!

With WWE’s Survivor Series all wrapped up, one burning question remains among members of the WWE Universe regarding how things played out with Monday Night RAW “sweeping” SmackDown Live in brand versus brand matches.

While the company continues to promote that the red brand dominated, going 6-0 against SmackDown Live, we all know that the blue brand actually picked up the win in the 10-Team Survivor Series Elimination Match during the Kickoff (see Mitchell’s Survivor Series Report) where The Usos were the sole survivors after eliminating The Revival. However, that may have actually been a mistake.

On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reports that the finish of that match was actually supposed to go the other way, which means RAW would have actually swept SmackDown Live by going 7-0 for the night. According to Meltzer, there was some sort of miscommunication which led to the blue brand getting the victory, thus WWE chose to ignore the result altogether in the overall picture to maintain the angle that SmackDown Live was “swept”.

EA’s Take: I’m not really sure why anybody’s making such a big deal of this. Technically, the Kickoff is not part of the pay-per-view right? Like, it’s not Survivor Series…it’s the Survivor Series Kickoff. I know that’s a pretty small detail, but when has the Kickoff ever been “counted” as a part of the main card? I haven’t bought a pay-per-view DVD in years now, but last I knew the Kickoff matches didn’t come included on them right? Hell, look at the results on Wikipedia where the Kickoffs are always marked with an asterisk or something of the sort. Another example…the old WWF Free For All shows before pay-per-views don’t count as part of whatever pay-per-view they precede correct? These have all been rhetorical questions by the way.

Do you think the Kickoff match should have “counted”? What did you think? Let us know on social media @theCHAIRSHOTcom and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!