The 2018 Survivor Series was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live. It was the 32nd annual Survivor Series and took place on November 18, 2018, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It was the first Survivor Series since 2009 to feature three brands. The theme of the event was brand supremacy, where all but one match involved wrestlers from Raw and SmackDown in direct competition, including the titular Survivor Series match, a tag team elimination match that pits teams of multiple wrestlers against each other.
Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Raw's Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defeated SmackDown's WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. There were three Survivor Series matches, with one occurring on the pre-show. For the two that occurred on the main card, Raw's men's and women's teams were victorious over SmackDown's. Also on the card, Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey defeated SmackDown's Charlotte Flair via disqualification; Rousey was originally scheduled to face SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch, but Lynch suffered a legitimate broken nose just prior to the event. In a match from 205 Live, which was the only title defense on the card as well as the only non-interpromotional match, Buddy Murphy retained the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Mustafa Ali. Raw won brand supremacy with a clean sweep over SmackDown in all six interpromotional matches on the main card. SmackDown's only win occurred on the Kickoff pre-show in the 10-on-10 Survivor Series match that pitted five tag teams from Raw against five tag teams from SmackDown.
Production Background
Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling event, produced every November by WWE since 1987, generally held around Thanksgiving in the United States. It was originally broadcast exclusively via pay-per-view (PPV) before it began simultaneously livestreaming on the WWE Network in 2014. In what has become the second longest-running PPV event in history (behind WWE's WrestleMania), it is one of the promotion's original four PPVs, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble, referred to as the "Big Four". The event is traditionally characterized by having Survivor Series matches, which are tag team elimination matches that typically pits teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. Announced on November 16, 2017, the 32nd Survivor Series was scheduled to be held on November 18, 2018, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Tickets went on sale on March 16.
Since WWE reintroduced the brand split in 2016, Survivor Series became centered around competition between wrestlers from Raw and SmackDown for brand supremacy. In addition to traditional Survivor Series matches between the two brands, the 2017 event began the theme of having the champions of Raw facing their SmackDown counterparts in non-title matches. The 2018 event had Raw's Universal Champion against SmackDown's WWE Champion, Raw's Intercontinental Champion against SmackDown's United States Champion, and the Raw Tag Team Champions against the SmackDown Tag Team Champions. A match featuring the Raw Women's Champion against the SmackDown Women's Champion was planned, but called off due to the latter sustaining a legit injury just days prior to the event; the Raw Women's Champion was instead scheduled to face a former SmackDown Women's Champion. As the 205 Live brand's WWE Cruiserweight Championship was the only title of its kind in WWE, it was the only title defended on the show and the only non-interbrand match. This was also the only Survivor Series to include the 205 Live brand, and the first since the 2009 event to feature three brands.
Storylines The event comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live, and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.
At Evolution, Ronda Rousey defeated Nikki Bella to retain the Raw Women's Championship, while Becky Lynch defeated Charlotte Flair in a Last Woman Standing match to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship. During a backstage interview following her win, Rousey was confronted by Lynch and an interpromotional non-title match between the two champions was scheduled for Survivor Series the following night on Raw. On the November 12 episode of Raw, Lynch led the SmackDown women's division in an invasion of Raw and applied the "Dis-arm-her" on Rousey. During the melee, Lynch suffered a legit broken nose and concussion following a punch from Nia Jax. Due to the injury, Lynch was pulled from the Survivor Series match and chose Flair as her replacement.
At Crown Jewel, AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe to retain the WWE Championship, while Brock Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman to win the vacant Universal Championship, setting up a rematch between Styles and Lesnar from the previous year's event. On the final SmackDown before Survivor Series, Styles and Daniel Bryan had a heated exchange stemming from their WWE Championship match two weeks prior. As such, SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon scheduled Styles to defend the championship against Bryan later that night. Bryan defeated Styles to become the new WWE Champion after hitting him with a low blow while the referee was knocked down, thus Bryan replaced Styles as Lesnar's opponent for Survivor Series. After the match, Bryan attacked Styles, turning heel.
During the Crown Jewel Kickoff pre-show, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Rusev to retain SmackDown's United States Championship. Following the event, a match between Nakamura and Raw's Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins was scheduled for Survivor Series.
At Crown Jewel, The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) retained the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston), while on the November 5 episode of Raw, AOP (Akam and Rezar) defeated Seth Rollins in a handicap match to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions. A match between the two teams was then scheduled for Survivor Series.
At Super Show-Down, Buddy Murphy defeated Cedric Alexander to win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. On the October 31 episode of 205 Live, Mustafa Ali defeated Tony Nese to become the number one contender, and his championship match against Murphy was scheduled for Survivor Series.
On the November 5 episode of Raw, Acting Raw General Manager Baron Corbin revealed Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler, and Drew McIntyre as the first three members of Team Raw for the men's Survivor Series match while naming himself as captain, although stating he would not compete due to his managerial position. Kurt Angle interjected, wanting to replace Corbin as captain, therefore Corbin had Angle face McIntyre where if Angle won, he would have been on the team; however, Angle lost. The following week, Finn Bálor defeated Ziggler in a match and returning Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon rewarded Bálor by adding him to the team. Later, Bobby Lashley won the final spot by defeating Elias. Also on that episode, Stephanie promised Strowman another Universal Championship match against Brock Lesnar and also a match against Corbin, who had cost Strowman his Universal title match at Crown Jewel (with Strowman choosing the stipulations for either match), if he could lead Raw to another victory over SmackDown and not touch Corbin until after the event. On the November 6 episode of SmackDown, the brand's Commissioner Shane McMahon and General Manager Paige appointed The Miz and Daniel Bryan as co-captains of Team SmackDown. Miz and Bryan then added Shane to the team as he had won the WWE World Cup at Crown Jewel. Later, Rey Mysterio and Samoa Joe joined the team after defeating Andrade "Cien" Almas and Jeff Hardy, respectively. A brawl then ensued between Joe, Bryan, Miz, and Shane. The following week, Bryan was removed from Team SmackDown due to his actions and subsequent WWE Championship match victory against AJ Styles, therefore replacing Styles in the champion vs. champion match. Following that alteration, Hardy replaced him after defeating Almas.
On the November 5 episode of Raw, Acting Raw General Manager Baron Corbin named Alexa Bliss as captain of Team Raw for the women's Survivor Series match, but in a non-competing capacity due to injury. The following week, Bliss revealed Mickie James, Nia Jax, Tamina, and Natalya, who was absent, as her first four picks and announced that the winner of a match between Bayley and Sasha Banks would be the final member. During the match, the women's team attacked Bayley and Banks, causing a no-contest ruling and Bliss said neither would be on the team and then introduced Ruby Riott as the final member. On the November 6 episode of SmackDown, the band's General Manager Paige revealed Asuka, Carmella, Naomi, Sonya Deville, and Charlotte Flair as the members of Team SmackDown, but Flair did not show up; the previous week, Paige asked Flair to be captain, but Flair felt she was not the right person and then said she would think about it. Flair was instead named Becky Lynch's replacement to face Ronda Rousey, and the final member of Team SmackDown was not revealed on the final SmackDown before Survivor Series.
On the November 6 episode of SmackDown, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) to become the captains of Team SmackDown in the Survivor Series match pitting five tag teams from Raw against five tag teams from SmackDown (in this version, when one member of a tag team is eliminated, both members of that particular tag team are eliminated). Immediately after the match, The Usos chose The New Day as their first pick. The following week, The Usos added Sanity (Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, and Killian Dain), Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, and The Colóns (Primo Colón and Epico Colón) to the team. On the November 12 episode of Raw, a tag team battle royal occurred to determine Team Raw's captains. The team of Bobby Roode and Chad Gable defeated The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson), The B-Team (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel), Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik, Kalisto, and Lince Dorado), The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor), and the team of Heath Slater and Rhyno to win the captaincy of Team Raw, composed of all of the teams in the battle royal except Slater and Rhyno (who were the first eliminated). The match was scheduled for the Survivor Series Kickoff pre-show.
Event +Other on-screen personnelRoleNameEnglish commentatorsMichael Cole Corey Graves Renee Young Tom Phillips Byron Saxton Vic Joseph Nigel McGuinness Percy Watson Russian commentatorsZhan PomerantsevMorti MargolinSpanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraMarcelo RodríguezGerman commentatorsCarsten SchaeferCalvin KnieRing announcersGreg HamiltonJoJoRefereesDanilo AnfibioJason AyersMike ChiodaJohn ConeDarrick MooreRyan TranRod ZapataInterviewerCharly CarusoKayla BraxtonPre-show panelJonathan CoachmanJerry LawlerBeth PhoenixDavid OtungaBooker T
Pre-show