While and lot of time and energy goes into choosing main events and selecting the match order on major cards, sometimes WWE gets it wrong. According to Road Dogg this once led Brock Lesnar being relegated down the card at Survivor Series.
Survivor Series 2017 was headlined by a traditional five-on-five elimination match between Team Raw and Team SmackDown. This is despite there being four ‘Champion vs. Champion’ matches on the show. The biggest of these saw WWE Champion AJ Styles take on Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. The match which The Beast won earned praise across the board, although it was only the semi-main event.
Road Dogg Admits Brock Lesnar Should Have Been In The Main Event
Speaking on his Oh… You Didn’t Know podcast, Road Dogg, who was working backstage at the time recalled the discussions around the show. the WWE Hall of Famer said that there was a feeling after the event that Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles should have taken top billing.
“We didn’t know what to close with [at Survivor Series 2017]. AJ [Styles] and Brock [Lesnar] or this [men’s traditional five-on-five match] and so we chose AJ and Brock to not close. We’re gonna close with the other one because we didn’t know what AJ and Brock was gonna do… I didn’t know it was gonna be good, and this has happened more than once. In retrospect, you go, man, I sure wish we had closed with that one, you know what I mean? Everybody would have gone home happy and so, again, they still went home happy I think anyway.”
The main event of the show saw Monday Night Raw emerge victorious in a battle for brand supremacy. With the bout moving towards it’s conclusion, Raw had Triple H, Kurt Angle and Braun Strowman remaining while Shane McMahon was holding out for SmackDown. However, in a strange twist, Triple H hit a Pedigree on Angle and put Shane McMahon on him so that he was eliminated. After seeming aligning with his brother-in-law, he then delivered a Pedigree on McMahon to secure the win for his team. All the time a bemused Braun Strowman stood on the ring apron.
After the match, Triple H celebrated with Strowman before being laid out by the ‘Monster Among Men. The storyline eventually led to Angle teaming with Ronda Rousey to defeat Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 34.
H/t to Wrestling Headlines