SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Shane McMahon announced this morning that John Cena will be the fifth and final member of Team Smackdown at Survivor Series a week from Sunday.
Further proving #SDLive is the superior brand, I'm happy to announce @JohnCena will be the 5th member of Team Smackdown at #SurvivorSeries.
— Shane McMahon (@shanemcmahon) November 8, 2017
Cena will team with Shane McMahon himself (team captain), Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, and Shinsuke Nakamura, an all-babyface team, against Team Raw featuring Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Braun Strowman, and Jason Jordan (four babyfaces and a heel, at least going into the match).
Keller’s Analysis: On today’s new Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast on PodcastOne, Pat McNeill and I speculated on the fifth and final member being, perhaps, Jinder Mahal since he is otherwise currently without a role on the show. I also thought perhaps they’d get there via a battle royal since Smackdown is – say it together – “the land of opportunity.” Instead, Cena is indeed back, siding with Smackdown despite being a “free agent.” It’s not a storyline contradiction since, by definition, a free agent can go to either brand, but it will be interesting to see what explanation Shane and Cena come up with why he decided to side with Team Smackdown against Team Raw. This does leave a lingering question, which is what happens to Mahal? Does the World Champion for the last nearly six months get left off a loaded Survivor Series card? Or is there something else in the works?
On another note, WWE continues this curious strategy of “creating buzz” on the Internet, specifically via social media, with announcements between weekly shows instead of building toward big announcements on big shows. I imagine Smackdown viewership would have been higher last night had WWE announced they’d have a big announcement during the show regarding the fifth man, and it could have been a backstage announcement by Shane edited into the airing of the show and not revealed to the live crowd in Manchester earlier in the day at the taping. That would have mitigated the fact that spoilers for the show might have deterred fans from watching it since the sense of surprise was gone.
i hated that cena did the raw match with reigns, i would have preffered to see him against owens or jindha on smackdown. i did nt want this brand split but it only works if it is real and every time i get in to it they change it. if it were up to me i would give wrestlemania to raw and summerslam to smackdown (money in bank could decide mainevent of summerslam) but i would like an alternative annual event for both rather than mania being the biggest show for both.
Unless they plan to return the title to Jindar this week they have completely missed out and left money on the table. A rags to riches story was never told, 3 man band holding gold 3 times never told and my favorite moment I was looking forward to was how much ping pong could Brock play with the Singh Brothers without killing one of them. Brock – AJ? Not sure why everyone is interested this can only be a passable match by weakening Brock. But, whatever the gods of wrestling decide… please not a Brock-AJ-Jindar 3 way. And sorry Smackdown ladies, you’re all getting removed by Asuka although Charlotte goes last.
You were more interested in Brock throwing the Singhs around than him having a match with one of the best wrestlers WWE has to offer right now? That’s an…unexpected take on things. To each their own.