No Disqualification match for the WWF Championship: Diesel vs. Bret Hart

Diesel was never the greatest in-ring competitor. The guy was fantastic as Shawn Michaels heavy, but when the company decided to give him the main event push, it exposed that the big man wasn’t on the level of some of their top names at the top. However, Diesel and Bret Hart actually complimented each other well in the ring.

These two would have plenty more matches following their No Holds Barred encounter and they ranged from good to great. However, their WWE Championship match at Survivor Series 1995 was quite lackluster. It’s a Bret Hart match, so technically speaking, there was nothing bad about the match, but Diesel doesn’t have much of a varied moveset so the basic match told a simple story, but it didn’t make for an exciting exchange.

I will give credit here, the psychology of the match was on point. Diesel sold the angle injury pretty well and the heel turn following the bout was inspired.

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Batista vs. The Undertaker in Hell in a Cell for the World Heavyweight Championship (Survivor Series 2007)

Batista would get better as time moved on and part of that reason was due to his match against the Undertaker at WrestleMania 23. These two had a strong series of matches and when a Hell in a match was announced, there were lofty expectations heading into this bout.

Unfortunately, the match was quite lackluster, with it being boring in certain parts. The crowd was surprisingly dead for a good majority of it, so that didn’t help. But the bout felt like a standard wrestling match with tactics we’ve seen used in previous hell in a cell matches. Nothing felt special about this match, nor did it have the intensity that it should have.

Taker and Batista tried their best, but the plodding bout just didn’t live up to the hype. The ending didn’t do the match any favors either. Batista didn’t look good by needing help from Edge to win, and it felt like a cheap cop out to a feud that should’ve had a definite ending.

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Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Seth Rollins (Survivor Series 2018)

An indie dream match that just didn’t live up to the hype. The biggest issue is that there was no emotional story going into this match. It was simply for brand warfare and that’s it. But that’s not the reason the match ended up being forgettable. The match was just uninspired; there was nothing wrong with it technically, but Seth Rollins was on a tear throughout his run as Intercontinental Champion. But Nakamura’s character was cold at this point, which was no fault of his own as creative just didn’t know how to book him as a champion. A solid match overall, but one that fell below the lofty expectations of what these two could do.

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Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio (No Holds Barred) (Survivor Series 2019)

The David vs. Goliath story is a classic pro wrestling angle that has produced some of the best matches in WWE. Sadly, this just wasn’t one of them. The match was your typical Brock dominance in the beginning, which is fine since it usually leads to an exciting fury of offense once the bout becomes even-paced.

That didn’t happen here. The No Holds Barred stipulation didn’t do much for either competitor, but the biggest detriment was that this was an extremely short match. Brock Lesnar is no stranger to short matches. His shocking match against Goldberg at Survivor Series 2016 proved that you can have a great match at any time length, but that raw explosiveness just didn’t happen here.

Perhaps if these two were given the match time as Lesnar did with Daniel Bryan then it would’ve been a certified classic, but ultimately, it was a huge letdown once it ended less than seven minutes.

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Shayna Baszler vs. Becky Lynch vs. Bayley (Survivor Series 2019)

The build to this match was great! The drawback was that the focus was mainly on Baszler and Lynch, which made Bayley feel like an unnecessary third wheel. But the back-and-forth exchanges between Lynch and Baszler made this main event must see.

The result though resulted in a boring match. Baszler doesn’t particularly have a flashy style, but Lynch and Bayley should’ve complimented her in-ring prowess nicely. Instead, Bayley was fresh off her new heel turn so she couldn’t exactly be the flashy one either. It didn’t help that the crowd was completely dead for this bout.

This match had a strong build, but it was not the bout to end Survivor Series. It ultimately made Baszler look bad, even though she went over strong here. It wouldn’t be a surprise if this bout was a big reason why she lost to Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 36.

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