WWE Survivor Series 2017 Predictions: Sole Survivors of the Men's Elimination Match
While Survivor Series is mostly about team competition and brand supremacy, there is always an opportunity for one person to stand out above the rest of his or her squad.
In the instances where a single competitor is left standing tall for a particular team, they are referred to as the "sole survivor" of the match—typically indicating that they are in for quite a push from WWE in some capacity.
Over the years, we've seen folks like Randy Orton (multiple times) and Dolph Ziggler given this honour and although it isn't a guarantee that it will happen again this year in either match, it's worth looking at the current teams to predict who stands the best chance to be the sole survivor of their respective brand's representatives.
In this post, we'll be focusing on the 10 men representing Team Raw and Team SmackDown Live for the 2017 Survivor Series traditional elimination match.
Team Raw consists of: Kurt Angle (captain), Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, Jason Jordan, and Samoa Joe
Team SmackDown consists of: Shane McMahon (captain), Bobby Roode, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Shinsuke Nakamura
Most likely to be Team Raw's Sole Survivor: Braun Strowman
In terms of sheer strength and size, Team Raw's biggest asset is definitely Braun Strowman.
While he's come up short in the bigger matches like his Universal Championship opportunity against Brock Lesnar, Strowman has had an amazing year of being dominant and tearing through the roster like a wrecking ball.
Clearly, WWE officials realize how popular he's getting and would want to showcase him at this event, as evidenced by his quick addition to Team Raw before anybody else save for Kurt Angle had been decided on.
It would be very easy for this match to be booked in a way where Strowman is the unstoppable force that Team SmackDown simply can't get past since Finn Balor and the others will all be more easily disposed of in comparison.
However, just because Strowman is the best option on paper doesn't mean that will necessarily be the case.
The lingering threat of Kane interfering in the match to cost Strowman an elimination is going to hover like a black cloud and could possibly change the game up, lending an opportunity to this next man as the backup option.