WWE Rumors: This Year’s ‘Survivor Series’ Has Reportedly Caused Unhappiness Backstage

This year’s WWE Survivor Series is being built as a brand warfare pay-per-view, with superstars from Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown set to face each other for bragging rights. However, this theme has reportedly caused some upset behind the scenes.

As documented by WrestleTalk, Dave Metzer of Wrestling Observer Radio has revealed that some employees are unhappy about current storylines being held up to accommodate pay-per-view matches.

The journalist cited the Randy Orton and Roman Reigns match as a key example. Orton is currently feuding with Drew McIntyre and Bray Wyatt while Reigns is engaged in a storyline with The Usos.

However, because Orton and Reigns are the top champions on their respective shows, they will face each other at the event by default.

Meltzer noted that both superstars haven’t been involved in a program on television to set it up either. He also talked about Bobby Lashley and Sami Zayn’s match, claiming “nobody wants to see” it.

Part of the reason for the lack of interest in Zayn and Lashley could be down to their previous feud being critically lambasted. As The Inquisitr documented, it was widely regarded as the worst and most offensive angle of 2018.

However, the Wrestling Observer Radio report also stated that some people are “not in agreement” with the company focusing on the champion-versus-champion aspect in regard to the fights in general.

According to Meltzer, the traditional multi-person tag matches are “fine,” but performers would rather have bouts that make sense across the board.

WrestleTalk noted that fans and critics agree with this sentiment. While it’s exciting to see Raw and SmackDown go head-to-head, the belief is that it doesn’t make sense at the moment. The latest draft was in October, which has resulted in less intrigue for an event of this kind.

It’s highly likely that the company will book some invasion angles in the lead-up to the event. This has been commonplace in the past, even when performers were more focused on rivalries on their respective shows at the time.

Last year’s Survivor Series centered around NXT invading the main roster. The black-and-gold brand will be left out of the 2020 pay-per-view, however.

According to a recent report, Vince McMahon is supposedly unhappy with the weekly show’s ratings and current COVID-19 outbreak at the Performance Center. The chairman reportedly doesn’t want to portray the brand as equal to Raw or SmackDown or put any more superstars at risk.