WWE Survivor Series 2021 Retro Review: Every Match Rated and Revisited
WWE Survivor Series 2021 took place on Sunday, November 21, 2021, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It streamed on Peacock in the United States, on SonyLIV in India for the first time, and on the WWE Network everywhere else.
It was the end of an era. This was the last Survivor Series built on Raw vs. SmackDown brand supremacy, and the last one with a traditional Survivor Series elimination match until 2026. A year later, the event became Survivor Series: WarGames. Looking back, the show explains why that change happened: the two best matches were the champion vs. champion singles matches, not the team matches the event was named after.
The build
- Roman Reigns vs. Big E: the Universal Champion against the WWE Champion. Big E had cashed in Money in the Bank on Bobby Lashley in September, and he had been on a collision course with The Bloodline for weeks through The New Day's rivalry with The Usos.
- Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair: after the October draft, the two had swapped brands and swapped titles on SmackDown, with Lynch taking the Raw Women's Championship and Flair the SmackDown Women's Championship. Their rivalry went back years.
- RK-Bro vs. The Usos: the Raw Tag Team Champions against the SmackDown Tag Team Champions.
- The two elimination matches: Team Raw (Seth Rollins, Finn Bálor, Kevin Owens, Bobby Lashley and Austin Theory) against Team SmackDown (Drew McIntyre, Jeff Hardy, King Woods, Sheamus and Happy Corbin), and Team Raw (Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Carmella and Queen Zelina) against Team SmackDown (Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler, Shotzi, Natalya and Toni Storm).
- The Rock's 25th anniversary: a 25-man battle royal marked 25 years since The Rock debuted at Survivor Series 1996. The Rock himself did not appear.
Match by match
Kickoff: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Damian Priest
The Intercontinental Champion against the United States Champion. Priest controlled most of it with power moves, and Rick Boogs played guitar at ringside to distract him. At the end, Priest grabbed the guitar, broke it, hit Boogs with it and then accidentally hit Nakamura too, which got him disqualified at 9:25.
What worked: both men had a solid, physical match while it lasted.
What didn't: a disqualification finish on the pre-show of a brand supremacy event, with no build, meant nobody cared who won.
Our rating: ★★
Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair
The show opened with its best match. It started with slaps and hair pulling, and it never stopped feeling personal. Lynch shoved Flair off the top rope to the floor, Flair powerbombed her out of the Dis-Arm-Her, and Lynch tried Flair's own Figure Four on her. Flair put her foot on the rope to stop a Manhandle Slam and hit a moonsault to the floor.
The finish came down to cheating. Flair rolled Lynch up with her feet on the ropes, the referee saw it, and Lynch reversed it and used the ropes herself to win at 18:15.
What worked: the intensity. It felt like two people who genuinely wanted to beat each other, and Brooklyn was hot for all of it. The Wrestling Observer gave it ****¼, and both CBS Sports and Bleacher Report graded it as one of the best matches of the night.
What didn't: the finish. Two top champions trading rope-assisted roll-ups was a flat way to end a match this heated, even if it protected both of them.
Our rating: ★★★★
Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown (men)
This one started with a walk-out. Kevin Owens left his own team and was counted out after 55 seconds. Bálor pinned Corbin with the Coup de Grâce, Lashley made Woods pass out in the Hurt Lock, and then Lashley and McIntyre brawled outside and were both counted out. Sheamus pinned Bálor, Theory rolled up Sheamus, and Jeff Hardy hit a Swanton Bomb on Theory. Rollins then blocked Hardy's Swanton with his knees and hit the Stomp to win as the sole survivor at 30:00.
What worked: Rollins and Hardy had a good final few minutes, and there was always action. The Observer was kind to it at ****.
What didn't: three count-outs in one elimination match. Owens walking out, then Lashley and McIntyre going out together, meant some of the biggest names never had a real finish. King Woods, a top SmackDown babyface at the time, was beaten quickly. CBS gave it a B-, Bleacher Report a C+, and we agree with them more than with the Observer.
Our rating: ★★★
The Rock 25th Anniversary Battle Royal
Omos was the whole match. He eliminated most of the field, threw out his own tag partner AJ Styles after Styles hid on the outside for most of it, and last eliminated Ricochet at 10:45.
What worked: presenting Omos as an unstoppable giant was the one clear idea, and it was executed.
What didn't: everything else. Twenty-five wrestlers with nothing at stake, a tribute to a star who did not show up, and a crowd that sat on its hands. The Observer gave it *¼.
Our rating: ★
RK-Bro vs. The Usos
This was Randy Orton's 177th pay-per-view match, a WWE record at the time. It was strong tag wrestling from start to finish. The Usos hit double superkicks on both Orton and Riddle, and Jimmy went up for the Uso Splash on Riddle without realizing Orton was the legal man. Orton caught him in mid-air with an RKO for the win at 14:50.
What worked: the finish was the best of the night, a classic Orton moment, and the chemistry between the two teams was obvious.
What didn't: it was a non-title champion vs. champion match, so there was nothing on the line beyond a brand point.
Our rating: ★★★½
Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown (women)
Carmella was rolled up by Toni Storm while she was trying to put her protective mask on, just one minute in. Storm also eliminated Queen Zelina, Liv Morgan pinned Storm, and Sasha Banks pinned Liv after back-to-back frog splashes with Shotzi. Baszler then eliminated Rhea Ripley, leaving Bianca Belair alone against four.
SmackDown fell apart from there. Banks argued with Shotzi, Shotzi, Baszler and Natalya kept her out of the ring, and Banks was counted out. Belair rolled up Natalya, Glam Slammed Baszler and hit the Kiss of Death on Shotzi to win as the sole survivor at 23:45.
What worked: Belair. Her comeback against three opponents was the right way to end it, and she looked like a top star.
What didn't: another count-out, and a long middle section where little happened. The Observer had it at **½.
Our rating: ★★½
Roman Reigns vs. Big E
The Universal Champion against the WWE Champion, with Paul Heyman at ringside. Big E had real moments: a Spear through the ropes that sent Reigns to the floor, and a Big Ending that Reigns only survived by getting his foot on the rope. Reigns countered with a guillotine, Superman Punches and a Spear for a near fall.
In the end, Reigns threw Big E into the steel steps, went after his injured knee and hit a second Spear for the win at 21:55.
What worked: two big men hitting hard. Big E got to look like Reigns' equal for long stretches, and Bleacher Report gave it an A.
What didn't: the result was never really in doubt. Reigns was in the middle of his record-setting run, and Big E was pinned clean in the end. The Observer had it at ***½, which feels about right: very good, not a classic.
Our rating: ★★★½
Beyond the matches
- The golden egg: WWE promoted the Netflix film *Red Notice*, starring The Rock. Vince McMahon showed off a "real" Cleopatra egg and later told the whole roster to report to Raw the next night after it went missing. It led to Austin Theory's push as McMahon's protégé.
- Brock Lesnar's suspension: Heyman was told on the show that Lesnar's indefinite suspension was over, which set up Lesnar's return.
- The final score: Raw won five of the seven matches, counting the Kickoff.
- The new streaming homes: this was the first Survivor Series on Peacock in the United States and on SonyLIV in India.
The verdict: does it hold up today?
Partly. Lynch vs. Flair is worth going back to, RK-Bro vs. The Usos is a fun 15 minutes, and Reigns vs. Big E is a solid main event. The rest shows why brand supremacy ran out of steam: count-outs, an empty battle royal and team matches where the stars were protected instead of featured. WWE moved to WarGames the next year, and this show makes that decision easy to understand.
- Best match: Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair
- Worst match: The Rock 25th Anniversary Battle Royal
- Overall: 3 out of 5
Full results and our ratings
| Match | Result | Time | Our rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kickoff: Nakamura vs. Priest | Shinsuke Nakamura def. Damian Priest by disqualification | 9:25 | ★★ |
| Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair | Becky Lynch def. Charlotte Flair | 18:15 | ★★★★ |
| Men's Survivor Series match | Team Raw def. Team SmackDown (sole survivor: Seth Rollins) | 30:00 | ★★★ |
| The Rock 25th Anniversary Battle Royal | Omos won, last eliminating Ricochet | 10:45 | ★ |
| RK-Bro vs. The Usos | RK-Bro def. The Usos | 14:50 | ★★★½ |
| Women's Survivor Series match | Team Raw def. Team SmackDown (sole survivor: Bianca Belair) | 23:45 | ★★½ |
| Roman Reigns vs. Big E | Roman Reigns def. Big E | 21:55 | ★★★½ |
What happened next
- On Raw the next night, Austin Theory admitted he took the egg to get a selfie with it, and McMahon rewarded him with a WWE Championship match against Big E. Theory lost, but became McMahon's protégé.
- Lesnar returned, and Big E lost the WWE Championship to him in a fatal five-way at Day 1 on January 1, 2022.
- Lynch kept the Raw Women's Championship into 2022, beating Liv Morgan at Day 1. Read the full story of that rivalry in Liv Morgan vs. Becky Lynch: the full history.
- In 2022, Triple H dropped brand supremacy and made WarGames the centerpiece of the event. Read our Survivor Series: WarGames 2022 retro review.
More retro reviews
Other classic shows we have revisited, rated out of 5:
- Survivor Series: WarGames 2022: ★★★★ (4 out of 5), the first WarGames Survivor Series and Sami Zayn's big night
- Survivor Series: WarGames 2023: ★★★★ (4 out of 5), Randy Orton's return and CM Punk's comeback in Chicago
- Survivor Series: WarGames 2024: ★★★½ (3.5 out of 5), Reigns and CM Punk on the same side in Vancouver
- Survivor Series: WarGames 2025: ★★★ (3 out of 5), the first stadium Survivor Series and John Cena's last PLE match
- WrestleMania XL: ★★★★½ (4.5 out of 5), two nights in Philadelphia, The Rock and the end of the Bloodline story
- WrestleMania 39: ★★★★½ (4.5 out of 5), two nights in Hollywood and Reigns vs. Rhodes, part one
- Crown Jewel 2025: ★★★★ (4 out of 5), Cena vs. AJ Styles in Perth
- SummerSlam 2025: ★★★★ (4 out of 5), the first two-night SummerSlam and John Cena's last one
- Money in the Bank 2016: ★★★★ (4 out of 5), Cena vs. AJ, a great ladder match and Reigns vs. Rollins
- Crown Jewel 2021: ★★★★ (4 out of 5), Hell in a Cell and a loaded card
- WrestleMania 41: ★★★½ (3.5 out of 5), Cena's farewell year and a Heyman story in Las Vegas
- WrestlePalooza 2025: ★★★½ (3.5 out of 5), the first WWE show on ESPN, with Lesnar vs. Cena
- Crown Jewel 2022: ★★★½ (3.5 out of 5), Reigns vs. Logan Paul and a Last Woman Standing match
- Crown Jewel 2024: ★★½ (2.5 out of 5), the first Crown Jewel Championships
- Crown Jewel 2023: ★★½ (2.5 out of 5), Rollins vs. McIntyre and Reigns vs. LA Knight
- Crown Jewel 2019: ★★ (2 out of 5), celebrities and the first women's match in Saudi Arabia
- Crown Jewel 2018: ★½ (1.5 out of 5), the first one, and the World Cup
See them all on our Retro Reviews page, and read our Survivor Series: WarGames 2026 guide.
