Survivor Series is now less than a week away and like most things this year, it feels a bit different. Due to the most obvious reasons, there hasn’t been any type of “invasion” type of build-up this year. Instead, the teams are focused on their own brands. Both RAW and SmackDown have down two different ways to showcase their talent heading up to the event.
One thing both rosters have in common is they are focused around one woman on each brand. RAW’s focus is on Lana as she is the only woman who had to qualify for a spot on the team. The team itself implodes every week with the members fighting amongst each other and ending up with Lana going through the announce table by the hands of Nia Jax. SmackDown’s focus is a little different from who they are focusing on, Natalya, who hasn’t earned her spot yet.
Natalya has been involved in three different matches to try and qualify for a spot on Team SmackDown. The storyline is panning out in the aspect that she keeps getting cheated out of the win and keeps having to try and qualify for a spot every week. Her being self-proclaimed as the “Best of All Time” is infuriating her that she can’t earn her spot. The main difference between how the brands are handling the build for their teams is that the blue brand is actually putting on weekly qualifiers.
Ironically the fact that Natalya is being put in this position leads to looking into the history of women in traditional Survivor Series matches. She is the only woman out of the 33 year-long history of the event that has been last standing in a Survivor Series outing more than one time. She sits at surviving two.
The first win occurred in 2013 where she survived with Nikki Bella in the Total Divas vs. True Diva match. The second was in 2014 where she survived with her whole team in a total sweep alongside Alicia Fox, Emma, and Naomi.
Survivor Series has not been kind to the women as a whole when it comes to the historical reference of the event. For the 33 year history, there has only been a total of 10 all-women traditional matches (11 – after this year). Below is a list of the years and the survivors of each match:
- 1987 – Jumping Bomb Angels
- 1995 – Aja Kong
- 2008 – Beth Phoenix (Team RAW)
- 2009 – Melina & Mickie James (Team Mickie)
- 2013 – Natalya & Nikki Bella (Team Total Divas)
- 2014 – Natalya, Alicia Fox, Emma, & Naomi (Team Natalya)
- 2016 – Bayley & Charlotte Flair (Team RAW)
- 2017 – Asuka (Team RAW)
- 2018 – Nia Jax (Team RAW)
- 2019 – Candice LeRae, Rhea Ripley, & Io Shirai (Team NXT)
There was a match in 2000 which involved Chyna. She joined Billy Gunn, K-Kwik, and Road Dogg in a losing effort against The Radicalz.
Natalya also holds the most times in a Survivor Series match at six. She is followed by both Naomi and Alicia Fox with five appearances each.
This year’s match is current shaping up as follows:
Team RAW – Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Mandy Rose, Dana Brooke, and Lana vs. Team SmackDown –Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, and two more names to be announced.
Do you think that Natalya will end up making it on Team SmackDown? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check back in with Diva Dirt for all news, rumors, and results from this year’s Survivor Series event.