WWE Survivor Series has returned to the RAW vs. SmackDown format, but many fans look fondly back on the three-brand clash that also included NXT in 2019. For this show, the top champions from all three brands waged war. Count WWE Champion Big E as someone who appreciated this style because it was “cool and unique.”
During a recent appearance on My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox, Big E reflected on his past Survivor Series matches. When the 2019 show came up, Big E looked back on how he and Kofi Kingston faced RAW’s Viking Raiders and NXT’s Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly of the Undisputed Era. “The Powerhouse of Positivity” revealed that, at the time, the New Day wanted to have some stable warfare with the Undisputed Era, but this match never came to fruition. Still, he made it clear that he had fun in the triple threat tag team bout that was on the pay-per-view.
“We always wanted to stuff with Undisputed Era, and we even talked about going down to NXT at some point and doing a run with them,” said Big E. “That was something that we really wanted to do. Those guys were so incredibly hot, they had such a great run down there. But yeah it was cool.
“That version of Survivor Series, where we involved NXT, I thought was cool and unique and [it] added a different flavor to Survivor Series. So we didn’t get our faction versus faction match with Undisputed Era, but being a part of the stuff with Viking Raiders and those guys was cool. And it was a unique way to do that match.”
Plenty of fans miss the way WWE Survivor Series 2019 incorporated NXT, and this development was just one of the few ways the show has changed over the years. In the interview, Big E described how he wishes WWE could do more of the classic “Mean Gene” promos, where the Survivor Series teams would collectively preview their respective matches and form a united front.
“I just have this general memory of just the Survivor Series teams that I grew up [watching], I just loved the fact, the Mean Gene promos, I always loved,” said Big E. “I wish we’d do more of that, just these five colorful characters, and they’re all losing their mind and it’s the over-the-top nature of everyone coming together. So that’s just what I think of when I think of the Survivor Series teams that I grew up watching.”
The full interview is available here:
