Predicting the match order at Survivor Series 2021

It’s one thing to predict the winners and losers at Survivor Series, but how about taking a guess at the match order for the event?

Survivor Series takes place tomorrow night (Nov. 21) from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, with the main card beginning at 8 pm ET on Peacock.

WWE has announced seven different segments for the main card of this event. Here is my subjective view of how important each of these seven segments rank, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair
2. Big E vs. Roman Reigns
3. Raw Men vs. SmackDown Men
4. Raw Women vs. SmackDown Women
5. RK-Bro vs. The Usos
6. 25-Man Dual Brand Battle Royal
7. Damian Priest vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Main event

Roman Reigns has main evented four consecutive WWE pay-per-view (PPV) events, and seven of the last eight. His match is always a strong contender to close out the night, but that’s not how it should go at Survivor Series.

That’s because the most anticipated match of the night is easily Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair. Their fight is filled with the kind of “is it a work or a shoot?” drama that is rare to come by, and the Brooklyn crowd will be going bananas for it. This should be a no-brainer decision, but it’s far from a lock to be the main event, because WWE might book an unsatisfying cop out finish to get around one of the women losing by pin or submission.

Opening match

One of the traditional elimination tag team matches will probably start the main card of this event.

In order to figure out which one it will be, I’m going to jump to the end of the card and put Roman Reigns in Segment 6, right before Lynch/Flair. It’s possible Reigns might prefer to open the night if he isn’t closing it (like at Hell in a Cell 2021), but with two group elimination matches to get through, I don’t really see that happening.

With Reigns and Lynch closing the show, there’s no need to save the men’s elimination match for the end of the show. I’m going to put Rollins, McIntyre, and the rest of the bunch in Segment 1.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Raw Men vs. SmackDown Men
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6: Big E vs. Roman Reigns
Segment 7: Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair

Everything else

Following a lengthy action-packed opener, the least important match of the night should go in Segment 2. I’m putting Damian Priest and Shinsuke Nakamura in that spot, because there is zero heat behind it.

I’ll choose Segment 5 for the women’s elimination match, to keep it far away from the men’s opener.

That leaves RK-Bro and a Battle Royal for Segments 3 and 4. I don’t think it’s ideal to put a Battle Royal adjacent to a 5-on-5 elimination match, so that rules it out of Segment 4. Therefore the Battle Royal goes in Segment 3, with RK-Bro in Segment 4.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at Survivor Series, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times:

Segment 1: Raw Men vs. SmackDown Men (24 minutes)
Segment 2: Damian Priest vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (7)
Segment 3: 25-Man Dual Brand Battle Royal (13)
Segment 4: RK-Bro vs. The Usos (14)
Segment 5: Raw Women vs. SmackDown Women (18)
Segment 6: Big E vs. Roman Reigns (17)
Segment 7: Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair (15)

These times add up to 108 minutes. That’s more wrestling time than is typically seen on a three hour WWE pay-per-view, so something doesn’t quite add up. Either some of my guesses are way off, one of these matches could be moved to the pre-show, or Survivor Series will go beyond the three hour mark.

That’s my prediction for the match order at Survivor Series. What’s yours?