That went well.
WWE’s annual Survivor Series event took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, and those who stayed up all night to watch it (hello) were treated to some bizarre scenes.
Spoilers for the event follow in case you’re planning on watching after work.
Maybe you don’t care for professional wrestling. That’s fine, too.
In any case, Survivor Series 2018 had a tough act to follow in Saturday night’s NXT Takeover: War Games, which was typically excellent from start to finish.
If you’re being selective on that card, do go out of your way to see the Johnny Gargano/Aleister Black and Tomasso Ciampa/Velveteen Dream bouts, as both were top drawer.
As for Survivor Series, the battle for brand supremacy was hilariously one-sided as Raw won all six of their main card matches over Smackdown (the pre-show doesn’t count, apparently).
Highlights included Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair having a fun brawl that led to a Charlotte heel turn, the brutal and bloody destruction of Rousey after the match was waved off for a DQ and the fans turning on Rousey, which she did not appreciate.
She showed up for a match.
What she got was a war.@RondaRousey #SurvivorSeries pic.twitter.com/POracxG2Wp
— WWE (@WWE) November 19, 2018
That match also saw much in the way of vocal crowd support for Dublin native Becky Lynch, who was forced out of the encounter due to a concussion sustained last week.
Elsewhere, Brock Lesnar overcame Daniel Bryan in a surreal and hard-hitting main event that saw Bryan take a worrying amount of punishment on his surgically-repaired neck.
Earlier, Team Raw beat Team Smackdown fairly convincingly.
A bad night for the blue brand, but the most headline-grabbing story concerned former WWE wrestler Enzo Amore, who was fired in January of this year after allegations of sexual assault came to light.
Amore – real name Eric Arndt – denied the allegations and the case was later dismissed in May due to insufficient evidence.
He has since repurposed himself as a budding rapper, releasing generally terrible braggadocious music that really isn’t worth looking up and so we won’t link to it here.
During the second match on Sunday night – Shinsuke Nakamura versus Seth Rollins in a patient but ultimately decent affair – fans on Twitter began circulating imagery of what they believed to be Amore sitting in the second row opposite the hard camera.
Enzo Amore sitting ringside… pic.twitter.com/Zk5kAS5KEI
— Mike Johnson (@MikePWInsider) November 19, 2018
What’s more, he appeared to be in some sort of makeshift disguise, sporting a hoody and wig.
As the third match started up – a tag match between Sheamus and Cesaro and The Authors of Pain – Amore rose to his feet, shed his disguise, stood atop a chair and began to mouth off like he was opening an episode of Monday Night Raw.
Despite no microphone, he distracted from the match but it didn’t last long as a security guard grabbed him mid-flow and dragged him out of the arena.
My video of the wrestler formerly known as Enzo Amore trying to interrupt #SurvivorSeries. @WWE security not having any of it. He is taken down quickly. pic.twitter.com/2jdRtOe36z
— LEE SHENKER (@TuftsGuy) November 19, 2018
He wasn’t arrested, as he wasn’t technically trespassing, but was ejected from the building.
Given that this is pro-wrestling, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was all one big angle to tease Amore’s return to WWE.
However, it is believed that WWE had nothing to do with the incident and that Amore acted of his own accord.
And you can’t teach that, etc…
