The WWE Survivor Series event in 2017 was headlined by the traditional five-on-five men’s match despite Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. WWE Champion AJ Styles being on the card.
Current Vice President of Live Events, Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James, recapped the event for his ‘Oh…You Didn’t Know’ podcast and explained why the champion vs. champion match didn’t close out the show.
“We didn’t know what to close with [at Survivor Series 2017]. AJ [Styles] and Brock [Lesnar] or this [men’s traditional five-on-five match] and so we chose AJ and Brock to not close. We’re gonna close with the other one because we didn’t know what AJ and Brock was gonna do… I didn’t know it was gonna be good, and this has happened more than once. In retrospect, you go, man, I sure wish we had closed with that one, you know what I mean? Everybody would have gone home happy and so, again, they still went home happy I think anyway.”
Quotes via POST Wrestling