WWE Survivor Series: Team Smackdown and Team Raw go head-to-head but which brand will reign supreme?

The pay-per-view pits champion vs champion

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Newly-crowned WWE champion AJ Styles meets Brock Lesnar on the last major pay-per-view of the year on Sunday.

Styles picked up an historic title win in Manchester earlier this month as part of the company’s lengthy European tour – the first man to ever win the gold outside of North America.

Styles, from Smackdown Live, goes head to head with Monday Night Raw’s equivalent – Universal Champion Brock Lesnar.

While neither championship is on the line, the inter-brand battle sets the tone for what promises to be an interesting night of action as the blue versus red theme throws up countless rare matches that we’d otherwise not see.

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WWE has done a sterling job of building what looks to be a chaotic event, headlined by the elimination tag team match between the two brands.

Team Raw is captained by Olympic gold medal winner Kurt Angle, who also doubles up as the General Manager for the Monday night brand. He’s joined by Triple H, who returned to WWE television this past week, Finn Balor, Braun Strowman and Samoa Joe.

They will go up against the Smackdown Live team of captain Shane McMahon – the show’s commissioner and Triple H’s brother-in-law no less, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, Randy Orton and the returning John Cena.

It’s a match absolutely rammed with star-power and talent. The only fly in the ointment for me is that such a stellar line-up doesn’t leave much room to impress for the younger elements – the likes of Joe and Nakamura – who could use a big pay-per-view moment.

Elsewhere, Smackdown’s United States Champion Baron Corbin looks to end his war of words with Raw’s Intercontinental Champion The Miz after the pair spent much of the last fortnight trading blows on social media.

Raw and Smackdown’s respective Women’s Champions will meet when Alexa Bliss goes up against Charlotte Flair – who is fresh from winning the title just days ago.

There are genuine match of the night contenders wherever you look. The Shield, now complete once again with the return of Roman Reigns after illness, face The New Day in tag action, while The Uso’s – tag champs on Tuesday nights – meet their Raw counterparts, Sheamus and Cesaro, who shocked The Shield by winning the titles in Manchester recently.

Enzo Amore and Kalisto will meet on the event pre-show for the Cruiserweight Championship, while there is a tantalising Sunday night surprise lingering in the women’s tag team elimination match.

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Team Raw is complete, as Alicia Fox leads Nia Jax, Bayley, Sasha Banks and Asuka into battle.

But there is, curiously, a void on Smackdown’s side, created by Flair who had been slated to be on the team.

Quite who might step in to even up the numbers is, at the moment, anyone’s guess, but our very own Paige is due to make a long-awaited return from injury very shortly.

The Brit hasn’t been a regular part of WWE programming for the better part of 18 months but would be quite the last-minute replacement.

WWE Survivor Series is this Sunday night, live from Houston, Texas, live on WWE Network. For more details go to wwe.com.