The 25th Survivor Series took place at Madison Square Garden last Sunday. With the return of The Rock, was it the most electrifying event in sports entertainment? Let’s take a look.
After a quick introduction by John Laurinaitis (did you know that he’s the executive vice president of talent relations?), the United States Championship was on the line first as Dolph “Perfection” Ziggler was challenged by John “Parkour” Morrison. This was a very good match and a great way to open the event. I was disappointed that Zack Ryder wasn’t in this match and the crowd showed that as well by chanting Ryder’s name throughout this match. It was a high flying, fast paced match and there was a bit that Vickie Guerrero put Ziggler’s leg on the rope, the referee figured it out and sent her back to the locker room. Eventually Ziggler hits the Zig-Zag and retains the title. Afterwards, Ryder ran out and attacked Ziggler. Hopefully, we have a match between the two at TLC.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler Predictions: 1 for 1 (good start!)
Good job Dolph Ziggler wasn’t in the next match so he might have been screwed. Instead, we got a lumberjill match with Eve Torres challenging Beth Phoenix for the Divas Championship. Eve was quite impressive the last time they had a match; unfortunately, that seemed to be a one off as she didn’t really have a good performance in this one. Nothing really much happened which seem to result in a waste of time for the Divas surrounding the ring. Despite the relatively poor standard of the match, it had a really good ending with Beth hitting the glam slam on Eve from the top rope. The question now for Beth is, to borrow a phrase from Goldberg, “Who’s next?”
Winner: Beth Phoenix Predictions: 2 for 2
After a backstage segment in which David Ortunga requested that CM Punk apologise to Michael Cole for putting him in an Anaconda Vice, followed by an awesome promo by The Rock; we had the traditional Survivor Series match with Team Orton (Randy Orton, Sin Cara, Kofi Kingston, Sheamus and Goliath Mason Ryan) taking on Team Barrett (Wade Barrett, Falso Cara Hunico, Cody Rhodes, Dolph “Perfection” Ziggler and “AAA” Jack Swagger). It didn’t start well for Team Barrett as, surprisingly, Ziggler was the first one to be eliminated by Orton with a RKO. Team Orton then suffered a major blow to Sin Cara. Sin Cara has been botching on a semi-regular basis since he made his debut in April. I had the feeling that if Sin Cara kept on doing this, then someone would get hurt, and that’s what happened here. Sin Cara and Kofi attempted a double dive to Hunico and Rhodes outside the ring, Cara seem to injure himself as he was doing the run up, caught the top rope and ended up in a heap outside the ring. After a stoppage in order to give Sin Cara medical attention, the match continued with Sin Cara now being eliminated due to injury. Mason Ryan gets eliminated by Rhodes followed by Barrett eliminating Kofi Kingston. Sheamus decided to pummel Rhodes in the corner, completely ignoring the referee’s continual 5 counts. The referee eventually had enough and disqualified Sheamus (er...ok then), leaving Orton all by himself. Sheamus hit Swagger with a brogue kick and Orton took advantage to eliminate Swagger. Orton temporarily became “Super Cena Orton” and eliminated Hunico with a super RKO (a RKO done when the victim is in the air). Unfortunately, Orton’s plan to eliminate the rest of the Team Barrett didn’t end well as Orton hit Rhodes with a RKO but Barrett hit the wasteland straight afterwards, getting the win and leaving himself and Cody Rhodes as the sole survivors. I really enjoyed this match and it would be nice if we could have more of these matches next year.
Winners: Team Barrett Predictions: 2 for 3
(Survivors: Wade Barrett and Cody Rhodes)
Speaking of Sin Cara, it was revealed after the event that he is out for 6-9 months with a ruptured patella tendon. I recommend to Sin Cara that he doesn’t wear the white costume again as the last time he wore it, it was at Money in the Bank and he got powerbombed through a ladder by Sheamus. Anyway, hope he gets well soon.
After a backstage segment involving Del Rio, the Bella Twins and John Lauriniatis (did you know that he’s the executive vice president of talent relations?), Big Show took on Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship. WWE had the foresight to reinforce the ring just in case they decided to do an 850+lb superplex again. However, if that did happen and the ring collapsed, I would have realised that my suggestion to reinforce the ring with adamantium wasn’t taken under advisement. This match was ok but not as good as their last match. I’ve enjoyed their feud, especially with Daniel Bryan being an unwilling third party in this. However, you can’t really have two consecutive goliath versus goliath matches as they are quite slow paced as shown here. The end had Show missing Henry with the WMD and Henry kicking Show in the balls getting himself disqualified. Henry keeps the title but Show inducts him into his own Hall of Pain by hitting a leg drop on Henry’s ankle after trapping it in a chair. I believe that we will have Show vs Henry III at TLC which, due to the fact that their matches have not ended cleanly, I’m not really looking forward to.
Winner: Big Show (DQ) Predictions: 2 for 4
Next was an interview with Wade Barrett interrupted by the Awesome Truth. It was really good and I couldn’t stop laughing when R-Truth started talking about having an argument with pigeons. Matt Striker’s face said it all with it saying “ what the fuck are you talking about?!” Really, really funny.
Next up was the WWE Championship match with John Cena once again challenging Alberto Del Rio. Wait, hang on, it’s not John Cena? Sorry, I have been so used to Cena always being in the WWE Championship match. It’s CM Punk being the challenger. This match had a great beginning with Punk bringing his own personal announcer, Howard Finkel!!! I like Justin Roberts as a ring announcer but it’s always great to hear the Fink do his announcing. The match had a slow pace to begin with but got better as it went on. Both guys tried to hit their finishing moves and there was one bit when Punk tries to hit the GTS but Del Rio managed to reverse it into the crossed armbreaker but Punk got to the ropes. In the end, Punk put on the Anaconda Vice and Del Rio, despite clawing at Punk’s face, tapped out, making Punk the new WWE Champion. Even though I thought that Del Rio might be the champion for a little bit longer, I’m glad that Punk won it. Hopefully, we have a relatively long title reign as we have had the WWE Championship change hands 8 times since Money in the Bank.
Winner: CM Punk Predictions: 2 for 5
Now, the match we have all been waiting for, R-Truth and The Miz take on John Cena and The Rock. While I was looking forward to this, I was slightly worried about how the Rock would perform. I needn’t have worried as it looked like the Rock had been only out of the ring for 7 minutes, never mind 7 and a half years. The Rock started the match and was dominating Truth and Miz. Eventually The Miz wanted The Rock to tag in Cena, which he did. Cena was being pummelled by Truth and Miz, which seemed to go on forever. Cena finally tags in The Rock, who cleans house and hits the Rock Bottom on R-Truth and the People’s Elbow on The Miz to get the victory. Afterwards, Cena and Rock get into a little argument which ends with Cena receiving a Rock Bottom.
Winners: John Cena and The Rock Predictions: 3 for 6
I really enjoyed this event. Although I got some of my predictions wrong, I get where the WWE are perhaps going with those decisions. As we approach the road to the Royal Rumble followed by the road to Wrestlemania, it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.
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