Tuesday, 31 December 2013

WWE Survivor Series 2013 Review

The 27th annual Survivor Series took place on Sunday 25th November at the TD Garden in Boston. With not one but two Survivor Series matches taking place, I'm quite looking forward to this event. Let's take a look.

The kick-off show match was between Kofi Kingston and The Miz. This was quite an unusual one ot watch, especially since I didn't watch this til two weeks after the event. I'll get to the reason why in a bit. It was really fast paced to start with multiple pinning attempts and high-flying offense by Kofi. However, like last month when he faced Damien Sandow, his effort was in vain as Miz gets the win when his attempt to hit the skull crushing finale is reversed into a pin. Miz reverses that into a pin for the 3 count. Afterwards, Miz offers his hand and Kofi, forgetting he's the face in this match, slaps him. I enjoyed the match but I found it unusual because it looked like they were turning Miz heel, which is what he seriously needs. However, with an apparently awful TV movie being shown the following week, it got changed into both he and Kofi being really competitive hence them being dicks to each other. Er...ok then.
Winner: The Miz
Predictions: 1 for 1

The first match of the event was the first Survior Series elimination match with the team of Rey Mysterio, The Usos, Cody Rhodes and Goldust taking on The Shield and The Real Americans. I always like these matches so I'm looking forward to it. This match did throw up a lot of surprises, such as Dean Ambrose getting eliminated after a couple of minutes when he gets rolled up by Rhodes when Ambrose is aruging with the referee. Then, Swagger is eliminated after a splash by Jey Uso. Cesaro does the giant swing on both the Usos but he's eliminated by Cody with a sunset flip. This leaves Rollins and Reigns with the difficult task of eliminating 5 guys. Reings makes it easier after eliminating Jimmy Uso with a spear. Then he spears Cody Rhodes to obivilion after Cody hits the CrossRhodes on Rollins, making it 3 on 2. A couple of minutes later, Rollins hits the blackout on Jey Uso to even the odds. Unfortunately, Rollins gets eliminated by a roll up by Mysterio, leaving Reigns to face Goldust and Mysterio. After some back and forth, Reigns eliminates Goldust with another spear. Mysterio comes in and gets Reigns against the ropes then goes for the 619. Unfortunately for him, when he bounces off the ropes for the move, Reigns almost kills him with a spear to win the match and be the sole survivor. I really enjoyed the match as it was a lot of fun to watch. I was quite surprised that the heel team prevailed after going down to 5-on-2. However, it didn't take away from the match and it made Roman Reigns look great.
Winner: Roman Reigns
Predictions: 2 for 2

The next match is for the Intercontinental Championship as Curtis Axel gets his rematch against Big E Langston. The match goes back and forth for a little bit before Axel gains the momentum. Langston starts his comeback after powering out of a chinlock and hitting a few clotheslines. Axel comes close to winning it with a Perfect plex but Langston prevails after getting out of a hangman's facebuster to hit the big ending. The match was pretty good tho it was hard to follow the Survivor Series match. I wasn't a big fan of Langston to begin with but he's growing on me. As for Axel, I really want to like him, especially as I was a fan of his father. However, he seems pretty bland and he needs to show some of the chrisima his father had.
Winner: Big E Langston
Predictions: 3 for 3

Now we get the Divas Survivor Series elimination match with The Bella Twins, Natalya, JoJo, Eva Marie and The Funkadactyls taking on AJ Lee, Askana, Alicia Fox, Summer Rae, Tamina Snuka, Rosa Mendes and Kaitlyn. The match doesn't last anywhere near as long as I thought it would as most of them get eliminated after one move. Alicia Fox gets eliminated after a springboard moonsault by Naomi. Cameron gets eliminated by Rosa bouncing her head off the middle turnbuckle (I'm serious). Rosa gets eliminated by a facebuster by Brie Bella. After a brief dance-off between Summer Rae and Brie, Summer gets eliminated by getting kicked in the face. Eva Marie gets eliminated after Kaitlyn hits her with a press into a knee to the stomach then she eliminates Cameron with the same move. Nikki Bella eliminates Kaitlyn with a missile dropkick but she gets eliminated herself with a spinebuster by Askana. Askana gets eliminated after a backbreaker move by Nikki. After Nikki and Tamina have a brief mini-match, Nikki reluctantly tags in JoJo due to Natalya recovering from a cheap shot by Tamina earlier. Tamina easily dominates JoJo and hits her with a Samoan drop. AJ gets tagged in and pins JoJo to eliminate her. Tamina gets eliminated thanks to a sharpshooter by Natalya and then does the same move to AJ to win the match. Some bits of it weren't bad but some of it was terrible. I get it if JoJo and Eva Marie and Rosa Mendes (to a leeser extent) get eliminated after one move. However, a couple of eliminations were, especially Rosa's, were fucking riduculous. It's a prime example of WWE doing something decent with the Divas division one week then shitting over it the next.
Winners: Nikki Bella and Natalya
Predictions: 4 for 4

We now get an impromptu match with Ryback issuing an open challenge with Mark Henry accepting. Henry uses his impressive strength before Ryback chops him down. Despite Ryback's best efforts, Henry gets the victory after a world's strongest slam. The match was quite short and wasn't anything special but it was good to see Mark Henry back. As for Ryback, I don't know what they're doing with him anymore.
Winner: Mark Henry
Predictions: N/A

Next is the World Heavyweight Championship with Alberto Del Rio challenging John Cena. Much like their match at Hell in a Cell, De Rio keeps his focus on Cena's left elbow, because that worked last time(!) The match goes back and forth and eventually Del Rio wears Cena down with a few armbars. Cena does try to get some momentum a couple of times but Del Rio manages to stop them quite quickly. Del Rio comes close with a German suplex pin but Cena kicks out at 2. Later on, Cena almosts win it with a top rope fameasser. Del Rio goes for the cross armbreaker but cena rolls out of it and applies the STF. Del Rio manages to get a finger on the rope. Del Rio does apply the cross armbreaker but Cena, like every time Del Rio does that move, powers out of it and hits a powerbomb. In the end, Cena hits the AA to retain the Championship. The match wasn't too bad but it might be time for Del Rio to stay away from the title picture for a while.
Winner: John Cena
Predictions: 5 for 5

The penultimate match has Daniel Bryan and CM Punk taking on Erick Rowan and Luke Harper. Whilst I have slight doubts about Rowan and Harper, I am looking forward to this match. Bryan and Punk work on the legs of Rowan but he slows that down when he does a double suplex on them. Harper does a brutal big boot to Punk and this gives him and Rowan the advantage. Punk hits a tornado DDT on Rowan to give him the opportunity to hot tag Bryan and he goes for a top rope hurracarrana on Harper. However, Harper stops that and hits a top rope powerbomb, which would have given him the victory if Punk didn't save the pin. Punk gets thrown out of the ring, taking him out temporarily, and the Wyatts wear down Bryan for a little while. Punk eventually gets tagged in and a few minutes later, ducks a tornado clothesline by Harper to hit him with the GTS to get the victory. I really enjoyed it and I was really impressed with Harper and Rowan throughout the match. If I had a slight gripe, it would have been nice if it was a 3-on-2 tag team match. Otherwise, great match.
Winners: CM Punk and Daniel Bryan
Predictions: 6 for 6

The main event was for the WWE Championship as Big Show challenges Randy Orton. I have to admit, I wasn't really looking forward to this but I was interested to see how it went. Orton was reluctant to face Show but eventually, he gets to wear him down. Show gets back into it and hits a chokeslam for 2. Orton flees to the outside and when Show goes after to the outside and throws Orton against the ropes, he knocks into the referee. The action continues on the outside and Show hits the KO punch and drags him back into the ring. Triple H, along with Stephanie McMahon and Kane, come out. This gives Orton the opportunity to hit the RKO (outta of nowhere) then a punt to retain the WWE Championship. While they all celebrate, John Cena comes out and has a stare down with Orton. The match was ok to watch although Orton totally misses with the punt to give us a slightly botched ending. As for the end of the show, it turns out the next night that the Championships will be unified at TLC. I don't mind that but I wish that it didn't involve Cena and Orton.
Winner: Randy Orton
Predictions: 7 for 7


I thought that Survivor Series was fun to watch as I enjoyed a lot of the matches. 2013 looks like it will end with an Unified World Champion and I'm looking how that will take us into 2014.

No comments:

Post a Comment