It’s been an interesting year for WWE Pay Per Views, especially everything post-Mania. It’s odd in the sense that the PPV’s have been actually pretty good on a consistent basis, of course that may not always translate to decent sale numbers but that’s neither here nor there. In recent years, it felt a lot of times that WWE kinda scrape by until their major 4 PPV’s and make those 4 something huge. However, after Mania the lesser PPV’s seemed somewhat well thought out and executed with competence while the two major PPVs in that time have completely been terrible or slapped-together last minute. In all honesty, I can’t really point to one wrestling issue that I had with Summer Slam, maybe the HHH ending was weak sauce and that put a sour taste in my mouth. I think the more likely truth is that Kevin Rudolph is such a terrible “musician” that his performance ruined a mediocre PPV. And now we have Survivor Series and it seems like WWE can’t make up their minds on what they exactly want. Don’t get me wrong, last year’s was no masterpiece but at least that had the excitement surrounding Rock coming back but the traditional SS match was lacking quite a bit.
That being said, let’s take a look at everything WWE managed to throw together…
United States Championship Match: Antonio Cesaro(c) vs R-Truth
Doesn’t seem to be much of a story here other than Cesaro giving Truth the mean eye on Raw with his satchel. I’m glad they’ve eased up a bit on the languages schtick but, honestly, the guy needs a whole new gimmick because the cookie-cutter foreigner-heel is already being played out by Del Rio. Don’t get me wrong, I really like what I’ve seen out of Cesaro in the ring but the gimmick just doesn’t do anything for me or for anyone else, apparently. As for Truth, have fun being the place-holding challenger. With Miz turning face, does that mean we can trade off Truth to the heel side? That’s how it works, yes?
Divas Championship Match: Eve(c) vs Kaitlyn
Doesn’t seem like Eve is really doing much with the title, it’s a “major” PPV and they don’t have Beth or Kharma anymore so it’s time to build up a strong Diva…why not Kaitlyn? Also, Kaitlyn’s boobs.
Traditional Survivor Series Match: Team Foley (Team Friendship, Miz, Kofi Kingston, and Randy Orton) vs Team Ziggler (Dolph Ziggler, Rhodes Scholars, Alberto Del Rio, Wade Barrett)
Still makes no sense that Ziggler is the team captain after Punk was taken out, at least make it team Heyman for some sort of continuity connection. Whatever the case is, I find it hard to believe that Foley’s team will lose, Team Friendship is still getting pushed beyond the clouds, Miz is a new face that is gaining momentum and WWE is trying to get Randy back towards the top. The only other scenario I see is Miz somehow causing a riff between Bryan and Kane and making the team implode but I don’t think that would be enough to derail the entire time (especially behind super Orton powers).
World Heavyweight Championship Match: Big Show(c) vs Sheamus
Last month, I was pleasantly surprised that the WHC match didn’t completely suck and now at Survivor Series, I’m going to keep my hope in check and predict that WWE will ruin the momentum and give us a terrible follow-up. I can’t really give you a prediction one way or the other because I don’t think WWE has any plan here unless they want to reignite the freak show feud with Mark Henry slated to return soonish. Although some reports are indicating that Henry will set his sights on the WWE title and CM Punk.
Triple Threat WWE Championship Match: CM Punk(c) vs Ryback vs John Cena
I do really kinda hate that Punk is reverting to the typical WWE heel that finds a way to merely escape championship matches with the belt. I have full believe that Punk can be just as devilish and still win matches cleanly. Now, I understand the need for an escape in the last PPV because WWE was really wanting to maintain Ryback’s momentum but that doesn’t have to be the case this time at Survivor Series. Now, we have John Cena and Ryback that can get into each other’s way and Punk can capitalize cleanly. However, I know pretty much how this is probably gonna play out: either a roll up or Brad Maddox gets involved in some way and Punk gets away…Ryback can now focus solely on Maddox, Cena can focus on Ziggler/Vickie/AJ and Punk can move on to the next opponent. I’m coming to that conclusion obviously because of Heyman having a chat with Braddox before his Million Dollar Match and maybe we are to believe in the possibility to throwing the match so he wouldn’t be an employee and get involved in Hell in a Cell. Either that or we’ll never hear from Braddox ever again until someone shows up with a completely different name and looks slightly like Brad.
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris
The Answer: If your name is Richard Law and you don’t go by ‘Dick Law’ you’re doing it wrong.
