At the end of the year, among discussions such as “Top Ten matches of the Year,” and “Breakout Stars” one such topic is the best PPV of the year. Of the 12-13 options, this WrestleMania is, by default, the favorite to win. With high profile names returning to fill the card, and storylines that have been in development for a few months as apposed to just a week or two, the tile for Best PPV is WrestleMania’s to lose. But this year, though WrestleMania still clearly has to be in the running, Survivor Series is a contender as well. And they didn’t do it with an all star card, but with a few key moments, some well paid off buildup, and believe it or not, great wrestling of all things.
Oh and Dean Ambrose. Dean Ambrose helped.
Year long Champion: This Survivor Series victory marked one full year of Punk being champion. And while it was quite an impressive match what really made this great is simple fact that for the past year, WWE has had CM Punk as their champion. On my computer there sits an unfinished draft of an article I was writing in June of 2011. The article was meant to be a farewell to CM Punk as current rumors were saying that his contract was up and he wasn’t looking to resign. At the time, I was not alone in looking at Punk’s work from ECW to the SES (and even earlier is some people’s cases) and seeing something that the main event scene of WWE desperately needed. The fact is, that Punk was leaving was about to create a very serious, hole in the WWE roster. But now, a year and a half later, not only has Punk not left, he has become one of the biggest stars in the entire company, and more importantly, for the past year he has been the person to carry the company’s most important title. There’s a lot that the WWE does wrong (things we are all to happy to point out time and again) but Punk’s long reign as champ is something done correctly.
The Survivor Series Tag Team Match: At one point or another, I have been a huge fan of each of the ten men to enter the tag team match this past Sunday. (The main one, not the bonus that opened the show) Some, such as Ziggler, and Team Friendship are currently the favorites on the roster, while others, such as The Miz, were top guys at one point but have begun to slip out of the spotlight, and others such as Del Rio and Orton, have grown stale to the point where they are no longer interesting. One tag match later, that is all different. It’s rare that a match with this many people in it can manage to make everyone look good, but this match seemed to be one of those rare moments. Only Damien Sandow came off looking less than stellar in the ring, but his strength has always been in promos and character anyway, and attempting to leave the match with a “good luck!” shout was perfect character. The whole mach featured both amazing in ring work (with the highlight obviously being Ziggler’s unending selling ability) to perhaps even more impressive subtle things. The nonverbal communication between Orton and Miz for example was gold. But the most important thing of all, was that Dolph Ziggler won, he won cleanly, and he won by pinning Randy Orton. This is how you create your future star.
Unrelated Thought: I don’t think many would argue that the AJ/Cena scandal angle is anywhere close t being enjoyable. And as so much of the WWE has shown major improvements over the past month, it’s still slightly depressing to see this bit still get pushed simply because it is involving Cena. But this week featured a moment where Ziggler was given a moment to shine when AJ confronted him about attacking Cena in the ring. Ziggler has shown constant improvement both on the mic and in the ring and a rather harsh promo cut on AJ this week has been some of his best work. Surprise of surprises, it really looks like Ziggler and Cena actually have the elements to put together a truly fantastic feud. As long as this ends up elevating Ziggler to his now well-earned Main Event status instead of watching Super Cena beat him back down into the mid card,
