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Scottrade Center – St. Louis, MO – Sunday, November 23, 2014
~KICKOFF MATCH~
Fandango (w/ Rosa Mendes) defeats Justin Gabriel at 3:20. This is from the brief period that Fandango was a flamenco dancer and wrestled in his dress shirt and slacks. Gabriel has cool skeleton gear, as long as we’re talking about it. Fandango wrestles a slow pace and tries to keep Gabriel grounded. Gabriel flies around a bit, but falls victim to the Last Dance, and Fandango gets the win. The crowd was still filing in at this point, and the ones that were there did not care in the least.
Rating: *
~MATCH #1~
The Miz & Damien Mizdow defeat WWE Tag Team Champions Goldust & Stardust, Los Matadores (Diego & Fernando, w/ El Torito), and The Usos (Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso) at 15:24 to win the titles. The Dust brothers have been the Champions since 9.21.14, and this is their fifth defense. The crowd doesn’t much care for seven of the participants in this match, because all they want is Damien Mizdow. After a chaotic and adequate match up, Miz tries to steal a pin but Mizdow steals it from him! At any rate, The Miz and Damien Mizdow win the WWE Tag Team Titles and Miz celebrates with both belts. This was fine but totally unmemorable.
Rating: **½
~MATCH #2~
Natalya (w/ Tyson Kidd), Naomi, Emma & Alicia Fox defeat Paige, Layla, Summer Rae & Cameron in a Survivor Series Match at 14:22. The audience can’t get over the previous match, as they chant “We Want Mizdow!” All the women show off their skills, and Naomi catches Cameron with a bridging victory roll to score the first elimination at 6:14. Some stuff happens and Fox hits Layla with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to eliminate her at 9:31. Summer and Paige are outnumbered, but they do okay for a couple minutes. Emma traps Summer in the Dil-Emma, and then squashes her with the Emma-mite Sandwich. She then makes her tap out to the Emma Lock at 12:06. Paige realizes she’s all alone and tries to bail, but Emma won’t allow it. Naomi gets in the ring and delivers the Rear View, and then hits a brutal looking handstand modified headscissors driver to get the pin. Clean sweep for Natalya’s team for whatever reason. Nothing much really good or bad about this one. It was just a match.
Rating: **
~MATCH #3~
Bray Wyatt defeats Dean Ambrose by disqualification at 14:02. This is a pure brawl from the get-go, and they fight both in and out of the ring. Ambrose uses a more high-energy style, while Wyatt tries to keep a slower, more methodical pace. This goes on for a good long while, with the occasional pop from the crowd. Bray stops mid-match to cut a promo, telling Ambrose that together they could rule the galaxy as father and son, or something dumb like that. It’s Bray Wyatt, who cares? Wyatt introduces a chair into the match and dares Ambrose to hit him. Ambrose obliges, and that’s an obvious DQ. Ambrose then hits Dirty Deeds on the chair. He then puts Wyatt through a table, then uses another table and more chairs to further abuse his rival. Then out comes the ladder. Astute viewers will realize that this is clearly a setup for a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match. Of course, who would care about that because we all just saw the babyface destroy the heel with all three of those objects. Bland match, butt finish.
Rating: **¼
~MATCH #4~
Adam Rose & The Bunny defeat Slater Gator (Heath Slater & Titus O’Neil) at 2:36. I’m not sure who’s playing Bunny at this point, and I don’t think it matters. Yes, this is really happening on a pay-per-view. Rose wants to be in the match, but Bunny drills Slater with a missile dropkick from the second rope and that’s enough to get the pin. Rose looks irritated. I sympathize.
Rating: ¼*
~MATCH #5~
Nikki Bella (w/ Brie Bella) defeats Divas Champion AJ Lee at 0:34 to win the title. Lee has been the Champion since 9.21.14, and this is her second defense. Brie is up on the ring apron holding AJ’s title. AJ goes to see what’s up and Brie kisses her right on the mouth. Nikki delivers a hard forearm smash and hits the Rack Attack to get the pin and win the title. Nice callback to WrestleMania XXVIII I guess.
Rating: DUD
~MATCH #6~
Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan & Ryback) defeat Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Luke Harper, Kane, Rusev & Mark Henry, w/ Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Lana, Joey Mercury, and Jamie Noble) in a Survivor Series Match at 43:05. Harper is the Intercontinental Champion and Rusev is the United States Champion, so they’ve got the gold on their side. Henry and Show start it off, and HHH tries to get Henry all hyped up, but he walks right into a WMD from Show and that’s enough for the first elimination at 0:51. Team Cena continues to dominate, no matter which member of Team Authority is in the ring. Things break down into total chaos, and Rollins catches Ryback with the Curb Stomp. Rusev then hits a vicious superkick to eliminate Ryback at 8:11. Team Authority takes their first sustained control of the match when they isolate Ziggler in their half of the ring. This goes on for several minutes until all hell breaks loose again. Rusev sets Ziggler up for a splash through the Spanish Announce Table, but Ziggler moves out of the way! Ziggler makes it back in but Rusev does not and that’s another elimination at 21:05. Harper scores next, destroying Rowan with a huge lariat to get the pin on him at 24:18. Ziggler and Cena are hurting, so Show gets in the ring to face off with all three remaining Authority members, but Show instead turns his back on Cena and drills him with a WMD! Rollins sneaks the pin at 25:12! Show then gets himself counted out, leaving Ziggler all alone.
Team Authority uses their three-on-one advantage to systematically destroy Ziggler, who looks dead in the water. The first miracle happens when Ziggler catches Kane with a superkick and the Zig Zag to eliminate him at 29:34. Not long after that, Ziggler surprises Harper with a rollup to eliminate him at 31:35! Now it’s a one-on-one match. Rollins works Ziggler over, but the resilient Ziggler gets several awesome hope spots, which HHH and Stephanie sell like a million bucks on the floor. After a Zig-Zag, HHH pulls the referee to the floor and knocks him out. Noble and Mercury get in the ring and put the boots to poor Ziggler, but they don’t last long before Ziggler takes them out. After another Zig-Zag, a second referee comes down but HHH takes him out too! Now HHH gets in the ring and takes matters into his own hands, delivering a Pedigree. A third referee makes his way down, but some strange music hits – and STING is here! I wonder who made his official WWE video package and music, if the COO had no idea he was there. Sting and HHH stare at each other for a while, and then Sting hits the Scorpion Death Drop. He drapes Ziggler’s arm over Rollins, and the first referee gets back in the ring to count the winning fall. What a great main event, with fast-paced action, good order of eliminations, and the heat was off the charts once Ziggler as left in there alone. It sure beats Cena overcoming the odds for the millionth time. Sting being there helped make this feel like a big deal.
Rating: ****¼
A2Z Analysiz
The undercard is a steamy pile, but the main event basically makes up for it by taking up nearly an hour of the show by itself and being great. The problems are that Ziggler basically went nowhere after this amazing performance, and the “Authority is gone forever” stipulation lasted a few months I think. So watching the main event is fun, but it’s a pretty forgettable show all things told.
