I want to get these out as soon as possible after the
pay-per-views so I’m going to be posting them as a series of notes that I take
as I’m watching. I’d rather write them up in paragraph form, but the whole
reason I’m doing this is that I have seen very few good reviews out there on
Monday morning after a pay-per-view, and I can’t stay up all night writing
this (lousy kid/job). If I get a chance I may rewrite this in paragraph form tomorrow night, at least for practice as much as anything else.
- I always really enjoyed the Survivor Series matches (loved the video game for SNES too)
- It's a shame we never get whole pay-per-view events filled with the matches anymore
- I was dissipointed there was only going to be one this year, glad there is a second, even if it is just for the Kick-off show
Kick-off: Traditional Survivor Series Match: The Miz, Bo Dallas,
Stardust and The Ascension vs. Neville, The Dudley Boyz, Titus O’Neil, and Goldust
- Regardless of what happens it's super fun to see Goldust back
- I'll go ahead and assume the faces will win this match
- The match starts off Goldust vs Stardust, Stardust tags out quick, good heel move, the people want to see the brothers fight, so Stardust won't give it to them
- Goldust hits a scoop powerslam with the first real move of the match and gets the pin on Victor. WWE does this a lot (did the same thing to Xavier Woods a few weeks ago and Mark Henry last year) but at least Victor is no real big loss, and it does pop the crowd a bit going into a long match, but maybe not super needed cause crowd just popped for Goldust return anyway
- Team face leads 5-4
- Titus O’Neil appearing without Darren Young, but announced as “representing the Prime Time Players”, hope they are not considering breaking them up, they are better as a team, could get a lot of use from them if WWE ever decides it can somehow fit more than 1 tag match in 3 hours of Raw
- Side-Note, I can barely tolerate the commercials during matches on Raw, but the fact that they do it on pay-per-views, even if it’s only during the pre-show, is disgusting. It’s just a commercial for WWE anyway, you don’t need to interrupt the match to sell yourself, the whole night is selling yourself
- Faces were kicking ass before the commercial, now heels are in control, how did this happen? Who knows? Must not be even a little bit important.
- Bubba hits a side slam on Konner for the pin, feels awful quick turn around after Konner dominating, but who knows how long Konner was in control because of the commercial. One nice thing about this kind of match is that guys will get the pin without neccesarily hitting their finishing move. People complain a lot about all the guys kicking out of each others finishers so much, but that’s necessitated by guys never getting a single pin when they don’t hit their finishing move. John Cena has not gotten a pin from anything but an AA in about 9 years (he hit a small package on Umaga in 2006), I’m joking, but you get my point. That being said, just because the pin is not off a finishing move does not mean it should feel like no big deal.
- Team face leads 5-3
- Stardust looks great as usual, but I’ll be happy if (when?) e goes back to Cody Rhodes
- Announcers mostly talking about WWE Championship match to be held later tonight, clearly this match doesn’t matter to them
- The heels work Devon for a bit which sets up a hot tag to Neville, Devon hadn’t really been in long enough for it to feel like a big deal, but Neville has a perfect move-set to be the guy getting the hot tag, so the crowd does pop for him a bit (it’s a pre-show pop, but still). Seems like Neville would be great in a tag team if they ever decide to go that route.
- Bo Dallas hits a running Bo Dog and Miz tags himself in without Bo noticing. Miz comes in and hits a Skull Crushing Finale for the pin on Neville. This was done a little bit strangely, Bo seemed like he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. This doesn’t really work because they are both heels. It’s a jerk move by Miz, but it’s not like we are going to feel bad for Bo, he’s a jerk too. If you’re going to do something like this maybe Bo should get super mad and push Miz off Neville or something like that.
- Team face still leads, but now 4-3
- A celebrating Miz gets hit with a rollup from Goldust for the pin
- Team face leads 4-2
- Oh good we get to see Stardust vs Goldust… oh, no, wait, I have to watch another commercial, in spite of the fact that I am already paying $9.99 a month for this event. I don’t usually complain about this so mutch, but I love Survivor Series matches and I want to care about it, but WWE is doing everything they can to inform me that I should not
- Goldust is getting worked over as we come back, has this been happening the whole time, who knows?
- Stardust asks the crowd if they want tables and then informs them that no, they can not have them. I love this.
- I love how mean Bo Dallas looks when working over a hurt opponent, really makes him seem like more of a hypocrite for his inspirational stuff. It’s a nicely developed character trait that we don’t get to see much because Bo doesn’t get to wrestle much and when he does, he is mostly getting his ass kicked
- Goldust hits a really great sunset filp powerbomb to set up a hot tag to Titus O’Niel, this one works better than the first one and the crowd is cheering Goldust on as he lurches towards the corner and pops big for Titus as he comes in. Titus also has a great move set for receiving a hot tag. Very high energy, kind of mess, but in a fun way
- O’Neil hits the Clash of the Titus on Bo Dallas for the pin. Feels like Titus has finally put things together this year, not the best worker in the world but has really focused on his strengths and can be really fun to watch for about 6 or 7 minutes in a match, which is more than enough when your partnered with a good worker like Darren Young or appearing in a match like this. I feel like he has just now reached his peak, so it’s a shame that he’s 38
- Faces lead 4-1
- Stardust tries to quit, but the faces won’t let him. He cowers off from his brother and runs back into the ring, gets hit with a 3D and is pinned by Devon
- Not sure if it made sense to have Neville be the only one on his team to lose, why not have the faces just go over 5-0? it’s not like the match ever looked close anyway. Neville has to be considered the number one guy in the match, so why have him get pinned if it doesn’t mean anything?
- Overall the work was good, but the booking and presentation was not. And as I said WWE clearly worked hard to send the message that this match didn’t matter, even though I genuinely wanted it to. I don't want to take points away from the match for bad announcing/2 commercial interruptions so I will say 2.25 Stars
First Semi-final Match: Roman
Reigns vs Alberto Del Rio
·
Just to let you know where I stand, I actually
like Roman Reigns in-ring work. I had never been very impressed with him, but I
think from the match he had in February of this year at Fast Lane against
Daniel Bryan through now he has had a sting of extremely enjoyable matches at
pay-per-views. For the most part when a judge people I try to worry about what
kind of push someone is or isn’t getting, whether or not someone “deserves”
their spot, what the smark community thinks, how good they use to be a year or
2 ago, or anything else other than what they are doing in the ring right now.
And for the past 9 months or so, Roman Reigns has been a very good wresteler.
He still can’t talk worth shit, but luckily tonight, nobody is asking him to.
·
Alberto Del Rio: since he’s been back it’s felt
like his character has been a whole lot of nothing. That’s a shame because I really
enjoy his in-ring work. Except the convoluted diving-double foot stomp finisher
that has been his finishing move, which is insanely stupid.
·
Side-note about the tournament. This has been
fun with some really good matches. I have always thought there should be
something like this every year. Something basically like the King of the Ring,
but with the top guys instead of mid-carders. If I was in charge I would put it
in July and say whoever won it got to headline Summer Slam for a shot at the
title. I think it would be a lot of fun.
·
A lot of the tournament matches have been
especially good. In my opinion the best have been:
o
Roman Reigns defeating Cesaro (probably one of the
10 best matches I’ve seen in the WWE this year)
o
Dean Ambrose defeating Dolph Ziggler (really
great chain wresteling from both these guys, which I haven’t noticed a ton of
in the past)
o
Kalisto defeating Ryback (best match I’ve ever
seen from Ryback, you should really watch this if you haven’t)
·
Going in I’m assuming Reigns will win this match
·
Anyway, as for the match – starts off with a
little back and forth until Del Rio runs Reigns into the ring post and looks
like he will take the advantage for a bit, but Roman comes right back
·
JBL just said he would be happy seeing any of
the four competitors win the title except for Dean Ambrose. So I’ll just go
ahead and assume that Dean Ambrose wins the title tonight
·
Michael Cole points out that Cesaro hurt Roman’s
arm on Monday and maybe Del Rio is working it. This is good commentary, but Del
Rio doesn’t really appear to be going OUT OF HIS WAY to attack the shoulder,
and Reigns isn’t selling it at all
·
The match cuts away to Tripple H watch the match.
This is something WWE has done forever and I have always thought that it is
stupid. Unless they do something over the top like cut away from Tripple H
watching the match to see Dean Ambrose watching Tripple H watch the match, then
I will instantly love it. So far, that has never happened
·
Alberto Del Rio just climbed to the top rope
while Roman was facing the other way and then clapped so Reigns would turn
around and look at him. I hat e to be a stickler, but if you are fighting a guy
and you hear him clapping behind you and above you, shouldn’t you move away or
duck or something? Maybe do anything but turn around and look at him like he
clearly wants you to, or else why is he clapping?
·
OK, Reigns has hit his shoulder now for the 4th
time and is momentarily selling it, lets see if this continues
·
Jerry Lawler just said something stupid so I
want to share my opinion on Jerry Lawler as an announcer:
o
He was never good partnered with Vince McMahon
o
Once he started partnering with Jim Ross it took
him about a year to get good at it. I would say by late 1998 he was a good heel
announcer
o
He was never gonna be a guy that EVERYBODY
enjoyed, but I personally liked his work from late 1998 through Jim Ross
leaving the announcing booth
o
Since then he has not been very good, mostly
because he often seems disinterested in the matches he is calling.
o
Everyone once in awhile, when watching a really
important match that he actually cares a little bit about he will do a good job
o
The exact same thing goes for JBL as well
·
Roman sets up for a Superman punch on Del Rio
(arm appears to be fine) but misses and Del Rio hits a backstabber. Can this
become his new finishing move since Carlito isn’t here anyway? Aww, no I miss
Carlito
·
Both screens sure are small when they do a split
screen to show me an instant replay. Maybe if one third of my TV wasn’t covered
in an add for Rolaids. Although to be fair, that is fairly good corporate
synergy. I’m sure that me and the rest of the WWE’s Mountain Dew Swilling,
Cheeto scarfing viewership is going to need some antacids now and again
·
Del Rio complains to the ref about a slow count,
am I the only one that feels like we have seen at least 200X more of this in
the last couple of mnonths. I feel like people barely use to do it at all, and
now it seems to happen 2 or 3 times a match… maybe I just never noticed how
often it happens until recently
·
Del Rio is getting the majority of offense, but
there is too much back and forth to feel like he is dominating it, or that an
ending is imminent. Reigns is selling the shoulder periodiacally, but it can
still do any move he wants, so its kind of meaningless
·
Del Rio sets up for his finishing move and Roman
avoids it by not sitting up. That sentence by itself should explain why this is
the worst finishing in the history of wrestling.
·
Reigns easily hits a Superman punch with his
injured shoulder
·
Del Rio hits Roman with a superkick as Roman
goes for the spear
·
Del Rio goes for the rolling cross armbreaker but
Roman turns into that move where he lifts the guy with just his right arm and
turns it into a power bomb. Shouldn’t that be the hardest possible move to do
with an injured shoulder? Oh well.
·
Del Rio gets the armbreaker on Roman and Roman
picks him up and places him over the rope with Del Rio still holding on. Del
Rio has to break the hold as the ref gets close to a 5 count. I really like
this as a counter, but again should have been harder with Roman’s injured
shoulder
·
Del Rio jumps off the top rope without really
attempting any sort of move and Roman ducks under, then turns around and hits a
spear on Del Rio for the win. This would have been a good match, but I felt it suffered a
lot from Roman’s phantom shoulder “injury”. It was really the only story told
in the match and it was told so inconsistently that the match suffered. On the
plus side they actually built a really nice sequence from about the time Roman
missed the superman punch to the end of the match. 2 Stars
Second Semi-final match: Kevin Owens vs Dean Ambrose
- I really like both these guys. I’ve heard people say they find Dean Ambrose’s in-ring style to be a little silly, but I have always enjoyed his work. Except when he use to do that goofy move where he falls through the ropes and hits a clothesline 8 times a match. Now he does it once a match, and knocks the hell outta the clothesline, and now I like it.
- The best part about this match is I am genuinely not sure who will win, but I will guess Ambrose.
- Match starts with a lot of back and forth but at a much faster rate than Del Rio and Reigns
- King says he is picking Ambrose to win the tournament, him actually winning is now significantly less likely, I’ll go back to assuming Reigns will win
- Owens starts to take over the match, yells at Michael Cole for no reason, mocks the crowd. I really enjoy Kevin Owens.
- The back and forth cheers are “Let’s go Ambrose” and “Fight Owens Fight”, nice to see a match where the crowd actually cares about both people
- Owens gets a chin lock and calls out “Chin Lock City”, I love when the crowd does this, but it’s a real dick move to call it out yourself, which is perfect, since he is a heel
- Owens looks great missing a moonsault
- Ambrose goes for a superplex which Owens counters into that swinging fisherman’s suplex from the top rope that he does. This is a great looking move, but to me it loses a bit when you feel like guy going for the suplex knows he couldn’t hit one against Kevin Owens anyway. Although with Dean Ambrose, part of his character is that he’s crazy, so I guess maybe he wouldn’t know it’s difficult to superplex a man that outweighs you by 50 pounds?
- Amrose’s goofy fall through the ropes leads to a devastating lariat, once he started only doing this once a match it has been great
- Dean goes for the la plancha though the ropes but Kevin Owens catches him and then just sort of throws him onto the announce table. An odd move, but it does look like it would hurt.
- Owens goes for a pop up power bomb and Ambrose jumps through it. Owens hits to superkicks and goes for a second pop-up that gets countered with a hurricanrana. This is such an obvious counter I’m shocked I don’t remember seeing it before.
- Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds for the win, great sequence to end a really good match
- Excited for Ambrose vs Reigns, wonder if somebody is about to turn heel? 3.5 Stars.
Intermission: I really liked the
TLC commercial that made it look like an old 8-bit video game. The WWE
commercials are a lot easier to enjoy when they are not in the middle of a damn
match.
Traditional Survivor Series Match
Ryback, The Lucha Dragons, and the
Usos vs New Day, Shaemus, and King Barrett
o
Love the New Day, and love that Big E refers to
it as Hotlanta
o
Love Xavier Woods haircut
o
Doesn’t it seem like Shaemus would hate New Day?
Also, I was out on WWE for a number of years, so this is a legitimate question:
Has there ever been a less exciting run with a money in the bank briefcase? It’s
hard to imagine
o
You can say this about a lot of guys in the WWE,
but it really is a shame how little they have given Wade Barrett to do the last
few months.
o
Normally I’d pick the faces, but New Day win a
lot, so this is a toss-up
o
Xavier Woods and an Uso start things on with the
focus primarily being on Xavier Woods hair. I hope that doesn’t sound
dismissive because I love it.
o
The announcers are talking about the Survivor
Series match that King had with Doink the clown and 6 dwarves. A match that
will surely go down as one of the all-time worst crimes against humanity
o
4 of the faces hit synchronized
over-the-top-rope la planchas on 4 of the heels.
o
Ryback than hits a dive off the top rope onto
all of them, including his partners. I’m torn between being upset because I
love Survivor Series matches, and a move like that is a way of telling me this
match doesn’t matter. On the other hand at least it is telling me that with
something fun, so I will do my best to just enjoy it
o
Shaemus and Barrett make a really great tag
team, hope they stick with it and actually win some matches
o
Sin Cara hits a springboard senton on King Barrett
for the pin
o
Faces lead 5-4
o
Lucha Dragons hit that awesome move they do
where Sin Cara monkey flips Kalisto into a 450 splash onto the opponent (Kofi
Kingston this time) This is one of my favorite moves
o
New Day hits a move very similar to Alberto Del
Rio’s finisher. Except instead of the opponent being hung from the tree of woe
and sitting up for no reason, the opponent is lead across Kofi’s Knee, and
takes a double foot stomp from Xavier Woods because there is no easy way to
avoid it, rather than because he really, really wanted to sit up just then.
This is a good move.
o
Xavier Woods pins an Uso
o
Match is tied 4-4
o
I absolutely love when Big E hits that spear
through the ropes
o
Shames tags himself in and hits a Brogue kick on
Sin Cara for the pin. Very similar to kick-off with Miz tagging himself in, but
here Big E gets super mad about it, so nice to see they are kind of telling a
story with it
o
Heels lead 4-3
o
The remaining Uso hits a splash on Big E for the
pin. Sorry to see Big E go, he’s the best
o
Match-up is tied 3-3
o
Woods and Kingston appear to be abandoning
Shaemus. I get that this makes sense cause it’s a heel thing to do, but I’d
prefer to watch them wrestle
o
Shaemus refuses to quit and holds his own
against 3 competitors for several minutes. This would be getting big cheers if
Shaemus was a face, wait, why is he a heel again?
o
Eventually Ryback hits a Shell Shock and gets
the pin on Shaemus This was acutually a decent match and told a real story, but
it loses points for having the New Day just walk away, and booking Shaemus like
a babyface for no reason 2.5 Stars
Diva’s Championship Match: Charlotte (Champion) vs Paige
- A little bit of controversy going into this one with Paige bring up Charlotte’s dead brother to close Raw this week. Some people have said it was inappropriate and ok, fair enough, but it appears to have worked. Paige was still getting mostly cheers as of Monday and hear she is getting mostly boos. My personal opinion on whether this was over the line is that my opinion does not matter. Either Charlotte was perfectly fine about this being brought up in which case I have no reason to complain, or, Charlotte didn’t want this brought up and was pressured into doing the angle by someone in WWE, in which case they are assholes. But since I have no idea which one of those is true, I really have no opinion.
- I would be very surprised if Charlotte loses her title here
- Charlotte goes into the match very aggressive which is great. I hate it when one of the wrestlers is supposed to be all pissed off going into a match and they start out with a tie-up, etc.
- Paige is matching Charlotte’s intensity, great to see.
- Charlotte hits the figure 4 very early in the match. I think it’s supposed to look like she is trying to turn it into a figure 8 but is not able to, but honestly it doesn’t look like she is trying. Paige actually rolls Charlotte out of the ring with the hold still locked in and the ref forces Charlotte to break the hold.
- Charlotte hits Paige with an Electric Chair Facebuster into the ring apron on the outside. It looks absolutely brutal. Really most moves look brutal when done into the ring apron.
- Charlotte absolutely dominates the match after this. I always love when someone hits a great move and then dominates the next several minutes. Actually makes sense.
- Charlotte gets her shoulder driven into the ringpost and now Paige is in control.
- Paige puts Charlotte in a hold for about 30 seconds and some asshole tries to get a “We Want Sasha” chant going. Glad it didn’t work, this is a good match.
- Maybe this is nit-picky but I’ve always hated that yell Charlotte does to celebrate whenever she hits a Spear. Wouldn’t it make more sense to maybe go for a pin?
- Paige celebrates standing on the guard rail and Paige hits a spear to knock her to the ground. It looked ok but I think it could have looked better.
- Charlotte hits the figure 8 and gets the win.
- This was a good match, but not really anything special. 2.75 Stars.
Dolph Ziggler vs Tyler Breeze
- I really like Dolph Ziggler, hopefully he will be moving up the card soon with Cena, Rollins, and Orton all out for awhile
- I like Tyler Breeze as well, but not sure how things will go for him on the main roster. Really hoping he doesn't turn into another Adam Rose, great wrestler with a throwback gimmick. It's a good sign they are starting him out in his first month with a big pay-per-view match against a guy like Ziggler
- I assume Ziggler will win this unless they have big plans for Breeze
- Pretty quick pace right off the bat, no guy able to get any real advantage
- good work on display but nothing really amazing, no real story that you can quantify either
- If Summer Rae is going to keep coming out to the ring with Breeze sooner or later they are going to have to give her something to do, or else she will be in danger of winning the "Tennessee Lee memorial useless manager award"
- Seemingly out of nowhere Breeze hits an unprettier on Ziggler and gets the win. It feels like they were trying to do something like when Owens debuted by beating Cena. Unfortunately, this just wasn't as good of a match. They didn't have enough time, they didn't tell as good of a story, and as much as I like Dolph Ziggler, Ziggler is not Cena, and a win over him doesn't mean the same thing. I would kind of like to see these two have another match, I think they are capable of more. 2.5 stars.
The Brothers of Destruction (Undertaker and Kane) vs The Wyatt Family (Luke Harper and Bray Wyatt)
- This was a question mark going into the match who would be the 2 guys to fight Kane and Taker, glad to see they decided to go with the 2 guys who are good at wrestling.
- Still not sure why this wasn't a 4 on 4 Survivor Series match. I get that it's hard to pick to guys to team with Kane and Taker but if you can't think of anybody, just have it be 2 on 4. I think it would be more fun.
- Have to assume the brothers will win this one.
- Crowd going nuts for Taker right off the bat. Great to see him a few more times before he calls it quits.
- Stroman interferes in the match and throws Kane into the announcers table while the refs back is turned. Pretty good way to set up Kane taking a beating without him looking too bad,
- Bray Wyatt has Kane setup for Sister Abigail but wastes time mocking the Undertaker on the apron, this costs him as Kane gets out of the hold and tags in Taker. Nice to see Bray's theatrics cost him for once (it's ok for him to look a little dumb now and again, he is a heel.
- Stroman tries to interfere again and Kane and Taker double cholk-slam him through the announcers table, crowd goes nuts. We finally found something Stroman is good for.
- Bray hits Sister Abigail on a distracted Undertaker and Luker Harper goes for the pin, but Kane breaks it up.
- Kane and Taker both do the thing where they are out of it and than just sit up which leads to (almost) synchronized cholk slams.
- Taker hits a tombstone on Luke Harper for the win. But noticablly does not get the pin on Bray Wyatt.
- Nice to see Underataker and Kane together one more time, but honestly, nothing interesting happened in this match. 2 Stars.
WWE Championship Match: Dean Ambrose vs Roman Reigns
- Feels like we have been building to this, actually pretty excited to see who will win. Smart money is on Reigns,
- Glad to see both guys going right after each other rather than dancing around it having it look like they dont want to fight because they are friends. This should be a dogfight and it looks like it will be.
- Crowd still chanting that Roman sucks, which I honestly don't think is true based on the year he has had.
- JBL once again listing all the great wrestlers who were never WWE champion, this point maybe made enough sense for him to do it once but I'm pretty sure he has done it in all 15 matches of the tournament.
- Dean goes off the top rop and Roman hits him with a superman punch, I think it was good because the crowd gasps, but unfortunately the camera angle does not give us a good look. (Update: Replay was from a better angle and it looked great.)
- Ambrose hit that fall through the ropes hit a clothesline move for the second time this match already. Maybe I spoke too soon about him slowing down with it.
- Roman hits a Spear, but he is not quite going at full speed, Dean kicks out.
- Dean kicks Roman as he goes for a second Speark, then hits Roman with a Dirty Deeds, Roman kicks out.
- They are both slow to get up, but get up looking genuinely pissed off at one another, once again I really like how they are playing this.
- Roman Reigns hits a huge Spear on Dean Ambrose for the win.Thought for a minute Dean might turn heel after losing, but it appears he and Roman are still friends.
- This was a very good match, not an all time great or anything, but I really enjoyed it, 3 stars.
Tripple H comes out to congratulate Reigns and tries to shake his hand, Roman spears him for some reason.
Shaemus comes out and Brogue kick on Roman Reigns and actually manages to cash in the briefcase in under 90 seconds this time. For a moment I think Shaemus is actually going to win the title... but Roman kicks out. Then Shaemus hits a second Brogue kick, and he is our new WWE Heavyweight champion.
It feels kind of odd because since winning the briefcase in July Shaemus has been doing a whole lot of nothing and losing more often than winning. The one plus there is that this was genuinely a surprise.
Story wise this is kind of interesting, Roman getting robbed of a real title reign, one he actually earned this time. I would be shocked if Shaemus is still the champion at wrestelmania, so I assume he loses it around Royal Rumble maybe? I'm actually excited to see.
Overall I'd say this was a good pay-per-view, but not a great one. No all-time-classics, but no real complete duds either. At least glad to see a lot of matches with clean endings. I give it B.
P.S. I like Roman as a wrestler, but don't usually think much of his acting, but he looks absolutely devastated leaving that ring.
