Curt Hennig – A “GOAT” show, as Perfect as possible
Watch It All – A consistently good show worth watching in its entirety
Watch It…With Remote in Hand – 3 or more above-average ratings
High Risk Maneuver – Mostly filler, inessential, but 1-2 good matches
DUDleyville – Zero redeeming qualities, chore to watch
Survivor Series 2014 - November 2014
St. Louis, Missouri
CHAMPIONSHIP BACKGROUNDS: Heading into tonight’s show, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is held by Brock Lesnar. The WWE Tag Team Champions are Goldust and Stardust, the United States Champion is Rusev, and Luke Harper holds the Intercontinental Championship. AJ is the Divas Champion, having defeated Paige at the Night of Champions show two months earlier.
COMMENTATORS - JBL, Michael Cole, and Jerry Lawler
The show begins with a video package highlighting the main event – Team Cena vs. Team Authority – with the stipulations that, if Team Authority wins, all of Team Cena (excluding Cena himself) will be fired, while if Team Cena wins, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H will be sent packing. Starting the show with a video package is par for the course, but I’d have preferred getting the national anthem performed by Atlantic Records’ recording artist Martin Delray. (Fall Brawl 94’ shootout!)
 |
| Better than any video package. |
Our first actual match was the Fatal Fourway for the WWE Tag Team Championships with Stardust and Goldust defending the straps against The Miz & Mizdow, Los Matadores, and The Usos. Mizdow’s comedy schtick was the most over part of the match, while Los Matadores served as the workhorses, bumping for every other team throughout. I’ve enjoyed seeing Stardust develop as a heel and I particularly liked how he and Goldust played into Mizdow’s popularity by refusing to tag him in and then tagging him out just as he was warming up for his first offensive move. As expected, the Usos, Stardust, and the Matadores did a bunch of high-flying spots onto the arena floor, though I didn’t find any to be too incredible. The finish was well-executed and gave the audience a “feel good” moment with a nicely shot final scene of Miz and Mizdow bringing in alternating crowd responses. (3/5)
More commercials segue us into the night’s first of two traditional Survivors matches – Paige, Cameron, Summer Rae, and Layla vs. Naomi, Natalya, Emma, and Alicia Fox. The two stars of this match were definitely Emma and Paige. Cameron didn’t look too sharp, but with her highly sexualized maneuvers and mannerisms, she does come across as a would-be star of the Attitude Era. Unfortunately, it's the PG era and she doesn’t fit. Naomi, whose spirit and drive I respect, didn’t have her best outing, but what might have been most surprising was just how out-of-sync Natalya looked. Summer Rae didn’t get many minutes (a smart decision), which made Layla the 2nd most competent member of her team (and third best in the match) by default. At 15 minutes, this match lasted longer than I thought it should’ve but didn’t necessarily overstay its welcome. (1.5/5)
From here, we got roughly 10 minutes of absolute filler – a replay of the re-debut of a darker, meaner, “Latiner” Fandango, the return of Bad News Barrett, and some time-wasting with the Survivor Series panel. This was followed by a recap of the Wyatt/Ambrose feud. This long stretch of non-wrestling would’ve been excusable if it had followed a series of good matches, but by this point in the show, what had we seen?
Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose was next and, based on what I witnessed and felt personally, I do think the “cooling” of these two characters over the past month kept this match from having the “big match feel” it needed. As the match wore on and the physicality escalated, the audience began to connect more, the turning point being a violent double-clothesline on the outside. Both men showed why strong character work is their bread-and-butter, particularly Wyatt, who delivered several stiff clotheslines and a devastating chokeslam on the steel steps. The final act of the match, when Wyatt grabbed a mic and pleaded for Ambrose to join him, was an interesting twist but one that I could’ve sworn was also utilized in his feud with John Cena. Regardless, the DQ finish was a letdown (though, not unexpected) and but would've seemed less so had the speech and chairshot come after Wyatt connected with a Sister Abigail, essentially handing Ambrose the match at a time when his victory was all but guaranteed. I’ve said it before – Ambrose won’t suffer from losses as long as he continues to play the fearless, never-say-die rebel. Wyatt, on the other hand, is a “special attraction wrestler” who no longer comes off as a special attraction, largely due to him no longer looking like much a threat to anyone. The post-match shenanigans built up to their match for next month (a smart idea), but instead of being truncated with an exclamation point, it actually left with a bit of a puzzling question mark. Most fans wanted to see Ambrose dive off the ladder he had brought in and a splash from the top would’ve bumped this match up even higher. Without it, we were left with something just above average, but not superb. (3.5/5)
Cut to a backstage segment with Team Authority where Triple H once again rallied the troops. Nothing new or fresh here.
The tag team of Slater Gator took on Adam Rose & The Bunny in an un-advertised contest. This is the kind of match that is designed to cool the crowd and eat up time in the third hour of RAW. On pay-per-view, it is a glaring low point and almost inexcusable. As for what we did get in this match – the Bunny “stole” Rose’s thunder and Titus O’Neill and Heath Slater continue to spin their wheels at the lowest tier on the roster. The nicest thing to say about this match is that at least they kept it short. (1/5)
And even more commercials, this time for Larry the Cable Guy’s upcoming Jingle All The Way 2 DVD.
Roman Reigns is here live…via satellite! I like how Reigns and JBL made sure to repeat multiple times that Reigns was not in St. Louis, which actually made me think he would make his return in the main event. Reigns announced that, in one month’s time, he will be back in action. Not a terrible segment, but not a particularly important one.
The next match was barely a match at all. Nikki Bella vs. AJ Lee ran under minute, which actually disappointed me. I was a big fan of the Nikki/Brie match last month, going as far as to call it the second best match of the night, citing Nikki’s aggressive streak as particularly great. Meanwhile, while I’ve been pretty critical of AJ’s in-ring work over the past few shows, it's hard not to view her as the most consistently good overall performer on the Divas roster when you factor in her character work and overness. While we didn’t get to see either diva live up to their best in-ring moments, I did like the unexpected twist. For its cleverness, I’m actually going to give this segment some points and admit I enjoyed it more than the match before it. (1.5/5)
From here, it was main event time – Team Cena vs. Team Authority. Given 45 minutes to fill, I thought this one was well-booked, even if some of the performers were given little to do. Shockingly, Cena was one of those performers. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the quick outing of Mark Henry, I’ll readily admit that somebody had to have that spot and the Show/Henry rivalry made him the clear choice. Dolph Ziggler, Rusev, and Seth Rollins undeniably stole the show for their respective teams. I liked Big Show’s heel turn, which made sense when you consider his history. I also thought it was clear that it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, not a premeditated maneuvering by Triple H. Ryback, Harper, and Rowan had their moments, but weren’t spotlighted too much, which was somewhat surprising, especially in the case of Ryback. Let’s return our attention to Ziggler – who some have criticized for overselling, for having weak offense that comes in illogical spurts, for milking his kick-outs too much, etc. Tonight, Ziggler went “all in” on these criticisms – delivering countless kick-outs at 2-and-three-fourths, bouncing around the ring like a human pinball, and relying on a handful of maneuvers to keep hope alive when it seemed he should be down for the count. The bottom line is that Ziggler had the crowd on their feet and his comebacks, despite defying logic, were thrilling and earned huge responses. Ziggler does not yet have all the tools to be a major star yet, but handed the ball, he undeniably scored a touchdown here. Even his detractors would have to admit that someone as over as him should be booked strongly moving forward, whether or not his act is their cup of tea. Also, had Ziggler won this match on his own, I probably would’ve complained over just how ridiculous that would be – but he didn’t win it on his own. No, Sting arrived to deliver the final blow in a moment that can never be forgotten. (4/5)
With an average match/segment rating of 2.07-out-of-5, Survivor Series 2014 stands as the worst major show of the Network Era so far. Save for the historic and gripping main event, not a single match was “must see” or worth a re-watch. In fact, a majority of the matches were below average (the minute-long Divas Title Match, the Rose/Bunny vs. Slater Gator bout, and the Divas Survivor match) with the Fatal Fourway Tag Titles match and the Ambrose/Wyatt match being good-not-great. The unnecessary opening segment and the abundance of commercials and video packages only made Survivor Series seem more like a not-so-great episode of RAW rather than a wrestling supershow. Without Sting, this show probably earns an even lower Final Rating, but thanks to his presence, this one isn't a total dud.
FINAL RATING – High Risk Maneuever
No comments:
Post a Comment