WWE Survivor Series 2015

WWE Survivor Series 2015 - November 2015

Atlanta, Georgia

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is vacant (due to injury to Seth Rollins), the Intercontinental Champion is Kevin Owens, the United States Champion is Alberto Del Rio, and the WWE Tag Team Championships are held by the team of New Day. The Women's Champion is Charlotte.

COMMENTATORS: Michael Cole, JBL, and Jerry Lawler

The show kicks off with our nation's anthem, sung by Lillian Garcia. The Atlanta crowd was respectful, no doubt a bit nervous considering that tonight's show landed on a list of potential ISIS targets leaked by global hacker outfit Anonymous. 

This is followed by a video package about the Undertaker, whose appearance on tonight's show marks his 25th year with the WWE, and tonight's other momentous draw, the finals of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament. 

Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio kicks off the official show (there was a traditional Survivors match on the pre-show I didn't bother watching), the crowd not necessarily firmly in Reigns' corner, but certainly not as negative as his detractors will likely argue. A somewhat muted "Let's Go Roman/Roman Sucks" chant breaks out, but its considerably less spirited than the one's Cena gets. The story of this match was Del Rio targeting Reigns' shoulder and Michael Cole selling it big time on commentary. Unfortunately, this element was to be ignored for the most part later in the night. El Patron worked extra hard to give the match its pace and movement, taking some big slams from Reigns and even slipping himself onto the arena floor through the ropes at one point, a spot that simply can't feel good no matter how many times you practice it. While the match had a solid pace, like most WWE bouts, the closing minutes were where these two brought the goods, delivering some nice near falls and one excellently-executed armbar spot leading to the finish. While some in the crowd obviously didn't get what they wanted, it was a fine match to kick off the show. (3/5)

After a backstage segment, we get our second tournament semi-final as Dean Ambrose took on Kevin Owens. The crowd was a bit more alive for this, actually cheering both guys. Unlike the more methodically-paced Reigns/Del Rio opener, these two wasted little time in getting right into the action, Ambrose in particular showing loads of energy. When Owens got the upperhand, though, he slowed things down, trying his best to wear down the Lunatic Fringe with taunts and headlocks. From here, this became a back-and-forth battle that ran through some of both men's signature moves, including Owens striking nothing but the mat with his moonsault and Ambrose connecting with a big rebound clothesline. With an actual storyline behind them, these two could deliver an absolutely awesome match. While this wasn't it, I wouldn't mind watching them try to top what they did here because, if this is the "baseline," their best effort is going to be a Match of the Year candidate. (3/5)

Pretty sick Tables, Ladders, and Chairs commercial. Almost worth a bonus point even.

A traditional Survivor Series match was next, but I'm fairly sure the only thing anyone is going to remember from this one is Xavier Woods' absolutely STUNNING hairdo, a Jeffersonian pompadour. The teams were The Lucha Dragons, the Usos, and Ryback taking on New Day, Sheamus, and Wade Barrett. Woods started things off for his team, his hair serving as a huge, fluffy target for Jimmy Uso. A few minutes later there was a well-timed and even better-executed 4-man plancha, punctuated by a respectable crossbody splash off the top rope from Ryback. Moments later, after stomping one of the Usos into completely submission, Xavier busted out the trombone and led his team in some rhythmic gloating, keeping the audience fully engaged in a match that was of no real consequence. Somewhat surprisingly, King Barrett was the first competitor eliminated, giving the babyfaces a 5-4 advantage. Jimmy Uso was out next, succumbing to a pretty cool double-team maneuever from Woods and Kingston, before Sin Cara ended up eating a spear to the arena floor from Big E and Brogue Kick from the Celtic Warrior. Big E was eliminated next, which drew jeers from the Atlanta crowd. Unwilling to continue without their powerhouse anchor, Woods and Kofi helped their New Day partner out of the arena, leaving Sheamus behind to take on the remaining Uso, Ryback, and Kalisto. While the work from here on was strong and suspenseful, with Sheamus helping to make both Jay Uso and Kalisto look strong, the crowd's disappointment in losing New Day was noticeable, with audible exclamations of "Boring" only drowned out by the occasional "Feed Me More" chant. What started as a very strong Survivors match, ended with a bit of a thud. (2/5)

Rolaids Advanced commercial for some reason.

Yet another Undertaker video, this time one hocking Deadman schwag. 

Time for Paige challenging Charlotte for her WWE Divas Championship. While not as good as the Charlotte/Nikki matches, those benefitted from a very clear face/heel split, with Charlotte fighting from underneath in both. This one was more even and less clear-cut in terms of who the audience was behind, despite the WWE's hail mary approach to drawing heat based on the death of Reid Flair. While Paige tried her best to draw the ire of the crowd, Charlotte wrestled a more aggressive style here and the crowd didn't seem to know how to react to a dominate babyface diva, something I'm not necessarily sure we've seen since the days of who? Chyna? From Beth Pheonix to Kharma to even (and most recently) Nikki Bella, divas with the size and style of Charlotte have typically played the villain, while divas the size of Paige or AJ or, before them, Molly Holly and Lita have typically been in plucky underdog roles. Anyway...the back-and-forth featured some good wrestling, but the audience didn't seem to care too much, barely popping for Charlotte's spears in or outside the ring. Even more noticeable, though, was the lackluster crowd response to the finish, which was about as definitive an ending as I've seen in a WWE ring in quite some time. Far from bad, but certainly no better than average, here's hoping that Creative is going back to the drawing board and, based on what we saw here, ending this rivalry to provide us something fresher. (2.5/5)

Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler was next, a battle between two guys with more in common than not. What  I didn't like about this match is that, despite years more of experience and even a noticeable size advantage, Ziggler was on the receiving end of a ton of punishment. I understand making Breeze look good, but this one should've been all about the Showoff's dominance and Breeze's crafty, sneaky, treacherous attempts to survive (with help from Summer Rae). Instead, this was "just another Ziggler match," relatively even, entertaining in the moment but full of Ziggler selling/overselling and likely to be forgotten minutes after the bell rang. All in all, this was the type of match that could main event an episode of Superstars (or maybe SmackDown), but served as filler in this context. (2.5/5)

And another promo...

The Wyatt Family arrived next for their showdown with Kane and The Undertaker, otherwise known as the Brothers of Destruction. As expected, the Deadman got a special entrance featuring flaming Taker logos and a casket that flashed images of the iconic character in his various transformations. Pretty nifty stuff. The match kicked off with Rowan hopping into the ring and eating a double chokeslam from the Brothers, which caused Bray to pace around the ring, selecting himself and Luke Harper as the official match participants. If one expected to see Kane doing the heavy lifting, like I did, they'd be pleasantly surprised (as I was) by how involved Taker was from the very early going, connecting with an Old School and guillotine leg drop on Luke Harper to the delight of the crowd. Tagged back out, Kane then took the role of face-in-peril. While this sort of match layout is nothing new or special, it was the right one for this bout, an opportunity for The Undertaker to play hero one more time in front of a crowd that was firmly in his corner. In one of the cooler spots of the match, Braun Strowman got chokeslammed through a table (leading to a massive "Yes" chant), though I thought Luke Harper's tilt-a-whirl clothesline on Kane a few moments later was almost equally vicious. A definitive finish, an impressive feat of strength by the Phenom, capped off what was easily the match of the night, in no small part due to the fact that it was a simple story, told right, in front of a crowd who it mattered to.  (3.5/5)

Main event time - Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Solid, but not outstanding match - this one had a few great moments, a few hiccups, and a crowd that was a bit muted. If there was fear that Ambrose's fans would drown out any support for Reigns, that prophecy did not come to fruition to these ears. Of course, Ambrose is not as over as he was last summer or even last year at this time. Both guys worked hard, but this one just didn't exude the "epic" feel that it could have. An extra 2-3 minutes would have helped. While not as fun as the tag match that came before it, this was easily my favorite of the night's tournament matches.  (3.5/5)

…but the show was not over! Triple H showed up to ruin Roman Reigns' massive and confetti-filled victory party, offering his hand in friendship to the new World Champion. After spearing the Game, Sheamus arrived, cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase, and celebrated as the new WWE World Champion. Lest someone believe this moment was designed to shift the focus to the Celtic Warrior, Survivor Series closed out with a dramatic shot of Reigns, with tears in his eyes, exiting the arena in defeat. Well-executed closing to the show, though, far, far, far away from original. (BONUS .5!)


With an watchability score of 2.93-out-of-5, Survivor Series 2015 was a decent show with some bright moments but nothing close to essential viewing. The main events (and post match) delivered the goods, albeit in rather predictable fashion. The tag match was an Undertaker birthday party, a chance to see the Deadman have a good time playing the hits alongside his storyline brother, Kane - it had none of the suspense or brutality of Taker's matches with Lesnar, but it still had enough "big match feel" to get the crowd hotter than they were for any other match on the card. Unfortunately, the tournament matches were good - but not great. By not having either Reigns or Ambrose go through three opponents in one night (a not-entirely-unrealistic idea when you consider they could have squashed some midcarders in 4-minute bouts on the pre-show), the final, while very good, was never going to reach the emotional heights that made Bret Hart winning the 94' King of the Ring tournament or Macho Man capturing the WWE World Championship at WrestleMania IV such iconic moments for WWE fans. The post-match added some spice to the main event scene, but its the same flavor as we've seen with nearly every other cash-in the WWE has produced, including the ending of the superior SummerSlam 2014 show.

FINAL RATING - Watch It…With Remote in Hand