Quick Survivor Series ThoughtsSurvivor Series reflected the build-up pretty well. All in all it was a good overall show but it was mostly the well-built matches that were great, and the poorly hyped matches that were just passable. Thumbs up to the WWE in general though for putting on a good a show (despite a pretty quiet crowd for the most part).
As far as my predictions went I did pretty damned well. I managed every pick just about dead on except for the World title main event which I said could go either way – depending on how Edge got involved.
CM Punk d. The Miz and John Morrison
This match seemed quite out of place, even at the beginning of the card. The crowd were dead throughout this match and the whole thing did seem quite confusing with the two challengers now the WWE tag team champions. Everyone seemed to perform well and the finish made Punk look good but the whole match just seemed to be quite poorly structured and came across as very stop-start.
Mickie and co. d. Beth et al
This match that came from nowhere was a mis-match and no one looked too great here. The non-wrestling diva’s looked their usual selves and none of them excelled. Melina looked decent enough in the ring but after her unfortunate ring entrance, she couldn’t be taken seriously in this match. If the ever-dominant Glamazon tagged into this match, or made an impact, I didn’t notice so she didn’t gain anything from this match. As predicted, the only woman who came out looking good here was Mickie James. She made the pin fall and annoyed Beth as well. That at least is one positive from this match and Beth’s post match reaction does suggest that we are heading in the direction of that feud
Cade & Murdoch d. Rhodes/Holly
Continuing the momentum of the poorly hyped matches, we then got to see the tag team titles defended. The match itself was decent enough but, once again, the lack of crowd involvement really hurt this match which may have come off a little better otherwise. The heels picked up the win over the young Cody Rhodes, which was probably the best way to go and the best way to continue the progress of this team and Holly giving him a slap on the back at the end was nice. But in the end the match accomplished nothing and was basically pointless.
Triple H & Jeff Hardy d. Umaga’s team
Matt was absent here which added quite a lot to the storyline of the match as the face team started out at a disadvantage and the entire team, specifically Jeff, were all gunning for MVP. We even got some nice interaction backstage with the face team all having digs at their leader; including Kane bringing up Katie Vick for the second time in as many weeks – that got a nice ‘oh!’ from the crowd too. The match had a great pace and was very entertaining. It could have done with an extra five minutes to really sell the disadvantage that the face team ended up in after being knocked down to only two members, but overall it was very enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately for those involved, the eliminations often came across as ill-timed or out of nowhere though. Kane’s elimination was welcome as it showed the heel team ganging up together but Rey’s elimination seemed too much of a surprise; despite his supposed injury. The two remaining then rallied together and put on a very strong performance and I was very happy to see Jeff pick up the win. My only qualm about the heel loss is that MVP looked very weak. I am not concerned that he was eliminated first or even that Jeff pinned him (in fact I was quite happy about both) but he just looked rather lacklustre and didn’t seem his cocky self. Lets hope he takes it out on Jeff though and we can have an inter-brand match between the two at Armageddon.
Kali d. Hornswoggle (By DQ)
The pre-match stuff with Vince and Shane seemed a bit of a time waster, but it was nice to see Shane again and it was nice to see him react when Kali eventually got the better of Hornswoggle. The match was basically a non-wrestling segment until, as I had hoped for (see my predictions), Finley got involved and caused the disqualification. We then saw him drag off Hornswoggle backstage. I am not a fan of Kali and I hate to see Finley go to waste, but if this is leading to a match at Armageddon then at least we will get to see Finley in another big match and Kali may actually look alright when he gets in the ring with someone as sound as Finley. We may also see some McMahon-Finley interaction as well, but we will have to wait and see on that one.
Randy Orton d. Shawn Michaels
Well the screw job didn’t happen and I am thankful for it. I did fear the worst though when we saw HBK use the Sharpshooter, Cross face and the Ankle Lock; but it was not to be. One thing I do have to question though is the rules of the match. Orton clearly raked the eyes of HBK at one point, which should surely have been considered as breaking the rules, and HBK went for (didn’t hit, but lifted his leg above the waist) at least twice before the finish. The match itself was much better than the last one and I did actually like the difference that the lack of Sweet Chin Music made for HBK. The stipulation also lead to the ending and it made Orton look great as well; with Shawn looking strong as well, as if he had been aloud his finisher, he would have won. One thing I did not like though, was HBK getting the hit after the bell. There was no need for it and it just diminished the champion once again.
Batista d. The Undertaker
I enjoyed this match but it did seem very slow and methodical to me. Both men looked very good though and took some great shots. I absolutely loved Batista pounding Taker’s head with the ring steps and I really enjoyed the finish – I wasn’t even annoyed when Batista kicked out of the first Tombstone. The crowd involvement here really helped as the entire crowd was supporting Taker. This made the ending come across on TV even better when Edge interfered and cost the dead man the title shot. They absolutely hated him for it. Unfortunately, as well as it came off at the time, JBL summed it up with “Why is he doing it? Why did he pick The Undertaker?” I really don’t know why Edge attacked Taker. It would have made sense for him to come out after, or if Taker had wanted to get at Edge (after he cashed in Money in the Bank) but why would he choose Taker over Batista. Hopefully the Smackdown writers can explain it – even if it is that he wanted to beat Batista as he was the weaker wrestler. We shall see.
Having looked at my thoughts I realised that the show wasn’t quite as good as I thought it was upon first viewing. All credit to those involved though for making the upper-card as entertaining as hell and balancing out an otherwise poor set of matches.
Raw Thoughts (As it happened)
Note – I made these notes as Raw aired so if they seem a little scrambled at points; you know why.
A marathon man opens Raw running around outside. This makes no sense at the time but it is eventually explained.
Skipping the runner, Shawn Michaels makes his way out and asks Orton to come out. Shawn seems back to his comical self rather than being really intent on getting a title shot. He was trying to coax Orton out but he looked a bit silly really. Orton appears on the titantron to explain that the marathon runner will symbolise the passing of the torch from HBK to Orton when he arrives at the arena. This all sounded rather stupid and like it was going to produce a completely pointless segment later on.
Things look much, much better when Kennedy comes out and just instantly starts brawling with HBK. This leads to Regal coming out and making a match that never gets underway as the two just fight on the outside until HBK hits the Super kick and sends Kennedy packing.
I really liked how both men came across here as Kennedy showed balls by coming out and attacking the legend and HBK made me forget how weak he looked earlier by taking the fight straight to Kennedy and then coming out on top. This is the sort of match that I would have liked to have been saved for WrestleMania, but I look forward to seeing these two together at Armageddon and hopefully HBK will be the one to get Kennedy back on track again.
Santino loses to Lawler, via a back slide, after a decent match. The match was passable due to the length but nothing really amazing happened until afterwards when Randy Orton appeared and attacked King with the RKO. I can forgive this match being made just to set up Orton’s arrival though. Unfortunately, it came across again as completely pointless as he grabbed the microphone and pretty much just repeated what he had said to HBK earlier, about the runner. Orton showed his mean streak again but it really added nothing to what was happening.
Kennedy gives his short, but very sweet comments about what happened earlier. He says that HBK attacked him when he was coming out to pay his respects and that HBK needs to look over his shoulder now. Kennedy was back to his cocky self here and came across as very intense and very threatening towards Michaels. I am already getting excited about this one.
Vince, Coach, Regal and Carlito interact backstage. Vince seems to playing up that he actually cares about Hornswoggle but I don’t really know where that one is going. What I do know is that Carlito was put in a match against the smaller of the McMahon’s and a loss here could either show that he is on the way out of the door, or that he is showing management that he really is a team player and that he is willing to actually do anything to stay on in the WWE.
Jeff and Umaga put on a hell of a match. I thought about this feud reigniting last night at Survivor Series but felt that it was just too soon after their last pairing. However, the two of them put on such a great match here (and the crowd absolutely loved it) that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see these two put into a proper program again very soon. Umaga looked his usual dominant self and Jeff looked like he could be beaten at any time but that everyone should expect him to pull out the surprise win at any point. This adds some great psychology to a match and it really came off well.
Unfortunately the lengthy matched ended rather abruptly when Snitsky interrupted. It looks like Vince finally found something for his favourite to do. He will either be teamed up with Umaga, put up against Jeff in a feud that will probably get him over seeing as the crowd loves Jeff, or, after Triple H also got involved, he may be put against the Game. H may be willing to put him over at some point, but you know Snitsky is not going to come out looking like the unstoppable heel that he is at the minute.
A short Save_Us video played that basically said “tonight”. I am starting to think that Jericho is going to be interrupting Orton. I am not sure if this is a good thing for anyone. It will be great to see Jericho in the main event and I would love to see him take the title and go into WrestleMania with it. However, Orton isn’t going to make Jericho look great in his return match, and I am not sure that Jericho would be given the title over Orton here.
The Rhodes/Holly storyline continues with a nice match between the two. The two battled a very hard hitting contest and the pair seem to be mirroring their on-screen storyline with how they really feel about each other. Their matches are either very well acted or Cody really is trying to prove himself and Holly has taken it upon himself to help the rookie learn.
Unfortunately, Cody finally secured a victory over his mentor but we didn’t get to see a reaction as Orton interrupted again to tell us that his runner was nearly at the arena. I get that Orton is proving his dominance over the roster and that he is pushing his storyline (and probably the metaphor that Jericho is almost here) but this time it really took away from the match that had taken place. It didn’t matter with Sanino/Lawler but Rhodes and Holly have lost out here and it would have been nice to see how Holly had reacted to the loss and to see if young Cody had earned some respect.
Finley and Vince had a chat backstage. This made very little sense but did come across quite funny. Finley was taking the micky out of Vince which was OK, but didn’t really achieve anything. We learnt that Vince didn’t know about Finley helping Hornswoggle the night before, but he did nothing about it. I’m happy to see Finley involved here, especially if he is given the push to match it, but it needs to make sense.
Flair is back next week! I am very happy to hear this and it looks like both parties finally settled their differences. It will also be interesting to see if he is returning to Raw permanently or if he will be moving back to Smackdown after next week.
Melina and Jillian lost to Maria and Mickie in the usual women’s match. The highlight here was Melina making her entrance and not messing it up. At least she takes the whole thing light-heartedly as she crossed her fingers before attempting it tonight. Jillian got on the mic at the start and annoyed the hell out of me. She talked about Lillian as well. They are really dragging out this storyline if they are going with Lillian vs. Jillian. It’s a shame because something with such a long build should be good, but a feud between these two is never going to lead anywhere interesting. Jillian did get some proper heat, for once, before she sang though.
Not sure where Beth Phoenix was here though. Orton gets to attack three people tonight after matches and have his own segment, but the Glamazon doesn’t get to attack the woman who beat her team at Survivor Series? I was a little surprised by her absence here.
Our supposed “main event” match of the evening sees Carlito and Hornswoggle contest a pure comedy match (was Hornswoggle’s shirt on backwards!?) with the high point being Hornswoggle throwing a bucket of water. The match ends when Finley interrupts and helps Hornswoggle win. This match was apparently No DQ so the interference was legal but this match does make me wonder two things; 1 – is Carlito done with the WWE or is he now feuding with Finley?, 2 – Is Finley on the wrong side of Vince or is he doing what he is asked.
Either way, what concerns me the most is that this match was an embarrassment of a main event and made the show look like crap. Any viewers that were watching Raw purely to see the return of Jericho, and to see what the state of the show was, that tuned in early will have been instantly turned off by this crap and may have been put off forever.
The real main event sees Orton come to the ring as the runner arrives at the arena. He declares that the torch is going to be passed and that he deserves what is coming to him. The runner is then clothes lined by …Chris Jericho!
Was it just me or did this all come across as very flat in the beginning? I thought the entrance with attacking the runner was really lame and Jericho looked ridiculous. Has he just come out of the closet or something? Honestly though, I was never going to think that this was an amazing success as it was: 1 – hyped up to much and 2 – it was against Orton.
However, Jericho cut a hell of a promo and the fans ate it up. He certainly hasn’t lost his entertaining edge, even if he has added 100% campness to it, and I really look forward to him feuding with Orton and seeing if his wrestling skills are anything near what they were.
To give my honest feelings about this show would be to say that it was complete rubbish. Jeff and Umaga had a decent match but it was ruined at the end. No other match was very good and there was way too much interference and Orton involvement throughout the night. It was a light hearted show but I think any returning viewers may well have been put off for good tonight.
However, Jericho is now back and I will forget this show ever happened and go into next week’s Raw looking to see what happens with Jericho, and Flair, and see if Vince is able to turn all of this around and make something of it.
Thanks for taking the time to read again, I hope the different take on the typical predictions column worked. Hopefully I'll be writing again soon.
Any comments or queries, feel free to contact me at batista666@hotmail.com (I use this e-mail just for my writing and check it regularly).