Survivor Series 2014 

Going into Survivor Series this year, I made my peace with WWE’s simply abhorrent build to their PPV’s/Special Events in this, the WWE Network era. Bland builds and subpar emotional investment were becoming all too easy for WWE. I really didn’t care for the stipulation between Team Cena and Team Authority. That being said how many times have we seen people have their jobs on the line for a match?

It wasn’t all bad as the build to the Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose match was stellar. So we had that going for us; which was nice.

As usual on Main Event Radio, we gave our pre-show thoughts and predictions. I suggest you take a listen to hear the lack of excitement in Adam Caplan’s voice. Let me tell you, he’ll be sounding very different next week after what turned out to be a potential best PPV/Special Event of the year.

The Miz and Damien Mizdow defeated Gold and Stardust for the WWE Tag Team Championship in 15:25. Also in the match were The Usos and Los Matadores. This was the usual crazy, fast paced match that you get when The Dust Bros and The Usos are involved. The crowd was unbelievably into Damien Mizdow and the other wrestlers knew it. Special note to Stardust rocking new gear and playing up Mizdow’s “overness” with the crowd. The finish came with Mizdow blind tagging himself in on The Mizz and pinning Stardust. Their celebration afterwards was almost as entertaining as the match itself.

Tony: 0-1 Ryan: 0-1 Adam: 0-1

Team Fox (Alicia Fox, Emma, Naomi and Natalya defeated Team Page (Paige, Cameron, Layla and Summer Rae in a whopping 14:35! For those keeping track, Alicia Fox is a face again. This was a wild match that screams Fit Finlay and Sara Del Ray. If they weren’t agents on this match, I don’t know who else could have planned this out. These girls went balls (metaphorical ones) to the wall. Very few quiet moments in this match that saw a proper pin attempt by Cameron! I know I shouldn’t be highlighting this sort of thing at the WWE level of pro-wrestling, but when dealing with Cameron we have to grade on a curve. However, they rest of the match was still fantastic.

Tony: 1-1 Ryan: 0-2 Adam: 1-1

Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose via disqualification in 14:00. This match saw these two guys bring it. They already had done a stellar job building this match with their promos on RAW. Wyatt had constantly tried to get Ambrose to join him or destroy him mentally with shots at his absent father. This match was just like their promos, rough and tough. The end came when Wyatt introduced a steel chair to Ambrose and demanded he strike him down, Vader style. The crowd demanded he too it as well. Ambrose being crazy and a crowd pleaser, obliged. The proceeded to destroy him with more chairs; put him through a table with a top-rope elbow and buried him some more with foreign objects. I just want to remind everyone I called this non-finish on the show.

Tony: 2-1 Ryan: 0-3 Adam: 2-1

Adam Rose and The Bunny beat Slater Gator (Heath Slater and Titus O’Neil in 2:36. This was the most lackluster match of the night. The build came from a backstage promo where Rose was acting more heelish towards everyone’s favourite Bunny. Nothing of note in the match other than The Bunny has some nice dropkicks and picked up the win much to Adam Rose’s dismay.

I cannot count this in our predictions as it was an impromptu match.

Tony: 2-1 Ryan: 0-3 Adam: 2-1

Nikki Bella with Brie Bella defeated AJ Lee in 33 seconds to win the WWE Divas Championship. This match was short and very, very sweet. They essentially had Brie turn heel and kiss AJ Lee right after the bell rang, much like when Shaemus beat Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania 28. I’m a red blooded heterosexual male. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing that kiss between Brie and AJ. Everyone wins.

Tony: 3-1 Ryan: 0-4 Adam: 2-2

Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan and Ryback) defeated Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev and Luke Harper) in 43:05. The stipulation behind this match was if Team Cena loses everyone except John Cena will be fired the next night on RAW and if Team Authority loses; Stephanie McMahon and Triple H will lose their power in booking/managing the shows. The lead up to the match was very much a disappointment. We had seen this sort of stipulation in the past and saw it never stick or just fall flat. However, Ol’Vinnie Mac was back and earlier in the show added that if Team Authority lost they would lose their power, and the only man who could ever make the decision to let them back would be John Cena himself.

The match itself was pretty good. There was a lot of playing to the crowd and having both Stephanie and Lana at ringside was awesome for the fact they both have great reactions to action in the ring. Somewhere in the match, it came down to Big Show, Cena and Ziggler vs. Rollins, Kane and Harper. Then Big Show turned heel again for the million and second time, by knocking John Cena out and letting him get pinned. Show then shook the hand of Triple H; a man who was a thrown in his side for nearly a year. For those keeping track that left poor Dolph Ziggler as the final member of Team Cena versus three members of Team Authority. Ziggler made surprisingly quick work of Kane and Luke Harper, while bumping like Stretch Armstrong at a daycare. Finally Triple couldn’t take it anymore and removed the refs from action and proceeded to lay his own authority on Ziggler and laid a KO’d Rollins on the prone Show Off. Just as we though all hope was lost THE ICON STING appeared at the top of the entrance! He and Triple H had a stare down and The Stinger laid Hunter out and put Ziggler back on top; giving the win to Team Cena.

The insane reaction from the crowd when Sting’s music hit was beyond imaginable. I sadly wish this would have happened 10 years ago.

In the end, this was a phenomenal PPV/Special Event that was well worth the amount you may have paid for it. The road to Wrestlemania has begun; and it looks like it will be a sweet ride.

Final Score

Tony: 4-1 Ryan: 0-5 Adam: 3-2

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