A TRUE SURVIVOR SERIES…What Happened Last Night (Nov. 23rd, 2014)

Well, call me surprised.  Is this the moment it all changes or will it simply be more of the same called something different?  I can’t really say.  Survivor Series was absolutely not quite what I was expecting but, I find that it’s not really a good or bad thing.  It’s just not what I expected.   Yet, I love how it could either be seen as a means to appease complaints without losing face or a genius evolution suddenly revealed.  I bet it was a little bit of both.  Let’s just hope that they can carry the spirit of this change of guard for more than just a few showings.  Hopefully, this is the beginning and only that...

In the Pre-Show “Bad News” Barrett and Fandango make their return.  Seeing how Fandango has been out for a bit, it was nice to see he took some dance classes so he doesn’t come off a complete jerk but, you know…jerk enough.  He gets his “welcome back” win off of Justin Gabriel.  Then, Cesaro and Jack Swagger warm us up as well but, it was a little hard to see Cesaro take another loss.  I’m fine with it as long as it gets paid forward somewhere down the line soon.

The official start of the show has GrandDad (Vince McMahon) come out and greet the crowd and he is given a warm reception.  After stating why we’re all gathered here today, he invites out his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, and her husband, Triple H.  Stephanie and H do a great job of ingratiating themselves and GrandDad does a great job of not being impressed.  That’s okay though, Stephanie emulates.  If I gotta earn it the hard way, so be it.  We McMahon’s thrive on this sort of thing…right?

 

The first official match of the evening is the Fatal-4-Way Tag Team Match featuring, Los Matadores, The Miz & Damien Mizdow, The Usos and of course, our reigning champions Goldust & Stardust.  The match was fun to watch.  There was nothing all that breath-taking about it but I do like how it was very clean and played with the crowd.  Creative took Mizdow’s popularity very much into account but didn’t so much showcase his wrestling as make use of him being the crowd-favorite.  They would tease him into the match only to have him tagged out yet, he gets the last laugh by getting the win despite The Miz’s efforts.  The Miz, though shocked, will take the win just the same.  I thought the match was playful and was tasteful in its comedy.  These fellows are light-hearted fair and I don’t need them to be anything else.  They just have to be entertaining.  The only thing they have to worry about is coming off as stupid.

To follow, we have basically all the Divas come out and have themselves a big ol’Elimination Match.  Honestly, this wasn’t nearly the mess I thought it was gonna be.  I was expecting this to just be a bunch of hair and screams, and there were plenty, but these ladies turned out a comparable match.  I’d say they’re just about on par with the guys but don’t have nearly the comedy.  Whether they should or not is debatable and can easily be adjusted depending on what they want to do so, I won’t state that as a problem just a fact. I liked how some of their personalities came out, though.  Emma continues to charm with her geeky sensibility.  Natalya remained the wrestling purest as she should and I found Cameron cheekily ghetto fabulous. There wasn’t rhyme nor reason to the whole thing in my opinion.  I only catch Total Divas in passing and have no intention on watching avidly so, if it makes sense along those lines, it’s a little lost on me but I’ll just say I was anticipating much worse so, kudos for breaking even.

Next up, we have what I don’t want to call the Rivalry that Wasn’t but so far is between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt.  The good thing about the match is that they didn’t lead into it with talking, they saved that for later, but it didn’t have anything going on that we haven’t seen from these guys before.  Don’t get me wrong, I like what these guys could be.  Bray Wyatt can be creepy and full of mindtrips and Dean Ambrose can just be crazy with a hankerin’ for fighting but the trick will be keeping them interesting over time.  That’s the thing with anyone really but these 2 could very easily slip off the radar if they get too literal with their representation or get so caught up in being mesmerizing on the mic that we don’t get much wrestling.  As this match went on, the lead up to TLC became evident and though I liked Ambrose piling up the tables, ladders and chairs onto Wyatt, I was half-hoping that Wyatt would disappear or something so that this had just a little more oomph! But no, pay to see it at TLC…We’ll see….

To cleanse our palette for the next course, we have Adam Rose with The Bunny up against Titus O’Neil and Heath Slater a.k.a. Slater Gator for some comedic tag team action.  This match was entertaining.  I actually liked it better than Ambrose’s and Wyatt’s match.  It wasn’t anything spectacular but the hijinks drew honest chuckles and I can appreciate the camp for what it is. They just have to make sure they don’t slip into being annoying.

The following aperitif, we probably could have all done without but, given how the evening transpired, having Roman Reigns do yet another “interview” may have been just to sell "The Authority needs to be removed" gimmick because there’s no way anyone in their right mind would think that spot would help anything when it comes to his push.  Word floating about the “internets” is that he’s been taking acting lessons to help get him more comfortable on the mic but what resulted came off plastic and cheesily scripted.  If that was the point, mission accomplished but that almost didn’t read and the crowd going straight dead after kinda proved it.  The one good thing about it, the slate can be wiped clean going forward.

The following match for the Divas Title definitely allows for rumors to fly when Nikki Bella made quick work of AJ Lee yet, I liked the use of history to set up the loss.  Seeing how AJ Lee usually administers the “kiss of death” to be given it via Brie Bella serves as a less iconic “horse head” under the sheets but gives the longstanding fans something to consider in this little dash of depth.  Yet, that sort of gets overshadowed seeing how a “squash” match of this sort kinda supports the twist at the end but with the majority of the audience not fully in on the joke, the tepid response was to be expected.

Nevertheless, the show carries on and we come to our Main Event!  This actually got pretty exciting once it got going.  It was a little hard to say if the audience was going to get into it but perhaps the whisper of “kayfabe” wafted through and the interest began to turn.  Because, in all honesty, they had me fooled. Given what I had just witnessed, I was about to cancel my trial subscription right then and there.  The WWE had lost their minds if they thought what I was watching was something that I wanted to see.  But, for this evening anyway, that appeared to be the very point.  Nevertheless, things began to get interesting when Big Show made the deducible decision to turn heel because we know of his “financial troubles”.   He can’t afford to lose so he sides with the team that pays the bills in a fit of desperation and clocks Cena.  He then washes his hands of the whole thing, disgusted with himself leaving “Scrappy McScrapperton”, Dolph Ziggler, to fend off Kane and Luke Harper but that’s when The Authority start to “rig” the match and interfere.  At this point, the crowd gets what they’re trying to do and rightfully start rooting for Team Cena.  Naturally, Triple H counters by getting in there to squash that noise and then we get…Sting.  The Icon makes his debut.  Now, I missed out on Sting in his heyday and for that I’m a little sorry because it seems like he was cool in his prime but though his appearance may have merely been symbolic, it didn’t have quite the kick it probably would have if he was 10 years younger.  He’s old when it comes to wrestling terms so, it’s hard to think he would really put anything other than a psychological hurt on Triple H, but he serves as the voice of reason in this blatantly unfair showing and seeing how if anyone would know what’s best for this business, it’d be Sting, he does Triple H in with a kick to the mid-section and lays a battle-bruised Dolph Ziggler atop a comatose Seth Rollins giving Team Cena the win.  Devastated, Stephanie and Triple H come face-to-face with the end of their hellish rule.

I commend the WWE for trying to appease us by playing a risky game but at the same time, I think they could have accomplished their internal reboot without playing so close to the edge.  You could hear it in the Announce Teams’ voices when they lost the audience.  Uncertainty and fear was very much close the surface.  I don’t think any of us want the WWE to fail.  We watch and blog and comment because we love this form of entertainment.  There’s nothing like it and to see that it can succeed is a great thing to witness.  It just serves as proof that the impossible can happen.  Yet, as consumers, we merely want to know that our hard earn cash is going towards a respectable product.  It’s been pretty hard to honestly say that it is for quite some time.  We just want quality.  That’s it really.  No one has to jump off a proverbial cliff for our amusement.  Just wrestle well, tell an adequate story, be generally well-spoken and authentic when on the mic, try to be creative and have fun.  All the things that made us fans in the first place is all the WWE has to do.  They just have to factor for modern times.  You can’t relive the past but you can always create the future.   Take the lessons learned and create an awesome product and we may just sign on for this Network you got going.   Yet, as of now, I’m not entirely convinced but I do appreciate the effort.  Remember what worked.  Stay true to your roster and a New Era will certainly flourish.

 

See You Tonight,

-Nicole Alexis.