WWE Survivor Series 2014 Review

The 28th edition of Survivor Series took place in 2014 with a mix of championship matches along with traditional elimination tag team matches as well as some championships on the line as well.

This is WWE Survivor Series 2014, which is a famous show largely due to the surprise “debut” appearance at the end of the night. By the way, this is the first Survivor Series after WWE Network debuted in February 2014.

It was written on the night that it took place. I’ve added some updated thoughts in blue font as well.

WWE Survivor Series
From Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri
November 23, 2014

There was a video package highlighting the main story for this event, which is the main event of Team Cena vs. Team Authority. It ended with the phrase: “The future is now.” There was pyro in the arena, so it’s nice to see PPV pyro survived the budget cuts.

Vince McMahon entered for a promo. The announce team of Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and John Bradshaw Layfield welcomed us to the show.

Vince said he will guarantee us that this is a Survivor Series that we will never, ever forget. He brought out his daughter Stephanie and his son-in-law Triple H.

Stephanie thanked her dad for the warm welcome. Hunter sucked up to Vince by saying he’s the reason they are all there. Stephanie led the crowd in a “Vince” chant. Vince said that was a bunch of crap. He introduced John Cena.

Analysis: This match really doesn’t need another promo. No offense to them, but stop talking. Put on some matches. Please.

Cena entered the ring with a serious look on his face. Stephanie said even if they win that they will still have jobs in WWE. Vince told them that they would have desk jobs, but they wouldn’t be in a position of power again. Vince told her that the only person that could put them in a position of power is…John Cena.

Stephanie got in Cena’s face and said that adversity only makes her stronger. Cena said that after they lose there’s only one man that could bring them back and that’s him. He said there is “no chance in hell” that Cena would bring them back.

Analysis: That was a 12-minute promo on a PPV. It was basically the same promo they’ve been doing for the past month except they added the part where Cena is the only one with the power to bring back Hunter and Stephanie. I remember a time when the people in the ring mattered more than the people in power. Most fans don’t give a damn who is in power. Move on. Start the matches.

(There really was no reason to do a promo to start this show, but the McMahons love hearing themselves talk.)

The announcers summarized everything and introduced the Spanish announcers along with the table that often breaks.

Tag Team Titles: Goldust & Stardust vs. The Usos vs. Los Matadores vs. The Miz & Damien Mizdow

The first fall wins. It’s not an elimination match, so two guys are in the ring and the other six are on the apron. During the early part of the match, Miz took a bump flipping onto his back. Mizdow ended up doing the same bump into the ring. The crowd cheered that as they should because Mizdow is awesome. Stardust had red mixed with his gold for this match. He was working over one of the Usos in the ring and the crowd was chanting for Mizdow. Backstabber on Miz earned a two count. Mizdow tagged in, which led to more chanting for Mizdow. The crowd was cheering for him. Goldust tagged him in the back so there was nothing from Mizdow. There were more chants for Mizdow. Basically, there were long sequences featuring Stardust and Goldust along with Los Matadores. The crowd just kept chanting for Mizdow.

There was a swinging DDT by one of Los Matadores. He tagged in Jimmy Uso, which doesn’t come off as a smart move since that’s not a partner of his. Jimmy hit a Samoan Drop on Goldust. Running butt splash on Goldust. Everybody went into the ring and got knocked out. My WWE Network feed really hasn’t been working well all night. El Torito hit a dive on a bunch of people outside the ring. There was all kinds of action in the ring. Jimmy hit a top rope splash on Goldust. Miz tagged him as he hit the splash. Mizdow tagged in and made the cover on Goldust. It went 15:25.

Winners by pinfall and New Tag Team Champions: The Miz & Damien Mizdow

Post match, The Miz celebrated with both tag team titles.

Analysis: ** It was a very basic tag match all about putting over the Miz/Mizdow act, which I’m perfectly fine with. The negative aspect of it is that there’s a comedy team holding the tag titles, but they are entertaining, so that’s fine. The crowd is into the act. Mizdow is awesome. I’m looking forward to their tag title reign.

(The Mizdow act was over huge. It probably ended too soon and then there was no good payoff when it ended either, so it’s an example of WWE not knowing how to pay off a storyline the right way. That’s a common problem in WWE.)

There was a commercial for Larry The Cable Guy on Raw tomorrow. One week from tomorrow on Raw there live Stone Cold podcast on WWE Network with Vince McMahon. That’s awesome.

Adam Rose was in a backstage vignette with The Bunny and his friends. They were playing with some WWE toys. Titus O’Neil and Heath Slater showed up. Rose said that all the people in the Party Posse worship him. Slater said that Rose always gets upstaged by his Bunny.

Analysis: So a loser like Adam Rose can make matches now? It’s sad that WWE can’t think of matches better than this considering how talented their roster is.

Divas Elimination Match: Natalya (w/Tyson Kidd), Naomi, Emma & Alicia Fox vs. Paige, Layla, Summer Rae & Cameron

(It was not a strong roster of women. Things got better a year later when Sasha, Charlotte and Becky got called up.)

There were some quick tags early without much happening. Paige did a headbutt to Emma, then yelled: “This is my house!” She has a nice place. Emma hit a superplex on Paige. She was on the middle rope when she delivered it, but it was still impressive. Cameron tagged in as Cole said she doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut on Total Divas. The fans were chanting “We Want Mizdow” as Cameron hit a split leg drop for two. At least she didn’t try to pin her back. Naomi tagged in, hit a kick on Cameron and then a sloppy cross body block on Cameron. Naomi hit a modified bulldog for two thanks to a Layla save. All eight women got into the ring. Cameron hit a bulldog on Natalya that looked sloppy. Naomi rolled up Cameron to eliminate her.

Cameron eliminated by pinfall

Summer screamed to try to avoid an attack, but Naomi kicked her in the face. Summer hit a splash on the arm of Naomi for some reason. She did it twice. Natalya tagged in for her team. Alicia was in for her team. She attacked all three women. Fox hit a cross body block on all three girls at once. Fox hit a Northern Lights suplex on Layla for two. Backbreaker by Fox on Layla and that was enough to eliminate her.

Layla eliminated by pinfall

Natalya tagged in against Summer Rae. She nailed her with a clothesline. Natalya stepped on Summer’s back, then hit a dropkick and a spinning clothesline. There was a “Nattie’s husband” chant as Paige went after Natalya. Summer hit some knee lifts on Natalya, but Natalya came back by knocking her off the apron when Summer tried to do a Paige imitation. Emma wrapped up Summer in the ropes in a Tarantula (or “Dil-emma”) as Cole just yelled “here we go” instead of calling it an actual name. Emma did her Emma Lock submission on Summer, which led to Summer tapping out.

Summer Rae eliminated by submission

That elimination meant that Paige was left alone. The face divas all took turns going after Paige, but they took a while to wear her down. Fox got in a shot on Paige. Naomi hit the Rear View (flying ass) and then some headscissors move into a DDT. She pinned Paige to eliminate her. The match went 14:35.

Paige eliminated by pinfall

Winners: Natalya, Emma, Naomi & Alicia Fox

Post match, Tyson Kidd went onto the turnbuckle to pose for the fans even though he had nothing to do with the match. He’s awesome.

Analysis: *1/2 They told the story that Paige’s partners sucked and she had to fight alone. The faces probably should have done a better job of wearing her down by having all of them hit their finishing moves. Instead, Naomi won with some finisher that we really don’t know, so it felt kind of flat at the end. It’s funny because a lot of the time we want divas to have longer matches, but this one felt too long at 15 minutes.

(That star rating seems harsh by me, but it was a boring match.)

The next PPV is TLC on December 14. Three weeks of build.

They summarized the Kickoff Show: Fandango is back with Rosa Mendes as his dancer and he beat Justin Gabriel in a match. Bad News Barrett said we’re in the era of Bad News Barrett. They didn’t mention Jack Swagger beating Cesaro.

The Kickoff panel consisting of Renee Young, Booker T, Paul Heyman and Alex Riley talked about things. I went to the bathroom.

There was a video package for Ambrose vs. Wyatt, so that’s up next.

Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt

They were aggressive early on. Things changed when Ambrose went for a dive outside the ring, but Ambrose punched him in the throat to counter that attack. Wyatt tossed Ambrose into the steps. In the ring, Wyatt slowed things down with a full nelson. Ambrose made a comeback with some forearm shots as well as a bulldog. Ambrose did a mocking upside down pose the way that Wyatt usually does. Wyatt nearly came back with Sister Abigail, but Ambrose rolled him up for two. Ambrose tied Wyatt into the ropes, hit a dropkick and then a legdrop to the back of the neck for two. Ambrose went to the top. Wyatt tried to bring him down. Ambrose jumped off and Wyatt gave him a one armed slam for a two count. Wyatt missed a splash off the middle rope. Ambrose came back with a rollup for two. Ambrose finally hit his bounce off the ropes clothesline followed by an elbow attack on Wyatt while he was standing up. Ambrose ran the ropes and Wyatt crushed him with a huge clothesline. Wyatt slammed Ambrose back first onto the steel steps. He rolled him back in the ring for a two count.

Wyatt grabbed a microphone. He told Ambrose that together they could rule the world because they’re special. He said he’s sorry that Dean chose his path. Then Bray punched him in the face. A promo mid match? That’s not normal. Wyatt brought two chairs into the ring. The ref tossed one chair out while Ambrose grabbed the other one. After contemplating it for a bit, Ambrose hit Wyatt in the ribs with the chair. The ref called for the bell for the disqualification finish at 14:00.

Winner by disqualification: Bray Wyatt

Analysis: **3/4 It was good while it lasted, but that finish was really disappointing. It wasn’t a surprise because it felt like the kind of match that wouldn’t have a clean finish. They really didn’t go all out as much as you might think probably because it had a weak ending. It felt as if this was just the start of a really long match. Instead, it came to a screeching halt before we were ready for it to end. That part with Wyatt doing a promo wasn’t necessary either. I hope that doesn’t become a regular thing.

Post match, Ambrose hit Wyatt in the back with the chair. Ambrose nailed Dirty Deeds on Wyatt onto the chair. Ambrose brought a table into the ring, he put Wyatt on it and hit an elbow drop off the top rope through Wyatt on the table. Ambrose brought another table into the ring. He put the table on top of Wyatt. He tossed about ten chairs into the ring. The fans were cheering him for his actions.

Ambrose brought in a ladder from under the ring. He climbed up the ladder. Then he stopped there. All of a sudden his music started to play, so that was the end of that.

Analysis: So why did he bring out the ladder? It was as if this post match attack was a commercial for the TLC PPV. The crowd seemed to be into it at least. Their next match will probably be better.

(Their next match was the main event of the next PPV, TLC. That’s why they used the table, ladders, and chairs. That match went nearly 30 minutes, was pretty boring and ended with a TV monitor exploding, which was one of the lamest finishes I’ve ever seen.)

Hunter and Steph talked to the members of Team Authority. They were mostly in their ring gear with Rusev wearing flip-flops, which looks pretty awkward. They said when they win, all of the team members will benefit from it the most. Stephanie went into overacting mode by telling them that they can’t lose. Hunter said this is a moment in their life where everything changes forever. He asked them where they will stand at this moment in history. Hunter said they were the greatest team ever assembled. Hunter told them that whoever takes over will make sure their lives are a living hell. He said if you’re a champion you won’t be for long and if you aren’t a champion you never will be. Hunter said they fight with no remorse and no regrets. He told them to fight as if their last breath depends on it. Hunter fired them up by telling them that tonight they fight and then they all chanted “fight” as if they were a bunch of 8-year-olds playing soccer.

Analysis: Good promo by the heel team. They did a good job of laying out the importance of the match and why they really need to win. From a storyline perspective, it makes perfect sense.

Adam Rose & The Bunny vs. Titus O’Neil & Heath Slater

Does it really matter what happens here? Adam Rose started the match. The Bunny tagged in. He did some comedy offense. The Bunny hit a missile dropkick. That was enough to pin Slater at 2:36.

Winners: Adam Rose & The Bunny

Post match, Rose looked upset about the loss.

Analysis: 1/2* I really don’t care. It’s such a shame that this is the “best” kind of programming they can think of to put on a PPV show. At least the kids might like it. Good for them.

(The f’n bunny. That had no payoff either. Clearly, my review of this farce of a match was reflected by my lack of details in the review.)

The announce team talked to Roman Reigns on the video screen. Reigns said he’s feeling stronger and would like to be with the fans in St. Louis, which elicited cheers from the crowd because they like hearing the name of their city. Reigns said if he was there he would “cock that fist and make it rain in that bitch.” In other words, he would throw punches. Reigns said he hated Rollins. He added that in a month’s time, Roman Reigns is back. “And you can believe that.”

Analysis: That was just a way to announce he’s back in action in a month, which is smart to do. Reigns will make a big impact when he comes back and is definitely the favorite to win the Royal Rumble.

(Reigns did win the 2015 Royal Rumble and the fans booed him…a lot.)

Cena talked to his team in the locker room. Erick Rowan was playing with a Rubix Cube while Dolph Ziggler, Ryback and Big Show were listening. Cena said he’ll try to make sure this isn’t their last night. His teammates all said that they believe it was the right thing to do. Ryback said it was feeding time and “the big guy is hungry.” Cena said there’s only one thing left to do. Rowan stood up, took off his sheep mask off and said: “Win!” They all said win. That was it.

Analysis: It’s only fair we hear from them after hearing from the heels. The promo was fine. Everybody seemed to be on the same page.

(That gimmick for Rowan being some really smart guy didn’t really go anywhere. His singles run failed miserably. Good wrestler in a tag team, though.)

Divas Championship: AJ Lee vs. Nikki Bella (w/Brie Bella)

Brie was at ringside as Nikki’s personal assistant making sad faces. Brie grabbed the title and stood on the apron. AJ went after her, so Brie kissed AJ. Right on the lips. It happened. Nikki hit AJ with a forearm and then the Rack Attack finished it for the pin. The match was over in 30 seconds.

Winner by pinfall and New Divas Champion: Nikki Bella

Post match, Brie was smiling with Nikki so maybe they are turning Brie heel with this angle although that’s not a sure thing. The announcers mentioned the Daniel Bryan/Sheamus finish at WrestleMania 28 when Bryan lost after kissing AJ, so that’s what they were going for with the shock finish.

Analysis: I’m shocked by that booking although I expected a win for Nikki. AJ was becoming a very stale character, so I have no problem with the title change. There are rumors that AJ might be done in WWE soon. That wouldn’t be a surprise. Nothing official yet.

(The Bellas storyline this year was so bad. It was the worst feud of the year when Nikki turned on Brie at SummerSlam and we had to sit through some of the worst promos ever with lines like “I wish you died in the womb” and other shit. Three months later, Brie forgave her sister and helped her win the title. Nikki held the title for almost one year. As for AJ Lee, she was gone after the next WrestleMania.)

There was an advertisement for Steve Austin hosting Vince McMahon his podcast next Monday. Good idea.

It was announced that there will be a TLC Match at TLC with Dean Ambrose taking on Bray Wyatt. It’s on December 14th. The announcers wondered who was going to run the show at that point.

The video package aired for the main event match of Team Cena vs. Team Authority as we reached the top of the third hour.

Here’s the order of entrance for Team Authority: Kane, Mark Henry, Luke Harper, Rusev with Lana and then Seth Rollins. They were joined by Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble as well.

The order of entrance for Team Cena: Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan with some generic music, Ryback and then John Cena.

Survivor Series Elimination Match: Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Luke Harper & Rusev) vs. Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan & Ryback)

Mark Henry was the first guy in the ring for his team. Henry got a big pep talk from Hunter and Stephanie. Henry ran right at Show like a dumbass, so Big Show nailed Henry with a KO Punch and he pinned him to eliminate him.

Mark Henry eliminated by pinfall

Analysis: That was quick. The problem with Show’s finisher is he should just do that move to everybody at any time, yet he doesn’t. Also, shouldn’t Henry’s partners try to save him? It’s a must win. I know I’m nitpicking, so I’ll just move on.

(It’s a valid point. They put over how important it was to win the match, yet nobody tries to break up the pin at all. That’s what I get for thinking!)

Rollins attacked Show from behind. There were a bunch of quick tags until they did a showdown with Harper facing off with Rowan. Rollins tagged himself in to prevent them from battling it out. Ryback tagged in, went after Harper (he was back in) and hit a suplex. Ryback hit a splash on Kane, who was legal. Rusev tagged in to face off with Ryback in a meeting of power wrestlers. Rusev got in some shots, but Ryback nailed him with a spinebuster. Ryback connected with his Meat Hook Clothesline while the crowd chanted “Feed Me More” for him. He went for Shellshock, but Kane booted Ryback to save Rusev. All the members of Team Authority brawled with Team Cena. Rollins snuck into the ring and hit a Curb Stomp on Ryback. Rusev nailed a Superkick on Ryback to pin and eliminate him.

Ryback eliminated by pinfall

Analysis: I didn’t think Ryback would lose that early. I figured he would last near the end since WWE seemed like they were building him up as a breakout babyface star. Instead, he only lasted a few minutes. That was odd since they built him up so much. I don’t mind it because I think Ryback is average, but it looked like they were going to push him hard again.

Big Show battled with Harper, who nailed Show with a nice dropkick. The heels worked over Show for a bit, but he managed to tag in Ziggler. Ziggler was on fire against Harper. That lasted briefly because Harper was able to ground him with a sidewalk slam. The heels made some quick tags as they worked over Ziggler. They continued to make tags while focusing on Ziggler. This sequence lasted over five minutes. Rollins hit a big move on Ziggler by ramming him face first into the middle turnbuckle for a two count. Ziggler came back with a move on Rusev for a two count. Harper saved Rusev. Cena hit the AA, there were Chokeslams and everybody went outside the ring. Rollins received a back body drop by Rowan onto the others. Rusev kicked Rowan outside the ring. Rusev picked up Ziggler and gave him a Powerbomb over the top, which caused Ziggler to go crashing into the other guys.

Rusev cleaned off the announce table. He put Ziggler on it. He took too long to do it, so Ziggler moved. Rusev went crashing through the Spanish announce table. The referee finally started to count so Rusev was counted out. The referee didn’t count for about a minute of these guys standing outside the ring, but once Rusev went through the able he counted.

Rusev eliminated by countout

Analysis: Most of us figured that Rusev would lose without getting pinned or being submitted, so that’s how they did it.

The match is now 4 for Cena and 3 for Authority. Kane went for Chokeslam on Ziggler, but he moved and tagged in Cena. Cena hit his shoulderblocks, spinning slam and Five Knuckle Shuffle on Kane. He hit the Attitude Adjustment on Kane. Rollins snuck into the ring, kicked Rollins in the ribs and hit a Curb Stomp. Cole was yelling at the ref to take control. JBL said that they should let them go.

Harper and Rowan tagged in for their teams. They had a physical fight at the start, which led to Rowan hitting a spin kick on Harper. That was impressive. Kane grabbed Rowan by the throat. The ref sent him out of the ring, so Rollins hit a flying knee attack off the top rope. Harper hit a spinning clothesline and pinned Rowan.

Erick Rowan eliminated by pinfall

The match was 3 on 3 by this point. Ziggler was still on the floor. Show stood beside Cena and Show nailed Cena with a KO Punch! Heel turn alert. Cena got pinned by Rollins, so he was out.

John Cena eliminated by pinfall

Analysis: Shocker! Wow. That was a big spot. Show was due for his annual heel turn anyway. The fans didn’t see it coming, so they reacted to it in a big way. If you look back at their history, Show has turned on Cena several times in the past.

After the attack, Show walked over to Triple H and shook his hand while Stephanie celebrated. Show walked out of the ring and went to the back. He was eliminated by countout.

Big Show eliminated by countout

That meant that Ziggler was left alone against Rollins, Kane and Harper. The heels taunted Ziggler and toyed with him. Ziggler hit a superkick and Zig Zag to eliminate Kane.

Kane eliminated by pinfall

It’s down to Ziggler against Harper and Rollins. Harper went after Ziggler aggressively. He hit a superkick to knock him down for two. Harper hit a powerbomb for two. He was mad that it was only a two count. Ziggler nailed Harper with a rollup and he grabbed his jeans for extra leverage. That was enough to eliminate Harper by pinfall.

Luke Harper eliminated by pinfall

(The next PPV was TLC with Ziggler beating Harper for the IC Title in a Ladder Match. It was pretty good.)

We are down to two men: Ziggler vs. Rollins. Rollins was the aggressor of the two. Rollins got an inside cradle for two and then a leaping DDT for another nearfall. Rollins came back with a Powerbomb into the corner for two. Rollins went up top, Ziggler tried to knock him off and instead Rollins knocked him off the ropes. Ziggler hit the Fameasser for a great nearfall. Cole was freaking out on commentary saying he had goosebumps while Triple H was getting angry at ringside. Mercury and Noble tried to provide interference. Ziggler knocked them down. Ziggler hit the Zig Zag on Rollins. Triple H pulled the ref out of the ring and punched him out. The crowd hated that.

Ziggler was attacked by Noble & Mercury. He was able to get rid of them with superkicks. Ziggler hit another Zig Zag on Rollins. Another ref slid into the ring. Triple H attacked him. Hunter went after Ziggler by punching him in the head. Hunter worked him over and hit a Pedigree in the middle of the ring. He dragged Rollins on top of Ziggler and he called for another ref to come down. It was Scott Armstrong, who is the corrupt ref. He was making the count, but that was interrupted by some ominous music.

Then the moment finally arrived. It’s Sting! Big ovation for that. No surprise to those of us online, but it was not advertised. He was in his usual black coat with black & white facepaint.

After all these years, Sting is finally in a WWE arena. We know it was rumored and leaked online a day earlier, but it’s still an awesome moment. There was a video package playing as he walked down to the ring. Armstrong went to face off with him, so Sting punched him in the face.

Sting went face to face with Hunter in the ring. The fans were cheering and chanting “Sting” for him. They had a staredown for about one minute as the fans chanted “This is awesome.” Hunter tried to punch him. Sting avoided it, kicked him and nailed the Scorpion Death Drop on Triple H.

Sting put Ziggler on top of Rollins. Apparently, Ziggler and Rollins were out that whole time. It must have been two or three minutes. The original ref slid back in the ring to count the pinfall. That was it. The match went 43:29.

Seth Rollins eliminated by pinfall

Winners: Team Cena (Dolph Ziggler is the sole survivor)

Analysis: **** It’s such a tough match to rate in terms of ratings, but I’m giving it four stars out of five because the work was very good for much of it and they delivered in terms of giving it a big time feel. It was hurt by the ref bumps although that was just part of the story. That final pin happened after Rollins and Ziggler were out of it for a few minutes. I give them a lot of booking for laying things out perfectly by giving so many different people a chance to shine. Ziggler and Rollins were clearly the stars of the match. Harper had a good showing too. Cena barely did anything, which is fine because he’s the most pushed guy on the show. Big Show’s heel turn was definitely a surprise although I guess he was due to turn since it seems like he turns every year. That debut for Sting was special. He didn’t say a word because he didn’t have to. He was just there to kick some ass and that’s what he did. That moment really stood out as something special that we’re going to remember for years to come. It makes us want to see more of him, which is exactly the reaction WWE is hoping for.

(I think that rating is probably a bit too high in hindsight. It was more like ***1/2 if I had to redo it, but I’ll leave it as is. I did like the Show turn and Sting’s return, though, so it’s a match I look at favorably.)

After the match, Ziggler celebrated the big win. When he got to the entrance, Cena showed up and gave him a big hug as Ziggler’s music continued to play. They went backstage as the camera focused on Stephanie at ringside.

Analysis: I liked that part with Cena hugging him. Those two obviously have a history of feuding, but it will be good for Ziggler to be a guy that Cena considers a friend. It gives him a higher profile. That’s what matters.

(You would think this would have led to something much bigger for Ziggler, but it really didn’t happen other than a brief run with the IC Title.)

Stephanie went into the ring with Hunter. They were all sad about what happened while the fans chanted “yes” at the thought of them being removed from power. Fans started to sing “na na na na na na hey hey goodbye” at them. Stephanie, like the great heel that she is, yelled “no” and covered her ears. Stephanie kept telling him “this is not over” as fans chanted “you are fired” at them.

The show ended a few minutes before 11pmET with Hunter hugging an uncontrollable Stephanie while the fans kept chanting “you are fired” at them. She did a good job of freaking out about it. Hunter was all calm.

(The removal of power story only lasted about one month and then The Authority were back in power. Lame.)

Analysis: Stephanie was amazing here. She was freaking out and throwing a tantrum in the middle of the ring like a big baby. Hunter stood there without emotion. It wouldn’t shock me if they are on Raw this Monday for a final send off. I also fully expect Hunter to be back on TV pretty soon.

We can probably pencil in Sting vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 31 now. That’s what they were teasing. It’s going to happen.

(That match did happen at WrestleMania 31 and if you would have told me Triple H would win that match I’d say no way, but he did. It’s good to marry well, kids.)

This event had a runtime of 2:57:33 on WWE Network.

Final Thoughts

It gets a 6 out of 10.

I really liked the main event. I actually went back and watched the last 20 minutes a second time just to get some more perspective on it. WWE did a fantastic job of telling a lot of little stories in that match.

The Ambrose/Wyatt match was disappointing just because the main focus of the match was to promote the TLC PPV instead of actually telling a story in this match. That cheap finish really disappointed me although I didn’t expect a pinfall win either.

There were two title changes. The Miz/Mizdow team is a comedy duo while Nikki barely did anything to beat AJ, who may be gone from WWE soon just because she apparently doesn’t have fun at her job.

The main event was really well done and saved the show from being really bad. If WWE would have invested more time in the midcard matches it would have helped big time. Since the first two hours were pretty boring and uneventful, I can’t go higher than a 6/10 and I feel like that is a generous score anyway.

There are two things that I’ll remember the most about Survivor Series: Sting’s debut and the way Ziggler was booked to look like a star. Both of those things have me interested about what WWE might do next because they really need to keep pushing Ziggler up the ladder.

Sting can do a lot of things in WWE. If he only wrestles one match then it should be at WrestleMania 31, which would likely be against Triple H. In order to get there, perhaps Sting can become the GM or some authoritative role and then Triple H could come back as a wrestler instead of a top executive guy.

I figure most people are just going to forget about how below average the first two hours were just because they got that memorable ending with Sting. The tag title match was fine, but below average. Ambrose/Wyatt turned out to be a commercial for the next PPV. The others were below average.

If that show had a good midcard it would have been amazing. You can’t just ignore two hours of mediocrity just because the ending was a markout moment. At least I can’t.

(I think 6 out of 10 is a bit too nice. The main event was good and I liked the angles in the match, but the rest of the show was poor to below average. I would probably lower my score to 5.5 or 5 if I had to do it again.)

Five Stars of the Show

1. Sting – His first appearance in a WWE arena after all these years? Of course he’s the first star.

2. Dolph Ziggler – He deserves the first star too, but I had to go with Sting for his debut.

3. Seth Rollins – He really carried the main event with Ziggler. Rollins was on fire.

4. Dean Ambrose – He’s awesome as a crazy dude.

5. Stephanie McMahon – Her freak out was hilarious. She was a really good heel for most of the last year.

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That’s all for me. Check out the full list of my WWE PPV Review archive right here. Thanks for reading.

My contact info is below.

John Canton

Email mrjohncanton@gmail.com