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Nov 22

Survivor Series 2014

Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2014 by Paul in Wrestling

Survivor Series 2014 is an unusual pay-per-view, because to all intents and purposes it isn’t one.  You can order it on PPV if you really want to, but it’s being offered as the centrepiece of a free try-out month for the WWE Network, which the WWE is still bound and determined to get you to subscribe for, being pretty much committed to the idea by this point.  So it’s a freebie – no doubt explaining the ludicrously flimsy undercard.

That’s except for viewers in the UK, where the Network was announced as launching at the start of the month, only to be delayed without explanation at the last moment.  The story is apparently that they still haven’t managed to sort things out with BSkyB; the most recent contract did allow for the Network launching, but not until the originally scheduled date at the start of next year.  The WWE could have launched a UK version without the Sky-exclusive programming, but…

So here we are, with the UK being the only country in the world asked to pay full price for a free show.  Will anyone in the UK actually be watching this show legitimately?  It seems almost unimaginable.

1.  Elimination Match: Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Ryback & Erick Rowan) v The Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev & Luke Harper).  It’s pretty much a one-match show, and this is the one match.  A rather tortuous back story involves this starting off as a challenge between Cena and the Authority, with Vince McMahon then showing up to randomly add the stipulation that if Cena’s team wins, the Authority are removed from power.  The idea is apparently meant to be that he wants them to prove they deserve to be in control, or something.  You’d have thought that in these circumstances Triple H might step into the ring to fight on his own behalf, but no, apparently he’d rather round out his usual followers with some big guys from the mid card.

At the last minute, Triple H added a second stipulation that if his team wins, he’s going to fire everyone on Cena’s team.  That seems to pretty much guarantee that Cena’s team have to win, because the roster depth right now simply won’t sustain keeping all five of these guys off television for any significant period of time.

But frankly, getting the Authority out of power would be an excellent move anyway.  One of the company’s biggest problems right now is that the product feels very stale.  And one of the easiest ways of freshening it up is to get rid of the goddamn heel management, something which has been a regular feature for donkey’s years now.  These storylines ought to end with the babyfaces vanquishing the baddies and restoring sanity to the company.  In the WWE they just never end.  So in fact, one of the simplest ways of making the product look new is to change the landscape by restoring a neutral authority figure and getting the emphasis back on to the actual wrestlers.

If the Authority team actually wins… well, let’s just hope they’ve got a better idea for where to go with that direction than I have, because I’m drawing a blank.

The actual match ought to be perfectly decent; there are plenty of good workers in here to carry the big lugs. The presence on the babyface team of Erick Rowan, formerly of the Wyatt Family, is a bit odd; the Family broke up without much in the way of explanation a few weeks ago, but quite why Rowan has suddenly decided to align himself with the goodies is, shall we say, not fully explored.  I suppose it’s possible he could turn on the babyfaces – there was a storyline about the Authority scaring off or injuring potential team members that basically led to Cena having to take anyone who was willing – but that would put him back with former partner Luke Harper on the heel side, and it doesn’t seem as if that’s the plan.

2.  Bray Wyatt v Dean Ambrose.  Meanwhile, their former cult mentor Bray Wyatt is trying to recruit Dean Ambrose as his new acolyte, on the reasoning that Ambrose is plainly crazy and much be in need of his guidance.  You can see his point, but Ambrose isn’t interested.  Wyatt’s stories are in danger of falling into an overfamiliar pattern – tries to recruit babyface, babyface says no, series of matches follow during which Wyatt keeps trying to recruit without success.  There’s talk that he’s going to debut a new team here (possibly the Ascension from NXT), in which case this may end up being a backdrop to that angle.  Otherwise, I imagine they’ll have a pretty decent match (though Wyatt’s PPV efforts have been patch).  Since it’s the first match in the feud and they’ll presumably want it to run longer, I imagine Wyatt wins.

3.  WWE Divas Title: AJ Lee © v Nikki Bella.  Last month, Nikki beat her sister Brie in a “loser must be the winner’s slave for 30 days” stip match, which period expires on Monday.  Nikki’s mini-feud with AJ over the Divas Title has largely played out as a backdrop to that; Nikki uses Brie to advance her schemes against AJ, and AJ, being an antihero, is only marginally sympathetic to Brie’s position at best.  That being so, the likely finishes here are (a) Brie costs Nikki the match, and (b) big swerve as Brie helps Nikki win the match.  Option (b) actually makes a certain amount of sense even if Brie doesn’t turn: AJ’s been no help to Brie, and if Nikki is the champion then by getting revenge on Nikki, Brie kills two birds with one stone.  Nonetheless, my guess is that AJ retains.  This is such an empty card that I can only assume they’re getting a fair amount of time, which is untested territory where Nikki is concerned.

4.  WWE Tag Team Titles – Fatal Fourway: Goldust & Stardust © v Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso v Diego & Fernando v. The Miz & Damien Mizdow.  Basically random four-way for the tag titles, from the “giving these people something to do” school of booking.  Miz and Mizdow actually have the most momentum here in terms of crowd reaction, with the schtick of the former Damien Sandow loyalling shadowing his new employer and mimicking everything he does, to the point of wrestling along with his matches against invisible opponents.

If there’s going to be a title change here, it pretty much has to be to the Mizzes.  The Usos have had the titles before and there’s no point trading them back.  The Matadores are an undercard comedy gimmick with a novelty midget (and boy, if I’m bored with that stuff, imagine how he must feel).  The Dust Brothers don’t feel like they’ve run their course as champions just yet, but they are admittedly short on babyface challengers.  I probably wouldn’t do a title change here, but I could see a case for one.

Match quality should be decent; everyone in here is good in their roles, and the Matadores are fine wrestlers on the rare occasions when they’re given the chance.

5.  Elimination Match: Natalya, Naomi, Emma & Alicia Fox v Paige, Cameron, Summer Rae & Layla.  Random women’s elimination match, basically an excuse to get some of these people on the show.  It’ll be fast, it won’t be good.  It doesn’t matter who wins and I don’t care.

6.  Pre-show match: Fandango v ?.  Yes, really, that’s the card, and we’re down to the pre-show already.  Fandango is apparently being repackaged and relaunched, and so he will be wrestling somebody or other on the pre-show to display the latest version of being a wrestling ballroom dancer.  (The “?” probably isn’t anyone interesting.  It’s probably just company whipping boy Heath Slater.)  God knows they could do with breathing life into some undercard characters, but one wonders whether it’s too late for any version of the Fandango gimmick.

Worth getting?  If you can get it for free, sure!

Bring on the comments

  1. kelvingreen says:

    Not only is Rowan an odd babyface, so is Ryback. They dropped the RybAxel thing without warning — good, because it seemed half-hearted at best; bad, because they looked adorable in their matching woolly hats — and then Ryback turned up as a good guy for no real reason. Mark Henry’s switch the other way is just as odd; he was feuding with Rusev only a few weeks ago, wasn’t he?

  2. Weblaus says:

    Actually the Uk isn’t the only place with the opprtunity to pay something for a freebie: Germany also doesn’t have the Network yet, to my (admittedly limited) knowledge there’s not even a hint when it my finally be launched at all and the PPV is only offered on a Netflix-like streaming service at that.

    So I think we win in the “we’re screwed” category – yay!

  3. Dave O'Neill says:

    You left out the best part! As part of Fandango’s repackaging, he’s been saddled with officialy the company’s most useless act, Rosa Mendes, which led to this fabulous exchange on the Observer radio show

    Meltzer – “…..so, they’re putting Rosa Mendes with Fandango, as his new partner”
    Alvarez – “…”Can she dance?”
    Meltzer – “Law of averages says she has to be good at something”

  4. Corey says:

    Rowan seems to have been added as a last second replacement for Sheamus, who was legitimately injured doing the spot that was supposed to kayfabe injure him.

  5. Chad Nevett says:

    The Network is in Canada, but only through one specific cable provider, which isn’t available in a lot of the country (including the city where I live), so many Canadians would need to pay full price as well. And those that do subscribe through Rogers probably didn’t get November free.

  6. Paul C says:

    The show looks rubbish. This is free supposedly to showcase the network, yet the effort they have put into the card is quite laughable. Nobody believes for a second that Cena will be permanently “fired”.

    The talk seems to be that since it is in his hometown, Randy Orton will appear and screw the Authority to kick off his babyface turn.

  7. Jason says:

    the added stip, more like a threat really, is everybody but Cena would be fired.

    I believe Fandango is just part of the preshow

    Unfortunately WWE has very poor depth right now. They’ve had a lot of injuries and barely have enough guys to do another Survivor Series match

    They did some roster trimming and it’s like that set up a curse

    Right now their injured list is:
    Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns, Wade Barrett, Sheamus, Bo Dalls, Zack Ryder and Darren Young

    That’s in addition to Christian, Santino Marella and the Great Khali basically being retired by injury

    CM Punk left via contract dispute and Rey Mysterio is in limbo.

  8. Dave O'Neill says:

    Sorry, Jason, but you’re wrong there – Phil Brooks didn’t leave by contract dispute. He had a temper tantrum when Vince wouldnt let him main event Wrestlemania, and abandoned his job.

  9. Odessasteps says:

    There’s also the matter of Punk wanting an explanation of how royalties would work under the network instead of the ppv model and, to my knowledge, not given one.

    While he walked out, it was arguably understandable.

    (Said not as a Punk fan in the least)

  10. Dave O'Neill says:

    Oh, he’s bitching about royalties now? For a guy who “doesn’t need the money”, he sure is obsessed with it.

    There are roughly five hundred guys on the Indy circuit who will do Phil Brooks’ job better than him anyway, and I bet they won’t bitch about money or demand to headline a ppv

  11. Paul says:

    It WAS reasonable to want an explanation of how royalties would work but the bottom line is that Punk never claimed WWE was in breach of any contractual obligations. By all appearances he simply broke his contract, went home, and dared them to sue him.

  12. Henry says:

    I could get this show, and some quality time with the Network, for free.

    I can’t even be arsed to watch this for free. The card is so uninspired and the outcome so predictable I’m more eager to see the fallout on Raw than this show. I literally don’t want to watch something in a product I religiously follow that’s available for free.

  13. BringTheNoise says:

    Oh, he’s bitching about royalties now? For a guy who “doesn’t need the money”, he sure is obsessed with it.

    And if you turned up to work tomorrow to find that they were completely changing how they determined how much you were paid, you wouldn’t want an explanation of the new system? You must have an AMAZING boss.

  14. Odessasteps says:

    So, that Punk interview with Colt …

  15. The original Matt says:

    And now Punk is signed to the UFC. He comes to the organisation with an 0-0 record in MMA and has no legitimate martial arts/combat sports background. At least Lesnar was had a ridiculous college wrestling record of like 104-4 or something. Best of luck to him, but I get the feeling this could hurt.

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