Wednesday 14 December 2016

WWE Survivor Series 2016 Review

The 30th Survivor Series took place at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. We've got 3 RAW vs Smackdown elimination matches plus 2 matches that could change the landscape of the WWE. So. let's take a look and see what happens.

There were two matches on the Kick Off Show and the first was the team of TJ Perkins, Noam Dar and Rich Swann taking on the team of Ariya Daivari, Drew Gulak and Tony Nese. Perkins, Dar and Swann wear down Gulak and later on, Daivari hits an AA spine buster to give his team the advantage. Dar eventually manages to tag in Swann and he goes on to hit a standing 450 splash on Daivari to give his team the win. An enjoyable match to start the night.
Winners: TJ Perkins, Noam Dar and Rich Swann (1 for 1)

The second match was Kane taking on Luke Harper. Kane gets the win after avoiding a discus clothesline to hit a chokeslam. To be honest, the match wasn't great.
Winner: Kane (2 for 2)

The first match of the PPV was the Womens' elimination match. It's the team of Alicia Foxx, Bayley, Charlotte, Nia Jax and Sasha Banks from RAW took on the team of Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi and Nikki Bella from Smackdown. Well, it was supposed to be Nikki but she was attacked backstage and unable to take part. Therefore, coach Natalya replaced her. After a little while, Alicia eliminates Carmella with a scissor kick to the back of the head but she is immeidately eliminated by Bliss with a twisted bliss. Nia Jax destroys Naomi and she gets eliminated by count out and Sasha Banks gets eliminated thanks to a roll up by Natalya. She then gets eliminated thanks to a big boot by Charlotte. In a big surprise, Nia Jax submits to the disarm-her applied by Becky then Bliss gets eliminated by another big boot by Charlotte. In the end, Bayley hits the Belly-to-Bayley on Becky to get her team the win. Charlotte celebrates by beating the fuck out of Bayley.

The match was pretty good but I am concerned about Nia Jax. Since she has been called up to RAW, she has destroyed random jobbers and Alicia Foxx yet she gets eliminated by submission. If they want to keep her as a monster, I thought it would make more sense to her to be counted out. The main difference between the divisions is that you can put the women in the title picture (except maybe Naomi) and it wouldn't look weird. RAW probably has the better talent yet are focusing their title picture on just Charlotte and Sasha Banks and I feel that that could harm the division in the long run.
Winners: Bayley and Charlotte (2 for 3)

The Intercontinental Championship is on the line as Sami Zayn challenges Hollywood Miz and if Sami wins, the Championship goes over to RAW. Miz takes advantage of Maryse getting in Zayn's face to chop block him and he continues to focus on the right knee. Zayn gets back into it with a brutal clothesline and it looks like he's going to win it when he puts Miz in the figure 4 when the bell suddenly rings. It turns out that Maryse rang it while the referee is telling Zayn that he hasn't won, Miz rolls him up to get the win. This was a good match and I liked the ending with Maryse. If I have a slight nitpick, I would have preferred it if Miz hit his finisher instead of a roll up.
Winner: The Miz (3 for 4)

Next is the Tag Team Survivor Series Elimination Match. The teams of Enzo and Big Cass, The Shining Stars, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, Sheamus and Cesaro and The New day from RAW take on the teams of American Alpha, Rhyno and Heath Slater, Breezango, The Usos and The Hype Bros from Smackdown. Breezango get eliminated almost immediately when The New Day hit the midnight hour on Fandango; then Kofi gets hit with a superkick by Jey Uso to eliminate The New Day. The Hype Bros get eliminated Gallows and Anderson hit Zack Ryder with the magic killer; the shining stars get eliminated when Primo gets hit with an diving avalanche bulldog by American Alpha; and they get eliminated when Jason Jordan gets hit with another magic killer by Gallows and Anderson. Rhyno then gores Gallows to even the sides. Enzo and Big Cass eliminate Rhyno with the boom shakalaka to make it The Usos against Enzo, Big Cass, Cesaro and Sheamus. Enzo gets hit with a superkick followed by an Uso splash to eliminate his team; and in the end, Cesaro gets Jey Uso to submit to the sharpshooter to get team RAW the win. Except for the eliminations at the beginning, I enjoyed the match.
Winners: Cesaro and Sheamus (4 for 5)

Next is Kalisto challenging Brian Kendrick for the Cruiserweight Championship. If Kalisto wins, the entire Cruiserweight Division will go over to Smackdown. Kalisto goes at 100 miles an hour before Kendrick hits a spinning heel kick followed by a belly-to-back suplex to get the advantage. Kendrick goes on to use the steel steps against Kalisto in front of the ref which doesn't get him disqualified for some reason. Anyway, Kalisto hits an awesome Spanish fly from the ring apron to get back into it. He goes on to hit the salida del sol but Kendrick gets his foot on the ropes. The match ends when Baron Corbin runs in, blindsides Kendrick and hits Kalisto with the end of days. Due to the fact that Kendrick was attacked first, he wins by disqualification. This match was good but I didn't see the point of the extra stipulation. The one with the Intercontinental Championship made sense because it was Ziggler's idea; although it was a shame that he lost it the week before. I just don't think you can't have two matches that could have far reaching consequences then decide to keep the status quo. Hopefully 205 Live will give some development to the Cruiserweights.
Winner: Brian Kendrick (5 for 6)

The penultimate match was the final Survivor Series elimination match. It was the team of Kevin Owens, The Gift of Jericho, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Bruan Strowman from Team RAW against AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton and Shane McMahon with mascot James Ellsworth from Smackdown. It's a while before we get our 1st elimination. Ambrose and Styles let their feud boil over and they start fighting each other. Strowman takes advantage and eliminates Ambrose with a running powerslam. Strowman gets elbowed through the announce table by Shane then gets eliminated by count out when Ellsworth stops him from getting back into the ring. Strowman responds by throwing a fleeing Ellsworth off the ramp through a table, Owens gets eliminated by disqualification when he hits Styles with the List of Jericho. When Jericho picks up the pages that were strewn over the ring, Orton comes in and eliminates him with a RKO. Shane gets murdered when he attempts a coast to coast and he gets speared by Reigns. Shane then gets sent to the back by doctors. Later on, Ambrose runs back in and attacks Styles. Security try to stop him but Rollins and Reigns stop them and they combine to powerbomb Styles through the Spanish announce table. Rollins then rolls Styles in and pins him, making it Rollins and Reigns versus Orton and Wyatt.

Luke Harper returns to help out and Rollins gets eliminated by a super RKO by Orton. In the end, Reigns goes to spear Wyatt but Orton pushes him out of the way and takes the hit. Wyatt then hits Sister Abigail to get the win. I was quite surprised that Orton and Wyatt were the survivors but despite that, I really enjoyed the match.
Winners: Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton (6 for 7)

The main event is Goldberg in his first match in 12 years taking on Brock Lesnar. Goldberg hits 2 spears follwed by a jackhammer to win the match in 85 seconds. I'm torn about this. Goldberg has never really done long matches and I'm ok with him winning. However, Lesnar ended Undertaker's streak, destroyed John Cena and has been generally destroyed as a monster over the last 2 1/2 years. For him to lose to a guy who hasn't wrestled in over 12 years in less than 90 seconds does show that perhaps that it's the beginning of the end for Lesnar.
Winner: Goldberg (6 for 8)

I thought that Survivor Series was a bit of a mixed bag. I generally enjoyed the matches. However, you had 2 matches with game changing stipulations which didn't happen and a 85 second main event and it lowered my opinion of it. Recent WWE PPVs have been good in terms of wrestling quality. However, some of their creative decisions have disappointed me. Hopefully their last 2 PPVs of the year will improve on that.

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