Survivor Series match review thread - 2016 edition

[Otto Dem Wanz]

Survivor Series 2013

 

Contributor: Undefeated Steak        

 

Match: CM Punk & Daniel Bryan vs. Erick Rowan & Luke Harper

 

Review:

Ah, Survivor Series 2013, a show Wiki describes as “the worst Survivor Series in its history”.

 

Looking at the card for a match to choose for this review, and it’s fair to say I’m not spoilt for choice. The poster for the show was quite good actually – it featured the Wyatts in a room, with Rowan and Harper holding crocodiles (or alligators?) in fireman’s carry positions. The event took place on November 24th, in Boston, Massachusetts. 15,000 or so fans were in the venue for the show, and it got around 179,000 PPV buys, which was down by about 100,000 views on the SS 2011 show, even though the WWE Network had still yet to launch.

 

Wiki also tells me that Cole, JBL and Lawler are on commentary for this show. Yay.

 

There’s a sub 5-min match between Mark Henry and Ryback on here. Miz wrestled Kofi Kingston; The Shield alongside Swagger and Cesaro (sigh) wrestled Goldust, Cody Rhodes, Usos and Mysterio; Big E Langston beat Curtis Axel; there’s a divas Survivor Series tag match; Cena beat Del Rio; and Orton beat Big Show in the main event.

 

Typing this out, and I’m almost wishing I’d decided on the Shield match as it also featured Cody and Goldust, but I’m going to opt for the CM Punk and Daniel Bryan vs Harper and Rowan match. Bray Wyatt was ringside for this.

 

Pre-match, and the commentary team are calling Bryan and Punk “The Beard and The Best”. Apparently, nobody noticed that Harper’s beard was much bigger than Bryan’s. Maybe he and Harper should’ve been The Beard and The Vest. Sorry. The video before the match was good, as they usually are. If there’s one thing WWE do consistently well, it’s these video graphics.

 

Punk’s first out and he gets a great reaction. When he was over, he really was over. “It’s Clobbering Time”, we’re told. Bryan gets a good pop from the crowd too.

 

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

 

The Wyatts’ entrance was ace, as always.

 

Rowan and Bryan will start this, as Bray gets comfortable on his rocking chair. Bryan and Rowan exchange fists, chops and kicks before Punk gets tagged in. Harper takes Rowan’s place in the ring, giving us a Punk and Harper exchange.

 

What’s good about this match is that you have a clearly defined face team against a clearly defined pair of villains. The crowd’s not trying to be cool or clever by cheering the baddies and booing the heroes. The crowd are into the match, which always makes a big difference.

 

To negate this, Cole, JBL and Lawler are garbage as a trio, as was standard.

 

It’s a typical WWE tag team match for the opening stages; nothing wrong with that. Its paint by numbers but it works and it’s effective.

 

Daniel Bryan’s been tagged back in and it looks like the match is about to go up a gear. Bryan and Punk attempt a double suplex on Rowan, but the big man is able to counter it into one of his own. Shawn and Bret, sorry, Bryan and Punk are taken for a ride.

 

Punk and Bryan begin to build some momentum after delivering some kicks to Harper in the corner. The crowd erupts into Yes! chants. The Beard and The Best have some great chemistry as a tag team, hardly surprising most of their matches together were so good.

 

Bray’s up and out of his chair, there’s a bit of a distraction and it leaves the door open for Harper to take Punk’s head off with a big boot that Test would’ve been proud of.

 

Harper and Rowan are now on top, and Michael Cole on commentary is rambling about some musician’s award. I wasn’t paying enough attention to him to notice which musician he’s talking about. Probably Flo Rida. It’s always Flo Rida.

 

Harper hits a vicious uppercut on Punk.

 

Rowan has a nice little comedy spot as he’s in the corner. He’s talking to Harper’s sheep mask (shout out WyattSheepMask) that’s placed on the ringpost.

Punk’s back in the match now with a really nice tornado DDT. There’s been a few nice spots in this match. Nothing special but they’re working a less is more match and it’s good.

 

The crowd’s heating up now as Bryan’s tagged in. He hits Harper with some kicks and then does that running up the turnbuckle thing and backflips back over Harper. Harper’s sent out the ring and Bryan follows up with a dive to the outside that connects. They’re back in the ring and Bryan is hitting some nice offense.

Harper cuts the momentum immediately with a lovely sitdown powerbomb on Bryan from the second rope.

 

The crowd are chanting, “This is awesome!”. Actually, it’s not far off at all. It’s a really good match now. It’s just a shame they’re chanting it now the heels are in charge.

 

Harper and Rowan are in total control at this stage. Bray’s enjoying it. Punk’s in bad shape, laying down on the mats at ringside.

 

Bryan struggles to connect with a few strikes but Harper turns him inside out with a ‘half nelson’ suplex (not sure of the correct name – essentially, half dragon suplex). Punk’s managed to hit a kick from the apron Harper – this must be the start of the comeback and, I assume, the beginning of the end of the match. Punk’s taking control of Harper now, hitting his signature moves.

 

Punk goes to the top, looks like he’s going to deliver a diving elbow but – no! – he dives out onto Bray and Rowan.

 

A bit of carnage with all four men in the ring; Punk fails to hit a GTS but Bryan managed to land a running knee on Rowan. Punk avoids and discuss lariat from Harper and – boom! – hits him with his Go 2 Sleep.

 

And that gives Punk the win! I’m a little surprised as I thought Bray would make the save. Nonetheless, it was a really good match, far better than I’d anticipated and I’m glad I picked this. I don’t watch enough WWE anymore and when I see matches like this, I wish I did.

 

Overall:

 

This is tag team wrestling done right. It’s far from a classic but it’s everything you’d want to see in a match that isn’t out to steal the show, or isn’t the main event of a show. Punk and Bryan were over like Rover and Harper and Rowan did a great job as the heels. Some really nice sequences and moves too. I’m a little surprised Bray didn’t play a bigger part in the match and the finish was a minor let-down. That being said, they weren’t going to go all out with kick-out finishers as there was still the main event to come.

[Otto Dem Wanz]

Survivor Series 2015

 

Contributor: Shane O' Mac Version 2

Match: Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler

Review:

Today, we go far back in the annals of time… to a vague point in history known as… 2015’s Survivor Series.

 

Despite happening just under a year ago, it was genuinely hard to recall what significant things happened. Checking Wiki to remind myself of what matches I had to choose from, and it jogged the noggin a little. Survivor Series 2015 took place right after Seth Rollins’ unfortunate knee injury, resulting in a tournament for the vacant WWE title. Deadly Game, it was not. Reigns overcame the odds to capture his first WWE title… only for Sheamus to cash in his MITB and have a dull transitional title reign while Vinnie Mac scrambled to come up with ideas to get Roman over as a face. He settled on having his 70 year old ass take a Superman punch. Amazingly, it worked pretty well and Roman was actually getting a solid amount of fan support around TLC time. But Roman Reign’s initial title win at Survivor Series went down like a fart in church, claiming the gold ahead of popular contenders like Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose.

 

So, the quality and reactions of the WWE title tournament aren’t exactly befitting of a fun review. What else? Hey, The Undertaker was on the show! Reunited with Kane, the Brothers of Destruction took on the Wyatt Family. I don’t think you even needed to watch the show to know what happened there. The Destruction Bros got all their shit in, Wyatts looked like chumps. So even though it was cool seeing Taker outside Mania, not really worth my time either.

 

What about the traditional Survivor Series matches? I love those! But, the elimination matches are basically Survivor Series’ version of the Wrestlemania battle royal- just a way to give everyone a paycheck. No story, no drama, heels vs. faces to fill time, and the plague of unrealistic quick eliminations. Next!

 

Ahh, here it is. A diamond in the rough. A glimmer of hope. A time when a true Superstar emerged and made a statement. In the tradition of Rocky Maivia and Trish Stratus, one competitor used the Survivor Series platform to catapult themselves to early stardom.

The Match:

 

“Hey, it’s Tyler!” plays out of the speakers, and we get to hear the King of Cuteville’s custom theme song. Cole puts Breeze over by using the plethora of nicknames he has, and despite being prompted by Cole, JBL no sells it. Summer Rae accompanies Breeze, and the pre-match vid highlights Summer introducing the debuting Tyler on Smackdown, calling him a “real man”. Ziggler calls Breeze a “lazy millennial” for some reason, making himself sound about 10 years older, and Tyler responds by jamming a selfie stick in his throat. So here we are.

 

Ziggler follows, and I forgot just how truly horrendous some of his fashion choices are/were. Breezeango really needs to issue this man a ticket. Some misguided attempt at dressing like a Rockstar, with chains on his Motley Crue inspired jacket, and black war paint for some reason. Commentators make a reference to Breeze’s VIP section, and it reminds me of how much effort was actually put into his character in both NXT and his early WWE run.

 

The bell rings, and we begin conventionally with a tie-up. Breeze hits a slick arm drag and then his signature pose in the corner. Jerry Lawler wins the award for homoerotic comment of the night by saying, “isn’t that cute” without the slightest hint of mocking or sarcasm. Meanwhile, JBL unwittingly shows how far Ziggler has fallen by mentioning his role in the previous year’s Survivor Series, where he, along with Sting, ousted the Authority from power.

 

In any event, Ziggler gains momentum by using amateur wrestling to briefly pin Breeze to the mat, then imitates Breeze’s corner pose, true to Showoff form. He then transitions back to the pro leagues with a beautiful dropkick and clothesline that sends Tyler to the outside, scurrying behind Summer Rae’s skirt in a great heel move. He follows up nicely by sending a pursuing Ziggler throat first into the middle rope. This match is nicely establishing Breeze’s place as a heel, kinda chickenshit, but opportunistic and aggressive at the right moments. Cole talks up these attributes, and JBL touts him as a future champion as he locks in a half crab, nice tribute to his trainer Lance Storm, and Ziggler sells the shit out of his knee pain.

 

 

Soon after, Ziggler mounts the comeback with a great dropkick mid air counter, and Breeze is able to show off (no pun intended) his own great selling ability. We get a shot of Summer, and taste is subjective, of course, but she’s quite the butterface. Tremendous body, but if her Tinder picture was just her face, I’d swipe left for sure.

 

Back to the action! Breeze with a great counter of the Fameasser into a roll up, and from there they go into a great technical sequence of exchanging pinning combinations, including one where Breeze has the ropes. Nice way of showing that Tyler Breeze is Ziggler’s equal in this match, but he’s not above taking shortcuts to win. Ziggler gets control with a flapjack and tunes up the band (HB-Shizzle turning in his grave, and he’s not even dead), then another nice sequence where Breeze goes for the Unprettier, countered into a backslide, kick out, then Ziggler whiffs on a superkick attempt. Super impressed with the fluidity of both guys.

 

Ziggler can have a decent match with a broomstick, but Breeze is doing an admirable job holding up his end.

 

Ziggler looks to be a little frustrated and tries to pull Breeze away from the ropes. The ref intervenes, and Breeze uses the opening to kick the knee (remember the half crab? Continuity~ ). He follows up with the Unprettier, and scores a clean victory over a former world champion!

 

 

This was the birth of a superstar, who went on to do tremendous things in the WWE, and live up to all the promise and hype the broadcasters placed on him…

 

 

Wait, shit…

 

Rumour has it that his push was stalled due to asking to leave a Smackdown taping early. But at least he made the Survivor Series card this year, when he’s had trouble making Smackdown TV in recent months, so maybe he’s out of the doghouse. Or maybe he’s there to be eliminated in the first 30 seconds. Find out on Sunday at Survivor Series!

[Otto Dem Wanz]

A massive shout out to everyone who sent over a review, I enjoyed reading all of them and the quality of the writing was consistently excellent - we've some very talented authors on this board.

 

I hope you all take pleasure in reading and dicsussing everything, and for anyone who is yet to send me theirs, do it via PM and I'll edit the appropriate post so everything is in chronological order.

 

Cheers all.

[Jazzy G]

They were cracking reads. Well done Otto for putting this together.

[Guest]

A migraine bollocksed up my 1987 effort last night. I got as far as the introductions before crashing. I'll try have that with you tonight, sorry for fuckin up the ordering!

[Undefeated Steak]

Nice one for doing this Otto. Enjoyed writing it. That's some bulk of text, perfect reading material for when you're on the shitter. 

[Guest]

Alright, that's '87 sent over for you. My first attempt at something like this, I'm ridiculously uncreative, so hopefully it's not too shite of a read as well as not being on time!

[HarmonicGenerator]

Just finished reading! Thanks for compiling, Otto. My highlights were Chilli's survival of 1993, Dr Reefer's Vince/Taker review where you could almost taste how appalled he was by it all, and Steak's mention of the Survivor Series 2001 poster. Ah, Torrie...

[Onyx2]

Goddamn that was a fun read! So much I'd forgotten.

 

Harmie G you got the awesomeness that is 1989 and yet you did something amazing with it. Brilliant! I can recite everywhere word of those promos except for Hulk's, because my taped-from-Sky-One copy started with him saying "-acs!" at the end of his speech. You're right though, so much character packed into one line apiece.

[Otto Dem Wanz]

Survivor Series 1987 now up (start of page 8)

[MungoChutney]

Great work Otto. I'm in awe of the skill in some of these, mine was definitely below average in comparison.

[WeeAl]

I really enjoyed reading all the reviews, great work from everybody on writing them and to Otto for putting them all together, made for some brilliant reading today to get excited for watching Survivor Series tomorrow.