Random Thoughts III.

[WyattSheepMask]

Titus O’Neil was in a qualifying match too, which shows how serious they were taking the whole thing

[TildeGuy~!]

[Grecian]

17 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

It happened! 2015, I think. That Survivor Series where they thought ISIS might attack them. Del Rio was in the tournament, and the final might have been Ambrose vs. Reigns. No recollection of the fourth person in it on the night, nor anyone who lost a qualifier before Survivor Series. Reigns won then Sheamus cashed in MITB. They swapped the title back and forth a couple of times - this was during the 'Vince is out to get Reigns' period- and Roman had to defend it in the 2016 Rumble where AJ Styles debuted. Triple H won the Rumble and the title then Roman won at back at WrestleMania.

I'm impressed I remember any of it, to be honest! Most of this decade's a blur of not-much-happening-here for me.

After Sheamus cashed in, the camera zoomed into Reigns crying on the mat. Someone on here has it as their avatar, but I can't remember who.

[Onyx2]

9 minutes ago, Grecian said:

After Sheamus cashed in, the camera zoomed into Reigns crying on the mat. Someone on here has it as their avatar, but I can't remember who.

That's @Linus

[air_raid]

Fucking shameful mess that whole debacle was. The circumstances screamed "Don't fanny around with Reigns any longer, go all the way with him NOW." But they fannied around. Joy of predicting that Hunter would enter himself and win aside (which I'm sure loads of us did) it was a fuckawful chapter of getting Roman wrong. One of the earliest chapters, sadly.

The only thing that would have made it a smugger dose of vintage Hunter would have been as one of my circle predicted (maybe @jazzygeofferz) that with 30 entered the clock would mysteriously start again and HHH would be number 31.

[gmoney]

4 minutes ago, air_raid said:

The only thing that would have made it a smugger dose of vintage Hunter would have been as one of my circle predicted (maybe @jazzygeofferz) that with 30 entered the clock would mysteriously start again and HHH would be number 31.

That's a really good idea! Or it would have been had the heel authority figure thing not have been completely hammered into the ground,  

[JNLister]

There was a nice bit of symmetry (trymmetry?) in that Rollins' first WWE title win came from pinning Reigns, Reigns' first was from pinning Ambrose, and Ambrose's first was from pinning Rollins.

[WyattSheepMask]

1 hour ago, JNLister said:

There was a nice bit of symmetry (trymmetry?) in that Rollins' first WWE title win came from pinning Reigns, Reigns' first was from pinning Ambrose, and Ambrose's first was from pinning Rollins.

Then later in the year when Reigns got his wellness suspension and dropped the belt to Rollins who then lost it to a cashing in Ambrose. All 3 members of The Shield were the WWE Champion in a 5 minute timeframe

[Jazzy G]

5 hours ago, air_raid said:

Fucking shameful mess that whole debacle was. The circumstances screamed "Don't fanny around with Reigns any longer, go all the way with him NOW." But they fannied around. Joy of predicting that Hunter would enter himself and win aside (which I'm sure loads of us did) it was a fuckawful chapter of getting Roman wrong. One of the earliest chapters, sadly.

The only thing that would have made it a smugger dose of vintage Hunter would have been as one of my circle predicted (maybe @jazzygeofferz) that with 30 entered the clock would mysteriously start again and HHH would be number 31.

I was calling that Tripper was entering from the outs. It was daft that Reigns was number 1, then sent much of the match in the back getting first aid.

[tiger_rick]

Rock and Austin face off before Survivors 2001. Shows the insanity of the Invasion angle that these two are the WCW and WWF champions. Can't decide if it's brilliant or insane. Their mic work and singing is top notch but as the go home for the climax of your biggest and ever, it's ludicrous.

Love the crowd pissing their pants as Rock mocks "What?" then doing "What?" seconds later. I guess when it's over, it's over.

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by tiger_rick

[air_raid]

I loved it. One of my regrets about that period was that they never did the revenge match one on one for the title with Rock as the babyface on a proper US PPV. And that I wasn't able to go to Rebellion to see Steve Austin vs The Rock in person.

[JNLister]

There's a rapper in Bristol. I can't imagine where he got the inspiration for his name.

[Accident Prone]

Survivor Series is a weird'un for me. It shows up frequently at pivotal points in my wrestling fandom.

I was first introduced to WWF and wrestling in general through Survivor Series 1989. I got it on VHS for Christmas when I was about 6 and that was my gateway drug. All the colorful characters and big teams and Hulk fucking Hogan really hooked me. From the opening video montage;

To the cocaine-fueled interviews and the McMahon-tastic match run-down, I fucking loved every second.

Despite me having very negative opinions now for some the talent on this show (racists, homophobes, abusers, murderers, etc) it's still the only show I can watch with rose tinted glasses. Just magical stuff.

Some years later, around late '96, I borrowed it to my mate at school because I raved about Andre The Giant and he gave it back to me the very next morning, looking very disappointed, as he thought I was talking about WCW's Paul 'Son of Andre The Giant' Wight.

Fast-forward to January 1997. I kinda fell out of the wrestling loop for a while. I got stuff like Mega Matches '95 and another early 90's comp which escapes me, but the characters and action really did nothing for me. Street Sharks, Biker Mice From Mars and Mighty Max were way cooler than Lex Luger, Tatanka and Doink The Clown. Out of nowhere, my little brother got Rumble '96 for his birthday and I was addicted once again, converting me into a Shawn Michaels mega fan in the process.

Despite not really following month-to-month, I knew enough through WWF and WCW annuals, the random tape rental from Blockbusters and the occasional glance at WWF magazine at the local shop to have a rough idea what was going on. I also knew that Shawn Michaels was the best wrestler ever and my absolute fave, so I was crushed to find out through Royal Rumble '97 (which my Grandad had taped for me the night prior) that he had lost the title two months ago to Psycho Sid at Survivor Series 1996. WWF magazine was three months behind, so in January 1997 it was still October 1996 for me.

I was heart broken.

Shawn winning back the title at the Rumble wasn't good enough, despite the poetic nature of becoming a HBK fan at the previous years Rumble. Survivor Series '96 had ruined me without me even seeing it and, twenty two years later, I still haven't even watched the show for fear of breaking down into tears and throwing myself into an oven.

I kept up with the WWF though, even through that trauma. I bought the WWF magazines(despite all the news and coverage being 12 weeks old) and Powerslam too (which I think was outdated by a couple of months as well). My Grandad would tape the shows when he could. Shawn left and came back, wrestling was a bit good.

Around the summer though, Grandad dropped the Sky Sports package and I was back in the dark for a while again. The next time I saw a current WWF show was, you fucking guessed it, Survivor Series 1997. I was behind on everything and, last I knew, Shawn accidentally had twatted 'Taker with a chair at Summerslam.

It was an accident, mate! Surely 'Taker would understand or, at least, he'll become a bad guy going after good guy Shawn. So colour me fuckless when Shawn was a fucking baddie and I almost threw myself into an oven. Not you, Shawn! Beacon of light, man of hope and wisdom. A fucking bad guy! I was devastated. Again.

Fast forward a few more years. I was an avid fan throughout '98 and all the way until late 2001. had dropped out of wrestling almost completely by the later months of 2002. The drab and disappointing Invasion angle left a very sour taste in my mouth and there seemed to be no other alternative. I was out of the pool completely when I saw No Way Out 2002. Christ, was a sad state of affairs that was. I was done....until I moved school and one of the guys I hung out with copped onto to my previous fandom when I mentioned Smackdown 2 in a conversation. He borrowed me Survivor Series 2002 which had only taken place a couple of days prior. Well fuck me, what a show and what a difference a year makes. 

HBK was back! Mysterio turned up! Some beast called Brock Lesnar was tearing shit up! RVD looked amazing! Jeff Hardy had turned into an alien! The Dudleys reunited even though I never knew they broke up in the first place! Bischoff! New cage match! Bald Kurt Angle! Bad ass Eddie! Kane with a non-burnt chin!

Also, it was at Madison Square Garden and therefore looked fucking fantastic.

It's one of my favourite WWE shows. A really easy watch with loads going on and a great atmosphere. It also led me to dive into WWE's post-brand split catalog and thus really enjoying the vastly underated May 2002 - July 2003 period. It also became my real jumping off point at exploring other promotions as I wanted more and more wrestling than I could handle.

And now, take step back into last year for Survivor Series 2017. I had been a happy subscriber of the WWE Network since the UK launch in January 2015. If a WWE PPV was a bit shite, there was always other content but, most of the time, the shows were usually quite good to average. Bang on the money, lovely stuff.

There was a steep decline in quality though in 2017. Smackdown, a brilliant little show that had me clamoring for more every week, had gone to shit. RAW was the usual turgid bollocks that I had been actively avoiding for years. 205 Live was performed in front of dead crowds and total indifference. NXT Takeover was the only shining point left as the week-to-week show had gotten bland at this point. 

Well, as long as I can watch a 3-4 hour WWE PPV or two for my 9.99, along with the occasional Takeover (which were and are always great) I'd be happy with the service. Yeah, I wasn't bothering with the other content and I stopped watching Smackdown and I skipped through NXT like my finger was plastered to the FF button, but it seemed worth it. After all, I liked keeping in touch with WWE programming on a regular basis like having a child I had lost in a custody battle pop over every other weekend (but a child I was relieved to be away from when they fucked off back to his mum and Nigel's house).

This show though. Jesus fucking Christ. It finished me. Done.

A wankfest that left me so dissatisfied with the current product that I cancelled very soon after. I actually waited to see where it was going for a week before declaring it all worthless, so I even gave WWE yet another chance after the PPV faded to black. A total shitshow but the journey was over. Just to think that the 2016 edition was so bloody well received, especially the 5-on-5 main event and Lesnar/Goldberg, that I thought WWE had found a happy medium for it's product. Yeah, it was always going to crud but at least the PPVs would deliver. The 2017 edition of Survivor Series, as a climax to a year that got steadily worse and worse, was the fork to my turkey.

Ashes to ashes, Survivor Series 1989 to Survivor Series 2017.

Le fin.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

@Accident Prone That's an excellent post, but may I suggest deleting it and copying it into its own thread? Way to good of a post to be hidden in a megathread. And others could maybe follow with their experiences.

[Accident Prone]

28 minutes ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

@Accident Prone That's an excellent post, but may I suggest deleting it and copying it into its own thread? Way to good of a post to be hidden in a megathread. And others could maybe follow with their experiences.

Cheers and done!

Edited November 12, 2018 by Accident Prone