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The One Where Taker Leaves Again.


The Gaffer

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I couldn't find a decent size image of the newer poster, so I made one. 

Yes, it's the Survivor Series tomorrow night!

Here's the card:

  • Drew McIntyre (WWE) vs. Roman Reigns (Universal)
  • Men's Survivor Series -- Keith Lee, AJ Styles, Sheamus, Braun Strowman & Riddle (Raw) vs. Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Seth Rollins & Otis (SD)
  • Women's Survivor Series -- Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce & Lana (Raw) vs. Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Bayley & Natalya (SD)
  • Asuka (Raw women's) vs. Sasha Banks (SD women's)
  • The New Day (Raw tag team) vs. The Street Profits (SD tag team)
  • Bobby Lashley (United States) vs. Sami Zayn (Intercontinental)
  • Dual-brand battle royal (Kickoff show)
  • The Undertaker's Final Farewell

Yeah, no, he's off again! Encapsulating what a humanising, water park slide from grace 'Taker's character has been on since losing to Brock Lesnar in 2014 they're now (for the first time) pulling the trigger on a proper sayonara for the dead man. Nothing matters anymore, this year is stupid, we need Network views for the month etc. 

Anyway, it's immediately added a little bit of Monday morning intrigue to what was otherwise a nothing show, although Drew and Roman could have a decent scrap. Lord knows what they'll actually do for 'Taker though. Will he put someone over in a quick squash? Will the BSK boys clap him? Will we get an update on Vince's rapidly ageing physical presence? Will the Brothers of Destruction just do a by-the-numbers clobbering whilst he's still decked out in some weird Bulletz & Biblez Podcast vest?

Personally I'd be on to Marty Jannetty already to see does he fancy reprising his role as 'Taker's body double for a final ascension. 

Hopefully it's as ridiculous as possible and it has nothing to do with Bray Wyatt. 

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See you at WrestleMania, Deadman! 

 

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I've been watching random Survivor Series stuff on the Network and I almost forgot how much I absolutely fucking LOVED the PPV when I was younger. Those amazing yellow covers on the VHS. The big match feel of the Survivor matches. All of it. It got a little lost along the way once it became more about singles matches - although we've seen some crackers over the years - but yeah I definitely miss that old school feel. I wish it could feel special again but all the blue/red nonsense always feels so contrived now.

ANYWAY, throwing my overly critical internet fanboy hat away for a moment, I have to say the card itself looks fairly solid.

Obviously Drew and Roman have had a couple of weeks of really solid buildup - arguably not enough but I'll take it - and both men are at the top of their games right now, so I'm looking forward to that.

The mens Survivor match should be decent enough. It's quite like a Rumble - yeah, some of them are fairly week but the concept itself is always fun enough to a point. Plus they've got some really good talent there. And Otis. Surely Big E is getting in there somehow?!

I assume we're building up to Lana maybe winning, or at least being on the winning side after everything she's been through recently? Although really this should be the Bianca Belair show all night long.

Asuka/Sasha. Don't care at all but I'm sure it'll be a decent enough match.

New Day/Street Profits - again I'm not sure if I care but you can't argue against both teams being really good and I'm sure it'll be a strong effort from all the guys involved.

Lashley/Zayn is just going to upset me by burying Sami isn't it?! But hey, that's kinda his character these days so it won't negatively impact him, unless he manages to be a sneaky bastard again. I'm all for that.

I'm mostly here for seeing Taker and all his old BSK mates turn up looking ancient. That's if he's not too busy on Cameo.

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Yeah I love an old school Survivor Series tag match. Even the 40 minute ones that drag on that other people seem to hate. 

Easy to forget they were nearly going to do away with this pay per view entirely a few years back. God knows what would have been put in its place. WWE Get Stuffed or another gimmick centric show probably. It's still been a largely nothing show for years and years, though. 

96, 98, 02 and 03 are all absolutely belting from top to bottom. I'm sneaking 03 in there because it has one of HBK's best ever performances in the Team Bischoff Vs. Team Austin match. People try and retroactively downplay how good the Deadly Game tournament was - as with most things with Russo's fingerprint on it - but I'm not having that. 

Also a firm believer that at least one big WrestleMania seed should be planted at Survivor Series. 

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I genuinely think this is it for Taker, he’s done way too many out of gimmick interviews and social media stuff this year for it to be an angle. I think they’re going to put stock into hoping fans can come back by Mania and do a stand alone Hall of Fame ceremony for him that weekend, rather than have it overshadow what was to be the 2020 class and add him to it. He won’t have another match I reckon

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8 minutes ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

I genuinely think this is it for Taker, he’s done way too many out of gimmick interviews and social media stuff this year for it to be an angle. I think they’re going to put stock into hoping fans can come back by Mania and do a stand alone Hall of Fame ceremony for him that weekend, rather than have it overshadow what was to be the 2020 class and add him to it. He won’t have another match I reckon

I agree in that he probably has decided this is it...for now. We spoke about it in another thread a few weeks back about how when he gets that “we need ya, pal” from Vince, whether it be Wrestlemania, SaudiSlam or whatever else when they need him to add something to the show, he’ll be back. It’s like a band going out on their “farewell tour” only to come back a few years later, as long as there’s money to made he’ll be there.

As has been said ad nauseam, he should’ve packed it in years ago. In hindsight, skip the match with Bray Wyatt at WM31 and do the Lesnar feud as they did that same year. Taker comes back for his vengeance, only wins at Summerslam by cheating, and gets beaten at HIAC following a war, proving Lesnar deserved his win at WM30. Taker rides off into the sunset and you’ve cemented Lesnar as your top star (which he is).
There was no reason for Taker to be around after that 2015 Lesnar feud- the match with Shane at 32 had the stipulation undone the following night rendering the match pointless, Roman didn’t come out of 33 stronger for having won, the match with Cena at 34 was a “this is the only chance we’ll get to do it”, and the less said about the Australia & Saudi matches the better. 

As for the rest of that card, fucking hell that’s uninspiring. Drew v Roman with only 6 days build when they could’ve kept the belt on Drew at HIAC and built it for a few weeks, KO and Rollins teaming together despite spending the start of the year trying to kill each other, a Women’s SS Match that no fucker could possibly care about.

I’ll watch Drew/Roman, despite what I’ve just said, because I still like both guys and Asuka/Banks should be at least decent as it always tends to be, but I’m not wasting my time with the rest of it.

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The finest performance of Ziggler's career was in a Survivor Series match. Was it 2014 when it was team Cena Vs the Authority?

The survivor series can be a great match, and you can tell a fair few really good stories with them. I like that it used to feel like they were putting the first few pieces into place for the final build to Mania as well. 

I wonder how many of Taker's BSK buddies will be on the show. Keep throwing to the back where they're all playing dominos. 

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Not unless it was one of those cinematic matches like last year. Although even when Sting was active in WWE it was about 10 years too late. If he hadn't been injured during that Rollins match maybe we'd have gotten something.

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Despite being a massive Sting fan, I have no desire to see him in the ring with ‘Taker at 62 years of age (which he will be by next the time of the next WrestleMania). Especially given Undertaker’s showings in Saudi.

Chalk it down as something that could have happened but didn’t.

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