WWE held their final big four pay-per-view of 2008 last night with Survivor Series from the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. While I felt like WWE struggled to produce an effective build for the pay-per-view, the company banked on John Cena’s return to draw buys. It will be several weeks before the buy numbers are released before we can evaluate how successful that they were. In a bizarre twist yesterday morning, WWE decided to build an angle on their official website by reporting a worked story that Jeff Hardy had been found unconscious in a stairwell at a Boston hotel. Obviously this was done to spark interest although it has drawn an immense amount of criticism from fans who did not think that doing a worked story on a guy’s health that already has two Wellness Policy violations was appropriate.
To make matters worse, it was up to Jim Ross to sell the worked story on the pay-per-view and he failed miserably. At one point, JR proclaimed that Hardy was found unconscious in his hospital in Boston. What? JR didn’t seem too eager to sell the angle and it will be interesting to see if he addresses the situation in his blog on his official website. As for my thoughts on it, I thought that it was extremely goofy of WWE. I’m not outraged by it as I realize that this is pro wrestling and that everything is fair game, however, the official WWE website hurts their credibility when they produce such stories. Below are my full thoughts on last night’s pay-per-view.
The show opened with a Traditional Survivor Series match with Team HBK taking on Team JBL. The match was fine for an opener, nothing spectacular but it got the crowd going early. My favorite part of the bout was the end where WWE let Michaels and Morrison do the go-home sequence. The outcome was predictable and the work rate was on par with what I would expect with an opening match. I was surprised at how over The Great Khali seemed to be with the live crowd as JBL was getting the “you can’t wrestle” chants. I actually think JBL is much better than Khali and the fans were marking out for the product, however, I don’t have a problem with that as long as the crowd is into the event.
The Traditional Survivor Series Divas match was up next with five Divas from SmackDown and five Divas from Raw. The crowd was dead for the match and the work seemed slow by everyone involved. At the time I didn’t think that the match was that bad, but after watching again, it seemed that everyone was working in slow motion. I was also confused with the order of elimination with the finals being Beth Phoenix and Maryse. I know WWE doesn’t want to be predictable but I thought that Michelle McCool looked weak being eliminated when she was. Beth worked good and had the best work out of them all but it wasn’t enough to save the match as she didn’t get much help.
Matt Hardy gave an “update” on Jeff Hardy in a backstage interview with Todd Grisham and while he did the best he could, I thought it was pretty lame. Hardy, with a concerned look, said that Jeff had been hit in the back of the head with a blunt object at around 3 AM in the morning. Grisham started naming off mainstream media outlets that covered the story. That was not completely a work as there were some media outlets that covered the story as legitimate. I still think that the angle was very cartoonish and would prefer that WWE avoid doing them.
The Undertaker vs. Big Show in a Casket Match was a good match but it was not spectacular and was not as good as their previous encounter at No Mercy. I really can’t give a specific reason why I felt like this other than the work just seemed a touch off. The Undertaker and Big Show are without a doubt two of the best big men workers in the business but I still think that this could have been a better match. There was a very good spot where Undertaker hit leg drop on Big Show through the ECW announce table which was pretty well down but other than that the bout seemed sluggish at times.
Team Orton vs. Team Batista was my favorite Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match of the night. As I noted last night, when I watch a match such as this, I am reminded of how good that WWE is at developing new workers. Everyone looked good; especially Cody Rhodes who I feel has the biggest chance to become a main eventer in 2009. I really like what they are doing with Randy Orton and Rhodes. It doesn’t look like WWE has any commitment to William Regal as he was eliminated early on with Team Orton staying strong until Batista magically came in and took everyone out. WWE had to give Batista that rub because he obviously wasn’t going over in Orton’s return match so they wanted to keep him looking as powerful as possible without giving him the win.
Vladimir Kozlov vs. Triple H was a complete disaster until Edge returned and Jeff Hardy hit the ring. The crowd, who had thought that it was going to be a triple-threat for the past couple of weeks if they read the taping results, was furious Hardy was not in the match. Triple H was even booed when he hit his offense along with chants of “boring” and “we want Hardy”. This is a clear indication that Kozlov is not ready for a main event push on the top of SmackDown as no one was taking him seriously. The big swerve came down from Creative when Vickie Guerrero proclaimed that it was going to be a triple-threat match again and the crowd popped when Edge returned. I have to say I was just happy to see someone save the disaster of a match. Jeff Hardy finally came out; hit a chair shot on Edge then on Kozlov before getting taken out by Edge in a counter. The crowd came unglued when Hardy came out and proved yet again that he is one of the most over workers in the company. I know many people are salivating at a possible Edge vs. Jeff Hardy program for the WWE Championship. Edge ended up winning the WWE Championship after he speared Hardy and pinned Hunter out of nowhere. It was an odd way to end Hunter’s title reign but it saved the co-main event of Survivor Series.
The final match of the night was the returning John Cena taking on Chris Jericho for the World Heavyweight Championship. Some fans probably did not think that WWE would do a title change in this match after Edge had won the WWE Championship, which was probably what the creative team was hoping for. Cena received a huge pop from his hometown crowd with no hate that I could hear. Say what you want about Cena, as I know he has plenty of detractors, but the guy can go. Cena didn’t look very rusty at all and had a very good match with Chris Jericho. The match was as good as it could have been with a guy that had not worked in three months. Cena is super human and proved it again last night with a work rate that is one of the best that I have ever seen. As I noted last night in my coverage, Cena was under a tremendous amount of legitimate pressure as the company sold the show based completely off his return. Cena took the pressure in stride and delivered a good match.
In conclusion WWE Survivor Series was a newsworthy show with two title changes, a goofy worked angle, and three major returns (Randy Orton, Edge, & John Cena). However, the show did not deliver the abundance of quality wrestling that I have come to expect from the WWE workers on a major pay-per-view. I don’t know if the workers were still feeling the effects from the extended tour overseas but there were times where the work rate was just plain off. You are going to want to watch the two main events (while skipping through the beginning of Kozlov vs. Triple H) to see how the title changes went down but this event is far from being labeled as must-see. Team Orton vs. Team Batista was a good match and Big Show vs. The Undertaker was a solid Casket Match. The Team HBK vs. Team JBL opener was good for an opener, but it’s not a match that people are going to go out of their way to see. The Divas match was easily forgettable. Overall I was disappointed with Survivor Series but things for WWE should improve now that they have their star power back.
Richard can be contacted at richard [at] grayinternet.com
Richard Gray is a professional wrestling journalist and frequent contributor to Rajah.com. He has been covering the world of professional wrestling since 1999 and has had the opportunity to cover ground breaking stories such as the demise of ECW, the WCW buyout, the Benoit tragedy, Bobby Lashley leaving WWE, and more. For more on Richard check out his web site, Wrestling News World.
– “Richard Reacts” Archive By WrestlingNewsWorld.com’s Richard Gray