Survivor Series XXVIII

[Curt McGirt]

Since Show irrationally turned again, does this mean we get him and Henry teaming up and destroying people, or does this mean we just get more crying?

[Hoffman]

I saw Sting in a WWE ring for the first time, Vince McMahon in person, Big Show's umpteenth turn, and two titles change hands.  But all I'm going to tell everyone at work in the morning is that I saw a rabbit score a pinfall victory and get carried off in celebration by a hot dog and french fries.

[caley]

I feel like a lot of the guys who cover WWE need to step away and do something else with their lives and let people who actually enjoy the WWE product write about it.  I mean I read this write-up from the Torch

 

 

Suddenly, lights flashed, a scarecrow was heard, and Sting's image appeared on the big screen.  Out came Sting. Hunter seethed in the ring as Sting made his way out on-stage. Cole said it's the man who has never set foot in a WWE ring before. Sting marched down to the ringside area and punched out ref Armstrong.

Okay, first of all scarecrows don't make noise, they are inanimate objects.  The sound you heard was a crow.  

 

 

Sting entered the ring and squared off with Hunter as the crowd roared. Sting's hair and gait made him look pretty old, by the way.

It was STING.  In a WWE ring.  STING.  Who cares how old he is, it's the man called Sting.  How is that not a mark-out moment?!

 

 

Hunter and Sting kind of circled each other, waiting for the crowd to break into a chant or make sustained noise. "This is Awesome" was the chant they got. More circling. Is the match still going on?

I'm sure Sting and Triple H were both going "Boy, what kind of chant can we get here!?" not, you know, just dragging out the suspense of it: is Sting there to take out Triple H or is he his insurance policy? 

 

 

Sting then turned to Rollins's pinfall on Ziggler, which was the longest visual pinfall ever after the long Sting-Hunter stare down. Sting reversed the pin, putting Ziggler on top of Rollins and left the ring. The original ref woke up, returned to the ring, and counted a three count for Ziggler on Rollins. Ziggler wins it for Team Cena, and Team Authority is out of power.

Who really cares about the longest visual pinfall?!  Seriously, Sting just debuted in WWE.

 

If James Caldwell is really THAT burnt out/jaded on WWE that he can't enjoy Sting (!) making his debut in a WWE ring, then he needs to farm the job out to someone who does.  I mean, unless you started watching wrestling in 2000 or so, this is one of those moments as a wrestling fan that you kinda thought you'd never see, so why not just enjoy the moment?  I mean, you can start bitching about the booking tomorrow night, but for now just enjoy it.  It's Sting.

[mco543]

Upon a second watch, the main event is still absolutely fucking awesome.

[Josh Mann]

Here's the sign that it worked. When it was 3-1 the crowd was chanting for Orton. At 2-1, they were chanting for Ziggler.

And as far as the person who bitched that Ziggler only used a couple of moves in his comebacks, I'm fine with that. He was selling dead for about 20 minutes and so whatever opening he had, he NEEDED to swing for the fence. You're getting killed out there and your job is on the line. This ain't time to break out an arm drag.

One minor criticism: Everyone at the table missed the fact that Ziggles beat Harper by pulling the "tights". I was waiting for JBL's indignation and it never happened.

[BrianS81177]

I don't give a fuck how old Sting is, I've waited 14 years to see him in a WWE ring. I loved every second of that.

And Ziggler's fighting spirit segment was glorious. Damn shame Cena's gonna get all the credit for leading his team to victory, though.

Amen. Yes, realistically what we saw tonight was a 55 year old with a gut throw a weak looking kick and a shitty reverse DDT on a guy who's worked like 5 matches in 2 years but 19 year old me saw STING VERSUS TRIPLE FUCKING H and freaked out over every second of it.

[Big Fresh]

Here's the sign that it worked. When it was 3-1 the crowd was chanting for Orton. At 2-1, they were chanting for Ziggler.

And as far as the person who bitched that Ziggler only used a couple of moves in his comebacks, I'm fine with that. He was selling dead for about 20 minutes and so whatever opening he had, he NEEDED to swing for the fence. You're getting killed out there and your job is on the line. This ain't time to break out an arm drag.

One minor criticism: Everyone at the table missed the fact that Ziggles beat Harper by pulling the "tights". I was waiting for JBL's indignation and it never happened.

 

Then only part of that is Ziggler, whom I love, and WWE hasn't done a great job telling you why the Zig Zag is dangerous. I hate the move actually. But if he's gonna stick with it, he should put a few lines in his promos like "I'm gonna drop you on the back of your head and knock your ass out."

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Sting comes out tomorrow and announces he wants just one more match in Wwe before he retires. Against Hhh at Mania.

Either Hhh gets back in power by end of night and grants him his one match, or new Gm Cena gives up his title shot in interests of fairness, both with same result of Sting facing Lesnar at the Rumble.

Sting gets destroyed by Lesnar giving us a Vader match replay twenty two years later.

From there you build to Mania about whether Sting keeps to his word and has his one match (play up his earlier comments about ddp and booker being made to look stupid and him doubting himself), or does he still challenge a now over confident Hhh (put the return to power as a stip on the line?) or Cena for ruining his one match request.

[Overly Critical Man]

I'm seriously worried about Seth Rollins, since apparently the Zig-Zag paralyzed him and he stopped moving in the ring for a period of time longer than The Giant after Hogan hit him with the WCW title at Road Wild '96.

[Greggulator]

WWE matches are won either by a finisher or a fluke roll-up. When was the last time someone won a match with a secondary finisher/non-finisher? I have no idea.

In terms of kayfabe structure: Ziggler's down 3-1. Two of those dudes are way, way, way bigger than him. And there's also HHH/Steph at ringside and all the machinations they're capable of. Like someone said before -- the only real chance you have is to swing for the fences and/or get lucky. He swung for the fences going for the one move he does so well it will win a match 95% of the time and had success. He also managed to roll-up Harper and then benefited as HHH got played by the debuting Sting, so he had luck on his side, too.

[Casey]

Sting comes out tomorrow and announces he wants just one more match in Wwe before he retires. Against Hhh at Mania.

Either Hhh gets back in power by end of night and grants him his one match, or new Gm Cena gives up his title shot in interests of fairness, both with same result of Sting facing Lesnar at the Rumble.

Sting gets destroyed by Lesnar giving us a Vader match replay twenty two years later.

From there you build to Mania about whether Sting keeps to his word and has his one match (play up his earlier comments about ddp and booker being made to look stupid and him doubting himself), or does he still challenge a now over confident Hhh (put the return to power as a stip on the line?) or Cena for ruining his one match request.

........................................

 

wat

 

no

 

and Cena isn't the GM

[Greggulator]

BTW, I love how Ambrose hops to get up on the corner. It's like he's hopping to go swimming in a gated off swimming pool or to steal copper from a sealed off building or something.

[Big Fresh]

Does Ziggler get credit for tying the Survivor Series record of eliminations or does the Rusev elimination not count for him?

[Big Fresh]

BTW, I love how Ambrose hops to get up on the corner. It's like he's hopping to go swimming in a gated off swimming pool or to steal copper from a sealed off building or something.

I believe Piranesi said he got it from his days hopping junkyard fences to steal copper. It's a line I still use about Ambrose every time I talk about him. Cracks me up.

[Overly Critical Man]

One thing I don't get is why the crowd would chant "We want Mizdow." That would result in you getting a wrestler that wrestles like The Miz. Talk about be careful what you wish for.

[Big Rob]

Steph finally shows ass and it's perfect.

Finally? I know her character is protected more than most but she was thrown face first it to a paddling pool of what they tried to sell as shit a couple of months ago. That being said, yeah she was great here.

[Casey]

I hope whoever gets put in charge tomorrow night fires JBL at the top of the show.

[Cole Miner]

I'm seriously worried about Seth Rollins, since apparently the Zig-Zag paralyzed him and he stopped moving in the ring for a period of time longer than The Giant after Hogan hit him with the WCW title at Road Wild '96.

Yeah longest someone had to play dead since Ring Ka King. One of the Indian guys that took the Master lock challenge was out for a long time. They basically did another segment with him still lying dead.

 

That main event tonight was an overbooked clusterfuck. Loved every minute of it. Perfect for the match. Not much noteworthy on the rest of the show outside of Mizdow. I knew the PPVs would turn into RAW with gimmick matches eventually with the network. Looked like they reached that point already.

 

I hope the confiscation of signs is something they will keep doing from now on.

[piranesi]

 

BTW, I love how Ambrose hops to get up on the corner. It's like he's hopping to go swimming in a gated off swimming pool or to steal copper from a sealed off building or something.

I believe Piranesi said he got it from his days hopping junkyard fences to steal copper. It's a line I still use about Ambrose every time I talk about him. Cracks me up.

 

 

The thing about that is that Dean believes that "Copper wire" is the raw material that the Mayor uses to make cops, and that if he steals it all there won't be anymore police.

 

This was partially due to people telling him he should watch THE WIRE "because you can learn a lot about how the cops work" and he would be like "Dude, I already know all about that."

 

Couple that with the times when he does see a t.v. show someone says "I think he's a cop, check for a wire."  And how the "already wired" cops would chase him whenever they saw him with any wire spools. 

 

It adds up, you know.

[DreamBroken]

Really liked this show for the most part, probably one of my favorite PPV events of the year. Underwhelming card going in but ended up very satisfied with it. 2 preshow matches was nice, Fandango/Gabriel was nothing but Swagger/Cesaro was a fun little 5 minute match. Still surprised to see Cesaro tapout here.

 

4 way tag was a lot of fun. Great reaction by Miz on the finish. Really liked the divas tag and was surprised but glad that they actually got a decent amount of time going almost 15 minutes. I figured it'd be a typical rushed elimination match going 8-9 minutes at most but they actually got to work a decent pace here. Feels like we don't get to see enough Emma so I was glad to see her in a PPV spot and get to shine a little bit. Thought Paige would get at least one elimination but an enjoyable match I thought.

 

Ambrose/Wyatt was decent but didn't feel like anything special really. Nikki/AJ was fantastic and my favorite thing AJ has ever been involved in. Great callback and a perfect way for the match to go under a minute. I don't know if it was supposed to be Brie turning or just setting up to beat Nikki for the title but either way it all ruled.

 

Thought the main event was pretty much the epic that it was built up to be. Always enjoy a good 40+ minute main. Tonight even more than Survivor Series 2012 was the best starmaking moment possible for Ziggler. Hopefully this time it's not screwed up as Dolph has had a solid year after that string of awful for a few years where he was my least favorite on the roster, glad to be a fan of his work again. Lots of fun with the twists and turns, didn't see Big Show's turn coming. Very surprised that Ryback was first out for his team. Loved the Sting finale, great moment that will be remembered forever. Was certainly surprised to see no sign of Orton at all, thought for sure there would be an RKO out of nowhere. Interested to see what happens next. The show lived up to Vince saying it'd be one we'd never forget. Great stuff.

[Go2Sleep]

Rusev wearing flip flops backstage cracked me up for some reason.

 

The divas title match was really interesting. The callback to Mania 28 was unexpectedly deep, but I couldn't tell live if that was supposed to be a Brie heel turn or not? Any insight from the commentary on that one?

 

The main event was good. Lots of heat and unexpected booking. Henry getting KO'ed in 3 seconds and everyone's reaction was a great start. I don't think anyone saw Ryback as the first face out and certainly not by relatively clean pin. It's hard to be surprised by a Big Show turn, but I guess I kinda was. It made sense from Show's perspective, but nothing else Team Authority did pertaining to Show made sense at all. If it was the plan from the beginning, why KO Henry? If it was a spur of the moment decision, why didn't he finish off Ziggler too just to be safe? Why wouldn't they do the old SvR goon tactic of having someone take a double CO by beating Dolph up on the outside for 10 seconds? Anyway, if you don't think too hard, it was still fun. Loved seeing Ziggler have a nice moment here, hopefully he won't get Kofi'd. Of course, Sting showing up was huge even if it was ridiculously drawn out. I was expecting Orton to punt HHH into a lengthy absence after the match, but maybe that'll happen on Raw instead.

 

TLC is coming up real fast, so I wonder how quick they'll establish all the big matches. Bray/Dean is a surprising choice for the full TLC, although it should be solid. It would have to be a pin/sub TLC I think, because I have no idea what they'd hang up for those two. I could see Ziggler/Rollins in the ladder match for MITB. Cena/Show will probably get the tables or chairs match, but I have no idea what program is big enough for the other one. Harper/Rowan? Rusev/somebody? The Bellas?

[Jenalysis]

Dean-Wyatt.  The first one just felt too "normal".  Those two shouldn't have sold for each other much.  I would have been ok if they just couldn't get two or three moves off in a row without the other guy firing back, and lots of punching and kicking from the bottom like they were both mad.  

 

As for Sting, I think a "lights out" finish with the end of it being Sting on the top rope with his bat and everyone except Rollins and Ziggler down, Zig-Zag, win, handshake would have done more for everyone.

Have JBL throw out an Iceman Parsons reference during the whole thing.

[Hail Sabin]

I liked the Divas Survivor Series match with Emma getting to show what got her over in NXT with the full sail crowd. Brie costing AJ her title like she did at WrestleMania 28 was a nice touch. Dolph looked like a million bucks after the main event but it all comes down to what they do with him next and if they can keep his star bright. I'll have more thoughts on the show after I rewatch the PPV.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

So where to from here for TLC?

Rollins vs. Ziggler or Orton?
Cena vs. Show 2341347984 or Lesnar?

Bray vs. Ambrose

Rusev vs. Ryback or Ziggler or Reigns?

Harper vs. Rowan or Ziggler?

[Jamal]

I was pleasantly surprised that the Divas tag got a decent amount of time. Like a lot of people, I was expecting a rush job. I thought it was decent, despite a few awkward moments. Glad to see Paige as last woman standing for her team and that Naomi got to finally take her out as she's pretty awesome.

And I am quite happy to see Nikki win the Diva's belt. I've been over AJ for a while now.