Mike Reviews WWE Survivor Series 2007

Happy Remembrance Weekend

Today we’ve got Survivor Series 2007, an event that has two great matches to close things out, but I can’t really remember what the rest of the card is like. There’s a chance that it’ll be fun, but don’t hold me to that.

On top we’ve got Randy Orton against Shawn Michaels, whilst Batista wrestles The Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell, so there’s no way both of those matches aren’t going to rule and I’m genuinely excited to see them, which is always a positive when you come into a review like this!

If you’d like to view the card for Survivor Series 2007 you can do so by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=14899&page=3

The event is emanating from the home of The Dolphin’s on the 18th of November 2007

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler (Raw), Michael Cole and JBL (Smackdown), and Joey Styles alongside Tazz (ECW)

The opening video package focuses mostly on the Survivor Series match and the two major Title matches.

Opening Match
ECW Title
Champ: CM Punk Vs Smackdown Tag Team Champion The Shaman of Sexy John Morrison and Smackdown Tag Team Champion Mike “The Miz” Mizanin

Punk had struggled to defeat Morrison all through the summer, but then Morrison got popped for a wellness violation (I mean, just LOOK at the guy) and Punk ended up taking the belt from Morrison on TV in a great match. Punk had been battered in his hometown back at No Mercy for having the temerity to argue with Tony Atlas whilst on a trip to OVW, but WWE was back to only slightly burying him by the time this show came around. I know it’s ironic to say someone is getting “buried” whilst also being ECW Champion, but it wasn’t like they booked Punk especially strong during his reign and he often got laid out or clobbered by the Heels he faced. He then got made to look like kind of a chump in the feud where he lost the belt to Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Miz and Morrison being a newly formed team means that they work together at points during this one, although there’s always a suggestion that eventually their personal desire for the ECW Title will lead to them betraying one another. The action is good here for the most part, with Punk shining on both of the challengers to start, and looking good doing so, until they manage to work together in order to cut him off and essentially turn this one into a glorified handicap match. Punk sells well whenever the challengers are working him over, with Miz eventually dumping Morrison to the floor so that he can work Punk over by himself for a bit. Punk manages to hold on and gets the occasional hope spot, whilst the challengers switch between who gets to be in the ring beating up the Champ and who gets to be selling out on the floor.

The challengers eventually do a bit together in the ring whilst Punk sells on the floor, and that’s fun to watch as well, with Morrison even busting out one of the earliest instances of the Starship Pain on Miz, which gets two when Punk breaks up the pin. We get another cool move following that, where Punk gives Morrison a rana from the top and Miz catches Morrison on the way down with a powerbomb, which the crowd reacts big for. Punk shows Miz that he’s the real Chick Magnet following that, doing his full comeback on him and getting the knee/bulldog combo for two. We get some more near falls following that, with Morrison almost pinning Punk courtesy of a handful of tights. Punk eventually runs Miz into Morrison and then pounces with the Go To Sleep on Miz for the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: CM PUNK
RATING: ***1/2

We see that Montel Vontavious Porter beat up Matt Hardy on Smackdown, attacking his knee after they lost a match, leading to Matt having to miss this pay per view. I think in real life he had appendicitis and had to have his appendix taken out as a result, and they used this as a storyline reason for Matt missing the show.

United States Champ MVP has interview time backstage with a female interviewer that they don’t name. I don’t remember her name I’m afraid, although I will say that she’s very attractive, if not especially good at her job. MVP says that Matt Hardy isn’t here tonight and is just generally mean about his former partner. This was a decent promo.

Match Two
WWE Women’s Champ Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, Layla El, Melina Perez and Victoria Vs Kelly Kelly, Maria Kanellis, Michelle McCool, Mickie James and Torrie Wilson

Beth had won the Women’s Title from Candice Michelle at No Mercy, and I think Candice got injured in that one and never really recovered fully. I think the main storyline going on here is that Layla and Kelly used to be friends over on ECW, but now they’re not due to Kelly having the temerity to be friends with Balls Mahoney. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler are doing the commentary work here, and Lawler is of course delighted to see so many good looking women getting in the ring to do battle. It’s a shame that this one isn’t an elimination match and is instead just one fall wins it, as having the women wrestlers work that sort of match would be fun and put them on an even level to the guys perception ise.

Melina ends up getting her entrance wrong to start, so she does it again and gets a nice pop from the crowd for persevering. Melina came across as really cute and charming there with the “aw shucks I botched my entrance” reaction, which kind of went against her mean bitch gimmick that she had at the time. The Heel side has some decent wrestlers on their side, whilst James doesn’t have much to work with on her side from a work rate perspective (sorry McCool fans, I just never thought she was that good and it rankles me that they always seem to book her as an unstoppable tank whenever she makes cameo appearances these days despite that never really being her gimmick when she was actually a wrestler), but the crowd seems to like them all, so there’s that at least.

Victoria is great in this one actually, as her work looks good and she also does a good job shepherding the less experienced wrestlers whenever she’s in there with them. They tease Layla and Kelly going at it, but Layla bails rather than wrestle her former ally. Hall is actually quite funny whenever she’s in there as well, doing wacky selling and looking okay on offence. Kanellis is wearing just enough clothes in order to not be legally classed as being naked on worldwide pay per view, but it’s next level skimpy and doesn’t exactly look like the most ideal attire for a wrestling bout, lovely though Kanellis assuredly looks. James ends up getting the hot tag and runs wild, looking good and doing some nice stuff with Melina. James ends up putting a smooch on Melina and kicks her in the head for three.

WINNERS: TEAM MICKIE JAMES
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: This was okay for what it was, with the talented wrestlers getting a chance to do a little bit and the less talented wrestlers mostly having their stuff limited in order to avoid them hurting themselves or anybody else. It was entertaining, if not especially good

Hornswoggle is worried about his match later whilst The Coach and William Regal seem to be amused by his plight.

Randy Orton gives pre-recorded comments where he says that any of the fans hoping that Shawn Michaels will win tonight are going to leave disappointed, as Michaels won’t be able to use the Sweet Chin Music in their match later. Michaels retorts by saying he’s going to get revenge on Orton for taking away months of his career by taking away his belt tonight. This was good solid stuff to hype up the match later on and helped make the match feel like an important contest.

Match Three
Raw Tag Team Titles
Champs: Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch Vs Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes

C&M had been teasing a babyface turn earlier in the year before sticking it to The Hardyz and winning the tag belts from them. Holly had been doing the “gruff mentor” gimmick with Cody, which was either going to lead to them going the Mr. Wrestling II (mentor turns on student) or Larry Z (student turns on mentor) route with it eventually (they chose the latter, and thank heavens that they did). I think C&M are actually quite underappreciated when it comes to discussing good tag teams, as they were both solid workers and they gelled really well together as a tag team.

Cody shines on both of the Champs a little bit to start, and it’s decent work, with Holly eventually coming in to do a bit as well where he batters his younger opponents in his usual gruff manner. It’s got the feel of an old school NWA tag team match at points actually, and the crowd doesn’t go nuts for it but they do respond to it and Holly even gets a light chant at one stage. Eventually C&M catch Holly with a double team move that ends in Murdoch booting Sparky in the face, leading to the cut off and Heel heat segment. Holly does a decent job selling all of that, whilst C&M do a good job of cutting off the ring and working their challenger over, so it works well for what they are going for.

C&M eventually botch a double team attempt on Holly, which leads to Cody getting the hot tag and running wild on The Champs, although he does one of my pet peeves of chasing them around the ring and making the sequence a bit messy, when he could have just stood near the middle of the ring and let them come to him, which would have made it a lot smoother. Cody was still young at this stage though, so I’ll let him off. Cody’s comeback doesn’t last for long though, as Murdoch manages to catch Cody with a Canadian Destroyer and that’s enough for the three count.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: CADE & MURDOCH
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Solid tag team action, although it would have been nice to see Cody be given a bit more of a comeback than what he got, as he basically did a brief hot tag and then got pinned. Give this one a 10-12 minute run time as opposed to the 7 we got and I think it would have ended up getting rated higher as they felt like they had a better match in them

Holly gives Cody some grudging respect following that, much to Cody’s surprise.

Each commentary team takes a moment to hype up the next bout, which is a nice touch that makes all of them seem like they are on the same level despite Raw clearly being the biggest brand of the three.

Todd Grisham is backstage with Triple H’s team of his H’ness, Jeffery Nero Hardy, Rey-Rey and Mayor Kane. There’s a funny bit where Jeff and Kane point out that Tri has done horrible things to them in the past and Triple H basically goes “yeah…my bad, but lets me a team anyway”. It seems to work, as the team comes around at the end of the segment. That was good fun.

Match Four
Survivor Series Elimination Bout
The Game Triple H, WWE Intercontinental Champ The Charismatic Enigma Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio Jr and The Big Red Monster Kane Vs The Samoan Savage UMANGA, Big Daddy V, Fit Finlay, WWE United States Champ Montel Vontavious Porter and Mr. Kennedy………Kennedy and w/ The Teacher Matt Striker

Jeff and Triple H had both been feuding with Umaga during 2007, with Tri being the most recent person to feud with the scary monster. Umaga and Triple H are actually the team captains here, which amuses me somewhat to think of a Samoan Savage also having to lead his team whilst his team mates ponder what advice he’s trying to give them. They should have done some skits where Umaga had a flipchart and was trying to give out strategy/instructions to his teammates in the midst of yelling angrily whilst they looked on bemused.

It’s good action to start, with Jeff and Rey doing the old Hardy Boy “leap off your partner’s back” spot at one stage to a nice reaction. All of the commentary teams are calling this one together, and they work together pretty well actually, with everyone getting a chance to talk. Big Daddy V and Kane of course go at it for our Big Lads Battling spot, with Kane eventually getting the better of that and coming off the top with a big clothesline. However, Finlay provides a distraction and that allows V to get a Samoan Drop followed by the Sudanese Elbow for three.

Elimination #1 – Kane by Big Daddy V (1) – Pin following Elbow Drop

Umaga and Triple H continue their feud following that, doing a nice sequence together, with Umaga looking suitably scary. It’s funny because Ekmo Fatu came across as just a sloppy big man during his run in 3MW, but after a few years on the indies/Japan/TNA he came back as a much more well rounded wrestler, to the point that he had a host of great matches during his second WWE run. Rey makes Umaga look especially scary when he wrestles him, taking some big bumps but still believably getting some offence on him as well due to Umaga being generous with his selling and Rey’s execution being on point. Umaga eventually catches Rey though and Samoan Spike eliminates another member of Team Triple H.

Elimination #2 – Rey-Rey by Umaga (1) – Pin following Samoan Spike

So Tri and Jeff now need to go 2 on 5, with Joey Styles making a good point on commentary that together they still don’t weigh as much as just Big Daddy V all by himself, let alone the other four guys. The Heel team works over Jeff for a bit, with Jeff selling it well, but MVP misses a move and that allows Jeff to catch him with a Twist of Fate OUTTA NOWHERE in order to get the babyfaces their first elimination.

Elimination #3 – MVP by Jeff Hardy (1) – Pin following Twist of Fate

Triple H gets a hot tag following that, running wild on Kennedy, with Kennedy only just managing to get in place for everything due to his trademark awkward stumble sell, which looked more realistic in some ways but also made him more difficult to work with and some wrestlers didn’t like it. Some Heel miscommunication leads to V dropping an elbow on Kennedy by mistake and Triple H gets the pin.

Elimination #4 – Kennedy by Triple H (1) – Pin following accidental Elbow Drop from Big Daddy V

I like the story they are telling here, as it’s not like Tri and Jeff are being presented as supermen who are overcoming the odds by the use of strength alone. In Jeff’s case; he saw an opening and managed to take MVP out with a finisher, whilst with Triple H he was able to capitalise on a mistake from Kennedy’s partner in order to send Kennedy to the showers. They have been getting quick pins against the run of play, which helps make it look slightly more believable that they are pulling this off. Case in point, V stupidly tries to squish them in the corner, but they dodge that and then hit a quick Double DDT, which is a move that actually uses V’s own weight against him as you’re essentially driving all of it onto his head and neck, and that allows Tri to quickly get another pin, with V kicking out at 3.1 to get across that it was a quick surprise flash pin.

Elimination #5 – Big Daddy V by Triple H (2) and Jeff Hardy (2) – Pin following Double DDT

So now we’re down to 2 Vs 2 after a quick section of madness, leading to Finlay working some heat on Triple H for a bit. Jeff gets a hot tag following that, and he runs wild on Finlay, with his offence looking good and Finlay taking some nice bumps for him. Finlay and Jeff work together quite well actually, despite them having wildly divergent in-ring styles. By comparison, Finlay and Triple H look a bit awkward in there together, which is strange as you’d think they’d be better suited to work with one another style wise. Tri soon hits the Pedigree and that’s it for the Belfast Bruiser.

Elimination #6 – Finlay by Triple H (3) – Pin following Pedigree

Umaga is put away relatively quickly following that, with Triple H getting another Pedigree and Jeff coming off the top with the Swanton in order to end Umaga’s night.

Elimination #7 – Umaga by Triple H (4) and Jeff Hardy (3) – Pin following Pedigree and Swanton combo

SURVIVOR(S): TRIPLE H & JEFF HARDY
MOST ELIMINATIONS: TRIPLE H (4)
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: We went around the houses a bit just to get a Triple H and Jeff Hardy Vs Umaga and Finlay tag match there, but what action we got was breezy and fun for the most part, with the crowd enjoying it and Jeff looking good in particular

They hype up Smackdown Vs Raw 2008 (Featuring ECW) by showing clips of Batista and Undertaker fighting inside Hell in a Cell, promising the sort of spots that we absolutely won’t get to see in the real match itself, which seems counterproductive in my opinion

The Shaq Attack is in the crowd, hopefully refraining from unleashing Shaq-Fu on any unfortunate passers by.

Vince McMahon Jr gives his bastard offspring the big pep talk for the next match, telling him that Hornswoggle needs to rise above the odds to win, like the McMahon he is. He of course throws in the fact he beat WCW and the US Government. Yeah, if you have Jerry McDevitt on your payroll you can win most things. He would have probably gotten the Roman’s off with a fine for crucifying Jesus. Swoggy seems motivated following that at any rate.

Match Five
The Great Khali w/ Ranjin Singh Vs Hornswoggle w/ Shane McMahon and Vince McMahon Jr

The story here was that Hornswoggle was revealed as Vince’s son, but Vince didn’t like that, so he’s booked the little person against the giant here with the hope that the giant will squish him. As reasons for having a wrestling match go, that’s certainly one of them. Shane McMahon shows up before the match starts, to introduce Vince, and the Hornswoggle. I guess they’re going to be at ringside in order to watch the public execution personally. I will say that Khali’s old music was pretty great and did a solid job of getting across how imposing and scary he was. Future remixes never really got that same feeling.

The fans are more interested in Shaq before the match starts, which leads to Vince having to grab a mic and say that Shaq won’t be getting involved. You quickly realise that they’re doing all this preamble because it delays in them actually having to wrestle with one another. Swog manages to take out Singh early doors, but he has little joy with Khali, whilst the crowd continues to chant for Shaq. Swoggle mostly runs away from Khali and tries to outwit him with cheap shots and shenanigans, but Khali no sells all of that as well. I don’t know if they’re trying to get across that Shane isn’t on board with this whilst Vince is, or if Shane is just pretending. Anyway, Finlay runs in before Hornswoggle can be killed and that’s the “match”.

WINNER BY DQ: THE GREAT KHALI
RATING: DUD

Thoughts: Wow, they actually put this on a pay per view and expected people to pay actualy money to watch it. The definition of a TV angle on a pay per view

Finlay kicks Khali right in his great tiger before leading Hornswoggle to the back whilst Vince is annoyed.

Some baseball players are in the crowd. Someone tell them to take up a proper sport like cricket and to stop wasting all of our collective times.

Semi-Main
The Superkick is Banned
Title can change on a DQ
Raw Title
Champ: The Legend Killer Randy Orton Vs The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels

Orton had punted Shawn in the head back in the spring, injuring Shawn in the process, so now Shawn is back and looking for payback. Shawn already had a DQ win over Orton prior to this, so this rematch was booked, although Shawn won’t be allowed to use his finishing move in the match itself. Orton can lose the belt if he gets himself DQ’ed again though, so I guess both of them are at a disadvantage here to one degree or another, although it’s not really explored as to why.

Shawn tenaciously holds onto a cravat to start, with Orton not being able to get out of it and having to resort to punches, which essentially means he forfeits the wrestling contest, making Shawn look like the better wrestler in a fair fight, which is the whole point of a babyface shine to begin with. Orton still can’t get anywhere even with punching, so he tries to goad Shawn into playing some Chin Music, with Shawn managing to resist for the moment and go back to working holds. Orton sells getting out wrestled really well, with Shawn getting a nice mix between intensity and dislike for Orton whilst still being detached enough in order to do his best wrestling.

Shawn tries winning it with a Sharpshooter (well, it worked ten years ago) but Orton makes the ropes to break and then goes to the eyes in order to finally get the cut off, continuing the trend of Shawn being the better wrestler and Orton having to do underhanded things so that he can get into the contest. I don’t want to alarm you all, but Shawn Michaels is excellent in the role of babyface in peril, as Orton works him over and Shawn sells it all perfectly. Orton of course busts out a chin lock at one stage, because it’s a Randy Orton match, but Shawn fights to get out of it and Orton fights to keep it applied, so it ends up feeling more like a working hold than a rest hold.

Shawn eventually makes the comeback, getting the atomic drops and eventually the elbow drop from the top, but Shawn can’t TUNE UP THE BAND, because if he does then he’ll lose the match. Shawn teases that he’s going to do it anyway, but when Orton premptively ducks, Shawn just does his best Yoshinari Ogawa impression with an inside cradle for two in a cute spot. Shawn continues trying to find ways to win without his finisher, even busting out the cross face at one stage, which felt kind of too soon at the time as Benoit had only just died in the summer of 2007 and it was still quite a fresh wound, although these days you see folks busting out that move more frequently.

Orton gets his trademark back breaker and then looks to punt Shawn’s head off his shoulders, but Shawn counters it and goes to his third tribute submission hold by going to the ankle lock, with the crowd totally buying it as a possible finish. What’s he going to go for next? I’d like to nominate the Stump Puller. You don’t see that one anywhere near enough these days. Orton manages to survive the ankle lock and then kicks Shawn away when Shawn tries to go to the Figure Four. Shawn almost goes for the Chin Music, but he stops himself, with RKO making good use of the momentary hesitation to snap off an RKO OUTTA NOWHERE for the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: RANDY ORTON
RATING: ****

Thoughts: Excellent match there, with them telling a really fun story with Shawn trying all of the submission moves as a way to get around not being able to use his finisher, with muscle memory eventually costing him the win in the dying seconds when he was tired. I liked how Shawn almost wrestled the perfect match for this kind of stipulation until the mixture of fatigue and frustration combined to snatch his dreams away. What I liked about it as well was that we got a totally clean finish, but Shawn didn’t look weak in the slightest because he came so close to winning, whilst Orton got to look resourceful and win clean even though Shawn was getting the better of him for large chunks of the contest. The ideal way to leave people feeling after a Title match

Orton is a cocky jerk following the match and tries to rub it in Shawn’s face, so Shawn cleans his clock with a Superkick for the moral victory. Orton gets a clean win, but Shawn gets a measure of revenge even in defeat. Classic Wrestling, and I mean that in a good way!

We get a “Save Us” promo, which was a way for teasing the return of Chris Jericho.

Main Event
Hell in a Cell
Smackdown Title
Champ: Batista Vs The Undertaker

This was the final blow off to the Batista/Undertaker feud. They’d each won a match and had two draws leading up to this, so the Cell was introduced as a way to settle things once and for all. To be honest, at the time I didn’t feel like the feud really justified a Cell match blow off because both guys were faces and their feud was more about who was the toughest rather than genuine proper hatred, which is the sort of feud you’d expect to build to a Cell match. It just felt kind of out of place that they’d press the Cell button to finish off what was essentially a respect feud between two faces, but it pretty much assured that we’d get a good match at least.

They waste no time going straight to the slug fest, and it’s the usual good brawl between the two. Whereas Batista had little chemistry with Booker T he has lots with Undertaker, with pretty much every match between them in this 2007 feud being good. Hindsight being 20/20 and all, they probably should have let them close the show at Mania 23, but certainly going into Mania that year it seemed like Shawn/Cena was the safer bet for being the better Main Event, so you can’t really blame WWE on going with them instead. Things soon start getting nasty when Undertaker attacks Batista’s throat with a chair, leading to Batista spitting out some viscous red liquid to sell the weapon shot.

Batista manages to counter Old School into a Spine Buster though, which gets him back into the match and saves him from more throatal assaults. The action here has been really good, with them barely resting at all and just going at it hammer and tongs. It’s quite impressive to see two such big blokes go at it like this. Big Man Slug Fest really was Batista’s specialty and he had some decent matches doing that sort of formula. It’s a shame we never got to see him have a big match with Brock Lesnar at some stage, as I reckon that would have been really good provided he got a motivated Brock to work with who was actually willing to do stuff with him.

Batista does the crimson mask blade job next following another Taker chair attack, but he keeps coming and we get the always impressive Big Man Superplex spot, with close to 700 pounds slamming onto the mat. Taker catches Batista in the Hell’s Gate when he tries to go for the pin though, but Batista rolls out of the ring to break, which leads to Taker diving out onto him and then trying to brain him with the ring steps. Batista’s fights that off though and hits Taker with the steps himself, as both men’s faces are just caked in blood now. I’m not a gore freak personally, but I think it’s perfectly valid to get some juice in a setting where guys are hitting each other in the face like this. It actively adds to the drama in my opinion and it works really well provided you don’t do it too often.

We head inside for the finishing stretch, with both men hitting big moves to get some near falls. It’s done well, with some of the near falls being super close. The only thing I’d say is that the crowd heat is a little disappointing for the kick outs at certain points, but the execution from both men is spot on. One spot that gets a big reaction is when Batista brings a table into the ring and power bombs Taker through it for two. Batista decides to try doing a move onto the steps next, but Taker fights him off and then gets the Tombstone onto the steps for what would appear to be the three count. However, Edge suddenly makes an appearance as a disguised cameraman and beats Taker down, leading to Batista making the cover to retain and robbing everyone of a proper blow off.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: BATISTA
RATING: ****

Thoughts: Another excellent match between these two, as this delivered on what you’d want from two big blokes waling on one another in the Cell setting and the finish, though super cheap, set up the Main Event of Mania 24 nicely with Taker finally getting his revenge on Edge for continuously screwing with him, so it justified itself in the long run

In Conclusion

Those two closing bouts make this one an easy thumbs up, with a mostly solid undercard keeping the rest of the show cooking along. Plenty of good wrestling up and down this one, and one of the last truly gory WWE Main Events before they went PG in 2008.

Recommended show!