Mike Reviews WWE Survivor Series 2014

Happy Survival Friday Everyone!

We’re looking at Survivor Series 2014, partly because the Main Event is good and partly because I don’t really remember whether the rest of the show is any good or not. We’ve got The Authority Vs Team Cena in a Survivor Series match, where if Cena’s team lose then they all get fired. Elsewhere, AJ Lee puts the Diva’s Title up against Nikki Bella and Dean Ambrose seeks vengeance on Bray Wyatt.

You can view the card for Survivor Series 2014 below;

WWE Survivor Series 2014 Card

Survivor Series 2014 is emanating from St. Louis, Missouri on the 23rd of November 2014

Calling the action are Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and JBL

We get the usual dramatic opening video package.

Vince McMahon joins us, because opening a wrestling show with actual wrestling would just be dumb. The gist of the segment is that Vince adds the stipulation to the Main Event that the only way The Authority can be brought back if they lose later on will be if John Cena agrees to it. Vince also makes sure to point out that The Authority will actually be gone from WWE after this and won’t just get a cushy job in the office. This was overly long and dull.

Opening Match
WWE Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Brotherhood (Goldust and Stardust) Vs Damien Mizdow and The Miz Vs The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) Vs Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando) w/ El Torito

Oh wow, is this a gimmick graveyard or what? Stardust is Cody Rhodes, doing his own wacky version of the Goldust character. Mizdow is Damien Sandow playing Miz’s lackey and stunt double, although the twist is that everyone likes Mizdow more and that annoys Miz. It was actually a shockingly effective gimmick for a while. The Usos were still smiley babyfaces at the time. Los Matadores are Primo and Epico Colon made up as matadors because, I guess Vince McMahon felt glamorising the brutal execution of innocent animals for the purposes of entertainment was something he needed to incorporate into his wrestling show? The Matadors do some nice stuff in the early going with Stardust and then Miz, with Mizdow of course copying everything that Miz is doing for laughs from the crowd. Miz refuses to tag in his stunt double when given the chance though for easy cheap heat.

Despite seemingly being the two babyface teams, The Matadors and Uso’s are happy to trade punches and chops with one another. Both The Uso’s and The Matador’s get worked over by the two Heel teams at certain points, with the selling from both of those teams being decent. The actual wrestling has been fine here but, aside from Mizdow’s antics, the crowd hasn’t really cared about it that much. Eventually The Uso’s turn things into a Superkick Luau, leading to the action breaking down and each team having a chance to win it. We get some dives to the floor from the two babyface teams, with even Mexican Mini El Torito delivering a dive at one stage. The crowd still wants Mizdown to get his moment though, and eventually he does when he blind tags in and steals Jimmy’s pin on Goldust in order to give Miz and Mizdow the tag belts.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: MIZ & MIZDOW
RATING: **

Thoughts: The action was decent, but the crowd reactions were lacking at points if it wasn’t Mizdow related, although the fans did get a bit invested once all 8 wrestlers were going at it. Mizdow was very over, so that kept things interesting at least

Miz celebrates with both belts by himself following that, whilst Mizdow slyly steals the pops for himself.

Larry The Cable Guy will be guest starring on Raw tomorrow. But what about Barry The Ironsmith? I guess he’ll be showing up on SmackDown instead.

Adam Rose and The Bunny are playing with the new WWE action figures. Rose is annoyed that Bunny has the temerity to try and win, sowing dissension amongst the two. Heath Slater and Titus O’Neill show up and a match is made for later.

Match Two
Survivor Series Elimination Match
Alicia Fox, Emma, Naomi and Nattie Neidhart w/ Tyson Kidd Vs Cameron, Layla El, Paige and Summer Rae

I have no idea why any of these people want to wrestle one another. I’m going to guess that team Cameron are the Heels, because when they broke her and Naomi up it was Cameron that was the bad guy in that split. Paige, Emma and Neidhart can all wrestle pretty well, whilst Fox and El could potentially have an okay match during this time frame depending on who they were matched up with. Naomi, Cameron and Summer were all considerably greener at the time, so the quality of the match differs depending on who is the ring. The exchanges between Paige and Emma for instance are really good, as they are happy to throwdown and apologise to one another later, with Emma even busting out a Superplex on Paige at one stage. The crowd doesn’t really get that into the action, and some of them even chant for Mizdow to come back out. Cameron’s offence doesn’t look great, but she does at least try to work the crowd and show some personality. Eventually we get The Funkadactyls EXPLODING, as Cameron fights Naomi and it’s pretty awful due to Cameron not really being able to take any of Naomi’s moves properly. Things break down with all 8 wrestlers going at it, and that leads to Naomi rolling up Cameron for three.

Cameron eliminated by Naomi (1) – Roll-Up

Summer and Naomi go at it next, and it’s better than Cameron Vs Naomi at least. There is a funny bit where Summer misses a splash at one stage and Paige just yells “Summer you idiot!” in an exasperated fashion. Paige has been the best part of this match thus far. Fox ends up dragging all three Heels into the ring and cross bodying them, which leads to Summer tagging out so that we get El Vs Fox. That’s not great, but it’s not awful either, and Fox ends up pinning El with a back breaker. Well, it is Survivor Series I guess…

Layla El eliminated by Alicia Fox (1) – Back Breaker

Summer continues to be kayfabe useless, as she gets bettered by Neidhart for a bit until Paige can cheap shot Neidhart from the apron for the cut off. Summer of course blows the advantage by trying to gain Paige’s approval whilst working over Neidhart, which allows Emma to tag in and then put Summer away (whilst actually getting a few faint chants from the crowd) with a modified Indian Deathlock.

Summer Rae eliminated by Emma (1) – Indian Deathlock

Paige actually gets some chants from the crowd, but she decides to try and flee rather than wrestle. Emma drags Paige back, but Paige manages to get the better of Emma and work her over for a bit. Naomi eventually gets tag in though and gets the Koshinaka Flying Arse Attack (thanks Maffew) followed by a head scissors driver type thing for the three count. Naomi’s stuff looked WAY better when she was in there with someone who could actually take the moves properly.

Paige eliminated by Naomi (2)

SURVIVORS: FOX, NAOMI, EMMA AND NEIDHART
MOST ELIMINATIONS: NAOMI (2)
RATING: **

Thoughts: I actually found Summer and Paige as wacky mismatched tag team partners to be kind of fun and I would have been interested to see more of it. The crowd was quiet for most of this, but I didn’t hate it. Neidhart, Emma and Paige were all pretty good in there, and Naomi and Summer had some moments as well

Tyson Kidd of course celebrates with the women like he was also in the match, just for the yuks.

We get some filler next, as we see clips of Fandango w/ Rosa Mendes defeating Justin Gabriel on the pre-show, Bad News Barrett wound people up on his podium, the pre-show panel rabbit on, and then we get a video package for the next match. This is what happens when you load up the Main Event at the expense of everything else I guess.

Match Three
“The Eater of Worlds” Bray Wyatt Vs “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose

Wyatt had cost Ambrose a match back at Hell in a Cell, so Ambrose wants payback here. I’m just glad that after 10 minutes of nothing we’re finally able to watch some wrestling again. It’s a decent back and forth brawl to start, with the fight spilling out to ringside, where Ambrose gets the better of things with a Lariat. Wyatt catches Ambrose with a running cross body back inside the ring though, and that gives us our heat segment. Wyatt does his usual power based brawling offence and weirdo character work, whilst Ambrose sells well, and it’s a serviceable heat segment as a result. The crowd doesn’t seem especially invested or anything, but they do seem to be paying attention at least, which is better than nothing.

Ambrose eventually fights out of a rest hold by attacking Wyatt’s fingers, but Wyatt manages to block Ambrose’s follow-up cross body attempt by just standing there and being big. However, the fight heads out to the floor again, where both wrestlers clothesline one another, which allows Ambrose back onto an even keel when they both get back into the ring. Ambrose makes the official comeback following that, and then mocks Wyatt’s wacky “hanging upside down” taunt. We get some near falls following that, with Ambrose getting two from a school boy roll-up and then a Guillotine Leg Drop. Wyatt replies with a Uranage Slam for a two of his own, as they’ve built this one quite well and it’s been a decent outing.

Wyatt slams Ambrose onto the ring steps outside the ring, but Ambrose manages to kick out once again, with Wyatt getting all sad that Ambrose won’t stay down. Wyatt decides to grab a mic and implore Ambrose to give up, but Ambrose of course refuses, which leads us to the finish where Wyatt throws some chairs into the ring. Ambrose grabs hold of one of the chairs, and then decides to destroy Wyatt with the chair, which is seemingly supposed to be shocking. Err, his nickname is “The Lunatic Fringe”, I think creaming someone he doesn’t like with a chair is pretty on brand in all honesty.

WINNER BY DQ: BRAY WYATT
RATING: ***

Thoughts: Lame finish, but the match itself was well worked and the DQ set up a gimmick match at the next pay per view, so it served a purpose. I think they did need to heat this issue up a bit, as it didn’t feel like the two had a feud deserving of the level of intensity they were going for at points, but having a violent DQ finish did help with that a bit

Ambrose attacks Wyatt with a chair, a table and a ladder following the bout, and the next pay per view happens to be TLC, so even your average viewer of “I’m a Celebrity, get me out of here” would be able to tell where this is going next.

Stephanie McMahon and Triple H promise their team more fame, power and money if they win tonight. Stephanie breaks up a bit, but Tri calms things down and then does the Churchillian speech in order to motivate the flunkies. Heck, even I was scrambling for my wrestling boots after listening to that one!

Match Four
Slater Gator (Heath Slater and Titus O’Neill) Vs Adam Rose and The Bunny w/ The Rose Buds

I have a vague memory of The Bunny (not to be confused with Bad Bunny of course). Bunny is being played by Justin Gabriel here. Rose was the creepy South African hunter from NXT remodelled into an Aldous Snow styled rock star, complete with his own bus and loyal groupies known as “Rose Buds”. Slater and O’Neill as a team is something I have no memory of. Was this before or after 3 Man Band? Rose and The Bunny are basically doing the same gimmick as Miz and Mizdow, in that one guy is being overshadowed by the other, except that the Mizdow stuff is actually over. Rose gets worked over for a bit, but then The Bunny gets the hot tag and pins Slater with a dropkick off the second rope. The crowd doesn’t care.

WINNERS: ROSE & BUNNY
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: Barely a match

The Bunny celebrates with The Rose Buds following that, whilst Rose is left alone in the ring.

Roman Reigns joins us via Titantron to talk about his imminent return to the ring following an injury. Reigns cuts an awkward babyface promo, as they hadn’t worked out that they should turn him Heel yet. The general gist of the promo is that Reigns is healing well and eventually he’s coming for Seth Rollins.

John Cena says that he’ll do everything to keep his team in a job tonight, and they assure him that they know what they signed up for and they have his back tonight.

Match Five
WWE Divas Title
Champ: AJ Lee Vs Nikki Bella w/ Brie Bella

Brie had lost a match and had to become Nikki’s unwilling servant, but now I guess she decides she’s happy to be a lackey for her sister, as she distracts Lee with a kiss at the start of the match and Nikki quickly hits her finisher to win the belt in under a minute.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: NIKKI BELLA
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: To be fair, Lee had apparently attacked Brie on Raw, so she kind of had that one coming. I’m not sure why they didn’t bother doing a proper match here, as it wasn’t like Lee was out of the door yet and she’d be staying in WWE until March 2015

We get more filler, as Bray Wyatt Vs Dean Ambrose is confirmed for TLC. I’m not sure why they couldn’t have saved that announcement for Raw, but hey-ho.

Main Event
Luchas de Apuestas
If The Authority loses then they are removed from power
If Team Cena loses then everyone but Cena is fired
Team Authority: Seth Rollins, Kane, Luke Harper, Mark Henry and Rusev w/ Jamie Noble, Joey Mercury, Lana, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H
Vs
Team Cena: John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan, Big Show and Ryback

The Authority was a Heel stable made up of Stepanie, Triple H, Kane, Seth Rollins and a gaggle of flunkies that had been screwing with Cena, so they set this match up as the next step in the story. My regular interest in the product was starting to wane around this period (And indeed I think one of the last times I ever watched an entire Raw in full was the night after this one) but I think they added the stip for Cena’s team to make you think they could lose and Cena would end up getting them their jobs back somehow. They do a hilarious opening spot, where Triple H fires up Henry in order to send him CHARGING into battle, only for him to run right into a Big Show punch for our first elimination.

Mark Henry Eliminated by Big Show (1) – Punch

Triple H and Stephanie sell that fantastically, with big open mouthed facial expressions, leading to Triple H having his head in his hands. That was a pretty darn great way to start the match actually. It reminded me a bit of the time Shawn Michaels pinned Mike Knox and then turned around to ask who he was. Cena still gets booed when he tags in, despite the fact he’s going against the hated Heel bosses. They tease the big Rowan Vs Harper collision, but Rollins blind tags to stop that, which leads to Rowan doing his Animal Steele wild babyface act. Things settle down into a standard babyface shine, with a Heel coming in and taking some bumps for one of the Faces. Things break down following a Ryback and Rusev sequence, which leads to everyone brawling around the ring. That allows Rollins to sneak in with a cheap shot on Ryback though, and Rusev adds a running kick to eliminate The Big Guy.

Ryback Eliminated by Rusev (1) – Running Kick

Everyone has looked decent here thus far, with Big Show having some good fire and Rollins being great as the snide Heel captain for his team, coming in to get cheap shots and just generally being a hateable little sod. They strangely decide to work some heat on Big Show, even though he’d make way more sense as a hot tag guy. It’s actually Ziggler who gets that tag, and he’s moving at 100mph tonight, but he quickly gets cut off as well. He sells the attacks from the Heels well and the crowd gets behind him, as this was a period where it was looking like he might actually break through the famed glass ceiling.

Ziggler continues to get whomped by the Heels, with Rusev in particular looking impressive as he was also getting the big rocket push at the time as a Heel foreign menace and hadn’t even eaten a pin or submission loss yet. Some of Zigglers bumping here is really wild, and it looks like he’s bordering on trying to end his career early at points. He eventually manages to DDT Rusev for two, which leads to everyone running in again. Hold on *checks watch* ah yes, I do believe that it’s FINSIHER MADNESS! Everyone hits a big move, with Rusev eventually power bombing Ziggler out onto everyone else from inside the ring. Rusev preps the announce tables following that so he can do the old Umaga spot of running across one table to splash an opponent through the other, but Ziggler ends up moving and that leads to Rusev crashing through the table and getting counted out to keep his no jobs streak going. Mil Mascaras would be proud!!

Rusev Eliminated by Count Out

Jamie Noble was great there as the little jobsworth telling the ref to stop counting and then yelling at him following the decision. Fans are so happy that Rusev is gone that they start chanting “USA”. To be honest, they shouldn’t have even put Rusev in this one to begin with if he wasn’t winning, but that was probably the best way to eliminate him once he was in. We get more FINISHER MADNESS (T-Shirts on sale soon) once Rusev is gone, which finally gives us the big Rowan Vs Harper showdown, with the crowd being into Rowan giving Harper a kicking. Rowan looks good too, as he gets to bump the Heels around whilst also taking on Harper, but another cheapshot from Rollins allows Harper to get the Discus Clothesline to eliminate Rowan.

Erick Rowan Eliminated by Luke Harper (1) – Discus Clothesline

Big Show decides at this point that the odds aren’t looking good and does his 177th Face/Heel turn to punch out Cena so that Rollins can pin him, thus getting himself out of the fired stipulation.

John Cena Eliminated by Seth Rollins (1) – Big Show Punch

Big Show Eliminated by Count Out

Ziggler is now in the Bam Bam 87 role, whilst the Heels all gurn about their impending victory. Some of the fans are hoping that Randy Orton will show up to help Ziggler, but he ends up catching Kane with a Zig-Zag OUTTA NOWHERE to reduce the Heel’s numbers.

Kane Eliminated by Dolph Ziggler (1) – Zig-Zag

Technically you could argue that was Zigglers 2nd elimination if you want to give him credit for what happened to Rusev. Ziggler goes right back to selling following that, but the elimination of Kane has given the crowd some hope that Ziggler might actually do this, which continues as he keeps managing to kick out of Harper’s pin fall attempts. What’s good about this as they aren’t booking Ziggler like some kind of Superman, but rather a gutsy guy who just keeps managing to catch guys, which he does again when he manages to sneak another elimination with a cheeky roll up on Harper.

Luke Harper Eliminated by Dolph Ziggler (2) – School Boy

The crowd now believes in Ziggler even more than they did before. In a sane world this would have been the star making match that launched Ziggler into the top of the card forever, but they ended up botching it, because WWE. They continue smartly going with the story of Ziggler being constantly on the defensive but getting the odd move or roll up for a near fall before getting knocked right back down again. Triple H and Stephanie are fantastic at ringside reacting to it all as well. It’s really annoying that they constantly booked Stephanie as the wrestling version of Unicron around this timeframe, as she could actually be a very good performer when they booked her as a normal fallible Heel who could actually be portrayed as weak on occasion.

Rollins’ stooges try to help out their boss but Ziggler fends them off and catches Rollins with the Zig-Zag, which leads to Triple H finally having enough and attacking the referee. Ziggler bravely keeps fighting against the odds, but he’s outnumbered. They smartly give him at least two visual pin fall victories to show that he had enough about him to win it on his own, so that what happens next doesn’t take the shine off the victory too much. Triple H takes out another ref and then lays a beat down on Ziggler which means we’ve reached…

Yes. We’ve reached that.

However, Ziggler gets an unexpected ally in the form of Sting, who makes his WWE debut to a massive crowd reaction. Sting gets the Scorpion Death Drop on Triple H before draping Ziggler on top of Rollins to give him a deserved win and banish The Authority from WWE for all of a month until they brought them back again, even though not having a Heel boss made the show ten times more enjoyable at the time.

SOLE SURVIVOR: DOLPH ZIGGLER
MOST ELIMINATIONS: DOLPH ZIGGLER (3)
RATING: ****

Thoughts: Classic Survivor Series styled storytelling there, as they put Ziggler in the impossible situation, and he totally delivered. This show actually energised me to give the product another chance after months of boring Heel authority antics, but they immediately started teasing that The Authority was on it’s way back and I quickly checked out again

In Conclusion

The Main Event was excellent and the Wyatt Vs Ambrose match was good, but the rest of Survivor Series 2014 was a whole lot of nothing and I spent most of it being bored in all honesty. It didn’t help that the show had so much filler on it, but then again it wasn’t as if the wrestling was so great that we were missing out on not seeing more of it. A thumbs in the middle show if there ever was one, and the big stipulation in the Main Event was wiped out in a month anyway, meaning all that drama was for nothing.

Not a recommended show