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411 PPV Roundtable Preview: WWE Survivor Series 2009
Introduction:
With (fake American) Thanksgiving just around the corner, you know it has to be time for WWE’s own version of the November tradition, that being the Big Four PPV known as Survivor Series. This year, traditional Survivor Series matches make their return with a vengeance, as three of the multi-man elimination format bouts will be on the card. In addition, on the heels of turning on his best friend Rey Mysterio at Bragging Rights, Batista will look to exercise some lack of restraint against WWE’s ultimate underdog. Plus, both World titles are on the line in triple threat matches, as The Undertaker faces the dominant Unified Tag Team champions JeriShow, while John Cena takes on the always dangerous D-Generation X.
And with that said, here’s the 411 Staff that hasn’t already gone into hibernation for the winter, with their thoughts on the upcoming show.
The Staff
Stephen Randle, The Wrestling News Experience
Ari Berenstein, Column of Honor
Julian Bond, Against the Grain
Chad Nevett, High Road/Low Road
J. Alexander Mitchell, 411Politics’ Roundtable
Chris Lansdell, Sparkling Vampire
Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match
John Morrison, Matt Hardy, Evan Bourne, Shelton Benjamin and Finlay
vs.
The Miz, Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger
Stephen Randle: Frankly, aside from Morrison, Miz, Sheamus and Swagger, these teams are built up of guys who lose more than they win. Looking at that lineup, I’d say Miz’s team has a distinct advantage in that regard, and I expect this to be the shortest match, with fast and furious eliminations. I’d look for Sheamus to do something that gets him DQ’d and Miz and Swagger to cost each other the match, leaving Morrison standing tall.
Winner: Team Morrison
Ari Berenstein: I’m glad that WWE scheduled these traditional elimination matches on the pay per view this year–they aren’t always a guarantee to be booked, even though it was the original concept of the show dating back to 1987. I really wish the mini-rivalry that was happening during the build to Bragging Rights between Miz and Morrison would have been built up more on the way to this match–they are after all, team captains. That said, both teams are well-built and even, which means I think we’re in for more a pinball of eliminations, rather than one team taking a decisive advantage. Let’s go with McIntyre and Finlay brawling uncontrollably for a double DQ, Sheamus eliminates Bourne, Hardy rolls up Sheamus from behind, Swagger steals Miz’s glory to eliminate Shelton, Miz pushes Swagger into a Twist of Fate for an elimination by Hardy, Ziggler eliminates Hardy and Morrison rallies from 2 against one to eliminate Ziggler and then Miz. Morrison avenges the Bragging Rights loss.
Winner: TEAM MORRISON–Sole Survivor: John Morrison
Julian Bond: This shoud hopefully be good. Assuming that since Morrison lost last month that he and his team picks up a win here.
Winner: Team Morrison
Chad Nevett: Team Morrison definitely looks more impressive than Team Miz with Hardy, Benjamin, and Finlay as veterans against a team populated almost entirely by rookies/newer guys. That said, I think Team Miz will do alright with it eventually coming down to Matt Hardy and John Morrison against the Miz, Dolph Ziggler, and Jack Swagger. After Morrison gets eliminated, Hardy takes out Ziggler, and the Miz and Hardy go at it for a while with Swagger tagging himself in to ‘steal’ the final pin from the Miz, leaving them as the winners and still rivals.
Winner: Team Miz (Survivors: Miz and Jack Swagger)
J. Alexander Mitchell: Anyone that has played in my Smackdown vs Raw Story Designer stories (which have a thread in the Forums – Cheap Plug Cheap Plug!) knows that I am a HUGE mark for both Miz and Morrison. Toss in a number of the best of the next generation (Bourne, Swagger, Ziggler), and you have a formula for success. Logic and reasoning says to put over your real “young guns” (i.e. Team Miz), but I can’t see John Morrison taking the loss to the Miz on consecutive Pay-Per-Views AND dropping the IC belt to Mr. Ziggles. So… I have to go with…
Winner: Team Morrison (Morrison and Finlay survive)
Lansdell, Sparkling Vampire: Of the two men’s matches, this has the more impressive workrate lineup…but only just. There’s tension throughout it which has been well developed when you consider that it’s a match full of midcarders. There’s tension between a few different combinations too. The team that wins will likely be the team led by the person NOT in line for the major push. I see it like this: Say Morrison is getting the push. Team Miz takes an early lead and it’s 5-2. Morrison and, say, Matt Hardy put up a good fight and eliminate one person. Hardy goes quick, then Morrison takes out everyone but Miz and Ziggler. Ziggler pins him and there you go, Morrison looks strong in defeat and Ziggler gets a pin over his rival, from whom he will likely take the belt.
Winner: Team Miz (Ziggler last pins Morrison with a handful of tights/rope, Miz and Ziggler survive)
Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match
Mickie James, Eve Torres, Kelly Kelly, Melina, and Gail Kim
vs.
Michelle McCool, Jillian Hall, Beth Phoenix, Layla and Alicia Fox
Stephen Randle: Nobody really cares, so let’s pretend we do. This is Beth Phoenix’s return to legitimate competition after effortlessly squashing jobbers (and hey, maybe WWE should think about hiring some of those jobbers, since they can actually wrestle), and I’d expect her to do all the heavy lifting here, pretty much running through the face team and re-establishing her total dominance of the division. Of course, McCool will also survive and take all the credit, and there’s your title feud.
Winner: Team McCool
Ari Berenstein: It’s a woman’s match, which overall doesn’t affect the WWE landscape either way. So you could have a face win to give the crowd something to be happy about; or the heels the win to push title contention issues. Eve and Kelly are the obvious weak links on the face side and hopefully will be kept limited to their spots and quickly eliminated. Layla is the lone weak diva on the heel side, with everyone else being adequate or better in the ring (Hall has been kept away from the ring, but she can do fine when called upon). Given how horrible Melina has been in the ring as of late, botching her moves left and right, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her eliminated first in something of a “shocking” moment. Let’s say it comes down to McCool and Phoenix against Mickie James, with both of them squabbling as to who gets to finish her off. McCool waylays Phoenix and tosses her out of the ring and uses the Faith Breaker on James for the win. Then McCool and Phoenix get into a pull-apart, setting up a Phoenix face turn of sorts. Yeah, this is actually an interesting twist, so don’t expect it to happen, but that’s how I’d do it.
Winner: Team McCool–Survivors: Michelle McCool and Beth Phoenix
Julian Bond: It’s silly of me to keep doing this method for the last few women’s matches…but they’ve been seriously lacking in the storyline department with everyone and thus makes me care a little less about watching them. So…with a coin flip…Team McCool
Winner: Team McCool
Chad Nevett: Since the heel Divas won at Bragging Rights, the face Divas win here to make up for that. I don’t care enough to predict who survives.
Winner: Team Mickie
J. Alexander Mitchell: I may be the only person looking forward to this, but so be it. I think Kelly Kelly, Alicia Fox, and Eve Torres all have raised specific aspects of their in-ring abilities, so it is fascinating watching all three try to work towards becoming some sort of complete package. More to the point, it is very obvious that Beth Phoenix is being made into the “unstoppable force” in the Women’s Division, and an inevitable run as a face against McCool. If I thought for a moment WWE cared about the Women enough to make an angle out of it, I would say that Team Mickie wins after miscommunication between Beth and Michelle. However, as logic and reasoning for the Divas would only play out in Story Designer Fantasy-land and not real life…
Winner: Team McCool (Beth Phoenix and Michelle McCool survive)
Lansdell, Sparkling Vampire: I hope Layla and Kelly Kelly go out early, making the match slightly more watchable. Really this could go either way (That’s what she said) and make sense, but with Maryse about to come back she pretty much has to cost either Melina or Michelle a fall. Since Maryse left from Raw, and Raw has a face champ, and Maryse is a natural heel…
Winner: Team Michelle (Beth Phoenix survives, pins Melina via Maryse-ference)
Traditional Survivor Series Match
Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, MVP, R-Truth and Christian
vs.
Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, William Regal and CM Punk
Stephen Randle: Well, here’s the star-studded match. Again, the face team seems overstocked with guys who lose more than they win, and this time I see the cohesive team of Legacy being too much for an overmatched Kingston to overcome, as we pull the “Shawn Michaels comes from 3-1 down and nearly wins, but falls short” angle.
Winner: Team Orton
Ari Berenstein: Kofi has been handled incredibly well this past month and he has been set up as matching Orton on the “cerebral” game, but this match will be the real test to see if WWE can position Kofi as an equal to Orton in the ring. Everyone else is a backdrop to that story, unfortunately for Christian, Regal and CM Punk, who could have played a better part in setting up their roles in the elimination match. This is the match when I think you can book the huge babyface disadvantage and really push Kofi to make a huge comeback. Also, Orton’s Survivor Series matches have come down to a 3-on-1 or greater advantage for his team several times in the past (Batista in ’08 and Shawn Michaels in 2003). Christian eliminates William Regal with the KillSwitch. Kozlov and Jackson beatdown Christian, leaving him easy prey for CM Punk. Meanwhile Legacy takes the opportunity to jump Henry and MVP. Orton punts Henry for the elimination, then MVP is taken out as well. Punk gets R-Truth with the GTS and Kofi finds himself in 4 against 1 odds. Kofi gets Punk on a roll up and Rhodes with Trouble in Paradise. Miscommunication between Orton and DiBiase allows Kofi to eliminate DiBiase, bringing it to one-on-one with Orton. Kofi holds his own and kicks out of an RKO. He gets a Trouble in Paradise, but Rhodes and DiBiase for the distraction prevents the 3 count. Orton with a second RKO for the final elimination.
Winner: Team Orton–Sole Survivor: Randy Orton
Julian Bond: This should definitely be a good bout here. Me thinks that Kofi is left in some kind of a handicap situation as sole survivor (probably against Legacy/Orton), almost gets the wins, and then gets dropped by a good RKO.
Winner: Team Orton
Chad Nevett: Looking at both teams, I think Team Orton has a bit of an edge over Team Kingston. After a few eliminations, I predict it will come down to Kofi Kingston and Christian facing off against Randy Orton and CM Punk with Orton eliminating Kingston, Christian eliminating CM Punk, and Christian managing to take out Orton.
Winner: Team Kingston (Sole Survivor: Christian)
J. Alexander Mitchell: The buildup of Kofi Kingston takes precedence above all else. WWE desperately needs fresh Main Event players, and that is exactly what Randy Orton is doing for Kofi. In fact, my main thought is to have Kofi break Orton’s version of “The Streak”, as he is often the Sole Survivor in these things. As such, I say Kofi takes the win here before doing the eventual final job (during which he will get elevated in either case…)
Winner: Team Kofi (Kofi Kingston is the sole survivor)
Lansdell, Sparkling Vampire: This could be special, given time. Kofi is on a major roll right now and need to look dominant here, even if he loses to Orton in the end. Legacy and Team Kool-Aid will continue their feud here, with each one picking up a fall I reckon, and Regal and R-Truth are making up numbers. In fact, the trade might be Christian for R-Truth and someone else if the plan is to get Christian to SD. In that case look for Truth or Regal to get the pin on the other. I can see this coming down to Orton and Punk vs Kofi and Christian, with Kofi and Orton getting the double countout. Which leaves us with…
Winner: Team Kofi (Christian pins Punk and is sole survivor)
Rey Mysterio vs. Batista
Stephen Randle: Rey apparently needs surgery, and with Batista already threatening to pretty much destroy the smaller man, the angle is ready made for this to be an absolute slaughter for the Animal. Which is really a shame, since this is pretty much only the second angle involving Batista since he first won the World title that he hasn’t been feuding over either the title itself or a shot at the title. Which begs the question, what’s next for Batista?
Winner: Batista
Ari Berenstein: I expect this to be kept short and brutal. Rumors abound about Mysterio taking time for another knee surgery, so this could be the time to write him out and set up Batista against Taker for next month. I say Mysterio will get some surprisingly close pinfall attempts, but ultimately Batista gets him with the Batista Bomb for the three count. Not willing to settle for just the win, Batista unmercifully injures him post-match.
Winner: Batista
Julian Bond: Oh good lord!!! Batista is FINALLY heel once again…thank god! Bless the guy, but he’s been way stale as a face for awhile and definitely is a good direction for him now as a heel. So here I believe he will murder Mysterio to continue their so-far pretty good feud.
Winner: Batista
Chad Nevett: Batista needs to sell his new heel character, Rey needs more surgery, sounds like a quick, violent squash to me, and that would be fantastic. You so rarely see one main eventer utterly dominate another and that’s the perfect way to establish Big Dave as a monster heel that everyone should be afraid of.
Winner: Batista
J. Alexander Mitchell: Hmmm… Rey’s hurt, and Undertaker will need a feud after dispatching Jerishow. I wonder how this turns out…
Winner: Rey Mysterio by Disqualification, after which Batista beats him into Recovery Time.
Lansdell, Sparkling Vampire: This should be interesting. Rey comes in as the huge underdog, as usual, and for me there’s only so long that can go on before it gets tiring. Batista is over as a heel already, but an absolute demolition of Rey will put him in ther stratosphere of heeldom. It probably won’t last long, and it will be all Batista with token flurries of speedy offence from Rey.
Winner: Batista
The Undertaker © vs. Chris Jericho vs. The Big Show
Stephen Randle: Conventional wisdom suggests that Taker walks out with the belt because there’s really no reason to give it to either tag champ. However, the part of me that wants to be happy looks ahead to the next PPV and decides which of these three guys he’d rather see in a TLC match: the 500 pound behemoth, the 45-year old zombie coming off hip surgery, or one of the most versatile pro wrestlers in WWE. Hmmmmmmmm….
Winner: Chris Jericho
Ari Berenstein: Taker and Big Show is a hit-or-miss proposition, so it will be up to Jericho to guide this match through the possibly rough waters. Show and Jericho will likely work together for most of the match, with one miscommunication or two possibly testing their teamwork. Taker will find his way to the win here.
Winner: Undertaker retains the World Heavyweight Title.
Julian Bond: Taker and Show suprisingly tore it up last year in a good series of matches and with Jericho added to the mix, this should be just as good. With my thinking of Show/Jericho retaining the tag belts until Edge returns and Taker probably holding the belt for a few more until Batista takes it back (with myself giving a far FAR ahead prediction of Batista vs Cena II at Wrestlemania…calling it now!!), the result is a given.
Winner and STILL World Champion: The Undertaker
Chad Nevett: When this match was first announced with just the Big Show and the Undertaker, my girlfriend was really upset since that sounded rather bad, and I agreed. Adding Jericho to the mix really alters the dynamic and it’s telling that the build up so far has focused on Jericho and the Undertaker with the Big Show only showing up in a way that a teammate/friend might, not someone who’s also in the match. I expect this match to serve two purposes: create a divide in JeriShow and set up a Jericho/Undertaker feud, and the best way to do that is by having Jericho win by pinning the Big Show.
Winner and NEW World Heavyweight Champion: Chris Jericho
J. Alexander Mitchell: Notice how I dismissed Jerishow as winning above?
Winner: The Undertaker
Lansdell, Sparkling Vampire: At some point, Taker HAS to realise he’s not doing anyone any favours by holding the belt. Sure he’s the biggest name in the company (arguably), but he’s broken down. The problem becomes, are you really giving the belt to one of the unified tag champs? Seems unlikely at this point, but who else on SmackDown is there? Are they going to hold off a month and let Batista beat Taker for the belt? Heck of a corner into which they have painted themselves, but if Dx-JeriShow IS on the radar, they only have one option. For my scenario to work, this has to be the final match.
Winner: Undertaker (pins Jericho, DX-ference)
John Cena © vs. HBK vs. HHH
Stephen Randle: So many ways to justify it, and I guess we should thank the Chavo-Hornswoggle feud for kickstarting the whole inane “DX vs the copyright infringing leprechaun” stuff that will ultimately cost them the match. Is the heel turn on for one or the other? Who knows at this point, but I’ve still got HHH vs HBK pencilled in for Mania for some reason, so let’s crank up the tension a little. Anyway, Cena wins, but you already knew that.
Winner: John Cena
Ari Berenstein: The interview this past Monday where D-X said they would not turn on each other could mean the obvious axiom of the opposite will happen in pro-wrestling. I think this may have been a red herring though and we’ll see more of the typical WWE three-way booking, with one member of D-X being hurt or taken out while the other is left to go head-to-head against Cena. I say Cena retains with the Attitude Adjustment on HBK. Another possibility could be that Jericho and Big Show, miffed that they didn’t get their piece of the action, interfere in this match to prevent D-X from succeeding where they failed. That could be used to set up a tag title match at next month’s PPV. But who am I kidding? WWE still doesn’t like to push their tag division like they ought to–and D-X has always acted like they were above the tag team titles (see 2006 against The Spirit Squad) even though it would be a really cool moment to see them win it against anyone, but most especially Jerishow. Oh yeah, there’s also the fact that D-X attacked Hornswogglethemidget, who will likely make his way out during this match (oh I can’t wait!!!! (Yes I can)) and do something stupid to exact some revenge. Hooray.
Winner: John Cena retains the WWE Title
Julian Bond: This other Triple Threat should be good as well with the past with all three (despite the 100th combination of Cena vs HHH…again!!!). My crazy brain thinks that Cena is probably going to hold onto the belt for the long haul to set-up some kind of crazy World Title vs World Title match at Wrestlemania against Batista. But even if my crazy prediction doesn’t come true, me thinks Cena will retain the belt at least for a couple more months.
Winner and STILL WWE Champion: John Cena
Chad Nevett: Much like the initial announcement of Taker/Big Show, this one was a surprise, but it’s grown on me. An all face triple threat match means we should probably expect someone from DX to turn heel here to betray their partner. They’ve really been pushing the whole DX as a unit angle and that they’ll be happy with either one winning the belt, so that seems like a logical point of friction in the match itself at some point. I’m predicting Michaels to betray Trips after the two of them take out Cena. Michaels’s second run in the WWE has been almost exclusively a face run, so he’s due to turn heel and it could be played as an ego-driven move to stop being the goofy sidekick and reassert himself as the Showstopper while evoking his ’90s self.
Winner and NEW WWE Champion: Shawn Michaels
J. Alexander Mitchell: This one is the only toughie. My thought right now is that Randy Orton is the only top-tier heel on Raw. That means someone has to turn. The question is only “Trips or Michaels”. And in that… there is no question – HHH and Michaels lose, and the lure of the title is enough to make HHH drop the glow-sticks…
Winner: John Cena
Lansdell, Sparkling Vampire: Despite the fact that the build for this has centered on a leprechaun who is wearing DX merchandise without paying for it despite a legal injunction (man, what happened to fighting because you didn’t like the other guy?), this match can be all sorts of awesome. HBK is great, and both Cena and HHH can put on very good matches with the right person or when motivated. If my theory is correct, Cena holds on here.
Winner: John Cena (pins HHH, JeriShow-ference)
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