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411 PPV Roundtable Preview – WWE Survivor Series 2012

November 17, 2012 | Posted by Stephen Randle

Introduction

We’re back, and by “we” I mean the 411 Staff, and what we’re back to do is give you another round of predictions for the latest WWE PPV! This Sunday, what was once a glorious, Big Four PPV, Survivor Series, will be presented for your (hopefully) enjoyment. What was once a night dedicated to teamwork and surviving in a unique match format is now represented by a single 5-on-5 elimination match, but if that’s all we’re getting, then, well, I guess we’ll take it.

Meanwhile, CM Punk looks to extend his legendary title reign, but the odds are stacked against him as he must face both Ryback and John Cena, and does not have to be pinned to lose his WWE Title. And after dominating Sheamus to take his World Heavyweight title, The Big Show will face the Celtic Warrior one more time in a rematch for the championship. Plus, the Divas and United States titles will also be on the line.

So, without further ado, let’s see what we’ve got on tap for this weekend!

The Staff

Stephen Randle, The Wrestling News Experience

TJ Hawke, Views From The Hawke’s Nest

James Wright, The Heel Report

Michael Weyer, Shining A Spotlight

Greg DeMarco, The Greg DeMarco Show

Jack Bramma, Ring Crew Reviews

Michael Ornelas, The TV List

Ken Hill, live Raw recapper


Eve Torres © vs Kaitlyn
Divas Championship

Stephen Randle: Who cares? The NXT Diva crew simply can’t get here fast enough.

Winner: Eve Torres

TJ Hawke: Speaking of matches I give zero fucks about. Divas matches are such a waste of time on PPV, and at this point, I wouldn’t care if the division was done away with all together. I’ll say Eve wins, because of the very complicated mathematical formula I developed for Diva matches prognostication.

Winner: Eve Torres

James Wright: Botched ending of a Battle Royal eventually leads to the botcher getting a title match, proving that perception is reality in the WWE. This match doesn’t matter, but I still have hope for NXT and the future of the divas division after this current crop has been and gone.

Winner: Eve

Michael Weyer: Get coin….flip it….Hey, seems to work for whoever does the booking for the Divas lately.

Winner and STILL Divas Champion: Eve

Greg DeMarco: There are many reports that big changes are coming for the Divas division, including the calling up of a few developmental divas. This won’t happen right away, so the WWE might as well see what they have in Kaitlyn.

Winner: Kaitlyn (and NEW Divas Champion)

Jack Bramma: Eve retains.

Winner: Eve

Michael Ornelas: I like Kaitlyn, but I think the WWE missed their chance to put the title on her this time around. But she’s a different kind of talker for a Diva and one of the more improved in-ring performers this year. I think she has a bright future, but Eve vs. AJ seems like the next logical step, and I think that needs the Divas Championship involved.

Winner: Eve Torres

Ken Hill: I agree with the Raw Instant Analysis on this one. The writers did nothing to advance the storyline of who attacked Kaitlyn and made it seem like just another day in the Divas Division. Well, this is just another title defense that I really don’t care about.

Winner: Eve Torres


Antonio Cesaro © vs R-Truth
United States Championship

Stephen Randle: Is Little Jimmy still around, or are we back to boring old rapping R-Truth? In any event, this is the latest in a string of opponents that Cesaro should probably be above, but I guess we shouldn’t be upset that he’s being booked not only strong, but as a strong titleholder.

Winner: Antonio Cesaro

TJ Hawke: Of all the people for the former Claudio Castagnoli to face off against, R-Truth is one of the people I’m least interested in seeing work with. Cesaro has yet to have a strong PPV match, and I don’t expect this match to be the one that breaks the streak.

Winner: Antonio Cesaro

James Wright: It’s funny because although TNA has basically no one in each division bar the champion and the challenger if you look at the match-ups for the secondary titles they were much more promising than this affair. This match will probably be over in five minutes and be pure filler.

Winner: Antonio Cesaro

Michael Weyer: Cesaro still isn’t exactly firing things up lately but has potential still. I don’t see a title change here, Truth doesn’t really need a belt and WWE still wants to push Cesaro on so he retains and hopefully gets some decent challenges soon.

Winner and STILL US Champion: Antonio Cesaro

Greg DeMarco: Ah, the battle of men who should be captaining Survivor Series elimination match teams including Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd (Truth) and The Prime Time Players, Primo & Epico (Cesaro). But alas, this is another defense for Cesaro, and one that I suspect he’ll win convincingly.

Winner: Antonio Cesaro (STILL United States Champion)

Jack Bramma: If WWE is serious about turning Miz face and putting him in a feud with Cesaro, there is no reason to put the US belt on Truth. As much as I like Truth especially compared to how apathetic or outright disliking others seem to be of him, I can’t see any good reason to put the belt on him. He’s kind of floating since the tag break up with Kofi and this is a way to use his talents and remaining overness with the crowd without relegating him to comedy nothing status with Zack Ryder and Santino (which is probably next for him).

Winner: Antonio Cesaro

Michael Ornelas: Cesaro is a beast and has WWE’s support, so I don’t see him losing the belt before WrestleMania unless he trades it with someone in a heated feud to elevate the title. When he debuted, I was fearful of his character, but I knew that Claudio Castagnoli had all the tools for success in the big leagues. Here we are almost seven months later, and he has figured out how to get his gimmick over and incorporate his inhuman strength into matches. It doesn’t matter that I only know how to say “winner” in two languages — “Antonio Cesaro” is his name in every tongue.

Winner: Antonio Cesaro

Ken Hill: Not that I don’t mind Cesaro facing off with a variety of opponents to give the US Title some credibility, but when did Truth insert himself into the mix? They made it seem like he and Cesaro have had this beef for a couple months when in fact we heard nothing of the sort until after HITC. Either us fans have short attention spans, or the writers do. I’d put big money on the latter.

Winner: Antonio Cesaro


Miz, Kane, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston, and Randy Orton
vs
Wade Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio, Cody Rhodes, and Damien Sandow

Survivor Series Match

NOTE: Cody Rhodes suffered a concussion and shoulder injury and is questionable for the PPV. Most picks were made before his injury became public

Stephen Randle: With most of the intrigue moved into the WWE Title match, all that’s left is the fact that it would be odd to have Miz turn face, then lose his first big PPV match the next week. I mean, they’re idiots, but this is as close to idiot-proof booking as I can think. At the very least, even if Miz gets eliminated due to Daniel Bryan screwing him out of jealousy, Randy Orton’s still on that team, and he doesn’t lose Survivor Series matches.

Winner: Team Foley

TJ Hawke: The traditional Survivor Series matches haven’t really been anything special for a good while. There’s plenty of talent in this match to have a good match. When the booking of the match was originally about a personal issue between Punk and Foley, I had some hope that this would be the year where we would get another great match. However, with all the booking changes, I am now much less hopefully. I assume this match will still be somewhat good.

Winner: Team Foley

James Wright: Say what you will about all the last minute shuffling that has gone on but this match actually has quite a lot of potential in the form of a newly face-turned Miz, a possibly face-turning Ziggler, and a potentially heel-bound Randy Orton. All types of things could happen in this match and the winning team and ratio of that winning team is completely up in the air. When it was Punk and Ryback I reckon it would have been like 4-1 in favour of Punk’s team and then Ryback just takes everyone out, including the WWE champion, so that he looked strong but didn’t actually achieve anything from it. As it is we will just have to wait and see, any number of guys could turn on each other but I will go with the Miz coming out on top simply because of his featuring on the poster.

Winner: Team Foley

Michael Weyer: The Miz face turn was pretty sudden, the guy is a great heel so not sure how long it will last. Always tricky figuring things out with these bouts but see Kane and Bryan getting each other eliminated to push them on as Miz and Ziggler go at it. Not going to say who eliminates who but believe Team Foley wins, hard to see it going down after the build even with Ryback and Punk out of the bout overall.

Winner: Team Foley

Greg DeMarco: Line-up changes, face turns, and injuries are all impacting this match. Yet I still think it will get a lot of time and will be highly entertaining. There’s a chance that Cody Rhodes could be out of the match, and reports are that Tensai will be in. I’d rather see Mark Henry fill the role, but that’s just me.

I think the most fun part of evaluating the match is looking at the face team and imagining all of the finishers that Dolph Ziggler will take during the match (this is if he doesn’t walk out of the match—see why below)! We should draw up a grid and take bets…

In its original form, I suspected the faces to win with Ryback pinning Punk in the end. Now that both men are out of the match, I am sticking with the face team to win and Randy Orton and Miz will serve as the sole survivors.

Winner: Team Foley (The Miz, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, Kane & Daniel Bryan), Miz & Orton are the sole survivors

Jack Bramma: Taking Punk, Ryback, and Foley out of the mix as team captains REALLY makes this lose a lot of luster. What was a main event now seems like a typical, bloated tag match that WWE will throw out occasionally like on RAW this past week with the PTPers, Primo, and Epico against Rey/Cara, Gabriel, and Tyson Kidd. This match just comes off as an upgraded version of that that’ll probably get twice as much time but no have lasting consequences. Throw a stipulation in there — last survivors get the opportunity at a number 1 contender’s match or something. Steal the great 2004 stipulation where the winner’s got to be GM of RAW for a week each. Instead, the faces will take this one with a big advantage having at least 3 survivor if not more.

Winner: Miz, Daniel Bryan, and Randy Orton survive.

Michael Ornelas: The build to this has gotten the most TV time, and it’s been well done because I really want to see this match. I feel like this match is now being used as either a way to put over The Miz as a babyface, or Dolph Ziggler to get momentum with the briefcase. If I learned anything from Daniel Bryan’s WHC run earlier this year, it’s that you really CAN get over without momentum at the point of cashing in, so I think the priority here should be letting Miz play the sympathetic face-in-peril before pulling out the unlikely victory.

Winner: Team Foley (The Miz is the only survivor)

Ken Hill: Whether Cody makes or ends up reportedly replaced by Tensai is something I find to be inconsequential. However, with news abound that WWE’s looking to push Sandow as a main event threat, I’d look for him to be an essential part of this match and possibly end up at the end with Randy Orton. A high-profile feud with Orton could help elevate Sandow to the level WWE’s hoping to put him at in the future.

Winner(s): Wade Barrett & Damien Sandow


Big Show © vs Sheamus
World Heavyweight Championship

Stephen Randle: Boy, this totally needed a rematch. After at least putting effort into booking the first meeting between these two, it’s basically just been “oh, yeah, they’re going to face at Survivor Series” and then the booking went into auto-pilot. There’s a slim chance Ziggler cashes in here, but I’d suggest that TLC would provide a better format for Show and Sheamus to beat the stuffing out of each other and then be too tired to fend off Ziggler.

Winner: Big Show

TJ Hawke: Can lightning strike twice? Yes, but it won’t happen here. Big Show will randomly have good matches every once in a while (remember that oddly riveting series of matches with Taker in circa 2009?).

Winner: Big Show

James Wright: Will there be enough of Ziggler after the Survivor Series match to cash in his MitB briefcase? Well last month a clothesline from Cena in the pre-show kept him from appering in the event so I would suggest that the answer is no. So here I will be going with Sheamus, unless we get a surprise face turn for Ziggler, although that is unlikely with the recent Miz face turn. I see Sheamus regaining the belt, proving that he can be the comeback kid and win against a tough challenge, showing how he has matured. If this match goes the way I think it will though makes me wonder exactly when Ziggler will be able to cash in and not take yet another Brogue Kick for his trouble.

Winner: Sheamus (New World Champion)

Michael Weyer: The change last month was rather sudden as Show doesn’t really need a big belt like this. It seems to set up Sheamus regaining it to a big pop unless of course Ziggler finally cashes in but I’m not sure of that yet. Either way, Sheamus wins it back here, sells him as more of a star who the crowd loves and makes the title win more meaningful.

Winner and NEW World Champion: Sheamus

Greg DeMarco: Dolph Ziggler (amongst others) has alluded to the heel Survivor Series match team being abandoned by its leader. Something tells me (I’m likely wrong about this) that Dolph is also going to abandon the same team early into the match. Why? Because Sheamus is going to roll-up The Big Show out of nowhere to regain his championship, Show is going to react by knocking Sheamus out with the WMD, allowing Dolph to cash in. Thus, he’ll have nothing to gain and everything to lose by wrestling in the elimination match.

This will be a good match that might fall just shy of what they did at Hell in a Cell, but I’ll stick with my above prediction just for the fun of it.

Winner: Sheamus (and NEW World Heavyweight Champion), Ziggler cashes in and wins the title

Jack Bramma: Big Show screams transition champ (if you can count transitioning from the same person as a transition champ). This is basically Edge’s 3 week reign back in 2005 between New Year’s Revolution and the Royal Rumble. It’s a way to long-term keep the belt on Sheamus without having the fans completely turn on him due to boredom and impatience. The ever so slight Big Show mark in me wants to credit the big man and admit that he’s earned this reign with how he sank his teeth into a renewed heel turn and main event run; it wants to go even further and talk myself into Big Show retaining here because this Show/Sheamus program feels like one of those inconsequential angles to get us through the RR. However, unless WWE plans on going full bore with Dolph to challenge at Wrestlemania — it’s more likely that Dolph/Sheamus is that match at the RR. Instead, I see Sheamus regaining the belt here, only for Dolph to cash in and win it back. That’ll take us into next month where Show is now the one making fun of Sheamus for being the chump this year and having a very short reign. Show/Sheamus/Dolph at TLC. Though, it’s possible, they just wait and do that at TLC after a chair’s match between Show/Sheamus like they did with Daniel Bryan last year. Lot of options. I’ll go with Sheamus winning and Dolph cashing in.

Winner: Sheamus wins, Dolph cashes in and beat him

Michael Ornelas: The Big Show has had a hell of a run in the past couple years, and this is his reward. There’s no way he loses this belt until Elimination Chamber at the earliest, but I think he’s going to walk into WrestleMania as the champion against a Royal Rumble-winning challenger named Ryback. We’ll see though. All I know is that it’d be pointless to put the strap back on Sheamus.

Winner: The Big Show

Ken Hill: This one has me curious, as Regal’s been in the mix as Sheamus’s friend/mentor getting beat up by Show and talking about how he’s getting the “itch” to wrestle again. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Regal cost Sheamus the match and the two enter into a brief, but physically entertaining feud before Sheamus goes right back after the World Title.

Winner: The Big Show


CM Punk © vs Ryback vs John Cena
Triple Threat Match
WWE Championship

Stephen Randle: Nice to know that even though they tear the house down every time they face, Cena vs Punk is now something we can throw away on Raw and then as part of a Triple Threat that was booked in a rush because Vince had a sudden attack of “oh my God, we didn’t book a WWE Title match and even though we’ve only got three weeks between PPV’s, this is the perfect time to change horses in midstream”. Anyway, it’s fair to say this meaningless match will extend Punk’s title reign, leave Cena to eat a pin and leave Ryback still strong. Don’t know who Ryback will face next, but at least he’ll still be strong!

Winner: CM Punk

TJ Hawke: It seems pretty obvious that this is a triple threat to make The Ryback look strong (or at least not weak), while also keeping the belt on Punk. WWE triple threat matches are usually put together to at least be entertaining, so I can’t imagine this match won’t at least be that.

Winner: CM Punk

James Wright: As well as the traditional Survivor Series match being a tossup this one actually doesn’t seem so cut and dry to me. After all while Punk’s title reign is a big deal it will have been long enough so that if he drops the belt to Cena or Ryback it will still have been a mamoth reign. Also going into things with the Rock I don’t think the steak matters as no one believes that he will be able to walk out with the belt and by then he would have beaten Cena’s longest reign and be moving onto the impossible numbers so even if Punk somehow managed to retain against the Rock it wouldn’t make it more likely for him to surpass anyone else. Whereas if Cena or Ryback win they can either go on to face the Rock, which would be interesting either way, or they could drop the belt at TLC, putting Punk back as champion just in time to face the Great One. The WWE could go so many ways with this one but I am going to go with the safe choice and pick Punk to retain since the company seems to be afraid to take even low level risks at the moment, pathetic.

Winner: C.M. Punk

Michael Weyer: Let’s face it, Ryback is just not right at this point as champion. He’s just Goldberg lite, not quite as over as some believe and even beating the two big stars of the company might not be enough to sell him as a champ. It’s tempting to say Cena but he’s been without a belt for a year and still massively over so not sure about him winning either. Punk is just tearing it up as the heel champ and a three-way match usually favors the champion anyway. Seeing him hold it into 2013 is very tempting so I think WWE lets Punk retain with a cheap pin and continue his good run, especially with the Lawler angle coming up to give him more to run with.

Winner and STILL WWE Champion: CM Punk

Greg DeMarco: The Vince McMahon Special. My theory is that Triple H, who has been pushing old school ideals such as long title reigns and tag team wrestling, wanted to have a traditional 5-on-5 elimination style Survivor Series match to, you know, main event the pay-per-view. I believe Vince McMahon lost some sleep over CM Punk and Ryback being lost in the shuffle of the match and John Cena—the company’s biggest star—on the undercard against Dolph Ziggler after sitting the last PPV out.

This, the card was changed because, well, it’s Vince’s company. This match will be interesting, as we get to see John Cena sell for Ryback (and Ryback sell for Cena). The finish of this match, however, does create some intrigue. The winner likely breezes through WWE: TLC and jobs to meets The Rock in the main event of the Royal Rumble PPV. I truly believe that the WWE is going with Rock-Cena at WrestleMania 29. But with recent talk that the company is planning to have CM Punk in the main event of the biggest show of the year, that could change. if we’re headed towards Rock-Punk at ‘Mania, then Punk loses here. If we’re headed to Rock-Cena at ‘Mania, then Punk wins. The best part? The most valuable move the company could make is to have Ryback win the title. I see the obvious happening, as CM Punk steals Ryback’s pin on John Cena. But don’t rule out a run-in by Brad “The Glory Hog” Maddox. The company is reportedly high on him, and rightfully so.

Winner: CM Punk (still WWE Champion)

Jack Bramma: Why would they put over either Cena or Ryback in this match? If they wanted a Ryback reign, last month was the perfect opportunity. If they wanted Cena, they had the MITB cash-in, Summerslam, Night of Champions, etc. It would just make no sense to take the belt off Punk at this point when he and Rock are building to an epic clash at RR just based on the sheer length of Punk’s reign. Hell, this match didn’t even exist until a couple of weeks ago when it was still Team Punk vs. Team Foley/Ryback. No way Punk loses. Instead, somehow Cena and Ryback piss each other off to go off and feud on their own while Punk keeps the belt to face Foley next month at TLC.

Winner: CM Punk

Michael Ornelas: If the WWE was scrambling to figure out a way to let CM Punk keep the WWE Championship in a singles match against Ryback at Hell in a Cell just three weeks ago, I don’t think he’s losing the title here. That being said, I still really want to see how this match plays out. It seems like the obvious choice that CM Punk will pin John Cena after Ryback Shellshocks him and steals the win, but I don’t think that’s exactly what we’ll see, so I’m eager to find out what they do.

Winner: CM Punk

Ken Hill: Don’t let the end of RAW this past Monday fool you; The Triple Threat gives Punk an easy out here with the tease of Ryback and Cena going postal on one another. Again, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Punk steal a pin on Cena off a Ryback Meathook or Shell-Shock. While I don’t like the switch any more than Punk or Foley, it should be interesting to see how Punk’s two near-invincible opponents will interact.

Winner: CM Punk

Overall Thoughts

Stephen Randle: WWE’s in autopilot until the Rumble and the haphazard booking that will get nobody over shows in spades here. Survivor Series was rescued from the scrap heap last year by The Rock’s appearance, this year looks like it might be the swan song for the former Big Four PPV.

Buy/No Buy: No Buy

TJ Hawke: Don’t buy this show. WWE doesn’t deserve your money for this show.

Buy/No Buy: No Buy

James Wright: Just like the last two WWE events there is a lot of potential for change at this event based on the results, and yet the last two times they didn’t do anything to really shake things up and felt rather anti-climactic, so either the third time is the charm or fool me three times, you have cost me far too much money for this pointless shit. So basically I am saying that I wouldn’t risk it, despite the possibility for change, especially if you did end up paying for Turning Point, it is shameful but I honestly don’t think that overall Survivor Series will be as good.

Buy/No Buy: No Buy

Michael Weyer: Sad to see what was once a key card for WWE now just a regular PPV. Just don’t see much worth shelling out money for as believe that Punk retains, Sheamus regains and not much else going down. TLC might give us more of a push but right now, WWE is still just treading water creatively and not sure if worth paying just to watch another filler PPV for the year.

Buy/No Buy: No Buy

Greg DeMarco: This is a three match show, but most WWE PPVS are a two match show. I think this show will provide some entertaining moments, and could even be memorable. It’s worth your money.

Buy/No Buy: Buy

Jack Bramma: I was ready for Team Foley vs. Team Punk and since WWE has up-ended that, the show has lost a lot of momentum with me personally. I’m marginally excited for both title matches but not enough to justify the price tag. I’ll pass.

Buy/No Buy: No Buy

Michael Ornelas: Survivor hasn’t felt like a “Big Four” quality show in a looooong time. But it has had some pretty good championship matches booked on it over the years, and this one is no different. The traditional Survivor Series gimmick match is always a fun formula to watch as well, and this year, we’ll (likely) be getting two of those. I’m busy Sunday night, so I have to default and say “no buy” — but I am interested in it, and if I wasn’t broke and had cable, I probably would purchase this.

Buy/No Buy: No Buy

Ken Hill: I wasn’t kidding when I said Vince turned things upside down with his “shoot” announcements for Survivor Series. The Survivor Series tag match is good, as are the IC and US Title matches. I’m curious to see how the World Title match ends up with Regal seemingly involved, but the WWE Title match screams a rather obvious finish. That being said, I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt being that Survivor Series is one of my favorite PPVs.

Buy/No Buy: Buy

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