Posted in: Doctor's Orders
Doctor's Orders: Survivor Series Gets Rocked
By The Doc
Nov 16, 2011 - 1:26:53 PM

Pre-11/14 Raw

Survivor Series is six days away and, as of this moment, approximately eight hours from tonight’s Raw in Boston, I have no idea what I’m going to do about watching the PPV. In many ways, it will hinge on what happens tonight. By the time you read this, I will have already made up my mind and Raw will already have been in the books (as will the SD tapings, for which I will read the spoilers). Yet, it is such a rarity that my decision making my process is so dependent upon one TV show that it would better set the stage for my monthly PPV preview, of sorts, if I told you what I’m thinking at 12:12PM on Monday.

Here’s the deal, I’m watching Survivor Series. I don’t miss PPVs that are held in Chicago or MSG. I just don’t. That’s a Doc rule of thumb. However, I have been so unimpressed with the build-up to this event that I have not yet figured out the logistics of bar vs. home. I want to watch it at home. I would love to, three weeks from now during my year end review (all day affair, stay tuned), sit back and have the DVR prepped and ready to enjoy Rock’s return to the ring and whatever else may be “second view” worthy. As a matter of principle, though, I can no longer just throw my money at something that didn’t earn it. The WWE have given me no reason to want to see Rock team up with Cena, yet. Cena doesn’t need his help, obviously. He can beat Awesome Truth by himself in a handicap match. I can’t very well order just because CM Punk called Alberto Del Rio boring on the mic, either – I know that already. Raw hasn’t given me any reason to watch Survivor Series and I cannot simply order it at home because Rock is wrestling and it’s at MSG. I’ve got to get more than that.

So, tonight’s Raw is a big one. They have three hours to get me to spend $45-55. I usually don’t like 3 hour shows; Raw can rarely make a good two-hour show (with the exception of every Mania season and the short-lived 3 month run that ended roughly one month ago). They feature too much filler. Tonight, they’ve got Smackdown guys on board and there’s no excuse not to hype the hell out of Survivor Series and make it a great go-home show. Rock is in the house and needs to do two things: first is build tension with Cena and the other is build tension with Awesome Truth. One will not suffice; it must be both. CM Punk, meanwhile, needs to do some more of his “reality era” promoting and Del Rio needs to come back with some sort of smarmy heel tactic. That match should be money, but it needs a little extra zest. They need to let Dolph Ziggler speak and confirm his US title match with LIIZ. And then the Smackdown crew, which has done more to successfully pique my interest in using my home remote to order this Sunday than the red team, just needs to put some finishing touches on what they’ve already been doing. All that happens and I order. Simple as that.

Post-Raw 11/14

Well, Raw has gotten a lot of negative publicity from the wrestling media in the last couple of days. I honestly do not think it was that bad, though. You can see from the above items that I was hoping to see that I pretty much got what I was looking for. It wasn’t a show that knocked my socks off, but it met the expectations that I set forth. Independent of the Michael Cole Challenge, which is what DVR was made for, I thought Raw was an entertaining show. I liked a lot of little things. For instance, I liked that Foley came out to praise John Cena. Someone needed to do that publicly, in front of the fans. I liked that Rock built tension with both his opponents for Wrestlemania and Survivor Series. I liked that Ziggler was given the microphone and that he’s going to be pulling double duty. I liked that Cole was cut short by Punk telling him what the entire IWC thinks about him (more or less). Finally, I liked the final segment of the show. I’m ordering the show at the homestead. I look forward to smelling what the Rock is cookin’, watching Punk win the title, and seeing Ziggler become a bigger star…

Certainly, one of the matches to most look forward to at Survivor Series is the Big Show vs. Mark Henry rematch. What an incredibly nice surprise it was at Vengeance to see what they produced. I am hopeful that the rematch can recreate the magic of Round 1. They’ve done a nice job building the rematch and adding a new wrinkle into the mix with the renewed focus on Daniel Bryan. There’s just something about Henry right now. Everything that the guy does is a reminder of how good he’s been over the last 5 months. Show has stepped up his game and this feud just works. I think Show will come close to winning the title again, but Henry is riding a wave of momentum of which the WWE would be foolish to knock him off. There’s also a possibility that Bryan might cash in after this match and win the title. I’m not sure…I don’t think he’ll cash in at Wrestlemania, but I’m not sure…

I also have to hand it to the SD writing team for how they’ve built interest in the Team Barrett vs. Team Orton match. Two weeks ago, Wade was barely even a blip on the radar, but he’s come on strong after two plus weeks of solid booking. He’s a damn good stick man, so all he needed was some quality victories to help rebuild his reputation. Quietly, his booking has made the Survivor Series 5-on-5 one of the matches to see on this card. There’s a ton of young talent in Barrett, Ziggler, Swagger, Rhodes, Kingston, and Sin Cara that, if this match is given some time to play out, could really shine. They’ve got a chance to make names for themselves at MSG, which is a place synonymous with stealing the show. Ziggler will get two chances and I’m excited about his US title defense. His opponent is no slouch in the ring, so I’m excited to see what the Show Stealer of Raw can do on such a big stage. 11/20/11 might be a night to remember for Dolph. I’m hopeful it will start the push toward him being a bigger player.

Madison Square Garden is a place that many WWE Superstars have called the barometer for their product. Let’s say a Ziggler goes out and gets a crazy reaction from a fan base appreciative of his recent efforts. That would be huge for his career or to whomever that the fans react to in such a way. For that reason, this is going to be a huge night for CM Punk. We know that he’s over, but his push has diminished in recent months. He took a backseat to a storyline that flopped into nothing. I have an inkling that Punk vs. Del Rio is going to steal the show if the MSG faithful give Punk some love. Punk may have the WWE title match at Mania wrapped up anyway, but a strong reaction and a great match at MSG catapults him into uncharted territory. I think MSG is that important to the McMahons. Don’t count Del Rio out, either. He may be boring as a character, but he’s a damn fine in-ring performer and he could surely benefit from a helluva match complete with a helluva crowd response, too. Keep your eye on Punk vs. Del Rio. The booking suggests that Punk will walk out of the Garden with the title. If that does happen, I imagine Punk hangs onto that belt for the foreseeable future. If that doesn’t happen, I still think Punk ends up winning the belt from Del Rio at some point.

Getting back to The Rock and John Cena vs. Awesome Truth…this is a great opportunity for the Miz. I like Truth and I think he’s done a great job this year, but the Miz is the star of that duo and this is another chance for him to show some unique viewers (tuning in because of Rock) that he’s part of the present/future of the WWE. This is also going to be a match where I begin shifting out of critic mode and getting into “Wrestlemania fan” mode. I was communicating by email with a reader recently and we were talking about how the Rock vs. Cena is a match that transcends a lot of the negativity that consumes the IWC and makes critical people of us all. This is a match and a feud that we should all just sit back and enjoy. It’s going to be a fun ride, so I’m not planning on reading a whole lot of IWC stuff from now and until April because all I want to do is ENJOY the hell out of the Rock vs. John Cena and all that will come with it. The first bit of major Wrestlemania hype starts SUNDAY. Let’s just be fans, pure and simple, for the next few months.

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Predictions: Awesome Truth over Rock/Cena (Cena costs Rock the win), Punk wins WWE title, Henry retains World title (Bryan cashes in), Beth retains, Ziggler retains, Team Orton wins. Big night for faces until the end.

Hit me up in Facebook feedback or Twitter (@TheDocLOP) and let's discuss. Can you, simply, just be a fan for this year's Mania?