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Match 1: Dolph Ziggler retained the US title in 10-minutes (CMV1 rating - **1/2) (CMV1 note – I think we have to give Ziggler and Morrison a lot of credit for not allowing the crowd – which almost completely ignored one half of this match – to overly bother them into a lesser performance. The athleticism was top notch and a showcase for why Ziggler is on the rise and why Morrison should be resigned. Unfortunately, you can’t ignore the crowd when taking in the overall presentation. Stand alone, this was a borderline three-star match, but the crowd was over for the guy that wasn’t even in the match. The heat for this was great, but it was just misplaced) Match 2: Beth Phoenix retained the Divas title in 5-minutes (CMV1 rating - *1/2) (CMV1 note – This rating is based almost solely on the finish, which was awesome. Phoenix is the most versatile women’s wrestler that we’ve seen in a long time with her blend of power and agility. Nattie might give her a run for her money if ever given the chance, but right now Beth owns that division in terms of skill level. Eve is a solid performer, too. This was match was affected by a dead crowd and it came across like they were going through the motions until the finish) Match 3: Team Barrett defeated Team Orton in 23-minutes (CMV1 rating - ***) (CMV1 note – Ouch! I feel bad for Sin Cara. That took me out of the match for a little bit. The crowd reaction to Cody Rhodes got me back into it, but this was another match where it seemed that everyone was going through the motions and maybe it was directly proportional to the crowd’s interest. Rhodes was really the only guy that was truly over with the MSG crowd. I enjoyed this match and I liked that Rhodes and Barrett were the sole Survivors, but I was slightly disappointed with the match quality. I expected something a bit more inspired) Match 4: Big Show won via DQ, thus Mark Henry retained the World title in 13-minutes (CMV1 rating - **) (CMV1 note – Definitely not on the level of their match from Vengeance, but still a good effort. Again, it was hurt by the crowd. The guy most over with the crowd during this match was not in this match. In fact, the three most over guys with the crowd during this match weren’t in this match. D’Lo Brown got a better pop than Henry or Show and we haven’t seen him in years. Show worked his ass off, though. That top rope elbow drop was insane and I applaud his willingness to put his body on the line. You could tell MSG meant something to him. Henry did well, also. I’m curious to see where that post-match angle is leading, if anywhere unpredictable. Bottom line on the match – it appeared to bore the crowd which translated to me through the TV screen) Match 5: CM Punk beat Alberto Del Rio to win the WWE title in 17-minutes (CMV1 rating - ***3/4) (CMV1 note – This was the match of the night by a mile and I would’ve loved to have seen it go an extra 5-minutes to get it to that 4-star level that I was hoping for. Punk was arguably as over as Rock in that building and it gave the match that much needed heat ON THE WRESTLERS INVOLVED that some of the other matches lacked. Interesting to note was how lacking in crowd response was Del Rio. Every time he was on offense, the crowd shut up completely. You could’ve heard a gnat fart in that arena. That doesn’t bode well for Del Rio in the long-term, if the McMahons still care about MSG as much as they did in the past. However, it bodes extremely well for Punk. The crowd was more consistently into this match than any other. They wanted Punk to win and the match fed off the energy that his character inspired. The last few minutes of this bout were very exciting. I think we’ve learned this about the Del Rio experiment – the guy is a damn good wrestler and he’s capable of high quality matches in the main-event in the ring, but unfortunately his character may have already reached its peak back in March/April. It’s time to give Del Rio some new direction or he may not even be relevant. I’d suggest making him the mastermind behind the GM situation, using all his money to pull the strings) Match 6: The Rock and John Cena defeated the Awesome Truth in 22-minutes (CMV1 rating - **3/4) (CMV1 note – This was a tale of two matches. The first featured the Rock showing off a skill set that didn’t appear to have been on the shelf for 7.5 years. It was thrilling to see the Great One back in the ring and it gave me confidence that my hyping Rock-Cena as a potential “greatest match of all-time” – based on overall presentation – is a little better founded than it was a week ago. The second tale is of the same formulaic tag situation that has been done to death over the years, only extended with Cena playing the “face-in-peril” for an overly long stretch that could’ve been dialed down considerably and still accomplished the same goal. The middle stretch of the match with Truth and Miz beating down Cena just got old. The eventual hot tag to Rock and the ensuing action that led to the finish was very well handled, but the middle part of the match was a snoozefest. I was not expecting Cena to look so inferior to Rock, at this point, but I guess that will give Cena direction moving forward toward Mania with the Rock not being around much. The post-match was fine and set the tone for whatever Cena’s character will be doing until we see Rock again) Backstage skits and interviews (CMV1 rating - ***1/2) (CMV1 note – I gave it an extra half star because it’s always fun to sing-along with The Rock) CMV1 PPV Rating System 0-1.5 stars = Demand a refund and don't take no for an answer. If it was this bad, they should pay you to watch the next two PPVs, at least. (Great American Bash 2005) 1.75-2.25 stars = A below average PPV that wasn't worth the money spent watching. (Survivor Series 2010) 2.5-2.75 stars = An average to above average event that was worth watching on that given night. (Wrestlemania XXVII, Hell in a Cell 2011) 3.0-3.25 = A really good show that you'd buy on DVD and watch again (Money in the Bank 2011, Summerslam 2011) 3.5 = This is how PPV should be done (Summerslam 2002) 3.75-5.0 = You never thought a PPV could be this good... Survivor Series 2011’s Final Score = **3/4 (CMV1 note – It was worth a watch, but I can’t believe anyone is calling this PPV on par with MITB or Summerslam or even Wrestlemania. It fell in line with a lot of the other second-tier PPVs that we’ve seen this year that have delivered some good moments and definitely gave us our money’s worth of excitement, but that didn’t put it all together to create an outstanding PPV. It was a fun night of wrestling and I watched it with my critic hat off to the side, so I enjoyed it very much. I think the 2.75 star rating for the event fits the description, though, of it being an above average event worth watching on that given night but little more)
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