|
------------------------------- Tito Rising... We had Survivor Series 2011 tonight and it was a mighty impressive Pay Per View to watch, possibly the year's best (Wrestlemania 27 and Money in the Bank are my other favorites for the year). I would like to advise that the WWE have each and every event at Madison Square Garden. New York City fans are the best wrestling fans on the planet and they act as a great truth serum for what the WWE is doing at a given time. That, and they're loud fans... You can go to other cities like Chicago, Boston, or Philadelphia, who also have great fans, but you can have an "off" night when the material is weak. Madison Square Garden fans actually seem to elevate the product to be great. To expedite the review's posting for this evening, I'll cut the introduction crap and get immediately into the review. Survivor Series 2011 is TitoThe first match of the night was Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison. On Twitter, I was wondering if John Cena and John Morrison's smack talk about Zack Ryder being denied a U.S. Title shot was indicative that John Morrison was going to win tonight, turn heel, and then be the one who puts Zack Ryder over as U.S. Champion. I've heard that the WWE management is high on Dolph Ziggler and I was thinking they'd rather have Morrison (especially if he's leaving) to put over Ryder. Oh well... I have to say that this was a very good opener between the two as the two had great chemistry together. Morrison was high flying and I've noticed that Ziggler seems to bump very well. After Ziggler won, and cleanly I might add (bye bye John Morrison), Ziggler got on the mic for some smacktalk on Ryder and low and behold, Zack Ryder comes out. They brawl, Ryder overcomes it, and New York City fans are eating it up! *** for the match. Divas match was quick and just "meh". Like Eve Torres had any shot at the Divas Title, as Beth Phoenix retains with the greatest finisher in wrestling today. 1/2* Backstage segments... I did not know that David Otunga passed the Illinois bar exam... Explains his recent role and that would be a good gimmick for him if the WWE played their cards right. Good Rock interview... As much as the Rock plays up his catchphrases, you see that he has an appreciation for the wrestling industry of the past based on the way he can easily recall first hand experiences with his dad backstage at wrestling events. Team Orton vs. Team Barrett was a great classic Survivor Series style match. What I liked about it most, however, is that Team Barrett not only won, but I thought that Barrett/Rhodes went over strong versus Randy Orton. The problem with Smackdown since Edge retired and the 2011 Draft stripped the roster is that Orton has seemed bored on the Smackdown roster. No offense to Christian, but we've seen his best work from years' prior and Orton/Henry had no chemistry. An overall great flow to the match and it was a great representation of how great the older Survivor Series matches used to be. Sin Cara seemed to hurt his ankle during the match and will require more time off. Geesh, another bump in the road for Sin Cara unless Hunico puts on the mask again... ***1/2. Mark Henry vs. Big Show was OK or as good two big pieces of flesh can put on. The highlight of the match was Big Show's elbow from the top and we'll see that replayed for years. Disqualification finish for this, as Henry went for the lowblow. 1/2* Hopefully, this suggests that they'll keep the WWE Title on Mark Henry before using him to put over someone big at Wrestlemania 28 (Sheamus?). BLAH to the injury angle afterward. Not really necessary... Next up, it was CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio for the WWE Title. Great, great match from these two... I worried about their chemistry working together heading in, but they were fantastic together and in my opinion, could blow the roof off if given a rematch. Of course, it will probably be with Tables, Laddes, and Chairs... Oh, how I love those stupid gimmick WWE Pay Per Views... Nice touch with Howard Finkle introducing CM Punk... I expected more aerial maneuvers in this match, but we saw some damn good mat wrestling instead. Madison Square Garden fans were all for Punk throughout the match, making me wonder why Punk's momentum was cooled after Money in the Bank. I really liked the ending with both wrestlers hitting their submission holds and I love seeing a match with a tapout finish. Congrats to CM Punk for the title victory, but a real congrats to CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio for a great match. ****1/4 I know, I'm going to get the comments about CM Punk being crowned champion and my inbox will fill up with how winning the WWE Title validates him. The WWE Title, for the past half year, has been traded around like an Oakland Raider draft pick... But all I need to say is look at the span of time between SummerSlam 2011 through the Vengeance 2011 Pay Per Views to see the "burial", while questioning when CM Punk will get another shot at Triple H. Oh, is that Triple H having a feud with a 50+ Kevin Nash that I see? How many Steve Austin DVD's are we going to release, WWE? I thought several movie franchises were bad at double dipping on the "definitive edition", but the WWE is getting ridiculous. The Main Even between Rock/John Cena vs. Miz/R-Truth was good at ***. I loved seeing the Rock early on against Miz/R-Truth and he looked like he gained a step instead losing one. Beautiful armdrags! Most of the match was "John Cena in peril", and once Cena got the tag, the Rock cleaned house. The match made the Rock look indestructable and could have been just a 2 on 1 match instead with the Rock looking like Superman. It's like in Euchre, the Rock called it "alone" and Miz/R-Truth has no trump cards. MSG fans were eating up the Rock and Cena, of course, was getting thrashed. Afterward, they did some posing and the Rock went over even stronger by hitting Cena with a Rock Bottom. LAST WORD: Another strong Pay Per View for 2011... Think, I will, if this is the strongest WWE Pay Per View of the year as I'm still partial to Wrestlemania 27 and Money in the Bank (SummerSlam wasn't bad, either). Creatively, I like the direction this show went as we'll now officially have Ziggler vs. Ryder, Orton's enemies looked stronger, and the WWE has a chance to repair the damage done to CM Punk earlier in the year. A nice solid "A" for this show... JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! CONTACT MR. TITO - Email: [email protected] - Twitter: @titowrestling - Join LoPForums.com: Feedback Thread BLOG is TITO (Non-Wrestling Blogs - Moving Forward© Mr. Tito 1998-2011
|