Retro Review: Survivor Series 2014

What better way to fight off the tryptophan than with a little Retro Review, looking at the Thanksgiving tradition, the Survivor Series. While the show is no longer on the holiday or holiday eve, we can still call it that. Though honestly, I think they could run on Thanksgiving and draw. Just if you run Thanksgiving, than clear out the schedule around Christmas, it’s only fair. We’re out of the era when you’d have holiday double shots and that’s a good thing. Either way, I decided why not take a look at a Survivor Series but at one that I literally know nothing about. So with those as our parameters, let’s take a look back at Survivor Series 2014. 

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This event comes smack in the middle of the period where I was actively ignoring the product. It started with the era of Super Cena for me and then the Authority was enough of a thing to keep me away at the time. But the confrontation between these two entities is what this main event is all about. If Team Cena win, the McMahon-Helmsley Era 3.0 is out of power. If Team Authority wins, Cena’s team is fired. So… we already know which direction the main event is going but the journey of how to get there is the story. 

The first thing after the main show starts (I would have liked to see the pre-show matches but those aren’t on Peacock) with Vince McMahon coming out to cut a promo and getting cheered and that did not age well at all. But since they’re rebooting a storyline from 1999, I suppose they should run pay-per-views like back then as there was always a large promo segment on the show. Just like a regular TV program. Say what you want about the current presentations, but I appreciate when a big show is treated like a big show with big matches and not just another episode of TV. If you have to talk to tell a story at the pay-per-view, you did a crap job of telling the story before the pay-per-view. And I definitely don’t miss Stephanie having a live mic in her hand. Blah, blah, blah, if you lose, you’ll get four people fired John. We’re really not going away if we lose and again literally all of this could and should have come out on the go-home show. That was about 12 wasted minutes off the top of the show. I bet one of those pre-show matches could have made the card. Actually, based on the times of those two matches, including entrances, Fandango vs. Justin Gabriel and Jack Swagger vs. Cesaro could have made the show. Another reminder of the things that made me not want to get back into the product at this era. 

Finally our first match is a fatal four-way for the WWE Tag Team titles. The Usos, The Miztourage and Los Matadores challenge Goldust and Stardust and yeah, I see now why Cody needed to get the hell out of here at the time. This is literally my first time seeing Stardust in action and um, yeah. St. Louis really wants Mizdow and I will admit, the stunt double gimmick is rather entertaining. But I don’t know how long it would stay that way. Week after week may be a bit much. The match was pretty good for a multi-team match. The finish was rather fun, even if the whole thing was just to advance the angle between one team. You have to love a tower of doom setting up a title change. 

And another promo segment because again, we have to make a match on the pay per view just like it was Raw. So, yay, I guess we’re getting Heath Slater and Titus O’Neill vs. Adam Rose and the Bunny. Not having my opinions on the product changed really. 

Our first actual Survivor Series match is a four-on-four divas match. Paige, Cameron, Summer Rae and Layla against Natalya, Naomi, Emma and Alicia Fox. Plug for the new season of Total Divas and I will say this, it was a much better match than I was expecting from the Divas era. But then again, five minutes in and the crowd was chanting for Mizdow which I think explains where the division still was in the eyes of the company and the fans. Things break loose, everybody has a run in and Naomi eliminates her former tag team partner Cameron. Alica eventually eliminates Layla. Emma slaps on a tarantula, which is the last thing I expected, before Emma gets Summer Rae to tap to the STO and Paige is left alone. She cannot overcome the odds, eats the canvas via Naomi and it’s a clean sweep for the face team? I have no idea and there’s barely any effort taken to explain anything between these competitors. Was it bad? Not really. There were definitely some rough patches of the match but nothing terrible. But there also wasn’t much storytelling in the match either.

Let’s go to the preshow panel because fuck the show really. Much like the divas match before, it is rather interesting to see a lot of people who are still going strong a decade later, which includes Renee Young introducing a package involving Dean Ambrose. So as much as things change, looks like they truly stay the same. 

I am looking forward to this next one-on-one match as I missed so much of early Bray Wyatt and a feud with Mox seems like it would be an absolute banger. Although, man was Dean’s singles entrance music absolute garbage. Early on it is exactly what you’d expect based on the intense and emotion pre-match package: hard-hitting, physical and frenetic. And not just because of the insane amount of jump cuts. Also do not miss that aspect of the old regime. The physicality perfectly demonstrated by Ambrose breaking a full nelson by prying apart the fingers than using a little joint manipulation, something Wyatt counters with an old fashioned fish hook. Solid back and forth throughout this one as neither keeping the upper hand for too long. Wyatt hits a huge uranage, but gets nothing from the follow-up senton, giving Dean the opening to drop a huge elbow from the top on a standing Wyatt. But the advantage was short lived as Wyatt throws a huge lariat from the bottom of his boots and Ambrose rolls to the outside and is treated to another uranage, this time on the steel steps, for his troubles. Wyatt cuts promo mid-ring, saying they could have ruled the world but that he chose his path before introducing a chair to the proceedings. Ambrose intercepts and almost is talked out of using it before laying into Wyatt and getting disqualified but ending Wyatt’s night with a Dirty Deeds on the chair. But St. Louis wants tables and Dean is happy to oblige. Elbow drop through a prone Wyatt on the table and the furniture keeps coming in. I would think this a way to build to a TLC match between the two in just three weeks, which with a quick look ahead, is exactly what happened. 

This episode of Raw continues as we get another backstage segment, this time with Team Authority. But none of the participants have anything to say, just another promo from Trips and Steph, explaining what happens with the night’s stipulation while most of the team just kinda stares off but in different directions. 

Speaking of backstage segments, the tag match that was apparently just made backstage like a half hour ago is on. So we have a guy in a bunny suit, a watered down version of Special K on the outside and a tag team of solid talent with the ridiculous name of Slater Gator. And the Bunny rolls up Heath Slater, making me wonder again who he pissed off backstage. Adam Rose is flabbergasted. I am flabbergasted. Thankfully, that was only like 2 and a half minutes long.

But don’t think that means you get more action. No, no, no, Roman Reigns joins us via satellite to cut a promo and I see why he took a lot of criticism for his promos back then. And then we have to go back to Team Cena. I don’t know which I am more annoyed at when it comes to padding a pay per view, actual commercials or useless promos. 

The Divas title is on the line in our penultimate match as AJ Lee defends against Nikki Bella and I am not hopeful here. Let me give you the full play by play. Brie Bella, whose been her sister’s personal assistant for a certain amount of time, jumps up on the apron. AJ is confused and approaches, Brie pulls her in for a big kiss, AJ is even more confused, Nikki throws a forearm and his her rack attack. Title change, 30 seconds and that was a thing and probably encapsulates much of the Divas era and why it is not looked upon that fondly. 

So after that wet fart and a six minute hype video, because the multiple promos throughout the show were not enough, we finally get to the main event: Team Authority of Seth Rollins, Luke Harper, Rusev, Mark Henry and corporate Kane taking on Team Cena of John Cena, Ryback, Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Big Show. And we start with an explosion as Mark Henry gets hyped up by Triple H and runs right into a KO punch from Big Show and it’s 5-4 ten seconds in. We get teased a showdown between former Wyatt Family members and future Bludgeon Brothers Harper and Rowan before Rollins tags himself in and we’re into the full on Survivor Series action. All nine guys break into chaos and while all of that’s going on outside, Rollins sneaks in, hits Ryback with a curbstomp which allows Rusev to hit the big kick and we are even once again. We settle back down and it appears that Dolph Ziggler is going to take a beating for a good chunk of this match, as the heels all taking turns pounding on the Show Off. We get another series where everyone comes in to hit their finisher, including Rusev powerbombing Ziggler over the top onto everyone else. Rusev cleans house at the announce position and goes to splash Ziggler through a table, but Dolph moves and beats the count back in. A count by the way that was not running during the table set up while Rusev was legal the whole time, but he can’t get back in and Rusev is gone. We finally Rowan vs. Harper after Team Authority beats on Cena for a little bit. Rowan has the upper hand before Rollins with another drive-by knee and a big clothesline and Rowan is gone. Big Show quickly hits the Russo Swerve and KOs Cena and the captain is gone. Show shakes Trips’ hand, officially makes heel turn #2401 and walks off and Ziggler is on his own, one-on-three. And you start to think that they might actually pull the trigger on the ultimate heel program. But if the reception that Dolph got in his entrance, he may look pretty good in defeat. And so far so good, Ziggler gets away from a superplex to stun Kane, hit a Zig-Zag and eliminate the Big Red Water Cooler. Harper stacks him with a sitout powerbomb but Ziggler comes out the backdoor. Brody gets distracted by his frustrations over not getting the three count and gets rolled up and we are all even up. Ziggler making a hell of a run despite taking a hell of a beating. Rollins beats him around ringside and rolls Ziggler back in but gets a couple of near-falls with a roll up and a jumping DDT. Just when Ziggler looked like he was going to take control and win it with a famasser, Triple H pulls the ref out of the ring and knocks him out and Rollins’ security attacks. Ziggler fights them off, eats a buckle bomb but dodges a curbstomp and hits a Zig-Zag. Another ref comes down and gets to two before Triple H drops an elbow on that one and he attacks, eventually Pedigreeing Ziggler and putting Rollins on top. Another ref comes down and makes a two count before Sting’s music hits and everything stops. I’m guessing that we knew this was going to eventually happening since there was no attempt to disguise who what coming out when the music and lights hit. The long staredown gets a this is awesome chant. Triple H finally swings first, Sting ducks, hits a scorpion death drop and puts Ziggler on top of Rollins. The original ref rises from the dead and The Authority is gone. It’s great to see Ziggler in that spot and I don’t know if that came to much more than another I-C title reign. And, reading ahead, this whole thing, this whole moment, Sting’s debut was all wasted anyway since the Authority was back in power after the first of the year. So whoo hoo, everything changes for like 8 weeks. But WWE blowing yet another angle in this era has nothing to do with the grade of this show. 

While I can’t say that there’s anything that you absolutely, positively have to go back and watch, there’s also nothing so bad that it should be actively avoided. If you’re a history buff, maybe fast forward to the main event. It was overall an entertaining match with maybe a few too many swerves for my taste but to each their own. If this was your era of WWE, than you’ll probably fondly look back at this one. 

FINAL GRADE: C

Looking at this as a standalone show, this is a decent episode of Raw until the main event. It was fine and there was a little bit of everything but nothing that says this is one of the big four PPVs of the year, again, until the main event. There’s no way that they built the five-on-five and then freaked out because there wasn’t enough to go around for a full card so we just did a Raw. Even the thing with the guy in the bunny suit was fine and it was fast, so can’t really complain about that. It was fine but it really wasn’t enough to be a Survivor Series until the final hour.