WWE Survivor Series Preview

Original Title: Survivor Series!
Original Date Sent: November 18, 2012
Sent to: Anyone who has ever said the word "wrestling" to me in a sentence.
Context: Survivor Series is tonight and I wanted to write about it, damn it.

Hey All,

One of WWE's big four PPVs is tonight. It's the forgotten child of the bunch, Survivor Series. The buildup to the show has been an absolute mess on WWE's part but it should still be a solid show with a lot of fun matches. Plus, the road to Wrestlemania could be heavily influenced by what happens in the main event tonight. So here's a quick little preview of the card.

WWE Championship Match
CM Punk (c) vs. John Cena vs. Ryback
CM Punk and John Cena have had an on-and-off feud going for the last year and a half that has been arguably the most compelling thing about the company in that time frame. It's essentially an argument over the soul of not just WWE, but professional wrestling as a whole. Cena represents professional wrestling as a business and Punk represents its tenuous existence as an art form. And if you don't believe that it's an art form to be parsed and studied in the same way as a book, painting, or film I encourage you to go check out some of the treatises over at DVDVR that do just that. The third man in the match is Ryback, the current flavor of the month who can best be described as Goldberg without the size, charisma, or awesome move set. Punk narrowly slipped past Ryback at the last PPV thanks to interference from a crooked referee. There could be a similar mess of a finish here as WWE would love to find a way for all three guys to leave the match strong and preserve the CM Punk vs. The Rock WWE Championship match at the Royal Rumble that they've been setting up for six months now.

World Heavyweight Championship Match
The Big Show (c) vs. Sheamus
Big Show beat Sheamus clean at the last PPV and their issue continues here. It should just be two big guys beating the imaginary crap out of each other. The one wrinkle here is that Dolph Ziggler still holds the Money in the Bank briefcase and could be cashing it in here if the two big guys do enough damage to each other.

Traditional Survivor Series Match 
Team Foley (Randy Orton, The Miz, Kane, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston) vs. Team Ziggler (Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio, Wade Barrett, Damien Sandow, and maybe Cody Rhodes)
The Traditional Survivor Series Match is basically a five on five elimination match. But the set-up has been anything but traditional. See if you can follow all this. The match was originally set up as Mick Foley's team against CM Punk's team. The Miz was chosen for CM Punk's team but dropped out because Punk abandoned him when Punk's team was attacked by Ryback (who had just replaced Foley on Foley's own team). Punk's manager Paul Heyman then recruited Wade Barrett to replace The Miz. Then, Vince McMahon came out (in character) and declared that Punk would be defending his title against Cena and Ryback, leaving two vacant spots. Raw Interim/Temporary/Whatever General Manager gave Punk's spot to her sometimes boyfriend Dolph Ziggler and the team then took on his name. Foley filled the slot on his team with a newly turned good guy version of The Miz. And now this past week Cody Rhodes was concussed in a match and may miss the PPV, leading to yet another replacement. And all this took place over the course of three weeks. On top of everything, the teams are constructed in such a way that no one gets along. On the Ziggler side, Del Rio thinks the team should be named after himself instead of Ziggler, Barrett had to be talked into being on the team in the first place, and Del Rio's manager/personal ring announce Ricardo Rodriguez has had a weird side feud going with Ziggler's cougar benefactor Vickie Guerrero. The Foley side is even worse. Miz had been feuding with Kingston before his turn and is now coming between the Tag Team Champions Kane and Daniel Bryan (whose testy and hilarious relationship has been the best thing on WWE TV the past couple months). And Randy Orton is just a hater (Don't believe me? Check out what my buddy Coach and I wrote about him in our various Raw recaps back in the day: http://pcandcoachwatchwrestling.blogspot.com/2010/04/42610-wwe-raw-draft.html). All that being said, this should steal the show. No less than seven out of the ten guys are great and giving the lack of matches on the card this should get a ton of time to breathe.

US Championship Match
Antonio Cesaro (c) vs. R-Truth
Cesaro rules. He ruled when he was Claudio Castagnoli and he rules now. Cesaro is doing the "smug European hates America" gimmick to perfection, complete with fluency in multiple languages and a bitchin' man purse. Meanwhile, R-Truth is a solid wrestler with an imaginary friend. Again, this looks like it could get a solid bit of time and be a great platform for Cesaro's continued rise.

Divas Championship Match
Eve (c) vs. Kaitlyn
Yep, this certainly is a match.

Pre-Show Match
3 Man Band (two of Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, and Drew McIntyre) vs. Tyson Kidd & Justin Gabriel
3MB is a great little set of guys who just floated around not doing a hell of a lot. Then they got packaged as something along the lines of an aging 80's band (despite the fact that I don't think any of them are over 30). Kidd & Gabriel are two high-flyers who are an on-and-off tag team. Should be a fun little seven minute match to get the crowd going.

There are a bunch of guys on the roster not being utilized as of yet, so I expect a match or two to get added during the show as well (maybe even a second Survivor Series Match).

Last time I did one of these previews I included a prospects list. Well, since then Cesaro graduated to the main stage and the others are still floating around. But there's a new number one: Dean Ambrose. Holy crap this guy is awesome. He is going to tear through the WWE like Buffalo Elmo at a Muppet Convention.

Oh, and for those who are going, start getting pumped for Wrestlemania!