The Survivor Series 2011 is four weeks away and believe it or not, the WWE has laid the ground work for the matches. In case you haven’t heard, the show will feature the return to the ring for the first time in over eight years of The Rock…and everyone else.
It all came together on Monday’s RAW Super Show. John Cena asked John Laurinaitis for a match with The Miz and R-Truth early in the night. Laurinaitis gave him the match and picked his partner who was Zack Ryder. Ryder was attacked by Awesome Truth and never made it to the match. Thus it was one on two for the real life Superman, John Cena.
Cena held his own and almost won the match as he had The Miz in the A.A. Truth ran in and hit him with the water bottle. Awesome Truth grabbed chairs and were about to go off before Laurinaitis sent them to the locker room. Laurinaitis then said that the teams would rematch at Survivor Series, but that Cena could pick a new partner. Cena then picked The Rock to the surprise of nobody has read the numerous advertisements plugging The Rock and Cena teaming up at Survivor Series over the last month.
[adinserter block=”2″]So there is your Survivor Series main-event. The original plans according to several websites was a traditional 5-on-5 tag team match featuring the two superstars. Dave Meltzer speculated that the match was changed in the 24 hours leading up to RAW. Regardless of the timing, it is official and the match is on.
The setup was good but the back story here is pretty weak. The way they set this match up was as if Awesome Truth had been running through everyone in the WWE for months. Not only is that not true, they just lost to Air Boom a few weeks back on pay per view. Additionally, they just wrestled the night before and cheated to win the match. Both Punk and Triple H were at RAW the next night. It really just doesn’t add up for the message you are trying to send here.
But, that is me and at the end of the day, the WWE Universe will only care about seeing The Rock and John Cena team up. It will be great to see The Rock back in action, but I wonder if the WWE is shooting their load here with The Great One. I think the mystique of not seeing him wrestle up until WrestleMania would have paid off better to the company in the end. Regardless, I would not be surprised if Survivor Series is the second highest selling pay per view behind WrestleMania 27 this year.
If that wasn’t enough for you, it looks like they are going with CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio for the WWE championship. I may be wrong but I believe that Punk has beaten Del Rio in every singles match they have had on RAW, and they have had a couple. This should be a very good-excellent match. Punk is undoubtedly bound to be over huge with the New York crowd. I’d expect a real heated match here and a fun one to boot.
Speaking of fun, it ends there when you look into the crystal ball and see Triple H vs. Kevin Nash. All indications are that this will be the match at Survivor Series. I like Triple H, probably more than a lot of my fellow bloggers, but even he isn’t pulling out any miracles here. These guys fought several times before Nash left for TNA Wrestling and each match was worse than the next. I just hope we don’t get a repeat of that horrendous arena brawl they attempted to pull on RAW back during this time period.
Finally, Mark Henry vs. The Big Show will rematch for the WWE world heavyweight championship. Meltzer speculates that they will add some kind of gimmick stipulation. I remember as a kid watching the WWF promote the Andre the Giant vs. Kamala, Big John Studd, or King Kong Bundy matches with a “reinforced ring” gimmick. Maybe that is all they do here or maybe they go with a Stretcher Match after how their Vengeance match ended. Fans are real interested in this one, a lot more than I ever would have ever thought. I’d expect some kind of blowoff here before Henry moves on to Sheamus.
[adinserter block=”1″]It is real curious that once again you have Randy Orton as the odd man out. He really doesn’t have anything on the table to sink his teeth into. They could rematch him and Cody and make it an intercontinental title match, but it would seem rather anti climactic right now. Behind Triple H, I really think Orton is the most popular guy in the company across the board. Not featuring him on the second biggest show of the year is rather curious. Maybe that changes and they shoot a hot angle over the next week or so for The Viper.
If you are looking for stacked shows, this is it. I always hated the idea of selling a tag team match as a main-event on a pay per view, but that really isn’t an issue here with The Rock. Overall it looks like a fun show with some hits and misses, but well worth the money spent to see it.
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I would like to see these matches happen at Survivor Series:
The Rock & John Cena vs. The Miz & R-Truth
WWE Championship:
Alberto Del Rio vs. CM Punk
World Heavyweight Championship:
Mark Henry vs. Big Show
NYC Street Fight:
Triple H vs. Kevin Nash
Traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team Match:
Randy Orton, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, Kane & Sin Cara (azul)
vs.
Cody Rhodes, Christian, Wade Barrett, Brodus Clay & Sin Cara (negro)
WWE United States Championship Scramble Match:
Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Evan Bourne vs. Zack Ryder
Fatal 4-Way Match for the WWE Divas Championship:
Beth Phoenix vs. Natalya vs. Eve vs. Kelly Kelly
that would be a great card IMO.
Orton should feud with Ziggler and Rhodes and try to take both their titles. He could continue to get great matches out of a lot of those guys in the mid card, all the while Mark Henry does his thing with the world title.