Heading into this year’s Survivor Series PPV, the WWE brands find themselves in an interesting situation. While the same company produces all three shows, they seem to have found a rhythm where each brand is completely different than the other two. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, as has been displayed lately on Monday Night RAW.
The flagship of WWE has not been doing well at all. They seem to have fallen in love with non-finishes of matches, which has become a serious problem. The storylines have been mostly goofy and feel unreal, while the delivery of strong promos has been nonexistent since Foley’s leave earlier this year. The traditional WWE formula of a couple of years ago featuring a show of mishaps with a strong, long singles match is also gone. The in-ring work has taken a hit on Mondays, and although they still try to allocate time to that through the Intercontinental championship matches, the feuds in that division have been so watered down and forced, that the title has lost its credibility. The continuous title changes, and weekly matches with challengers who just randomly get a shot at the belt do not help either. The situation with the WWE Championship and main event players hasn’t changed. There’s John Cena, who I don’t see losing the title through 2009 the way he’s going, and the occasional challenger. Since Edge is so worn out in that role, they’re now bringing outside people – whether it be other brands’ champions or celebrities like K-Fed, for the champion to feud. There’s always the potential Umaga feud, which has been just that – potential – for months now, and one can’t help but wonder if it’ll actually draw when it does take place. DX’s feud with Orton and Edge was supposed to be a breath of fresh air for the fans, but instead of booking it seriously, they seem to stick to the same goofy approach that they’ve been doing all year, which right away blew the feud’s credibility. The more serious you are about booking a feud, the better the outcome, whereas silly approaches never lead to anything good. Compare the Foley-Flair feud and the DX-McMahons feud earlier this year, and see what I’m talking about. Things aren’t looking good on RAW, although they had a decent show this week (and of course it only had one DQ finish for a change), and the only way out is what we’ve been beating into everyone’s head for years – long-term booking and ideas.
One can think of Tuesday’s ECW brand as the ocean. There are all kinds of fish on there – from mishaps, to originals, to new great additions, to other brands’ competitors for the weekly rating pop. Combine that with the different types of flow – from wonderful, strong shows, to lame boring hours – and you truly do have an ocean, where everyone swims, sinks, and floats all at the same time. CM Punk’s addition to the roster has been the only bright spot that has carried through, and it’s amazing how the same company that books RAW has been able to book Punk so strong. It’s a simple formula – he goes out every week, wins clear, and has as good matches as he can, by always looking strong and displaying as much of his arsenal of moves as possible. The result has been good so far, but how he is booked at Survivor Series will be the true test for Punk and what the company and higher powers think of him. While Rob Van Dam’s return has certainly helped the brand and the in-ring action, the ECW alumni just doesn’t have the same spark in him anymore. Test’s involvement has ranged from tremendous to scary, as he had the best match in the brand so far (against Rob Van Dam), but still looks like a weird fit for ECW. The Big Show has worked harder than anyone else in professional wrestling trying to make things work as ECW Heavyweight Champion, and while that certainly shines through in certain moments, he’s simply immobile at times, and with no solid storyline behind him feels flat as champion. Guys like Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, Kevin Thorn, Sandman, and everyone else on the roster are simply there, and feel like filler material. The undercard is a huge problem in ECW, but not the biggest. The motto of the original brand was that it always offered something for everybody, and at the same time was nothing like its competition. Today’s ECW wants nothing to do with that, as WWE sticks to its generic formulas.
SmackDown! looks the brightest of all three right now, which makes sense. The brand underwent a horrid period of a few months, where it lost a huge chunk of its viewers due to UPN preemptions, time changes, and poor storylines. As weird as it sounds, they seem to have used that to rebuild, and the returns of Batista and Chris Benoit have helped. The introduction of some new goofy characters has been nothing special, but some of those guys have quickly gotten accustomed and have kicked it up a notch when it comes to the in-ring game, as such as is the case with the Japanese redneck. I am a huge fan of Booker’s new persona and character, as he cracks me up every time he’s on the screen, but ultimately it’s too goofy to be taken as a serious leadership role. It’ll be interesting to see how things turn, when possibly the top two brand titles change hands at Survivor Series. This week’s SmackDown! bout between Benoit and Finlay was one of the best WWE matches this year, while Helms and Regal also delivered strong action in their matches. The in-ring work on SmackDown! easily beats the other two brands, and the storylines, while not the best ever, have been more simply than goofy (like on RAW), which hasn’t helped, but unlike RAW hasn’t made things worse, either.
With that state of the company in mind, WWE presents their annual Survivor Series PPV on Sunday. Historically, this used to be one of the most important annual events for the company, but over the last couple of years, it seems to have lost its power. Just three years ago, we’d be talking about WrestleMania at this point in time and what you can expect at Survivor Series to set up the Showcase of the Immortals, but that is no longer the case, as WWE has ceased doing long-term booking. They have settled for doing the random vignettes with little said at major multi-brand PPVs that may or may not ever lead to anything.
The true main event of the PPV should be the World Heavyweight Championship match between Booker T and Batista. Company’s plans were for Batista to regain the World Championship, which would change things on top. Based on their last big match, this one should be short, clear, and kept simple. It’s not a knock on either guy, it’s just that they don’t seem to click well with each other. Unless there’s a last-minute change of plans, which is not unusual in WWE, Batista should go over here and it will hopefully be the top off of a nice PPV.
Team DX (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, CM Punk, The Hardy Boyz) faces off with Team Rated RKO (Randy Orton, Edge, Mike Knox, Gregory Helms, Johnny Nitro) in what should be an interesting match. The Hardyz came off Tuesday’s ECW show with a lot of momentum and seem to have their tag team game mastered again, and the emphasis of the match should involve around the two of them battling Nitro and Helms. Of course, DX and RKO will get their time to shine, and most likely be involved in the decision somehow, stealing everyone’s spotlight. The weak link in this match is Mike Knox, which is not a good thing for CM Punk. I can’t stress how important it is for WWE to book Punk well in this match, because if he’s presented as a secondary guy out there, he might be quickly buried. The higher powers that run WWE will probably take advantage as I’m sure they didn’t miss the “haunting” show on SciFi where Punk made a few smart remarks about the company. This one could literally go either way, and has plenty of questions to answer, and future plans to set up.
Team Cena (John Cena, Kane, Sabu, RVD, Lashley) vs. Team Big Show (Big Show, Test, Umaga, MVP, Finaly) should be an interesting bout as well. There really isn’t much to say here other than what I talked about earlier. Rumors have a Lashley/RVD storyline for the December ECW PPV, so perhaps we might see some tension there. Everything else is pretty much straight-forward in that match.
Team Flair vs. Team Spirit. This shouldn’t go long, and should have a few interesting spots for entertainment purposes. Team Flair should go over, and it’s really time for the Spirit Squad split to finally take place before it’s too late. As Ron Simmons would say… Damn.
Undertaker faces Mr. Kennedy in a First Blood Match. This feud has been very interesting to follow, and it’s been nice to see Undertaker put Kennedy over the way he has lately. While all indications point to a ‘Taker win since he’s been abused over the past few months, I would actually hope they protect Kennedy and give him another win. This will in no way bury Undertaker, who can always destroy Kennedy later on, it would simply further the storyline. I don’t know how ‘Taker’s ribs are holding up after he got hurt on the international tour a few days ago, but hopefully it’s not serious and he can go on. Seeing as it’s a First Blood Match, they’ll hopefully make it more hardcore, as much as Taker’s injury allows.
Chavo Guerrero is probably in for a US Title run, as he faces Chris Benoit. While I’m not a fan of the storyline at all, and can’t stand what’s been done with Vickie Guerrero, at least this should be a good match. While Chavo is not anywhere near as good the worker as Eddie was, he’s a pretty smart wrestler, and can do a lot when he’s in there with someone to lead the way. Benoit fits the role perfect, and as weird as it sounds, I think a title loss will actually work well for Chris as well since it will allow him more freedom to feud with others once this storyline is over (which shouldn’t be at Survivor Series). After seeing Finlay/Benoit on SmackDown!, I kind of wish Fit had Chavo’s spot. That was a match you should all go out of your way to see.
Lita puts the Women’s Championship on the line against Mickie James in what could be the redhead’s last match. They have done a horrible job of building up to this. As good a job they did with Stratus’ retirement, they have completely crapped over Lita’s. I hope that no matter what the outcome on Sunday, they do more to further this, as it hasn’t been anywhere near good. Edge needs to be involved in this storyline, and there should be more of a story to it than a last-minute promo, such as the one Lita pulled on Monday.
It does sound like a nice PPV on paper, and I think they’ve done a decent job to promote it, but not the best. It’ll be interesting to see what number it does, and how some matches end. The months to come will have a lot to do with the outcomes on Sunday, so let’s hope creative does its job for once. Hey, we can always hope.
