Before I talk about the Survivor Series and Raw, I just deleted a few of my yahoo emails by accident. Listen if anyone can do that it’s me. So if you don’t hear from me in the next day or two please email me again. I cannot believe I did that. Also I don’t know how many of you saw the item on Roddy Piper yesterday. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. This just broke my heart when I read it and it is on WWE.com. I just want to say that my thoughts are with him and his family and God willing he will win this battle. Let me now give you my thoughts on Sunday’s pay per view and last night’s Raw and trust me it’s all so good, oh yeah, very good.
I LOVED the Survivor Series. If anyone would have told me that the show would have impressed me like it did I would have said, “sure it will be okay” but no way did I expect it to me so damn good. Now before I go on, I was with the Comcast group that lost the feed during the end of the Team Cena/Team Big Show match and the show never returned so we never got the main event with Batista and Booker. I did get it last night for free and taped what I missed since it was on against Raw. I haven’t watched what I missed yet but I am planning on catching up a little later. But other than that I thought the show was well worth the money.
The opening with the Legends, Ric Flair, Ron Simmons, Sgt. Slaughter and Dusty Rhodes vs. The Spirit Squad played out way better than I could have imagined. First the Philadelphia crowd was excellent through out the show and they were very much into this match. I totally could understand Simmons going out as soon as he did since he’s been out of the ring for a few years. And I liked how Ric Flair fought off the Squad to win. This was really a fun match. The next match with Chris Benoit vs. Chavo Guerrero was as good as I thought it would be. The only thing that I didn’t like was that they did not have a lengthy match. This one was too quick for me. Benoit and Guerrero deserved a lot more time than what they were given. Lita vs. Mickie James was okay, it wasn’t great but both women gave it their all. And I have a few things I want to say about Lita and her last match and the way things were handled.
You know in September Trish retired and then 8 weeks later Lita retires, you have to admit that’s al little odd. I wish they would have had Edge interfere and cost Lita her match. He could have thought that Lita was tired of him, you know something like that. Then he could have cost her the title. We didn’t get anything between the “lovers.” She just announced one week before her last match that she was leaving. Yeah we saw Edge with her yet there was not angle to heat things up. So that disappointed me. Now I had no problem with the crowd chanting their crack whore chants at Lita during the match. She set that all up by bashing the fans and especially the fans in Philadelphia, so I got a kick out of the way they reacted to her. What I could have done without, or at least I would have been much happier if Cryme Tyme was given half the time to sell Lita’s belongings. When I think of how some of the matches were too short, it really bugged me that this segment just never seemed to end. While it definitely was funny after a while the fun wore off. So Lita got a rather humiliating send off, but then I wouldn’t expect anything different since she retired as a heel, a skanky heel.
My favorite match of the night had to be Team DX vs. Team Rated RKO. Listen Hunter and Shawn got things going from the start when they were working the hot crowd into seeing what side could cheer the loudest. And then you have The Hardy’s and CM Punk joining in and it was just a hell of a cool way to start things off. Then the crowd starts chanting CM Punk, and Punk just looking so thrilled by that. Then it was really something to watch Triple H put his arm around Punk and then tell the fans that Punk has something he wants to ask you which was Are You Ready? Hunter then called CM Punk the future of ECW and introduced the Hardy’s as Team Extreme. See all of this made things so exciting. But it didn’t end there. Oh no we then had Hunter flirting with Kelly Kelly and trying to get her to remove her top. Of course Mike Knox wasn’t going to allow that and in a mater of a few seconds Knox was out thanks to a super kick by the Heartbreak Kid. And right after HBK pinned Knox, Shawn had my hysterical by asking Hunter who the guy was. You could hear Hunter, The Hardy’s and Punk tell him he’s Mike Knox with ECW and then Shawn wanted to know if he was supposed to be in there. This was so funny, sure it was at the expense of a young talent in Knox but it was good. Shawn kept things humorous by ending up on the floor right next to Melina. She wasn’t looking and thought it was Johnny Nitro and put her arm around him. When she discovered it was Shawn she jumped, and he jumped and the mood for this match was so up. I don’t want to leave Edge and Randy’s team out. Even thought Shawn Michaels and Johnny Nitro only wrestled each other for a few minutes, they had IT. I would love to see these guys feud. I was really thrilled by the chemistry these two had. Everyone came through during this match and even though no one on the DX team was eliminated the booking for the match was OUTSTANDING.
Hey did I tell you I just missed two of my predictions? One was Mr. Kennedy….Kennedy. After I posted my picks I started to rethink this match and realized I should have gone with Kennedy. I was very happy with this match. Taker did very good job as did Kennedy. I also liked MVP coming out and turning on Kennedy. I saw that coming because I found it hard to believe that MVP would be so forgiving after being screwed a few times by Mr. Kennedy. So even though he turned on him, I was thrilled that the turn didn’t cost Kennedy the match. Finally, I saw most of the Cena/Big Show match except the last few minutes of it. So I really don’t think it’s fair for me to even talk about that. I just want to end my Survivor thoughts by saying if I hadn’t ordered it I would have been extremely upset; this was one of the best pay per views of the year.
Let me quickly tell you the only two segments that I really didn’t like on Raw. Oh yes, Eugene vs. Hacksaw, and Lawler vs. Masters. Other than those two segments I thought Raw was awesome. Sure we’ve seen DX and even Ric Flair go against the Spirit Squad a lot. But the match last night was a good way to start the show. I liked DX teaming up with Ric Flair it gave the match a different feeling. And I know that HBK and Triple H do think the world of Flair so watching those two embrace Ric was very touching to me. And I found it very sad to see Flair close to crying and my thinking was that it had to do with the health of Rowdy Roddy Piper. So as much fun as this was it was also quite emotional. And I got a kick out of DX shipping the Squad back to OVW. Let’s face it the Squad died a long time ago, so let them leave for a short time and who knows maybe a few of the guys will show up on Smackdown or even ECW. The attack on Ric Flair by Edge and Orton was an excellent way to heat up their feud with DX and I believe it was also done to give some time off to a very hard working Ric Flair. Did any of you hear me scream when Victoria won? I was thrilled. I never EVER expected her to get that push. I figured Melina was going to win. I liked the way they got the Umaga/John Cena feud started. Umaga hasn’t lost a match so making him the number one contender for the title makes a lot of sense. I am very excited about MNM re-uniting next Sunday at December to Dismember. I don’t know if it is a one time thing but I thought it was cool to bring back Joey Mercury and set MNM up against the Hardy’s at the pay per view. Leave it to Vince McMahon to involve the company in the Michael Richards controversy. I was not exactly welcoming the skit but Cryme Tyme’s appearance and beat up on the comedian worked for me. I am extremely big on JTG and Shad, these two guys are so smooth and so comfortable being on TV that the more I see them the more I like them. And finally the main event was as good as it gets with the title match between Edge and Randy Orton vs. Matt and Jeff Hardy. I didn’t expect a Hardy’s win, but DAMN it was still very exciting to watch. Believe me if I hadn’t talked about the Survivor Series in this column I would have spent more time on Raw.
So it’s on to Smackdown with the new World champion, Dave Batista. I have to admit I’m kind of excited to see how Booker handles the loss. And what is next for Mr. Kennedy… Kennedy after his big win against the Undertaker? I’ll be back over the weekend with my thoughts on Smackdown. Also WWE.com just posted the following: As a result of an injury suffered on Raw, Candice Michelle will have surgery to repair a deviated septum. The surgery will take place this Thursday, Nov. 30. Candice was injured Monday night on Raw when Victoria delivered a vicious kick to her face during the Divas Battle Royal. The full extent of the injury was revealed after Candice visited a specialist on Tuesday, and it was determined that surgery would be needed to repair it. I’m sure we all wish Candice a very speedy recovery.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
