Shock Therapy # 1 – Survivor Series Thoughts and Predictions
My my how time flies. Seems like just yesterday Edge was winning the Royal Rumble and Shawn Michaels was riding off into the sunset at WrestleMania. Now we are less than 2 months away from the end of the year. And with it comes the November tradition for WWE. Survivor Series. And I have to say the build to this year’s show has been less than spectacular. I mean as of today there are only six matches announced. Only one of which is a traditional survivor series match. Obviously WWE is banking heavily on the intrigue of what John Cena will do as the referee of the Randy Orton-Wade Barrett WWE Title Match. And really that’s the way it should be. The main event should get the most build and should be established within the first week of building towards the pay per view (something TNA should really learn how to do). With that said let’s run down the card match by match.
WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov vs. Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater
There really isn’t a lot of intrigue going into this match. WWE has pretty much killed their tag team division and the belts now have very little meaning. Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater need to keep the belts to establish themselves as the up and coming stars. Aside from that Santino and Kozlov will gain nothing from winning the belts as they will still be massively over whether they win or lose. But WWE is very unpredictable when it comes to the tag team titles. But smart money would be on the Nexus team retaining because Nexus as a whole hasn’t exactly been booked that good.
Winners: Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater
WWE Divas Championship match
Natalya vs. Michelle McCool and Layla
Here’s something I don’t understand. They unified the Women’s and Diva’s championship meaning there should be one champion. So why are they still doing this co-champion crap? The only good thing to come out of this is that Natalya is finally getting a push. And while I would love nothing more than for Natalya to win the belt one has to wonder which family connection is more powerful? The Harts or The Undertaker? At this point LayCool are at the point of being so over they don’t really need the belt and plus they’ve been in the title picture either as women’s champions or divas champion for so long that a reign by Natalya would do wonders to freshen up the women’s wrestling scene.
Prediction: Natalya
John Morrison vs. Sheamus
WWE likes to call itself a mirror of the times and this storyline is no exception. Today the hot button issue is bullying. And this feud is WWE’s way of using it to their own gain. If this feud is done right this could do wonders for elevating John Morrison. I really can’t see Morrison winning this match simply because you want to try to extend the feud if possible. Besides there’s some money to be made in Morrison chasing Sheamus in order to get revenge and get his win. Some may say that this is a step down for Sheamus considering he went from taking out Triple H and being a two time WWE champion is less than a year and a half. But to me this is a test for Sheamus to see if he can carry a feud with someone who isn’t as established. Really this is a test for both men as if Morrison himself doesn’t deliver here the WWE creative will be less likely to use him in future feuds.
Winner: Sheamus
Traditional Survivor Series Match
Rey Mysterio, Big Show, MVP, Kofi Kingston and Chris Masters vs. Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes and Tyler Reks
There really isn’t that much to say about this. It’s your standard survivor series match with different storylines all mixed together. The primary storyline here is Rey Mysterio versus Alberto Del Rio. While a win for Alberto Del Rio would do wonders it’s questionable whether Rey Mysterio would be willing to drop the match. Rey Mysterio is in the same category as John Cena where he doesn’t have to win all the time to stay over. And if Alberto Del Rio picks up the win people will be clamoring for a rematch with Rey Mysterio getting his victory. This also marks the second pay per view in a row that Tyler Reks has been on. I wouldn’t get used to it since we’re heading into Wrestlemania time. Other than that this match feels very underwhelming. I mean we just saw an elimination match at the previous pay per view. This match would greatly benefit anybody on team Rio if they wound up the sole survivor.
Winners: Team Mysterio
World Heavyweight Title Match
Kane vs. Edge
This definitely the less intriguing of the two world title matches. This is probably Kane’s last major run with a belt because he’s been talking more and more about retiring. I’d personally prefer to see Kane drop the title soon so he can take time off and get healed up before going out in a retirement match at Wrestlemania against Undertaker. It’s good to see Edge actually being properly used again after floating around aimlessly after WrestleMania. But since we’re most likely gonna see a title change in the other title match Kane will most likely retain here. Edge has never really been tested as a babyface champion and there are several potential feuds there once he wins the title. Would be interesting to see how he fared. But for this match look for Kane to retain.
Winner: Kane
WWE Championship Match
Barrett Wins-Cena’s free Orton Wins-Cena’s Fired
To say that there is a lot of intrigue going into this match is an understatement. It’s very obvious that WWE is banking heavily on this match drawing in a lot of people considering how little attention has been paid to the rest of the card. The obvious outcome would see Cena helping Barrett because Cena’s not going anywhere. But WWE always seems to have something up their sleeve so who knows how this match will play out. Probably the most intriguing aspect of this match is the possibility of Cena turning heel. It would definitely do wonders for freshening up his character but it’s still questionable whether or not WWE would be willing to sacrifice the dip in merchandise sales. Another problem is that aside from Randy Orton there really isn’t anybody ready to feud with heel Cena without it looking rushed. Another problem I see with a John Cena heel turn is that all the focus would be taken off Wade Barrett’s first World Title win and reign and put entirely on Cena.
Winner: Wade Barrett
It’s interesting to note that Miz is not in a match on the card yet. Perhaps that’s being done on purpose to tease fans on a potential cashing in of money in the bank. Also I’m hopeful that WWE adds another traditional survivor series match for the raw side. Well that wraps up this look at Survivor Series. I hope you enjoyed this debut column.
SpiralShock
