Going into the 2014 edition of Survivor Series we were promised something big, with the stakes high and a legend rumoured to debut at long last. And for the first time in what feel like an age, I can say that a WWE PPV actually delivered.
Sure, not every match was a 5 star classic, but the big match delivered in a big way, and nothing else WWE do this year will top Sting's much-anticipated debut. Nothing.
WWE Tag Team Championship: Stardust and Goldust vs The Usos vs Los Matadores vs The Miz and Damien Mizdow
All four teams are very good at their niche and work hard to get themselves over despite repetitive booking and a decision slimmer than AJ Lee. All eight men went all in and we even got to see ourselves a Tower of Doom, a move I had forgotten existed due to its seldom use. Mizdow is as over as anybody else currently on the roster, and it felt like the place exploded when he got the tag.
The commentators, as they always do, completely dragged down the match, but the work-rate of the participants and a hectic final few minutes that was nothing but kinetic high-flying turned this into a pretty memorable tag bout.
The crowd perhaps made the match, but WWE expected the reaction and it was expert booking to have Mizdow steal a win and become a tag team champion with a man that hates his guts.
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Winners: The Miz and Damien Mizdow
Alicia Fox, Naomi, Emma and Natalya vs Paige, Summer Rae, Layla and Cameron
This would have worked so much better if more than three of the contestants could actually work a match. I don't like clean-sweeps in elimination matches, and I feel Paige should have at least got to have eliminated somebody, because it was so obvious that she's on a different planet to every other woman in that ring.
The crowd hated it, though it wasn't as bad as expected and the commentators seemed to drop half a dozen Aja Kong references for some reason. The match was worked at a good pace and it's obvious many of the Divas are getting better, but this shouldn't have got the time it did and the ladies suffered as a result. And a final thing: thank God for Sara Del Rey.
Winners: Alicia Fox, Naomi, Emma and Natalya
Bray Wyatt vs Dean Ambrose
Bray Wyatt is not a good wrestler. I think that much is obvious, but Dean Ambrose got a very good match out of him. Wyatt's plodding pace was eliminated by Ambrose's frenzy and it combined to make something very watchable.
Wyatt is a great actor by WWE standards and he gets the psychology of wrestling, which makes his matches feel so much better - but he could do with trimming down a little so that he can go longer at a high pace.
Ambrose's offense makes none of his matches feel alike, and he is the best overall performer in the company right now. I like the Wyatt-Ambrose feud even though it has been built poorly, especially given the talent involved - and it shouldn't have interrupted the Rollins-Ambrose feud, but I like what they're doing here.
Wyatt started to play the same games with Ambrose as he did Cena, trying to goad the so-called 'lunatic fringe' into hammering him with a steel chair. And Ambrose did just that. He beat the holy hell out of him and the crowd went wild. All the stuff with Ambrose pulling out tables, ladders and chairs is just to set up a TLC match between them next month, which has me very excited. Congratulations, WWE - you pulled off a non-finish for a change.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Adam Rose and The Bunny vs Slator Gator
The very definition of filler. Slator Gator are actually very good and don't deserve anything like this, as both men can talk and they also compliment each other in the ring. I don't understand turning Rose heel as his character can only work as a face - but WWE don't care about his character, which I think has some legs as a comedy mid-card act. We still don't know who's wrestling as The Bunny, and quite frankly, I don't care anymore.
Winner: Adam Rose and The Bunny
Nikki Bella vs AJ Lee
So I suppose those rumours of AJ Lee finishing up with the company proved to be true. 10 seconds, this match lasted, though I'm sure the dark corners of the internet were glad to see a kiss between the two.
To an almost hilarious degree, AJ has completely taken on CM Punk's mannerisms, but I suppose that happens when you live with someone. AJ, the best female wrestler WWE have ever had, deserves so much better - and so does the Divas division.
Winner: Nikki Bella
Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan and Ryback) vs Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev and Luke Harper)
I had very little faith in WWE to pull off this match - the build was dreadful and the teams didn't really excite me either - but this was perfect from the start. Within seconds Big Show destroyed Mark Henry with a mammoth right hand to put a severe dent in the confidence of The Authority.
Things did get a little messy when Ryback was eliminated quickly when he should have got a good run and when Rusev was counted out after failing to put Dolph Ziggler through a table, which was done to protect his character. However, I never felt he should have been in the match in the first place - it should have been Cesaro instead.
The carnage erupted and Rowan and Harper went to war in what felt like a huge moment, especially when Rollins helped Harper eliminated Rowan. Then came the first surprise. Big Show was a baddie all along. He levelled Cena with a punch before shaking hands with the Devil and walking to the back, eliminating himself in the process.
It was a shocking moment. Cena is always the guy. Always. And here he was, on his back and defeated. For once, a failure.
But this allowed Dolph Ziggler, to channel his hero Shawn Michaels and deliver a performance that will define his career and prove he should be a main event superstar. He was taken for an absolute licking this past month at the hands of The Authority and he fought to the bitter end, refusing to give up. Ziggler eliminated every Authority member except for Henry, and had Rollins beaten twice before Triple H decided to take out every referee in the surrounding area.
But then it happened. The rumours had been circling the internet that he was coming, but nobody expected him to debut the way he did. STING IS HERE! He takes out that crooked ref from the Daniel Bryan saga before having an epic staredown with Triple H in what was a surreally brilliant moment. They lock eyes and Sting didn't blink once before Triple H tried a cheap shot that was reversed into a Scorpion Death Drop and the arena erupted. Get ready for Sting vs Triple H at WrestleMania 31.
Ziggler finally pinned Rollins and The Authority were defeated. Gone, hopefully for good after a storyline that has been longer than a year. For one night only, for one match, WWE got it perfectly right.
Winners: Team Cena
Verdict:
I wasn't hyped going into this event, but when it's all said and done, the main event will stay a classic moment in WWE's history for a very long time. Wrestling's so great when everything works.
I thought Randy Orton was going to be the guy to save Team Cena, but this was just right. Sting, still fighting against tyranny in 2014, seventeen years after he did the same to Eric Bischoff at Starrcade '97.
For the first time since WrestleMania 30, I have been left feeling happy at the end of a PPV - but after Survivor Series, I wasn't just happy, I was elated. Well done, WWE.
Sam Moore is a culture writer from the UK, writing mainly about film, TV and music for the likes of The Guardian, GQ, The Independent and many more. He is currently working on a book about the making of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.
