WWE Survivor Series (November 2009)

Original Airdate: November 22, 2009

 

From Washington, D.C.; Your Hosts are Michael Cole, Matt Striker, and Jerry Lawler

 

Opening Survivor Series Elimination Match: John Morrison, Matt Hardy, Shelton Benjamin, Finlay, and Evan Bourne v Miz, Jack Swagger, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, and Dolph Ziggler: Evan and Jack start, and Bourne quickly cradles him for two, but eats a suplex from the big Swagger. Tag to Ziggler for a snapmare to set up a somersault necksnap for two, and a corner whip leads to an inverted suplex for two. Dolph with a series of elbowdrops for two, and it's back to Jack to hold Evan in a front-facelock. The heels keep working Bourne over, but he escapes a half-crab from Ziggler, and manages the tag to Hardy. Matt dives in with a 2^nd rope elbowsmash on Ziggler, and the Side Effect follows. Back to Bourne for a flying shooting star press, and Dolph is done at 3:56. Unfortunately for Evan, Drew runs in with a big boot, and the double-arm DDT finishes him at 4:10. Finlay spears Drew down for some shots, and he delivers the rolling fireman's carry slam. Again, but this time Drew blocks, and he passes to Sheamus. Finlay quickly gets distracted by Miz, allowing Sheamus to blast him with a boot at 5:12. Hardy comes in with right hands on Sheamus, and I'm not gonna say Matt's lookin' fat... but I'm not not gonna say it either. More like Matt Hardees, amirite? Reversal sequence ends in Sheamus delivering a front-powerslam for two, and Miz tags in to deliver a bodyslam, followed by a legdrop for two. He grounds Matt in a reverse chinlock, then a front-facelock, since excitement. Hardy fights him off with a Russian legsweep, but Swagger tags in to cut off the tag. Matt fights him off with a neckbreaker long enough to reach Morrison, and John comes in hot. Swagger is in trouble, so his teammates run in, and we have a big brawl. That ends in Morrison hitting Starship Pain, and Swagger is done at 12:07. Miz immediately runs in with a clothesline on him, and he comes off the top with a flying axehandle for two. Terrible execution on that one, like a kid jumping off of his bed. Miz tries a headlock, but John blind tags to Shelton, and he comes in hot. Corner splash and a northern lights suplex get two, and a bridging German suplex is worth two. Neckbreaker, but Sheamus blocks for his captain, and Miz delivers the Skull Crushing Finale at 14:58. Dust settles on Hardy and Drew from there, and Matt gets clobbered in the corner. That allows Drew a short-clothesline for two, as the announcers go on a weird rant about the 'kids these days.' Hardy comes back with a neckbreaker to set up a 2^nd rope legdrop for two, and another neckbreaker sets up a flying moonsault, but a distraction from Sheamus allows Drew to block. McIntyre capitalizes with the double-arm DDT, and Hardy is done at 17:10. That leaves Morrison alone against three guys, and I'm curious if they're going to have the balls to put the heels over without letting John get to eliminate at least one of them first. The heels go to work on John, and he tries to fight them off, but can't capitalize on any progress because there's always another guy to cut him off. Sheamus finally grabs hold of him with a crucifix powerbomb, and that's balls at 20:53.

Survivors: Miz, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre

This was competent, though pretty dull. * ¾

 

Batista v Rey Mysterio: Rey sticks and moves at the bell, managing to avoid the front-powerslam, and nearly hitting the 619 before the big man bails. Batista pulls Rey to the outside for a nasty shot into the apron, but Rey still manages out outmove him on the way back in, and he snaps Batista's throat across the top rope. Rey tries a springboard, but Batista ducks it, and clobbers him with a clothesline. Front-powerslam, but Rey slips free, and clips the knee. Dropkick gets Mysterio two, so he tries the 619, but Batista catches him. Batista Bomb, but Rey uses a headscissors to send him to the outside, and then barrels into him with a baseball slide. Rey dives from the apron with a seated senton, and an inverted 619 leads to one to the abs. Regular 619 connects, and the springboard flying seated senton sets up a flying frogsplash, but Batista lifts his knees to block. That allows Batista a spear, and a spinebuster follows. Batista Bomb has Rey beat, but Batista wants to add more punishment. He sets up a second Bomb, still no cover. Third one, and he has no intention of covering, so the referee stops the match at 6:50. Fun match, weak finish. ** ¾

 

Survivor Series Elimination Match: Kofi Kingston, Christian, Mark Henry, Montel Vontavious Porter, and R-Truth v Randy Orton, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, and William Regal: Henry and Orton start, and Randy comes right at him with rights, but Mark is too strong, and not only beats him, but beats him in his own corner in a show of strength. That triggers a big brawl, and Orton manages to nail him with the RKO at 0:52. MVP is next in, but immediately gets trapped in the heel corner, and that doesn't go well for him. Regal seems so out of place with these guys. Porter manages to get a tag off to Truth, but he quickly eats a GTS from Punk at 3:13. Christian is next in, and even he's less out of place on his team than Regal is. Christian with a double-underhook rollup for two, and a clothesline gets two. Punk comes back with a bodyslam, however, and Ted uses a 2^nd rope double stomp for two. Powerslam gets two, so Ted tries the Million Dollar Dream, but Christian blocks. That leads to a reversal sequence, and Christian comes off the middle with a sunset flip at 5:08. Regal immediately comes in with a shoulderblock, but a charge ends badly when Christian dropkicks him, and he gets the tag off to Kofi. Kingston comes in hot on Regal, but misses a dive, and passes to MVP - Porter quickly putting Regal away at 6:50. That whole sequence was really rough around the edges. Cody dives in, but Porter catches him in a powerslam for two, and Christian tags in with a tornado DDT, but Rhodes blocks. Cody grounds him in a bodyscissors, but Christian counters to a cradle for two, so Cody clotheslines him for two. Tag to Orton with a dropkick for two, and the heels go to work on Christian. Cody misses a kneedrop to allow the tag back to Porter, and the Ballin' Elbowdrop sets up the finisher, but a distraction from Orton allows Cody the CrossRhodes at 10:10. Kofi rushes in with a schoolboy on Cody for two, and he passes to Christian for a flying elbowsmash. They go to work on Cody with quick tags, and Kofi uses a splash for two, followed by a Killswitch from Christian at 11:35. Orton comes in, but Christian isn't having his shit, and smacks him around. Randy manages to drop him into the corner to shake him off, but he gets distracted by Kofi, and Christian cradles for two. Killswitch, but Punk saves at two, and the distraction allows Orton to recover with the RKO at 13:26. Dust settles on Kofi and Punk, and both guys try their finishers, but can't stick them. Kingston manages the SOS for two, but a corner splash misses, and Punk snapmares him over for a kick to the shoulder blades for two. Punk grounds him in a headscissors, but Kofi fights free, so Punk uses a falcon arrow for two. Kofi fights him off again with a side suplex, and this time is able to dive with a flying bodypress for two. Kofi gets into comeback mode, but he gets distracted by Orton, like an idiot. That allows Punk a rollup, but Kingston is able to reverse at 20:41. Randy charges in to hit him with an RKO, but Kofi is ready with Trouble in Paradise at 20:50.

Survivor: Kofi Kingston

It got better towards the end, and the finish was definitely good, but most of the way through it was really hard to get into, with no flow or story. * ¼

 

World Heavyweight Title Triple Threat Match: Undertaker v Chris Jericho v Big Show: First fall wins it. Jericho and Show are co-holders of the WWE Unified Tag Team title here, and they work together to pound the champion into the corner at the bell. Undertaker fights back, but it's hard to fight back against two dudes - especially when one of those dudes is as big as two dudes on his own. Undertaker manages to send Show into the post on the outside, so Jericho tries a springboard, but Undertaker punches him out of the air. Now fighting just one man, Undertaker goes to work on Chris with the ropewalk forearm, but Jericho manages to crotch him on the top. Jericho brings him down via superplex for two, but Undertaker blocks the Lionsault. Chris stays on track with the Walls of Jericho instead, but Undertaker is able to hang on until Show can save. Show gives Chris a Chokeslam, then one for the champ, but Undertaker counters with a DDT on the way down, and everyone is left looking up at the lights. Jericho recovers first, and tries a pin on each guy, but only gets two. Or four. Either way, no gold, so Chris grabs the belt to try and brain Undertaker, but he ends up knocking Show silly instead. The miss allows Undertaker to big boot him down for two, so he tries the Last Ride, but Chris nails him with the belt to block. That gives Jericho another two count, so he tries getting cute with a tombstone, but Undertaker reverses - only to have Show clobber them both. That leads to a fight between the tag champs, and one guess who wins that one. Show goes for the Chokeslam on Undertaker, but the champ counters with Hell's Gate at 13:36 to retain. Took a little while to find its footing, but it was pretty solid once it did. * ¼

 

Survivor Series Elimination Match: Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix, Alicia Fox, Layla, and Jillian Hall v Mickie James, Melina, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, and Gail Kim: Layla and Kelly start, and Layla dominates her. Kelly manages to evade her in the corner long enough to make a comeback, and a legdrop to the back of the head takes Layla out at 1:14. McCool runs in on Kelly, but she manages to tag out to Gail before any damage is done. Kim wins a criss cross with a dropkick, and a sunset cradle gets her two. Short-backelbow leads to a rana, but McCool counters with a pilefacebuster at 2:04. Moving right along here. Eve rushing in with a rollup for two, but McCool fights her off, and passes to Hall. Hall gets a hair pull slam, but Eve blocks a backbreaker, only to badly miss a dropkick. Not sure if that was a botch, but it looked like one regardless. Hall tries a handspring backelbow, but misses, and Eve dives with a flying sunset flip at 3:34. Unfortunately for Eve, she's quickly wrecked by Beth at 3:51. Kelly tries charging in, but also gets murdered by Phoenix at 4:08. James is next to try, and she manages to get some shine on Beth. Dropkick puts Phoenix down, and a crucifix eliminates her at 4:42. Shame, Phoenix was having a fun run there. Beth clobbers Mickie on the way out, and Fox hooks the leg for two. Fox with a hair pull slam, and a northern lights suplex for two. She goes for a superplex, but Mickie blocks, and James dives with a flying Thesz-press at 6:23. McCool blitzes James before she can even get back to her feet, and a legdrop gets her two. Michelle cuts the ring in half, but Mickie fights her off long enough for the big tag to Melina, and she comes in hot. Melina with a facebuster for two, but McCool clobbers her with a clothesline, and delivers a belly-to-belly suplex for two. Gory bomb, but Melina counters with a sunset cradle at 10:38.

Survivors: Mickie James, Melina

This was just kind of a revolving door for the first six minutes or so, before settling into a standard style tag match with the heat segment on James. None of it was especially good, but it wasn't embarrassing either. Which is kind of funny considering this was still mostly the T&A era of the division, and this was less exposing than some of the terrible women's matches at WrestleMania 37. ¾*

 

Main Event: WWE Title Triple Threat Match: John Cena v Triple H v Shawn Michaels: Like in the earlier Triple Threat, we've got the champion against a tag team, but unlike earlier, Shawn immediately Superkicks his buddy to take him out of the match. That was great, and everyone involved sold it really well - though Cena hammed it up a bit too much. Okay, with HHH out of the way, Shawn is able to nail the champ with a swinging neckbreaker for two, and he starts unloading chops. Cross corner whip, but Cena reverses, and hits a bulldog on the rebound. John with a suplex for two, so Shawn starts throwing more chops to buy time, but Cena reverses another cross corner whip on him. Attitude Adjustment time, but Shawn manages to counter with a DDT for two on the way down! Michaels clips the leg to keep the champion down, and he capitalizes with a figure four, but Cena fights free. They spill to the outside, where Michaels preps an announce table, but HHH comes back to life before he can use it, and he puts Michaels through it with a spinebuster. HHH takes Cena inside to hit with a spinebuster for two, and a corner whip is worth two. Neckbreaker gets two, but Cena counters the Pedigree with a catapult into the corner. Unfortunately for him, HHH rebounds out with a clothesline for two, and both guys stagger up for a slugfest. Cena gets the better of it and starts making a comeback, but Shawn returns to prevent him from hitting the AA, and he dumps the champion to the outside so he can have a showdown with Hunter. Luckily there's less than fifteen minutes of airtime left, so it shouldn't take forty five minutes this time. Hunter dominates, and hits a kneeling facebuster, but loses a criss cross when Michaels comes off the ropes with a jumping forearm. HHH quickly comes back with a rotating spinebuster, but Michaels counters the Pedigree with a backdrop, and he goes to the top, but Cena crotches him before he can dive. Cena goes up in another corner to dive at HHH himself, but he misses, and Michaels recovers with a flying elbowdrop on John. Unfortunately for him, HHH tosses him over the top before he can cover... and then walks right into an STF from the champion! Cena has it locked in, but Michaels saves, and traps John in a crippler crossface. Shawn wrenches it on, but Cena powers to a vertical base for the AA, only for Michaels to block. John responds with the STF, but Shawn makes the ropes to save himself, and throws a Superkick. HHH is back, so Shawn hits him with one as well - only for Hunter to collapse right on top of the fallen Cena! And with Shawn still on dream street from the STF, that gets a dramatic two count. Great near fall there. Cena and Hunter stagger up, and John musters the strength to execute the AA, but he doesn't have enough left in the tank to cover. That allows Shawn to crawl for the cover himself, and both guys reach Hunter simultaneously for a double two count. That was less outstanding than the previous near fall spot, but points for creativity. Everyone staggers to their feet, and we get a nice extended reversal sequence that ends in Cena giving Shawn an AA onto HHH, and then pinning HHH at 21:13. This was fun, and I liked their take on the 'one guy plays dead while the other two fight' cliché of these matches. *** ¼

BUExperience: I liked the main event. The rest, I could live without.

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