Survivor Series 2011

The build is here.

Survivor Series – 2011

(Dark – Black/Ambrose d. Usos)

McIntyre/Kidd d. Colons)

Joey and JR is your announce – we are live from Madison Square Garden. 

The show opens with a shot of Bret’s empty chair, Bret was run off in the build by Underground.  Regal, by himself, but loaded down with every title belt in the promotion, enters.

Regal puts over that at the end of the night Bret’s chair will be filled by the next WWF Commissioner, Regal himself, and he then previews what that might mean for the much discussed WWF 100, the 100^th WWF PPV, Rumble 2012 – Nemeth defending against McIntrye, Sheamus defending against DiBiase, Empire defending against Douchebags – a whole night dedicated to the greatness of Underground.

And we’re off.

1.      

#1Contenders: Mark Henry/Santino d. Hunico/Mase

-Winners get the tag shots later in the evening; Henry is the late period mean, powerhouse Henry character, Santino plays a cowardly foreign man right up until the bell rings when he is preposterously overconfident – Hunico and Mase are masked, they are part of Mistico’s large posse, there’s a concern that having them lose will dampen the crowd, which should have a hot, nationalistic bent given the top card program – but I just can’t put Mason Ryan in a title match.  Clean win, Henry gets the fall on Mase with whatever level of “look how strong he is” power move that makes sense.

2.       Randy Orton d. Cody Rhodes

-For years, Randy Orton led Defiance, a stable carved from his own persona – but after being swerved by partner DiBiase at Mania, Orton seems to have given up.  Cody has been young, green babyfac e, once punked out long ago by Orton when Randy was making his bones – but after climbing through the ranks Rhodes felt swerved himself at Money in the Bank at Mania and has a more anti authoritarian view.  In this build he’s been poking at Orton’s disinterest – and the story of the match is Rhodes trying to get a rise out of Orton, slapping, taunting, going low – finally Orton shows an out of nowhere flash and lays Cody out with an RKO and a pinfall.

Orton leaves – but Cody, still on his knees calls him back – still taunting – and Orton returns to the ring – Cody is yelling at Orton to kick him in the head, to hit him with the Golden Goal – to be a man – to be Def…

And then Orton punts him.

Orton hits his turnbuckle pose and the announce says he is back.

3.       #IkeaDeathMatch: @TruthKills d. Ka$h Kingston

Kingston and Killings were longtime babyface tag champs, Killings went nuts, and now he works at Ikea.  This is largely just to break furniture all over MSG to satisfy the garbage match jones; Kingston can take crazy bumps – Killings has to be a garbage wrestler to stay on the roster, and this is really a transition for him.  Killings leaves quickly postmatch because he has to make his shift. 

4.       The Rock d. Dos Caras, Jr. (w/Ricardo/Vickie/Atlas)

-The return of the Rock – Dos Caras’s shtick has been killing the other second/third generation guys, all building to the Rock coming back to WWF; Rock hits his spots in a match not too long as to expose him.  This wraps Atlas, so he takes whatever bump he can take – Ricardo can take him a big bump so he will – something embarrassing that pops the crowd happens to Vickie - Caras is going away for awhile, so Rock goes over super strong – this was billed as the only match he was doing and not any kind of return, so he gets the postmatch crowd reaction you’d expect.

And then it’s stopped.

By the entrance of Nemeth.  Sheamus.  Barrett.

An element of the build was a seeming throwaway joke Rock told at Nemeth’s expense on Kimmel; that’s the guts of this- Nemeth cuts the “go back to Hollywood, leave the wrestling to the men”  on the Rock – this place belongs to Underground, go back and shoot Tooth Fairy 2; and when Rock attempts to respond, they beat the hell of him. 

Rock’s got to bleed, even if it isn’t real to avoid marking his head – it’s a full vicious gang attack that leaves him for dead.

5.       CM Punk draw John Cena

-I almost did the real world double pin finish, but I’ll save that for a title I want held up; this is a time limit draw.  Punk’s a 3 time WWF Champ (tied for the record) trying to escape the coming Age of Underground; Cena’s been fighting from beneath his whole career – he got Die Rocky Die heat when he and Orton were baby tag champs and never has gotten away from the label that he was undeserving; for a couple of years now he’s won over some percentage of the fanbase by reinventing himself as Tommy Dreamer, a garbage wrestler who makes the promotion his priority – and here he gets as close to a moral victory as occurs in wrestling, fighting Punk to a 20 minute standstill, the time running out during the nearfall sequence. 

A win and Punk terminated his contract; a win and Cena took his biggest step up the ladder – neither of those things happened here, both exit frustrated.

6.       WWF Tag Titles: Empire (w/DiBiase) d. Henry/Santino

-It’s Barrett and Gabriel (under the mask) but it’s not actually Gabriel, it’s actually real world Jinder,  but that’s kayfabed; the masked members of Empire pull switches that go unnoticed by the official, who is distracted by DiBiase, who began to work with Empire in this build since the mask switch has become the key element of Empire’s gimmick.  He can also taunt the Latino fans who have come to support Mistico, as it’s time to rev the engines for the main event. 

Barrett gets the fall and Empire keeps their straps.

7.       IC Title: Sheamus (w/McIntyre) d. Johnny Nitro (w/Miz/Natty)

-Sheamus took Nitro’s IC at Mania and has established himself as the Clique Killer; he appears to have ended both Edge’s and Christian’s careers by hurling them shoulder first into the ringpost.  Nitro has always been all swag, and ideally, given what’s coming, he leaves it all on the floor at MSG in this one - Sheamus  brawls, Nitro flies – Sheamus gets the clean win to keep his belt and then seemingly ends Nitro’s career by throwing him shoulder first into the ringpost.  Miz and Natty look in horror as Nitro lies crumpled. 

8.       WWF Title: Nick Nemeth d. Mistico

-I’m unabashedly playing on nationalism here; Nemeth’s going to hump the Mexican flag on his entrance; Mistico is announced both in English and Spanish, Underground and Mistico’s crew are all in the ring at introductions and they surround the ring during the match, getting into skirmishes if needed to juice the match (Mistico v. Averno in Mexico=awesome, Mistico in real world WWE…not so much; I am not confident in the ringwork for this match, I’d put Steamboat’s kid under a mask, call him a luchadore, and have he and Tyson Kidd fall off a ladder on the outside if it was needed to up the value of this main event) whatever’s going on outside can increase in intensity as we get to the fall – a clean win by Nemeth.

That leads to Underground immediately attacking the beaten Mistico – picture 18 guys jumping into the ring right at the three count – Mistico’s group comes in after, but they are on the losing end here – Mistico takes a good beating and the full on brawl is only stopped with Bret Hart’s music.

Bret had been morphing into the corporate heel, but now again looks like the Hit Man – he hits the top of the ramp and says that he took Underground’s advice, he spent the past couple of months at home, and he made a couple of phone calls – and tonight, as promised, he’s prepared to officially transition the power of the WWF Commissionership to his successor….

Mick Foley.

Regal and Underground react the way you’d expect as Foley, a Triple Crown winner back from exile in Orlando, emerges onto the ramp.

Bret and Foley shake hands, Bret departs, Foley takes the mic – he puts over that there’s no better place for him to make his return than at Madison Square Garden – he says he knows there are about 20 guys standing in the ring (the Mexicans have all done the wrestling disappearing act) unhappy to see him, but there are 18,000 New Yorkers who are on his side.

Nemeth takes the mic – says when Foley walks down to the ring not a single one of those fans will be able to stop Underground from kicking his ass back to TNA.

Foley says the Champ is right – none of the fans will be able to stop it.

But he’s brought some men who might.

And then onto the ramp steps Ricky Steamboat.

And then Sydal and Tatsu.

And then the Kings of Wrestling – Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli.

And then CM Punk

And then Bryan Danielson.

Foley and GDI head to the ring – a full scale brawl breaks out, and that’s how the show ends.

Next month – the build for WWF 100: Royal Rumble 2012 (and the 7 year anniversary of the Counterfactual)

The pivotal moment – a War Games match to determine who is the rightful Commissioner of the WWF and who will face Nick Nemeth for the WWF Championship at WWF 100.