Road to Survivor Series 2011 - Part 2

Part 1 is here.

CM Punk v. John Cena

The Rock v. Dos Caras, Jr.

Ikea Death Match: @TruthKills v. Ka$h Kingston

Randy Orton v. Cody Rhodes

Punk’s the only GDI standing after Summer Slam, but he’s nowhere to be seen; Cena lost to Danielson, but he returns about a month or so after Summer Slam to resume cutting promos on the now missing group.  Cena admits to losing the battle, but says GDI lost the war; the guys with Underground are now running WWF, Cena will be wrestling someone at Survivor Series and the 3 time WWF Champion CM Punk is nowhere to be found. Cena cuts a second similar promo the following week.

That leads to Punk’s showing up the following week in what is still Bret’s office, but is now occupied by Regal.

Punk’s wary – Regal’s got 4-5 members of Underground surrounding him.

Regal thanks Punk for coming to the meeting,

Regal says at Survivor Series he will officially become WWF Commissioner and he thinks there might be a place for Punk in the new WWF. 

Punk tells him to go to hell.

Regal offers him a slot at Survivor Series against Cena.  On one one.  No interference.  No postmatch attacks.  No double cross. 

Punk asks why he should believe Regal.  Regal says he’s sick of Cena.  Cena’s not Underground but he walks around like he somehow carries the WWF flag.  There is no WWF standardbearer who isn't Underground; Cena was useful for awhile, but now its time to dispose of him. In the new WWF he wouldn’t mind if Cena wasn’t around – and Punk’s the guy to get rid of him.  And if after that, Punk wants out of his contract, so be it.  Unlike Bret, Regal isn’t interested in keeping him against his will. 

Punk pauses – and extends his hand to Regal.

Regal seems a little surprised – but he takes it.

As it develops, the match isn’t going to be a garbage match, and that’s Cena’s idea – Punk brings a light tube to the ring to hand to Cena and Cena turns it down.  Cena says he’s worked every day in the WWF for this one moment, a straight wrestling match at Madison Square Garden against a former WWF Champion.  

Cena says it’s the biggest moment of his life. 

Punk says it’s not the biggest moment in his, he’s main evented Wrestlemania, he’s won the WWF title, the reason Cena was able to get away with running down GDI for so long was because that nobody ever thought he was particularly important.

Punk says its just another day at the office, he goes to MSG, beats Cena, gets out his contract and moves on. That allows Cena to push the "you don't care about these fans, this place, you're the same guy who threw down the title belt" button - and Punk to respond that the fans aren't children, they know why he's leaving and they know where they will be able to find him next.  

The Rock returns to the WWF for one night only at Survivor Series 2011.

The Rock, recall, clowned Caras at Mania and since then Caras has been calling him out, including bringing in Tony Atlas as his driver at Summer Slam. 

After Summer Slam Caras continues to go at Rock – the Usos were introduced as Rock’s cousins on WWF Underground, this summer’s version of Tough Enough, and they got bullied off the competition – they come back in the build to get embarrassed by Caras.  Ideally, they get Rocky Johnson to come back and get stomped out, but he’s not on the payroll, so I can’t count on that.

I’d like the announcement of the match to be part of a talkshow appearance, Rock’s promoting a movie on whatever show he’s on (Kimmel would do it) and announces that he’s returning to the WWF for one more match.  That he started his career in New York City at Survivor Series in 1996 and 15 years later he’s going to come back for one last match.  He briefly explains there’s a guy named Dos Caras (he can make fun of his name) who has an ass whipping coming, and so the Rock’s going to give him one.

In what is apparently a throwaway, I like Kimmel showing some silly clip of Nemeth, and then saying something like “I guess that’s the champ now– what is that guy’s name?”  The Rock can hit his “it doesn’t matter…” line. 

It’s not full kayfabe, it’s Rock being Rock largely joking around– ideally getting some mainstream rub for his return to the ring.

He doesn’t enter even one arena one time before Survivor Series; he can cut a couple/three satellite promos to show he’s serious about the match, but it’s Caras/Vickie/Ricardo/Atlas doing their shtick that keeps the momentum going.  

Crazy ass Killings walked out on the match against former tag partner Kingston at Summer Slam because he had a shift at Ikea – he cuts a promo where he brings furniture into the ring to show the good deals they have; Kingston comes out to basically ask him what the hell has happened, and it winds up with Killings putting Kingston through a bookcase. 

That’s the essential build for this match; there’s going to be Ikea furniture, and the guys are going to smash into it.  Killings is the crazy guy; Kingston is now pissed off at the craziness, and they’re gonna hit each other with end tables at MSG.

Finally, a listless Orton lost at Summer Slam and he gets put on blast by Cody.  Cody says Orton’s become a little bitch – here we are, with this Underground group having taken over, stepping on the throat of every wrestler in the WWF who wasn’t trained there, and the guy who was supposed to be Defiant, the guy who told every boss he ever had to go screw himself, the guy who  kicked Cody’s own dad in the head – he’s just given up.  Cody says if Orton doesn’t want to be Defiant – then he’ll be Defiant. 

Cody slaps Orton across the face, Orton just exits. 

And that’s the last match.  All of that plus Bret returns to officially hand off the commissionership. Once again, the card.

WWF Title: Nick Nemeth (w/Kelly) v. Mistico

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

Tags: Empire v. Opening Tag Winners

CM Punk v. John Cena (if Punk wins, he’s released from his contract)

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

#IkeaDeathMatch: @TruthKills v. Ka$h Kiingston

Randy Orton v. Cody Rhodes

Number One Contender: Mark Henry/Santino v. Hunico/Mase

Unrelated, since part I of the build - your friendly Counterfactual author got married.  True story!

The next TNA show comes up later this month; Survivor Series in November.  

Road to Survivor Series 2011, Part 1

Summer Slam is here.

The RAW after Summer Slam begins with the Spanish announce team walking out during Joey’s opening desk piece; they’re leaving in protest of Underground attacking Rey Mysterio the night before.  Underground then comes to the ring to spike the football – they’ve got all the belts, they wiped out the locker room last night, GDI is gone and at Survivor Series in MSG, Steve Regal will officially be named the new Commissioner of the WWF.  Underground is establishing a permanent control over the entire sport. 

They’re interrupted by Bret – he’s pissed.  He’s been betrayed – he and Regal were in this together, they were doing what was best for the WWF.  But what Underground did last night wasn’t best for the WWF, Rey Mysterio will not be wrestling at Madison Square Garden, he will not be wrestling at WWF 100; he will not be wrestling at Wrestlemania 28. 

Regal says they don’t need him; they don’t need anybody from the back – once Regal takes over WWF will become all Underground; the men in this ring will show they are the best wrestlers in the world.

Nemeth tells Bret he needs to go home – take the next couple of months off, come back at Survivor Series to hand over the job to Regal and then sail off into permanent retirement.  Sheamus and Barrett then surround Bret – Nemeth saying that he really should think very carefully about his next move.

Surrounded by 18 men, Bret exits the ring, goes up the ramp, and we don’t see him again in this build.

Who we do see are the Spanish announcers, as they become the mouthpiece for Mistico and his crew in the build. 

WWF Championship: Nick Nemeth v. Mistico

The primary elements of this program (1) whenever you see Mistico he’s in a suit wearing the mask and he’s surrounded by another dozen luchadores, all similarly attired.  Underground’s got a ton of guys, Mistico needs as many.  Ideally they are actual workers, but since they’re masked, they can basically be anyone.  Two of Mistico’s guys actually wind up on the card, we’ll get to that in a second (2) we’re going to hit the Hispanic button hard; in the build to Summer Slam was a lot of discussion about how Rey v. Mistico at MSG was a dream match for entire nations of people – and when Rey got curbstomped by Underground it’s Mistico (with the heretofore not utilized in an angle Spanish announce team as his voice) representing all of lucha libre against the affront.  Nemeth can do his best sneer and Regal can, pretty hypocritically, talk about how Senator McMahon’s support of the Dream Act has resulted in all of these undocumented wrestlers.  Border control, Regal says, should be our nation’s most important priority. Regal waves an American flag, tries to start a U-S-A chant.  

Mistico’s only going to wrestle once in the build, against Tyson Kidd, just enough to get in his stuff and get out of the ring. 

Opening Tag: Mark Henry/Santino v. Hunico/Mase

Tag Titles: Empire v. Opening Tag Winners

Two other matches come out of this program; two of Mistico’s guys are a tag act, Hunico and Mase (Mase is, unfortunately, Mason Ryan, both guys are masked) they get programmed over Douchebags – and also programmed over Douchebags (it’s a big group) are two of the guys from the back who Underground beat up at the close of Summer Slam – Mark Henry and Santino.  They become united in their new common enemy, and when both teams go over the bottom end of Underground – the match is made to open the PPV (there’s a size similarity among the guys that maybe makes some sense, the match won’t be good, but you could see the obvious spots).

The winners will then go on to meet Empire for the straps later in the evening; Empire pulled the Killer Bees mask switch at Summer Slam and continue to do that as we get to Survivor Series.  The takeaway from that is Empire are undeserving champs, only succeeding due to numbers and chicanery – and it plugs a hole we have for this show, when the only member of Empire who actually works is Barrett.  Meaning the actual body under the second mask is going to be Jinder Mahal, who doesn’t otherwise exist, but he’ll be pretending to be Gabriel or Riley. 

IC Title: Sheamus v. Nitro

The other title match is the IC; Sheamus is now nicknamed the CliqueKiller; he ended Edge’s career at Mania, and has apparently ended Christian’s career at Summer Slam, both with the toss into the ringpost.  So this is Nitro, getting his rematch from the Mania loss – Nitro and Miz do the angry version of the Clique for this program; they’ve been disrespected, they’ve been attacked – and now it’s time to crack some skulls.  Sheamus, backed by McIntyre in the build, couldn’t be cockier – they are ending careers now, and Nitro’s is next.  They have a mock funeral for Edge and Christian, goofing on the other former Clique members “here lies Diesel, died in the ring, no one noticed for five minutes” “here lies Razor, wait, he might really be dead, let’s skip that one” – let’s say it ends with Nitro and Miz popping out of coffins and getting the upper hand. 

That’s half the card.  4 singles matches left.

CM Punk v. John Cena

The Rock v. Dos Caras, Jr.

Ikea Death Match: @TruthKills v. Ka$h Kingston

Randy Orton v. Cody Rhodes

I'll be back soon with part 2