by Daniel Johnson
On a cold night in Boston, Massachusetts this past Sunday, WWE produced a show that was a good deal better than fans might have expected from looking at the card on paper. Still, WWE Survivor Series 2013 was not without it’s problems and the main event in particular left a lot to be desired. At any rate there were some fun moments and some great in-ring action. Some of the younger guys on the main WWE roster even got a chance to shine! Before getting into the bulk of the action I just wanted to mention that the photograph quality of this write-up is a bit off. This may be expected because I was sitting in row 15 on the balcony. Thank goodness for zooming!
In the Survivor Series Kickoff opener, The Miz, newly turned heel, took on Kofi Kingston in a match that got a fairly good reaction.
The Miz offered to shake Kofi’s hand after The Miz squeaked out with a victory. Instead, the normally happy as a clam Kofi slapped The Miz, which got at least a few gasps from the crowd.
Up next was a traditional Survivor Series match, which pitted Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger with Zeb Colter against Goldust, Cody Rhodes, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso and Rey Mysterio. Prior to the match Zeb Colter talked about twerking, which got a good amount of fans riled up. As for the in-ring action despite holding the WWE United States Championship for nearly 200 days and having a bright future with The Shield, Ambrose was surprisingly the first to be eliminated after he got distracted, allowing Cody Rhodes to roll him up. After a little while The Real Americans were eliminated one after the other fairly quickly. However, before getting sent to the back Cesaro got some face cheers for his two big swings on The Usos. Yet, the man who got the biggest cheers of the match was a man Cesaro was pummeling a little earlier, Goldust.
Kids really seem to love Goldust these days and there were at least a few who painted themselves up as the golden veteran. Their parents obviously don’t know about the artist formerly known as Goldust era of the character. In any event though it looked like the face team could win with a clean shut out, the surviving members of The Shied eliminated Jimmy Uso, Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso in a surprising comeback. The bout wasn’t tied up for long though because Mysterio reversed a power move from Rollins and held him down for a pin. Although Reigns was outnumbered, two spears put Goldust and Mysterio away respectively, leaving Reigns as the sole survivor.
The next match was for the WWE Intercontinental Championship and was wrestled between Curtis Axel and Big E Langston. I love the old school WWE Intercontinental Championship belt design, but does anyone else think it looks a little weird on Langston?
A surprising amount of fans used this match for a bathroom break. If only they knew that a divas match was coming up next! Axel also got some, “You can’t wrestle chants,” though he at least gave it a shot.
Axel’s well executed perfect plex also got pretty much no reaction, which is a bit disappointing. Langston kicked out of it anyways and ended the match with his big ending finisher.
Up next, was a commercial for Total Divas aka the traditional Survivor Series match that saw the cast of Total Divas battle seven other divas. The participants were Natalya, Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Cameron, Naomi, Eva Marie and JoJo against AJ Lee, Tamina Snuka, Kaitlyn, Alicia Fox, Aksana, Summer Rae and Rosa Mendes, the latter of which promoted themselves as True Divas. Man, was that ring crowded.
In a way it is kind of neat that so many women got to wrestle on a WWE pay-per-view in a non-battle royal match. Of course, a lot of these women can barely wrestle at all so the match resulted in a finisher fest. Of course, since a lot of these women aren’t established enough to have finishers just about anyone who got hit with a move was then quickly eliminated. Fox was the first to go then Mendes surprisingly defeated Cameron when Cameron tripped. Mendes and Rae were out next followed by Kaitlyn eliminating Eva Marie and Naomi. Before Rae was out though she did some dancing, which actually got a reaction out of the crowd. Brie Bella hit a halfway decent missile dropkick to eliminate Kaitlyn next, but then got herself eliminated by Aksana. Aksana then got eliminated by Nikki Bella and JoJo was the last from the Total Divas team to get eliminated. For the finish Natalya made Snuka and Lee each tap to a sharpshooter, resulting in Natalya and Nikki Bella of The Bella Twins being the survivors of the match.
Up next Ryback came out to issue an open challenge after picking on some WWE Hall of Fame members in attendance, who were Bret Hart, Mick Foley and Booker T.
Mark Henry answered the challenge and got a beyond decent reaction.
The two big men locked up, but the bout went a little to long for the crowd’s liking. Ryback as just about always got some, “Goldberg” chants and the match also got some, “Boring” chants. Ryback and Henry couldn’t do much to stop those chants since because they are so bulky and lack mobility they really couldn’t do much more than lock up.
Speaking of annoyed crowds, Alberto Del Rio challenged for the World Heavyweight Championship next in a match with John Cena. Actually, though Del Rio often gets apathetic responses, the anti-Cena fans in Boston cheered him, which perhaps inspired him to step up his game.
This was a pretty standard super face Cena versus a foe match with Del Rio only gaining the upper hand through underhanded means and Cena dominating most of the bout.
Despite Massachusetts being his home state, make no mistake about it. Boston fans hate Cena. At least a lot of them do and he certainly got more boos than cheers this night. Regardless of this, we knew who was winning this match before it began.
The next match, which featured CM Punk and Daniel Bryan wrestling Luke Harper and Erick Rowan of The Wyatt Family got the best reaction of the night. I actually preferred the first traditional Survivor Series match, but there was no mistaking that Punk and Bryan worked pretty great as a team.
Perhaps the spot of the match was when Punk signaled to do his “Macho Man” Randy Savage elbow, but instead jumped outside to splash on Bray Wyatt and Rowan.
The match was filled with false finishes, which allowed the crowd to really get into it and as such fans started a, “This is awesome,” chant.
The bout ended when Punk hit the go to sleep on Harper. After the match Wyatt teased getting in the ring himself, but of course didn’t. As such Punk and Bryan just posed for an extended period of time. What is this 1985?
The main event saw The Big Show challenge Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. Throughout the night Orton appeared in backstage segments, which played up how worried he was that he would have to face Show without the benefit of interference. When Show finally got Orton alone in the ring, he chopped Orton so hard that Orton had to check if his nipples were still there.
For a guy that is supposed to play the chicken, runaway heel, Orton actually dominated a surprising amount of this match and got in all those standard Orton spots fans have come to expect.
It would be an understatement to say fans weren’t into this match. Audience members were chanting, “Daniel Bryan” throughout the encounter and his complete absence from the main event scene continues to show the disconnect WWE has with it’s fans.
Although HHH promised there would be no interference in any match at Survivor Series his music hit and he came out with his wife, Stephanie McMahon. This distracted Show, who then got hit with an RKO and punt from Orton who won the match. As Orton was getting applauded by his fellow heels, World Heavyweight Champion John Cena came out and had a stare down with Orton.
Orton then retreated to be with The Authority.
The night ended with Cena asking for Orton to get in the ring. Although Orton, HHH, corporate Kane, Vince McMahon and even Stephanie McMahon teased getting in the ring, none of them did. Come on! Corporate Kane could have at least taken an attitude adjustment!
Although the night ended on a lame match, the event as a whole had plenty worth watching.
Photos 1-21: Daniel Johnson / Johnsontranscript.com
Categories: Smooth Runs
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