Random Network Reviews: ECW Guilty As Charged 2001

ECW Guilty as Charged 2001
January 7th, 2001 – Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York – Attendance: 2,500

“Random Network Reviews” takes us to ECW Guilty as Charged 2001. After doing the historic Bash at the Beach 1996, I get to do another historic show as this would turn out to be the last ever ECW Pay-Per-View. They ran two house shows after this but this was basically it for the company. Around this time I was fully an ECW fan. I had watched from 1996 until this show every week and never missed anything. I had DVDs, action figures, merchandise, and everything you could think of. It was a sad thing to see ECW close but that’s the beauty of the WWE Network.

The real intro video package to this show featured the awesome “Renegades of Funk” song by Rage Against the Machine, but it’s dubbed over with some generic awfulness on the Network. I hate it because this intro video is one of my favorites ever. Cutting to the ring, Joey Style and Joel Gertner welcome everyone to the show. Gertner opens with one of his best rhymes of all time. If you’re going to see nothing else on this show, watch those first few minutes.

Joel Gertner introduces Joey Matthews and Christian York. It’s funny to think that now Joey Matthews is a stooge for The Authority. I loved York and Matthews during this time but they get attacked by Da Baldies during their entrance. Joel Gertner, an advocate for York and Matthews, tries to help but gets taken out too. Da Baldies continue to assault them in the ring with a powerbomb/dropkick combo as Cyrus the Virus comes out. Jerry Lynn also shows up and plants Matthews with the Cradle Piledriver. Cyrus gets a tag and covers Matthews for the three. So I guess that was a legit match.

Winners: Cyrus and Jerry Lynn in 2:41
Can’t really rate this as it wasn’t really a match. It drew a ton of heat though, so it worked in that way. NR

Joey Matthews is bleeding a ton as Jerry Lynn berates him for being a jobber. Lynn calls himself the “Whole Fucking Show”, drawing RVD chants but he doesn’t come out since he’s off filming some terrible B flick. Lynn says he won’t work another match unless it is in the main event and ends the segment by saying “LYNN!” in a weird, deep voice. Now the official ECW intro video plays.

ECW World Tag Team Championship Three Way Dance
Danny Doring and Roadkill (c) vs. Hot Commodity w/ Chris Hamrick and Elektra
Hot Commodity consists of EZ Money and Julio Deniro, which are some pretty cool names I might add. Doring and Deniro start with some decent work highlighted by a superkick from Doring and a T-Bone from Deniro. Money gets the tag and you can see through his pants straight to his thong. Billy Gunn called and wants his gimmick back. The Champions get in their high impact offense including an elbow called the “Panty Dropper Elbow” for two. Julio hits a nice dive outside and Doring hits a sad looking one. Money gets whipped into the guardrail but flips over it and clotheslines Roadkill, which was sweet. Hot Commodity do some double team work back inside as they work over the smaller Doring. They do the awful spot where Money leaps from the top right into a boot from Doring which leads to another ridiculously named Doring move. “WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM!” Roadkill gets the tag and is all like “CHICKENS” before giving EZ Money the biggest wedgie I have ever seen. Julio hits a spin kick that is dubbed the “Jalapeno Popper”. It’s as if ECW knew it was their last night and they wanted to name every move something absurd to get them all in. Hot Commodity’s cheating gets them in trouble and leads to a Boogie Bang to wrap this up.

Winners and Still ECW World Tag Team Champions: Danny Doring and Roadkill in 10:06
No psychology whatsoever. Just guys trying to get in the highest octane offense possible. **1/4

Hot Commodity beat on the faces until generic WWE Network music hits and out comes Nova! I much prefer his real theme, “Intergalactic” by Beastie Boys. It seems like this is a return for Nova as nobody expected him here. This leads to an ECW specialty…THE IMPROMTU MATCH!

Chris Hamrick w/ Elektra vs. Nova
I’ve never really seen Chris Hamrick wrestle but he does hit a springboard dropkick. Nova targets the leg and applies a Figure Four to the “Woos” of the fans until Elektra rakes his eyes. Nova blocks a tornado DDT and hits a face buster. He climbs to the top but again, Elektra gets involved to stop him. Hamrick hits a huge top rope hurricanrana to “Holy Shit” chants. The new “Nasty” Nova, which is just supposed to be a more aggressive side of him, fires away on Hamrick. He hits a big superkick for two and Elektra jumps on him again. He kicks her hand and then the referee takes a bump. THIS IS ECW, REF BUMPS DON’T MATTER DAMMIT! A new referee showed up and it’s Chris Chetti, Nova’s old partner! Lou E. Dangerously comes out too as Chetti pounds on Nova. I guess there was a DQ or something. Spike Dudley comes out as Lou E. Dangerously runs him down for calling himself a Dudley. Lou E claims he would never do that, which is meant to be ironic because he was Sign Guy Dudley. Spike and Chetti brawl until Nova hits a Swanton Bomb on Chetti. He then gets Hamrick with the Kryptonite Krunch and it’s over now. 

Winner: Nova in 7:20
Classic ECW clusterfuck of a match. **

The “King of Old School” Steve Corino is backstage with Jack Victory. Corino mentions how he went from comedy act to Rhino’s manager to taking out Dusty Rhodes to being the ECW Champion. I’ll admit, his run to the top of ECW was something I loved. He is upset that Sandman stole his belt at the last PPV.

I Quit Match
CW Anderson vs. Tommy Dreamer
These two had built a strong rivalry towards the end of ECW and went at each other right at the bell. They spill outside and Dreamer actually hits a slingshot cross body into the ring. You heard me right. Dreamer puts on a Dragon Sleeper but CW doesn’t quit. CW gets the same answer when he applies an armbar variation. Sky High, YOU BETTER RECOGNIZE, from Dreamer right into a Boston Crab as both guys are trying multiple submissions. Because this is ECW, CW gets his arm placed in a steel chair on the post and Dreamer smacks a chair into it. SICK. Dreamer goes under the ring, gets a wrench, puts the ring bell on CW’s head and bangs the wrench into it. LOUD. He then drives the wrench into CW’s bloody head as this got violent real fast. CW drives Dreamer’s knee into an open chair and I don’t like the switch of focus here. Continue the arm work man! Tommy fights back and hits a second rope elbow onto a chair onto CW’s face. Still no quit. Dreamer gets a gift from “Towel Boy” and it has razor wire in it! Towel Boy then uses cookie sheets to wail away on CW, who attacked him on the last PPV. He makes the mistake of going up top and CW hits a Cesaro like stalling second rope suplex. He turns to Tommy and nails a spinebuster on the razor wire! Time for another fecal chant after a CW suplex onto two open chairs. Right on cue, here’s another one for Tommy’s head being in a chair and rammed into the turnbuckle. CW brings a table into the fray because the story of Tommy never quitting has been well built. He rallies with the Spicoli Driver off the top and through the table! In one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen, Tommy uses part of the table and wraps it around CW’s eyes, pulling back into a submission. CW gives up because that’s just sick.

Winner: Tommy Dreamer in 14:17
That was exactly what I wanted it to be. A brutal match that never slowed down and was classic ECW. ***1/2

Francine is backstage with a giant sandwich. Subtle move ECW. See, Francine was with Justin Credible but her character was that she would only bone Champions. Steve Corino comes in for action but she denies him because he doesn’t have the belt. She says that Justin is with Missy Hyatt, Corino doesn’t believe her but it’s revealed that it is indeed her. And yes, they are blatant about the fact that Missy is banging Justin. Missy bumps into Steve and Jack and disrespects Jack, who she used to manage. Jack is calmed down when he hears that the Giants are winning and he delivers the “High Spot”. He steals the promo yet again.

Three Way Dance
The FBI w/ Big Sal vs. Kid Kash and Super Crazy vs. The Unholy Alliance w/ The Sinister Minister
The fact that he went as Yoshihiro Tajiri in ECW was badass. Kash, Tony Mamaluke and Mikey Whipwreck start and we get a series of moves from all of them. Mikey and Kash botch horribly, so they don’t get a good hand from the crowd. All three guys choose to tag out, with Tajiri getting a huge pop. He kicks Little Guido before he can ever enter, leading to Crazy vs. Tajiri Round 39 or something like that. Guido gets involved but eats a guillotine leg drop, corkscrew moonsault and springboard leg drop from various opponents. We get a trio of submissions as Whipwreck stretches Mamaluke, Crazy puts Guido in the surfboard and Tajiri puts Kash in the Tarantula. Things spill outside, allowing Crazy and Kash to hit back to back dives. The one Kash hit is pretty damn fantastic. Back inside, Big Sal squashes Kash, allowing the FBI to eliminate Kash and Crazy. With this now becoming a regular tag match, Tajiri and Whipwreck shine in their chemistry and teamwork. The FBI are no slouches though and hit a double top rope powerbomb that Mikey kicks out. No help from Tajiri or anything. WHIPPER SNAPPER! It’s where Austin got the move from dammit! Chairs get set up on the second turnbuckles leading to dual snake eyes. The FBI go up top with Mikey and he tries a double Whipper Snapper but it’s countered into a double Fujiwara Armbar! Tajiri breaks it up and the Unholy Alliance nail stereo tiger suplexes to win.

Winners: The Unholy Alliance in 13:31
Fun spotfest that became a good match once it got down to two teams. ***

The Sandman cuts a promo in the back before we go to the ring to see Simon Diamond, Swinger and Dawn Marie. Dawn Marie was on absolute fire here, just smoking hot. Swinger complains that he hasn’t “benefited” from Dawn’s managerial services so he brings out the Blue Boy and Jasmine St. Claire. It’s insane how Blue Meanie lost so much weight, only to put it right back on a few years later. A “Show Your Tits” chant begins, so Swinger starts flexing his pecs. Balls Mahoney and Chilly Willy come out and they all brawl. Rhino shows up and Gores Balls, Simon and Swinger. Dawn Marie gets in and gets Gored too. Chilly gets in his face and they trade shots but he falls victim to a Gore too. Blue Boy gets one too and now it’s Jasmine St. Claire’s turn to get hurt. He takes her to the second rope and piledrives her. JESUS CHRIST! 

ECW World Championship Three Way Tables, Ladder, Chairs and Canes Match
Steve Corino (c) w/ Jack Victory vs. Justin Credible w/ Francine vs. The Sandman
I don’t know why, but the entrances aren’t shown on the WWE Network version of this. A brawl starts this and Corino is first to eat some ladder. Credible drives a ladder onto him while he’s under another ladder as Corino is easily taking the worst of this fight so far. How crazy is it that someone as awful as Sandman is a multi-time World Champion? He climbs but Corino stops him, only for the ladder to fall on him. Credible goes all Terry Funk and airplane spins the ladder. The spots keep coming as Sandman has the ladder driven into his nether regions. He then gets tossed over the top and through a table. Corino and Credible totally whiff on a drop toe hold spot and I’d like to point out that these ladders look incredibly unstable. Credible also goes through a table outside, knee first, which has to hurt. Everyone is back in the ring and nobody is really staying down for long. Corino tries to scale the ladder, clearly sees Justin climbing the turnbuckle and waits to get dropkicked off. Sandman goes through yet another table but gets to his feet nearly instantly. Corino slingshots Credible into a ladder but the former Champion hits That’s Incredible and Francine snaps off the COOCHIECANRANA onto Sandman outside. Sandman again is up quickly and brings a bigger, sturdier ladder in. In a spot stolen from King of the Ring 1999, Credible and Corino are near the top and the belt is raised away from them. They fall off and through a table, allowing Sandman to retrieve the belt.

Winner and New ECW World Champion: The Sandman in 13:20
Decent brawl with some cool spots, but they were sloppy. **

The Sandman celebrates with the belt as Justin Credible and Steve Corino get to their feet. They all shake hands but are interrupted by DA BALDIES! Joey Styles is sure to point out that they are Cyrus’ hired thugs. Corino and Credible fight them to the back and Sandman conveniently sets up a table in the corner. Rhino shows up behind Sandman and he stumbles before Goring Sandman. Rhino grabs a microphone and starts with a “FUCK YOU NEW YORK”! He questions why he’s the TV Champion when this poor company doesn’t even have a TV deal. Ouch. He wants a title shot and threatens the Sandman’s family, so the match is going down.

ECW World Championship
The Sandman (c) vs. Rhino
Rhino picks up Sandman and Gores him through the table for two. Don’t be surprised Rhino, he got up quickly from a bunch of stuff during the previous match. So he sets up a table outside and piledrives Sandman off the apron and through it. He rolls him inside and again only gets two. Seriously? A second piledriver, this one on the broken table finally ends it.

Winner and New ECW World Champion: Rhino in 1:02
Well that got a ton of heat. SQUASH

Cyrus gets in the ring and hypes up Rhino as the Unified World Champion, even though he unified a World and TV Title. He challenges any man in the back, from any company, to take on Rhino. Styles says there is no one left and the theme of Rob Van Dam hits. The building goes NUTS as RVD is who they have chanted for all night. He goes face to face with Rhino who doesn’t back down at all. This should be a World Title match for the ages. Instead, Jerry Lynn attacks and we get that match instead as Rhino exits. 

Jerry Lynn w/ Cyrus vs. Rob Van Dam
It’s rather fitting that the last match in ECW Pay-Per-View history is not only the final chapter of RVD vs. Lynn, but also a match where RVD doesn’t get a World Title shot. A quick series of reversals ends in a standoff and RVD bows to the fans. Joey Styles points out that RVD doesn’t have Bill Alfonso and Lynn has someone in his corner now. I like little things like that from commentary. RVD spends a TON of time showboating. Lynn takes RVD outside and they brawl for a bit, highlighted by an RVD moonsault off the guardrail and his signature corkscrew leg drop. Back inside, RVD hits a gorilla press, moonsault and then a second rope moonsault in basically one swift motion for two, which was impressive as hell. RVD tries another flippy spot but Lynn catches him with a big midair clothesline. They do a good job of playing off of how well they know each other. As they go outside, a bald guy gets too close to the competitors and a “HIT THE BALD GUY” chant breaks out. RVD gets a near fall from Rolling Thunder and remembers that this is ECW, so he gets a chair. He skateboards the chair into Lynn’s face in the corner, so of course, RVD taunts again. Lynn rallies with a sunset flip bomb onto a chair for two. They trade DDT counters and seem to stumble a bit before Lynn gets two again with a German suplex. Despite the big spots, this has been rather dull. After a big kick, RVD misses the Five Star Frog Splash and Lynn rolls him up for two. Cyrus is chased into the ring by Joel Gertner, who plants him with a DDT. That seemed out of place. Lynn brings a chair in, like an idiot, and gets hit with the Van Daminator. HAVE YOU NOT WRESTLED RVD A MILLION TIMES? With no Bill Alfonso, RVD uses Gertner to hold the chair for the Van Terminator. That is enough to finish this.

Winner: Rob Van Dam in 20:25
Nowhere near the level of their 1999 encounters. Not sure if it was RVD being rusty, but this didn’t click. **

Cutting to the back, Justin Credible and Steve Corino inform everyone that they are going to be the New Impact Players because they’re tired of being screwed. They do the trademark pose together and I would’ve liked to see this team play out.

Overall: 5/10 Mediocre. Only two matches on this show are really good. The I Quit match and the Three Way Tag match are damn good. Everything else is passable, though none of it is really bad. RVD and Lynn disappoint, but this is a recommended show, even if it’s mostly for historical purposes. Up next for "Random Network Reviews" looks like it will be WrestleMania IX.

Smackdown Report 11-2814

We open with an edition of MizTV. Damien Mizdow and the Miz have Big Show on as their guest to try and answer some questions about Show knocking out John Cena at Survivor Series, leading to heel turn #654. Miz agreed with Show on most things and Show is not happy with Erick Rowan. Daniel Bryan comes out and is still MASSIVELY over. He is running things again tonight, booking Seth Rollins vs. Ryback, an Intercontinental Title match pitting Luke Harper against Dolph Ziggler and, Rusev will have to defend in a battle royal for not reciting the pledge on Monday. Fun stuff. Miz thinks that Bryan is trying to upstage him so Bryan says that Damien is already doing that. BURN. He puts all three in the battle royal and brings out another participant, Erick Rowan. I prefer an opening like this to Authority promo after Authority promo.

The battle royal for the United States Championship does open the show and features a bunch of people. Let's see, I saw The Usos, Curtis Axel, Rusev, Big Show, Erick Rowan, Miz, Mizdow, Stardust, Goldust, Los Matadores, Slater, The Gator, Adam Rose, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel, Cesaro and Tyson Kidd. This was your basic battle royal with the highlight being that after Miz was eliminated, Mizdow eliminated himself because he's committed. The final four would come down to Cesaro, Rusev, Swagger and Kidd. I continue to love the shine that Kidd has been getting. Rusev retained after lastly eliminating Swagger. I guess we are going to get Swagger/Rusev again at TLC.

Concessions Kane is working the WWE Shop stand and has a funny little skit with Santino. I would like to see Santino run Raw and Smackdown. He could be Mick Foley like in the comedy department. Bray Wyatt comes out to cut a promo, saying that Dean looked like an angel atop that ladder, but there isn't room for people like he and Dean in heaven. This was a good promo. Bray is either hit or miss, but his delivery is always on point. I hope that he and Dean go nuts at TLC. 

Divas Champion Nikki Bella faced Emma, while Brie was outside with the Divas Title. Why is Brie still accompanying Nikki? Isn't her time as Nikki's assistant up? Emma takes the loss in just about a minute and a half and Nikki gets on the microphone after the match. She claims to be what a real champion looks like and calls AJ pathetic, manipulative and a little girl. AJ makes a run in, so Nikki escapes while AJ brawls with Brie. I'm okay with AJ/Nikki continuing so I could get an actual match between them, but having Brie and Nikki be okay with each other is dumb. They wasted a ton of our time on stupid Jerry Springer like segments, only for them to be okay? I really hope this is all just Brie faking it because if not, it's dumb.

Kane has left his merchandise post and the table is broken. Daniel Bryan needs to understand that Kane is a terribly employee. He fave out free stuff on Raw and now broke his stand today. Time for Seth Rollins vs. Ryback, just a day or so after CM Punk's podcast appearance dropped and he called Ryback "steroid guy" and an unsafe worker. Seth was, of course, with J&J Security. Along with his match against Cesaro a few weeks ago, this would be one of the better Ryback matches ever. Smackdown is known for non-finishes but this one made sense to protect both guys. Kane came out with a chair resulting in a DQ. Ryback and Kane went at it, but Rollins helped swing the momentum to Kane, who laid out Ryback with a chokeslam.

On Raw, it seemed like New Day was going to make their debut on Raw next week, but instead we get it tonight. I'm okay with this, and they looked damn cool. New Day had matching attire and PYRO! They worked a six man tag against Heath Slater, Titus O'Neil and Curtis Axel, because they needed three random lower mid-card guys to go over. The New Day guys are really good friends in real life, which helped them be very crisp in their team up moves. The cheers during their entrance sounded extra dubbed in, but I think they can get over. They worked incredibly well together, everyone got to shine and they won. My only issue is that this is basically the same Kofi that we've seen for years, but at least it should be fun with the other two guys.

Renee Young, in her infinite perfection, interviews Daniel Bryan. He calls Ryback THE Ryback and announcing that at TLC, Kane will meet Ryback in a Chairs match. I'm okay with this feud because it should get Ryback a win over someone who can afford to take the loss. Renee asks if Bryan will be back soon, to which he responded with a loud "YES!" After a Raw recap, Gold and Stardust are shown and they're upset that they're missing the cosmic key. The main event would be the Intercontinental Title match, and I love seeing that title be a focal point, even if it is on Smackdown and not Raw. They fight outside and Dolph superkicks Harper over the announce table, before getting in the ring and earning the countout win. I enjoyed the match, but I felt that the countout win was lame. If Dolph wanted to win the title he would have rolled in and out to break the count. Maybe Seth/Ryback should have ended in countout with Kane pulling Ryback out and this end in a DQ. Regardless, it was a good match.

After the match, Harper attempts to attack Dolph but Dolph ends up with the upper hand and hits the Zig Zag. You know what? I enjoyed that episode of Smackdown. It didn't seem like throwaway stuff. The Nikki Bella/AJ Lee stuff was solid, Seth/Ryback and Dolph/Harper were both really good and I loved seeing New Day. 7.5/10.

NXT Report 11-27-2014

With it being Thanksgiving weekend, I've been busy, so unfortunately you don't get a separate NXT Report today. Instead, I'll link you all to the one I've written for 411mania. It's going to be there weekly, along with some "Random Network Reviews" and I participate in multiple other columns like "Fact or Fiction" and "Wrestler of the Week."

http://411mania.com/wrestling/411s-wwe-nxt-report-11-27-14/

Main Event Report 11-25-14

Main Event kicked off with an appearance by the new WWE Tag Team Champions, The Miz and Damien Mizdow. Miz cut a promo, while Damien did his stunt double stuff. He did look hurt when Miz claimed the one person that has always been by his side was the moneymaker and not Mizdow. They would then move into a five minute non-title match against Los Matadores. This was a solid little match and more tension was teased between the champions, especially after they won and Miz threw Damien's stunt titles to the floor. I enjoyed this opening.

Renee Young interviews the bogus "new and improved" Fandango, but instead of talking, he just makes out with Rosa Mendes. I damn near threw up in my mouth. He came out for a match against Adam Rose, which wasn't very good. Commentary kept trying to say how different Fandango is, but new attire doesn't make a new wrestler. Fandango still works the same style and it's still nothing impressive. Fandango wins with a leg drop after the Bunny attempts to dance with Rosa.

In the back, Natalya is talking with Tyson Kidd when Summer Rae and Layla come up and make jokes. Tyson laughs, which upsets Natalya and Summer and Layla hit her with a pie. No, not poontang pie. Natalya then steps into the ring with Layla and still has some pie on her face. Every single time I hear Layla's theme, it makes me miss LayCool badly. This got about five minutes and Natalya won via submission. Again, Tyson comes in and continues to be fantastic in his new character when he tries to take credit for his wife's win.

After a recap of Concessions Kane, he faces Dean Ambrose in our main event. This was pretty much every Kane/Ambrose match that we've seen over the past few months. The main difference is that Kane actually ate a pin tonight and it didn't end in some stupid disqualification. It went about nine minutes, Kane is not the same worker that he once was, even though he's in better shape now than he used to be. Decent match.

In the end, this was another solid episode. Nothing of major importance seems to happen on Main Event anymore, but it is usually a good showcase for performers and always seems to be an entertaining hour of wrestling. 5.5/10. Also, I know it wasn't last night, but I watched it last night. You should check out the mini documentary on the WWE Network on The Usos. It's only 30 minutes but it's pretty cool.

Raw Report 11-24-14

Even with The Authority gone and the WWE supposedly changed forever, what does Raw open with? You guessed it. The Authority. They come out and cut a promo about how they're keeping their heads up and things are going downhill now that they're gone. Things took a turn for the positive when Daniel Bryan shows up to surprise everyone. He does the "Yes!" chant in the face of the Authority as they exit. It's fitting that it would be him to send them off tonight. When the commercial break is over, Bryan is still in the ring and he's in charge tonight. He announces a bunch of matches including Luke Harper vs. Dean Ambrose, Mark Henry vs. Ryback, Rusev can either defend the US Title in a Battle Royal or recite the Pledge of Alligence and Seth Rollins will get partners chosen by the WWE Universe for the main event. One of the options is Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury, so that's the obvious choice. I enjoyed this even though it ran just about 30 minutes. Seeing Bryan is a treat and the heels got what was coming to them, which is refreshing.

We move into Ryback vs. Mark Henry, as the two guys eliminated first at Survivor Series looked to fix things. So they brawled before the match and, with Henry hurt, he played the brave good guy who wanted to fight and had the referee ring the bell. I don't think that made sense if Ryback is the face. Ryback would win in just under a minute. The Authority are leaving and run into Vince who says that he's disappointed in them. You know that feeling, when your parents aren't mad, they're just hurt. It's the worst.

Daniel Bryan knew what he was doing when he put Dean Ambrose to face Luke Harper as this was the match of the night. The Intercontinental Title was on the line, so I knew that Harper would retain but it was still damn fun. Bryan may still be feeling his CZW hate from his ROH days as he put these two together knowing they'd beat the hell out of each other. I think we should have gotten a similar ending to Bray/Ambrose from Survivor Series, where Ambrose goes nuts with a chair, but instead we got Harper pushing Dean into the ref and getting DQ'ed. Ambrose went to bring in the TLC toys but was attacked by Bray, who buried Dean under the weapons. Fun match, good TLC build. I like it.

Larry the Cable Guy and Santino Marella come out to promote Jingle All the Way 2. It sucked. How dare they besmirch a classic like the original Jingle All the Way? This moves into a WWE Tag Team Title match as The Miz and Damien Mizdow gave the Dust Brothers their rematch. This was a solid tag team match and the story was that The Miz got "hurt" in the middle of the match, so Mizdow had to do the work. Miz would jump in at the last second and steal the pin. Mizdow wasn't upset by it, so maybe the split will take longer than I expected, which is good. I forgot to mention that Bryan made Kane the concessions guy tonight. So Concessions Kane replaces Corporate Kane. We got some okay skits backstage involving him.

Rusev and Lana are in the ring and they decline both the Battle Royal and saying the pledge. Daniel Bryan appears on screen and sends out Sgt. Slaughter to help them with the pledge. Lana starts to recite it for some reason, since I thought Rusev had to do it. Rusev gets upset and backs Sarge into a corner but is saved by Jack Swagger. Swagger forces Rusev out of the ring, so I guess this feud is coming back. I enjoyed their matches but we already know that Swagger isn't going to beat Rusev, so why is this even happening again? Also, it sucked that Rusev got away with not doing the battle royal or the pledge. We move into a rematch from the pre-show last night as Justin Gabriel took on the "new and improved" Fandango. By new and improved, they must mean that now he is somehow Hispanic, still wrestles the EXACT SAME WAY and has the worst dance partner in history in Rosa Mendes. Fandango wins but seeing Rosa on my TV is always shit.

Big Show came out to explain heel turn #423 in his career. He actually says that he wants a "mulligan" on Survivor Series because everyone makes mistakes. As the fans chant "You Sold Out" he becomes the big angry giant again and challenges anyone. Erick Rowan answers and says he doesn't like bullies and knocks Show out of the ring. Rowan barely got a pop at first but eventually received some "Erick Rowan" chants. This could be fun as it is at least different and it looks like we aren't headed towards another Cena/Show feud.

One night after winning the Divas Championship, Nikki Bella would be on the sidelines as her sister Brie took on former Champion AJ Lee. AJ cut a promo before the match, using the "Les-bi-honest" line and calls Brie a bigger skank than Nikki. How come we didn't get any Brie/Bryan stuff tonight? I never liked her weighing down the Kane/Bryan angle, but it would've made sense right? Brie scored the win with a rollup so AJ got on the mic after the match and notes that it takes two Bellas to be champion and that talent is not "sexual transmitted". Shots fired. To be fair, AJ was in her position before she hooked up with Punk, while the Bellas were barely on TV until they started banging Bryan and Cena. Good stuff that furthered this angle. One of my main issues here is that the Bellas seemed friendly again.

Adam Rose and the Bunny took on Tyson Kidd and Natalya in another inter-species tag match. Larry the Cable Guy and Santino were on commentary. Everything about this whole thing blew except for Tyson Kidd. Rose gets tripped by the Bunny by accident so Tyson scores the win, bringing his Raw winning streak to four. Ryback is hungry so he goes to the concessions stand and ends up beating up Kane before he makes a joke about "forgetting your nuts." The saving grace of this batch of segments was a New Day promo featuring all three members! They were dancing, it was fantastic and they debut next week! I can't wait.

Time for the main event as Dolph Ziggler and John Cena took on Seth Rollins and, as the fans voted, Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble. The other choices were Rusev and Henry or Harper and Henry. Those choices got a combined 7% of the votes. I love Noble and Mercury though. This was mostly comedy and in the end, the faces stood tall. Daniel Bryan came out as Seth Rollins tried to escape and threw him into the ring where he ate an AA. Good feelings were fine, but I think Dolph needed to be more of a focal point. Commentary kept going on about how Sting got rid of the Authority without giving Dolph enough credit.

After the main event, the chime went off and the Anonymous General Manager will be back next week for Cyber Monday. At least they made it sound like it was a one week thing. Anyway, after a fantastic Survivor Series this was a bit of a let down. Daniel Bryan showing up was a treat but none of the matches, except for Harper/Ambrose really delivered. That being said, they still made me look forward to seeing Raw next week with New Day and a hopefully entertaining Cyber Monday. 6/10.

Survivor Series Review

Okay, so first things first, Survivor Series opened with a promo from Vince McMahon, The Authority and John Cena. With only five matches, you gotta fill time somehow right? All this accomplished was that it announced that if Team Authority loses, the only person who can bring them back will be John Cena. Onto the actual card, we open with the WWE Tag Team Title match. Everyone but Miz and Damien Mizdow are sporting new attire. This was fun and every team got the chance to shine. It started slow but picked up in the final few minutes. After an Uso splash, Miz blind tags in, but when he throws out an Uso, Mizdow blind tags in and steals the pin, giving us new champions! Miz celebrated with both titles while Mizdow was his stunt double self. Good match that went just over 15 minutes and I'm interested in what happens with them as champions. ***

Traditional Survivor Series match coming up as the Total Divas mostly were involved. Natalya, Naomi, Emma and Alicia Fox teamed up against Paige, Summer Rae, Layla and Cameron. This match got ten times better when I saw that Natalya brought out Tyson Kidd with her. The girls tried here but messed up a fair amount, especially Summer. Naomi pinned Cameron, Alicia pinned Layla and Emma made Summer tap, leaving Paige alone. Tyson, being the awesome douche that he is, tweeted a photo saying they were winning because of him. Paige attempted a rally, but fell to Naomi in the end, giving the face Divas a clean sweep after 14 minutes. I can't believe this got that much time. Again, there was effort but the execution was off. *1/2

Next up, the battle pitting Bray Wyatt against Dean Ambrose turned out to be better than I expected. Bray hasn't had great matches with the exception of the Royal Rumble so I was worried that this wouldn't deliver. There was no wrestling sequences early on as this was a straight up fight. Ambrose copied Bray's signature taunt in the corner and eventually, used a steel chair to get disqualified. The match went about 14 minutes. He then brought in more chairs, put Bray through a table and teased us all by bringing in a ladder. He would just stand and pose atop the ladder but it was announced shortly after that in three weeks at TLC, Bray and Ambrose will meet in a TLC match! That excites me since I will be there live. ***1/2

Because this show had time to fill, we get a thrown together tag team match featuring Adam Rose and the Bunny taking on SLATER GATOR! This was at least kept short when The Bunny got the win in just over two minutes and Adam Rose looked sad as the Exotic Express danced away with the Bunny, leaving him behind. This was a segment that didn't belong on PPV. DUD.

The Divas Championship is defended here and goes about 30 seconds. Yup, you read that right. On a show where they had tons of time to fill, they pulled a Daniel Bryan/Sheamus WrestleMania 28. As the bell rang, Brie Bella got on the apron with the Divas Championship to distract AJ Lee. When AJ went to confront her, Brie planted a kiss on her. HLA! HLA! HLA! That allowed Nikki to level her and then hit the Rack Attack to become the new Champion. I didn't like how short the match was, but I do like the idea of a new champion. I sense Brie vs. Nikki for the title very soon. No Rating.

The main event came on next and let me just say that this thing was tremendous. I was not a big fan of the team that John Cena put together so my expectations weren't great. The match started and Mark Henry was first eliminated. Then, to my surprise, Ryback was the first member of Team Cena out. I would have had Show go out first. Rusev got eliminated but stayed protected as he tried to put Dolph Ziggler through a table and missed, getting counted out. Erick Rowan and Luke Harper went at it, but Rowan was eliminated. Big Show then turned heel for the millionth time, knocking out Cena and allowing Seth to eliminate the captain! The heel turn wasn't surprising but Cena being out third was! Show shook Triple H's hand and walked out, getting counted out. Dolph was left alone and had taken a beating. He managed to somehow rally and eliminate Kane. Then, Harper entered and Dolph got rid of him as well! It was down to Seth and Dolph!

Dolph somehow also managed to avoid the Curb Stomp and get near falls that had Triple H going insane. After a Zig Zag, Triple H pulled out the referee. He would do it again shortly after, before getting in the ring and taking matters into his own hands. He would beat up Dolph and plant him with the Pedigree before calling out his own referee, Scott Armstrong. As Armstrong counted to two, music hit and the titantron started to flash and STING CAME OUT! STING WAS IN A GODDAMN WWE RING! I was speechless and didn't know what to do. He had a long staredown with Triple H before blocking a punch and hitting the Scorion Death Drop. He then placed Ziggler over Seth and the three was counted. An amazing main event that had me on the edge of my seat. Dolph pulled a Shawn MIchaels circa 2003 and it was fantastic. I don't give this score out easily but this match made me do it. *****

Damn, that main event was insane. I loved it. Besides that, the show was good. The opener was fun, the Divas tag was okay and Bray/Ambrose delivered. The Bunny stuff sucked, but the Divas Title match, while short, did what it was supposed to. That main event though. And Sting. 8.5/10. One of the better Pay-Per-Views this year.

Top Ten Sunday: Survivor Series Pay-Per-Views

I was relatively busy Thursday as WWE 2K15 consumed my life, so I was unable to do a Top Ten list. So, you get a Top Ten Thursday on Saturday and it's going to be of the Ten best Survivor Series Pay-Per-Views! Honorable mention goes to 2012 for being a very solid edition. No need for further introduction so...

10. Survivor Series 2011

The most recent edition of Survivor Series to make the list is the 2011 version. Yes, I used a photo of Zack Ryder, who wasn't even on the card. However, during the solid opener pitting Dolph Ziggler against John Morrison, "We Want Ryder" chants echoed throughout the arena. The chants even continued over The Rock talking. Think about that. Over The Rock! Speaking of him, he returned to the ring for the first time since 2004 by teaming with The Rock against Awesome Truth. This show also included Beth Phoenix hitting Eve with a Super Glam Slam and a solid Team Barrett vs. Team Orton Survivor Series match. Add in the MSG crowd and this was must see. Oh, and let's not forget that this was the start of CM Punk's legendary 434 day reign as WWE Champion.

9. Survivor Series 2001

2001 was an interesting year. We had the disappointing Invasion angle that did still produce some solid in-ring work. The culmination of that angle was the 2001 event that featured a 40+ minute main event. Team WWF (The Rock, Kane, Chris Jericho, Big Show and Undertaker) defeated Team Alliance (Steve Austin, Booker T, Kurt Angle, RVD and Shane McMahon) in a really fun match. The Hardy Boyz met the Dudley Boyz in a great Steel Cage match and Test and Edge had a pretty good unification match. Also, from a historic standpoint, Trish Stratus won the first of her record seven Women's Titles. Fun show.

8. Survivor Series 1987

Sometimes, the original is damn good and that was the case with Survivor Series. The first ever inception of the Pay-Per-View featured nothing but elimination matches with the main event seeing Andre The Giant's team stand tall over Hulk Hogan's team. Heels rarely closed events on top and this would set the stage for their WrestleMania III rematch, which was the most watched televised wrestling event of all time. There was also a TWENTY MAN tag! The tag team division was great as evidenced by ten of them competing and it featured surprising survivors in The Killer Bees and The Young Stallions. Randy Savage survived his match alongside Ricky Steamboat and Jake Roberts and there was also a surprisingly good women's tag. All around solid event.

7. Survivor Series 1998

Otherwise known as the Deadly Game Tournament, this was only the second Pay-Per-View in history to feature a one night Tournament crown a new WWF Champion. The title was vacated after controversy and 14 men got the chance on this night. Now, don't get me wrong, the in ring action on this show wasn't great. Things had to be rushed due to the size of Tournament but this was the Attitude Era at it's finest. So much storyline advancement, run ins and general all around entertainment. It also featured some great swerves like Shane McMahon and The Rock turning heel. Historic show as well as it was The Rock's first WWF Title victory.

6. Survivor Series 1995

The WWF was in a rough place in 1995. They were struggling and while there were some good things, there were a lot of bad things. However, the 1995 Survivor Series was great. This was the first time that I really saw how good of a heel Bret Hart could be as he did everything possible to take the WWF Title from Diesel. The match was fantastic, featured an announce table spot and Bret winning with a small package, leading to a Diesel heel turn. The show featured a fun opening tag where the 1-2-3 Kid survived, a better than expected women's tag, the PPV debut of Goldust, and an absolutely fun Wild Card match that mixed heels on team with faces. You can check out my review of it here!

5. Survivor Series 1992

This is one of those shows that holds a special place in my heart. It is one of three PPVs (along with Royal Rumble '92 and SummerSlam '91) that I used to rent all the time from my local video store. We get the first big match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels as Bret successfully defends the WWF Title against the then Intercontinental Champion. It is probably my favorite match between the two. Also, Mr. Perfect returned to the ring to team with Macho Man against Ric Flair and Razor Ramon. I enjoy the opening tag between The Headshrinkers and High Energy also. There is some crap on the card, like any match involving Nailz, but I do love this show.

4. Survivor Series 2003

The Shawn Michaels Show. Not that this is his best performance or that the show revolved around him, but if there's one thing you watch from this event, make sure it is Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff. We get one of Shawn's greatest performances ever as he fights to be the sole survivor of his team while being a bloody mess. It's phenomenal. Let's not forget the Team Angle vs. Team Lesnar match and a Shane McMahon/Kane Ambulance match that I enjoyed as I have a soft spot for Shane-O-Mac. Overall, a show that I thoroughly enjoyedl

3. Survivor Series 1989

With plans to have The Ultimate Warrior battle Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania, the WWF tested Ultimate Warrior in the main event here. His team, pictured above, faced the Heenan Family in a good bout. Bobby Heenan even competed! It was great. The entire show is good as, when I reviewed it, nothing got under three stars. The King's Court vs. The 4x4's was my favorite match and it featured a rare interaction between Macho Man and Bret Hart. All give Survivor Series matches are fun and this is three hours that will fly by. A very solid show and deserving of it's high ranking.

2. Survivor Series 1996

This show has the first in the fantastic series of matches between Steve Austin and Bret Hart. These two go at it for nearly thirty minutes in a classic as Bret pulls out the win in his return. This is no one match show though. Opening things is a traditional Survivor Series match in which Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon make a name for themselves by surviving and winning over the crowd with their work. It also features the debut of Rocky Maivia and a very good bout between The Undertaker and Mankind. We haven't even gotten to the main event yet as Sid dethrones Shawn Michaels for the WWF Title in a match that must be seen for the crowd. They turn on Shawn and cheer Sid throughout. There is only one match that is skippable and everything else is excellent.

1. Survivor Series 2002

Yes, three of the top ten are Survivor Series events that took place in Madison Square Garden. This show is damn near perfect. First, you get a really fun opening six man tag tables match. Then, you move into a good Cruiserweight Title match as Billy Kidman defeats Jamie Noble. Victoria then takes the Women's Title from Trish Stratus in what might be the first or second best Women's Title match in PPV history. I should also mention that it's a Street Fight. Big Show wins the WWE Title from Brock Lesnar after Paul Heyman turns his back on Brock in a solid little match. Next came a Tag Team Title with so much talent it's insane. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit vs. Edge and Rey Mysterio vs. Los Guerreros! Lastly, the first ever and possibly greatest ever, Elimination Chamber. Six Hall of Fame guys stepped in and Shawn Michaels emerged victorious. This is easily one of the best Pay-Per-Views of all time and the best Survivor Series ever. Watch it. Now.

Smackdown Report 11-21-14

Smackdown kicks off with Michael Cole interviewing Triple H about the Survivor Series main event. Triple H is damn good in these things. He brings up being a big star in the Attitude Era, and even though he wasn't the biggest star during that time, he's the only one that is still around. That is the case because he is smart. He calls out Team Cena, who all come to the stage, except Cena himself. That was the theme on Monday and will be the theme tonight. No Cena. Triple H tells Team Cena that if they lose on Sunday, every member is fired, except for Cena. It's an interesting move to make Cena responsible for them but it does make the outcome relatively predictable.

Dolph Ziggler entered the ring and out came the United States Champion, Rusev. So, after losing his Intercontinental Title to Luke Harper on Raw, he is going to be fed to Rusev. I still say he should not have lost the title, but this one made more sense. Rusev is an unstoppable monster and shouldn't lose just yet. What Dolph did do, was put on a good match with the Bulgarian Brute and picking up a huge near fall with the Zig Zag. He did eventually fall to the Accolade but it was a damn good opener.

In the back, Kane calls Cesaro an honorary member of the Authority because his loyalty has not gone unnoticed and he is booked to face Erick Rowan today. On Main Event, The Usos took on The Dust Brothers so tonight, Los Matadores faced The Miz and Damien Mizdow. The other two teams were on commentary. This was kept short but was fine in taking us to Survivor Series. Los Matadores get the win but Damien Mizdow absolutely stole the show as usual. I can't take Los Matadores seriously as potential champions.

Time for the hyped up Dean Ambrose "Survival Kit" segment. I wonder if this will be in the same vein as the Seth Rollins dummy segment. He tells a story about his mom giving him brass knuckles as a kid so he could survive and that used to be his survival kit but now his whole body is one. He admits the father stuff has gotten under his skin but he's going to break Bray Wyatt's face. Bray appears on screen, behind bars just like Dean's daddy. He speaks in riddles and talks about Dean's dad more. It's the same old stuff with Bray.

A recap of Raw is shown where Brie Bella dressed as AJ Lee and looked damn good doing so. The Bellas are in the ring and AJ Lee comes out, dressed as Nikki. Complete with stuffed bra and stuffed booty. It's pretty great but becomes even better when, during her match against Brie, AJ uses her stuffing as a weapon. Pretty great stuff. You know, this has been one of the better built matches heading into Survivor Series and I'm looking forward to it.

We are told that Sheamus will be out for an undisclosed amount of time due to an injury. I thought it was kayfabe but he did tweet out a photo right before going under the knife, so get well soon big man. Cesaro faced Erick Rowan next and guess the outcome. Cesaro suffers another loss but I'm okay with this one as Rowan needs some momentum if he's going to be thrown onto Team Cena last minute. He won with the torture rack, which was surprising. Luke Harper seemed like he was going to come to the ring, but decided against it.

After an interview with Renee Young, Team Cena said that they're together until the end. Of course, this was without Cena, who is the by far the worst partner in history. They put their fists in together like they are a sports team and shouted "freedom" together. Mel Gibson would be proud. The main event pitted Big Show and The Big Guy" against Corporate Kane and Seth Rollins. This was your basic Smackdown main event that was decent and ended via disqualification. After the match, a huge brawl ensues with both Survivor Series team, minus John Cena. Even Triple H gets involved with steel chairs and hits a Pedigree. The Authority stand tall to close the show.

This wasn't a bad episode of Smackdown. The AJ Bella segment was good as was the Triple H interview segment and the Ziggler/Rusev match. All in all, this earns a 6/10. 

Now, I'm not getting paid for this or anything and it is a bit random but I would just like to let everyone know that they should listen to thefanspodcast.com. Especially the "Getting Networked" series. They review Pay-Per-Views on the WWE Network and it is always entertaining and knowledgeable. Most recently, they have covered Survivor Series 1998, 2001 and 1994. So give them a download if you're in a Survivor Series mood heading into this Sunday. You can find it here http://thefanspodcast.com/podcasts/