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/

NXT Report 11-20-14

Coming off the heels of a pretty outstanding episode, NXT hopes to build on that tonight. We open with Bayley coming out to her usual big pop as she will be taking on another favorite NXT Diva of mine, Becky Lynch. The pairing of B.A.E. (Best at Everything) is strange as Becky looks awkward alongside Sasha Banks. The match was decent but short and Becky won following a distraction. They laugh at Bayley, which brings out Charlotte. Team BAE exit and I cannot fathom how Bayley could trust Charlotte when she was the first girl to turn on her. I enjoyed this start to the show though.

We are told that the Lucha Dragons are up next, but instead we get The Vaudevillians. They speak about being number one contenders, when the theme of the Lucha Dragons hits. Instead of the NXT Tag Team Champions though, we get midgets! Mini Lucha Dragons come to the ring but they don't expect the bell to ring. When it does, The Vaudevillians beat up the little guys and actually use a real double team move to win. Not a good match obviously, but it advanced the angle very well. Things get amazing next as a Kevin Owens vignette airs! Mr. Wrestling is coming to NXT on 12/11/14!

Things get relatively dull as Baron Corbin comes out for his bi-weekly squash. He faces a local jobber and beats him in 22 seconds. I like Corbin, but I need more from him. As he is leaving, Bull Dempsey comes out and I thought they were going to go at it, but instead Bull beats a jobber too. The crowd counts down for his match as well but when it lasts longer than Corbin's they boo him. He does win in about less than a minute and I guess they might be leaning towards Bull/Baron soon. It'll be better than minute long squashes.

Tyson Kidd is out next, continuing his trend of being amazing and must see television on every single WWE show. He wrestled CJ Parker, which was a bit strange since both guys are heels. Tyson was great and this was the longest match of the night at just over three minutes. He then grabbed a microphone and challenged Finn Balor for next week. That should be phenomenal. We were then treated to a tag match as Enzo Amore and Big Cass beat Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson. Another short match but it was used so the Ascension could come out, attack both teams and promise Hideo Itami and Finn Balor that their issues are far from over.

Sami Zayn comes out to address the NXT Universe about his loss to Adrian Neville last week. It's strange to see him come out with a somber look while his happy theme music blasts over the speakers. He calls out Adrian Neville, who obliges. Sami basically says that if he can't beat Adrian for the NXT Title, he doesn't need to be in NXT. He wants one more title match and William Regal comes out to grant it at the next NXT Special on 12/11/14. Neville likes the idea but doesn't want to be the end of Sami's career. Sami says that whether it is in teh contract of not, if he loses, he's quitting. Great closing segment as both guys, especially Sami, sold the hell out of it.

This wasn't the best episode of NXT. The in ring stuff was all short and didn't stand out in any way. However, even the worst episodes of NXT still don't feature filler and everything had a point on this show. Either someone was built well or a program was furthered. Regardless, I enjoyed the show but it could have been better. 5/10.

Main Event Report 11-18-14

Much like the Authority opening Raw every week, I feel like Goldust and Stardust open Main Event consistently. To be fair, The Usos did come out first. This was match #437 in the non-stop series between them but it features Los Matadores and Miz and Damien Mizdow on commentary. This would build towards their upcoming Fatal Four Way Tag Team Title match at Survivor Series. They got about 11 minutes and did their usual thing. It was good, but just super repetitive. Nothing of note really happened on commentary except for Michael Cole taking a selfie with El Torito.

A new match for Survivor Series is announced and it will be a (mostly) Total Divas showdown. Paige, Summer Rae, Cameron and Layla will take on Emma, Alicia Fox, Naomi and Natalya. I would like to see the heels win on Sunday but that's very doubtful. Anyway, Paige took on Alicia Fox in yet another rematch. They met at Payback and twice in England. They have good chemistry and made the most of their four minutes. Also, I can see through Paige's bottoms somewhat, which made it just a bit better. Alicia wins with a rollup. Decent stuff.

Mixed tag matches are so 2013. It's all about the Interspecies tag matches and we get one here. Adam Rose and the Bunny take on Tyson Kidd and Natalya. Of course, Kidd amazes once again. While Natalya flirts with the Bunny for some reason, Kidd and Rose play their heel roles well. Kidd wins following a cheap shot and Sharpshooter on the Bunny. Rose could have broken it up but he decided against it. We move to the main event, where Bray Wyatt takes on Jack Swagger. This was another solid yet unspectacular match. It's odd that Swagger was basically killed by the Curb Stomp and the Authority, so he couldn't make it to Survivor Series, but he can be on the show before it? Strange. Bray wins.

In the end, I felt like the effort of this episode wasn't great. They put on Usos/Dust Brothers and Fox/Paige, which we have seen a bunch. The Bunny stuff is lame but Tyson is golden. Bray/Swagger was solid. Basically, nothing on the show was bad but nothing was really must see. 5/10.

Raw Report 11-17-14

In the most unsurprising start possible, The Authority walk to the ring to open the show. They are with their entire Survivor Series team as well as Joey Mercury, Jamie Noble and Lana. Triple H puts over the main event at Survivor Series and his team before talk moved to Ryback. He came out and said, again, that he is Team Ryback only. Stephanie wisely played up some of the history between John Cena and Ryback but he was still Team Ryback only. I do like how the Authority keeps bringing up the fact that John Cena is a terrible friend/partner. Triple H announces that the show will open with Dolph Ziggler taking on Luke Harper. The opening segment did its part of hyping Survivor Series and putting Ryback over, but it feels like more of the same.

Before the bell, Luke Harper and the Stooges attacked Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler was resilient and wanted to compete anyway, so The Authority put the Intercontinental Title on the line. Uh-oh. We got a solid match that went just over eight minutes and Harper won the belt. Now, I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, Harper was far and away my favorite member of the Wyatt Family, so a singles push for him is grand but I didn't think he should have won the belt in his first shot. Dolph has been doing great, putting on a classic on Smackdown and being built up during this Survivor Series storyline. He should have retained and put on a great performance at Survivor Series before eventually dropping the belt to Harper. This was way too fast in my mind for Harper.

Seth Rollins hit the Curb Stomp on Dolph Ziggler after the match and now he is also questionable for Survivor Series. Raw's guest this week was Grumpy Cat. The Miz and Damien Mizdow did a skit with him and Grumpy Cat was the second most entertaining part, behind Mizdow of course. Tyson Kidd, arguably the best part of weekly WWE television lately, took on Adam Rose. The story was focused on Rose and the Bunny again as their tension continued, while Tyson won his third straight Raw match. The focus needed to be more on Tyson and less on the stupid Rose/Bunny feud.

Bray Wyatt comes out and cuts a promo on Dean Ambrose. Once again, this feud disappoints when it is built on Raw. The Smackdown stuff has been pretty good but here, we get the same old same old from Bray. He talks about Dean embracing him and Dean interrupts on the titantron. He makes it clear that it's pre-recorded. He does make a good point about Bray rambling. Since it's pre-recorded, he attacks and they brawl before Bray runs off. Another meh segment from them and this potential "war of words" has been subpar.

We are informed that Larry the Cable Guy will be hosting Raw next week. Ugh. Moving on, Ryback goes one on one with Cesaro. After basically squashing Cesaro on Smackdown recently, this was WAY more competitive. Cesaro continues to be one of the best in-ring performers in the WWE, but he is still severely lacking in other categories. They surprisingly got about 14 minutes and Ryback won, of course. The crowd was dead, though this might have been Ryback's best match of his career. Next, Rusev and Lana came out. Lana talked about Kim Kardashian's nude photos, discussed how hot she is and teased topless photos. Instead she showed a topless photo of Vladimir Putin and was then interrupted by Heath Slater, dressed like Uncle Sam. He ran down Rusev, but lost quickly. Not sure why they went with the topless tease, but here is actual topless Lana. Enjoy.

The Big Show came out for a match but instead, was joined by Stephanie McMahon. He probably had flashbacks to when Stephanie made him cry a bunch last year and even slapped him a ton. She tries to sway him in the direction of Team Authority by telling him that he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015 if he forgoes being on Team Cena. He considers it until Sheamus comes out. Stephanie threatens to deport Sheamus which is a strange choice storyline wise. Anyway, she puts them in a match with the winner getting a WWE Title shot. Brock Lesnar watched at home like "I don't know what Steph is smoking but I'm not working all these dates." After about eleven minutes, it goes to a no contest because Mark Henry and Rusev attack. This worked well but the big question is, WHERE IS JOHN CENA? How can you want guys to be on your team when you don't have their back at all?

Nikki Bella comes out for an exhibition match, which is just her taking on Brie but Brie is dressed as AJ. I love me some AJ and Brie has her moments, but Brie dressed as AJ had me all "Shucky Ducky Quack Quack." The real AJ was on commentary and distracted Nikki, allowing Brie to get a rollup victory. Brie continued to mooch off of Daniel Bryan's popularity with her dreadful Yes chant but AJ took her out as well. Before the next break, we get Big E's "New Day" promo. I am excited for this stable.

For Smackdown, the "Dean Ambrose Survival Kit is promoted". I'm not sure what that is. A Fatal Four Way Tag Team Title match is announced for Survivor Series with the Dust Brothers defending against Los Matadores, The Usos and Miz and Mizdow. So tonight, we get a preview of that and Survivor Series in an eight man tag. It was a fun little match, Mizdow got the biggest pop and, after a barrage of finishers, Stardust got the win for his team. 

Time for the final segment, which is the contract signing for Team Authority vs. Team Cena. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon talked about how the WWE is everything to them and that they won't lose. Cena comes out alone and Trips is all like "I can't see your team", which made me chuckle. Cena said that he will find a team even if he has to pick fans. I think that Marine that Rusev took out weeks ago may want a shot. He used way too much comedy in this as once again Cena not taking things seriously hurts a feud. Stephanie feels the same way as she slaps him and Dolph Ziggler's theme hits. Big Show joins and then...Erick Rowan. Luke Harper's facial expression is priceless but I don't get this. Rowan has been comedy for the past few weeks and makes no sense. They only have four and Cesaro comes out but sides with the Authority. That was pointless. Ryback comes out and joins Team Cena leading to a brawl. He goes face to face with Triple H, but it's Cena who puts him through the table. It should have been Ryback. Solid segment that could have been better.

All in all, not a bad episode but not great. The Ryback/Cesaro match was good as was Ziggler/Harper even if the booking decision was strange. Choosing Rowan over Sheamus for Survivor Series baffles me as Sheamus is a guy who has proven that he can go in the main event and is legit. In the end, this gets 6/10.