Survivor Series: Live notes

01.02am
Welcome to Cena Series. That’s what it seems like anyway. I can’t help but feel that the endless vignettes of Cena holding his paper title belt when he was 12 and the portrayal of him as the golden boy are serving to inflame the people that detest him so.

I have no problem with Cena. I think he is a charismatic son of a gun who has learned to work effectively. I didn’t say he’s a good wrestler. But I respect him greatly.

01.05am
JR opens the show and gets straight into the Jeff Hardy story. Seriously, if this is a work, it is pretty despicable. Don’t forget they once found Brian Pillman dead in his hotel room the day before a PPV. Surely if it was a situation serious enough to hospitalise a guy they wouldn’t let him compete, big spot or no big spot.

01.09am
They appear to be doing the thing where they let all the commentators join in. I quite like that.

Nearly all the competitors for this opener are out in the ring. Decent pop for Mizorrison. Is that a surprise or not?

01.12am
Oh, and by the way, if you are reading this while watching the show then "Hi" and welcome to the first completely live PPV blog. I'm going to be using this format on PPV nights from now on, with the exception of Wrestlemania - because hopefully I'll be there!

If you want to contribute, then please email me at robthegreen@hotmail.com and NOT the email address advertised on the right of this page. That email address will soon be changed, too.

I don't anticipate a high level of correspondance tonight because I have barely publicised this live blog. But if you have anything to say at anytime, feel free to chime in.

01.14am
Did you expect any different for MVP? He got rid of one, but soon gets ejected by Khali. "Have you ever seen Kane sent to the mat with such ease?" says Matt Striker. Yes Matt, when Khali faced Kane earlier in the year. Man, a 'Khali' chant starts up. Who'da thunk it?

There goes Kane, by the way. And hopefully that's it for Kane/Rey.

01.21am
Three against three right now, and no surprise that Cryme Tyme, MVP and Kane are the men who are out of it. The six men left are the most pushed in this contest. remains to be seem how they'll get rid of Khali (if at all) but you'd think that the faces will lose a man next.

01.23am
Wrong again for me. Rey is a house of fire to rid the match of Miz. JBL comes in to stop him doing the same to Morrison. But why not so that last time?

01.30am
It's all over, and a surprising result, I guess. HBK, along with Rey and Khali, are the survivors, with JBL tricked into a count out then Morrison Superkicked out for the count. Nice bit of comedy with Michaels and Mysterio climbing on the ropes so they can be as tall as Khali, and we have a crowd-pleasing opening.

01.33am
There was an interesting point raised, inadvertantly, by the commentary team. Morrison, they say, has a World champion on his side, and three world champions outside the ring. Makes me think about how many world or ex-world champions there are in the company now. That's if you take out the ECW title.

Four in the match right now. Plus the current incumbants, Triple H and Jericho. Thats six. Punk, Edge, Batista, Orton, Cena is eleven. Kane, Taker, Big Show. We're up to fourteen. Have I missed any?

01.35am
Diva time, now, it seems. This is going to be interesting. Cross brand matches have one major problem. They have a mix of babyface and heel competitors, so difficult for the crowd to get behind anyone.

At least Santino is here. I'll root for Raw because of him.

01.38am
Two nice things to note early. A nice reference by Michael Cole about a 14 (I think) year-old Survivor Series match involving Lawler and a load of midgets, then a really nice-looking headscissors by Michelle McCool.

Now you will not here me praise either of those individuals very often, so savour it. Only fair to give them credit where it's due - God knows they have a bunch of things in their debit column as far as I am concerned.

01.42am
Lets be fair. A really nice exchange by Michelle and Mickie, now. Ms McCool slowly redeeming herself.

01.43am
She's gone though. Basically distracted by Maria, so that might be them going back at it soon on Smackdown. Maryse eliminates Mickie, incredibly sloppily. It is 3v3, with some horrible looking pins. And it is noticible that they are protecting certain individuals. Candice pinning Natalya? After a spear? C'mon!

01.48am
Well, that was awful, frankly. Several falls that looked barely credible, and a pretty dead crowd. At least Beth was the sole survivor and we got a few seconds of Santino's awesomeness.

Oh, and maybe Candice got injured, too. She looked like she pulled a hamstring at the very least, because she did it at a time which didn't seem appropriate to sell. If she is hurt, I wish her a speedy recovery, in all seriousness. But I think we can cope without her.

01.51am
Right, where to start here. In short, Matt Hardy just did an interview with Todd Grisham about Jeff Hardy's injury.

The story is that Jeff got hit in the back of the head with a blunt instrument. This was in a hotel, so outside of WWE jurisdiction. This pretty much confirms the fakeness of the story, so taking it as work, it means we have an attempted murder storyline. That's what that is.

Matt said 'he feared the worst' leaving a horrible silence as you interpret what he meant by that. This seems a good time to tell you that he was wearing a skull and crossbones t-shirt. Hmm, not very appropriate. Speaking of not appropriate, the next match is.........a Casket Match. Dear lord. This is from a company, though, that put a woman in a Casket on Smackdown. Not just any woman, but EDDIE GUERRERO'S WIDOW. I despair sometimes, I really do.

01.55am
Taker is on his way, so I have five minutes before he reaches the ring.

I just remembered something. Matt Hardy said that he hardly got any sleep last night, but didn't they 'find' Jeff in the morning. Which would surely mean Matt found out after he woke up from his night's sleep.

This is quite likely an oversight, as continuity isn't WWE's strongpoint. However, do you suppose that, somewhere down the line, they could reveal Matt to be the assailant? The 'I didn't sleep' could be shown as an error which implicates him.

Even if that isn't picked up, it could still be Matt who did it. The brothers have never really got into it properly, and it might be a fun programme for a bit. Perhaps Matt could be jealous about his bro's popularity, despite the fact that Matt has a World title and Jeff hasn't.

And if we are taking the fantasy booking further, what if Matt did it in conjunction with Edge. Turns out that a couple of Lita's former conquests hit it off in the storyline, and try to take out Jeff. Then Jeff finds an ally.

And it's Christian.

Something to think about.

02.03am
Taker and Show are well underway. Slow and methodical so far, but then it was last time and turned out pretty good.

By the way, Marky619 has offered Vince McMahon as another World Champion. Do I allow that or not? robthegreen@hotmail.com

Match has perked up. Taker with a legdrop on Show through the table.

02.10am
Seriously, what the hell? Fire to stop Show escaping? More druids? Another Casket? This is ridiculous.

02.12am
And what the hell was that as a finish? A Casket match won with a fluke? Oh my goodness. I'm all for doing matches differently and trying to show something different, but after a terrific match with these two men last time this was a huge step down.

02.20am
We have the babyfaces in the ring for the next Survivor Series match. I would like it noted, though, that the arrival of Randy Orton in the arena elicits just as big a pop as any of Punk, Truth, Batista, Kofi or Matt. Seriously.

I know I talked about being scpetical of them putting the belt straight onto Cena, but I'd really love to see Orton v Cena and watch the split crowd. That'd be great fun.

02.27am
On commentary, Striker says that Truth makes "a real killing" with his lyrics. Nice one, Matt.

Meanwhile, one elimination so far, and that's Regal, who Punk got rid of straightaway. Way to promote the IC title, huh?

I think we may see a little Punk v Regal Intercontinental feud imminent.

02.38am
I'm doing quite well here, I said Batista would be against the odds, Henry would beat Hardy and then Batista would overpower Henry. All correct so far. He's just powerbombing Shelton as I speak. This is a better match, by the way.

02.40am
And a nice finish too. Orton uses the powerbombing of Cody to tag in and land the matchwinning RKO. Formulaeic match, but a better quality of wrestling. Pretty hypocritical of me to slag off the formula involved then praise it, but there you are.

By the way, did I really hear Lillian say "The sole survivors are Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton"? That makes them survivors, not 'sole' survivors. I'd suggest 'sole' comes from the latin word 'solo' meaning one. Cody and Randy would be 'dual' survivors if you want to get into that.

02.49am
The build-up package for the Smackdown title match features Hardy very prominently. That suggests that his omission may have been a late call.

I am absolutely not sturring the pot here, and perhaps I am jumping to a premature conclusion, but do you suppose Jeff failed a third test? And, rather than reporting a straight up "We fired him" on the day of a PPV which might affect the late buyrate and draw negative press on the PPV day, they run a story which they think will build intrigue in the last few hours.

I hope it's not true. I really do. Sometimes I am happy to be wrong.

03.00am
So far, it's not worth updating you on the moves in this match. So I'll give you the chants.

"We want Hardy"

"Boring, boring"

and even.......

"TNA! TNA!"

You can guess the movesets. I don't need to say much more.

03.06am
Well, that wasn't boring, I'll give you that.

It's a bit nonsensical, and I can't forgive the treatment of the Jeff Hardy thing, but to wind the match up with the announcement of it being a Triple Threat - "He's here" - and it being Edge, followed by a Jeff Hardy run in, swinging of chairs and a spear.

When Vickie appeared it wasn't in doubt that Edge would be next, but the manner in which he then claimed a title was........different.

I can't work out whether I approve or not. But it was a shocking ending, and I would simply say that if that happened at more PPVs then more people would purchase them. In my opinion.

03.25am
Steady title match so far - crowd seem to be very Pro-Cena, probably because of him being in, or near, his home town.

Incidentally, some correspondance from Imran, who says that Taker and Show was "underwhelming" which is an understatement, and adds. "Gotta love Takers ability to work Pyro's... its like he's a character from Mortal Kombat"

Well, WCW made Glacier look like Sub Zero, didn't they? And to be fair, Kitana stole Alundra Blayze's German Suplex.

Dammit, Imran, you see what you've done? I'm thinking about Acclaim (Bloody Acclaim!!) video games rather than the match now. Thanks very much.

03.31am
Slow stuff so far. The logic behind Jericho trying to use power moves to grind Cena down isn't solid, since Cena is alwasy built as a powerhouse. I wouldn't mind so much if Jericho was working the leg.

Cena doesn't look like he has his normal zest. To be fair, I don't blame him, but this is why you don't put guys just returning straight into a title match.

03.40am
I guess we knew it would happen, really.

John Cena is the World Champion once again, which is an understandble, though slightly disappointing step. I would have liked to have seen Jericho go over in a tough battle, which wouldn't have made Cena look bad because of the fact that you could sell the injury. It would, however, have boosted Jericho.

You could find a way of making Cena number one contender again and letting him battle Jericho one more time, and winning the belt that way.

However, it was not to be, and to be fair I can't begrudge Cena his win. It just gets a bit tiresome knowing he's going to win matches like this.

The match itself was somewhat lacklustre. The ending was more than passable, if you are happy with the outcome, so we'll credit them for that.


Overall, I'd rate Survivor Series as a letdown. Certainly holding it up to comparison with most other PPVs this year, it did not live up. Only one of the Survivor Series traditional bouts really had any excitement. Taker/Big Show was extremely poor compared to their last match. Triple H v Koslov was terrible until Edge and Hardy showed up.

No standout matches and two very disappointing ones has to rate this PPV a dud. Give me surprises like Edge alongside great wrestling contests and I'll be a happy man. But the grappling quality was simply non-existant tonight.

Hope you enjoyed the new live blog, for those that joined me throughout the show.

Feel free to continue to contribute with emails to robthegreen@hotmail.com and I will most definitely bring back the live blog for Armageddon in four weeks time.