WWE Survivor Series
November 18, 2000
T&A and Trish Stratus vs Steve Blackman, Crash and Molly Holly - 6 Person Intergender Match
This is a non-elimination match. So to say the opponents for T&A are random is an understatement. JR reminds us that the APA are injured (I assume still from the attacks at No Mercy) and since then they put Crash in charge of the APA office. With Crash in charge, T&APA (I loved the shirts
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ) took over and destroyed everything. Meanwhile, Molly Holly debuted recently to help Crash out. If there's one person I would of never imagined would have a whole fictional wrestling family built around him, it would be Bob Holly. Yet here we are with a new family member added each year for the past 2 years. As for why Steve Blackman is in the match instead of the recently returned Hardcore Holly, I have no idea. I'll just assume Crash asked him to help a fellow hardcore champion legend out. The match is mainly the guys doing all the work as Trish wants nothing to do with Molly. Crash plays the role of the fearless underdog beautifully. Had ECW/WCW not went out of business, I think Crash could of got a pretty nice push in the WWE in 2002. Late in the match, Trish is left alone with Molly. She hits a middle rope bulldog that looked very weak. Meh, Molly sold it well enough though. Molly heads to the top rope and hits a sunset flip on Trish to get the win. Nothing too special here, but it was a fun match. Molly looked very good in her ppv debut match while Crash looked like a sure thing future star. One thing that should be noted though is that Molly was acting like your typical diva by showing a lot of cleavage while the King drooled over her at the end. The only difference between her and Trish was that Molly was already a fairly good wrestler. Had she been marketed like Trish was at the end of 2001, Molly could of been a much bigger star for the WWE. She had the looks, the talent and some nice flashy moves. Meanwhile, you had Trish who just had looks and was still trying to learn how to work well into 2002. I just don't really get it why they pulled the plug on Molly. Anyways, short match, but I had a lot of fun with it.
5 Minutes. 2 Stars.
Backstage, Kurt Angle goes up to Edge and Christian wanting to ask them something. E&C assume it's about doing a run-in for Angle's match so Christian fakes getting sick with mono from some bad chili. Angle tells them he has it covered, but he wants to know if they want to go out and celebrate after they all win tonight. Angle asks if Molson came in Non-Alcoholic. Angle was so great at this time in terms of character.
Earlier tonight, Tiger Ali Singh and Lo Down aren't allowed in the building. I never understood why the WWE partnered Lo Down with Singh. It just made their demise come even sooner.
The Radicalz w/ Terri vs The New Age Outlaws, Chyna and K-Kwik - Elimination Tag
This was now at the height of the Billy Gunn 2000 push. He was now known as The One. He had a fresh haircut and was about to win the IC title from Eddie. His former partner, Road Dogg recently returned with a new partner, Ron Killings. Chyna still sucks in the ring. The first part of the match is all Chyna and having 4 of the most gifted wrestlers in North American sell for her. Luckily, with the ref distracted, Eddie hits her with the IC title and Saturn (or was it Malenko?) pins her. Billy Gunn gets his first chance at showing his superman skills as he gets revenge for his good friend Chyna when he pins Eddie Guerrero after the One and Only (Cobra Clutch Slam). I'm not sure if they ever explained the relationship, but it seemed as if they were pushing Chyna and Gunn out to be a new couple. Kwik comes in and finally brings some excitement to the match with his face pace moves. That doesn't last long as Chris Benoit hits him with a powerful German Suplex to pin him. A lot of people blame the WWE for not seeing anything in him and eventually releasing him. But I really don't think it's their or even his fault. He was being booked on shows and had a small following, but the whole sale of WCW and ECW going under brought too many new wrestlers to the WWE that was already over. So much like Crash Holly, there just wasn't room or time to showcase Killings. He's another guy I felt could of had a lot of success had ECW and WCW not went under. It's 3-2 with the New Age Outlaws inadvertently left to team together. But it doesn't last long as Saturn hits a nice Northern Lights Suplex on Road Dogg to pin him. So it's all down to Gunn vs 3 Radicalz. Maybe the fans would of actually cared if Gunn had any talent. Gunn pins Malenko after the Fame-Ass-er. Billy then hits one of the worst Jackhammers I've ever seen on Saturn. For the sake of not making Gunn look bad, I'm going to say it wasn't really a Jackhammer, it just looked kinda like it. Saturn pulls Gunn's feet out while trying to suplex Benoit. With Saturn holding Gunn's feet, Benoit pins him. They spotlighted the wrong people in this match (Chyna and Gunn), but they at least had the right people win. I really don't understand why the WWE kept trying to make Gunn a huge singles success. He was fairly popular as a tag team wrestler, but the fans never took to him as a singles star. And yet, they kept pushing him. Like I said, he would win the IC title at the very next edition of Smackdown from Eddie. Thankfully, the WWE realized what a failure he was and had him drop the title to Chris Benoit by the next ppv. There was a few good segments of the match (Mainly just Kwik's) but the rest was flawed, mainly due to who was in it.
13 Minutes. 1 3/4 Stars. Chris Jericho vs Kane
Before the match, they show a video package detailing the feud. The main purpose was trying to convince the fans that this feud was NOT about Jericho spilling coffee on Kane. It was really about Kane being bitter that Jericho was better looking than him. And yet, Kane never had an issue with Jericho before. Sounds like a BS reason to cover up yet another dumb booking idea. Although, it would explain Kane's relationships with Paul Bearer, X-Pac, Tori, Big Show and others. Your typical David vs Goliath if David could do high flying moves and Goliath had a mask. The high flying moves keeps me entertained, but it's slow and sloppy the rest of the time. Kane wins after catching Jericho while trying to hit a Lionsault and Kane hits the Chokeslam. Meh, it wasn't terrible. It was yet another example of the WWE not knowing what to do with Jericho after his Benoit feud. I can't understand why the WWE kept pushing Billy Gunn and Rikishi in favor of completely ignoring Chris Jericho. Chris came into the WWE with a huge backing. It seems as if the WWE wanted to break him down so they could rebuild him as a WWE superstar. The only problem was that they broke him down for so long that when he was rebuilt, it was hard for the fans to believe it. The WWE naturally forgets about him again and wonders why the fans doesn't react to him better when they randomly push him. That's WWE logic for you.
12 Minutes. 2 Stars.
Backstage, Terri heads in the lockerroom of the Radicalz telling them that Triple H is here and he will see them later. Besides Benoit's laughter, this segment was pointless.
William Regal vs Hardcore Holly - European Title
The fans have very little interest in this one. I don't blame them. Was there really ever any build up to this? Holly had just returned the previous Monday. JR plugs the upcoming Rebellion show (Card wise, it looks fairly boring) and wonders how Regal's fellow UK'ers will react to him. He bets that they will hate him just as much as we do. Funny thing is while he is saying this, there's a small Regal chant going on. JR is such a tool. Regal works over Holly's arm (Angle had broken it in a match earlier in the year) while Holly gets more and more upset that he's being outworked. Holly showing how smart he is grabs the European title and hits Regal with it drawing the DQ. WTF? Regal wasn't even cheating the whole match, yet Holly gets fed up and gets himself DQ'd? I could understand if the roles were reversed with Holly outworking Regal, Regal drawing the DQ to retain, but Holly doing it makes zero sense. Holly's a moron. This is Regal's second ppv since returning and he's still working with random opponents. It's terrible how he was treated then. Like I said, fairly boring and the ending makes very little sense.
6 Minutes. 1 Star.
Backstage, Trish Stratus goes to Kurt Angle's locker room. She knows that Stephanie isn't here tonight so she offers her services to Kurt for the night. Kurt foolishly tells Trish that it's not needed and he leaves with a smile on his face. I can't really recall whether this was really built up to something or not. I do know that she accompanied him at the Royal Rumble against Hunter (who had Steph), but I think that was about it. Nonetheless, it's just as entertaining as last month's skit.
The Rock vs Rikishi
Since No Mercy, Rikishi told everyone that it was The Rock who told him to take Austin out. Being family, Rikishi did the favor. Soon after, we find out that it was really Austin. So now The Rock is pissed off that Rikishi tried blaming him when he was innocent all along. It does make me wonder why Rikishi ever tried to frame The Rock if Triple H was going to confess the whole time. Anyways, The Rock runs down to the ring and the match begins quickly. Tim White stops the Rock from using the chair and Rikishi takes over. Rocky hits the Rock Bottom, but the ref is out and doesn't make the count. Rikishi stinks face the Rock (The move kind of lost it's meaning once 'Kish turned heel). Rocky hits a spine buster and the People's Elbow gets him the victory. Afterwards, Rikishi hits a superkick and nails Rocky with 4 Banzai Drops. The Rock is in pain as the Bad Man leaves. I'm going to talk more about the Austin being hit by a car storyline more later on, but I want to touch on a few things now. Even just a month after being revealed as the driver, Rikishi was being phased out of the whole storyline. By the end of the year, it'll be easy to forget that he was even involved. In the matter of about 2 months, the WWE took a very over midcard face and ruined his overness. By time they do turn him face in late Spring '01, he no longer has the connection with the fans he once did. Rikishi being involved was a huge mistake. Meanwhile, there's the Rock who was always brought up in the storyline, even though he never had an actual role in it. If it was up to me, I would of had Rock be the mastermind/driver of the entire thing. Sure the reasoning behind it wouldn't be the best, but the reason for why they did it was terrible to begin with. Ever since midsummer of this year, The Rock has just been a background character. Yet, he was the World Champion! The biggest storyline of the summer was the love triangle of Steph/Hunter/Kurt while the biggest storyline of the fall/winter was Austin/Triple H deep hatred feud. During all that time (A good 7 months) the Rock was just thrown into random filler feud after filler feud. He really could of used a big time feud at the time. So if I could redo things, I'd replace Triple H with The Rock and then have Triple H vs Steve Austin at Wrestlemania after a few months of nonstop Rock vs Austin. Meanwhile, Triple H would continue to be a tweener/slight face who could of easily rode the push of love triangle to keep himself important and over with the fans. Let him feud with Chris Benoit for a few more months and then have him finally beat Kurt Angle one on one at the Royal Rumble. Then it's game on for Hunter vs Austin at WM. Doing it that way in my opinion would of used their main wrestlers a lot better than what they really did. So I got a bit off topic, but this is my review, so I'll allow it. Anyways, it's a shame Rocky was always fed to these midcard chumps who had no business in the main event. He faced Billy Gunn (Twice!), British Bulldog (Who had really slipped in quality) and now Rikishi. Meanwhile, look at the non main eventers who Triple H faced in 1999/2000: Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and an extended program with Kurt Angle. Everyone else Hunter faced was a major name such as Rocky, Taker or Austin. Matchwise, this wasn't the best, but The Rock tried his best to pull something good out of that huge ass of Rikishi's. Does he succeed? Wrestling against someone like Rikishi, I suppose so. But this isn't one of Rocky's best matches.
12 Minutes. 2 Stars.
At WWF New York, Raven stands back with a smile on his face. The guy returned to the WWE 2 ppvs ago. He wrestled for about 3 minutes in a round of a meaningless match, now he's stuck at WWF New York?! What's next, he won't even appear on TV at Armageddon?! *Checks results of Armageddon 2000* A run in?! Well...better than nothing. At least he's AT the arena this time.
Backstage, Mick Foley goes in the Radicalz/Hunter's lockerroom to tell Hunter that his match with Austin is now a No DQ match. Yeah, because Austin's last No DQ match showed how smart of an idea that was. Interestingly enough, this is (at least) the third PPV in a row to have a No DQ added to a match in mid ppv.
Ivory (c) vs Lita - Women's Title
Ivory recently joined the Right to Censor and defeated Lita for the Women's title. Lita showing an inch of her thong makes her a top enemy for the RTC. Boring, botchy and unspecial match. Is unspecial even a word? Ivory is a bit too stiff and one of her punches causes a nice gash on the side of Lita's face. By the end of the match, it looks pretty bad. Lita looking quite knocked out, attempts a Moonsault, but Ivory holds the title over her. Lita is hurt by the title and somehow the title acted as a bulletproof vest (well...if Lita was a bullet) and she isn't in any pain. Lita is easily pinned to end this horrible match. Outside of the unplanned blood spot, this isn't memorable at all.
5 Minutes. 1/2 Star. Kurt Angle vs The Undertaker - WWE World Title
You just had Angle win the title and now at the one year anniversary of his debut and his first ppv title match...you don't even let him main event. This screams filler feud. Angle is on the mic talking about how he wanted to make a poll for the fans to pick which was their favorite Year One Angle moment. But seeing how they were in Florida, he didn't want them screwing up another election. While bringing up the whole election fiasco was funny at the time, it really dates the show. Kurt Angle is scared to get in the ring, so Taker throws him a chair to give him that fuzzy feeling inside. The ref tries to stop Angle from using the chair, but Angle gets one shot in before the opening bell is rang. Taker easily gains control and beats the living shit out of Angle for several minutes. Taker covers Angle twice only to pull him up at 2. Very boring match thus far. Angle endures the pain to start working over Taker's left knee. Once Angle takes control of the match, the match quality improves greatly. Edge and Christian comes out to ringside, even though they said they wouldn't earlier tonight. Christian gets in a cheap shot while Edge distracts the ref. Taker runs them off and lets the ref try and get them out of the ringside. Taker chokeslams Angle, but the ref doesn't get back in the ring in time to count to three. Angle works more over the leg. On the outside, Angle crawls under the ring. Taker pulls Angle out and throws him back in the ring. A VERY awkward looking Last Ride (I guess he was still having issues with how to do it) lays Angle out. Taker covers and Earl Hebner counts to 2 before stopping. It's a screwjob~! No wait, it's double Angle~!!@#$ Kurt comes from the other side of the ring and rolls Taker up for the win. All Taker can do is look at the fake Angle on the mat and realize that he was outsmarted. The fake Angle would turn out to be Eric Angle, Kurt's brother. The WWE would use him a couple times, specially doing a similar storyline match with Angle vs Brock in 2003 a couple weeks before Wrestlemania. I believe Eric was signed at one point, but they eventually released him before he made his official debut as a member of the roster. While the match was very slow early on, Angle really helped it once he took over. I loved the story of the match of Kurt just trying to survive the beatings so he can work over the leg some more. Sadly, with the double Angle angle (Err...), Kurt was never really to make use out of Taker's hurt leg. Angle didn't have the Ankle lock at the time, so he really didn't have any move/hold to beat Taker with the leg. It was a good strategy, but in the end, there wasn't much reason for it. Once again, the WWE tries to make Kurt out to be a talented heel who doesn't actually have to cheat to win. These two would go on to put on much better matches, but this one was pretty much the best Taker could do in 2000.
16 Minutes. 3 Stars.
XFL Cheerleaders commercial. Kind of funny, but it also is a good reminder of the bomb that was the XFL.
Edge, Christian, Goodfather and Buchanan w/ Val Venis vs The Dudley Boyz and Hardy Boyz - Elimination Tag
First off, a fun little tidbit about Jeff Hardy and Bubba Ray Dudley. They had a very bipolar relationship when it came to this ppv. This year, they're on the same team. 2001, they were on opposites sides in a steel cage match. 2002, they were on the same team again. JR mistakenly says they were on opposite teams the previous year. They were not. Anyways, since No Mercy, RTC won the tag team titles from The Hardy Boyz who won the titles back from Uno and Dos (Edge and Christian) the night after No Mercy. The four teams battle early on boring me a lot. Things pick up once all of them fights at the same time. Dudley's and Hardy's hits a 4 man DDT to 3 of their opponents. Off with the shirts and the Hardy Boyz are wearing camo Hardy Boy shirts. Poetry in motion and the camo shirts come off. Edge hits the Edge-O-Matic to Matt Hardy to pin him. Christian nails the Unprettier to D-Von Dudley to pin him. Bubba Ray destroys all the men and pins Bull and Edge. The Goodfather nails (see: Botch) the Pimp Drop (Well, I assume it's no longer called that) to pin Bubba Ray. Swanton Bomb gets Jeff to eliminate Christian. Val Venis and The Goodfather accidentally double closelines each other (see: Botch) and Hardy covers The Goodfather to win the match. What the hell? Jeff beats a 300 pounder after he gets a weak closeline? At least they gave the right person to have the superman comeback/win. Jeff was really starting to gain popularity and was needing to be pushed further than his brother. Kind of slow in the beginning, but it picked up once the mayhem/eliminations began. Post match has RTC attacking Jeff and Val Venis hits the Money Shot to Hardy (Why does he get to keep the name of his finisher?) This brings out Matt and The Dudley Boyz. They take out the RTC and Bubba/Matt orders Jeff/D-von to get the tables. I guess since Bubba is used to pushing a 250 (?) pound D-von for the order so much, he forgets Jeff is much smaller. Jeff nearly falls on his ass when he's pushed. Matt hits the legdrop through the table to Venis and Bubba powerbombs Steven Richards (Who just came out) through another table. WTF? This is the 3rd time in just 3 ppvs that they did this same exact finish. They let RTC do some nice heelish move to keep the feud going, yet have the Dudleys get revenge and put Richards through a table. You're killing me with your repetitiveness guys. 10 Minutes.
2 Stars. Steve Austin vs Triple H - No DQ
Since No Mercy, Hunter admitted to being the mastermind behind Austin being ran over. The two fights in the ring before heading outside where most of the match happens. The two fight backstage before quickly coming back. Austin takes over and he just beats the hell out of Hunter near the commentator's table. Austin drinks a couple of beers and smashes them over Hunter's head. Triple H tries to Pedigree Austin on the steps, but Austin back body drops him through the table. The battle in the ring where Austin hits the Stone Cold Stunner. Austin thinks about going for the pin, but he heads out of the ring and grabs a chair. Steve prepares Hunter to be Pilmanized (Ankle in chair), but Earl Hebner pleads for him to do it. Austin takes the chair away from Hunter's leg. Wow, Austin can be reasoned with, what a stand up guy. Wait...Austin is now putting Hunter's head through the chair (ala Kane to Michaels the night after HIAC in 2004). Earl Hebner is going apeshit realizing what Austin is doing and the fans are getting loud. Hunter rolls out of the ring just in time. They fight to the back where all four members of the Radicalz attacks Austin. Triple H leaves to head to the parking lot as tons of referees try to stop the Radicalz. Austin and Benoit are slugging it out when Benoit runs through the door that Hunter did. In the parking lot, Benoit waits for Austin to come out. Hunter, in a chair tells Benoit to go find Austin. For some reason, Hunter is mic'd up. With Benoit gone and Hunter's trap not looking so good, Hunter's car is attacked by Austin in a crane. Austin hoists Hunter's car up a good 20-30 feet in the air. We can't see Hunter well, but we sure can hear him perfectly. It's almost as if they knew this was going to happen. Hmm...nah, that would mean wrestling was scripted. Austin dumps Hunter's car over and we hear Hunter go "Nooooooooooo" *Splat*. It's almost as if we're watching a Road Runner cartoon. Austin just walks away as the PPV comes to an end. Everything up to the ending was pretty good. It was your typical post '97 neck injury Austin brawl match. Time went by fairly fast and it was a lot of fun. The ending was pretty ridiculous especially once Hunter returned almost unharmed. By all means, he should of been dead. I can understand and respect the fact that they were building towards a bigger match, but the ending was too unbelievable and down right dumb for wrestling. Speaking of dumb, does anyone recall the effects of Austin going to jail at No Mercy? If he went to jail for accidentally (and then purposely) hitting a cop car, I'd have to assume he'd get some major jail time for what he did tonight. I know wrestling is about suspending your believe, but this was too much. This whole Austin being run over could of been a great storyline to bring up a midcarder and help him become a major star for the company. Instead, they pushed the failed Rikishi and then just gives up and lets Hunter have the storyline. I have to laugh at all the promos for this match with Hunter saying he fooled everyone by making people never think he was behind it all. Yeah uh...you were the first person everyone thought of and the most predictable person to be the one who did it. To act like it's some surprise once again insults the fans intelligence. Like I've been saying in these reviews, I loved tweener Hunter. I really thought he had a lot of potential to be a major face star. Having him revert to his old 100% heel days makes him boring again and to some extent turns the fans away. It seems like no matter what, Hunter needed to be involved in every major storyline. Even if it means other top guys are going to be fucked over and forgotten. More of that to come. Anyways, I've read a lot of reviews over this match with most hating this match. Most even gave this match a 1 star rating. Even with the fucked up ending, I found this match much more entertaining. Had it had a much better ending, I probably would of given it a MOTYC type rating. Instead, I'll go for a middle rating.
25 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars. (-4 Stars Ending). Overall
It's weird, looking at this review, it looks a lot like the past two reviews. One or two good matches and the rest aren't that good making it a terrible show. Instead, I find myself enjoying most of the show. Looking at the show, I would say why I enjoyed it was because they finally put on a show showcasing all of their major stars and storylines. Unlike the past shows, you didn't see half of a card of the most random matches ever. You have the World Champion (Angle), the tag champions (RTC), the IC champion (Guerrero), Hardcore Champion (Blackman), European Champion (Regal), Women's champion (Ivory) and even the light heavyweight champion (Malenko) all in action. Even though some of the pushes sucked, they gave time to Chyna, Billy Gunn, Rikishi and others. You gave the PPV debut of two new (WWE that is) wrestlers in Molly Holly and K-Kwik while bringing back Bob Holly. Match quality may of been a disappointment, but they at least showed everything they needed to. That being said, they were really starting to make huge booking mistakes. Having Triple H and Steve Austin headline over Kurt Angle's first PPV title defense really just gave a sign that no matter what, they would always be the main eventers, whether a title is involved or not. You had Angle, Benoit, Jericho and Guerrero who all should of been pushed a lot more. Instead, you're pushing terrible men like Rikishi and The Undertaker ahead of them. While I still would of booked Austin vs Triple H in the main event of WM, those four guys (and Regal as well) would of been put in a much bigger match. Have a heel Rock wrestle a babyface Jericho, heel Benoit vs face Taker and have Jericho face Angle in all major matches at WM. Instead, WM was just Taker, Austin, Rock and Hunter. While these guys were great at what they did, Vince should of realized they wouldn't be around forever. The longer he held down the likes of Jericho, Benoit and Angle (Yes, he was held down while champion), the harder it will to ever really make them a serious main eventer. Hell, it's the main reason why Jericho will never be accepted as a legit main eventer by the fans. When you're treated like shit, the fans will eventually accept you as that. Vince fucked up big time. If you look back at most of the main events in the first half of 2001 and 2002, they were terrible. Yet, look at the midcard matches of Angle vs Benoit and you'll see these guys stealing the show and showing what a match really could of been about. Out of those 4 guys, only Angle really got to the point of being a serious main eventer. After the neck surgery, Benoit was treated like Jericho in 2000, only being pushed when they needed him, otherwise they forgot about him in meaningless feuds. Jericho would be treated like he was in 2000 for most of his WWE career. Guerrero's death prevented him from reaching that level. It's so frustrating to see the WWE make such huge mistakes knowing how big of a price they'd pay for them. To no surprise, ratings started to go down after this show. It wasn't until Invasion that they temporary went up again. But after realizing that the Invasion angle was a bust, ratings went down fast. These days, the WWE is happy if the WWE gets a 3.5 in ratings. This was the same company that once they saw WCW was getting those kinds of ratings (in about 2000 as well) they realized they were easily winning the Monday Night Wars. But what can you do? To this day, the WWE is still dependent on Triple H and The Undertaker. Luckily, they have found some replacements for Rocky and Austin. Sadly, the ratings haven't improved.
Best Match: Steve Austin vs Triple H
Worst Match: Lita vs Ivory
Overall Grade: C+
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