horrorfan_1986

WWE Survivor Series
November 14, 2004

~Heat~

Sylvain Grenier and Robért Conway vs Rosey and The Hurricane
La Resistance are the tag team champions, but for whatever reason the belts aren't on the line. With the exception of a few matches with Edge and Chris Benoit, La Resistance wrestled the whole year against the Superheroes. Rosey and Hurricane controls the match early on against Conway. Nice Flying Crossbody by 'Cane to Conway. La Resistance gains control working over Rosey. A few minutes of face-in-peril action before Rosey can get the hot tag. Hurricane is pushed into Rosey, sending Rosey from the apron to the floor and the champs hit Au Revoir on Hurricane to pick up the win. IIRC, this was the beginning of the Hurricane's short lived heel turn when he was frustrated with the losing streak. The angle was dropped a few weeks later and the Superheroes would finally get the belts the following April. I always thought these two teams worked well together. They were almost never given any decent time which along with the fans not caring, hurt their matches. Had they been booked as a serious feud, I think people would of been pleased with it. Since this was the first match of the night, the fans were into it much more than their Backlash match. 5 Minutes. 2 Stars.

~PPV~

Spike Dudley vs Chavo Guerrero vs Billy Kidman vs Rey Mysterio - Cruiserweight Title Match
This came at the very unusual time in which the CW division actually had a storyline for a feud. During a tag match (Kidman/London vs Noble/Chavo), Kidman accidentally injured Chavo with the Shooting Star Press. For the next few weeks, Kidman didn't have much passion and was scared to use the move. After turning on London, Kidman and Chavo ended up in a feud in which Chavo was the face. Spike and Mysterio had been feuding since the early summer when Spike turned heel and with the help of the Dudley Boys defeated Mysterio for the title. The match is contested under tornado rules, so it's all four men in it at once. Spike and Kidman double teams Chavo. Kidman orders Spike to splash Chavo in the corner, but turns on Spike with a nice dropkick. Awesome looking spot with Kidman's back to the ropes on the apron and Mysterio on the top in the corner, facing the same direction as Billy. Mysterio jumps off and turns his body 180 degrees and hits a hurricrana. Chavo splashes on both of them. Spike looks to do the same, but everyone moves out of the way and Spike crashes on the floor. HA. The TNA suplex/powerbomb spot in the corner with Spike taking the full impact. Kidman hits the BK Bomb (Such a lame name) to Mysterio, but Chavo stops Kidman before he can hit the SSP. Spike goes for the Dudley Dog, but Mysterio reverses it by sending Spike into the ropes. 619~! Kidman pulls Mysterio down preventing the West Coast Pop. Chavo hits the Gory Bomb on Spike, but Kidman breaks up the pin with a slingshot legdrop. Mysterio and Kidman fights outside of the ring and Spike covers the down Chavo to win the match and retain his title. This was very reminiscent of the old WCW CW multimen matches. It was very spotty without much of a story, but it was fun and entertaining. Everyone at least sold the moves making it good enough to pass for a wrestling match instead of a Briscoe Brothers spot "Match". I'm very surprised this type of match occurred in the WWE. This does prove that the fans can care about the CW division, but they need a reason to. All this match had was some backstory and fun spots and the fans ate it up. Sadly, the CW title would be virtually dead after this. Shame too, this was easily the best thing SD has done in months. 10 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars.

Backstage, Heidenreich and Snitsky runs into each other. Snitsky likes Heidenreich's poetry, Heidenie likes the way Snitsky opperates. This is the most hilariously awesome and overly homoerotic segment I've seen in the WWE. It's beyond awesome though. The WWE really dropped the ball on a Snitsky/Heidenreich tag team. The promos and segments alone would of been the highlight of 2005.

Shelton Benjamin vs Christian - IC Title Match
Benjamin had just won the IC title, so the WWE was trying to legitimatizing him as much as possible. Christian is pimping out his newest theme music. Benjamin shows off his athletic skills a lot in the early going. Benjamin skins the cat and hits either a Blockbuster or his flying closeline, either way it looked good. Mean looking implant DDT by Christian. Christian looks to send Benjamin into the corner, but Benjamin reverses and Christian does the Bret corner bump. Not as good as Bret's but good enough. Awesome reverse Slingshot Suplex by Benjamin. Tomko throws in the IC title and climbs on the apron to distract the ref. Cage isn't able to use it in time and gets a cross body from Benjamin. Tomko sneaks in to hit a big boot, but Christian isn't able to get the 3. Benjamin nails the reverse leg whip sending Tomko crashing to the floor. Shelton thinks about splashing Christian, but changes his mind and goes after Tomko. Christian intercepts him and hits him off of the apron. Back in, Cage looks for the Unprettier, but Shelton reverses it into the T-Bone Suplex for the 3 count. Fantastic match. Benjamin was just on fire at this time impressing the fans with his spots. Christian was a big enough midcard star to give Shelton another impressive win. Shelton had the quality matches, but for whatever reason, the WWE refused to give him any real feuds. At this point, it looked like the WWE had found a new star for years to come. 4 years later, they continue to fail to capitalize on it. My pick for best IC title match of 2004, behind Cactus vs Orton. 14 Minutes. 4 Stars.

Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Luther Reigns, Mark Jindrak and Carlito Caribbean Cool) vs Team Guerrero (Eddie Guerrero, The Big Show, Rob Van Dam and John Cena)
This would be the finale of the Angle/Guerrero feud, even though Angle had moved away from Guerrero and started feuding with the Big Show already. Jindrak and Reigns makes up the new Team Angle. Carlito had just debuted the night after No Mercy beating Cena for the title. Since then, Cena was "Stabbed in a nightclub" and it was believed that Carlito and Jesus was behind it. I should probably mention Jesus is Aaron Aguilera, sorry folks, Jesus didn't end up wrestling on PPV like God did at Backlash. Although to be fair, God was all hype, most overrated wrestler of 2006. RVD is in this for no apparent reason other than to get him on PPV. Before the bell, Cena chases Jesus and Carlito to the back. Carlito and Jesus fleas in a car. So now, the match is unofficially a 3 on 4 elimination match. In case you're wondering, Carlito was hurt at the time. The rest of the guys start brawling with Show and Jindrak starting the match. The faces dominate the match. Cena is this year's Ultimate Warrior, letting everyone else do all the work. Eddie hits a duel headscissors arm drag to Jindrak/Reigns. Angle jumps him from behind enabling the heels to be in control for the first time in the match. Eddie finally gets a tag to RVD. RVD kicks Angle out and goes up top for the 5 Star Frogsplash (Does that mean Eddie's is a no star move?). Jindrak tries saving his leader, so RVD hits the Frogsplash on Jindrak instead. Angle rolls up RVD and grabs the ropes to get in the cheap pinfall. RVD's shoulders were up though, so Tazz and Cole makes it confusing knowing whether Van Dam is gone or not. The announcer finally says Rob is gone. Eddie doesn't think it's fair, so he rolls up Jindrak and gets the pinfall while holding the ropes. Somehow the ref didn't see, even though it was right infront of him. The WWE has to have one of the worst health packages for eyecare. Reigns tries to out power Show, but gets a Chokeslam for his trouble. Angle decides that this isn't worth his trouble and just pulls a Honky and leaves. Rob Van Dam comes back stopping him from leaving. Angle backs up into Show and is thrown back in the ring. John Cena, realizing that he hasn't performed a single move tonight, hits the FU on Angle. Frogsplash by Eddie. The Big Show covers Angle to win the match. The faces celebrate in the post-match. This match had similar problems as the previous year's SD elimination match. You had a few cheap eliminations around the same time and the quality of the heel team brought down the match. I enjoy Reigns and Jindrak, but when they're in the ring with the likes of the Frogsplash brothers, they just don't look too good. Angle being a god at the time, doesn't help matters either. For what it was, it was decent enough though. There weren't any dull moments and provided a few fun spots. Show's main event push officially begins. 13 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars.

Backstage, Maven is attacked and bloodied by Snitsky. It looks like Team Orton just lost a member. Ironically, losing Maven actually makes the face Raw team look more impressive. Hmm go figure.

The Undertaker vs Heidenreich
This feud began with some vignettes hyping Heidenreich's return and debut on SD. At No Mercy, he cost Taker the WWE Title against JBL. He ended the night by crashing his vehicle into the hearse with Taker in it. The match is mostly just brawling with a bunch of punches thrown. Meh, nothing too exciting. Heidenreich gets a weak looking Last Ride, but grabs the ropes to break up the fall. The commentators try putting Heidenreich over as being unbeatable. Sorry Cole, but I'm not buying it. Taker finishes Heidenreich with the Tombstone to win the match. Taker gets bugged eye looking back at Heidenreich as if it was his toughest opponent to date. It was clear that Heidenreich tried hard, but his best just isn't good enough. Somehow, the WWE heard the silence from the fans as encouragement to push the feud on even longer. Ah, I get it now. Any matches that gets a reaction (CW match) is bad, but crowd being dead for a match (This) must mean it has feud of the year written all over it. No wonder Hunter has been in the main event for so long. The match is passable though and not nearly as bad as you'd imagine. 16 Minutes. 2 Stars.

Trish Stratus vs Lita - Women's Title Match
Trish had been taking cheap shots on Lita since the whole Kane/Hardy feud started. Lita finally had enough and got this title match. Once Lita gets in the ring, she shoves Trish out of the ring. Trish is thrown against the timekeeper's table. Lita grabs a chair and hits the table a couple of times. The ref rules that's close enough to hitting Trish that he DQ's Lita. Lita continues the beat down. Fearing that her chair shots didn't look real enough, she throws Trish down and breaks Trish's nose. I guess there's no happy median of making shots look real, but not hurting. Not really a match. It is a good builder for their feud, but I feel ripped off paying 35 bucks for a PPV with the WWE not giving me what they promised. This would begin Trish's badass days with the facemask. 2 Minutes. Not Rated.

Backstage, Team Guerrero compliments Cena on his lack of scars. Cena claims the doctors 'hooked him up.' Well that's one way to make up an excuse for Cena filming the Marine. However, after watching the Marine, I think I would of preferred getting the knife wound instead. Teddy Long announces Cena vs Carlito for Smackdown.

JBL vs Booker T - WWE World Title Match
Booker T is still technically a heel, but he's acting like a face for the match. He won this shot by beating JBL in back to back tag matches. This feud is also responsible for seeing Josh Matthews wrestle in a match. Since Booker is sorta a tweener, his only friend is Matthews. It's okay though, The Bashams aren't with JBL yet and since Orlando Jordan sucks, Booker is looking quite good in his chances. JBL does his normal brawling for the first few minutes. Corba Clutch by JBL. Orlando Jordan interferes all throughout the match. Booker beats the talent out of OJ on the outside, well what little talent there is. Book End to JBL on the outside. Booker keeps breaking up the count in between attacking Orlando some more. It's a sad day when people have to pay 35 bucks to see a black on black hate crime. Back inside, Booker nails the Missal Dropkick, but JBL grabs the bottom rope. OMG...WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO BEAT HIM?!!!! Oh...sorry, wrong match. Booker heads to the top for the Houston Hangover, but JBL is able to move out of the way. Tazz claims it's the first time he ever saw Booker try that 'Front Flip Move'. Hmm, I guess Tazz was asleep during the Raw matches at Wrestlemania 19. Booker looks to hit the Ax kick, but OJ interferes again. DDT by JBL. Booker shoves JBL into the ref. Jordan looks to get in the ring with a chair, but Josh Matthews runs out and hits a running knee into the untalented face of OJ. JBL isn't happy and gives Matthews a Big Boot and a short closeline. So long Josh. The distraction is enough for Booker to hit the Scissors kick. Long wait for a new ref to come out, but OJ pulls the ref out. Booker has enough of this miserable useless sack of shit and gives him a Book End. JBL nails Booker with the title and falls on the challenger. The original ref crawls over and counts. That's enough for the win. Your typical JBL title defense here. JBL continues to come off as an extremely weak champion that needs constant help to win. Booker comes out looking good by producing an exciting match with Bradshaw. All of the run ins at the end would actually improve the match by making the outcome unpredictable. I can remember really rooting on Booker during the match. Sadly, his time wouldn't come for another year and a half. 15 Minutes. 3 Stars.

Team Orton (Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho and Maven (?) ) vs Team Hunter (Triple H, Batista, Snitsky and Edge)
The winning team gets to run Raw for a full month. Hunter already knows if the faces win, he'll be forced to defend the title a lot. Snitsky and Edge confirms that they'll get title shots if the heels win. At least Hunter has Batista, right? As it turns out, Maven isn't anywhere to be found by the bell and yet the faces still look better than the heels. Benoit and Edge starts off and continues their rivalry from the previous month. Orton gets to thrown around by the heels. Edge even does the Orton pose. Benoit tags in and gets the crowd to create a little noise. Benoit hits a double Flying Headbutt to Hunter and Edge! Benoit locks in the sharpshooter on Hunter, but Snitsky breaks it up. Benoit locks in the Crossface on Edge, which only confuses me further for who's the legal man. Hunter hits the Pedigree on Benoit to eliminate him. Yup, there's your champion for the first half of the year, eliminated first. Edge goes for the tag, but both Triple H and Snitsky tags in. They get in a shoving match which pisses off Batista. Nose to nose with Snitsky and Batista. I wonder how Heidenreich feels about seeing his new "Buddy" so close with another man. Chris Jericho turns Hunter over for the Walls of Jericho. Hunter is trying to yell for help, but Snitsky and Batista are more content with shoving their noses in the other's face. HA. Batista finally looks over and is able to break it up. Jericho goes for the Lionsault, but Flair trips him up. The ref sends Flair back to the lockerroom. With the distraction, Orton nails Batista with the WHT and Jericho finishes Batista off with the step up enzuigiri. Batista gives Jericho a stiff closeline before leaving. Jericho had been knocked out a few times with the same move in the summer. Snitsky is destroying Jericho and Edge and Hunter is beating down Orton. Maven stumbles from the back ready to kick some ass. Hot tag to Maven. Maven takes out the heels and bloodies Snitsky up. Snitsky resorts to the old Jim Duggan strategy and uses a chair right in front of the ref. Snitsky is DQ'd. But it's okay, that wasn't his fault. Hunter crawls over and covers Maven to officially eliminate Maven. Jericho contends with Hunter and Edge for a couple of minutes, but gets a Spear by Edge to finish him off. This leaves Hunter and Edge vs Orton. Edge and Hunter look confident. Orton is all 'Bring it on bitches' in the corner. Orton gets his ass kicked.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Edge misfires a spear and takes out Hunter. Orton stands and hits the RKO to eliminate his future partner. We're down to Orton vs Hunter, the feud the WWE was shoving down our throats, even though the fans had little interest. Orton goes for the RKO, but gets a low blow for his effort. Hunter sets Orton up for the Pedigree, but Orton fatigued falls down. Hunter being so confident picks him up, but Orton nails the RKO. I guess it's a general theme with Cliq members at Survivor Series. Randy covers Hunter and wins the match. Orton, Jericho, Benoit and Maven will control Raw for the next 4 weeks. This match had been built up since the summer with multiple feuds. Due to that, the match had little problem getting into the groove. Benoit and Jericho to no surprise carried the match for the most part. I can appreciate that they tried to give Maven another few week long push, but having him in this role just wasn't believable and the fans didn't care. If only Maven had been replaced with William Regal, the face side would of been incredible. The outcome of this match would lead to Hunter losing the WHT in a triple threat with Benoit and Edge, but only to regain it at New Year's Revolution. However, the big thing that came from the match was Batista's reactions. The hints of Batista wanting to be the champion interested fans far more than the force fed Orton/Hunter feud. This of course led to Wrestlemania changes. I gotta admit, I loved the Batista push. Overall, it was a fun SS match. Even with the weak talent, they found ways for humor and fun spots. Much better than Raw's match from the previous year. 25 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars.

Overall
2004 was a real mix bag of PPV's. SD put on one terrible one after another. Raw managed to put on good after good. The first 3 Big Four PPV's were two letdowns and a fairly good one. While SD was still lacking in quality, Raw was able to produce 2 good matches. The CW match blows away nearly all SD PPV matches from the year. The main reason to watch the PPV is for Christian vs Shelton and for important storyline advances from the Raw side of things. The SD side manages to be passable though. The worst is only average, so it's breeze getting through the event.

Best Match: Shelton Benjamin vs Christian
Worst Match: Heidenreich vs The Undertaker

Grade: B+

__________________

New Jersey's Favorite Son

It wasn't great nor horrible, I agree with you best match worst match list, Although my favorite match was Booker vs JBL.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Lord Have Mercy!

Tommy Platinum

This is a PPV I have never seen. In fact, I don't believe I have seen any of the matches from it. I enjoyed this review, especially reading some of the comments about Orlando Jordan, you really hate that guy
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
. Speaking of people you hate, I don't think I have ever read a positive comment about Lita in any of your reviews either.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Very surprised to see an IC title match get a **** rating. I imagine that is well worth checking out. Despite the fairly impressive B+ rating, I would say that this is another PPV I would only purchase if I could pick it up cheap, although the fact that I stopped watching WWE from 2003 to 2006 does make it very fun to go back and watch the PPVs I missed. Hopefully I get to see this whole show at some point, but I certainly want to see the Cruiser match, the IC title match and the main event, all of which sound very entertaining. I think Benjamin is surely one of the best examples of wasted talent this century. I know some people overrate him when they talk like he is some sort of wrestling God, but he was putting on some highly entertaining matches back then and getting great reactions from the fans.

__________________

horrorfan_1986

I'll say positive things about Lita once she actually does something good.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

__________________

Tommy Platinum

I guess being one of the most popular female wrestlers ever counts for nothing. >_>

She actually got great reactions during her matches. So what she injured a few people.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


She was also a great valet.

__________________

horrorfan_1986

She wasn't nearly as popular after he neck injury.

She's also one of the worst actors I've ever seen (Remember the terrible crying during the Kane/Hardy feud?)

She was great as a valet? All I remember was that she was booed because of her real life whoring around. That's not getting heat.
Her workrate went to total shit after the injury.

__________________

Tommy Platinum

Eh, I'm not saying she was anything amazing, but as a diva, you must be doing something right if you become as over and well known as Lita did. I personally would love to see her return to WWE.

As for your point on the WWE pushing a feud the fans didn't care about but making no effort with the Cruisers despite the fans being into the match, it has always been one of their main weaknesses that they don't listen to the fans and push who they want.

__________________

horrorfan_1986

Lita did something other divas didn't do. She did all the high flying moves that the others didn't have the guts to try to do. Nevermind, the fact they were often done sloppy. Being with the Hardy Boys helped her more than anything else. They were well liked and consistently a major part of Raw/PPV. So of course Lita is going to be popular.

But if you note, I'm not talking about before her injury in these reviews.

__________________

King Steventon

I think you overated Benjamin/Christian. It was good but nothing special really. Nothing particularly stand-out about it at all.

I agree that they dropped the ball BIGTIME with Benjamin though. He was fucking awesome in his IC title run, but now he's so unbearably bland. Being a face worked for him because he was able to get over through his ability, you need a certain amount of charasma or intensity to be a heel and Benjamin totally lacks that.

__________________

horrorfan_1986

Perhaps, I know I enjoyed it much more than I did back then. Benjamin was wrestling like he had something to prove instead of just going through the motions like he's been doing for the past couple of years. If I did overrate the match, it's only because I was comparing it to current Shelton.

__________________