WWE presented the 28th annual Survivor Series last night from St. Louis and boy did the show deliver. A shocking win, an even more shocking debut and a stellar close gave us one of the best pay-per-views WWE has put on in quite some time. Let’s get right to it.
Sting (and Dolph Ziggler) Shocks the Authority
The excitement for the Team Cena and Team Authority main event was definitely not what WWE had hoped for heading into the evening, but the company did an excellent job of building up expectations throughout the night. The first such moment came at the very beginning of the show as Vince McMahon made his way out and promised that this Survivor Series would be epic, guaranteeing it would be one you’d never forget. And he was under-selling what would unfold later in the night.
Out came the Authority and Stephanie promises not to let her daddy down before Triple H tells the crowd to cheer for Vince and Stephanie does some weird ‘Woooo!’ yell, to which Vince says this is a bunch of crap and he calls out John Cena. Vince tells Cena that he will be personally responsible for his teammates losing their jobs if the Authority wins. He also tells the Authority that they will have no power if they lose. (Curiously, no mention of who will be in power if the Authority does in fact lose.)
Triple H promises that Cena’s teammates will beg for their jobs and still be fired, and then they’re going to be ignored. And once they’re ignored, they are going to be forgotten. Stephanie tells him that as soon as people are gone the fans forget them. Steph says that if the Authority loses, they won’t be in charge of Raw or Smackdown, but they’ll still be running the show from headquarters and asks Vince to reinforce that.
But Vince says that’s not what he has in mind, he says that if Team Cena wins Steph and Trips will have desk jobs, but they will in no way have any influence over the careers or personal lives of any WWE superstar. Whoa. Vince then says that he has so much confidence in the Authority that he added a stipulation in the contract that only one man could ever give them back their power if they lose. That man, is John Cena. WHOA.
(Am I the only one who feels like that’s a set up for a Cena heel turn down the road? You’re right, never gonna happen.)
Now that’s how you start a free show.
And now, it’s main event time.
We start things off with former brothers Big Show and Mark Henry in the ring. Triple H slaps Henry and yells to hype him up and Henry tells each member of Team Cena that he’s going to eliminate them. Henry yells at Triple H some more and turns around and runs DIRECTLY into a knockout punch from Big Show. 1-2-3, Henry is eliminated five seconds in. Uh oh.
The Authority is still standing on the apron for some reason and is in shock as three refs are needed to get Henry out of the ring. Rollins makes his way in but has no luck against Show so Kane tags in and takes control. Eventually, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan both get tagged in and it looks like we’re going to get a Wyatt showdown.
Nope, Rollins tags himself in and thanks for ruining it Seth. Eventually, we get to Ryback and Rusev staring each other down and yes, this is going to be awesome. The two monsters exchange huge blows before Ryback eventually takes control and hits Rusev with a Meat Hook Clothesline.
Now the Big Guy is calling for the Shell Shock and he hoists Rusev up, but the Bulgarian reverses and Ryback eats a boot from Kane and suddenly everyone is brawling all over the ring and the outside. Rollins takes advantage of the chaos and hits Ryback with a Curb Stomp before Rusev delivers a massive kick for the 1-2-3 and just like that Ryback is gone. Wow all that build up to whose team he would join and he’s the first Team Cena member out. Okay.
The match begins to break down quickly thereafter as Dolph Ziggler is tagged in and he takes out Harper and then runs Rollins off the apron. The momentary loss of focus costs Ziggler as Harper slams him for a near-fall. Everyone on Team Authority takes turns beating down Ziggler. They spend a solid seven minutes beating Dolph down (more on that later) and getting near-fall after near-fall.
Eventually, the Show Off makes a push and hits Rusev with a massive DDT. Harper breaks up the pin-fall attempt and eats an Attitude Adjustment for his troubles. Kane follows that up by chokeslamming Cena before Show hits the Demon with a chokeslam of his own. Rollins then hits Show with a flying knee to the head and Rowan responds by tossing Rollins out of the ring and onto the other competitors before eating a massive kick from Rusev. What a sequence.
Ziggler tries to hit Rusev, but the Bulgarian catches him and throws Dolph onto everyone on the outside. After taking apart both tables, Rusev drags Ziggler and puts him on top as Triple H yells at him to finish it. Rusev climbs the second announce table and tries to splash Dolph and well…
Not so much. Ziggler beats the refs count and Rusev can’t and suddenly the Bulgarian Brute has been eliminated via count-out. Great job by WWE getting Rusev eliminated but making sure it didn’t happen via pinfall.
Back inside of the ring Cena is a ball of fire as he hits Kane with a Five Knuckle Shuffle and calls for an AA, hitting it on Kane but then eating a Curb Stomp from Rollins out of nowhere! Both men are down but eventually make tags and finally we have our Harper/Rowan showdown. Both men pound at each other before Rowan takes control. The masked goat knocks Rollins off the apron and counters a Harper attack with an AWESOME SPINNING KICK!
Seriously, a man that big should not be able to do something like that. Harper and Rowan are both incredible.
Rollins then hits Rowan with a flying knee out of nowhere and Harper follows with a massive clothesline for the elimination. And now we’re down to three on each side. It’s Big Show, Cena and Ziggler against Kane, Harper and Rollins. Cena struggles to his feet as everyone but Ziggler (who is out ringside) stare each other down in the middle of the ring. Cena finally makes it up and…
Big Show knocks Cena out! Rollins covers the team captain and Cena has been eliminated! WOW! Show walks over and shakes Triple H’s hand as Stephanie celebrates and Cena is gone! Unbelievable! And now Show is walking to the locker room and eliminating himself! It’s now Ziggler alone to take on Harper, Kane and Rollins. Stephanie mocks Cena on the floor and wait a second. IS THIS FINALLY #PUSHZIGGLER! TIME?!
The Authority taunts Dolph who can’t even get to his feet so Kane throws him into the barricade and then into the ring as Cena makes his way to the back. Triple H taunts Ziggler and I can’t believe this. Kane gets a near-fall as Ziggler somehow kicks out and now it’s Rollins turn. He kicks and taunts Ziggler, grabbing his arm and trying to tag all of Dolph’s eliminated partners like a great heel would. The Authority is just trying to embarrass Ziggler at this point.
Kane takes the Show Off up top and goes for a suplex, but Dolph counters and hits a flying cross body for a near fall! Out of nowhere he hits Kane with a super kick and the Zig Zag for the 1-2-3 and it’s now two on one! LETS GO ZIGGLER!
Harper runs in and levels Ziggler with a massive boot to immediately stop any momentum before hitting a flying headbutt out of the ring. Back inside, Harper hits a vicious superkick but somehow Dolph kicks out. That’s followed by a massive sit-down power bomb AND SOMEHOW ZIGGLER KICKS OUT AGAIN!
Triple H yells at Harper to finish it off as a huge “ZIGGLER!” chant begins to break out. Out of nowhere Ziggler rolls up Harper and eliminates him! IT’S ONE ONONE!! ROLLINS AND ZIGGLER FOR ALL THE GLORY! Don’t you tease me with a Ziggler breakthrough and then break my heart WWE!
Rollins begins to pound away on Ziggler and tosses him out of the ring as the crowd is now red-hot for the Show Off, chanting “LETS GO ZIGGLER!” while Rollins methodically picks away at the Show Off. Back inside Ziggler hits a roll-up for the near-fall and then a huge DDT for another near-fall! I CAN’T HANDLE THIS!
Rollins picks up Ziggler and powerbombs him into the corner but Ziggler kicks out! Rollins begins to pound on Ziggler and heads up top, but Ziggler counters for a Fame-Asser and another near-fall! Mercury and Noble try to interfere but Dolph stops them and HITS A ZIG ZAG OUT OF NOWHERE BUT TRIPLE H PULLS THE REF OUT BEFORE THE THREE COUNT!
Mercury and Noble beat down on Dolph but he tosses Mercury into Noble, which leads to Noble knocking Steph off the apron and into Triple H. Rollins tries to hit a Curb Stomp but Dolph counters with another Zig Zag and AGAIN Triple H knocks out the ref before the three-count. Now Trips is going to handle it as pounds away and hits Dolph with a Pedigree. He rolls Rollins onto Dolph and calls for a ref who gets the 1-2… what the hell is that music?
OH MY GOD IT’S STING! STING IS IN THE WWE (10 years too late but still)! Triple H looks shocked in the center of the ring as Sting knocks out the ref and makes his way into the ring. Seriously, fans have waited decades for a moment like this, and now Sting and Triple H are staring each other down at Survivor Series. Goosebumps.
The crowd chants “THIS IS AWESOME!” as the two begin to talk trash and Triple H swings at Sting. Big mistake Trips. The Stinger dodges it and introduces Triple H to the Scorpion Death Drop.
Sting then rolls Ziggler on to Rollins and one of the knocked out refs makes his way into the ring for the 1-2-3! Team Cena wins and Dolph Ziggler is the hero!! #PUSHZIGGLER! FTW!!!
Dolph can barely stand has he celebrates and we are witnessing the coronation of the #PUSHZIGGLER! movement people!
Triple H and Stephanie begin to come back to their senses and realize what just happened. Stephanie tells Triple H they lost it all as a MASSIVE “YES!” chant breaks out through the arena and it is an awesome moment. Steph ends the show yelling that this isn’t over and that she will not accept it before throwing a temper tantrum of epic proportions.
I’m the first to question WWE, but seriously that was an incredible main event with an even better ending. That whole last hour was just an incredible ride. I mean Sting! Ziggler finally breaks through! What just happened?! I can’t wait for Raw.
Oh yeah, #PUSHZIGGLER!
FLIP THE PAGES TO SEE WHETHER AMBROSE COULD OUT-CRAZY WYATT…..