Given the DVD/Blu Ray cover, it’s no spoiler to say that Survivor Series 2014 is destined to forever be remembered as the night that WCW Icon Sting made his first WWE appearance. But regardless of that historic moment, is Survivor Series worth another look?
The majority of the hype for the card was built around the main event Survivor match pitting Team Authority (Kane, Mark Henry, Luke Harper, Rusev and Seth Rollins) against Team Cena (our old friend John, Big Show, Erick Rowan, Dolph Ziggler and Ryback). The shock of Sting showing up towards the end of the match has somewhat overshadowed the fact that this was a really good Survivor’s match. Even more so considering some of the talent in the match. It was booked very well for the most part, with those who needed protecting and/or pushing being well served. Dolph Ziggler’s epic end to the match should have been the start of something really special for him of course, but although the two months since this show disprove that theory somewhat, it doesn’t change the excitement of the match itself. Nor does the fact that the losing Authority team were back on our screens four weeks or so later.
Sadly whilst the main event was an entertaining and well-booked affair, the undercard left a lot to be desired on both fronts.
The four-way Tag Team title opener was a reasonably solid start to the show even if the only thing that seemed to be over at times was Mizdow. The two women’s matches were poor affairs too. The eight women elimination match was the usual rushed affair and whilst it certainly had some talent in there, there were a number of problems. The time constraints were one, but there was also the fact that with such a fantastic set of women in NXT, this kind of average action is shown up for what it is. Granted a number of these women could excel and shine given the opportunities, but on the main roster they simply won’t be. Still at least this was better than the AJ Lee/Nikki Bella match, Not only was it a rip off of the infamous Sheamus/Daniel Bryan WM match, but half a year or so of storyline tension between the Bella’s was thrown away in a hot-shot angle that made zero sense. Still even that may have been better than the impromptu tag match pitting Adam Rose & The Bunny against Heath Slater and Titus O’Neill. A funny diversion? Maybe. A PPV worthy segment? Definitely not.
The best thing on the undercard was, unsurprisingly, Bray Wyatt against Dean Ambrose. The two had a good, stiff physical battle that required little suspension of disbelief that really seemed to be going somewhere…until the DQ finish and the realisation that this was nothing more than a set-up match for their TLC encounter. You can’t fault the effort from either man, but they were held back by the bookers here.
The main event is excellent and the Sting debut is a moment to remember in wrestling history. Given how Ziggler’s momentum from this wasn’t capitalised on and that the stipulation that the Authority were banished lasted all of a month, it doesn’t quite have the impact watching it now. But it is still a very good match and one of the best of the year in the WWE. Sadly nothing else on the show came close to matching this and even the best of the undercard, Wyatt vs. Ambrose, was rendered largely irrelevant due to the non-finish. The main event, and all that surrounds it, is must see. The rest is largely forgettable and not worth a second look.
Extra’s include promos, matches and interview surrounding the build-up and aftermath of the event and the Blu-Ray extras are certainly worth shelling out the few extra pounds if you have the technology, if only because there’s so many of them.
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Thank you to our partners, WWEDVD.co.uk and Fetch.fm for providing our review copy of WWE Survivor Series 2014. WWE Survivor Series 2014 is available DVD & Blu-Ray from Monday, February 16th 2014. You can pre-order your copy from WWEDVD.co.uk now by clicking here.
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