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WRestling’s 3R’s PPV Edition 11.29.06: WWE Survivor Series 2006
Introduction!
Welcome back to another PPV edition of WRestling’s 3R’s! It is time once again to break down the PPV of the past weekend in the 3R’s style. This time around we will look at the WWE Survivor Series 2006 PPV event. This is the 2nd in a string of FIVE PPV’s in a row, which could kill me with the current workload and all, but hey, you gotta go sometime. But for today we will discuss the Thanksgiving Tradition known as Survivor Series. We had title matches, retirements and classic Survivor Series Matches all on this PPV, which on paper had the potential to be a great show. How did it fair in the world of the R’s? Let’s go and find out!
The Matches:
CLASSIC SURVIVOR SERIES MATCH: Team Legend defeated Team Spirit Squad: Ric Flair (SOLE SURVIVOR) @ 10:35 via submission * Trash of the Night
WWE US TITLE MATCH: Chris Benoit defeated Chavo Guerrero @ 8:30 via submission *** Match of the Night
WWE WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Mickie James defeated Lita to become the NEW CHAMPION @ 8:23 via pin *½
CLASSIC SURVIVOR SERIES MATCH: Team D-Xtreme defeated Team RKO: Team DX (ALL SURVIVE) @ 11:37 via pin **¼
FIRST BLOOD MATCH: Mr. Kennedy defeated the Undertaker @ 9:30 via First Blood **
CLASSIC SURVIVOR SERIES MATCH: Team Cena defeated Team Show: John Cena and Lashley (SURVIVORS) @ 12:41 via pin **½
WORLD TITLE MATCH: Batista defeated King Booker to become the NEW CHAMPION @ 15:00 via pin *½
The Right:
Short Takes – Short takes is the little invention I made a while back. Basically there are always some things on a show that are right and wrong, but aren’t big enough for a right or wrong of their own. So what we do is put them all under one banner, and we have short takes.
CM Punk’s Debut – So this week was the “long awaited” debut of CM Punk. The good news was that they did this in New York in an arena full of people that will know who he is and be into the debut. When he was announced and came out, he got a huge pop from the crowd. There were signs there saying the person came to see CM Punk, Punk chants, ROH chants; he looked like a superstar when he entered the match.
But…
In my opinion they screwed the pooch on the match. He faced Justin Credible, who lost to Angle in a little over a minute; who hasn’t won a match unless it was through a DQ and who has been booked like a joke since the rebirth of the promotion. He got to have a 4:30, competitive match with CM Punk. With the way Punk came out, got the crowd reaction and was perceived to be a star, the match should have been immediately changed to a 2-minute squash by Punk to work off of that, and to make him seem even more important to the TV viewer, who less than 10% know who the hell Punk is and need to buy him in order for him to actually to become a star. I feel that this is where they failed Punk in his debut, and they may pay for it down the line.
I feel that it is important to go back to that. My main contention was that he debuted in a place they know him, so sure he got the pop. But now, after months of short promos, strong matches and an undefeated streak he is entrenched in the ECW brand, and has become the fan favorite. But this Sunday, even though they were in Philly, a place he is known, I believe that he officially became “over.” The fact that he got cheered for so loudly that he upstaged the almighty “DX” intro is proof of that. The kid his arrived despite not being a prototypical WWE wrestler, look and match wise. I would expect him to get buried for upstaging HHH and HBK, but the fact is that he got over huge and is now heading into his first “WWE PPV MAIN EVENT.” Not bad for 4-months on the main roster.
Chavo vs. Benoit – This right here was the match of the night. Unfortunately that isn’t saying a lot for this card, but it was a good match. Considering that they only got a little under 9-minutes, they definitely did the best that they could. They were intense from bell to bell and really brought a nice level of brutality that the match needs, considering the scope of why they are feuding; which I still hate. As I will touch on later they really needed more time, and the reason they didn’t get it was due to all of the individual entrances during the Survivor Series matches. I will also say that I question some of the booking of the match. Benoit winning clean is questionable to me, because since the face already has won clean, where do we go from here? They will need to get creative, and I hope they can do that. Also please, it has been a year, can we drop the Eddie shit?
Purgatory:
Team Cena vs. Team Show – To me this one seemed to be the most fun Survivor Series match. Truth be told I was really looking forward to almost all of the matches in some way, as they all had potential to be either really fun or really good as long as they stayed away from bad booking. It was fun, but I think that there was some questionable booking here and that really drug it down for me. RVD is the first eliminated on his team, which I feel is bad because he is in the Extreme Elimination Chamber this Sunday. Then, in the next minute Test and Sabu get eliminated, once again, both of these men are in the Extreme Elimination Chamber this Sunday, which as we remember is for the ECW Title. They just get eliminated like they are nothing, which I feel is bad booking. Finally, it was obvious before the show that Cena vs. Umaga was up next, which it was then confirmed on Raw on Monday. This would have been the perfect time to have him pin Cena. That is the glory of these matches, but they took the lame way out with the DQ one-minute in, in a move that was over protecting Umaga. I felt that could have been booked much better.
It’s the homeboy shopping network’s good-bye to Lita – So at Survivor Series we had Lita’s retirement match. During the opening minutes of this match, we were headed towards ridiculous territory as it was sloppy and not together. Thankfully things came together, and they had a good set of events near the end with the near falls and it turned out well. It was no Lita vs. Trish, but it was good. Lita was adorned with numerous classic chants, like “She’s a crack whore/She’s got herpies” from the Philly crowd. There were a lot of thank you Lita signs and I think this was almost done out of respect, ala “We know we should hate you, so we’ll send you out that way” kind of deal.
Afterwards is where we get into sketchy territory to me. First of all, Mickie is basically ignored. Her title win was just a background, which is sad. Then she cuts a good promo, saying that this is the perfect place to leave, because the fans basically suck. Fine and good. And then Cryme Tyme appears with all of her shit they stole, and have a “Ho” sale of all of her shit. This was funny when it began and they had some good lines, but went on too long. Overall not too bad, but a lack of focus and timing I believe, especially when the matches could have used more time.
The wRong:
A gripe… – One thing I did not like on the show was the individual entrances. They took so much damn time away from the matches. Each Survivor Series match had entranced that lasted around 5-minutes, a total of roughly 15-minutes. Make them group entrances, cut the crap and you have 10-more minutes for matches. Chavo and Benoit could have used some of that time, hell 3-minutes to get that to over 10 for the match. But the fact unfortunately is that everyone had to have their own entrance for their egos, so we get punished in the end. Add to that the fact that the PPV ended early as always and they wasted a lot of time.
Match Quality – I had a similar rant last month regarding the quality of the PPV and I feel that I have to again. The overall match quality for the show was just there. While nothing was out right atrocious, there was nothing great either. For a company that is considered by many of my detractors as the best in the world, and for a company with SUCH a DEEP talent roster, they once again have dropped the ball on PPV when it comes to matches. I don’t know how else to put it, but in all seriousness it is rather sad when you wrap your noggin around it.
I know they are buried already, but… – I love Ric Flair, I really do and on some nights he is STILL the man. That all being said, was the booking here really the smartest thing to do? It isn’t that he defeated three of the Squad members on his own really, but since they have been teasing the break up of the group for a while, could there have been a little dissension on the ranks allowing him to win? It isn’t that hard a concept, and in the end these guys, even with the beat down are even more buried than before, which is actually amazing because DX all but killed them off. Match was what you would expect, but it had the nostalgia factor to keep people happy live.
The King is dethroned… – While I loved that Smackdown actually got to main event the show, I wish I could say that the match delivered. Far from it, it was just a match, a low end Smackdown main event for TV actually. I still contend that Batista has lost a lot of his fire and strength, and perhaps his motivation. Lucky for them that the rest of the card was under whelming, because in comparison it didn’t look that bad. The other thing is that I just don’t think the booking here was the best. Think of this, of King Booker wins of due to Batista refusing to cheat, there would have been much more potential in Batista trying to cost Booker the title or focusing towards the Rumble for a promised shot. Batista could disappear and go into intense training, or he could have a match with someone like Chavo or Regal and get rolled up for a surprise pin and just walk away, only to return with a new bad ass, evil villain type look and just start taking random bitches out on his way to the Rumble. In the end I didn’t feel as if Batista was vindicated, I felt as f King Booker was robbed. We could see a good old Dusty finish here on Friday.
The Ridiculous:
Nothing of note, I got bigger fish to fry.
The Ri-GOD-DAM-diculous:
Gotta get my heat back brother… – And now we have to discuss the First Blood match. As I figured this would be the match where Taker loses, because he doesn’t have to pin or submit, and Kennedy “appears to win” until he gets his ass handed to him. Guess what? That is exactly what happened. And you know what? It is bullshit to the highest degree! No one came out of that thinking, “Gee golly, Kennedy looked like a winner.” He looked like a big old pussy that got an ass whooping. Hell, he didn’t even bust open Taker, pansy ass MVP did! This is going down just like the Orton feud, and when it is all said and done, Kennedy will be damaged and Taker will come out smelling like a fucking rose, and that is pathetic my friends. He really is the Undertaker, because he is burying people still. But not quite as bad as the KINGS of Burial.
DX is STILL rated B… – For Burial. My God, what the hell was that? Back in the day I remember when a team would clean sweep, I remember one in fact, and that is fine when it is a team of mid-card guys vs. mid-card guys. But the fact that this was supposed to be a big match and was booked the way it was, was rather pathetic. Some will say, “Hey, HHH really put over the whole team before the match, especially Punk.” Let me let you in on a little secret, when you are doing your” opening mic shtick and the crowd is chanting for another guy on your team, you have NO CHOICE but to audible and play to the crowd, or risk looking like an ass. Also, some will say, “Larry, this is a team with DX, Punk, and the Hardyz, they can’t job.” First of all, yes they can. This is Survivor Series, so many guys, so much shit going on, pin falls are acceptable here, just like in HANDICAP MATCHES! Also you have the use of count outs and DQ’s, but they weren’t used here. Secondly, they should never have made the team “so good” then. I agree that it would have been wrong to pin Punk as he is at such a crucial level of build in his WWE career. That crowd was hot for him and would have been pissed if he took a pin. DX is the hot nostalgia act, but more importantly HHH is the son in law so he gets he and his buddies way. Team Extreme, just back together for what was “supposed” to be a one time big event, you don’t job them either. So kids, if you determine that it is bad for all to lose, then you should never have booked it in the first place!
The match I will say, was “fine.” But fine is bad when you consider all of the talent, and Mike Knox, that was in the ring. Actually I kid as Knox has improved, but he is perfect to begin with. We ALL KNEW he would go first, but that was horrible. First of all, Kelly was hitting on HHH, why not Punk? Sure, fuck continuity. Then Knox gets pissed, eats a superkick and is gone in 40-seconds. But it gets worse kids, HBK proceeds to ask, “Who is that guy, and was he in the match?” When this was conformed, he then playfully said, “So we’re doing good then?” Sure, humorous on the surface for a laugh, but the fact of this is that Knox is COMPLETELY buried through this, to the point that it may not be salvageable.
Johnny Nitro got some love as he got to last to the 5:00 mark, but then we started to go downhill even more. Helms was next, and although he took multiple finishers, was gone @ 9:30. So we have Orton and Edge left, the two big enemies of DX. Randy Orton, who has been the sole survivor the last three Survivor Series and made a star of himself in the matches. Edge, the former two–time world champion and together they are the current tag team champions. The future of the business if you will. And in the next two minutes they proceeded to run around the building like pussies and then get pinned with virtually no offence.
Here is the sad part, mostly I am getting emails from people saying, “That match was a blast! I wanted to see that and it was so much fun!” This just killed all kinds of shit. Nitro looks like a pussy, not the guy that has been hanging with Jeff Hardy in some of the best matches on Raw lately. Helms looks like a joke as well, even though they were all over him as the “Longest Running Champion in Sports Entertainment Today” horseshit, it means nothing if you don’t defend the title and have no division of challengers, but he looked like a joke as well, not someone that has been being built up. Where do we go from here? Once again DX won the day, the thwarted the bad guys, why would they accept another match from them? They won the feud! Why would people buy into this? Why would they want to see this? They have ruined the feud, lost the sense of the chase and then the ability to make a lot of money from it. Totally fucking absurd.
Closing Thoughts:
So yeah…we had a PPV Sunday. Once again WWE comes up way short to me on this PPV. The legends match was ok, but furthered the continual burial of the Spirit Squad. The US Title match was the best of the show, but they barely got 9-minutes to work with because everyone had to have their own entrance for their egos, so we get punished by having a shorter match. It was good, best on the show, but could have been s much more. After a sloppy start Mickie and Lita had a good little match, and the after match antics were funny and sent out Lita, the heel, the right way. I already ranted on the D-X burial stuff, the first blood match was just about as bad so no need to reiterate there. Team Cena vs. Team Show was fine, although some odd booking choices and the main event was there. Not bad, but not good or what you should be striving to put on in your main event, plus I question the booking because I don’t think people are that excited about Batista and I for one question his durability.
In the end I will go with a generous 4.0 out of 10 for the show. This marks the second straight month that a WWE PPV failed to deliver. I cannot give a PPV a good score when there is mediocre wrestling at best. The matches again, while not horrible this time, weren’t all that great. I once again feel that I did not get my money’s worth from the show, and question why I would pay $40 to see this. I cannot recommend the show, unless you REALLY want to see “classic” Survivor Series matches, but I warn you, they are nothing special and all in all only average 10-minutes or so of wrestling. Recommendation to avoid kids.
Reader Feedback on WWE SURVIVOR SERIES 2006:
From Kevazz –
Mr. Csonka, here is my feedback from survivor series
Legends Vs Spirit Squad:
I was hoping to see some action out of Ron Simmons but he gets counted out about 2 minutes into the match….weak. All legends got beat and than Flair beats pretty much everybody to win the match in about 3 minutes. Afterwards all SS members come out and destroy flair. Nice leg drop off the top from Kenny. Were the other legends taking a nap cause I was expecting them to come out and save flair but they never showed. About as good as can be expected with the legends. 4/10Benoit Vs Chavo:
Solid match with lots of action. Benoit pretty much controlled the whole match. I can see these two continuing their feud until Armageddon. Good finish and I’m glad Benoit retained!
7/10Lita Vs Mickie:
This match was more entertaining than the Legends Vs Spirit Squad and for some reason it seemed a lot longer than most diva matches. Mickie took some real nice bumps throughout the match and gave Lita a great kick to the face about half way through. I don’t like diva matches but this was pretty good. The Cryme Tyme skit at the end was good but a little drawn out. 5/10.DX Vs Rated RKO:
Crowd was very much into CM Punk. I was hoping for big things out of this match but I guess I expected too much. Mike Knox gets eliminated about 10 seconds in and once again….weak!. Funny reaction from HBK though. I was really hoping for Umaga to take out some people but instead he gets DQ’d about 3 minutes in (hey wait, they should have given us a 3 minute warning! LOL). I can understand the DQ but he should have eliminated a hardy boy or two beforehand. Team DX made Rated RKO look real weak!! Edge and Orton are former champs and they get swept like they are nobody’s. I don’t understand that but a somewhat entertaining match to say the least. 6/10Kennedy Vs Undertaker:
Match was alright. Taker looked to be in real good shape. MVP gets a little revenge on Kennedy half way through and they should have left it at that. Instead he comes back out and levels taker with the chair for the blood and the finish. Taker absolutely crushes Kennedy with the chair (bad camera angle after the shot cause you can see Kennedy cut himself). I can’t see anybody wanting to see MVP Vs Taker. Maybe they will feud for the next few months and then have them fight at WrestleMania for a guaranteed undertaker win. not a good match mainly because of too much MVP. 4/10.Team Cena Vs Team Show:
Pretty solid match. test is a beast! That big boot that he slammed RVD with was pretty sweet. He should be feuding with the Big Show for the title, not Lashley. It was nice not to see one team dominate the entire match for once. Pretty good finish but nothing over the top. 6/10Batista Vs Booker:
I didn’t really pay much attention to this match because based on previous matches between these two, they suck. I’m not a Batista fan but I was happy to see booker lose the belt so now hopefully he will lose that king booker skit too. 5/10Overall:
Based on the card, they could have had some really good matches. Instead they did what they always do which is get quick eliminations and quick finishes. One thing that bothered me is that the PPV ended at 10:40 est. That’s 20 minutes that they could have used on the DX and Cena matches to make them more enjoyable. I also think they should have had the Extreme Elimination chamber on this PPV. They could have easily used other talent to fill in the ECW survivor series slots like Boogeyman, Cade, Murdoch, Super Crazy, masterpiece, Carlito, and Shelton. I can’t see why they would have an ECW PPV since the only thing they are focused on is the elimination chamber. It just seemed like the matches tonight were rushed and then they tried to kill time in between. Overall I would give it a 5/10. Not Good.Thanks for your coverage Larry.
From Nathan –
While I wasn’t expecting much and there sure wasn’t any ***** matches, I
thought that it was actually a great PPV cause there was a lot of great
wrestling and it had a good build. I enjoyed every moment of the PPV. There
weren’t any awesome matches but there weren’t any bad or horrible matches
either. I would give it a 7 1/2, to a 8 out of ten. I would say that the
match of the night would have to be Team Cena, Vs Team rKo. Trash of the
night I would have to give to Lita vs. Mickie James even though it was a
great match. I know that’s an oxy moron but I think it was the worst match
rating wise. I would have to say that I was disappointed by the end of the
World Heavyweight Championship match. So it’s not ok for King Booker to cheat
but its totally fine for Batista to cheat. Hopefully they will run an angle
on this with Booker demanding a rematch because Batista cheated. Many people
probably didn’t think it was funny but I was in tears laughing at the Cryme
Tyme, Lita segment. I think that would be a great lead in to a rKo vs. Cryme
Tyme tag team champion ship feud. Hearing the Acolytes music and the added
“DAMN” into it was great. Again I thought it was a great night of wrestling
with the old school traditional feel with the Survivor Series matches. 7.5/10 for me.
From Bobby –
Just got back from Survivor Series (saw it live in Philly) and wanted to give you some feedback after reading the review you wrote.
Opening match was Carlito vs. Haas. Carlito got a great pop. Typical finish at about 5-7 minutes with the lung blower.
Crowd seemed pissed that Styles and Tazz weren’t there to call it for ECW….we were all ready to pop for them and never got the chance. Kind of a collective bummer throughout the crowd. Small ECW chants started but soon fizzled out.
The legends vs. squad match came off as very strange…Ron got thrown early via count out and people didn’t seem to get it, then when Arn went it was a disappointment but again most people didn’t seem to know why…then with the beat down on Flair at the end everyone was confused why his buddies didn’t run out to help him. The whole match just had a strange feel, even though it got everyone excited (good pop for Flair, Dusty, and especially Ron Simmons, heat for the Squad)
Benoit and Chavo’s match was pretty good, although Vicki didn’t sell the bump she took at all.
Crowd loved the Cryme Tyme segment with Lita and jeered the crap out of her. It’s a shame she starts giving some decent promos just in time for retirement. Oh well. Tons of creative chants going her way (She has Herpes, She’s a Crack Whore, She can’t wrestle, etc.)
Edge & Orton actually got cheered a bit during their entrance….not quite sure why. Personally, I think their ‘mixed’ entrance music sounds homosexual.
50/50 split for Kennedy, and a pretty strong reaction to the chair shot he took (which really looked sick live…the video screens didn’t seem to do it justice, it was nasty looking) There was a small “you fucked up” chant during the part of the match where Taker was giving rights to Kennedy in the corner and appeared to slip, although this may have actually gone the way it was supposed to. The post match tombstone looked really awful…reminded me of that messed up chokeslam to Hogan a few years back.
Crowd started heavily against Cena, but when he hit the FU on Big Show he seemed to get the crowd’s respect as he got cheered well at the end. RVD and Sabu got great reactions from the Philly ECW-faithful.
Everyone was hot for Batista’s entrance and the finish/celebration, but were dead during much of the match. Sharmell was awesome at ringside and got the crowd really riled up. She plays her role so perfectly.
Due to the multitude of face wins, the horrible booking of the DX vs. RKO match up (c’mon…all five survived??), the screwy MVP run-in and inability to put Kennedy over, I’d give the show a moderate thumbs down…a 5/10 I suppose.
Best match of the night probably the World Title match, with the Women’s title match and the Benoit/Guerrero match in close 2nd/3rd.
Thanks for joining me for this special edition of the 3R’s, and don’t forget to check out the regular edition complete with all of the other shows from the week!
For more interesting information on wrestling, check out Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly Online, Mike Campbell over at SPLASH MOUNTAIN and Dr. Keith Lipinski over at Puroresu Power!
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