WWE Survivor Series 2012

 WWE PPV Review; Survivor Series 2012

Annual WWE PPV The Suvivor Series is one of the original 'big four' events of the WWE year (alongside the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and SummerSlam). The event in its prime featured some of the wrestling companies finest matches and a few real highlights from its history. The main difference between this show and the others was the traditional Survivor Series matches, which pitted thrown together teams in some interesting last man standing encounters.

After a few years of no SS matches and a possible removal of the event from the PPV entirely from upcoming events. However fortune prevailed and the show has once again returned to form and has become a staple part of our WWE diet.

2012's effort was highly anticipated by our very own Phil Allely (the recent Raw live show in Belfast whetting his appetite nicely). So what did he make of it?

The opener saw Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal tackle the combined might of Zack Ryder and Santino Marella. Marella did comedy work well, Ryder attempted to elevate things and their opponents pulled every heel trick they could out of the bag. The end came when Drew McIntyre utilised is plaster cast covered arm to put Ryder away for the three count.

The first traditional SS style match of the night saw the team of Brodus Clay, Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd, Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio battle the unit of Darren Young, Titus O'Neil, Epico, Primo and Tensai. A reasonable example of the type of tam encounter we come to expect this bonus scrap had its fair share of fun moments. The numbers where whittled down nicely the by the faces here and ended well with Mysterio, Cara, Gabriel and Kidd all celebrating a team win.

The Divas Title match between champion Eve and challenger Kaitlyn was a decent outing for the division. Eve has come on leaps and bounds as a grappler and Kaitlyn is getting there too. The Divas do need some new blood added to the roster, but those there are certainly the best the division has to offer. After a number of near falls and cheap shots Eve hit a nice neck-breaker to retain her belt.

Your writer is not big fan of US Champion Antonio Cesaro, but he must have something to offer as he has been not only a champion for a while now, but also been given some superb opponents as of late. This time around he was up against the fun R-Truth. Truth when in the mood is an exciting wrestler and whilst this fell below my expectations the crowd seemed at least to show an interest in proceedings. Cesaro of course held on to his gold for now.

Ireland's own Sheamus took on World Heavyweight Champion Big Show next. Sheamus is a bit of an enigma in the the WWE, he has the size, attitude and willing to make it as a real head liner, yet he still misses something. The former champ did give his all against the (still) lumbering Big Show here. The action was pretty good however and the pair gelled nicely too. Show seemed to win after a ref bump, but the decision was changed to that of a DQ win for Sheamus. Unfortunately that meant he didn't reclaim his belt but.

The second Survivor Series team match saw Team Foley face off against Team Ziggler. There was of course also a replacement for the injured Cody Rhodes to work out too. So what we had was the team of Alberto Del Rio, Damien Sandow, David Otunga, Dolph Ziggler and Wade Barrett face off against Kane, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingsston, The Miz and Randy Orton. This time around the teams were on the ball and up for the challenge. Some eliminations were unexpected and the in-ring action was superb. Ziggler ended the match as the sole survivor, which hopefully means he is heading back towards the main event scene.

The main event triple threat match saw WWE Champ CM Punk tackle John Cena and Ryback in a very entertaining encounter. Ryback is a fresh face to WWE main events and one that it certainly needs. Ryback's 'Goldberg' style character and attitude works so well that we as fans really do want him to win his matches and net a title soon. This was a goo outing for the trio and one that saw Punk (and Paul Heyman) shine as they deserve to. The end came as Ryback was assaulted by some NXT goons and Punk stole a pin off the prone Cena.

Survivor Series 2012 was one of the most enjoyable WWE shows your reviewer has seen in recent years. The results may have been expected and the matches played out as we may predict, but the enthusiasm was there by all concerned and it certainly shined through too.

Running The Ropes were very impressed with Survivor Series 2012.

By Phil Allely