WWE Survivor Series 2009 11/22/2009

Written By: Alexander Settee

Survivor Series 2009, November 22, 2009, Verizon Center, Washington, DC
Announcers: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, & Matt Striker

Opening Match: US Champion The Miz (Captain), Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, & Sheamus vs. IC Champion John Morrison (Captain), Evan Bourne, Fit Finlay, Matt Hardy, & Shelton Benjamin

Bourne and Swagger start off with Bourne using speed to get a rollup for 2. Swagger gets a suplex and tags Ziggler who hits the jumping neck snap for 1. Cool looking inverted slam gets 2, and then he gets another 2 off some elbows. He and Swagger trade off again and Ziggler gets Bourne in a half crab. Bourne kicks him off and gets a rana for 2. He follows with a high knee and tags Hardy. They hit a double elbow from the 2nd rope. Hardy hits the Side Effect, then tags Bourne who hits the Air Bourne shooting star press for the 3 count to eliminate Ziggler at 3:59. No time to celebrate though as in comes Drew McIntyre and he hits the double arm DDT to finish Bourne off at 4:12. Finlay is in next and he takes McIntyre down with the Finlay Roll. McIntyre avoids a second one and tags Sheamus which sets up the big showdown between the Irishmen. That lasts almost no time at all as Miz provides a brief distraction and Sheamus hits the big boot for the pin at 5:14. Hardy comes in and fares a bit better, but then his Side Effect is blocked and he takes a powerslam for 1. Sheamus drops some elbows and gets a 2 count, then tags Miz. Miz controls with a slam and legdrop, and then hooks a rear chinlock. Hardy fires out but then takes a neckbreaker for 2. Miz goes to a front facelock, which Hardy escapes as well, and follows up with a Russian legsweep. Miz tags Swagger, who cuts Hardy off from making the tag. He controls for a bit before Hardy finally escapes and tags Morrison. Morrison comes in hot with a dropkick and knee for 2. He corner whip is reversed and he goes down, but Swagger misses the pump splash. Miz tries to provide the distraction again, but to no avail as Morrison still connects with a springboard kick. The cover draws everyone in and in the melee, Scott Armstrong takes a knee to the back of the head from Sheamus. He stays down and they would later announce him has having suffered a concussion. But it’s a big break for Justin King as he gets to step in and save the day. After everyone is cleared out, Morrison takes Swagger down and connects with Starship Pain for the pin at 12:09. Miz jumps him, nailing a clothesline in the corner and a double ax off the top for 2. Benjamin takes a blind tag and surprises Miz with a rollup for 2. He then hits a back suplex. Stinger Splash follows and then a Northern Lights suplex gets 2. Corner whip sees him run into a boot though, but he follows by getting his own boot up on Miz’s charge. German suplex gets 2 and he sets up a neckbreaker, but Sheamus nails him to break it up. Miz follows with the Skull Crushing Finale to end Benjamin’s night at 14:59. Hardy comes back in as McIntyre gets the tag. Hardy nails a couple of clotheslines for 2 and a headbutt, but he misses a charge. He still hits a neckbreaker though and follows with the 2nd rope legdrop for 2. He hits another neckbreaker and goes up, but after a distraction by Sheamus, he misses a moonsault. McIntyre gets the double arm DDT for the 3 count at 17:11. This leaves Morrison one on three, and the odds take over quickly. He gets caught by McIntyre and then Sheamus gets the tag and pounds away. Tag to Miz who’s in with some kicks. Morrison comes back with a dropkick, but Miz tags right away to Sheamus. He hits a clothesline and runs Morrison to the corner where the partners beat on him while he distracts the ref. Morrison tries fighting back and goes for a springboard move, but gets nailed coming down. Sheamus the hits the Razor’s Edge, and that’s it for Morrison at 20:55. Survivors: The Mix, Sheamus, and Drew McIntyre. Obviously the heel team has the guys they want to protect and build up so it makes sense for them to win. Ziggler and Swagger, who were seemingly the pet projects a few months ago, appear to have been shuffled downwards, only being used as token eliminations for the face team here. I have to say that I’m not confident about a main event push for Sheamus, but I guess we’ll find out next month at TLC as he’s getting thrown right in there with John Cena. **1/2

Next we get a dumb segment with team Kofi as they reassure Christian there’s nothing awkward about him being the only white guy on the team. Christian of course manages to make it awkward by the end by rapping about it. Just a dumb segment that does nothing to make me care about any of the guys, or the match they have coming up, but someone must have thought it was hilarious, I guess.

Rey Mysterio vs. Dave Batista

After the big turn by Batista last month, the feud comes to a head here in Batista’s hometown, which means he’s the crowd favourite regardless. Definitely an example of poor planning there. Mysterio starts off going for the knee, and quickly sets up a 619, but Batista rolls out. Batista drags him to the floor and runs him to the apron. Back in, Mysterio kicks him and tries a springboard, but Batista ducks it and nails a clothesline. Mysterio keeps managing to escape Batista’s power moves and clips the knee for 2. He sets up the 619 again, but Batista catches him. He sets up the Batista Bomb, but Mysterio takes him to the floor with a rana. Mysterio follows with a baseball slide and then leaps at him off the apron. Batista then just starts no selling and beats Mysterio up. Mysterio knees him coming in and hits a 619 to the back to set up the regular version, which also hits. After the springboard press hits, he goes up and does the Eddie Guerrero dance to big boos prior to hitting knees on a frog splash. Batista then gets him with a spear and spinebuster. Batista Bomb follows, but rather then cover, he hits another, and then another before the ref stops it at 6:49. Batista is not done though as he comes in with a chair. The crowd wants him to kill Mysterio, which is probably not the reaction they were going for. He teases doing nothing for a bit, but then ends up dropping Mysterio with a spinebuster on the chair. Mysterio does a stretcher job and so begins yet another period of surgery and rehab for him. *1/2

Randy Orton lets his team know that they’ve failed to live up to his expectations so far, and that they’d better come through tonight. Punk stands up to him in a tease of dissention, but nothing comes of it. At least this segment focused on the match and the issues between the guys rather then lame comedy.

Randy Orton (Captain), CM Punk, William Regal, Cody Rhodes, & Ted Dibiase vs. Kofi Kingston (Captain), MVP, Mark Henry, ECW Champion Christian, & R-Truth

Orton and Henry are in first with Henry whipping him to the corner and nailing a clothesline. He takes shots at the entire heel team and then puts Orton in a bearhug, but Legacy comes in and breaks it up. That sets up an RKO and Henry is done at 0:53. MVP comes in as Rhodes gets the tag. Rhodes gets MVP to the corner and they go to work with Dibiase, Regal, and then Punk all getting tagged in in succession. Punk stays in and works him over a bit longer, but soon gets tossed away and MVP tags Truth. These guys have an issue going so they get some heat. Truth gets a hiptoss and then flips over him on a corner whip. However, Rhodes distracts him and Punk takes advantage to nail the GTS for the pin at 3:14. Christian comes in and rolls him up for 2. He nails a forearm off the ropes for 1 before Punk knees him. After a slam he tags Dibiase who comes in with a double stomp off the 2nd rope for 2. He follows with a powerslam for another 2. He tries hooking the Dream, but can’t get it. Christian counters to a Killswitch, which Dibiase in turn counters to a catapult to the buckle. Christian comes back out with a kick and then a sunset flip gets 3 at 5:04. Is Dibiase being shuffled down too? His issues with Orton have pretty much disappeared and here he’s just beaten like an afterthought five minutes in. Regal comes in for Team Orton while Christian tags Kofi who comes in with a dropkick, some punches in the corner, and an uppercut for 2. He’s not really getting a superstar reaction though so expect them to give up on him any time now. Corner whip is reversed with Kofi leaping back off the ropes, but Regal moves and Kofi hits the mat. Tag to Rhodes, who drops a knee before tagging back to Regal. Kofi fires back and tags MVP who comes right in with a big boot on Regal for 3 at 6:51. Rhodes comes in off the top with a bodypress, but MVP rolls through for 2. He then gets a suplex for another 2. Tag Christian, whose tornado DDT is blocked and Rhodes kicks him down for 2. To a bodyscissors, but Christian gets on top of him for 2 and forces a break. Rhodes then clotheslines him for 2 and tags Orton. Orton is in with a dropkick for 2 and works Christian over for a bit before tagging Rhodes back in. Kneedrop by Rhodes misses and that allows a tag to MVP. He’s in with multiple clotheslines and a facebuster. He goes Ballin’ but Orton then distracts him and he takes the Cross Rhodes for the pin at 10:11. Kofi immediately rolls him up for 2 and then tags Christian who comes in with a shot off the top. Tag back to Kofi who gets a springboard double ax handle for 2, followed by a snapmare and splash for another 2. Tag to Christian, on whom Rhodes is able to briefly take advantage, but he then quickly falls victim to the Killswitch and is pinned at 11:36. See, now unlike his partner, Rhodes at least got to job to the guy’s finisher, and not only that he also got an elimination before being eliminated himself. I don’t understand. Orton comes in next and works Christian over. He drops a knee and then takes a cheap shot at Kofi. Christian gets a cradle for 2 and then Punk provides the distraction to set up the RKO, but Christian counters to the Killswitch. He covers, but Punk saves at 2. Christian beats him up and tosses him, but then misses a charge on Orton and takes an RKO for the 3 count at 13:27. Kofi is in as the last member of his team, but Orton wants nothing to do with him and tags out to Punk. After this Orton actually goes as far as not even standing on the apron for the entire time Punk and Kofi go at it. Kofi wins a slugfest which leads to them trying and missing the finishers. Kofi does get a dropkick and the SOS for 2. He misses a splash in the corner though and Punk works him over with knees and kicks. Kick to the back gets 2 and then he uses a headscissors. Kofi escapes, but ends up charging into a powerslam. Now Punk goes to a bodyscissors forcing me to note that his moveset in this segment would have Gorilla Monsoon impressed. Kofi elbows his way out, but a splash hits knees. Punk gets him with a superplex for 2, followed by the running knee. He goes for a bulldog, but that gets countered to a back suplex. Kofi goes up, and after fighting Punk off a couple of times, he gets a crossbody for 2. He follows with a dropkick and clothesline, and then hits the Boom Drop. Orton distracts him which allows Punk a rollup, but Kofi rolls through and gets the 3 count at 20:42. Orton is immediately in, but Kofi is aware and catches him with Trouble In Paradise which gets another 3 count at 20:50. Survivor: Kofi Kingston. So the story is that Kofi beat two former World Champions in an incredibly short span of time. Really good match here, but as noted Kofi is not quite to the superstar level of reaction yet. If they keep it up, he may get there, but it’s gonna take some time. ***1/2

World Heavyweight Championship Match: The Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho vs. The Big Show

Obviously the theme of our two Title matches tonight is that the Champion is defending in a Triple Threat Match against both members of a regular tag team. Jericho and Show have teased some dissention leading up to this, but none the les they start right off with a double team on Taker. Show nails a clothesline and then Jericho clotheslines Taker to the floor. Taker lands on his feet though and drags Jericho out, ramming him to the barrier in the process. Show slowly follows, but gets nailed as well, but then Taker misses a charge at Jericho and hits the barrier. They set Taker up for the Big Right Hand, but Show opts to nail him in the gut for some reason. Why would you do that when he’s wide open like he was? Jericho follows up with a mic shot and then they get Taker in the ring for more double teaming. Show goes to whip Jericho into Taker, but Taker moves and Jericho hits the post. Now Taker takes over with a flying clothesline on Show and a couple of bodyblocks on Jericho. He follows with Snake Eyes, but now Show drags him back to the floor. Taker manages to send him to the post anyways while Jericho then springboards right into a fist from Taker. He sets up Old School, but Jericho crotches him. After a couple of tries, he gets a superplex for 2. Lionsault hits knees, but he’s unhurt and goes for the Walls instead. He gets it on and Taker struggles for quite awhile before Show comes in and breaks it in the first sign that it’s everyone for themselves here. Show then chokeslams Jericho, and goes to do the same thing to Taker, but Taker counters to a DDT. Jericho sneaks over and gets covers on both guys for 2. They all slug away now until Show and Taker grab each other by the throat. Jericho grabs the physical representation of the Championship and goes to nail Taker, but he ducks and Show takes the shot instead. The announcers play up that Jericho may have intentionally nailed Show, but if that’s what they were going for it didn’t look like it at all as Taker clearly pulled Show forward into it and there was no hesitation by Jericho. Taker then takes Jericho down with a big boot for 2. He stomps Show to the floor and sets up the Last Ride on Jericho, but Jericho has the, oh screw it, the belt and clocks Taker on the upswing. That gets a couple of two counts which frustrates Jericho. He goes for a Tombstone, for no conceivable reason other than so Taker can reverse it to his own, which sure enough happens, but Show comes in and knocks Taker out with the Big Right Hand. Show covers, but Jericho saves at 2. Jericho then covers, but Show breaks that one up at 2 as well. Now Jericho goes for the Codebreaker on Show, but it’s blocked and Show hits the BRH on him to put him out. He then goes for the chokeslam on Taker, but Taker hooks him in the Hell’s Gates and that gets the submission to retain at 13:39. Not a bad match, but not that great either. Undertaker is seemingly going on to face Batista, while any issues between Jericho and Show are set aside as they are currently announced to defend the Titles against DX at TLC. **1/2

We get a promo by the survivors of Team Miz as they put themselves over. Now this was good stuff. No stupid comedy or anything. They just came out and talked about what they’ve done and what they’re going to do next. Was that hard? The writers must have been on vacation for something like this to slip by. Either that or they spent all their time working on Christian’s rap.

Women’s Champion Michelle McCool (Captain), Layla, Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, & Alicia Fox vs. Mickie James (Captain), Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Eve, & Divas Champion Melina

Ok, here we go with the token women’s match, which is bound to be bad, but they’ve spent all night talking about “tradition” and that’s as long running of a tradition as any in this company I guess so it makes sense. Kelly and Layla are in first and they trade some shots with Kelly then hitting two clotheslines and a legdrop for 3 at 1:16. Michelle and Gail go next with Gail hitting a dropkick and getting a rollup for 1. Michelle then gets her with the Styles Clash for 3 at 2:05. Eve tries a rollup for 1 and then Michelle tags Jillian who drops an elbow for 2. She gets a hairtoss and then Eve misses a dropkick and Jillian covers for 2. She goes for the handspring elbow but gets kicked in the back and Eve comes off the top rope with a sunset flip for 3 at 3:35. Beth is in and immediately hits Eve with the Glam Slam for the pin at 3:52, which is followed by Kelly also taking a Glam Slam for another elimination at 4:09. Mickie is in next, hitting a dropkick and then pinning Beth with a crucifix at 4:44. This is rather brisk so far. That’s not a bad thing though. Beth nails her after the fact which lets Alicia Fox sneaks in for the cover and get a 1 count. Alicia then gets a Northern Lights suplex for another 1. They get backed to the corner and Mickie kicks her off, and then hits a top rope Thesz press for the 3 count at 6:25. Michelle comes in and pounds Mickie, dropping a knee and a leg for 2. They trade some shots, but Michelle is able to cut her off from making the tag. She stomps Mickie down and gets a 2 count, but this time Mickie gets away and tags Melina. Melina is in with a spear and she pounds away. She gets a spin kick, followed by a rope straddle and faceplant for 2. She does her “Matrix” avoiding of a big boot, but Michelle ends up dropping her anyways. She hits a belly to belly suplex for 2 and then sets up a powerbomb, but Melina rolls through and gets the 3 count at 10:39. Survivors: Mickie James and Melina. Nothing more to say here. ½*

Main Event, WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels

So like the earlier Title match we again have the Champ against a tag team, but in this case Shawn Superkicks HHH right off the bat and puts him out of the ring. This gets a big positive reaction from the crowd by the way. Even Cena seems stunned by this course of action. So now he and Shawn go one on one with Shawn hitting a neckbreaker, followed by a Thesz press. Corner whip is reversed and Cena nails a bulldog off of it. Suplex gets 2 for Cena. He sets up the Attitude Adjustment, but Shawn counters it to a DDT for 2. Shawn then clips the leg and hooks the figure four. Cena eventually reverses and Shawn breaks the hold. Cena goes for the shoulderblocks, but misses the second one and goes to the floor. Shawn nails a dive and then preps the announce table, but takes too long and is set up for the AA again. But finally, after about five minutes, HHH has recovered from that Superkick and makes the save, but only because he wants to put Shawn though the table himself, which he does with a spinebuster. He then gets Cena in the ring and hits him with another spinebuster for 2. After working Cena over a bit, he gets 2 off a corner whip and a neckbreaker. He sets up for the Pedigree, but Cena blocks and catapults him to the buckle. HHH comes out of there though with a clothesline for 2. Cena gets sent off, but connects with a shoulderblock. He follows with a second one and then hits the Protobomb. Five Knuckle Shuffle hits and sets up the AA, but now Shawn makes the save, sending Cena to the post. Now we have a DX showdown, but HHH has to stop and toss Cena for good measure and that allows Shawn to hit him with an inverted atomic drop. Irish whip is reversed and HHH hits the high knee. He then gets the facebuster, but Shawn comes back with a clothesline. He kips up, but is right into a HHH spinebuster. Shawn then backdrops out of a Pedigree attempt and goes up, but Cena is there to crotch him. Cena now goes up for the legdrop on HHH, but that misses. Shawn is up top again, and comes off with the elbow on Cena. HHH tosses Shawn, but quickly gets hooked in the STF by Cena. Shawn makes it back to save though by hooking a crossface on Cena, who powers to his feet, then drops Shawn and puts him in the STF. Shawn makes the ropes, and after they break, he gets Cena with the Superkick. He hits another on HHH as well, but HHH falls on top of Cena and the ref counts, but Cena kicks out at 2. The crowd was convinced that was the finish. Cena then hits HHH with an Attitude Adjustment. Both Shawn and Cena crawl to make the cover on HHH and the there at the same time, but HHH kicks out at 2 anyways. Another Superkick is blocked by Cena and then Shawn goes for a piledriver on HHH. HHH backdrops Shawn to avoid it, but he lands right on Cena’s shoulders. Shawn slips off and hits another Superkick on HHH, but turns right into an Attitude Adjustment. Cena opts to cover HHH instead, but still gets the 3 count to retain at 21:14. Really good stuff here, but then I would expect nothing less with these guys as they’ve all done so many main event three ways that they could probably put one on in their sleep. Cena will have a bigger challenge next month as he gets to face Sheamus, who is completely untested in a big match environment, so we’ll see what kind of miracle working abilities he’s got. As mentioned earlier, DX goes on to what will probably be the real main event of TLC to face Jericho and Show for the Unified Tag Team Titles. For this match, it squeaks ahead to take match of the night honours at ****.

If this year’s WWE PPV’s could be summed up in one phrase, I think it would be “Solid, but completely unremarkable”. From an in ring perspective, they rarely put on a bad show and this was certainly no exception, but there’s just nothing there that’s gonna make you remember this show even a few months down the line. The Divas match was the lowlight, but that’s to be expected, and Mysterio/Batista wasn’t that good, but it worked for the story they were telling so it’s forgivable. Main Event was the big highlight, although it suffers from the dreaded Same Old Match Syndrome. Thankfully they do appear to be legitimately addressing that issue, although it will take time to see if they’re doing it with the right guys. As for Survivor Series, I can’t say it was a bad show overall. In fact, it gets a Thumbs Up, but the truth is that if you missed it, it’s not a big deal which is becoming more and more of the trend.