With this series winding down, I thought I should take a second to discuss my thoughts on the Survivor Series concept in general. I’ve found through watching these 23 shows that it would benefit the WWE to go back to the earlier concept from the first ten years. Nearly, if not every match should be an elimination tag. If you really need to fit in a title match, go ahead. The thing is, forcing your champions into these tag matches both gives even the most invincible face champion an excuse to lose for once and it keeps things from getting stale. It’s optimal to have your money feud spread out with a high-profile tag match such as this, rather than wearing out the luster with rematch after rematch in a singles setting.

Survivor Series is an awful lot like the Royal Rumble. It’s a who’s who of the roster. We get mystery wrestlers, replacements, good eliminations, bad eliminations, chaotic guessing games of who’s going to win, current feuds developed, new feuds created and old feuds rekindled. While the elimination tag matches aren’t as fun as the Royal Rumbles, they do have the advantage that there doesn’t have to simply be one winner that night. As much as I love the Royal Rumble, it’s a pain knowing that sometimes only two or three guys involved have anything resembling a chance at winning. At Survivor Series, we have multiple matches with potentially multiple winners. If somebody loses, a lot of the time, it doesn’t hurt their status. Sometimes a win can make you look great.

It is silly that this year’s Survivor Series has only one of these matches. In the past couple months, we had a 7-on-7 elimination tag at Summerslam and another one at Bragging Rights. Both were a lot more important than Rey Mysterio’s team vs. Del Rio’s team. How strange that the company insists on shoving different gimmick PPVs in our faces month after month, but doesn’t want to give any service to their original gimmick PPV.

5) SURVIVOR SERIES 2007

Date: November 18, 2007
Era: Cena Era
Location: American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida
Known as: That one with Edge’s crafty camera man disguise
Elimination Matches: 1 out of 7

In a time when John Cena is on the shelf, several storylines are dominating the airwaves. On Smackdown, the Undertaker/Batista feud is reaching its endpoint. Undertaker won their first battle, then they had two draws and Batista finally won one after. Now they’re getting ready for the Hell in a Cell as the ultimate tie-breaker. Shawn Michaels has been outclassing Randy Orton again and again thanks to his Sweet Chin Music and Orton has been holding onto his title through sheer disqualification. Now they’re going to have a match that unfairly neuters Michaels, but fairly neuters Orton. As for the biggest storyline going? A leprechaun is Vince McMahon’s illegitimate son and Vince has been trying to murder him every week. This PPV is no different.

The Atmosphere

At first, we’re not given anything of real interest. The intro is really tame, talking about tradition and then going through a rundown of the main events. Meh. Orton and Michaels have taped promos that don’t really add anything. MVP does have an angry promo where he brags about how he kicked the crap out of his former partner Matt Hardy (Matt was totally asking for it) and that isn’t bad. The promo for Team Triple H is hilarious, as Kane and Jeff Hardy point out their histories with Triple H, including the Katie Vick situation, which makes Triple H feel awkward. Vince has a very intense talk with Hornswaggle about the true reasons of why he’s been putting him in horrid situations and gives his son the motivation needed to take on the world.

Then we get this little thing.

YES!

The Matches

The opener has CM Punk defending the ECW Championship against Miz and John Morrison. At the time of the match, Miz and Morrison have just become tag champs despite not exactly liking each other, but this is merely the beginning of many great segments involving the two. They double-team Punk to start and he’s able to outsmart the two of them. They’re both tossed from the ring and he dives out onto them before asking the crowd, “What’s my name?!” The correct answer? “CM PUNK! CM PUNK!”

The two heels finally get their hands on Punk and double-team him correctly. Morrison goes for the Flash Kick and Miz shoves him out of the ring. Morrison gets back in and returns the favor before facing Punk alone. Miz angrily grabs Punk by the legs and drags him out of the ring, dropping him right on his back. Miz and Morrison go at it and Morrison nails him with the Starship Pain. Punk makes the save. Then we get the coolest fucking spot of the show as CM Punk gives Morrison a hurricanrana off the top rope and Miz catches Morrison and gives him a powerbomb. Good God. Punk prevents the pin. Punk gives Miz his trademark knee/bulldog combo, but Miz kicks out. With Morrison standing on the apron, Punk shoves Miz into him, catches Miz on the rebound and puts his lights out with the Go to Sleep. Punk retains in a fantastic opener. The only flaw in my mind is how criminally short it is.

Mickie James, Maria, Torrie Wilson, Michelle McCool and Kelly Kelly face Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, Melina, Victoria and Layla in a simple 10-woman tag. No eliminations here. Melina completely screws up her split entrance and does a mulligan. This isn’t Smackdown, you know. We’re live. We saw you fuck up, lady. In the beginning, it’s Victoria vs. McCool with Victoria definitely the one carrying it and McCool definitely having a wardrobe malfunction. After a couple tags, we get Jillian vs. Kelly and… I’m sorry, I don’t know the best way to put this but Jillian’s course of action is to shove Kelly’s head against her breasts and force Kelly to motorboat her. I’m really not kidding. I’ve rewound the footage many times. Many, many, many times. That’s all I can see.

Gonna go watch that again. Hold on.

…………….

Okay! Beth tags in and puts down Maria with a powerslam. The heels work over Maria, taking lots of quick tags because this is a short match and everyone has to earn their PPV payday. Maria makes the hot tag to Mickie, who cleans house. Soon everyone is fighting on the outside except for Mickie and Melina in the ring. Mickie kisses Melina, delivers a spin kick and pins her. Not quite terrible, but just an average match with a share of laughable moments.

Next up, Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch defend the WWF Tag Team Championship against Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes. This is from the time when Cody is Holly’s protégé, before becoming a more successful partner with Ted Dibiase. On one hand, Cade’s far more experienced than Cody and is able to completely outclass him in the ring. On the other hand, when it’s Holly vs. Murdoch, it’s Holly slapping Murdoch around. The Holly/Cody team starts to pull things to their side once Holly gives Cade his “I’m not really kicking him in the nuts, it’s in the stomach!” kick while hanging him over the ropes and flings him out of the ring. Cody sends Murdoch after him. Holly is surprisingly over here. It happens.

The southern heels go double-team Holly, since he’s obviously the bigger threat and they turn the tide. Cade picks Murdoch up like an Atomic Drop and tries to drop him on top of Holly, only for Holly to move out of the way and make the tag. Cody delivers a Missile Dropkick on Murdoch, throws Cade out of the ring and looks to put Murdoch away with the Cross-Rhodes. Murdoch gets out of it and puts Cody in the very impressive Code Redneck for the pin. The champs retain and leave. When Cody gets up, completely frustrated, Holly slaps him on the arm and leaves.

Now for the night’s elimination match. Triple H, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio and Kane take on Mr. Kennedy, Umaga, Finlay, Big Daddy V and MVP. The reason it’s 4-on-5 is that Matt Hardy was supposed to be on Triple H’s team and got taken out by MVP. There’s good Kennedy/Mysterio interplay to start it up. Jeff is brought in and uses Mysterio for the assist in hitting Kennedy with Poetry in Motion. The heels are able to turn it around on Jeff and work him over for a bit, especially when Big Daddy V manhandles him. Jeff finally makes a desperate tag to Kane, who fights off both Big Daddy V and MVP. Finlay runs in, Kane drops him with a chokeslam, Big Daddy V grabs him for a Samoan Drop, drops the elbow on him and pins him. Big Daddy V works on Triple H and misses a splash, which makes Big Daddy V tag in Umaga.

Poor Umaga. This is exactly what I was talking about when saying how awful Triple H’s face run is in terms of burying others. Here’s their feud summed up: Triple H and Umaga fought a bunch of times. Triple H handily beat him every time. This match is a mercy in that it gets to move Umaga into a far better storyline. Triple H tags out after Umaga misses a second-rope headbutt. Umaga beats on Mysterio, but when he tries sitting on the guy, Mysterio moves out of the way. Mysterio hits him with the 619 and West Coast Pop, but Umaga kicks out. He attempts a plancha, gets caught in a Black Hole Slam and Umaga finishes Mysterio off with a Samoan Spike to the throat. He’s pinned and we get a really awesome shot of Triple H and Jeff Hardy facing down the five taunting heels from across the ring.

Kennedy insists on being the one to fight Jeff, since he has a score to settle. He gets the advantage and tags in MVP, who puts Jeff in a sleeper. MVP misses a Drive-By Kick and gets taken down with a Twist of Fate. Jeff chisels down at the opposing team by one. Triple H proceeds to annihilate Kennedy. Big Daddy V tries to do his elbow drop on Triple H, but hits Kennedy by accident. Triple H throws him out of the ring and pins Kennedy. Big Daddy V dominates the two faces and is looking strong until he sets them up in the corner and misses the Avalanche on both of them. Triple H and Jeff give him a Double DDT and Triple H makes the pin.

Finlay and Jeff have a lengthy go at it until Triple H is brought in. He tries a Pedigree, but Umaga superkicks him back. Finlay goes for the Celtic Cross and it gets reversed into a Pedigree. Now it’s 2-on-1. It isn’t even in question by this point. Umaga misses an Avalanche, Triple H gives him a Pedigree and Jeff finishes him off with a Swanton. The two celebrate in the ring while Umaga stares at them as he backs away up the ramp. Considering they’re pushing for the Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy rivalry, plus moving Umaga into being Jeff’s nemesis for the moment, I really like this match. It’s a good underdog story that’s well-booked. By no means is it even comparable to the Alliance of End Hulkamania 2-on-8 match from WCW in terms of two guys needlessly going over an army of opponents.

Hornswoggle is forced to fight the Great Khali. Welp, let’s get this out of the way. Shane McMahon comes out first to introduce Vince and Hornswoggle. When Khali comes out, Vince is first to stare him d—up. Ranjin Singh insists that the referee goes over the rules, which means there’s an extended time of the two competitors standing in front of each other and it gives Hornswoggle more to think about. Shaquille O’Neil is in attendance and the rest of the crowd excitedly cheers, “WE WANT SHAQ!” instead of caring for this angle. Vince picks up the microphone and give them a piece of his mind for the sake of heel heat or genuine irritation. Hornswoggle kicks Khali in the shins a lot, but to no effect. He is able to knock Singh around and even spits green mist into his face, but he’s got nothing on the 7-foot-tall giant.

Hornswoggle crawls under the ring and brings out a shillelagh. The weapon is caught by Khali, who then slaps him down. He gets ready for the Vice Grip until Finlay appears with his own shillelagh and completely mauls Khali. Khali wins by DQ and Finlay leaves with his former sidekick. This would lead to many segments on TV that simply featured Finlay wailing on Khali with a shillelagh and they are all a blast. What’s strange is how JBL on commentary is completely on Finlay’s side, which is a sharp contrast to his eventual role in the story. It’s a pretty bad part of the show, but it had the potential to be far worse.

Randy Orton defends the WWE Championship against “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels. Boy, these guys sure do fight a lot at Survivor Series. The stipulations are that Michaels is banned from using Sweet Chin Music and if Orton gets himself disqualified, he’ll lose the championship. That definitely adds a lot of drama to the match. It starts slow with Michaels holding Orton in a cravate hold, twisting his neck. Early on, he has a chance at Sweet Chin Music, but stops short. Instead, he goes to an overly long front facelock. Orton escapes to the outside of the ring to clear his head and eats a moonsault from Michaels. Michaels tries to put Orton away with the Sharpshooter until Orton grabs the ropes. Ugly Sharpshooter too, since Michaels lazily sat down instead of holding him in a crouching position.

Orton turns the tide with his trademark DDT where Michaels’ legs are hanging off the ropes. Chinlock time. Michaels fights out of it and the two start to fight back and forth. Michaels gives Orton an elbow drop from the top rope and starts stomping in the corner, setting up the one move he’s not allowed to do. When he goes for Sweet Chin Music, he stops just as Orton flinches and uses the distraction for a Small Package. Orton kicks out, so Michaels puts him in the Crippler Crossface. Hoo boy, that’s awkward. Orton gets his leg on the rope. Orton gets back into it, pounds on the floor and gets ready to punk Michaels in the skull. Michaels catches the foot and gives him the Ankle Lock. Orton gets out by kicking Michaels in the head. During an exchange of moves, Michaels goes for Sweet Chin Music out of instinct, but stops himself at the last second. This hesitation is the perfect opening for an RKO. Orton wins, leaves the ring as champ and decides to come back in for the sake of taunting Michaels. As you can guess, he’s laid out with Sweet Chin Music. The match definitely clicks with me.

Now for the main event, where Batista defends the World Heavyweight Championship against the Undertaker in Hell in a Cell. It starts off strong with Undertaker failing on an early chokeslam attempt, but hitting a huge clothesline. He picks Batista up, gives him Snake Eyes and drops him with a boot to the face. He brings in a chair and gets Speared before he can use it. Batista picks up the chair and runs right into Undertaker’s boot. Undertaker rubs Batista’s face into the cage and gives him a Guillotine Legdrop. Then he wraps a chair around Batista’s throat and slams the chair into the floor. Gross, dude! Batista then starts spitting up blood, because as I’ve said before, Batista is godly at selling throat issues. Back in the ring, Old School is reversed into a spinebuster. Batista begins to dominate the match with power moves. He whips Undertaker into the cage on the outside, then hits him on the rebound with a clothesline. Another whip is reversed and Batista goes sailing into the steps. Undertaker then busts him open with a chairshot to the head.

Batista doesn’t say die quite yet. He delivers a superplex and then crawls right into a Hell’s Gate. Rather than tap, he’s able to grab the rope. Batista crawls to the outside and Undertaker kind of jumps badly onto him. I guess there’s no real room in the cage to do a cool splash to the outside. Undertaker brings the steps into the ring to use on Batista. Batista instead kicks the steps right into Undertaker’s skull, cutting him open. He beats Undertaker with the steps, puts him in the corner and mounts him with a flurry of punches. Undertaker uses this position to his advantage by turning it into the Last Ride. Batista kicks out. Undertaker chokeslams him. A Tombstone is reversed into a spinebuster and Undertaker kicks out. Batista brings out a table from under the ring, sets it up and gives Undertaker a Batista Bomb through it. Still kicks out. Undertaker reverses another attempt at a Batista Bomb into a backdrop and Batista lands on the steps. Undertaker goes for the pin and Batista frees himself by grabbing the rope. Undertaker delivers a Tombstone. Kickout! Then he Tombstones him again, only this time on the steel steps! This time he HAS to be able to pin him.

Instead, the referee gets pulled out of the ring. The cameraman is revealed to be none other than Edge, out to screw over Undertaker. He hits Undertaker with the camera, lays him over the steps, gives him a Conchairto, drapes Batista over Undertaker’s body and allows Batista to retain. Then Edge beats on Undertaker some more with the chair and the show is over.

I absolutely love that they spend eight months building up this epic series of contests between two top guys and they have this massive finale that’s supposed to show who is really the better wrestler… and Edge shows up for the sake of saying, “Hey, everybody! Fuck you!”

4) SURVIVOR SERIES 2009

Date: November 22, 2009
Era: Cena Era
Location: Verizon Center in Washington, DC
Known as: Hey, remember when Kofi Kingston was getting a push?
Elimination Matches: 3 out of 6

This is a Survivor Series that answers its ending with its beginning. The main event is John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H, which is so lacking in drama that they decided not to build it up as anything more than a match that’s getting by through name recognition. In all honesty, it was rather nice. The three played it up by having lots of humor-based skits in the lead-up. If anything, it showed that the main event was really getting stale, especially when Cena pointed out that every combination of the three of them has been done to death. And so we have the opening match that best showcases a lot of names who would step up over the course of the next year. Elsewhere, Batista has finally snapped and turned heel, making him genuinely entertaining for the first time in years.

That is, unless you count his diatribes on basketballs and how in matches with no disqualifications, weapons aren’t just encouraged… they’re allowed.

The Atmosphere

I love the intro to this one. It’s probably the best idea. It goes from year to year in Survivor Series history. For 87, it shows a shot of Hogan and his team for the main event. For 88, it’s the Mega-Powers standing tall together. For 89, it’s the Ultimate Warrior. Then it gets to 90, shows the Undertaker’s debut and goes into ‘Nuff Said mode. Then the show begins with that annoying “Get Through This” song from NXT Season 2.

There’s very little substance in backstage filler. Miz and his team do a pretty good post-victory promo. Orton gives his team a nice pep talk. When asked to explain his actions in the ring, Batista says in disgust that he’s embarrassed for Rey Mysterio. Really, the best segment is Christian hanging out with his teammates R-Truth, Mark Henry, Mark Henry, MVP and Kofi Kingston and admitting that he feels awkward for being different. By being different, he means being from ECW and being Canadian.

The Matches

Our opener is a tag elimination match in the form of Team Morrison (John Morrison, Finlay, Matt Hardy, Evan Bourne and Shelton Benjamin) vs. Team Miz (The Miz, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler and “The All-American American” Jack Swagger). I think one year later, it’s very easy to figure out who wins this one, but I’ll revisit that after the match. Our first two are Swagger and Bourne, who give us a great opener. Swagger reverses a Small Package into a suplex. He and Ziggler keep switching to work over Bourne. Bourne is able to tag in Matt, who beats down on Ziggler, delivers an elbow drop off the second rope, tags Bourne back in and lets him finish Ziggler off with the Air Bourne. McIntyre runs right over and quickly puts Bourne away with the Future Shock DDT. Finlay goes for McIntyre, but McIntyre opts out by tagging in Sheamus. It’s the Irish Showdown as the two stare daggers into each other from across the ring. Then Sheamus murders Finlay out of nowhere with a Brogue Kick and pins him.

Matt gets beat up for a while and tags in Morrison. Swagger takes him on and misses a Vader Bomb in the corner. Morrison prepares to follow with the Starship Pain, but lets the moment pass by clotheslining the oncoming Miz on the apron. He does hit the Flash Kick, but McIntyre runs in to break the pin. Sheamus has also run into the ring for that reason and accidentally nails the ref in the back of the head with his knee, hurting him legit. Oops. Everyone fights around the ring except Morrison and Swagger. Swagger tries for the Doctor Bomb, Morrison slips out, knocks him down, hits the Starship Pain and pins him.

Miz and Morrison have at it with Miz looking stronger. Morrison tags to Shelton who looks fantastic as he takes it to Miz. He hits the Stinger Splash and goes for a neckbreaker. He’s near Miz’s team’s corner during this, so Sheamus is able to slam his shoulder into Shelton’s midsection from the apron. Shelton releases the hold, Miz gives him the Skull-Crushing Finale and eliminates him. The fight between Matt and McIntyre ends with Matt missing a moonsault, McIntyre giving him the Future Shock DDT and now we’re down to Morrison vs. Miz, Sheamus and McIntyre. After Miz gets in his face to taunt him, Morrison gets on a roll and fights everyone off. He’s left in the ring with Sheamus, goes for the Flash Kick and while in mid-air, Sheamus does a Brogue Kick to Morrison’s knee. He does the Pale Justice or Irish Edge or whatever it’s called and finishes things for his team. Great match and the right team won.

It’s amazing looking back at this match. John Morrison is currently in the middle of a push, but look at his teammates. Finlay is retired. Bourne is injured and hasn’t been experiencing too much of a push lately anyway. Shelton got fired for lacking enthusiasm. Matt got fired for lacking enthusiasm in terms of wrestling, but having tons of enthusiasm for embarrassing himself and also eating a lot. Then you have the other team. Miz is all over the place and has a guaranteed title shot waiting for him. Sheamus would go on to win the WWE Championship a month later. McIntyre would become both Intercontinental Champion and WWE Tag Team Champion. Swagger is now a former World Heavyweight Champion. Ziggler is the current Intercontinental Champion and is finally hitting his stride. Funny the difference a year makes.

Next we get Rey Mysterio vs. Batista. Very short match compared to what you’d expect. Mysterio tries a 619 early on and Batista ducks out. Mysterio has things in control thanks to his quickness, but then runs right into a clothesline. He turns it around and tries for another 619, which is caught. Batista turns it into a Batista Bomb and Mysterio punches down at him and gives him a hurricanrana out of the ring. Soon Mysterio is using 619s in unconventional ways like to the back and to the gut before he can finally hit the regular, meat-and-potatoes 619 to the head. He does the West Coast Pop, does a splash off the top rope and Batista puts his knees up to block it. They both get up and Batista hits the Spear. He gives him two Batista Bombs and the crowd chants for him, “ONE MORE TIME!” Despite being against the crowd, Batista gives them what they want and drives him down once again. The ref stops the match due to Mysterio being nothing more than red paste on the canvas. The build up and video packages were possibly longer than the match itself. Batista looms over Mysterio as the crowd chants for the heel and then gives him a spinebuster on a chair. Mysterio is taken away on a stretcher and they linger on the angle for a little too long while the crowd cannot care any less. Okay for what it is.

Team Orton (Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase, CM Punk and William Regal) take on Team Kingston (Kofi Kingston, Christian, MVP, Mark Henry and R-Truth). To start it up, Mark Henry wants a piece of Orton and proceeds to tear him apart. He crushes him in the corner with an Avalanche and gives him a bearhug. Cody and Dibiase run in to kick him off. Randy RKOs the big man and Henry is out. R-Truth works against CM Punk and is doing quite well until slapping the interfering Cody and opening himself up for the Go to Sleep. R-Truth is out. Dibiase and Christian go at it and they show some nice chemistry. When he comes back from injury, Christian should probably try to pull out an entertaining feud with him. Dream Street is reversed into the Kill Switch, which is escaped, but then Christian delivers a Sunset Flip from the second rope and pins him.

Regal works over Kofi, unaware of MVP blind-tagging himself in. MVP grabs Regal, gives him an Exploder Suplex, follows up with the Drive-By Kick and pins him. Cody is already on the top rope and surprises MVP with a crossbody immediately after the pin. MVP reverses the move into a pin of his own, but Cody kicks out. After a couple tags, we’re back to MVP vs. Cody. MVP does his Ballin’ spot and takes a second to attack Orton. Cody delivers Cross-Rhodes during the diversion and pins MVP. Cody mixes it up with Christian and makes the mistake of leapfrogging over him. Christian catches him with a Killswitch and pins him. CM Punk distracts Christian and Orton goes for an RKO. Christian reverses it into a Killswitch, but Punk makes the save. Christian runs for Orton in the corner, misses and nails his shoulder into the post. Orton follows with the RKO and Christian’s out. That leaves Orton and Punk against Kofi. Since Orton’s a little afraid of Kofi, he tags out and gives it over to Punk.

Kofi worms his way out of the Go to Sleep, misses the Trouble in Paradise and there’s a stalemate between the two. They proceed to have a great, lengthy run in the ring against each other. When setting up for the Boom Drop, Kofi stops to run over and attack Orton on the apron. Punk rolls Kofi up, Kofi rolls it even further so he’s on top and Punk gets pinned. Orton storms in there, eats an immediate Trouble in Paradise and is pinned. Kofi looks like a million bucks here, so it’s a shame that this push doesn’t last.

Up next, the Undertaker defends the World Heavyweight Championship against Chris Jericho and Big Show in a Triple Threat Match. Part of the drama is how Jericho and Big Show are the tag champs and have to scheme and fight against each other. JeriShow team up on Undertaker and do very well for themselves, even though Undertaker makes an attempt to separate them. Out of the ring, they kick Undertaker’s ass some more and we’re given a very funny interaction with a fan.

Undertaker’s able to fight back against the two challengers, but Jericho crotches Undertaker during Old School and turns it into a superplex. He goes for the Lionsault and as Undertaker puts his knees up to counter, Jericho grabs the legs and puts him in the Walls of Jericho. Big Show saves Undertaker by grabbing his partner and giving him a chokeslam. He tries to chokeslam Undertaker, but instead gets it turned into a DDT. All three men are down. Big Show and Undertaker begin to slug it out and strangle each other. Jericho brings in the title belt and accidentally hits Big Show. Undertaker pulls Jericho up for the Last Ride and Jericho nails him with the belt. Jericho decides he’s going to give Undertaker a Tombstone, Undertaker reverses it into his own Tombstone and Big Show saves his little buddy with a Knockout Punch to Undertaker. He tries for the pin, but Jericho stops it. A Codebreaker is shoved off and Big Show knocks Jericho out with another Knockout Punch. He chokes Undertaker, taunts him and then gets pulled down for the Hell’s Gate. Big Show taps and Undertaker wins. It felt like it could have used another couple minutes, but I really dug this match.

Now for the Divas to have their match of the night. Team Mickie (Mickie James, Eve Torres, Kelly Kelly, Melina and Gail Kim) face Team Michelle (Michelle McCool, Layla, Jillian Hall, Beth Phoenix and Alicia Fox). Yeah, this one isn’t so great. We have Layla delivering the most horrible kicks to Kelly followed by Kelly delivering her even more horrible clotheslines. Early in, Kelly does a dropkick to the back of Layla’s neck and pins her. Shortly after, we get a very good exchange between McCool and Kim, ending a little abruptly into a Faith Breaker. McCool pins Kim. Eve wrestles with Jillian and puts her away with a Sunset Flip off the top rope. Beth gets in there immediately, eliminates Eve with the Glam Slam and then does the same to Kelly only seconds later.

Beth vs. Mickie is good, albeit short. Mickie pins Beth with a Crucifix out of nowhere. Afterwards, Beth beats her down and then leaves. Mickie makes a strong attempt to carry Alicia, but that’ll only work so well. With a Lou Thesz Press off the top, Mickie pins her, leaving only McCool. McCool exerts herself too much working over Mickie and it’s all for naught. Melina is tagged in. Although McCool gets her hands on Melina and appears to be setting up for something big, Melina does her horrible scream and pins her with a Sunset Flip. I never get the point of Melina screaming. It’s annoying for her as a face and it’s too annoying for her as a heel.

The main event is John Cena defending the WWE Championship against Triple H and “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels. While the earlier JeriShow match had the two teammates work together for the first half of the match, Michaels blindsides Triple H with Sweet Chin Music from the start. Cena’s look of complete shock is priceless.

Outstanding! Do I even have to review this match? The PPV is already worth the money now. Anyway, Cena and Michaels continue with their excellent chemistry. Cena causes Michaels to oversell when thrown into the corner in that way Michaels usually does where he finds himself laying over the corner ropes. Cena kicks him in the stomach, bouncing him up and down until bouncing him so high that Cena catches him on his shoulders and goes for the Attitude Adjustment. Michaels reverses it into a DDT. Cena tries a shoulder tackle and misses completely, causing him to fly out of the ring. Michaels starts clearing off one of the tables out there and Cena waits until he’s done before picking him up for the Attitude Adjustment. Triple H makes the save, but then drives Michaels through the table with a spinebuster. Once it becomes Triple H vs. Cena, it gets a little slow. The two simply go through the motions to fill up the next few minutes. Cena’s attempt at a backdrop is turned into a Pedigree, but he gets out of it and Slingshots Triple H into the corner. He goes for an Attitude Adjustment and Michaels makes the save.

Cena is thrown into the corner while the DX partners faceoff. Cena makes a run at them and gets tossed out of the ring. A Pedigree is reversed into a backdrop. Michaels climbs to the top rope and Cena crotches him on the ropes. Cena climbs to the top and misses a legdrp on Triple H. Michaels regains his balance and hits Cena with an elbow drop off the top. Triple H throws Michaels out of there and is pulled in by Cena’s STF. Michaels stops it by putting Cena in the Crippler Crossface. Cena forces himself into standing position and readies himself for yet another Attitude Adjustment attempt only for Michaels to roll off. He locks the STF onto Michaels and almost gets him to tap, but Michaels grabs the rope. They both stand up as Triple H staggers into the ring. Michaels hits Sweet Chin Music on Cena and then again on Triple H. Triple H collapses onto Cena and he actually kicks out! The two both get up, Cena finally delivers the Attitude Adjustment and they’re both back down.

Michaels and Cena each crawl towards Triple H. They both try the pin and there’s a kickout. There’s a big, entertaining clusterfuck of finisher attempts ending with Sweet Chin Music on Triple H and then an Attitude Adjustment on Michaels onto the beaten body of Triple H. Cena makes the pin and entertains.

The show is filled with great matches with only two that make you shrug in the form of the Divas match and the Batista thing.

Tune in tomorrow for the final three.

Day One (23-22)
Day Two (21-20)
Day Three (19-18)
Day Four (17-16)
Day Five (15-14)
Day Six (13-12)
Day Seven (11-10)
Day Eight (9-8)
Day Nine (7-6)
Day Ten (5-4)
Day Eleven (3-1)

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• The Summerslam Countdown: Day Seven
• 20 Days of Battle Royals: Day 19
• Royal Rumble Week: Day 6
• 20 Days of Battle Royals: Day 6
• Royal Rumble Week: Day 5

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