WWE Survivor Series 2012 Preview

So folks who know me know that I have a soft spot for Survivor Series. Hell, I even wrote a whole article last year on my Top 10 Survivor Series moments of all time (which you should all go check out tonight, if you haven’t read it already, hint, hint), so to say I’m hyped for tonight is a bit of an understatement. But we’re in brave new uncharted territory here, and to be honest I’m a little scared. I…errr…(bear with me, this is difficult to admit)…I actually give a damn about The Miz. I know, what’s up with that, huh? I think the best thing is not to panic, and let’s just take a look at the rest of the show…

Man, I miss the good old days of the Survivor Series. The old school elimination matches, the fact that the PPV used to give pretty much the entire roster something to do, it just seemed…better than nowadays. Well, better probably isn’t the right term to use, I just much preferred when there was a theme to the entire PPV, instead of just one match trotted out to remind everyone how things used to be. But regardless of how I feel about the lack of elimination matches, at least the card this year has a couple of great looking matches on the card. And a certain special someone is on day 364…cue my excitable girlish squeals.

WWE Divas Championship Match
Eve © vs. Kaitlyn

So…has anyone else noticed a distinctly Glamazon shaped hole in their WWE viewing lately? Because I know I have. I miss Beth Phoenix, there I’ve said it. I know they jobbed her out to high hell before she left, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Beth and there’s a noticeable absence of her as the powerhouse of the Divas division.

Or is there? It would appear that WWE are in the process of attempting to put Kaitlyn into that position. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but they’ve spent a lot of time recently referring to Kaitlyn as a powerhouse (especially in the articles on WWE.com), so it seems to me that they’re looking to put her across as the natural successor to Beth. Which admittedly I’m not entirely against.

You’d think the next logical step, if that was the case, would be for Kaitlyn to go over here. They’ve interviewed her on Backstage Access and really drilled home that this is the first one-on-one title shot Kaitlyn has had where she is 100% fighting fit and raring to go, so I’m starting to think there could well be a title change here.

That’s not to take anything away from Eve. I pontificated last month about how I thought she was the best female heel currently working in the company, and she’s done a fantastic job of being such a…well, a sneaky bitch to be honest. In fact the only thing that’s making me think that the title might not change hands is that we haven’t had the obvious conclusion to the “who attacked Kaitlyn” storyline. I mean, OBVIOUSLY it has to be Eve. Or at least somebody doing the bidding of Eve, regardless of how much JBL wants you to believe it was Teddy Long in a blonde wig. It almost feels like maybe Kaitlyn should not quite get the job done tonight, then during the next month finds out that Eve was responsible for her injury, and it’s the final spur that pushes her on to winning her first Divas Title. See, now I’m second guessing myself and talking myself out of my initial prediction. This is gonna be one of THOSE articles today, isn’t it? Oh well, let’s see if I can make some predictions without changing my mind all over the place.

Who I want to win: I want to see Kaitlyn as Divas Champ in the near future, definitely. But now I’ve got myself thinking “should it happen right now”? I dunno, maybe I’m overthinking it? Let’s keep it simple. I want Kaitlyn to win.

Who I think will win: I think Eve is gonna steal this one. Like I say, they still haven’t had the payoff to the Kaitlyn/Eve angle yet, so you’d have to assume that Eve is gonna hold on to the title until she’s found out? The funny thing is I’m drilling out paragraphs, agonising over this, and most of you are just gonna use it as the opportunity to go to the loo, or grab a drink or something. For shame.

United States Championship Match
Antonio Cesaro © vs. R-Truth

I’m loving Cesaro right now. In a BIG way. Like, everything about what he’s doing right now is all kinds of great, and he’s playing a great heel in a really subtle, understated way. He’s essentially a United States Champion, who doesn’t much care for the United States. Think about it, that’s genius really. That’s old school heel territory, the arrogant foreigner who dares to slur the name of the good ol’ US of A. That should be money right there.

So expect lots of U-S-A!! chants tonight, and for many more nights to come until a true American hero can step up and defeat this upstart outsider, because I can tell you one thing for definite, it’s not gonna be R-Truth.

To be honest Truth looks a little lost in the shuffle right now. Which is a shame, because Truth has been a good hand since his return to the WWE, and he’s always been able to step in when guys like Evan Bourne do stupid stuff and get themselves suspended. And remember Awesome Truth from last year? That was a hell of a tag team, and funnily enough the last time I thought Miz was in any way interesting (but more on that later).

What I think WWE need to do is just let crazy Truth be crazy. Don’t try to script him forced stuff to say, just let him go back to telling folks “usedta is a rooster named Brewster”, or squashing spiders, or asking pigeons what they think, but not getting an answer because, y’know, it’s a pigeon. Truth was brilliant, and now he’s just another guy right now. I want crazy eyes Truth back, please.

Oh, and the guy I’m tipping to actually give Cesaro a run for his money? Jack Swagger. Word has it Swagger is being repackaged and coming back to TV soon, so who better to stand up for truth, justice, and the American way than the All-American American (a nickname which I still maintain could get over for a face)? Screw it, give him the Lex Luger treatment, a heel who stands up for America and instantly becomes a face. It’s pretty simple when you think about it. But that’s all for another day, I won’t bore you here with my fantasy booking! So for now, just enjoy Cesaro doing what he does best, winning matches and winding up Americans.

Who I want to win: Cesaro. It means I get to hear his entrance music twice.

Who I think will win: Antonio! We’re just getting to the point where he’s hitting his stride, and we should be looking at his first major feud. This should just be an impressive outing to boost his confidence, ready for whoever comes next (Jack Swagger, mark my words).

Traditional Survivor Series Match
Team Foley vs. Team Ziggler

My days, they might only be having one traditional elimination match this year, but there’s a buttload going on in there, so strap in while I try to cover this off. So we’ll start off with Cody. Will he be cleared, or won’t he? The fact they’re actually covering it on the TV suggests that he’s not gonna make it to the show, so who are we looking at replacing him? Some folks are saying Tensai, but sweet Jeebus do I not want to see him on my TV right now. I don’t know what went wrong? How can someone be so great as Giant Bernard, yet be so terrible recently? And this isn’t anything to do with what I think of gimmick or anything like that, he’s just having bad matches. Lots of them. Apparently there’s been whispering of Johnny Curtis’ new character Fandango (good Lord…”fandango”, who came up with THAT name?) but surely they’re not gonna debut him at Survivor Series? Are they? Personally I’d just stick Otunga in there and be done with it. He fits in with the rest of the team, and has actually come on leaps and bounds since his Nexus days, so why not?

Only problem with Cody being out, is that it kinda kills the Tag angle between Hell No and Rhodes Scholars for tonight. Obviously they’ve got the whole thing of it being Kane who injured Cody to play on, so it’s not an angle killer or anything, I’m just a little disappointed that we won’t be getting a tag team face off tonight. For the record, Kane and Bryan are the still the best damn thing in the world right now. This past Monday with Bryan getting all jealous of Kane having to tag with someone else was brilliant. I love how just 60 seconds of these guys arguing is easily the best thing about a show for me.

And how about Randy Orton? Word doing the rounds on the internet is that Randal is about to go all evil again. YAAAAAAAAAAAY!! IED Randy Orton is the greatest of all Ortons, and I’m hoping we get him back sooner rather than later. There’s been a lot of rumblings about the heel turn possibly even happening tonight. Is Randy gonna screw Team Foley? I think he may well try to…more on that in just a second.

Is anyone else hoping that Wade Barrett gets a decent showing tonight? Because I’m not being funny, but the single line they gave him on Smackdown was AWFUL. “You’ve swapped a quitter for a winner”. Once second while I slow hand clap the scriptwriter who gave him that doozy of a line. Not even “swapped a quitter for a heavy hitter” or something like that. Geez. I at least hope he gets to leave at least one person with a souvenir tonight. They owe him that much after Friday.

Has Kofi been reading this? Last month I pleaded for a more focused Kofi who’s allowed to talk more, and what’s happened? The push has continued. They’ve even gone to the effort of redesigning his entrance and new shirts professing he can fly. And in the ring Kofi’s actually brought his offence up to standard. The majority of his moves actually seem to be making contact now, and look like they stand a chance of doing some damage. He’s not entirely there yet, but Kofi’s making moves in the right direction, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m just looking forward to him getting a real feud to get his teeth into.

Ziggler also looks to be a lot more focused now, and throughout the build up to Survivor Series, he’s actually starting to carry himself like a man who will wear a title soon. If only WWE’s booking could follow that up a little bit we’d be all set! To be honest I’m more excited for this week’s Main Event match between Ziggler and Miz. The little promo they had on last week’s show was brilliant, and it’s awesome to see Ziggler finally getting to display the promo skills we’ve known he’s had all along. “Show…off” is my new favourite way of someone ending an interview.

Which finally brings us to the man of the moment. The Miz. So it looks like the Miz’s face turn has begun, and it’s immediately sucked me in. A smug, smarmy face? It’s unusual, but just unusual enough to work. And it was a great move having Miz play the face in his hometown on Smackdown this week. Sure not the entire crowd is into it yet, but already there’s a section of the crowd who are all over the catchphrases. I can see “Really?” turning into something along the lines of “YES!/NO!/SI!” and “WHAT?”, and just wait until everyone catches on starts joining in with the “AAAAAAAAWESOME”. It’s weird, I used to love Miz around the Dirt Sheet days, and it was obvious that he was the one to watch instead of Morrison. Then for some reason he seemed to morph into Chris Jericho for a while. Just not as good. Then came Awesome Truth, and that’s where I figured Miz was only ever gonna be good in a tag team with someone else to back him up. I never once thought of the possibility of he becoming a face, he just seemed so…unlikeable I guess. But then that works for him in weird way. I know he’s a bit of a pr*ck, but it’s kinda funny watching him be a pr*ck to other heels. And essentially that’s how all the best characters work. Austin didn’t really change his character between heel and face, he just switched which side he focused his attentions on. The Rock was the same smack-talker as a heel or face, the only thing that changed was who his promos were directed at. So now I’m interested to see exactly how the Miz goes from here on out. I can imagine him being smiley and slapping hands on his way down to the ring, but I honestly think that attitude is gonna work in his favour. People don’t respond to smiley happy clappy faces anymore (well the kids do, but the kids buy into ANYTHING), so a smug face who gives people grief could be just what the doctor ordered for WWE right now. And let’s face it, it couldn’t hurt to at least give it a go. So I say go for it Miz, impress me, you’ve been doing a great job so far.

Okay, let’s all just take a breath after all that. Phew. That’s a lot of stuff. Right let’s make some predictions.

Who I want to win: Team Foley. It’s gonna be a close run thing, but surely if they’re only having one elimination match the good guys need to go over?

Who I think will win: Team Foley, but I’ve got my conspiracy hat on. See initially I thought maybe Miz was gonna turn on the team, but now I’m feeling fairly certain they’re gonna persevere with this face turn thing. Now I’m starting to wonder if Orton’s gonna try to screw his team, only to find The Miz as the person who tries to stop him. Means we instantly get to head into an Orton/Miz program, with Orton as the heel and Miz as the kinda reluctant face. Or it could just be my fantasy booker valve blowing out again. Either way I think Team Foley is going over, possibly with Miz as the sole survivor.

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Big Show © vs. Sheamus

Did you see the car park brawl on Smackdown this week? What a blast from the past that was! Awesome. So it would seem the match at Hell in a Cell has gone down as a bit of a classic in some books, and I’ve gotta admit I enjoyed the hell out of it, but I’m looking forward to this one more.

See now we have a story. If the last match was Sheamus heading into uncharted territory, then this match is the one where he now comprehends exactly what he’s up against. This is the match where he can put a gameplan together, and after Friday night he’s now proven he can take the Big Show down. If Gorilla Monsoon was still with then he’d be calling this the proverbial Irresistible Force vs. the Immovable Object. We’ve progressed on from who’s finisher is more deadly, t o this being a straight up fight to see who the tougher guy is. Sheamus doesn’t back down from a fight, Big Show brings the biggest fight you’ve ever seen, ad tonight we’re gonna find out who’s gonna come out on top.

I’m expecting this to be one hell of a knock down drag out war between two heavy hitters tonight, and there’s not much more I can say about it than that. I’m just gonna sit back and watch this one go off!

Who I want to win: Sheamus I reckon. I’d be totally cool with them swapping the title back and forth a couple of times.

Who I think will win: Sheamus again I think. Although I’m expecting it to take something HUGE to put Show down, so I reckon this one could have a crazy ending.

WWE Championship Triple Threat Match
CM Punk © vs. John Cena vs. Ryback

364 days!! I’m so excited!! So excited I’m willing to overlook the last couple of months being…well…pretty damn boring. I’m willing to overlook the frankly p*ss poor fake heart attack segment from this week. I’m willing to overlook the horrible yellow t-shirt, because my boy is about to crack the year mark!!

So last month the big question was “how the hell do you get yourself out of this one WWE?”, which turns out was answered by a crooked ref. Not Ryback being a Paul Heyman guy, disappointingly. Oh well, a guy can dream, right? Unless it happens tonight of course and Ryback screws Cena? Just sayin’ it could happen…maybe?

I think what is more likely to happen is that Cena and Ryback are gonna get entirely too concerned with each other late in the match, and it’s gonna allow Punk to sneak a win. But then it wouldn’t surprise me if they do take the title off Punk 1 day shy of the year mark, just because it gives him something else to have a fit about. Although personally I’m getting a little bit worn out on the whole respect thing with Punk. I know heels are supposed to be whiney, but jeez…

Oh wait, I haven’t said a thing about Cena. Or his awful, awful, AWFUL storyline with AJ and Vickie Guerrero. Can anyone honestly see Cena leaving with the title tonight? I know there’s always a chance where he’s involved, but it just feels like something that doesn’t need to happen. We’re actually in a position where there’s the potential to build someone new up to the top level with Ryback, and whether you like him or not, the fact that someone else is getting a shot in the main event has to be a good thing, right? So yeah, I’d quite like it if we didn’t have to hear “CENA WINS!! CENA WINS!! CENA WINS!!” tonight please.

Who I want to win: Who do I always want to win (and has for 364 days)? CM PUNK!! CM PUNK!! CM PUNK!!

Who I think will win: I’m still pretty certain something is gonna go down between Ryback and Cena which is gonna allow Punk to sneak the win. And then tomorrow on Raw he’s gonna be UNBEARABLE, and I’m gonna love every minute of it!

And there we have it. But that’s just my opinion up there. I’m itching to hear what you good folks have to say, especially about the potential turns for guys like Miz and Orton. So why not drop me a comment in the box below, and let me know what you reckon?

Until next time, stay safe and enjoy the show!!