Well, I'm back from my 3 year vacation. That was fun.
WWE has been putting out a great product the last month or so. Monday Night RAW actually made me say "OH, SHIT!" 5 times something which I have not done in a long time. The first was when Mark Henry powerslammed Sheamus through a table. And, the last 4 were during the last segment when Rowan came out, Cesaro (2 OH SHITS! - 1 on the entrance and one on the Cena fake out), and, when Ryback put Triple H through a table. Survivor Series until Wrestlemania should be a pretty epic time for WWE viewers. Let's get ready for the ride!
Now onto the preview...
Alicia Fox, Natalya, Emma, & Naomi vs. Paige, Summer Rae, Layla, & Cameron
I have a confession, The Divas Divison doesn't really do it for me. However, I will say that Paige is one of the few Divas that I don't automatically get up and make a sandwich for whenever she comes across my TV. This should be a quick a match as it was thrown together pretty hastily. I can not see Emma, Naomi, or Cameron lasting until the end. Layla has peaked and I think Nattie will get eliminated because Tyson Kidd will be his usual awesome self and get her eliminated somehow.
So, this leaves us with the ol' captain vs. captain to close the match. Paige has been on fire recently and while Alicia has been on somewhat of a hot streak as of late, she is still Alicia Fox. I will take into account that Alicia scored a surprise victory over Paige on Main Event while Nattie just recently beat Layla on Smackdown. I think the heel faction is due for a victory so I see Paige coming through as the sole survivor of this Survivor Series.
Winner - Team Paige
The Dust Brothers vs. Los Matadores vs. The Miz & Damien MizDow vs. The Usos
First of all, it's great to see Damien MizDow getting the love he so deserves. I haven't seen a wrestler turn lemons into lemonade like this since Zach Ryder. Hopefully, he doesn't get the same kind of treatment Ryder got. Fortunately, I think the WWE knows they've got a great player in MizDow who is a former Money In The Bank Winner.
There wasn't too much build up to this match as it was announced this past Monday on RAW. First, we can start off by eliminating who won't win this match. The winners won't be either of the two face teams of Los Matadores and the Usos. Los Matadores can't put a promo together so I doubt they leave St. Louis with the strap, while the Usos have been the recipients of a lot of crowd displeasure lately. The Uso boys are talented but it seems the universe may be getting a bit tired of their schtick. Regardless, they just had the straps so I don't see them getting the belts back this quickly.
This leaves us with The Dust Brothers and The Miz & his stunt double. My heart is rooting for The Miz and MizDow, but my head says The Dust Brothers will retain. It's been rumored for years that the Dust Brothers would be facing each other at a Wrestlemania. I think this will be the year it will happen so it's too early to break them up just yet. However, I do expect them to lose it sometime around the Royal Rumble, probably to A New Day.
Another deciding factor is if The Miz and Damien MizDow win then the Dust Brothers would be entitled to their rematch. As both teams are heels, I can't see the WWE doing an extended program where two heel teams are going at it. For these reasons, I have to go with Dusty's boys.
Winners - The Dust Brothers
Divas Championship
Nikki Bella vs. AJ Lee (Champion)
They've actually done a decent job building this match up. I enjoyed the segment on Monday with Brie beating Nikki. But, the intriguing part of this segment was the ending. For those of us paying attention, we saw AJ attack Brie for some reason. As we know, Brie has to be a slave to Nikki. for 30 days. I don't know why AJ did this, but she certainly sent a message. And, to further that, AJ dressed up as Nikki on Smackdown and had a match with Brie. Now, if you were AJ wouldn't you be trying to NOT piss off the woman who could be an integral part of your match. It just seems that AJ is setting Brie up with a motive to screw her out of the title.
With that said, whatever the outcome is we can be sure that Brie Bella will play an integral part of the ending. After reviewing the interactions of these three over the last week, I think Brie has a legitimate reason to see AJ lose. I think we will see a Bella win at Survivor Series.
"But, Kev, there's only one Bella in the match! The only Bella that can win this match is Nikki, right" you say?
Well, here is my bold prediction: I think we may see Brie pull some kind of switcheroo while Nikki is out and end up pinning AJ to win the title. This will lead to mass confusion and some sort of triple threat match between the three women at another time. It would certainly be an interesting twist that only a twin could pull. This would bring a twist and some much needed excitement to the Divas division.
Winner - Brie Bella posing as Nikki Bella
Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose
I want to use this space to talk about a little theory someone posted on Reddit. Basically, it revolves around the fact that Bray Wyatt has been working with The Authority all along and Sister Abigal is either Vince or HHH/Stephanie. Evidence for this included how they feuded with Kane and took him away. Then, all of a sudden Kane is working for The Authority as Corporate Kane. Next, Daniel Bryan gets screwed at Summer Slam by HHH, but by late-October the Wyatts had mysteriously targeted Daniel Bryan keeping him busy and out of The Authority's hair until after the Royal Rumble.
Then, there is John Cena. At Royal Rumble 2014, Cena and Orton (and The Authority) were in the middle of a bitter feud. Well, if you remember that event, Orton ended up retaining the title with a successful title defense. How did he do it? Thanks to interference by the Wyatt Family, of course! Bray claimed it was due to some hate for John Cena, but isn't it more than possible Triple H/Stephanie used their power as The Authority to call in a couple favors? As we know, this feud lasted until Extreme Rules and ultimately, helped keep The Authority's biggest perceived threat of John Cena busy until then.
Finally, who was the last victim of the Wyatt Family? None other than Chris Jericho. For anyone who watched the recent Smackdown with Jericho on it, we know there is no love loss between HHH/Steph & Jericho. Is it possible the Wyatt's were once again dispatched to handle The Authority's dirty work?
This leads us to our current Bray Wyatt feud versus Dean Ambrose. As we know, Dean was the biggest pain in the ass for The Authority's golden-boy Seth Rollins. Well, guess who ends up saving Seth at Hell in a Cell for no apparent reason? Good ol' Bray Wyatt! It seems quite apparent that this was yet another Bray/The Authority collaboration at the expense of Dean Ambrose.
It sure does seem strange how all of these plots and angles seem to intertwine. The Kane thing is definitely the smoking gun for me. Why take him away and have him reemerge as a goon for The Authority if there is no connection? I'm excited to see if/when this leads to something huge or if it's just the internet being the internet.
The build up for this match has left me a little disappointed. Bray Wyatt was really cool at first, but now, I feel like he just speaks gibberish half of the time. I am still a Dean fan, but I feel like a lot his momentum has cooled off from his victory over Cena and Rollins feud. Maybe it's because there seems to be no emotion or reason behind this feud - Bray just sort of attacked Dean. You could feel the shear hatred he had for Rollins through the television and it brought the feud to the next level. Rollins injured Dean and you knew Dean wanted sweet revenge. We were so close *SIGH*.
I feel like Dean's momentum has taken a hit since this feud started, but I think we'll get an Ambrose victory to help keep the Dean Train chugging along. He's lost his last two PPV matches and really needs a notable win as his only notable singles win is over Cena. Wyatt doesn't have his goons to save him this time and for that reason, I see Dean coming through with a much needed victory and maybe putting a beating on Bray Wyatt so bad that he can't have any effect on the next match....
Winner - Dean Ambrose
Team Cena (John Cena, Ryback, The Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, & Erik Rowan) vs. Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev & Luke Harper)
I'm more excited for this main event than I have been for a WWE main event in a long time. The build up to this match has had plenty of twists and turns and seen the line-up change numerous times. The big stipulations are if Team Authority wins all of Team Cena is fired. If Team Cena wins, The Authority is fired. This is basically a loser-leaves-town match for many of the parties involved which is always good for the drama and suspense.
I think it will come down to Rollins and Cena for their respective teams. It'd be awesome if we got Ryback or Ziggler instead of Cena, but I can't see WWE not having their money-maker Cena as one of the final participants. Cena always needs to rise against the odds and being the last guy left with members of The Authority creeping around ringside is just what the doctor ordered.
I think near the end, we will see some kind of major melee. The Authority will try to interfere and perhaps members of Team Cena or even just random guys (A New Day, The Usos, Swagger, etc.) from the locker room who are sick of The Authority will come out to Cena's defense. During this shitstorm, I predict Randy Orton will come out and dish out the game-changing RKO out of nowhere. Now the question is - who will Randy RKO? Will he screw HHH or do you think HHH able to appease Randy and win him back to the side of The Authority? After all, they were Evolution and The Authority buddies for so long!
The fact that we last saw Randy getting his head stomped in is very telling. I think Randy's shear hatred for Rollins will lead him to RKO Rollins and Team Cena will get the victory from a very unlikely ally. Plus, it will be hard as hell to "fire and unfire" 5 guys. Sure, it's easy to explain with one guy, but 5 guys is a different ball game. With so many guys like Sting, Jericho, Hogan and Foley hanging around, it will be easy to find another GM and give people a reason to tune in. So, for these reasons, I think Team Cena will rise above the odds.
Winner - Team Cena
What do you guys think will happen? What do you think we can expect at Survivor Series? Let me know in the comments or shoot me a tweet @KevMoniz.
