TBM. WWE 2013 Survivor Series Preview & Predictions.

TBM. WWE

WWE SURVIVOR SERIES 2013 

PREVIEW AND PREDICTIONS

This Sunday, WWE presents their former Big Four PPV that has fallen on hard times, Survivor Series. This year, in service of what Survivor Series used to represent, we will see two teams of seven Divas face off in an elimination match, with the Total Divas facing…every other female on the roster. Or, if you'd like a match that might not suck, WWE Tag Team Champions The Rhodes Brothers will team up with The Usos and a returning Rey Mysterio to take on the combined might of The Real Americans and The Shield. In other matches, Big E Langston defends his newly won Intercontinental Championship against the former champion, Curtis Axel, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan join forces to take on the gigantic Harper and Rowan of the Wyatt Family, and in the main events, Alberto Del Rio exercises his rematch clause for the World Heavyweight title against John Cena, and Randy Orton will defend the WWE Title and status as Face of the WWE against a surly and vengeful Big Show.

Pre-Show Match

The Miz vs. Kofi Kingston

MR BLU: Not a bad way to start the show. Its good to see a pre-show match with a little back story behind it, though Miz's heel turn should have warranted a match on the main card. Either way they get their match. Miz has to be the favorite here if WWE are intent on making something of his latest turn. If he loses on the pre-show then where does he go from there? Kingston is certainly underutilized but can afford the loss. 

Low blow to set up the skull crushing finale? Yeah, Miz cheats to win. Maybe Ric Flair can show up by his side again and help out...

MATCH WINNER: The Miz via pin. 

WWE Intercontinental Championship

Big E Langston © vs Curtis Axel

This is the second time in his career that Curtis Axel has been given a championship as part of a planned major storyline, only for that storyline to be unceremoniously blown off with him holding he belt and the company then scrambling to get it off of him. (The last time involved the New Nexus and the Tag Titles.) This is Axel's goodbye to the Intercontinental Championship. The experiment is over.  As for Big E, he's red-hot right now and there's no way he's dropping the belt straight back. Big E for the win in dominant outing. Big Ending, over. 

MATCH WINNER: Big E Langston via pin.






7-on-7 Survivor Series Elimination Match AJ Lee, Tamina Snuka, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn, Rosa Mendes, and Summer Rae
vs
The Bellas, The Funkadactyls, Natalya, Eva Marie, and JoJo

This match pits the stars of the E! reality program Total Divas against the female members of the WWE roster which are not cast members of that show. This should be ugly. The cast of Total Divas will take this one just because the highlights will look good when they mention it in a future episode. How long is the average Divas match these days? Sixty seconds? Let's see, there's going to be at least seven eliminations, possibly thirteen...


MATCH WINNER: Team Total Divas. (Natalya & Brie sole survivers)

5-on-5 Survivor Series Elimination Match

The Rhodes Brothers, The Usos, and Rey Mysterio

vs 

The Real Americans and The Shield

This match has the potential to steal the show. Any match The Shield is involved in is usually the highlight of the night, and I don't see this being any different. Tempting to say Rey gets the win but don't see it, I think Usos and Real Americans take each other out, Rhodes get an advantage but whittled down and in the end, Roman Reigns hits a finisher on Rey out of nowhere to push the Authority a bit more. To be honest, the build up to Survivor Series has been bitterly dissapointing.The one saving grave came when Rey Mysterio ran down the ramp at the end of Raw. For some reason, that moment got me excited for the PPV. It is difficult to pick against The Shield on pay-per-view. Their win-loss record has been pretty stellar on Sunday nights since debuting one year ago. Looks like a good battle to remind us how fun the Survivor Series is. 

MATCH WINNER: The Shield & Real Americans. (Reigns sole survivor)

Tag Team Match

CM Punk and Daniel Bryan vs Luke Harper and Erick Rowan

For reasons that have yet to be made clear, Bray Wyatt and his two disciples have targeted CM Punk and Daniel Bryan with several sneak attacks over the past few weeks. I had this pegged at the match of the night before the announcement of the survivor tag match. Luke Harper is an absolute talent and Rowan has really grown on me. You would think that Punk and Bryan would give them a lot to work with as well. I'd be surprised if this conflict is resolved at Survivor Series so the logical booking would see The Wyatts win by criminal methods. I expect to see Bray Wyatt heavily involved, probably hitting Punk with his rocking chair. Punk and Bryan melded together as a solid team, with major props for the Hart Attack on Monday. This is just the beginning of their feud with the Wyatt Family, so I look for The Beard and The Best to take this round.

MATCH WINNER: CM Punk & Daniel Bryan via DQ.

World Heavyweight Championship

John Cena © vs Alberto Del Rio

Another match without a great deal riding on it when it comes to long-term significance, but I've liked their previous bouts throughout Del Rio's WWE tenure and I anticipate this will be a decent watch as well. I like Del Rio's vicious streak and if anything, I wish they'd focus more on that side of his character. Also, I like how Del Rio is constantly in the World title picture; It might bore some, but he always puts in a good shift in the ring. I don't think the question here is whether Cena will win or not, but rather how much of a beating he will take before he wins. WWE have gone out of their way to stack the deck against him since his return and no doubt that trend will continue at Survivor Series. ADR will probably do ridiculous damage to JC's arm. I'm guessing ringpost, ringpost, armbar, ringpost, ringpost assisted armbar, chair assisted armbar, armbar assisted chair, circular saw and another armbar. 
MATCH WINNER: John Cena via pin.

WWE Championship Randy Orton © vs The Big Show

Triple H says that Orton is on his own this time. There will be no interference from The Shield or The Authority. He wouldn't be the first authority figure to lie, though, in WWE or elsewhere. WWE has done a good job of making Big Show look dangerous and like a legit threat to win. That's likely only to sell the pay-per-view and have this bout avoid being a predictable one. It makes sense for Orton to once again walk away with the belt as a result of shenanigans by the Authority. You do realize that HHH on Raw promised no interference by the Shield but said nothing about no interference by Libertarian Kane, right? 

It's been over 10 years since Big Show last won the WWE Championship. The company seems to see him as a worthy challenger and not a WWE champ at this stage in his career. This feud is more about Triple H anyway, and losing to Orton only makes Big Show more angry as WWE leads into that inevitable battle.

There are plenty of ways this could play out. Will Vince return? Will Bret Hart get involved? Will we have ANOTHER Montreal Screw job rehash? ..... probably not.

MATCH WINNER: Randy Orton via pin (Thanks to interference)

Overall Thoughts

In terms of matches I actually want to see, this is a better PPV than most in 2013. The WWE title match, IC title match, Punk and Bryan match and the Survivor Series tag match should all be good to great, however, I have to agree that the build has been woeful. I have a lot of time for the Authority storyline and think it has the potential to really raise the profile of some talented individuals. All that goes out of the window if you fail to promote the actual matches though. 

I had hopes another SS match would be placed on the card instead of 7 minute rematch. I mean Big E, Dolph Ziggler, Truth and X. Woods Vs Axel, Ryback, Sandow and Fandango was on my booking sheet. I mean the storylines are there, former partners re-united and placed with a new tag team. Axel is still kinda with Ryback and lost the title, Sandow has beef with Ziggler and Fandango is just fun to have around and Woods and Truth dance, done like dinner... thats not to say it wont happen. WWE loves adding filler matches on ppv. 

This Sunday's pay-per-view is a perfect example of strong booking not necessarily leading to crowd excitement or high buyrates. Every match on the card has a reason for its existence and most have a solid background. The 2013 Survivor Series will likely go down in history as one of the more forgettable in the show's lineage. WWE has not done a great job to make fans justify the spending of $45 to see the event, and more attention being paid to Monday Night Raw anyway, the likelihood that those fans opt to read results or illegally stream the show are great. Which is a shame, because the roster is filled with young, talented individuals who work hard regardless of whether it is pay-per-view, Raw, SmackDown or a live event. They deserve better. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Check back to read and enjoy TBM's 2013 WWE Survivor Series post analysis made available after sunday's show!