WWE Survivor Series delivers in Indy

By CLIFF BRUNT
ISL Editor

Survivor Series was quite a bit better than I expected on Sunday night.

I thought the card had potential, but the execution of the matches surprised me.

First of all, CM Punk held on to his WWE title against Ryback and John Cena. The match had everything. Ryback was a beast. Cena was tough. Punk was opportunistic. I think Punk’s reign gained some credibility, even though he had help.

CM Punk celebrates his successful title defense. By Justin Whitaker.

The three guys who beat up Ryback and prevented him from winning the belt are Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and  Roman Reigns. They might be the new Flock, kind of like what Goldberg faced with Raven’s group in WCW in the late 1990s. I can’t wait to see Ryback destroy these guys.

The traditional Survivor Series type match was pretty good. Remember this as the day Dolph Ziggler became a big-timer. He pinned Kane, then emerged as the sole survivor by cleanly pinning Randy Orton. He is a real-deal star who probably will be a main-event star for the foreseeable future.

The Sheamus-Big Show match was the biggest surprise. There wasn’t a lot of excitement about the match coming in, but what a battle. Big Show gets credit for kicking out after a massive back drop. He controlled much of the match, but got disqualified when he pulled the referee in front of the Brogue Kick. Afterwards, Sheamus gave Big Show a good-old-fashioned steel-chair beatdown that ranked right up there with the best of the Rock’s and Stone Cold’s old-school ones. I was impressed. Such unnecessary and skillful use of foreign objects is highly underrated.

What I noticed late in the beatdown was REALLY interesting. The crowd in Indianapolis started chanting “We want Ziggler!” Ziggler, the Money in the Bank winner, can cash it his title shot at any time. Big Show was done. Ziggler could have gotten him. What was cool was that the fans wanted Ziggler to get the belt. Vince McMahon, you’ve got a star on your hands, a modern-day Shawn Michaels.

Other things of note:

–Paul Heyman is the modern-day Bobby Heenan. He is that good.

–Daniel Bryan might be the most popular wrestler in the WWE now. The crowd went nuts every time he did something. I think they’re tiring of Cena and Ryback isn’t ready yet.

–The Miz stepped his game up and stood out on his team. The crowd really responded to him as a fan favorite.

–Wade Barrett surprised me and was better than I thought.

–Antonio Cesaro is also talented.  He held onto his U.S. title against R-Truth. It was interesting to see in person how he works a crowd. He’s one of the WWE’s best villains, and he might have bigger things in store.

–Randy Orton got perhaps the biggest cheer of the night during his entrance. He may be in Vince McMahon’s doghouse, but the fans love him. Vince will eventually cash in on this.

–The fans aren’t entirely with John Cena. There was a bit of a mixed reaction when he was introduced.

–Ryback creates a buzz, but not quite the buzz that Goldberg once created. The fans love the “Feed Me More” thing, but he’s still a bit unproven, so the fans aren’t all in yet. I think it might help him to win a lesser belt like the U.S. title or the Intercontinental belt. He is massive, and it was shocking how small he makes John Cena look.

–CM Punk has a lot of loyal fans. He is one of the better villains the WWE has developed in recent years, and  his win helped him with credibility that I think he was starting to lose.

–Big Show is huge. I stood across from him during his entrance and even with everyone standing, you could see his head above everyone during his entire walk to the ring.

–Once again, Indianapolis stepped up as a host of a major event. The crowd wasn’t a crazy Montreal-type crowd, but it was loud enough. Well done, WWE and well done, Indianapolis.

Here are pics from the event, taken by Justin Whitaker.

 

Follow Justin Whitaker on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JustinWhitaker.

Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cliffbrunt_isl

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