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I'm with most Torch readers that last night's Survivor Series PPV was a satisfying PPV event, but not a blow-away event. It was right at expectations with some strong surprises such as Shawn Michaels's superkick on Triple H and the heavy emphasis on the young stars. More on the HBK superkick in a second.
Reading through Reax feedback from Torch readers, the scores have averaged out to about a 7.0, reflecting a hearty thumbs up. Also, in our post-PPV poll, Torch readers voted 34 percent on being satisfied and 28 percent on being very satisfied with the show. The total for disappointment was 20 percent. The PPV was essentially like patting your stomach and pulling away from the table after a solid meal at Cracker Barrel.
Let's make sense of what happened at the PPV to see who or what were the big winners, losers, and question marks coming into tonight's Raw.
Winners
-- Kofi Kingston. Clearly, Kingston is a future babyface star on the Raw brand. WWE certainly positioned him that way with the pins on former World champs C.M. Punk and Randy Orton (with heavy emphasis on that fact from the announcers) in a span of six seconds. So much of the science of elevating a star is who he is related to. If Orton wasn't a big star with about 15 WWE PPV main events on his resume from the last two years, Kofi's sudden push wouldn't mean as much. If Punk wasn't in recent programs with Jeff Hardy and The Undertaker battling over the World Title, then Kofi pinning Punk wouldn't have been as big of a deal. WWE executed a flawless gameplan elevating Kofi in the marquee Survivor Series match. What's Next: Looks like a TLC match against Randy Orton.
-- Christian. The secondary story coming out of the Kofi-Orton Survivor Series match was WWE presenting Christian as a headline talent from the ECW brand. Most people will remember his backstage rap before the match. He also delivered a strong performance during the Survivor Series match as part of the focus on the Kofi-Orton issues. Since all three brands are on Raw tonight, I wouldn't be surprised to see him opposite Randy Orton (who pinned Christian at the PPV) in a singles match or tag match tonight to continue elevating Christian for a future top spot on Raw or Smackdown. What's Next: Back to ECW for a program against who knows who over the ECW Title.
-- Miz, Sheamus, and McIntyre. Sheamus and McIntyre stood out more than The Miz in the opening match because of the amount of devastating-looking offense they had, but Miz was portrayed as a strong leader for the second straight PPV. Miz was the only wrestler from Team Raw to win a match at Bragging Rights, then he was booked to look strong at Survivor Series. What's Next: The pipe dream of Miz forming a stable/faction with the likes of Sheamus and/or Drew McIntyre is unlikely. Most likely is Miz continuing his U.S. Title program with Jack Swagger or Evan Bourne. WWE could always re-visit the Cena vs. Miz program with the "champion vs. champion" element, but that's worth saving for 2010. Meanwhile, Sheamus will continue running folks over on Raw and McIntyre could be in an IC Title program with John Morrison by December.
-- Batista. Big Dave looked like a monster taking apart Rey Mysterio, who continues his streak of elevating talent on the way out the door. After having an amazing Smackdown TV match with John Morrison before serving a suspension in October, Rey took a beating like a pro to make Batista seem like a badass. Batista's character is refreshed and we're probably looking at Batista running with the World Title again. What's Next: Looks like a World Title program with the banged up Undertaker.
-- WWE Title. After WWE played hot potato with John Cena and Randy Orton for months, someone finally retained the WWE Title when Cena was booked to defeat Shawn Michaels and Triple H. Perhaps Cena will - gasp! - hold the belt until 2010 to make a title change mean something down the road. It won't be popular with many readers, but Cena holding the belt for a while will be a good thing. What's Next: See question marks.
-- Carlito. Can't get on the PPV? Hope that someone in the audience makes a sign. The "Where's Carlito?" sign was the most we've seen from Carlito on PPV in months. What's Next: "Where's Festus?" sign next month.
LOSERS
-- Big Show, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio injured. All three men are banged up. Show is scheduled for surgery. Rey Mysterio is scheduled for extended time off. Taker just wrestled a grueling international schedule earlier this month and his body language says he's holding on by a thread. The year-round schedule and physical toll in the ring has caught up to all three men. It showed on Sunday when Show and Taker slogged through a match with Chris Jericho doing most of the work.
-- Dolph Ziggler. Dolph is like the Buffalo Bills times 100 with WWE booking him to lose championship match after championship match. Then, he was the first one eliminated from the Survivor Series opening match. Dolph is looking like a "flavor of the month" right now with WWE appearing to be much higher on McIntyre right now from the group of young heels on the Smackdown brand.
-- Announcers. Michael Cole had one of his better days at the office, especially the emphasis on Kofi Kingston's rapid-fire pins on Punk and Orton. However, the combo of Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Matt Striker was rough throughout the night. Striker's long sentences filled with multiple-syllable words followed by Cole and/or Lawler asking what he was saying became an annoying pattern by the middle of the second hour. WWE is trying to fight the right combinations for these PPVs, but Todd Grisham was missing to settle things down from the Smackdown side.
QUESTION MARKS
-- DX split? One of the big question marks for tonight's Raw is whether WWE acknowledges Triple H and Shawn Michaels's apparent DX breakup or sends them back on TV as if nothing happened. Certainly, Jesse Ventura will have something to say investigating this conspiracy. Tonight's Raw should give us an indication of the direction WWE is going with a possible Hunter-Michaels feud.
-- Next title contenders? John Cena has gone through Randy Orton and now Shawn Michaels and Triple H. It seems likely WWE will re-book the Survivor Series main event in an HBK specialty match involving a ladder at the TLC PPV, though. I say that because it seems unlikely WWE will be looking to give away Michaels vs. Hunter on an "off-brand PPV" with only three weeks in-between events. As for Undertaker, it seems pretty obvious Batista is next in line against Taker.
-- Unified tag titles status? Big Show is scheduled for surgery this week, but it's unclear if that will require days, weeks, or months to recover from. Tonight's Raw could give us new tag champs or WWE could simply find a replacement for Show. How WWE puts together the DX and Unified tag title puzzle pieces should determine the top matches for the TLC PPV coming up in three weeks. Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
