WWE Survivor Series: The Authority feels the Sting of defeat

Since the announcement that Sting signed a deal with WWE, fans have been wondering if and when he would ever step into a WWE ring. Well, the question was answered on Sunday night at WWE’s Survivor Series event, as he made a huge impact on the results of the main event, effectively ending the reign of the Authority.

Heading into the main event, the show had been pretty underwhelming. Despite the fact that a couple of title changes had taken place on the undercard, save for the aftermath of the Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt match, there had been very few highlights. So the main event would really need to deliver in order for this show to be considered a success – which was particularly important, since it was expected that a huge number of new eyes would be watching the show, as it was being given away as part of a free trial promotion for the WWE Network. And, fortunately, deliver it did.

The stipulations on this traditional Survivor Series elimination match pitting Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, the Big Show, and Erick Rowan) against Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev, and Luke Harper) were huge. If Team Cena won, the Authority would be stripped of their power. But if Team Authority won, all of Cena’s opponents would be fired. So there was a lot of pressure on both sides.

Right after the bell sounded to start the match, Mark Henry turned around to get some advice from the Authority, Triple H and Stephanie, who were standing on the apron. After a couple of words to pump him up, an intense Henry charged the Big Show, only to run right nto a big Knockout Punch, leading into Show pinning him to make things 5-4 right at the get-go.

Later, Ryback was on a roll against Rusev, but Team Authority pulled shenanigans – distracting the referee so that Rollins could run in unseen and hit the Curb Stomp on Ryback from behind, leaving him prone to pin. 4-4.

There was a great sequence in which pretty much everyone ended up outside on the floor, either by choice or not. Then, in a neat spot, Rusev caught a Ziggler Famouser attempt, and then inched him up and into position to powerbomb him over the top rope and onto the other members of his team. Outside, Rusev set up Ziggler on the Spanish announce table, then tried for a running diving headbutt splash from the other table, but Ziggler moved and Rusev crashed hard through the table. Ziggler got back into the ring, but even with help from HHH’s minions, Rusev wasn’t able to get there before the ref counted to 10 and he was counted out. 4-3.

Back in the ring, Cena nearly eliminated Kane, but the weaselly Seth Rollins sneaked in and hit Cena with a Curb Stomp before he could capitalize. Then, we finally got Harper and Rowan squaring off in what good ol’ JR would have called a slobberknocker. Rowan impressed with a cool spin kick, but again a run-in by Rollins caused the distraction. Harper hit a mammoth clothesline onto Rowan and tied things up 3-3.

The Big Show turns on John Cena.

With Ziggler on the ground, Cena and Show lined up against Kane, Rollins, and Harper. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Big Show hit John Cena with the Knockout Punch (again channelling JR, “dammit, Big Show, why?!?”). Team Authority didn’t look this gift horse in the mouth, instead opting to cover Cena. 3-2.

Afterwards, Big Show the Judas walked over to shake HHH’s hand, sealing his deal with the devil, and then walked out of the match. 3-1.

This left Ziggler to the mercy of Team Authority, and they weren’t in a merciful mood. Instead, they put a beating on him, looking to take him out for good. But Ziggler wouldn’t go down easy, and after blocking a superplex attempt from Kane, he hit the big man with a superkick and followed it up with a Zig Zag to get the desperation pin. 2-1.

Harper rushed in to try to take out Ziggler, blasting him with a hard shot, then punishing him further with a running dive through the ropes to the floor. Ziggler still with some fight, though, kicking out after a powerbomb, and then surprising Harper with a roll-up pin to tie things up. 1-1.

With their number advantage gone, the Authority were in near panic when Ziggler rolled up Seth Rollins like he’d done with Harper, and then again after hitting him with a DDT, but fortunately for them, Mr. Money in the Bank kicked out at the last second both times. Looking to end things, Rollins headed to the top rope for a Super Curb Stomp, but Ziggler avoided it, and hit a Famouser for a very close two count. He followed it up with a Zig Zag and would have got the pin, but HHH reached into the ring and pulled the referee out of there before his hand could hit for the final count. HHH then knocked the ref out cold on the floor, while his minions Mercury and Noble put the boots to Ziggler in the ring. Dolph dispatched them, and in doing so, they collided with Stephanie who was standing on the apron, knocking her off and onto HHH on the floor. Rollins tried for another Curb Stomp from behind, but Ziggler avoided it and hit yet another Zig Zag, but there was no ref to make the count. One of them finally ran in from the back, but at the two count, HHH ran into the ring and knocked him out too. A rabid HHH then went to town on Ziggler, blasting him with punches and a running clothesline, and finally a Pedigree, after which he put an unconscious Rollins on top of Ziggler and called for his in-pocket referee Scott Armstrong to make the count. As he was doing so, though, the lights dimmed and a loud crow call was heard throughout the arena. It’s STING!!!

With the crowd going nuts, the icon, the franchise, made his WWE debut. He walked to the ring deliberately, taking out Armstrong with a single punch, while HHH glared at him menacingly. He got into a WWE ring for the first time, locking eyes with HHH, and I just got goosebumps. The crowd loved this, erupting in a “This is awesome” chant. This was, as Vince McMahon promised earlier, truly a night to remember. HHH tried to strike first, but Sting ducked it, kicked HHH and dropped him with the Scorpion Death Drop. He then flipped Ziggler and Rollins over, so that Ziggler was pinning Seth, and left the ring, while a now-awake referee counted the fall, ending the match, and the reign of the Authority. As he made his way to the back in celebration, Cena came out to congratulate Ziggler with a hug.

After the match, Stephanie woke up at ringside and HHH woke up in the ring, while the crowd taunted them for the loss with “Yes!” chants, a rousing version of “Na na, hey hey, goodbye”, and a “You got fired!” chant to end the show.

Kickoff Show Results

Kickoff Show Match One: Fandango w/ Rosa Mendez vs Justin Gabriel

Fandango, now being billed as “new and improved” has updated his music to be more consistent with his Latina partner – he’s dressed, and moves, like a flamenco dancer now. So hang on to your Da Da… t-shirts, they’re a collector’s item now. Gabriel is still doing some high-flying moves, but the scant crowd in St. Louis doesn’t seem to appreciate this match based on their non-reaction. Fandango hits a top rope legdrop to get the win.

After some pre-game analysis, out to a huge applause came the returning Bad News Barrett. He cut a promo in which he gave some bad news to both John Cena and the Authority. God, this crowd is dead.

Backstage, WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee had nothing good to say about the Bellas.

Cesaro comes out and says that despite his Swiss background, he will not remain neutral as he’s watching tonight’s main event – because he’s backing Team Authority. Zeb Coulter and Jack Swagger come out to confront Cesaro and challenge him to a match.

Kickoff Show Match Two: Jack Swagger w/ Zeb Coulter vs Cesaro

Decent match with Cesaro’s power on display for a variety of moves. In the end, it was all for moot, as Swagger locked on the Patriot Lock for the submission.

As the pre-show was coming to a close, a limo arrived in the back. The camera lingered on it while the passenger got out, and revealed Vince McMahon.

Survivor Series Results

Vince McMahon kicks off the show to a huge ovation, and guarantees that tonight will be a show people will never forget. He introduces HHH and Stephanie McMahon who come to the ring and hug him. He blows off their kissing up attempts and introduces John Cena. The Authority try to put the pressure on Cena over the stipulation that if his team loses, all of his teammates will be fired, saying he will have to live with the fact that he ruined the lives of four people. Vince puts a pin in their balloons, saying that if they lose, they will have no power ever over any WWE Superstar. Except that there is an exception – he says that if they lose, the only person that will have the authority to bring them back is… John Cena. “Yes” chants for this development. Cena says there is “no chance in hell” that he’ll ever bring them back.

Damien Mizdow is now a WWE tag team champion.

Match One: The Usos vs Los Matadores w/ El Torito vs The Miz and Damien Mizdow vs Goldust and Stardust (c) – 4-way Match for the Tag Team Championship

Not sure why, but the commentators referenced Rob Van Dam three or four times in the first few minutes of this match… and then Papa Shango. The story of this match early on was that the other teams would tag in and out, but Miz wouldn’t reach out to bring Mizdow into the ring, jealous that the stunt double is more popular than he his. They even end up doing a fan “yay / boo” duel. The match picks up huge with a big segment with a Flying Uso and a Falling Star. In the end, after a nice sequence of finisher attempts, Miz blind tags one of the Usos who goes for an Air Samoa. Miz throws off the Samoan for the cover attempt. But Miz didn’t realize that Mizdow blind-tagged him. Mizdow then got the cover, to Miz’ original shock… and eventual realization that he was once again a champion.

Winners and new Tag Team Champions: The Miz and Mizdow

Match Rating: 7/10

Backstage, Adam Rose and the Bunny seemed to come to some sort of uneasy reconciliation, though Adam clearly impressed on him (it?) that it was Rose who is the leader of the party. Titus O’Neal and Heath Slater came in to break up the party, leading to a tag team match challenge for later tonight.

Match Two: Paige, Summer Rae, Layla, and Cameron vs Natalya w/ Tyson Kidd, Emma, Naomi, and Alicia Fox — Elimination Match

JBL must have bought the WWE Encyclopedia or something – after the names he dropped during the last match, in this one he mentioned Alundra Blayze. The match went for a while without any eliminations, until Naomi got rid of her former Funkadactyl partner. What seemed like an eon later, a second elimination happened, then a third, leaving Paige alone, four to one. The numbers game was too much, and ultimately Paige got pinned after a really neat-looking leglock headsmash from Naomi.

Winners, and Survivors: The entire team of Emma, Natalya, Naomi, and Alicia Fox

Match Rating:4/10 (one for each Survivor)

Bray Wyatt asks for more from Dean Ambrose.

Match Three: Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt

This one started out as a brawl, with the two slugging it out both inside and outside. Ambrose hit a nice flying punch off the apron, and Bray returned the favour, catching Ambrose with a punch of his own when Ambrose springboarded himself over the rope to the floor. The fight continued with flurries of offense by both men, including a huge clothesline by Wyatt that had the crowd audibly cringing. After another big clash in the middle of the ring that saw both guys get hurt buy not by each other Wyatt tried a different strategy. He grabbed a mic and started to play mind games. A chair got into the mix, and Ambrose walloped Bray with it, then hit him with Dirty Deeds onto the chair. Then Ambrose lost it. He grabbed a table and elbow-dropped Wyatt through it, then covered his body up with another table and then threw a pile of chairs on top of that. He then set up a huge ladder in the ring, but was prevented by a number of referees and trainers before he could do anything with it. Looks like this one’s set up for TLC, folks.

Winner: Wyatt, by disqualification

Match Rating: 8/10

Backstage, the Authority tried to give a pep talk to his team. He warned them that if they lost, the new person in charge would not be on their side like he and Steph are. He rallied the troops to start chanting “Fight”.

Match Four: Adam Rose and the Bunny vs Slater Gator (Heath Slater and Titus O’Neal)

The story of this one was that the Bunny was having success against Slater Gator while Rose couldn’t. The Bunny eventually got the win for his team, while Adam Rose kept telling him to tag in. Rose was completely shocked by this turn of events, and even moreso when the Bunny did the “trust drop” and he and the Rosebuds left, celebrating the victory and leaving Rose in the ring, his arm still reaching out for the tag that never came.

Winners: Adam Rose and the Bunny

Match Rating: 4/10

For some reason, the announcers felt it necessary to stand up to interview Roman Reigns on the Jumbotron. He said that his recovery is going well, and then got a cheap pop by mentioning St. Louis. Reigns tried out a new catchphrase which didn’t seem to get over. But won over the crowd when he announced he would be returning in about a month.

Backstage, Cena tried to reassure his team that they were up for the challenge tonight. But they didn’t need to be told that – they all said they knew what they were up for, and they were ready to win.

Nikki Bella won the WWE Divas title with her sister Brie’s help.

Match Five: Nikki Bella w/ Brie Bella vs AJ Lee (c) – WWE Divas Championship

Right after the bell sounded to start the match, AJ Lee turned around to see Brie Bella standing on the apron. Brie grabbed AJ’s head and planted a kiss on her (schwing). A stunned AJ turned around and ran into a big forearm blast from Nikki. Nikki picked her up and hit the Rack Attack to get the pin and win the title. After the match, Nikki celebrated with a smiling Brie, who apparently has reconciled with her sister. The commentators speculated that Brie did this in response to the WrestleMania match from a few years ago where a good luck kiss from AJ after the opening bell cost Daniel Bryan (Brie’s husband) the WWE Title.

Winner, and new Divas Champion: Nikki Bella

Match Rating: Joel Gertner-esque arm flapping in appreciation of the HLA

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon react at the end of Survivor Series, on Sunday, November 23, 2014 at the Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri.

Match Six: Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, United States Champion Rusev w/ Lana, Mark Henry and Intercontinental Champion Luke Harper) w/ The Authority (Triple H and Stephanie McMahon) vs Team Cena (John Cena, Ryback, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, and Erick Rowan) – Elimination Match

Winners: Team Cena (sole survivor – Dolph Ziggler)

Match Rating: 9/10

Overall Show Rating: 7/10