With the untimely injury to Seth Rollins on the WWE’s European Tour, Survivor Series 2015 was to be the night that the pieces on the chessboard were re-set and the WWE World Title would find itself around the waist of a new holder. But would the show be any good? With WWE Home Video releasing the event on DVD and Blu-Ray let’s take a look.
The big news of the event was of course the World Title Tournament, which saw it’s Semi-Finals and Finals take place on the PPV. We opened with Semi-Final #1 as Roman Reigns and Alberto Del Rio clashed. If the result of this one seemed 100% certain, it was still a decent (if little over-long for my liking) effort which did make the attempt to feel and seem meaningful. The crowd weren’t totally in to it in the early going (which I would attribute to Del Rio’s presence – he’s been pretty worthless since his return) but they were dragged into the drama in the second half of the match. Semi-Final #2, pitting Dean Ambrose against Kevin Owens, was better received and was a better match. It perhaps wasn’t quite the out and out belter that you would hope that two men who should desperately want to break out of the mid-card pack would put on, but that was as much the booking as anything they didn’t do.
As for the final, pitting former Shield allies Reigns and Ambrose against each other, it was a little bit of an anti-climax. It was decent, no question, but a little too short and although it’s not wise to place a match against the IWC’s expectations (where one or both were joining the Authority etc.) it’s safe to say that the fact that it was a straight match with a straight finish felt a little bit at odds with the programming leading up to it. That the big surprise of Sheamus’ cash in came afterwards only deflated more. Out of all the things that could have come out of the unfortunate Rollins injury, Sheamus getting another top line run would not have been anyone’s choice. Even if it turned out to be a brief one in the end. Still if one isn’t being too critical, it did end the event on an interesting note.
The main bout on the undercard was the tag match pitting The Undertaker & Kane against Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper. As a celebration of 25 years of the Undertaker it was fine. As a match that kept the Wyatt’s credible it was anything but. At the time of writing (the afternoon of the Royal Rumble) the WWE have given Bray a customary one week push to make him look “strong” for a particular show. Who knows how long that will last this time? There is one thing to be a wrestler who doesn’t need to win, or win titles, to stay over. It’s another to continually lose the big matches when it matters and for bookers to flip between portraying you as unstoppable and as over-matched against the really big boys.
The rest of the under-card was a decidedly mixed bag.
As it “traditional”, the “traditional Survivor Series match” was barely promoted, thrown together and largely forgettable. Even in the days of Raw and Smackdown bringing us all “feature” bouts, a Survivor Series match should be so easy to put together and book. Who knows, it could even be used to get some new stars over with either a plucky losing effort or a strong winning one. Needless to say this did neither.
The Diva’s Title match was painfully average and for once it’s almost tempting not to rage over a smart-arse crowd chanting for a woman not in the match. It’s not as if these two gave them much to get excited over. Try as they might the WWE can’t really get Charlotte over on the main roster, though the constant flipping of her attitude doesn’t help. Neither does the fact that the bookers are only paying lip-service to the idea of a “Diva’s Revolution”. Speaking of awesome NXT things that don’t get over on the main roster, the undercard was rounded off by Tyler Breeze defeating Dolph Ziggler in a result that was made pretty much irrelevant within weeks. Giving these two a mere six minutes would almost suggest, if you were being cynical, that it was booked to fail.
Although Survivor Series had its moments, largely in the World Title Tournament, it was a pedestrian show for the main part. Those hoping that the WWE’s injury crisis (that is still ongoing now, two months later) would force the WWE to push new names were really shown better by this show. It was a watchable show based on the promise of the shake-up of the scene, but ultimately it was a largely forgettable night of action.
The kick off bout was another forgettable slice of not-booked/set up Survivor Series action. The BluRay adds some TV segments and matches.
5 out of 10.
Photos courtesy: Fetch, Fremantle Media
Format reviewed: DVD
Thank you to our partners, WWEDVD.co.uk and Fetch for providing our review copy, which is available on DVD & Blu-Ray in the UK on Monday 25th December 2016. You can buy your copy from WWEDVD.co.uk