Reviewing the past pay-per-views. #1 Survivor Series 2012

[AegonTargaryen]

After not having watched entire Raws and Pay-per-views in 2-3 years on account of several factors(loss of interest, loss of high-speed internet), I've finally begun watching wrestling in the real sense of watching entire pay-per-views and matches, especially technical and non-mainstream matches featuring the likes of Cesaro/Claudio and Chris Hero, Daniel Bryan, and some Japanese wrestlers from ROH. Needless to say, they're the best wrestling matches I have seen ever since the departure/demise of Chris Benoit , Eddie Guerrero, and Kurt Angle.

The point of this thread is plain and simple. I need opinions/expertise on some pay-per-views before I venture to download them, or otherwise a discussion on what some of you brilliant wrestling fans think about them, and most of them look like terrible WWE pay-per-views to me. And we begin with Survivor Series 2012 (I've already searched pay-per-views on wikipedia backwards from Elimination Chamber '14 and found just a few ppvs to be worth download/watching entirely).

When I see the wikipedia page for Survivor Series '12, all I recall is faded memory of Mick Foley thrown in the mix with CM Punk, and the Ryback balloon that was soon to burst, followed by Vince Mcmahon changing the main event.
But, why in the hell would a future mid-carder like Dolph Ziggler(who really doesn't seem credible) be the team leader, against a retired wrestler Mick Foley, while Randy Orton is just a team member? Did this match really make sense to you story-wise? The wrestlers are all great, but I simply cannot fathom the story/reason why Dolph Ziggler captains against Team Foley.

As for the rest of the card, excluding the divas match ,there are just five matches, 2 being singles, and 3 being the triple threat main event for the WWE title, and 2 survivor series elimination matches. The Team Mysterio vs Team Tensai match seems to me to be filled with one star and nine jobbers, so I won't really spend 30 minutes watching it.

What are your opinions about this ppv? Do you agree that it seems to comprise of debacles like the Ryback match, and the Team Ziggler vs Team Foley match and seems like a terrible ppv to watch?

 

[ProWrestlingFan]

It was supposed to be Team Foley vs Team Punk after this:

[YOUTUBE]AFnw44Ux5YQ[/YOUTUBE]

A week later they changed the match to Team Foley vs Team Ziggler without making any sense.

On to the Survivor Series:

The only highlight of this PPV was the debut of The Shield, other than that Survivor Series 2012 was a very mediocre ppv in my opinion.

 

[JJV]

Watch TLC '12, Money in the Bank '13 and Summerslam '13.

Survivor Series '12 was not a good PPV. As a matter of fact, the last time I enjoyed Survivor Series as a whole was in 2009, ever since that every Survivor Series had a few good matches, but otherwise a bad PPV. 2012 was no different. Team Ziggler vs Team Foley didn't make so much sense, but the match was quite entertaining and the triple threat for the WWE title was pretty good. The world heavyweight title match was alright, but not a must watch.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

Watch TLC '12, Money in the Bank '13 and Summerslam '13.

Survivor Series '12 was not a good PPV. As a matter of fact, the last time I enjoyed Survivor Series as a whole was in 2009, ever since that every Survivor Series had a few good matches, but otherwise a bad PPV. 2012 was no different. Team Ziggler vs Team Foley didn't make so much sense, but the match was quite entertaining and the triple threat for the WWE title was pretty good. The world heavyweight title match was alright, but not a must watch.

What about Survivor Series '13? I just downloaded it earlier and glimpsed through it and it looks pretty good to me, even matches like Big E vs Curtis Axel to me appeared worth watching, not to mention the Shield and Roman Reigns dominance, and Bryan and Punk vs The Wyatt Family.

For now the ppvs I found worth watching and thus downloaded are: Survivor Series '13, Elimination Chamber '13(for the Shield match, and chamber match) , Elimination Chamber '14, Extreme Rules '13.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

It was supposed to be Team Foley vs Team Punk after this:

[YOUTUBE]AFnw44Ux5YQ[/YOUTUBE]

A week later they changed the match to Team Foley vs Team Ziggler without making any sense.

On to the Survivor Series:

The only highlight of this PPV was the debut of The Shield, other than that Survivor Series 2012 was a very mediocre ppv in my opinion.

How can it even be mediocre? A mediocre survivor series ppv for all the hype about "big four" would be like Survivor Series 2013. There are 3 very interesting stories/matches told. Rest is just repetition of old jaded stories like John Cena once again surmounting the odds" to become/retain WHC, which was the same thing that happened at Survivor Series 2008 when he returned to face Chris Jericho. But Survivor Series 2012 seems even lesser than mediocre. Did you really find Team Mysterio vs Team Tensai enjoyable as a story? I agree with the Shield part. That's the only good thing that had happened on that night.

By the bye, for it to have been "mediocre", it'd have had to have a good story first of all and then not really deliver according to the hype. A good story such as Team Punk vs Team Foley/Team Orton, where the winning team members get to decide championship matches against Punk (which would've given us more stories about Punk as a heel champion worrying new opponents rather than blowing the same Ryback Balloon), or the 4 weeks Raw Control thing as had happened in 2004. And John Cena could've wrestled Ryback for the no. 1 contendership or something.

 

[ProWrestlingFan]

How can it even be mediocre? A mediocre survivor series ppv for all the hype about "big four" would be like Survivor Series 2013. There are 3 very interesting stories/matches told. Rest is just repetition of old jaded stories like John Cena once again surmounting the odds" to become/retain WHC, which was the same thing that happened at Survivor Series 2008 when he returned to face Chris Jericho. But Survivor Series 2012 seems even lesser than mediocre. Did you really find Team Mysterio vs Team Tensai enjoyable as a story? I agree with the Shield part. That's the only good thing that had happened on that night.

By the bye, for it to have been "mediocre", it'd have had to have a good story first of all and then not really deliver according to the hype. A good story such as Team Punk vs Team Foley/Team Orton, where the winning team members get to decide championship matches against Punk (which would've given us more stories about Punk as a heel champion worrying new opponents rather than blowing the same Ryback Balloon), or the 4 weeks Raw Control thing as had happened in 2004. And John Cena could've wrestled Ryback for the no. 1 contendership or something.

The matches were good especially the Survivor Series matches and the WWE title match. Everything was solid enough, but there was nothing truly memorable good or bad aside from The Shield's debut. Survivor Series 2013 sucked more. None of the title matches delivered neither storyline-wise nor in-ring wise. Nobody cared about Cena vs Del Rio and Orton vs Big Show was terrible.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

The matches were good especially the Survivor Series matches and the WWE title match. Everything was solid enough, but there was nothing truly memorable good or bad aside from The Shield's debut. Survivor Series 2013 sucked more. None of the title matches delivered neither storyline-wise nor in-ring wise. Nobody cared about Cena vs Del Rio and Orton vs Big Show was terrible.

So a loaded match which has Shield and Real Americans against Cody Rhodes, Goldust, Usos and Rey Mysterio, both teams comprising "stars" and traditional heels vs faces, and not jobbers...is not as good as or even better than a pointless Team Ziggler vs Team Foley match, or Team Mysterio vs Team Tensai which basically had 1 star Rey Mysterio, and 9 jobbers??

I can understand you finding CM Punk (c) vs Ryback vs John Cena more enjoyable to watch than Randy Orton vs Big Show , though.

 

[JJV]

What about Survivor Series '13? I just downloaded it earlier and glimpsed through it and it looks pretty good to me, even matches like Big E vs Curtis Axel to me appeared worth watching, not to mention the Shield and Roman Reigns dominance, and Bryan and Punk vs The Wyatt Family.

For now the ppvs I found worth watching and thus downloaded are: Survivor Series '13, Elimination Chamber '13(for the Shield match, and chamber match) , Elimination Chamber '14, Extreme Rules '13.

Elimination Chamber '14 was a great PPV. Definitely a must watch for the Shield vs Wyatts match. Survivor Series '13 was alright. Both the tag matches delivered. The heavyweight championship match was good, but lacked a strong story which kinda spoiled the fun. At least if Sandow was added to the match things would have been quite interesting. I mean, he cashed in and lost, and that's it. Back to ADR vs Cena with no backstory. That was a missed opportunity. The main event between Randy Orton and Big Show was TERRIBLE! The exact opposite of the world championship match...
Strong story but a terrible match!

TLC '13 was pretty good. Payback '13 was also pretty good. Watch it for Ziggler vs ADR and Jericho vs Punk. Extreme Rules '13 was alright, and WM 29 was a good, not great show.

Tbh, tho a lot of people would disagree, I found the Royal Rumble '14 PPV awesome! Daniel Bryan vs Bray Wyatt was match of the night, Orton vs Cena was good, albeit the crowd kinda f'd it up. The royal rumble match itself was fun, with a bad ending. Good show man. Watch it!
Wait for Wrestlemania XXX btw lol. It's gonna be great.

Oh and btw, watch Summerslam '12 in case you've missed it. All the matches were fun, great PPV! (Jericho vs Ziggler, Bryan vs Kane, Rey vs Miz, Cena vs Big Show vs Punk and Triple H vs Brock Lesnar).
And of course, watch NOC '12 only for the Punk vs Cena match. Trust me, it was terrific!

 

[AegonTargaryen]

Elimination Chamber '14 was a great PPV. Definitely a must watch for the Shield vs Wyatts match. Survivor Series '13 was alright. Both the tag matches delivered. The heavyweight championship match was good, but lacked a strong story which kinda spoiled the fun. At least if Sandow was added to the match things would have been quite interesting. I mean, he cashed in and lost, and that's it. Back to ADR vs Cena with no backstory. That was a missed opportunity. The main event between Randy Orton and Big Show was TERRIBLE! The exact opposite of the world championship match...
Strong story but a terrible match!

TLC '13 was pretty good. Payback '13 was also pretty good. Watch it for Ziggler vs ADR and Jericho vs Punk. Extreme Rules '13 was alright, and WM 29 was a good, not great show.

Tbh, tho a lot of people would disagree, I found the Royal Rumble '14 PPV awesome! Daniel Bryan vs Bray Wyatt was match of the night, Orton vs Cena was good, albeit the crowd kinda f'd it up. The royal rumble match itself was fun, with a bad ending. Good show man. Watch it!
Wait for Wrestlemania XXX btw lol. It's gonna be great.

Oh and btw, watch Summerslam '12 in case you've missed it. All the matches were fun, great PPV! (Jericho vs Ziggler, Bryan vs Kane, Rey vs Miz, Cena vs Big Show vs Punk and Triple H vs Brock Lesnar).
And of course, watch NOC '12 only for the Punk vs Cena match. Trust me, it was terrific!

Thank you for the terrific ppvs you suggested, most of which I've downloaded. Now I'm afraid I'm finding everything else unlikeable and undesirable, the ppvs right from 2011-2010. I already enjoyed the tri/bi-branded ppvs from 2007-2009 which had consistently good storytelling and matches at multiple levels. Remember the time when Undertaker and Edge would battle for a TLC on Extreme Rules/One Night Stand, and the same ppv had other outstanding matches? ppvs from recent years hardly have 2-3 good matches, with the rest being garbage filler.

And by the bye, you're correct about Payback. It was one of the Non-gimmick match ppvs with 3 excellent matches, including Punk vs Bryan.