Steamboat Ricky
WZCW's Living Legend
Survivor Series 2012: The Live Perspective
(Sly told me to go ahead and post this as a thread in the PPV section)
Survivor Series 2012 emanated from Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN. Some of you are likely aware of this, but in the spirit of this writing, it is important reemphasize it, as the location itself played a large role in my experience of the event. I have attended several events at the arena in the past, but this year was different as they made changes to the venue itself, namely this:
Much like many patrons of Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, TX, I found myself veritably distracted by the screen, having to consciously choose to watch the action in the ring instead.
Pre-Show: 3MB v. Team Cobro
I was shocked because I was under the impression that Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd were facing 3MB and didn’t hear that a change was announced. I thought that Ryder and Santino performed very well in the match and saw flashes of good things from Jinder Mahal, but the thing I noticed the most was how much Drew McIntyre was trying to rile up the crowd on the outside. It seemed very forced and wasn’t very effective. They just keep repackaging him, and nothing seems to be as good as what they had for him originally. Oh well. Some people in the crowd booed when 3MB picked up the win, but I can’t imagine that it was as good of a reaction as what would have transpired had Santino won via the Cobra.
Intro
Pyro at live events is SO LOUD. Does it need to be? Does anyone actually enjoy how loud it is? The child sitting behind me was having a nervous breakdown because it was so loud.
Special Traditional Survivor Series Match: Tensai, Prime Time Players, and Primo/Epico v. Justin Gabriel/Tyson Kidd, Sin Cara/Rey Mysterio, and Brodus Clay
I just didn’t like this match. Mike Killam gave this match an A on his review but man…this match was a stinker. High spot and flippy move after high spot and flippy move. Not only that, the high spots and flippy moves were being botched left and right. What happened to story telling in the ring? Well, considering this hodgepodge of characters don’t really have a back-story, I suppose not a lot of story-telling can be done. I just wish WWE would be more thoughtful with its storylines. I was bored, and most of the people in my section were bored, as well, counting how many times moves were messed up. I remember on several occasions thinking: “This match is taking WAY too long,” and “This match needs to be over.” The crowd is still trying to decide whether or not to emotionally invest in the show.
Divas Championship: Eve v. Kaitlyn
Again, I was finding myself trying to bring myself into the building. Most of the people in my section were engaged in conversation, at this point, and there was nothing really drawing us into the action. A lot of people got up and went to the concessions and/or restroom facilities at the beginning. I just noticed a lot of rest-holding and klunky, non-fluid movement in the ring. I remember getting vocal toward the end of the match in a rather forced way, just to try to get my energy going, and it worked a bit. Not much more to say about this one.
United States Championship: Antonio Cesaro v. R-Truth
Without having the announcers tell me what to think about for Antonio Cesaro, I found myself really getting into what he was saying as he came to the ring, and I really think the crowd was getting into it, as well. All I hear about is how much Cesaro is failing to get over, particularly from Chris Cash, and for the most part, I do not disagree. However, hearing just Cesaro and the crowd, it FELT like Cesaro was drawing us in. I immediately noticed that R-Truth did not invite Little Jimmy out to the ring with him. The match was good, and I kept noticing how impressed I was with Cesaro’s full presentation. I really liked this match, and I think it finally started getting the crowd into the show.
Scandal Segment: AJ Lee and Vickie Guerrero
You can say what you want about this storyline and how interesting it seems to be, but the live crowd LOVED it. Everyone in my section was buzzing about AJ, before, during, and after the segment. The crowd was decidedly anti-Vickie, but I’m not convinced that the heat that she was generating was a good “bad heat.” It doesn’t feel like people wanted to boo her as much as they did just really not like that she was out there. So, when the segment went in a different direction…AJ poking at Vickie…the crowd seemed to be enjoying itself. Laughs were had throughout the arena at the various photos. The crowd seemed pretty unsure as to how to react to Tamina Snuka being introduced to the storyline, as if it wasn’t confusing enough as it is.
World Heavyweight Championship: Big Show v. Sheamus
Indy loves Sheamus. Someone behind me even had a light-up Sheamus sign. Though the crowd did feel dead during the middle of the match, the crowd was really hot from Sheamus’ comeback all the way through the end of the chair beat down. The “We Want Ziggler” chants were incredible during the Sheamus chair beat-down. Ziggler was very over with the Indy crowd, and it would become more apparent later on. He was pretty decently represented from a merch perspective. The crowd was emotionally invested in this segment…not quite to full climax. But the tension had built.
However, my main critique with the match is something that you didn’t see on camera. After Big Show had been thoroughly beat-down and was barely crawling, Big Show stood right up and walked off the floor once the cameras were off of him and the spotlight was no longer on him. Why not sell it the whole way through, Big Show? It may be a very little thing, but to sell it so hard when the lights are on and then give up on it once the lights are off seems like a waste. Everyone in the arena can still see you.
Survivor Elimination Match: Team Ziggler v. Team Foley
This match…was EXHAUSTING. Having this match adjacent to the main event was a mistake, in my opinion, as it ended up drawing most of the remaining energy out of the crowd.
I think it was such a mistake to have Daniel Bryan come out with Kane. There were a lot of “No No No” shirts in the building, and you have to imagine that most of those fans wanted to yell “YES!” at Bryan during his entrance. I know they had a lot of entrances to get through, but I feel like they could have shaved an extra minute off of the laborious tag team match at the beginning of the event. At any rate, Daniel Bryan enticed a lot of reaction from the crowd with his kicks.
As I said, Ziggler was very over with the crowd, and he received a veritable babyface response upon his entrance. The crowd was not overly interested in Kofi or Barrett, however. I figured more of the children in attendance would be in a frenzy over Kofi. I also expected a better response from The Miz, though I recall a short “Miz is Awesome” chant breaking out.
One person who DID NOT get over with the crowd was Alberto Del Rio. Everyone was very interested to see what car he would drive out to the arena, but his entrance and ring-work did not seem to be pulling in anyone.
Foley got a great reception, especially when he used Socko on Ricardo. But no one was holding a candle to Randy Orton. The place lit up when he came out…possibly the “biggest pop” of the night, if you will. That specifically came when Orton had the blood flowing from his mouth and was in position to punt Dolph. There, the big screen really helped, as the bloody mouth really got the crowd riled up.
To me, the crowd peaked with the punt attempt. After the match, I felt emotionally spent. There was so much going on with the match that I felt like I needed a break. I remember being really shocked that it was only 10:18 after the match had ended.
WWE Championship: CM Punk v. John Cena v. Ryback
In all of the Indy events that I’ve attended, I’ve never heard a more definitive string of boos directed toward Cena than I did here. I thought that the entrance order was interesting, and Ryback did not get quite the support I was expecting. The crowd was very pro-Punk (perhaps the proximity to Chicago plays a role).
As I mentioned about the previous match, the crowd seemed really tired here. I remember looking at the action and thinking, “this is a pretty good match,” but I just had no capacity to get really into it because of the level I allowed myself to be involved in the previous match. I really think sticking a segment in between the two matches would have been helpful. People needed to recoup a bit.
The run-in was confusing. Because of the large screen, we were all able to see who the people were, but still…nobody in my section even knew who they were. It seemed like most of the people were simply Monday Night Raw viewers (myself included), and even if they did watch other programming, they never got around to watching NXT. So, none of us could really gauge how big of a deal this was supposed to be. Punk retained, and for the most part, people were pretty happy with that. To Ryback’s credit, however, he did get the crowd into some “Feed Me More” chants.
A few rants about live events in general:
1. Gates are not opened early enough. When a venue is holding an event with 20,000 people showing up to attend, one hour is not long enough to do everything that a fan wants to do once said fan is in the building. Perhaps this is merely a Banker’s Life Fieldhouse issue, but there were not remotely enough ushers to scan in the amount of people filing in. It does not help matters that there is only one entrance into the greater arena once inside the lobby. I think there might have been 8. Which leads me to:
2. There are not enough people working the souvenir stands at WWE events. 6 people to serve roughly 300 people, especially when the guy in front of you is dropping $193 and deciding what he wants once he gets to the front of the line, is simply not enough. They did have a souvenir bus outside the arena that you could stop by while waiting to get in, but that was equally poorly staffed.
Overall
I had more fun at this event than any of the previous events I have attended (notably, Summerslam 2008, Money in the Bank 2011), partially because of the company that I was with and in part because of the atmosphere created by the in-ring performers and the crowd at-large. I left feeling like the event was really good, and I was surprised to hear a lot of negative thoughts on the show as a whole when I returned home. Hopefully, the road to Wrestlemania will be just around the corner, and the fun that I had at Survivor Series can be extended well into the New Year.
(Sly told me to go ahead and post this as a thread in the PPV section)
Survivor Series 2012 emanated from Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN. Some of you are likely aware of this, but in the spirit of this writing, it is important reemphasize it, as the location itself played a large role in my experience of the event. I have attended several events at the arena in the past, but this year was different as they made changes to the venue itself, namely this:
Much like many patrons of Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, TX, I found myself veritably distracted by the screen, having to consciously choose to watch the action in the ring instead.
Pre-Show: 3MB v. Team Cobro
I was shocked because I was under the impression that Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd were facing 3MB and didn’t hear that a change was announced. I thought that Ryder and Santino performed very well in the match and saw flashes of good things from Jinder Mahal, but the thing I noticed the most was how much Drew McIntyre was trying to rile up the crowd on the outside. It seemed very forced and wasn’t very effective. They just keep repackaging him, and nothing seems to be as good as what they had for him originally. Oh well. Some people in the crowd booed when 3MB picked up the win, but I can’t imagine that it was as good of a reaction as what would have transpired had Santino won via the Cobra.
Intro
Pyro at live events is SO LOUD. Does it need to be? Does anyone actually enjoy how loud it is? The child sitting behind me was having a nervous breakdown because it was so loud.
Special Traditional Survivor Series Match: Tensai, Prime Time Players, and Primo/Epico v. Justin Gabriel/Tyson Kidd, Sin Cara/Rey Mysterio, and Brodus Clay
I just didn’t like this match. Mike Killam gave this match an A on his review but man…this match was a stinker. High spot and flippy move after high spot and flippy move. Not only that, the high spots and flippy moves were being botched left and right. What happened to story telling in the ring? Well, considering this hodgepodge of characters don’t really have a back-story, I suppose not a lot of story-telling can be done. I just wish WWE would be more thoughtful with its storylines. I was bored, and most of the people in my section were bored, as well, counting how many times moves were messed up. I remember on several occasions thinking: “This match is taking WAY too long,” and “This match needs to be over.” The crowd is still trying to decide whether or not to emotionally invest in the show.
Divas Championship: Eve v. Kaitlyn
Again, I was finding myself trying to bring myself into the building. Most of the people in my section were engaged in conversation, at this point, and there was nothing really drawing us into the action. A lot of people got up and went to the concessions and/or restroom facilities at the beginning. I just noticed a lot of rest-holding and klunky, non-fluid movement in the ring. I remember getting vocal toward the end of the match in a rather forced way, just to try to get my energy going, and it worked a bit. Not much more to say about this one.
United States Championship: Antonio Cesaro v. R-Truth
Without having the announcers tell me what to think about for Antonio Cesaro, I found myself really getting into what he was saying as he came to the ring, and I really think the crowd was getting into it, as well. All I hear about is how much Cesaro is failing to get over, particularly from Chris Cash, and for the most part, I do not disagree. However, hearing just Cesaro and the crowd, it FELT like Cesaro was drawing us in. I immediately noticed that R-Truth did not invite Little Jimmy out to the ring with him. The match was good, and I kept noticing how impressed I was with Cesaro’s full presentation. I really liked this match, and I think it finally started getting the crowd into the show.
Scandal Segment: AJ Lee and Vickie Guerrero
You can say what you want about this storyline and how interesting it seems to be, but the live crowd LOVED it. Everyone in my section was buzzing about AJ, before, during, and after the segment. The crowd was decidedly anti-Vickie, but I’m not convinced that the heat that she was generating was a good “bad heat.” It doesn’t feel like people wanted to boo her as much as they did just really not like that she was out there. So, when the segment went in a different direction…AJ poking at Vickie…the crowd seemed to be enjoying itself. Laughs were had throughout the arena at the various photos. The crowd seemed pretty unsure as to how to react to Tamina Snuka being introduced to the storyline, as if it wasn’t confusing enough as it is.
World Heavyweight Championship: Big Show v. Sheamus
Indy loves Sheamus. Someone behind me even had a light-up Sheamus sign. Though the crowd did feel dead during the middle of the match, the crowd was really hot from Sheamus’ comeback all the way through the end of the chair beat down. The “We Want Ziggler” chants were incredible during the Sheamus chair beat-down. Ziggler was very over with the Indy crowd, and it would become more apparent later on. He was pretty decently represented from a merch perspective. The crowd was emotionally invested in this segment…not quite to full climax. But the tension had built.
However, my main critique with the match is something that you didn’t see on camera. After Big Show had been thoroughly beat-down and was barely crawling, Big Show stood right up and walked off the floor once the cameras were off of him and the spotlight was no longer on him. Why not sell it the whole way through, Big Show? It may be a very little thing, but to sell it so hard when the lights are on and then give up on it once the lights are off seems like a waste. Everyone in the arena can still see you.
Survivor Elimination Match: Team Ziggler v. Team Foley
This match…was EXHAUSTING. Having this match adjacent to the main event was a mistake, in my opinion, as it ended up drawing most of the remaining energy out of the crowd.
I think it was such a mistake to have Daniel Bryan come out with Kane. There were a lot of “No No No” shirts in the building, and you have to imagine that most of those fans wanted to yell “YES!” at Bryan during his entrance. I know they had a lot of entrances to get through, but I feel like they could have shaved an extra minute off of the laborious tag team match at the beginning of the event. At any rate, Daniel Bryan enticed a lot of reaction from the crowd with his kicks.
As I said, Ziggler was very over with the crowd, and he received a veritable babyface response upon his entrance. The crowd was not overly interested in Kofi or Barrett, however. I figured more of the children in attendance would be in a frenzy over Kofi. I also expected a better response from The Miz, though I recall a short “Miz is Awesome” chant breaking out.
One person who DID NOT get over with the crowd was Alberto Del Rio. Everyone was very interested to see what car he would drive out to the arena, but his entrance and ring-work did not seem to be pulling in anyone.
Foley got a great reception, especially when he used Socko on Ricardo. But no one was holding a candle to Randy Orton. The place lit up when he came out…possibly the “biggest pop” of the night, if you will. That specifically came when Orton had the blood flowing from his mouth and was in position to punt Dolph. There, the big screen really helped, as the bloody mouth really got the crowd riled up.
To me, the crowd peaked with the punt attempt. After the match, I felt emotionally spent. There was so much going on with the match that I felt like I needed a break. I remember being really shocked that it was only 10:18 after the match had ended.
WWE Championship: CM Punk v. John Cena v. Ryback
In all of the Indy events that I’ve attended, I’ve never heard a more definitive string of boos directed toward Cena than I did here. I thought that the entrance order was interesting, and Ryback did not get quite the support I was expecting. The crowd was very pro-Punk (perhaps the proximity to Chicago plays a role).
As I mentioned about the previous match, the crowd seemed really tired here. I remember looking at the action and thinking, “this is a pretty good match,” but I just had no capacity to get really into it because of the level I allowed myself to be involved in the previous match. I really think sticking a segment in between the two matches would have been helpful. People needed to recoup a bit.
The run-in was confusing. Because of the large screen, we were all able to see who the people were, but still…nobody in my section even knew who they were. It seemed like most of the people were simply Monday Night Raw viewers (myself included), and even if they did watch other programming, they never got around to watching NXT. So, none of us could really gauge how big of a deal this was supposed to be. Punk retained, and for the most part, people were pretty happy with that. To Ryback’s credit, however, he did get the crowd into some “Feed Me More” chants.
A few rants about live events in general:
1. Gates are not opened early enough. When a venue is holding an event with 20,000 people showing up to attend, one hour is not long enough to do everything that a fan wants to do once said fan is in the building. Perhaps this is merely a Banker’s Life Fieldhouse issue, but there were not remotely enough ushers to scan in the amount of people filing in. It does not help matters that there is only one entrance into the greater arena once inside the lobby. I think there might have been 8. Which leads me to:
2. There are not enough people working the souvenir stands at WWE events. 6 people to serve roughly 300 people, especially when the guy in front of you is dropping $193 and deciding what he wants once he gets to the front of the line, is simply not enough. They did have a souvenir bus outside the arena that you could stop by while waiting to get in, but that was equally poorly staffed.
Overall
I had more fun at this event than any of the previous events I have attended (notably, Summerslam 2008, Money in the Bank 2011), partially because of the company that I was with and in part because of the atmosphere created by the in-ring performers and the crowd at-large. I left feeling like the event was really good, and I was surprised to hear a lot of negative thoughts on the show as a whole when I returned home. Hopefully, the road to Wrestlemania will be just around the corner, and the fun that I had at Survivor Series can be extended well into the New Year.
