Monday, November 20th, 2006
First Mariner Arena
Baltimore, Maryland
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
John Cena is out with his Survivor Series team to kick off the show. They show highlights of him being destroyed by Umaga and Big Show on Raw last week. Well, naturally they are interrupted by Rated RKO's team. Wait, what? They are then interrupted by Ric Flair and his legend friends. Now we get the Spirit Squad. Kenny says that he's going to debut a cheer right now and then is interrupted by DX and friends. You'll never guess it, but Big Show's team is out now. I have to say the randomness of some of these teams are pretty fun, but I do prefer the teams of 4 over 5. Cena challenges everyone to come down to the ring to see who's left standing. As they all start heading to the ring, out comes Vince McMahon. They really should have taken him off the air at this point for a break. Tonight we are going to have an all captains tag team match tonight. I am always down with matches like this. So we'll get DX, John Cena and Ric Flair against Rated RKO, Kenny and Big Show. Kenny gets such a small reaction that Vince repeats his name to try to get a few boos. I haven't really like Kenny as much as I did back in 2006, but even if I did, the booking has been so bad, why would anyone care?
Sabu vs. Umaga
This actually feels like a good use of Sabu. Umaga attacks right away and dominates the early going. Sabu tries to get something going, but gets hit with a foot to the face. Sabu does come back and hits a springboard DDT. On the next springboard, Umaga hits the Samoan Spike and that is all. That was a total burial of Sabu. Keep in mind that Sabu is in the main event of a pay-per-view in a few weeks.
Match Rating: 1/2*
We come back to Torrie Wilson and a t-shirt gun. Lawler gets on the table to catch one and out comes Chris Masters. He's not good enough to be on Survivor Series. Masters makes some advances on Torrie and out comes Carlito to the rescue. He also is not good enough to be on Survivor Series. Is Carlito ever not involved with either Chris Masters or Shelton Benjamin? Masters attacks Carlito and slaps on the Master Lock and in comes Jerry Lawler, so Masters breaks the hold.
After highlights of Johnny Nitro/Jeff Hardy, they hype up Kevin Federline/John Cena, which is weeks away. They are hyping up Survivor Series, December To Dismember, K Fed/Cena and still have Armageddon in December. They interview Nitro and Melina and he's going to win the Intercontinental Championship tonight.
Back to the Spirit Squad and Kenny is continuing to hype that he's the captain. He declares that Nicky will Nicky will be wrestling tonight. He then sees Ric Flair and Candice Michelle getting close. This leads to Ron Simmons being shown as the replacement for Roddy Piper.
We now go to the referee getting the title belt from Jeff Hardy for the ladder match because it's NEXT!
Ladder Match For The Intercontinental Championship
Johnny Nitro vs. Jeff Hardy
After some basic action to start, Nitro is the first to go get the ladder. Hardy does a baseball slide into the ladder and then a dive on Nitro as we go into a commercial break. When we come back, Hardy is climbing but Nitro knocks him off and he lands on the top rope. We go back and forth with some ladder offense that ends with Hardy dropkicking the ladder into Nitro. They battle up on the ladder again and this time Nitro hits a standing dropkick from the top of the ladder. That was cool. Hardy is able to prop Nitro on top of the ladder and goes up to the top rope. Hardy goes for the Swanton, but Nitro moves and Hardy crashes and burns. The thud there made me hurt. After some ladder offense from Nitro, Hardy is able to throw Nitro into a standing ladder. Hardy brings in a new ladder and they both climb. Hardy gets up top first and he hits a sunset flip powerbomb. Hardy follows that up with a leg drop over one of the ladders and then props one up over Nitro's neck. Hardy climbs it and retains his Intercontinental Championship. That had a few stiff bumps and the crowd was into this. The finish was a little out of nowhere and the pace was a little off. Nothing but respect for both of these guys for the effort though.
Match Rating: ***1/4
Dusty Rhodes is here to cut one of his vintage rhyming promos about taking down Nicky.
Nicky vs. Dusty Rhodes
I'm sure Dolph considers this one of his career highlights to this day. Dusty is 61 years old here and obviously can't move like he used to. So as a result, we get a slow start with some stalling before Nicky goes to work on his leg. Just like Kenny earlier, no one cares about Nicky. Dusty comes back with some jabs and the bionic elbow. He hits an elbow drop and that's all. This obviously wasn't very good.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We go to Edge and Lita backstage by a spiral staircase. Here comes Randy Orton and Maria for whatever reason. They hear some commotion and see it's Cryme Tyme. This leads to more racial humor and they then talk Maria into staying with them and watching See No Evil. This was absolutely terrible.
Lita vs. Mickie James
This time Mickie is blindfolded. Thrilling. Lita hits a DDT, but doesn't go for the cover. She climbs up top and hits a moonsault for the victory. They haven't given the audience a reason to root for Mickie, so this really doesn't do much for either performer. After the match, Lita cuts a promo complaining about her mistreatment, which is fair. She then announces that Survivor Series will be her last match.
Match Rating: 1/4*
The heels are headed to the ring.
Rated RKO, Kenny & Big Show vs. Ric Flair, John Cena & DX
Cena comes out second for his team and runs in there to start brawling, but it backfires. Out comes DX because they are your superheroes. They clear out the ring with the exception of Edge and all take turns with him cornered. Michaels hits a top rope elbow drop and now in comes Big Show. He does a little bit better, but when he's going for a double chokeslam on DX, Flair hits a low blow. Cena follows that up and hits a shoulder tackle to knock him out of the ring. When we come back from commercial, I'm assuming the match has actually started. The heels are working on Michaels until Orton comes in and starts pounding the mat like an idiot. He goes for the RKO and Michaels counters it, allowing him to eventually hit the hot tag to Cena. Cena gets Kenny up for the FU, but Big Show hits him with a boot. They all team up on Big Show and Sweet Chin Music sends him over the top rope. Cena hits a FU on Kenny and that's all. All of the teams come down and we have ourselves a brawl as we go off the air.
Match Rating: **
The first hour or so of this show was a real breath of fresh air after the last month or so of absolute garbage on Raw. However, things took a turn for the worse after the Dusty promo. The main event wasn't terrible, but I'm not sure I really understand the logic of the faces being booked so strong here. This one ended up being an average episode overall.
Overall Rating: 50%
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