WWE Survivor Series 2009

(Guest written by Matt)

2009 was the year Danny once declared the worst year in WWE history. The guys on the top were old and stale, titles meant nothing, everything was about bad comedy etc. Looking back now, 2009 still seems terrible, but arguably still not as bad as WWE has become now with the same trends that started in 2009 continuing to intensify over the subsequent years. Unlike now, in 2009 I still had a lot of interest in seeing WWE payperviews, especially the so-called “Big Four”. But Danny’s interest was quickly vanishing and by 2010, neither of us would give a crap anymore.

At the time, I think I thought Series 2009 was okay, but overall nothing that amazing. I especially liked Kofi Kingston’s push and really wanted it to go places and predicted he would win the Royal Rumble, which was of course one of the stupidest predictions I ever made. I also liked some of the other new guys like Sheamus. But the main event scene was awful, and hasn’t become any better since. My opinion of this show now is exactly the same. It overall seems better than the TV of the time, and at least it does have some traditional survival matches, and features some new guys, but the two title matches bring down the card, and the overall direction of the booking and characters suck hard.

The Miz, Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, and Jack Swagger def. John Morrison, Matt Hardy, Evan Bourne, Shelton Benjamin and Finlay

This was a pretty good traditional survival match. It featured a lot of new guys and started the push of Sheamus, which was continued the following month when he won his first title. The funniest thing on this card was the fact that Sheamus truly said “Fellah” in the pre-match interview. The match was long and exciting and featured a lot of high impact moves as you might expect from some of these guys. On the other hand, the match also featured annoying losers like The Miz and Jack Swagger, who brought things down a little bit. But overall, it was a good match and better than most of the survival matches at Series 90 for example.

Batista def. Rey Misterio

I really hated both these guys at the time and was not looking forward to this match at all. In the end, it was pretty much an in-ring disaster as Misterio was legit hurt and was just beat up by Batista all match long and then lost due to referee stoppage. I kind of liked seeing Misterio get destroyed, but honestly this match added nothing to the event whatsoever.

Kofi Kingston, MVP, Mark Henry, R-Truth and Christian def. Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase, CM Punk and William Regal

I thought this was a pretty good match too. It started out kind of geekily with Christian rapping about being the only ECW guy, Canadian, and white guy on the team. Then the match itself in the ring was well wrestled and had a lot of exciting moments. They really used this match to push Kofi Kingston, who I was really getting behind at the time and was hoping would win the Royal Rumble. But of course in the end, he was buried the following month at TLC which pissed me off, but maybe it was for the best as he actually kind of sucks.

World Heavyweight Title: Undertaker def. Big Show and Chris Jericho

I remember thinking this match was stupid and pointless at the time since Show and Jericho were tag team champions and really had no reason to be fighting Taker for the H.T. belt. Anyway, Jericho saved this match from being an absolute disaster but Show and Taker were every bit as slow and lumbering as you would expect. Plus the match followed the usual boring formula that all of these triple threat matches do. The best part was when some fan yelled “Go back to Toronto!” to Jericho and he responded with “I’m from Winnipeg, you idiot!”

Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, Melina, Gail Kim, and Eve Torres def. Michelle McCool, Jillian Hall, Beth Phoenix, Layla, and Alicia Fox

This match was pretty terrible, but not as bad as a Diva’s survival match would be nowadays. At least some of these Divas could work a match at this time. As bad as it was though, this match was still arguably more entertaining than the main event.

John Cena def. Triple H and Shawn Michaels

I remember at the time I thought this DX Reunion was just a way of building towards a Michaels vs. Triple H match at Wrestlemania, which at the time I was calling the potentially most selfish match in the history of Wrestlemania. Luckily that didn’t happen, but it sure looked like they were moving in that direction as this match opened with Michaels suddenly super kicking Triple H in the face. At any rate, this match was terrible. I’m so bored by these guys, this match made no sense, and it followed the same boring formula as all of these triple threat matches do. Triple H just lay on his face outside the ring for half the match. Give me a break! Cena won in the most predictable fashion possible, and it seemed like there was no hope left for the company at this point. But then of course came the Jesse Ventura Raw and Sheamus winning the belt at TLC! (Not that that mattered in the long run.)