Survivor Series and The Miz
So The Miz is the new WWE Champion and it is awesome! Fairly awesome. I feel like it’s pretty awesome, though the novelty of a wrestler cashing in the MITB briefcase on an injured champion has long lost its appeal to me. I was really hoping that Miz would do something along the lines of RVD or Mr. Kennedy (before his injury, obviously) and use it at a preplanned date like Wrestlemania, wanting the glory of the moment to be as important as the title. Either way he’s the champion and as a fan of his, I am happy to see it. He is always able to get the crowd interested and, for what it’s worth, also the interest of the media, as already evidenced by MTV and TMZ reporting on it. Also, considering that he’s been at so many WWE media events (like their Comic Con panel, the Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 roster reveal event, the Australian Kids Choice Awards), and the effort he puts into his on-screen work (being one of the few Pros who didn’t seem like they were going to fall asleep during NXT), it’s nice to see his hard work pay off. And it’s sick to say, but seeing the incredibly upset kids after his title win last night was pretty funny.
I’ll be interested to see how long he holds it. I think he’ll fair better than Jack Swagger given his charisma (I still don’t understand why Swagger started acting so serious after his title win) and I think he’ll have more mainstream appeal than Sheamus. The only thing I’m not too big on about him is his ring work, which I think is decent, but not something I usually look forward to seeing.
If nothing else, his title win was a nice surprise after a fairly surprise-less Survivor Series. On Sunday night my wife and I ventured out through dark Kentucky back roads to a Show Me’s that was showing the pay per view. It was my first time watching a pay per view at a sports bar, and other than the smoke and the difficulty in hearing the commentary, it was a fairly decent experience. Actually not being able to hear commentary can be a good thing anymore.
I think the show was pretty good, and I did not find myself missing Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Batista, or any of the other absent main eventers that used to be running all over the main event scene not that long ago. Kaval vs. Dolph Ziggler was the stand out for me, although my enthusiasm was probably increased by it being Kaval’s first PPV match and Ziggler’s mocking tweets. As a huge Daniel Bryan fan, I’m glad to see him on such a roll, although it’s almost hard to believe considering how much he clashes with the big man WWE stereotype. I’m kind of curious about where this push is leading him (and I don’t mean into an angle with the Bellas).
I even enjoyed the “traditional” Survivor Series match with Team Mysterio vs. Team Del Rio, despite not looking forward to it at all. Watching the ten man tag match made me think back to college where all of us good little art students were taught about the importance of character design- the need for characters to have a distinct size, shape, colors, look, etc. Looking at the competitors in that match gave me an appreciation for that concept, considering the drastically different looks between Mysterio, Del Rio, Big Show, MVP, Cody Rhodes, etc. As far as the actual match went, I wasn’t a huge fan of MVP being eliminated so fast and Big Show and Rey being the last men standing, but overall it was entertaining enough. One thing that I really appreciated about the show was that every match ended in a definitive pinfall, except for Kane vs. Edge, the only match I wasn’t really into. But then again I’ve never really been into any Kane match.
The only thing that really disappointed me about the show was the lack of surprises like a Cena heel turn, the return of Triple H, GM reveal, or anything like that, although Miz’s win last night makes up for it. It was a good show, though in my mind not worth the forty or fifty dollars it would’ve cost to watch at home. But worth a drive to a sports bar? Definitely.
