By Dot Net Staff

WWE Survivor Series 2011 – One Shot Reactions

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Ryan Kester (Twitter - @TheRyanKester):

Show Grade: A-

• The MSG crowd could not have been hotter for their local boy, Zack Ryder. WWE missed a brilliant opportunity to have the fans in the palm of their hand by seeing Ryder actually compete.


• Punk and Del Rio delivered in a big way. It's great to see Punk as champion again and it's even better to see him win said championship with the Anaconda Vice. He's come full circle. I can only hope he does more with the belt than Del Rio. 


• It felt good to see Barrett and Rhodes as the survivors of the traditional Survivor Series tag match. WWE has very few credible heels at their disposal, and it's high time they built some of them up.


• Tonight I saw Big Show hit an elbow drop from the top rope. I am not joking. It was amazing.


• The end of Survivor Series wasn't what it could have been, but The Rock's victory and one-upping of Cena was well done. It was the least interesting story they could have told, but the simple fact that it involved The Rock made it entertaining.

• This show was built on The Rock returning to the ring. The Rock did return and was absolutely phenomenal. He did not show a speck of rust. This was what the show was built on and what it delivered.


• It also delivered solid action in the main event tag, the C.M. Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio match, the traditional Survivor Series tag team match and the Diva's Championship match. This was a fun in-ring show with a super hot crowd.


• Although the ending failed to deliver one, C.M. Punk delivered a classic Madison Square Garden moment with his WWE Championship win. The last five minutes of that match contained the best wrestling of the night.
  
• The traditional Survivor Series match featured a nice bit of story-telling including the continuing resurrection of Wade Barrett. This was a very fun match to watch, aside from the injury to Sin Cara.


• John Cena did not turn (I was wrong) and failed to really deliver a classic moment with The Rock, but Rock's return and seeing him in tights and boots wrestling once again was enough of a moment.

• Ziggler and Morrison put on a pretty good match tonight, as you would expect. The crowd wanted Zack Ryder and were vocal about it, but neither guy lost focus and they eventually got the crowd involved.


• The Survivor Series Tag Match was a good match with a great finish. Barrett continues to roll and Rhodes got a big reaction from the MSG Crowd. Sheamus and Orton lost nothing as well due to the way it played out, so this was probably the best booked match of the night.


• Henry and Show got off to a slow start, but for the most part delivered about as much as you can expect from two lumbering guys. It's still hard to get used to seeing them both taking huge bumps, but I'll be damned if it isn't entertaining. I'm assuming this will be the chair match at TLC given all the focus on them.


• C.M. Punk picked up the WWE Title tonight, which was a surprise to me. I'm happy that Punk is holding the gold, but I'm assuming this will continue another month, so I'm confused as to why you take so much steam out of Del Rio here.


• The Rock and Cena was pretty much a dick swinging contest over who was going to pin Awesome Truth, but it wasn't the worst match we've seen in that category. The Rock didn't show any signs of rust and got cheered by getting the best of Cena at the end of the night. The problem with this feud going forward will be establishing clearly who the fans should be cheering for, because at this point Cena is the guy getting booed and it's not really clear if that's the intention.

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