Review of WWE: Survivor Series 2006

Introduction

Back in the good, old days, the Survivor Series used to be the "Thanksgiving Night tradition". That was until WWE realised that non-Sunday pay-per-views just weren`t a buy-rate winner. Nowadays, the show remains a staple of November, but little else.

The Survivor Series format has always allowed for fans to see tag team matches that they would otherwise never get to see. The elimination format - each member of a team must be individually eliminated from proceedings by the regular pinfall/submission/DQ/count-out means - allows for that, and also for longer matches, much more so than the average ten minute singles affair.

As such, the Survivor Series has always been met with great interest by wrestling fans, eager for a different type of show to the norm. With three elimination matches on 2006`s card, there was a old-school feel going into this event, even though the main event was a World Heavyweight Title match, with King Booker defending against Batista.

WWE Survivor Series 2006 was held in front of 15,400 fans at the Wachovia Centre in Philadelphia, PA, taking place on 26th November 2006.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is excellent for a DVD of this genre. As always, the show`s production values are top-notch, and this transfer reflects that, pounding into submission the video previously seen on SKY TV.

Audio

Audio is always well produced - in Dolby Digital 2.0 - allowing all of the ringside action, the theme music, and the commentary to be easily distinguishable at all times. Speaking of commentary, duties are fulfilled at different times by the combinations of Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler, and Michael Cole and JBL.

For international viewers, there are also 2.0 soundtracks in Spanish, Italian, German, and French, with subtitles available in Dutch and Portuguese.

Features

Of the three extras available here, two are very much worth a look. The first is the 1987 Survivor Series main event of Hulk Hogan, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, "Mr Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, and the late Bam Bam Bigelow facing Andre The Giant, Butch Reed, The One Man Gang, King Kong Bundy, and "Ravishing" Rick Rude. Released in the UK as part of the Tagged Classics series, this event is currently not available on DVD in the USA, and thus its main event conclusion here. The bout itself is little more than great nostalgia, but is a nice inclusion for anyone interested in WWF wrestling of the past.

The second worthwhile extra is Todd Grisham`s sit-down interview with Lita, which is interesting because many of her comments reflect her true feelings about WWE and their fans. In recent years, Lita`s real-life troubles have been fodder for WWE storylines, with the WWE playing up to the hate campaign that built against her following her affair with Adam "Edge" Copeland. In interview is, of course, done somewhat in character, but you can tell there is a lot of animosity behind it.

The final extra, sadly, does not deserve any lines in this review, as we are "treated" to a Mr McMahon cartoon, "Thanksgiving Ass-erole". Do yourself a favour and don`t feed Vince`s ego by watching it.

Conclusion

Survivor Series 2006 opened with the Legends encounter, as Ric Flair, Sergeant Slaughter, Ron Simmons, and Dusty Rhodes faced The Spirit Squad. The Legends matches are often good openers to a show, with the crowd happy to see the old-time favourites, but unfortunately this match was particularly poor, with no rhythm or flow, and didn`t start the show in the intended manner.

I can`t ever have claimed to have seen a Chris Benoit match that fell anywhere near the depths of the previous encounter - not even a WCW Title match with Sid Vicious - and this match with Chavo Guerrero was of course no exception. Still, it would have benefited from as little as five minutes more time to build.

WWE Womens champion Lita defended her title against Mickie James next, in what was the second event in two months to feature a female retirement, after Trish Stratus` exit following Unforgiven. That match was ironically against Lita, who in turn had decided not to renew her contract with the company. This bout was a reasonable one, which quickly plummeted post-match, when Lita was the butt of several awful gags from Cryme Tyme. The company allowed Trish Stratus to leave eight weeks earlier with such grace, but soured the Survivor Series with its poor treatment of someone they will find it desperately hard to replace.

The next bout featured D-X, CM Punk, and The Hardys against Randy Orton, Edge, Mike Knox, Johnny Nitro, and Gregory Helms. This match wasn`t particularly competitive, and was a real waste of the talent involved.

The Undertaker received a reaction befitting his legendary status for the next contest, a First Blood bout, with Mr Kennedy. But this was an extremely disappointing bout, with outside interference the root of the problem.

In the final Survivor Series elimination match of the evening, John Cena teamed with Kane, Bobby Lashley, Sabu, and Rob Van Dam to face The Big Show, Test, MVP, Umaga, and Finlay. Incredibly, this was another heavily lacklustre affair, which started with a ridiculous elimination, setting the tone for the remainder of the bout. Furthermore, the eliminations came much too thick-and-fast for them to be even reasonably believable.

The main event was a rematch of the Summerslam title match, with Booker T defending his World Heavyweight Title against Batista. I have no idea why this match was booked again after the catastrophe that was their last endeavour, but with this bout being another stinker, the individual responsible really ought to forget pro wrestling matchmaking as a career. At least this bout, unlike the Summerslam match, did not have to be edited for DVD because of botched moves.

Overall, the Survivor Series was a shambolic affair, that really stretched my patience with WWE wrestling as a whole. With the exception of the main event, all of the matches here should have been solid encounters, but almost all of them felt rushed, even thought there was apparently more than enough time to spend on embarrassing Lita after her last match for the company.

If one good thing can be said about the event - and the proceeding ECW December to Dismember show - it is that the poor reviews prompted Vince McMahon to put more effort into PPV shows, which by this point had stopped feeling like important events at all. However, the damage had already been done, and it will be interesting to see if the entire Survivor Series brand has been tainted by this poor showing come November 2007.

Unless you are a collector, stay away from this DVD, and invest in an earlier Survivor Series event instead.