Survivor Series Predictions

As promised - here we go ...

Casket Match: Undertaker vs. Big Show
If there's any event with which Undertaker is even more associated than Wrestlemania, it is Survivor Series. It is at this event 18 years ago where he made his WWE debut. He lost his last match to Big Show, and this feud is going on two months old, which is usually around where WWE starts to want to move on with things. All these things point to the Dead Man coming out on top here. Unless anyone's heard rumours of UT needing some time off, which happens now and then, look for him to go over here ... and Show to go six feet under.

WWE Championship Triple Threat Match: Triple H (c) vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Vladimir Kozlov
I think Triple H has had a significant bordering on dominant reign with his title this year - the WWE Title scene has been much more stable than its World Heavyweight counterpart on Raw (which has gone from the Undertaker to Edge to CM Punk to Chris Jericho to Batista back to Jericho in the time Triple H has held his title). That's very understandable to anyone who know's The Game's back story, but even HE relinquishes the title now and then. Given he likes to make doing so a momentous occasion (ie, not just some throwaway monthly PPV), and the Survivor Series is traditionally a big event, and Jeff Hardy has been built for months as 'one step away from the title', I'm actually going to go with an underdog and predict that this is young Mr. Hardy's night. For 8 months he's kept his nose relatively clean, and done his time; his onscreen character's developed a new attitude in the last month, no longer appreciating being tweaked by Trips. Kozlov's not quite ready for the big time. All signs point to a Hardy win except for past precedent. And with that in mind don't get me wrong - a Triple H win would NEVER surprise me. But I'm going to take my chance here and predict it's Hardy's night.

Traditional Survivor Elimination Match #1: Batista (captain), R Truth, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston and Matt Hardy vs. Randy Orton (captain), Shelton Benjamin, Cody Rhodes, William Regal and Mark Henry
For those not in the know, this is a ten-person tag team match in which each wrestler gets eliminated when he takes a fall (by pin, submission, DQ or countout). The final wrestlers standing when one entire team has been eliminated, are the 'survivors' - the basis of the Survivor Series format. With that in mind I'm hard pressed often to figure out the exact configuration of who will be standing at the end, who will be eliminated in what order, etc., as some wrestling pundits do. This match though I'm going to go out on a limb to say (a) I think Batista will be the sole survivor, and (b) I believe we will be seeing him alone vs. at least two or three members of Team Orton. Batista will perceive recent losses to Chris Jericho and CM Punk as having made him look weak, and given his ego is reportedly not that far off from Triple H's, I could see him wanting - and getting - a stronger push here to keep him on top.

Traditional Survivor Elimination Match #2: Shawn Michaels (captain), Great Khali, Rey Mysterio and Cryme Tyme vs. JBL (captain), The Miz, John Morrison, MVP and Kane
The faces go over in this one too, in my opinion. I think we'll see a strong showing from MVP after a long PPV dry spell, but ultimately the heels are going down in defeat - especially after Miz and Morrison got an important win over Shawn Michaels on Raw last week. As much as HBK has 'grown up', do you really think he'll allow that to stand? JBL has become the 'beatable main eventer', sort of like Chris Benoit or Eddy Guerrero or Randy Savage before him, the guy people beat, on their way to world title matches. All signs point to a win for Team Michaels, and taking a stab at the final configuration, I'm thinking only Cryme Tyme will have taken an early shower for the face team by the end.

Traditional Survivor Elimination Match #3: Michelle McCool (captain), Maria, Victoria, Maryse and Natalya Neidhart vs. Beth Phoenix (captain), Mickie James, Candice Michelle, Kelly Kelly and Jillian Hall
I think Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown SHOULD come down to either the two captains, giving us a taste of those two fighting and perhaps leading to an interpromotional divas match at Royal Rumble or WM 25, or else if the WWE is, for once, more interested in giving us some interesting and unique wrestling, it could come down to Beth Phoenix or Mickie James vs. Natalya Neidhart - Natty really needs to be able to do more and go further than she has in the dud-like Diva's division over on SD. I think this will come down to a one on one altercation, and it's tough to choose exactly which side will go over. Based on shear name value, and assuming that sells, I'm going to guess Raw wins in the end. If they don't, figure Santino Marella - boyfriend of Beth Phoenix - unintentionally cost them the match, and some Glamarella fireworks will ensue.

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) vs. John Cena
Short and sweet, I'm going with my old rule of thumb: go with Cena, you'll only be wrong once. ;) Jokes aside, look: I don't think Cena has a place in this Wrestlemania's main event picture. It's going to be a big night full of tradition, pomp and circumstance. With names like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Chris Jericho - true veterans who have been with the company a long time - on the roster, and a rumoured Steve Austin one-night-only in-ring return, while Cena will have a BIG role to play, I'm not sure it's at the top of the card on that night. But he IS a main event player whose return WWE has been hyping big time, fighting in his hometown, and for whom the timing is right to have a respectable reign before losing it at the Royal Rumble to Batista or Randy Orton, leading up to a final, one-on-one faceoff between those two at WM. So look for a Cena win! - Duh ... ;)