10 WWE PPVs That Were Doomed From The Start

5. Survivor Series 2013

Big Show Randy Orton Survivor Series 2013
WWE

Daniel Bryan was never their guy.

When Vince McMahon relented and let him gobble up the WrestleMania XXX spotlight, he did so under duress and never had the 'YES! Man' in mind for leading the company once the bluster around his win had finally died down. His win represented the end of a frustrating war with his own audience, and if the 'Show Of Shows' was the apex, Survivor Series 2013 was the pay-per-view nadir.

After months of screwy finishes in the Bryan/Randy Orton series, the company went from putting the knife in the crowd's back to jamming it in the front. Bryan was unconvincingly shuffled into a story with The Wyatt Family alongside CM Punk, whilst The Big Show was even more unconvincingly wedged in as a Bryan surrogate against 'The Apex Predator'.

The resultant series was absolutely turgid, and helped bulldoze the largely forgotten Survivor Series main event as it limped home as the worst 'Big Four' topliner of the year. The Daniel Bryan-based disdain cast a shadow on the rest of the card. After a spirited opening battle featuring a still-red hot Shield, the card completely collapsed. Other lows before the main event included an instantly forgotten John Cena/Alberto Del Rio match, another underwhelming Ryback and Mark Henry match p*ss weak wastes of the likes of Big E, AJ Lee and the aforementioned Bryan/Punk/Wyatts quartet.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say. With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.