In the lead-up to Survivor Series, conventional wisdom would have said that John Cena would have found a way to Rise Above the Authority and overcome the odds to win, standing tall as the sole survivor. Instead, WWE threw fans a curve by having Cena barely get involved in the match and get eliminated midway through, leaving Dolph Ziggler to battle Seth Rollins, Luke Harper and Kane by himself. Sure, Big Show turning heel for the 8,000th time is just ridiculous, but it was a perfect way to stack the odds against Dolph. And Ziggler took advantage of his main event spotlight, managing to eliminate all three men to send the Authority packing. This of course is especially satisfying given all the trash-talking that Triple H was doing at Ziggler in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series, saying he hasnt really amounted to much and fallen short at breaking the glass ceiling. Taking out all three opponents single-handedly you have to remember that he got two visual pinfalls on Rollins before the overbooking started is one way to break through. Dolph gave fans plenty of heart-stopping near-falls during the match, which the live crowd bought hook, line and sinker. Thats a good sign moving forward, and maybe hell finally be elevated above the Intercontinental Championship and start fighting a little higher on the card.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
