Welcome to our live coverage of WWE’s Survivor Series PPV from Boston, Massachusetts.

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- Jeff Hardy is indeed backstage in Boston (which will come as no surprise I’m sure).

- THE Brian Kendrick beat Funaki in a dark match (thanks to Rick Hall for sending that in to us direct from Boston)

- The Survivor Series PPV gets underway with the usual video packages, largely built around John Cena’s return later tonight.

- Jim Ross and Tazz announce that the Jeff Hardy situation is “under investigation,” noting that CNN, ABC, TMZ and others carried the story. I don’t think any of those mentioned other than WWE.com carried it. Tazz had his sunglasses off to make it appear serious. Ross said its still unknown if Hardy will compete tonight. I call title switch. I’ll likely also change my mind on that call throughout the night.!

- Team HBK (Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, The Great Khali, Cryme Tyme) vs. Team JBL (JBL, Kane, MVP, The Miz & John Morrison) opens the show. Michaels opening a PPV. Wow. Todd Grisham and Matt Striker are actually at ringside, which I wasn’t sure they would be since there’s no ECW-exclusive brand matches on the card.

MVP and Mysterio started out the match. I was expecting MVP to be buried in seconds but that wasn’t the case. Mysterio made the tag to JTG of Cryme Tyme, who was quickly pinned by MVP. Khali then tagged in, chopped MVP across the head and then pinned MVP to make it 4-4. HUGE chants for Khali as he and Kane went at it before Mysterio was tagged back in. Mysterio splashed Kane from the shoulders of Khali and got the pin on Kane.

Mysterio and Morrison went at it next before Shad was tagged in and worked over by Miz and Morrison. Shad made his comeback but after Morrison distracted him, Miz hit the Reality Check and got the pin. That brought in Shawn Michaels, who was also double teamed by Miz and Morrison before JBL was introduced.

A JBL right hand looked to bust Michaels open hardway near his eye. Morrison got the better of Michaels and started doing his moveset, only for HBK to move out of the way of a top rope elbow. He made the tag to Mysterio who took it to Miz. He hit the 619 and a splash off the top for the pin on Miz. 3-2 to Team HBK. Mysterio set up Morrison for the 619 but didn’t see JBL being tagged in. JBL pretty much killed him with a shoulderblock before dropping a number of elbow drops. Crowd are all over JBL with “You can’t wrestle” chants.

Morrison is tagged back in. He works over Mysterio, as does JBL. Mysterio comes back with a moonsault which catches JBL in the mouth. Hot tag to Michaels, crowd goes nuts and Michaels goes through his moveset with JBL. JBL rolls out the ring, only for Michaels to dive over the top rope on top of him. JBL and Michaels then brawl around the ring, with Michaels only getting back in the ring at the count of nine and JBL being counted out. Morrison then looks to hit the superkick on Michaels, who ducks and lands it himself before making the pin. Winners: Team HBK with survivors Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio and The Great Khali.

- Backstage, Triple H reacts to the Jeff Hardy “situation” saying that Jeff will “scratch and claw” his way back to the top tonight if he can’t compete. Its Trips vs. Kozlov in a singles match tonight. Crowd boos that.

- Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown Divas match is up next. This is also under Survivor Series elimination rules. Mickie James gets a much bigger reaction than any of the other Divas. Other than her, the crowd only really reacted to Maria and I guess Kelly Kelly and Candice a little. We’ll just run through the order of eliminations in this one as this was just awful with no crowd heat and some sloppy stuff going on in the ring.

Kelly Kelly (Raw) pinned Victoria
Maryse (SD) pinned Kelly Kelly
Mickie James (Raw) pinned Michelle McCool
Maryse (SD) pinned Mickie James
Candice (Raw) pinned Natalya
Maria (SD) pinned Jillian Hall
Candice (Raw) pinned Maria
Beth (Raw) pinned Maryse (the most untalented female in this company)

Winner: Team Raw with sole survivor Beth Phoenix.

- Backstage where Todd Grisham interviews Matt Hardy. Grisham again says CNN, TMZ etc covered the story. Matt says Jeff was hit in the back of the head and that he’s “not really sure” if Jeff will be able to compete tonight. I’m still calling a title change.

- The Undertaker vs. Big Show in a Casket match is up next. They went outside the ring early with Big Show in control. Matt Striker looked worried as his cushy seat is taken away as Show sets up the ECW announce table. Taker fights back and hits Show with a TV monitor. Taker then stands on the Raw announce table and legdrops Show through the ECW table.

Then head back to the ring where Show hits a suplex. He rolls Taker into the casket and calls for the referees to close the lid. Show is told he has to close it himself. He tries and fails. Taker makes a comeback until he runs into a reverse elbow. Big Show then climbs the ropes and goes for a Banzai Drop but is caught on the ropes and chokeslammed off the second rope. Show is kicked into the casket and Taker tries to close the lid, only for Show to block it and return to the ring.

Show hits a chokeslam and goes to the outside. For some reason he tips the casket upside down which won’t help. Turns out he’s had enough and he starts to walk to the back. The camera catches a sign saying ‘Jeff - Please stay clean’ as Taker rises to his feet and follows Taker up the ramp. Show is met with a huge wall of fire and we’re about to enter hokey territory as a production crew member scampers onto the stage to stomp on a flame that won’t go out. Druids bring out another casket as the two fight on the stage (we’re supposed to believe druids hang out in the gorilla position with a second casket?).

Show picks up the casket and stands it upright. They go back and forth with punches before Show is thrown into the casket. As his weight causes the casket to topple over, the lid closes. Winner: The Undertaker.

That was a huge, huge disappointment I thought.

- Backstage, the Colons are hanging out with the Bella Twins. They are interrupted by…THE GOBBLEDYGOOKER! They think its Charlie Haas dressed up. Charlie then enters the shot and the Gooker is revealed as The Boogeyman.

- Still backstage and a Team Orton teamtalk. orton says his team won’t lose tonight. He says the team has their strengths and weaknesses (singling out Cody Rhodes as the weakness). Orton says to follow his lead as more tension is teased between him and Rhodes.

- Team Batista (Batista, Matt Hardy, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston and R-Truth) vs. Team Orton (Randy Orton, Mark Henry, Cody Rhodes, Shelton Benjamin and William Regal is up next. Elimination rules apply here as well. The match gets off to a flying start with Punk hitting Regal with the GTS seconds after the opening bell and getting the pin after 11 seconds. A replay shows that a pissed off Layla threw her heels at Punk after the pinfall, catching him in the face. Nice.

The heels work over Kofi until Matt Hardy is tagged in. He and R-Truth then take it to Cody Rhodes. Batista is tagged in and Rhodes bails to the outside before tagging in Benjamin. Things go back and forth before we get Hardy vs. Orton which wakes the crowd up. The crowd have been quiet for a lot of the show thus far. Hardy misses a moonsault and Orton tags in Henry. Hardy is worked over by the heels with some quick tags before R-Truth is tagged in again. He and Benjamin go at it again. Truth misses the ax-kick and Benjamin hits Paydirt for the pin.

Kofi looks to get a quick pin on Benjamin but has no joy. Henry is tagged in and beats on Kofi before Orton is tagged in and stomps all over him. Orton misses a knee drop and Kofi tries to make a comeback. Orton gets pissed and hits a DDT for the pin.

Punk then takes it to Orton until Orton tags out to Rhodes. They have a nice series of exchanges and near falls. Manu distracts Punk which allows Rhodes to hit a DDT and make the pin. Orton’s team is 4-2 up.

Hardy hits the Side Effect on Henry for a two count. Henry catches Hardy coming off the top rope and slams him for the pin. Batista then spears Henry and pins him. He follows that with a spinebuster on Benjamin and a Batista Bomb to make it 2-1 to Team Orton. Batista hits Rhodes with a big boot and a clothesline then hits a powerslam.

Real good finish to this match which woke the crowd up. Batista had Rhodes up for the Batista Bomb. Orton tags in and hits the RKO as Dave thinks he has Rhodes pinned. Winners: Team Orton with survivors Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes. Second half of the match was real good.

- Backstage, Vladimir Kozlov says it makes no difference if Jeff Hardy wrestles tonight as he’s becoming champion.

- Jim Ross and Tazz inform us that Jeff Hardy will not be involved in tonight’s main event. Tazz has the glasses back on. Inconsistency, man. They air a Hardy video package that they would have aired if he was in the match. I actually had this going on last if Hardy was going to be involved so I guess we’ll see.

- Triple H vs. Vladimir Kozlov for the WWE title is up next. “We want Jeff” chants can be heard before the match has even started. Slow paced start with Hunter using rest holds and grounding Kozlov. Trips hit a high knee and a couple of clotheslines then a DDT. The crowd really couldn’t care less at this point. There’s even a small TNA chant started.

Trips goes for a pedigree but Kozlov counters and hits his battering ram finisher. Both get back to their feet without a pinfall attempt and Trips is sent to the outside. Koslov hit headbutts and shoulder tackles in the ring then a powerslam for a two count. Kozlov continues to stay in control as “Boring” chants start. There’s just no interest in this at all.

Kozlov hits a belly-to-belly suplex before Trips hits a pediree out of nowhere. The crowd rise to their feet as Vickie Guerrero comes out and announces “HE’S HERE! HE’S HERE!” We’re told we’re getting a triple-threat match and out comes….EDGE! Crowd finally livens up as Edge, complete with beard that makes him look crazier than before, hits the ring. He hits a spear on Triple H and goes for the cover, but out comes….JEFF HARDY. Jeff and Edge brawl in the ring before Jeff gets a chair. He goes to hit Edge, who ducks. Jeff takes out Triple H and then Kozlov with the chair before Edge hits him with a spear.

Edge then makes the cover on Triple H and gets the pin. Winner and new WWE champion - Edge.

A really bad match which was saved by the ending, which saw Edge and Vickie back together (again) and then coming out of it with a big twist in the storyline. Triple H and Undertaker have both had stinkers tonight, although you obviously can’t blame them entirely. The booking I find a little bizarre. Jeff is ruled out only a few minutes before he actually runs in but isn’t part of the match still because Edge is? I guess they’ll have to explain it on TV this week.

- A LONG Cena video package plays.

- Chris Jericho vs. John Cena for the World Heavyweight title is up next. Crowd are split on Cena but pretty much behind him. He went for an early FU but Jericho escaped. For the record, Cena’s new t-shirt, ripped from the AWA logo, is horrendous.

Cena took the match to Jericho with a takedown and shots to the midsection. He went for the STFU but Jericho escaped that as well. Jericho got back into the match and started to dominate. Cena got back into the match briefly and went to the top rope but then changed his mind and got back into the ring. On commentary they put it over as indecision as the last time he went to the top rope (Summerslam) he got injured. Jericho kicked Cena in the face against the ring post and he fell to the outside.

Once back in the ring, Jericho was back on the attack and tossed Cena back to the outside. Jericho tried to remove the padding from the ringside barriers but with no joy so instead whipped Cena into the ring steps. Jericho then slowed the pace down with a chinlock with Cena slowly but eventually escaped from. Cena went for a flying shoulderblock but Jericho ducked and Cena hit the canvas.

Jericho slowed the pace down again with a Full Nelson. Cena escaped after what seemed like a lifetime and started to make his comeback with shoulder tackles, only for Jericho to counter another Cena move. Cena avoided a Lionsault and went for the Five Knuckle Shuffle, only for Jericho to see it coming and lock in the Walls of Jericho, but with his knee driven into Cena’s head as well. Cena escaped but then walked into a clothesline.

Jericho locked in the Walls again, this time right in the middle of the ring. Cena struggled towards the ropes, almost tapping out before reaching them. He then hits Jericho with an FU out of nowhere but Jericho kicked out of the cover. Cena ran into an elbow to the face before both men went to the top rope and clashed heads. Jericho was then thrown from teh top rope and Cena stood up top and hit a legdrop. He then went for the FU but Jericho blocked it and hit the codebreaker. Jericho made the cover but Cena kicked out on two.

Jericho hit Cena with a big clothesline. The crowd aren’t as hot for this as you’d expect in places. Cena then runs into another clothesline. Jericho charges at Cena for a third clothesline but Cena puts him into the STFU. Jericho manages to escape but Cena then lifts him up and hits the FU. He makes the cover and gets the win. Winner and new World Heavyweight Champion: John Cena.

After the match, Cena went into the crowd and hugged his family and friends as we saw a replay of the finish. Solid match but nothing spectacular to close what, in my opinion, was a fairly average PPV at best in terms of the in-ring content. Cena didn’t look at 100% and looked quite limited in terms of what he could do. At least we’ve got a couple of interesting storylines coming out of it.

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage tonight!

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com