Review of WWE: Survivor Series 2007

Introduction

Back in WWE wrestling`s "good old days", which really ended as late as the early 1990s, the Survivor Series was a once-a-year time to enjoy some interesting tag team match-ups. Four wrestlers form a team, usually under a silly name (think Hulk Hogan`s "Hulkamaniacs"), with elimination rules, so that the match continued until one team was completely eliminated.

The concept of all tag-team matches on the show has long been eroded, however, and as such, only one such match occurred at Survivor Series 2007. The main event of the evening was instead the World Heavyweight Title match, in which Batista defended his title against The Undertaker, in a Hell in a Cell bout.

Survivor Series 2007 was held on 18th November 2007, from the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is very good for a DVD of this genre. As is to be expected, production values are very high for this event - in that department, the WWE is the greatest wrestling promotion in the world.

As for the transfer to DVD, it is also excellent, with only minor compression artefacts noticeable throughout the three hours of footage here.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, which is pleasing considering that this format has been inconsistently used in WWE DVDs in 2007.

The 5.1 certainly gives the audio a warmer feel, despite how good the 2.0 tracks have been in the past. Here, the surrounds contain crowd noise, entrance music, and the referee`s count, so particularly during moments of loud crowd noise, or a popular wrestler`s entrance, you feel more a part of the activity.

For international viewers, 2.0 tracks have been provided in Italian, German, Spanish, and French, with subtitles in Greek, Portuguese, and Dutch.

Features

Just one extra here, which is the return of Chris Jericho to WWE TV, after a two-year hiatus. The crowd reacted well to Jericho, but his return interview dragged just a little, in a manner in which his initial WWE appearance, in 1997, certainly did not.

That said, it`s a nice extra to have here.

Conclusion

The first bout of the evening was the ECW Title match, in which CM Punk defended against The Miz and John Morrison, in a Triple Threat match. This wasn`t a bad way to begin the show, which is something that cannot be said for the Divas match (Mickie James, Torrie Wilson, Kelly Kelly, Maria and Michelle McCool vs Beth Phoenix, Victoria, Melina, Jillian Hall, and Layla). I wish I could tell you that the Divas wrestling was improving, but it simply is not.

The WWE Tag Team Titles were on the line next, as Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch defended against Bob Holly and Cody Rhodes. Unfortunately, it wasn`t much of a match, partially because the crowd seemed to have zero interest in seeing it.

The only Survivor Series tag team match of the night was then up, as Triple-H, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, and Kane faced Big Daddy V, Finlay, Mr Kennedy, Umaga, and MVP. Originally, Matt Hardy was scheduled to be a part of the former team, but a horrible head cut prevented his participation. This was a good bout, although as can be the case with Survivor Series matches, I found the falls to be a little rushed. But in the end, the match also told a good story, which would play out on later pay-per-view events.

After The Great Khali (at around 7ft 2in) and Hornswaggle (approximately 4ft 4in) contested a "match", which I refuse to dignify with any adjective, good or bad, Randy Orton defended the WWE Title against Shawn Michaels, in a match where the latter`s favourite move, the Sweet Chin Music, was banned. Despite that hindrance, this was a good contest, which told an interesting story.

The main event of Batista vs The Undertaker, which has concluded almost countless WWE events both televised and non-televised in 2007, was again very good indeed, although I would rate it a notch below their bout at the previous pay-per-view, Cyber Sunday. This one, a Hell in a Cell contest, was more hard-hitting, but also had a finish that I didn`t care for. It may have accentuated the storyline, but it did slightly take away from the individual match.


Overall, Survivor Series 2007 was a good show, made so by the two marquee matches in Randy Orton vs Shawn Michaels, and Batista vs The Undertaker. The rest of the card didn`t have much to it - aside from a decent Survivor Series tag match encounter - and a lot of time was wasted on the useless Divas bout, and the Great Khali/Hornswaggle "match".

If you`ve been a fan of the Batista vs The Undertaker feud thus far, or have a preference for Randy Orton or Shawn Michaels, this is a title that you should certainly have in your collection.