Team Orton Vs. Team Barrett At Survivor Series

I said to expect inconsistencies and things to get a little messy around Survivor Series, but I never expected this. The big Survivor Series elimination tag match at the PPV will be Team Orton vs. Team Barrett.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Barrett is getting the push. But these are the captains of the teams? Orton and Barrett? I first figured it would be Christian and Sheamus. They had been feuding for months now. Not only that, they have both held World Championships in the WWE multiple times, as well as other honors. They had the credibility to lead teams. I know about the reports of Christian being injured recently, but they still were not heading in the direction of booking the match like this prior to the injury. If they want to make Randy Orton a captain, I can understand that. He is still top face of Smackdown. But how about making the captain of the heel team the guy he was just feuding with, Cody Rhodes? Not only would it make sense in terms of some continuity, but Cody is the Intercontinental Champion. That gives him some credibility. Barrett has the credibility of being a former Intercontinental Champion, former leader of Nexus/Corre, and has been in some PPV main events. But what has he done lately? They were just starting to rebuild him. This is a huge step in that rebuild. I also think it is unnecessary.

What would I have done? Team Orton vs. Team Rhodes. Wade Barrett would definitely be in the match too, but he does not have to lead his team. Have him be the soul survivor of the victorious heel team or last heel eliminated by the winning face team. That still makes him look impressive. He could then branch off to a feud with Orton.

Orton's feud with Cody Rhodes was disappointing. I knew not to expect great things to branch off from this for Cody Rhodes. But how the feud itself progressed was pretty dull. Good workers. Cody looked good at times. The problem? Just ended too soon and development was held back at times by Orton still going after Mark Henry. Cody looked a lot better during his feud with Rey Mysterio earlier. I hope they at least start giving him a good Intercontinental title feud now.

In a completely unrelated topic, I heard a "report" that Natalya and Beth Phoenix are going to enter a feud over the Diva's Championship. Given the source, I will wait to see what happens. 40% of me does not believe that these two will be entering a feud over the title. 40% of me believes it will be as mediocre as Jillian/Melina or Natalya/Melina, not to mention still be overshadowed by possibly Kelly Kelly. 20% of me believes this may be actually the turning point of the diva division to something respectable. Are all those poor ratings on Raw leading to a change? Is TNA's KO division developing even further leading to the WWE making better use of as much of their diva roster as possible, similar to TNA? It could happen. I'm just not convinced just yet. The partnering between Beth and Natalya definitely would have to end sooner or later. With Natalya losing so much recently, some may make the assumption that the split will happen now and you will have some kind of feud similar to LayCool earlier this year. LayCool were centerpieces. Beth and Natalya are credible jobbers. That is what really makes me doubt that I will see an elaborate storyline between these two heels.