The development for this match has been better than any other angle currently going on. It has been very good. They have done a good job creating that tension about which team various wrestlers will be a part of. Whose side is Ryback on? The Wyatts have gotten involved, but can they be trusted? The Authority has also done a good job throwing their weight around. I got the feeling they were starting to overproduce this feud near the end, but I can cut them some slack. Sheamus is injured. That obviously has an impact on things.
Who wins? I have already given my reasons why I feel The Authority should not disband. Can they lose power and still exist as a group? Would it still have the same feel? I have read rumors that Stephanie McMahon is pregnant again and that is why they want to write the stable off. That is stupid. You can run the group with Triple H as the leader. They wouldn't end the group just for that. They should not end it unless they have a great creative direction to go after doing it. On the other side, what happens if Cena's team loses and his partners get fired? Cena's job is safe. Obviously, being fired in kayfabe is nothing. Those four members of Team Cena can come back as some kind of stable of their own. John Cena does not need to turn heel for his team to lose. You can just have a situation where Cena could not overcome the situation or he gets screwed. One of his own team might screw the others to secure his own job. That is what I think is likely. There will be shenanigans. Team Authority is my pick to win.
Let me talk about the Survivor Series card in general. This is honestly the worst PPV card I have seen from the WWE since I started watching regularly in 1998. I am not talking about the names on the card and how much star power they have. I am talking about the number of matches and the build those matches have had. There are only 5 advertised matches for this year's Survivor Series. For the sake of comparison, there were 7 matches last year, not counting the pre-show. The only PPV that can get away with having so few matches is the Royal Rumble. That is because the Royal Rumble match takes up so much time and is the main draw for that PPV. The main draw for this PPV is obviously Team Cena vs. Team Authority. I doubt that match will last as long as the Royal Rumble match typically does. Moreover, I do not think it is a big enough match to sell this PPV. I have spoken about the feud between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt, which is the top feud outside of the main angle going on, and the feud between AJ Lee and The Bellas, which is the top diva feud. I have pointed out that the storyline and feud development there has not been that great. Those other two matches added to the card recently are even worse. These are filler matches. That tag title match does not matter too much. The tag division is currently at a low it has not been in years. And that second diva match they added just screams filler. It is made up of divas that have not been doing anything major in recent weeks. It is made up of credible jobbers and eye-candy periphery divas that have nothing better to do than be treated like credible jobbers. I am not surprised they would add a diva match to the card as filler. I was also thinking they would add Adam Rose vs. The Bunny as filler. Let's see if they at least further the issues there at Survivor Series. I would expect them to still add more filler to the show in some way. I know about all the depth issues, but that is not excuse for not developing feuds better.
Of course, Survivor Series is free this month. There is that free trial for the WWE Network. When I talk about "selling" this PPV, I am really talking about creating interest in it, not talking about it financially. Why is it important to sell this PPV even when practically anyone can watch it for free? When you do this free trial thing, you want to convince fans to pay for it after the trial ends. You want to put your best foot forward during this month. Has the WWE succeeded in doing that? Well, they started out with a good move. Rusev won the United States title on the WWE Network. I will also give the WWE credit for developing Team Authority vs. Team Cena like they have. Outside of that, however, everything else has been mediocre or worse. Development for other feuds has not been great. Still a lot of filler and stupidity. I do not think this free trial will lead to more fans subscribing for $9.99, even without the 6-month commitment. Expect a lot of subscribers during Wrestlemania season, but before that and after that, poor numbers. The quality of the product needs to be hotter on a consistent basis and some of that excitement needs to be exclusively on the WWE Network if they want to draw fans in and get them interested in paying.
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