WWE Survivor Series Results: The Rock and 10 Things I Loved and Hated

WWE Survivor Series was an overall underwhelming show, but a show defined by an at-times hot Madison Square Garden crowd that may have not been exploited to their full capacity. 

While the Twitter mentions were way down, the crowd energy seemed to be right there with it for some moments during the Big Four pay-per-view. 

The Rock's return was a good sendoff for the show, and may have been enough to consider the show an overall success; however, Survivor Series 2011 was not without its flaws.

LOVED: The New York Crowd

As expected, Madison Square Garden was nice and loud for much of the Survivor Series pay-per-view, with exceptions justifiably during low points of the show. 

The fans came up with more entertaining and innovative chants than usual, and the Garden once again showed why they are one of the few draws on pay-per-view as an arena. 

HATED: Team Barrett vs. Team Orton

The result seemed about right, with Barrett and Rhodes being the sole survivors, and the New York adoration for Cody Rhodes was certainly something to behold, but the booking of the 5-on-5 Survivor Series tag team match was slow and ineffective. 

It didn't help that Sin Cara was have been injured early in the match, which took significant momentum away from the match, but the pacing seemed off up until the finish, when Barrett mercifully got the pinfall victory over Randy Orton. 

LOVED: Big Show vs. Mark Henry

The match started out slowly, and just as the crowd had made the full heel turn on the battle of the behemoths, the wrestlers brought them right back into it when Henry speared Big Show through the barricade. 

Big Show's flying elbow from the top rope earned one of the biggest pops of the night, and the match was getting so good that the crowd became upset when it suddenly ended on a DQ finish, a far cry from the "boring" chants that rained down early on. 

HATED: The Finish to Big Show vs. Mark Henry

After the two big men had worked hard to put on yet another surprisingly good contest, with this match arguably being better than their previous tilt at Vengeance, the match inexplicably ended when Mark Henry delivered a low blow to the Big Show. 

The finish was a disappointing end to a strong match that was building to a crescendo, only go out with a whimper.  

LOVED: The Subtlety of Twitter Mentions

The WWE didn't go overboard with the Twitter mentions at Survivor Series like they did on RAW, which meant they didn't use their endless social media hawking to devalue a pay-per-view and, effectively preserving what's left of their core pay-per-view audience. 

The announcers would mention Twitter whenever something would trend, and the WWE also plugged their social media hub website, giving the fans the chance to utilize social media tools rather than turning their broadcast into one giant tweet. 

HATED: Zack Ryder Getting Scratched

During my Survivor Series prediction piece for B/R video, I predicted rather pessimistically that Ryder would lose in his own home state given the WWE's affinity for feel good gone bad. 

The WWE didn't even waste their time robbing Zack Ryder of such a moment as they scratched him from the pay-per-view just days before he seemed to have completed another successful social media campaign on Twitter lobbying to become a United States Champion. 

Predictably enough, the fans crapped on much of the match, chanting "we want Ryder" throughout a Morrison-Ziggler match that nobody wanted.

Ryder received one of the loudest pops of the night when he hit the ring, which was a solid consolation for a superstar that was easily the second biggest babyface of the night after the Rock. 

LOVED: The Super Glam Slam!

The WWE Diva's lumberjill match was nothing special...until, of course, the finish. 

After another quickie match between Beth Phoenix and Eve, Phoenix managed to defeat Eve for the second consecutive pay-per-view by unveiling a never-before-seen Glam Slam from the top rope. 

The move brought the crowd to its feet as the Divas managed to do a lot with a limited amount of time.

HATED: The Random Rock Bottom on John Cena

It made sense for the Rock and Cena to be at odds coming out of the Survivor Series pay-per-view, but the way the WWE went about booking it was certainly odd in and of itself.

Sure, Cena was in New York which, by default, made him a de facto heel.  But the Rock hitting the Rock Bottom on Cena unprovoked after Cena tried to give him the spotlight seemed quite heelish of the Rock...who was cheered for his actions by a partisan New York crowd. 

If the plan was to have the Rock attack Cena following their match with Awesome Truth, there should have been more done by Cena to pump up the animosity.  Cena's actions could have been subtle but enough to create a sense of payback once the Rock finally got his hands on him. 

LOVED: The Rock's Return to the WWE

First, he cut a fantastic promo documenting where he came from, who he was, and why he was back in the WWE.  Even a casual wrestling fan could have enjoyed that promo with limited background knowledge of pro wrestling...it was that entertaining. 

The Rock then followed up his wildly entertaining promo with a strong showing against Awesome Truth, as he didn't miss a step from his last match in 2004. 

The Rock's performance in the ring Sunday was a nice preview of what should be an epic match against John Cena at WrestleMania XXVIII. 

HATED: Another WWE Title Switch

I didn't think it was possible, but the WWE Championship means less than it did going into the pay-per-view after CM Punk defeated Alberto Del Rio, thereby switching the WWE Championship owner again. 

The WWE Championship is now more of a ratings title.  The WWE quickly reacts to poorly rated episodes of RAW and is now using the belt to manufacture interest in a currently lackluster product by constantly switching its owners. 

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