I'm going to hold off my "Diva" rant so I can look at tomorrow's Survivor Series Pay Per View. Of all the PPV's  currently on the schedule the Survivor Series has been running for the second longest amount of time, only to be trumped by Wrestlemania. What I always liked about Survivor Series were of course the Survivor Series matches themselves. Back in the day this was a big time PPV where feuds didn't necessarily end but escalated and storylines, like the Mega Powers breaking up, were given more steam before they hit their climax. The first four Survivor Series PPV's (1987-1990) were the very best in my humble opinion because they were all about the Survivor Series matches and nothing else. If I had to pick a favorite it would either be the first Survivor Series or the 1990 version where not only did we get two major debuts (Undertaker and Gobbelty Gooker) but the winners of Surviror Series matches all came back for one last "ultimate match of survival" (faces vs heels which saw Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior emerge as the final two men standing at the end).

1991 was when the Survivor Series started to take a downhill turn for me personally. This was when they had the first non Survivor Series match on the card, when Undertaker beat Hulk Hogan for the WWE Championship with help from Ric Flair. Not only did this take two of the biggest names out of the Survival matches but it also put the main spotline on the singles match and away from the PPV's bread and butter. As time has passed the Survival matches have meant less and less..but enough of my sobbing, let's break this sucker down match by match.

World Heavyweight Championship

Chris Jericho (c) vs John Cena

This match is reminiscent of Hulk Hogan appearing in WCW for the first time. Prior to Bash at the Beach 1994 there was tons of hype for the Hulkster on WCW TV, including a contract signing that featured Ted Turner himself and a parade. The very first thing they did with Hogan was have him fight for the title straight away. Even though Hogan and Flair had a very good match there were a couple of problems with the way this was booked. First of all, having Hogan vs Flair right away is what they call "blowing your load and the first try" (note how I tried to clean that up). The Hogan debut match did not need to with Flair or for the WCW title, and the WCW title match did not need Hogan. You could have had both matches (Hogan's debut, title match) seperate and made the Bash at the Beach seem even bigger, then build up towards Hogan vs Flair for the title looking towards Starrcade. That's along the lines of what I'm seeing here.

The World Heavyweight Championship does not need John Cena's return, what should have happened here is Cena in one of the Survival matches to help build interest in those and Jericho defend against someone else...perhaps a rematch with Batista to keep that angle going. With things the way they are however I'm going to guess that there is no way Cena is going to lose his return match after so much hype, and Jericho will have another too short title run.

Casket Match

Undertaker vs Big Show

I guess you can put in the "I think the casket match has been done to death" category. I'm usually up for a Taker/Show match as more often than not they are great big man battles, but after all of these years the casket match thing bores me. I guess I'll pick the Undertaker to win, but if he does it would pretty much end the feud since he beat Show at Cyber Sunday, and I think this feud still has some steam on it. Still, I'll go with Taker.

WWE Championship

Triple H (c) vs Jeff Hardy vs Vladimir Koslov

I hate triple threats for the simple fact that they "cluster-f's". The only good "cluster-f's" in my opinion are battle royals/royal rumbles and Survival matches. I'm not a huge fan of any of the participants in this one but I'm going to pick Trips here for a couple of reasons. I wouldn't trust Hardy with a backyard wrestling championship, nevermind one of the biggest titles in the biggest wrestling promotion. With his track record I don't believe he deserves a modicum of trust. Koslov is just not ready to be at the top level, and with his severe lack of charisma I don't know if he ever will be. So Trips it is.

Survivor Series Match

Shawn Michaels, Rey Misterio, Cryme Tyme, and Great Khali vs JBL, MVP, Kane, Miz and Morrison

As a fan I would like to see the heels go over with Miz and Morrison surviving, and that's what I'm going to predict. After all I've been picking nothing but faces so far and the heels have to win something. Miz and Morrison are one of the best acts going in WWE right now, and I was beyond pissed when D-X (reforming for the 1,000,000th time) just had to get win on the 800th episode of RAW. It wouldn't have hurt his highness Triple H to lose a tag match and help rebuild the sad tag team division.

Survivor Series Match

Batista, Matt Hardy, CM Punk, R-Truth and Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton, Shelton Benjamin, William Regal, Cody Rhodes and Mark Henry

Randy Orton has a great look and is ok in the ring but is absolutely bankrupt of charisma. I don't understand why they continue to push this dullard on us. I see Batista as the sole survivor here, although that prospect doesn't thrill me. A heel turn for CM Punk however is a prospect that would thrill me.

Survivor Series Match

Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, Mickie James, Kelly Kelly and Candice Michelle vs Michelle McCool, Victoria, Natalya, Marise and Maria

Now here we have "popcorn/bathroom break/bang your head against the wall" match. I can so not care about this much, but I will predict that those of watching will be the true losers for having to suffer through it.