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Time and location
BOSTON – Not even the return of Rey Mysterio and the bright lights of a WWE pay-per-view could derail the oncoming train that was Roman Reigns, as The Shield’s main muscle outlasted the competition in a 5-on-5 Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team Match to become the sole survivor.
Explosive Elimination Match photos
Joining The Ultimate Underdog in his Survivor Series return were two pairs of battling brothers — WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes & Goldust and the high-flying Usos. Opposite them was the intimidating Shield, consisting of Reigns, tag team partner Seth Rollins & U.S. Champion Dean Ambrose and the surging Real Americans, Jack Swagger & Antonio Cesaro.
The stipulations of the match indicate that the teams compete in a five-on-five tag contest with the added twist that Superstars are eliminated individually — via pinfall, submission, disqualification or count-out — until one squad has no members remaining.
Kicking off the bout — and the 27th Annual Survivor Series event proper — Cody Rhodes and Dean Ambrose set a fast-paced tone for what would be an explosive and memorable contest. But when Ambrose got into a heated argument with the referee, the titleholder literally talked his way out of the match, as Rhodes rolled him up for the bout’s first elimination.
After order momentarily broke down, the match reset and a lightning-fast Rey Mysterio lit up Boston’s TD Garden. Mysterio hit Swagger with a 619 and spun him into an aerial assault by The Usos, who in turn eliminated The Real American from the bout and set their team up with the 5-on-3 advantage.
However, teammate Antonio Cesaro would swing the momentum back in his team’s direction, literally, trapping both Uso brothers in successive, impressive Cesaro Swings. Yet a quick tag in would allow the younger Rhodes brother to trap a slightly dizzy Cesaro, rolling him up for the three-count, and putting Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins in a bad way.
The tag team partners worked in tandem to isolate their opponents, though, and a Reigns spear to Jimmy Uso was followed by a cover, eliminating one brother from the bout.
Rollins and Cody then locked horns, and though Rhodes was able to hit the Cross Rhodes on his opponent, Rollins had already tagged in Reigns, who nailed Cody with a spear before covering him for the three-count. Jey Uso and Reigns went at it on the outside, with The Shield member being hurled into the ringside barrier.
When Rollins pinned Jey back inside the ring after yet another spear, the odds were quickly evened up, with the remaining Shield members facing off against Goldust & Rey. Despite taking a nasty spill, The Master of the 619 dug deep and found a way to roll up Rollins for the pinfall.
And so it came down to Roman Reigns, facing both Mysterio & Goldust, exactly one year after The Shield made their infamous WWE debut. Unlike how it had been for the majority of that year, however, Reigns did not have the numbers advantage, staring down at two WWE legends on his own.
A thundering spear from the black-clad brickhouse, delivered to Goldust, turned the match around on a dime and set up an epic one-on-one battle 30 minutes into the bout. Unbeknown to the WWE Universe, however, was just how close to the end it was. When Rey set up his foe for a potentially match-ending 619, Reigns bounced up from the ropes and floored Mysterio with a ring-shaking spear.
And so it was that Roman Reigns stood alone in the end, eliminating four members of the opposition with four spears, and emerging as the sole survivor in a bout brimming with top talent.