The champ is here

The Champ is back. WWE Survivor Series proved to be one heck of a homecoming for newly crowned World Heavyweight champion John Cena, as he made his triumphant return to the WWE in his hometown of Boston defeating Chris Jericho for the title.

Nobody knew what kind of shape Cena would be in, as he has missed the past few months to recuperate from surgery on his neck. But Cena silenced doubters once again as he showed up in top form to walk away with the championship.

In the other championship match, Jeff Hardy was a late scratch for some unspecified reason and Triple H was forced to go one on one with the undefeated Vladimir Kozlov. The match was pretty slow up until Edge decided to show up and, with the help of Vickie Guerrero, spear both Triple H and Kozlov to win the WWE title. Jeff Hardy also tried to interfere but was too late the hero.

Other notable matches of Survivor Series include Undertaker putting the Big Show in a big casket, Team HBK winning over Team JBL and Randy Orton blindsiding Batista to score a victory for his team.

I got a chance to talk to one of the members of Team Batista, ECW champion Matt Hardy before Survivor Series. Here is what he had to say:

PHILIPPINE STAR: How does it feel to be ECW champion?

MATT HARDY: I’m doing my best to carry the ECW title with a lot of honor and a lot of pride. My goal is to be the greatest ECW champion of modern times.

 You’ve had a lot of success as a tag team with your brother Jeff. What’s it like now having success as a singles competitor?

When you’re a singles’ competitor, you succeed on your own watch. If you’re great and if you succeed as a singles competitor, you’re going to get all the glory for it. If you’re a tag team, it’s a team effort. When you’re on your own, you choose your destiny. You don’t have anyone to carry the weight but you. I really dig being a singles competitor because I’m very confident in myself, very confident in my abilities. So far, as a singles competitor, it’s been a great year for me. I won the United States championship and now I’m really having an excellent run with the ECW championship.

What can you say about you and your brother headlining your respective shows?

I think it’s cool. I think it really says something when you have a great tag team — not just a team of two singles thrown together — that was able to split apart and go on to be successful singles stars. I truly believe in my heart that me and Jeff will be the only true brother tag team that went on to be singles stars and became World Heavyweight champions.

You’re one of those guys who always seems to be a fan favorite, is there a reason for that?

I think the biggest reason for that is that we are so relatable, both me and Jeff. We are two guys who aren’t extraordinarily large and don’t extraordinarily stand out in size or shape or whatever. We are just a good combination of everything. We’re like a working man. We started from the very bottom, from ground zero, and worked our way up and we earned everything we’ve gotten. We started from as low as you can get in the WWE, from the very bottom of the totem pole. And as time went on, we worked hard and we continued to excel and continue to bust our butt and continue to do things we need to do to succeed, and I think people really relate to that and attach that to their life. A lot of people start from the bottom of a company or a job and work hard and scratch and claw their way to the top and make more money and become a boss and become an executive. I think they can really relate to us because we’re very much like them.

What can we expect from Survivor Series?

I’m really excited about my tag team match. I’m in one of the traditional Survivor Series matches with Team Batista — myself, Batista, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston and CM Punk. I’m very excited about that and I really feel like we’re going to be the Survivor Series match that steals the show. 

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Thanks to Jack TV for inviting me to the exclusive, by-invitation-only screening of WWE Survivor Series. Expect more great WWE events from Jack TV to come. Check out www.jacktv.com.ph for more details.

For questions, comments or corrections, e-mail me at carlfrancisramirez@gmail.com