IF you're a fan of great storytelling then put down your Harry Potter book, switch off Coronation Street and grab yourself a video of this week's WWE Survivor Series.

That's because this was the best-written wrestling show of the year with lots of long-running storylines culminating in exciting and heated match-ups.

The big news of the night was that fan favourites Steve Austin, The Undertaker and Shane McMahon are all gone from the WWE, temporarily at least.

More importantly the show built for the coming months - making Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Chris Benoit, Kane, Randy Orton and Goldberg all look like stars and creating some fresh rivalries.

Spots of the night – This award was always going to go to the Kane v Shane McMahon ambulance match, but what pleasantly surprised us about this one is that all the stunts were well thought out.

Rather than Shane just leaping off the top of the TitanTron as in their last PPV outing, McMahon's high spots were more measured, but still spectacular.

The two memorable ones for us were his flying top rope elbow putting Kane through the Spanish announce table and a Van Terminator from the ambulance roof.

And the best part was the ending, which saw Kane secure a convincing victory thanks to a Tombstone on the steel entrance-way – the move which when performed on Shane's mother Linda started their feud in the first place.

Burial of the night – Kane was also involved in the finish to the Vince McMahon v Undertaker match, which was kept both short and sweet enough to hold our interest.

Vince bladed from the outset and Undertaker's domination meant piles of the boss's blood were literally splattered all over the ring, its surroundings and even the announce table.

But just as Taker was going to put Vince away for good there was a surprise – as we predicted last week – when Kane shot a fireball into his estranged brother's face and then helped Vince bury Undertaker alive.

We've seen angles like this with Taker before and just like Austin and Shane he will be back, possibly with his original gimmick, in time for WrestleMania.

Of course at one point The Undertaker will return from this week's burial to get his revenge on his storyline brother and Kane could well jump to Smackdown for a WrestleMania showdown.

Overall – Survivor Series achieved everything we hoped it would and more. The right men were put over in each bout, the WWE's major storylines had near-perfect pay-offs and the twists and turns all made sense.

We give Survivor Series 8.5 out of 10.

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