I was just reading on a another thread about blowing speakers. How can one watt really be that loud when receivers and amplifiers are rated 50-100+ watts?

I know that music and movies often times "spike" and get super loud or a car might crash into a wall. Is this peek when the receiver uses all the wattage?

I just picked up the Yamaha RX-V995 5.1 Receiver and its rates at 100 watts per channel with .04 THD distortion 20-20hz. Is this good? Can this power Cerwin Vega VS 12" Floor speakers for the main channel?