Behind only the franchise known as WrestleMania, Survivor Series is World Wrestling Entertainment’s second oldest pay per view franchise. Created as direct opposition to the NWA Starrcade pay per view that would also be held on Thanksgiving night 1987, the Survivor Series started out as a theme pay per view where teams of wrestlers would pair up together to battle each other in elimination tag team matches. This new pay per view was also used as a tool to further the hugely successful Hulk Hogan-Andre the Giant rivalry stemming from WrestleMania III.
Now entering its 23rd year, the late November event features a combination of Survivor Series-style elimination matches and more traditional match-ups. This year’s event will emanate live from Washington, D.C., on November 22, 2009. Over this week before this year’s show, expect plenty of lists highlighting the best of “The Thanksgiving Tradition.”
First off is a look at Survivor Series’ best non-elimination style matches. A separate list will appear soon featuring the pay per view’s best elimination style matches. These matches are not ranked through some scientific scale, but rather just observations from a long time WWE fan. So please argue a match’s placement or lack of inclusion all you want. Discussion is what makes this fun.
For the sake of brevity I am only going to rank and briefly talk about five matches, but here some honorable mentions that are worthy of checking out if you have not done so previously:
- Bret “Hit Man” Hart v. Shawn Michaels for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship (Survivor Series ’92)
- Shawn Michaels v. Sid for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship (Survivor Series ’96)
- Mankind v. The Rock for the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship (Survivor Series ’98)
- The Big Show v. Triple H v. The Rock in a triple threat match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship (Survivor Series ’99)
- Trish Stratus v. Victoria in a hardcore match for the WWE Women’s Championship (Survivor Series ’02)
- Ric Flair v. Triple H in a Last Man Standing match (Survivor Series ’05)
- Shawn Michaels v. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship (Survivor Series ’07)
- Batista v. The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match for the World Heavyweight Championship (Survivor Series ’07)
- Triple H v. Vladimir Kozlov v. Edge in a triple threat match for the WWE Championship (Survivor Series ’08)
#5 – Edge & Rey Mysterio v. Los Guerreros v. Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit in a triple threat elimination match for the WWE Tag Team Championships (Survivor Series '02)
The WWE Tag Team Championship was just introduced as a Championship in October of 2002 on the SmackDown brand as an equivalent to the RAW brand’s World Tag Team Championship. It was decided that the Championship would start off with a bang. Eight teams competed in a single elimination tournament to crown new Champions. Angle & Benoit, who were paired together by SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon for credibility purposes, won the tournament and the new belts. They immediately got caught in a rivalry with Eddie & Chavo Guerrero and the team of Mysterio & Edge.
These six men tore up the mid-card of SmackDown every week and on pay per view in various combinations of matches. Fans lovingly call this era of time the “SmackDown Six,” as any combination of the six men would guarantee a good match at worst. This triple threat elimination match was a watermark for the rivalry. Mysterio and Edge entered the match as Champions, just defeating Benoit & Angle for the straps a week and a half earlier in a fantastic 2-out-of-3 falls match on SmackDown.
Benoit and Angle went out first after Edge pinned Benoit with a Spear, which was a result the Madison Square Garden crowd did not like. The dark horse candidates of Eddie & Chavo ended up walking out as winners when Eddie caused Mysterio to submit to the Lasso from El Paso.
The three teams would continue to battle back and forth until the end of the year until everyone went their separate ways. Although it was the third title change in less than two months of the Championship’s creation, it led to credibility as it meant the SmackDown tag division was highly competitive. It was also a banner moment for Eddie and Chavo, as the uncle-nephew combo had been dreaming of being Tag Team Champions together since they were both young. Unfortunately thanks to Chris Benoit’s horrific actions back in 2007 this match will not see the light of day on WWE programming for a long time to come.
#4 – Bret “Hit Man” Hart v. Diesel for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship (Survivor Series ’95)
The stipulations of this match called for no disqualifications, no count outs and no time limit. It was the third pay per view match in their long-standing rivalry over the WWF Championship, which saw both previous matches marred by interference. Both men were coming into the match as heroes and Diesel was the reigning Champion, having held the belt for just days under one year straight at this point. Hart would be able to use the no time limit stipulation to wear down his much larger opponent while Diesel, a traditional brawler, would be able to use the no count out or disqualification environment to his advantage. It was the classic story of David versus Goliath.
Hart and Diesel had a fantastic back-and-forth match. The match also saw one of the WWF’s first ever “table bumps” as Diesel sent Hart crashing through the ringside announce table. Diesel looked to finish off Hart with his patented Jackknife Powerbomb, only for Hart to go limp as Diesel went to pick him up. Diesel took a brief moment of pity on Hart and as he went to pick The Hit Man up once again, Hart caught him with a small package for the 1-2-3 and the World Championship.
#3 – Rob Van Dam v. Kane v. Booker T v. Chris Jericho v. Shawn Michaels v. Triple H in the Elimination Chamber for the World Heavyweight Championship (Survivor Series '02)
On television The Elimination Chamber was the brainchild of RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff as a combination of Survivor Series elimination matches, WarGames and the Royal Rumble match. Six men would enter the domed structure to battle for Triple H’s World Championship. Two men would start for a five-minute period. After that every two minutes another man would leave his “pod” and enter the match. Eliminations occurred by pinfall or submission with the final man standing becoming Champion.
Triple H entered the structure to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against former WWE Champions Shawn Michaels and Kane, the first ever Undisputed WWF World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho, former five-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion Booker T and perennial championship contender Rob Van Dam. Triple H had recently defeated Kane and Van Dam at previous PPVs and was embroiled in a long-running feud with Michaels at the time. Booker and Jericho had been feuding in the tag ranks and were always top contenders for the belt so the list of participants was easy to justify.
The match went well, especially for the first time using the gimmick. It ultimately came down to Michaels and Triple H, which was the current main event on the RAW brand as it was. In the end, Michaels dropped his rival with Sweet Chin Music to win the World Heavyweight Championship, his first World Championship of any kind in over four and a half years.
It solidified the gimmick as something WWE could build a pay per view around and allowed for a blockbuster match to combine many talents into one match. The Elimination Chamber has become a successful tent pole for WWE and now anchors their February pay per view.
Video hyping up the original Elimination Chamber match:
#2 – Bret “Hit Man” Hart v. Shawn Michaels for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship (Survivor Series ’97)
Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart have had one of the most storied rivalries in professional wrestling history. Starting from their days in tag teams in the WWF back in 1988, working their through the mid-card battling over the Intercontinental Championship in the early ‘90s before finally becoming main event superstars, these two men have been through it all together. They reached new heights with their Iron Man match at WrestleMania at XII.
But it was their final swan song at Survivor Series ’97 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that everyone still talks about. Legitimate bad blood between the two men sprung up during their run against each other on top of the WWF in 1997. Hart was an in-between character leading The Hart Foundation as villains in America and faces everywhere else, while Michaels was a “tweener” in America and pretty much a villain everywhere else. The on-screen interviews between them began to get more brutal and insider, as the pair threw veiled shoot comments at each other. This rematch, with Hart’s WWF Championship on the line was eerily reminiscent of their match five years earlier at the same event, which was the first time they had ever main evented a pay per view against each other. Only this time the build-up was much more personal, as was the outcome. Everyone knew Hart and Michaels’ legitimate backstage heat, and knew that Hart was leaving for WCW shortly afterwards. Plus the match was in Bret’s home country, where he was treated as a hero. Needless to say the crowd, the viewing public and the entire wrestling world were electric for this match.
Then thanks to the most famous “screwjob” in pro wrestling history, referee Earl Hebner rang the bell as Michaels placed Hart in his signature Sharpshooter submission hold. Hart never submitted but the match ended and Hart was screwed. Michaels claimed publicly until 2002 that he had nothing to do with the charade until he spilled the truth on WWE television and later revealed the whole story in his autobiography.
Shawn Michaels explains the Screwjob
Bret Hart gives his thoughts on the Screwjob
The battle between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels raged through the WWF off and on over the better part of eight years. They battled through the tag ranks, through the mid-card and finally as the pinnacles of the profession. They fought for eight in the ring and have continued to fight for another ten outside of it. That match and the immediate aftermath have come define both men’s careers and has linked them intrinsically forever. For every Bret follower there is an equal Shawn follower. The two men are almost unparalleled, in psychology, over-ness and in-ring talent. The ripple effects of their feud are still felt today.
#1 – Bret “Hit Man” Hart v. Stone Cold Steve Austin (Survivor Series ’96)
While that match in Montreal is the greatest “moment” in Survivor Series history, the best “match” is easily Hart’s match with Stone Cold Steve Austin a year earlier at Madison Square Garden.
Austin was a star on the rise in the WWF and laid out an open challenge to Bret Hart, who had been on hiatus through 1996 since his loss to Michaels at WrestleMania XII. Hart finally returned in the fall of the year and responded to Austin’s taunts, claiming he would face “the best wrestler” in the WWF at Survivor Series.
Hart would win the match thanks to a beautiful counter while locked in Austin’s Million $ Dream submission hold, but Austin walked out of the match a star. The two men had a great scientific back-and-forth match that put Austin on the map as a legitimate player in the wrestling world. It was arguably his last good scientific wrestling match before a severe neck injury caused him to change his in-ring style. By winning the match Hart looked like the wily, cagey, main event superstar everyone knew and loved, and set the wheels in motion for a wild feud between the two men that would carry the WWF through the majority of 1997 and catapult Stone Cold Steve Austin into a mega-star.
For more information on Survivor Series:
Top Survivor Series elimination matches
Review of Survivor Series ‘89
Top Survivor Series performers
Top Survivor Series events
Survivor Series ’09 preview
Survivor Series ’09 results
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