WWE: Survivor Series Retrospective

michael dworkis looks back at wrestling’s fall classic …

With the 2011 Survivor Series this Sunday, Pop-Break’s resident wrestling writer, Michael Dworkis, looks back at some of his favorite memories from the annual November pay-per-view.

Some of my favorite matches took place at Survivor Series. At the 1990 Survivor Series, there was an interesting stipulation. The surviving member of each team would go on to the final match on a combined team of survivors. One side were the faces, the other were heels. In the end result saw the three-on-five match pitting Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, and Tito Santana, against Rick Martel, Paul Roma, Hercules, The Warlord, and “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase. Hogan and the Warrior were the sole survivors of the night.

Another favorite came the next year at the 1991 Survivor Series. The match was between Ric Flair, The Mountie, Ted Dibiase, and The Warlord against “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, The British Bulldog, and Virgil. After over twenty-two minutes of intense wrestling, Flair was thrown to the outside, which cued a brawl between surviving tag members, Piper, Hart, Virgil, Dibiase and The Mountie. The brawl became too intense for the referee, that he disqualified everyone in the ring. Flair, who was on the outside returned to the ring after the melee broke up was declared the winner and sole survivor of the match. Was it an accident, or just an example of “The Dirtiest Player in the Game.”

The second major event came at the end of the night, with help from Ric Flair, The Undertaker defeated Hulk Hogan for the World Championship. This prompted a special event just a week later called Tuesday in Texas. Predictably, Hogan regained the title.

The following year saw a break from the series of tag team elimination matches, instead showcasing a variety of matches in both singles and tag-team divisions. The main event saw Bret Hart retain the World Title against Shawn Michaels.

Survivor Series 1993 was a year of controversy as The Hart Family (Bret, Owen, Keith, and Bruce) squared off against Shawn Michaels and his Knights. This match was a huge build-up as Bret Hart and Jerry Lawler began a heated feud beginning during the summer after Hart won the annual King of the Ring Tournament. Lawler did not show up at the event due to facing severe charges against him. The match itself did not last long, as all of The Knights were dispatched rather quickly. During some confusion, Owen bumped into his brother Bret on the ring apron, allowing Michaels to roll him up for the elimination. Irate, Owen was sent to the back. After the Harts declared victory, Owen returned to the ring and a fight ensued between “The Rocket” and “The Hitman.” This family feud stretched all the way to that year’s WrestleMania where the two collided in a steel cage match, one which the late-Owen Hart emerged victorious.

Controversy became a theme just four years later at the 1997 Survivor Series. If you do not know what I am talking about, does the term “The Montreal Screwjob” sound familiar? If it does not, then prepare to get screwed. The days of Bret Hart in WWE were coming to an end, and his match with Shawn Michaels to be his last. The original plan was for Michaels to win on a disqualification, and Bret would vacate the next night on Raw. Reason being, Bret felt it in poor taste to lose the title in his hometown. Vince and others had different plans. During the hard-fought match, Michaels locked Hart into his own finishing hold, the Sharpshooter, and referee Earl Hebner frantically rushed for the bell to be rung. Everyone dove from the ring, leaving Hart confused and irate. The moment cemented into history saw Bret Hart spit in the face of Vince McMahon.

In 2001, Vince McMahon purchased WCW an integrated it into his company. An angle quickly followed where an Alliance of WCW and ECW talent banded together in an attempt to become the dominant roster in wrestling. This came to pinnacle at Survivor Series 2001, where The Alliance team of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Shane McMahon, Booker T, and Rob Van Dam faced off against WWE mainstays The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Big Show, Kane, and The Undertaker. After a crazy back-and-forth bout, the two headliners of wrestling, The Rock and Stone Cold were left. The crowd was on their feet for the rest of the match, and who wouldn’t be? Attempt after attempt by each man for victory was thwarted by the other. The Rock kicked out of a stunner, Austin kicked out of a Rock Bottom! When would this end! With the referee distracted, it seemed Austin and the Alliance were ready to seal their victory, until Kurt Angle rushed out and blasted Austin with the WWF Title Belt! The Rock seized the opportunity, hit one last Rock Bottom, scoring the pinfall and the win.

Some other notable trips down Survival Lane include:

2002: Shawn Michaels winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Triple H in the first-ever six-man Elimination Chamber match.

2003: Vince McMahon defeated The Undertaker in a Buried-Alive match, setting up the Undertaker-Kane match at WrestleMania XX.

2006: Team DX (Triple H, HBK, CM Punk, Matt & Jeff Hardy) defeated Team Rated-RKO (Edge, Orton, Gregory Helms, Johnny Nitro (Morrison), & Mike Knox). What made this special, as this was the first time ever in Survivor Series history that one team swept another without any member being eliminated.

Unfortunately the past few years saw little in the way of memorable matches, unless you include last year where Cena was to be fired from WWE after helping Orton defeat Wade Barrett, but predictably, that firing did not actually stick. This year we are promised a main event with John Cena and The Rock teaming up against The Miz and R-Truth and one traditional five-on-five elimination match. Hopefully this year we get a good performance from The Rock and not a two-minute heroic save following a hot tag from Cena.