The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Survivor Series Moments

Survivor Series is right around the corner. As someone who grew up in the era of the big four WWF PPVs, this is one of my favorite annual shows, and I associate Thanksgiving time more or less equally with family time, turkey, and elimination tag team matches. So, this week I’m taking a look back at my picks for the best moments of Survivor Series,

In compiling this countdown, my primary consideration was impact of the moment at the time—how much buzz and intrigue it created, the way it paid off storylines, and how the moment felt in its context. Also important, but secondary, I factored in historical impact, both in terms of how momentous the moment felt from a broader perspective, and how impactful it was for the business in the years to follow. As always, my personal opinion weighs heavily.

Team WWF vs Team Alliance – WWF Survivor Series… by vsplanet

#7. The End of The Alliance, 2001

In the aftermath of WrestleMania 17 and with it, The Attitude Era, and particularly after the Two-Man Power Trip angle came to an abrupt and premature ending, the InVasion dominated WWF programming.

And… it wasn’t great.

As critics go, I’m actually more forgiving of The Invasion angle than most. While it certainly didn’t reach its potential, the right contracts weren’t all there, and creative decisions like pushing Shane and Stephanie McMahon and Steve Austin at the top of The Alliance diminished the sense of a true invasion in favor of just another WWF storyline, I nonetheless enjoyed Booker T’s sub-program with The Rock, loved the rivalry Steve Austin and Kurt Angle cultivated (both as full-blown enemies, and frenemies) during this time, appreciated the emergence of RVD as a superstar, and even look to the Diamond Dallas Page stalker angle as a guilty pleasure (with full acknowledgment that DDP could and should have been much more at that point).

So, when Survivor Series rolled around and with it a ten-man elimination tag that would see the losing side surrender and disband, I actually expected The Alliance to go over, prolong their storyline, and maybe see the WWF faithful work from underneath as guerilla warriors and rebels to reassert themselves in the months to follow.

At this point, I’ll concede the WWF knew better. For rather than carrying on with The Invasion and evolving it to what I thought of as The Occupation, instead, the promotion essentially acknowledged its mistakes, pulled the plug on the experiment, and moved on with the battle lines dissolved, Steve Austin turning back to a face, and unifying title shortly thereafter to remove any trace of the WCW name from the active WWF storylines.

The Survivor Series match was, itself, quite good, and I particularly appreciated Shane McMahon playing the runner, breaking up falls with a real sense of urgency until the WWF big guys got a hold of him. While the closing movements, including Kurt Angle’s double-agent machinations were a little too convoluted for their own good, the WWF wound up winning, and the final visual for the show was Vince McMahon emerging from the back, fist raised in the air in triumph. While many of us look to Austin and McMahon drinking beer in the middle of the ring at the end of WrestleMania 17 as the two of them toasting the WWF’s victory in the Monday Night War, this end to Survivor Series seven months later was a suitable coda, and more literal kayfabe representation of what had occurred—The Rock standing tall in the ring, McMahon unable to contain himself from emerging from backstage to celebrate his victory.

Team Austin vs Team Bischoff part 3 Survivor… by TheGame755

#6. Shawn Michaels Goes Down Swinging, 2003

2003 wasn’t exactly a sterling year for Raw programming, but it did pay off in my pick for the greatest Survivor Series match of all-time—Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff in a traditional elimination tag team match, out of which the winning team would see its GM get sole authority over Raw.

Interestingly enough, the rosters for this match don’t look particularly spellbinding on paper. On Bischoff’s side, you had Scott Steiner months after the brief period when WWE took him seriously as a singles performer, Mark Henry years before the Hall of Pain gimmick, Chris Jericho and Christian who were great performers but treated as upper mid-carders at that point, and Randy Orton as the lone ascendant mega star. Austin’s side had establishment star Shawn Michaels at the fore, but he was backed by RVD and Booker T—a pair saddled together at a point in between their respective hot streaks as main event talents, plus The Dudley Boyz who as great as they once were had clearly passed their primes as WWE performers.

Despite the rosters’ limitations, this match benefited from Austin and Bischoff having generated excellent heat for the overarching program, including the intrigue of fiercely independent Austin having to trust other wrestlers to represent him. From there, the match was beautifully constructed, taking its time with no eliminations until the seven-minute mark, then the two sides alternating falls in the early going before Team Bischoff took a commanding lead with a three-on-one man advantage at the end. Michaels played the valiant face to perfection, enduring a beatdown, then KOing Christian with a superkick, and stealing a roll-up pin on Chris Jericho. From there, the sports entertainment took over with Bischoff ensuring Michaels didn’t get another pin, Austin finally paying off weeks of build by beating the crap out of Bischoff to the crowd’s delight, and young Dave Batista getting a moment to shine with the run-in, Batista Bombing Michaels to gift Orton the final pin.

Part of the appeal of the Surivivor Series elimination tag concept is scenarios in which an outnumbered face overcomes the odds. Michaels’s performance at the close of this particular bout was one of the greatest of all time, and suitably fit by bloody Michaels apologizing to Austin for not getting the job done, only for The Texas Rattlesnake not to stun him, but rather help his wounded comrade to the back.

#5. The Undertaker’s Debut, 1990

This was a particularly difficult moment to rank. On one hand, if we look at it from historical perspective, this was the surprise debut one of WWE’s most iconic characters who would go on to work for the next twenty-five years, never dipping below upper mid-card status. That sounds like an easy pick for the top three on this list. On the other hand, if you look at the moment in its immediate context, it’s an unannounced debut of a new monster heel who made an impact on his mid-card match, but wasn’t even among the survivors at the end of it. While it was still a well-handled debut to introduce the character as a threat while protecting him with a double countout elimination and pushing others, that moment does not crack the top ten in my book.

So, the number five spot is a compromise.

The Undertaker was nicely packaged into an undead character that fit the landscape of a more cartoonish time in the WWF. He debuted and immediately eliminated Koko B. Ware from his elimination tag match before brawling with Dusty Rhodes to ultimately get the both of them counted out of the ring. That’s a solid run, doing some damage and taking out the top star and captain of the opposing team while exiting the match himself. This moment becomes all the more potent when packaged as a one-two punch with what the performer would be doing one year later—challenging and beating Hulk Hogan for the world championship and being cast to reinvent the main event scene for the years to follow.

In its purest form, and applying a broader historical lens, this match did everything you could hope for. A new upper card force debuted in The Undertaker. In the elimination of Dusty Rhodes, Bret Hart got the opportunity to become the featured face performer in the match, surviving as a plucky underdog until the end when he’d take out Greg Valentine, only to succumb to the better established Ted Dibiase in a way that did not damage him, but rather put down some groundwork for Hart’s singles run that would begin in earnest the following year. And Dibiase maintained his upper card status in a good performance, on his last legs as a top tiers singles star before he’d take his credibility to the tag scene as half of Money Inc., then become the promotion’s top manager.

#4. Shawn Michaels Wins the Original Elimination Chamber, 2002

In order for a high profile gimmick match to work, it typically needs for a few factors to work in its favor. The gimmick itself has to be a draw—thus the Royal Rumble, with its excitement of entries and eliminations surviving for three decades; thus the Survivor Series elimination tag concept quietly receding for a time as, at least theoretically, eight-to-ten man tag matches aren’t much of a draw (if you disagree, don’t blame me—I’m a mark for them, and I’m just reiterating what I’ve read from enough sources to believe it to be true). A gimmick match also needs great matches and moments under its banner. Consider the first televised WWF ladder match with Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels putting on a game changer of a match, or the The Hardyz, Dudleys, and Edge and Christian putting on classics under TLC rules. On the flip side of all of this, consider the Championship Scramble Match or The Stairs Match. While I don’t think either concept is entirely flawed, neither were, in and of themselves, substantial draws, nor did they deliver at a high enough level to justify becoming regular parts of the WWE landscape.

The Elimination Chamber has existed in the WWE Universe for fourteen years. While, it’s fallen out of regular rotation (reportedly on account of many PPV arenas’ new score boards not accommodating the structure), it remains a popular gimmick and one that WWE can always pull back into the mix strategically for a multi-man spectacle.

The Chamber got its start at Survivor Series 2002. Triple H was the long reigning heel champ and the story was that he’d need to fend off four of his top contenders in this new structure that combined elements of War Games (staggered entries into the Chamber), Hell in a Cell (the imposing cage), and the tradition of Survivor Series (eliminations over the course of the match to arrive at a sole survivor).

This inaugural iteration was, for my money, the best to date, with the psychology of Triple H having to run the gauntlet and the drama of fans waiting for Shawn Michaels—a legend returning to Madison Square Garden and still not back to being a full-time performer—to enter the match. At the time, I wasn’t attuned enough to the IWC to know what the buzz was, but I remember personally expecting that this multi-man affair would be a placeholder to extend Triple H’s reign before he eventually dropped the title, probably at WrestleMania.

Instead, we got the pleasant surprise of Triple H surviving until the end, only for Shawn Michaels to deliver Sweet Chin Music and win his last world championship. It was a tremendous feel good moment, and sign that this comeback tour was going to be a meaningful one—not just a handful of spots before HBK quietly re-retired. On top of all of that, WWE shrewdly set up a reason for Triple H to justifiably demand a rematch, given he’d had to last in the match twice as long before Michaels pinned him.

#3. The Rock Becomes the Corporate Champion, 1998

It’s rare that you can isolate a single moment of a performer’s ascension to superstardom. While Roman Reigns winning his first world title at Survivor Series 2015 was a big moment for him, the moment was so telegraphed, and so inevitable that it didn’t really shock anyone. And while The Undertaker beating Hulk Hogan for his first tile at Survivor Series 1991 gave his career a huge boost, Ric Flair-imposed shenanigans and the booking of This Tuesday in Texas made it clear this wasn’t ‘Taker becoming the man, but rather playing a part in broader main event level machinations.

Then there’s The Rock. In the fall of 1998, The Rock had momentum, had been surging after he found himself as a performer with The Nation of Domination, and he got uber-over in the months to follow as a face. Come Survivor Series, he was one in a field of guys you might take seriously in the Deadly Game tournament for the vacant world title, but realistically had to land somewhere behind Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and arguably even Mankind in terms of favorites to win the whole thing. Even less expected than a Rock victory, however, was the idea that he might turn heel, that Mankind might turn face, and least of all that Vince McMahon would revisit the troubled waters of the Montreal Screwjob for his own creative gain.

It all came together, though, with a fairly well hidden master plan to give Rock an easy route to the tournament finals, and for McMahon to screw over Mankind—the guy who looked like the chosen one—in favor of The Rock as the Corporate Champion.

In the closing moments of Survivor Series 1998, the WWF pulled off one of its very best swerves of all time, and The Rock went from hot blue-chipper to heel world champion destined to lock horns with Steve Austin at the tip-top of the card. Hindsight tells us that Rock was absolutely the right choice for this part, and so we can look back at this moment as one of the very best Survivor Series has ever offered up.

#2. Sting Arrives and Dolph Ziggler Survives, 2014

As I’ve discussed historical impact throughout this column, I’ve most meant a moment that reverberated moving forward through time—The Undertaker’s debut, The Rock’s ascension, etc. This moment moves in the opposite direction. Though Sting’s run with WWE wouldn’t ultimately amount to much of historical value (unless I’m forgetting one, a grand total of four matches over the course of the year to follow, only one of which was all that memorable), the very concept of Sting arriving in WWE was remarkable. He’d been the standard-bearer for WCW for so long, only to follow that by being the lone true superstar not to have appeared in WWE more than a decade after the Invasion angle finished. Sure, there were rumors all over the place that Sting would be coming to WWE, but after years of such rumors, I wasn’t holding my breath.

And then there’s Dolph Ziggler. Mechanic extraordinaire who’d had start-stop pushes long enough that you had to assume WWE wasn’t going to elevate him out of the mid-card again. Left alone in the ring with blue-chipper on the rise Seth Rollins, the only logical conclusion was that Ziggler would be fodder to put up a good fight, only to absorb the match’s final elimination.

But here we were. Sting made a dramatic entrance and took out Triple H. Ziggler scored the pin over Rollins to cap a fantastic main event match with big-time kayfabe implications, as that outcome meant that The Authority was out of power. For that moment, we seemed to stand at the nexus of so many glorious things. Sting finally in WWE and debuting under auspicious circumstances. Ziggler, scoring the pin on Rollins, perhaps ascending to the main event once more, with Rollins a likely dance partner with which to put on four-star-plus matches in the months to follow.

In hindsight, this moment was more of a climax than a harbinger of things to come. Sting would wrestle Triple H at ‘Mania in a bout that worked for all of its sports entertainment shenanigans, but didn’t exactly have lasting ramifications (OK, you could argue a win here set Triple H on a course to be world champ a year later, but that feels more tangential than directly consequential). Ziggler would win the Intercontinental Championship in a good ladder match the following month, but promptly drop the title due to newly reinstated Authority-based shenanigans, and slip back into the mid-card from there.

Still, if we accept this moment—the end of Survivor Series 2014—as a climax, as a historical payoff, and as moment that seemed to promise more in its immediate context, it lands as one of the all-time best Survivor Series moments for me.

#1. The Montreal Screwjob, 1997

This is, admittedly, a strange moment to rank on a list of greatest moments. Were this list about most influential, important, confusing, genre-bending moments, it easily finds itself at or close to number one. But greatest? I grappled with this decision.

But let’s add up all the factors. The Screwjob happened on the cusp of a creative boom period, as the WWF was already beginning to surge with the success of DX and The Hart Foundation (not to mention Steve Austin already exploding to a significant degree and The Rock showing signs of what was to come). The match at hand—Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels—had so much history behind it. It was the second main event between the men at Survivor Series (besides captaining opposing teams in ’93), they had a WrestleMania main event showdown in the rearview mirror, and a rivalry that had, after years of build, reached a fever pitch both in the kayfabe and shoot worlds. The match, while not exactly artful in the style each man was capable of, was heated with the guys going at one another with a palpable hatred. And then it ended in bizarre fashion—Hart apparently submitting to the Sharpshooter, and then appearing livid with Vince McMahon at ringside.

I won’t rehash all of the details of the Montreal Screwjob—its origins, its aftermath, etc. all of which are well documented by a variety of sources. I will, however, note that this may have been the single most memorable ending to any wrestling pay per view ever on account of sheer confusion. While WCW in particular would drive worked shoots into the ground in the years to follow, this was a strange moment of the curtain really getting pulled back, and getting the wrestling community at large speculating wildly about what happened and why.

I’m not at all on board with the conspiracy theorists who claim Montreal was all a work, but on the off chance they were right, I think that makes the moment even more tremendous for so effectively working even smart fans for nearly twenty years. Assuming everything was real as can be, it still feels like a moment preordained by the wrestling gods, for without it we may not have seen the rise of evil Mr. McMahon as Stone Cold’s ideal opponent, or the outcome of The Rock’s rise as Corporate Champion; Hart’s Starrcade debut the following month and immediate impact on the convoluted main event may not have happened. The outcome of the Monday Night War might have still been similar, but while WCW probably still would have gone under, I legitimately do wonder if the WWF would have survived, let alone thrived to nearly the degree it did were it not for this watershed moment.

So, the Montreal Screwjob lands at number one, not because I totally agree wit the decisions made (as a complete Bret Hart mark, I still largely side with him in the whole dispute), but for the immediate intrigue upon it going down and the massive impact on the wrestling business.

Which Survivor Serie moments would you add to the list? Andre the Giant winning the first main event and Bam Bam Bigelow’s valiant face run, The Undertaker beating Hogan in 1991, CM Punk holding his own with DX and The Hardyz in 2006, and Howard Finkel serving as CM Punk’s personal ring announcer in 2011 were among my top runners up.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.