Survivor Series is an annual WWE pay-per-view event that focused on tag team wrestling in its early years from 1987 to 1997, mostly in multi-man Elimination tag matches. The contributing factor to put on the Survivor Series was to capitalize on the big time feud between Hulk Hogan and André the Giant after their WrestleMania 3 match.
It has always been one of my favorite pay per views from back in the day when it was part of the big four events of the year. Here are some of my favorite Survivor Series matches:
#25 1987 The first Survivor Series Main Event featured Andre the Giant, One Man Gang, King Kong Bundy, Butch Reed and Rick Rude vs. Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Ken Patera and Bam Bam Bigelow in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match. What an epic match it was. I did not see it live (I was only four years old at the time) but I have seen this match at least 15 times since and watched it on dvd and it’s great. What a list of talent that was in this match and many Hall of Famers. So many giants of the WWE. Watch this match if you have not seen it; this is the match that started it all and made the Survivor Series match what it is today.
#24 1989 The Ultimate Warriors vs. The Heenan Family in a Survivor Series match. This was a very enjoyable match to watch.
#23 2011 Alberto Del Rio vs. CM Punk,WWE Championship. This was the start of the era of Punk and his epic run of 434 days as WWE Champion and it all started at the Survivor Series pay per view in Madison Square Garden. The crowd went wild after CM Punk won the WWE Championship for a second time.
#22 2001 The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz Tag Team Unification match of WCW Tag titles and WWF Tag titles. It was in a steel cage, a real tag team war to see who was the top tag team in the wrestling business. It was awesome.
#21 2003 Kane vs. Shane McMahon Ambulance Match from their fall war that started after Kane tombstoned Shane’s mother Linda on RAW. From there a last man standing match at Unforgiven to this match. Kane was put in the ER by Shane in the limo ride from hell crashing on RAW and the monster waking up in the ER and chokeslamming the doctors. Their Survivor Series match I did not enjoy as much as their Unforgiven match but it was still entertaining.
#20 2003 Undertaker vs Mr. McMahon Buried Alive Match. Vince won after Kane interfered and helped Vince bury Undertake. During this match also Vince was bleeding all over the ring like a stuck pig. I miss them days when guys could bleed in their matches. This would also be marked as The Undertaker’s last appearance portraying the Big Evil/The American Badass gimmick as he would return four months later at WrestleMania XX in his Deadman persona for the first time since 1999.
#19 2002 Elimination Chamber Match. It was the first Chamber match in WWE history. Kane vs HHH vs Booker T vs HBK vs Jericho vs RVD were the superstars in this match and it was one epic match. HBK would go on to win the World Heavyweight Championship on that magic night from MSG, the perfect comeback to have Michaels go over I thought.
#18 2003 Goldberg vs HHH. This was Goldberg’s only WWE Survivor Series match. Holding the World Heavyweight championship, which roots came from World Championship Wrestling where Goldberg was one of the biggest stars, he retained only to lose it in December to HHH. I liked Goldberg’s short run in WWE.
#17 1987 Randy Savage with Miss Elizabeth, Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat, Brutus Beefcake and Jim Duggan v.s The Honky Tonk Man with Jimmy Hart, Hercules, Danny Davis, Ron Bass & Harley Race with Bobby Heenan. What a list with many hall of famers are on this list, but I’m still shocked no Liz, Jake, Savage or Honky Tonk Man in the hall of fame. That’s just wrong.
#16 1994 Bob Backlund vs. Bret Hart in a Throw in the Towel Submission match for the WWF Championship. The end of the match saw Owen Hart knock out the British Bulldog (who was in Bret Hart’s corner), steal Bret’s pink towel and convinced his mother Helen to throw the towel in and help Backlund win the WWE Championship. Classic Owen Hart, this was a great match.
#15 2002 Edge and Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero, Jr. in a Triple Threat elimination match for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Great, great match. Everyone needs to watch this one.
#14 2002 Brock Lesnar vs. The Big Show. Just like what Paul Heyman did to CM Punk in the past year, Heyman first did it to Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series to cost Lesnar the championship in this match, claiming he did not believe Brock could beat Big Show. We saw an epic F5 hit on Big Show, Icould not believe Brock could get him up. That was insane and awesome to see.
#13 1996 Stone Cold vs. Bret Hart. This was right before the start of the Attitude Era and just a few months after Austin 3:16 was born. I was there at King of the Ring 1996 when Stone Cold won it all and heard his epic promo about Jake Roberts after he won it and this was once again at MSG and for its time was an awesome five star match at the time. I would have to say Bret and Stone Cold were in the prime of their career’s and at the top of their game.
#12 1992 Yokozuna vs Virgil, Yoko who was billed at 505 pounds. Virgil was unable to knock the monster Yokozuna down with several dropkicks. He just would not go down. Yokozuna won the match after a Banzai Drop in his PPV debut match.
#11 1992 Macho Man & Mr. Perfect vs. Ric Flair & Razor Ramon. What a match. What can I say, every one of these guys are legends and two guys from this match have passed away. That’s very sad but what a great watch if you want to smile and remember the smiles Macho Man and Mr. Perfect put on our faces.
#10 1994 Yokozuna vs The Undertaker in a Casket match. One of the very early casket matches in the WWF at the time with Chuck Norris for some reason as the special enforcer. Rest in peace, Yoko.
#9 2007 Batista vs. The Undertaker Hell In A Cell awesome match everyone should see it at least once.
#8 2009 HHH vs. John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship. D-Generation X was back, trying to take out the top dog and Cenation at the time but John Cena got the win.
#7 2001 WWF vs The Alliance. The largest storyline at the time was the Invasion of the WWF from WCW and Shane Mcmahon, then joined by ECW and Stephanie McMahon which came about from the actual purchase of World Championship Wrestling by the WWF just prior to WrestleMania X-Seven. The storyline eventually grew into a WWF vs. WCW faction battle, and eventually Extreme Championship Wrestling became part of the battle by joining forces with WCW to create The Alliance group to take down the WWF and run them out of business. The Match saw Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane and The Big Show) beat and take down Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle, Booker T and Shane McMahon). It was a awesome match to close the show and PPV.
#6 2006 Lita vs. Mickie James. It was Lita’s last match as a WWE Diva. After the match, Cryme Tyme (remember them? lol) came out and sold Lita’s personal belongings to the Philadelphia, PA audience. Real show of class by WWE there. Not.
#5 1991 The Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan. Ric Flair interfered with a steel chair to cost the Hulkster the WWF World Title in a shocker because back then no one, and I mean no one, ever beat Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Title aside from Warrior at Mania.
#4 1992 Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Championship in a very good wrestling match that went 30 minutes.
#3 2005 Ric Flair vs. HHH Last Man Standing Match. What a bloodbath war it was, still one of my favorite Flair/HHH matches to this day.
#2 1995 Bret Hart vs. Diesel WWF Championship. I believe the first match in WWF history we saw someone go through a Spanish announce table at ringside and it was awesome.
#1 1997 Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart WWF Championship. Michaels won the title in controversial fashion when Vince McMahon ordered referee Earl Hebner to end the match as Michaels held Hart in Hart’s own finishing maneuver the Sharpshooter This is what gave birth to the Mr. McMahon character even though Hart had not submitted. This incident became known as the Montreal Screwjob and will be remembered by Wrestling fans for years to come and did not hurt WWF at all because of WCW fumbling the debut of Bret Hart when he left to their company.
Matches that did not make the Top 25 cut:
The Rock vs. Mankind, Deadly Games tournament final, 1998
Stone Cold vs. Triple H, 2000
Shawn Michaels vs. Sycho Sid, 1996
Team Piper vs Team Flair, 1991
Team Stone Cold vs Team Bischoff, 2003
Enjoy the list and check out the 2013 WWE Survivor Series November 24th on pay per view.
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