Walter Scott
Survivor Series 2014 is now inching closer and closer, as we sooner or later will find out what matches take place on the event and which team will be victorious in the main event between Team Authority and Team Cena. But, before we can get to Survivor Series 2014, I’d like to take you all back to five Survivor Series events that I really enjoyed the most. I’ll admit, I haven’t seen every single Survivor Series event. But, judging by the ones that I have seen, these were by far the most interesting of them all. Let’s get this list started, shall we?
#5 – Survivor Series 1997
I’m sure everybody remembers Survivor Series 1997 as the infamous night in WWE history where Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart in the main event to win the WWF Championship after locking him into the Sharpshooter, despite Bret Hart not exactly tapping out. It has since been dubbed the Montreal Screwjob, and many would consider it to be the opening to the Attitude Era in which the WWF would eventually win the Monday Night Wars against WCW and Monday Nitro. But, the show had much more to it than the controversial main event. We also saw matches like Kane vs. Mankind, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. Owen Hart for the Intercontinental Championship, and The Road Warriors, Ahmed Johnson, and Ken Shamrock vs. The Nation of Domination in a Four-on-Four Survivor Series Elimination match. Overall this PPV was awesome, and if you’re looking for a reason to be in for a shock and some awesome Survivor Series elimination matches, I’d check this event out.
#4 – Survivor Series 2005
Much like another PPV on this list, this event saw the “brand wars” between RAW and SmackDown come to a head with a SmackDown vs. RAW Traditional Survivor Series match take place. Team SmackDown consisted of Batista, Rey Mysterio, JBL, Bobby Lashley, and Randy Orton, while Team RAW consisted of Shawn Michaels, Kane, Big Show, Carlito, and Chris Masters. Also on the card was a Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Ric Flair, who are two of my favorite WWE superstars in history, and finally, there was the start of a best-of-seven series for the United States Championship as Booker T defeated Chris Benoit. This is an awesome event that is pretty modern, and it reminds me a lot of the 2001 PPV that I also have mentioned in my list a little later.
#3 – Survivor Series 1998
Survivor Series 1998 was the PPV where we saw the Deadly Game tournament in its entirety take place, as 12 men competed in the tournament to crown the new WWF Champion. We saw matches like Undertaker vs. Kane, The Rock vs. Undertaker, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. Mankind take place in the tournament, with the Finals of the tournament seeing The Rock defeat Mankind to become the new WWF Champion. Sadly there were no Traditional Survivor Series Elimination matches, but the fun and excitement of this Tournament can easily make up for that. If you want to see a fun tournament go down, I suggest you check this PPV out.
#2 – Survivor Series 2001
Survivor Series 2001 was an event that many will remember as being WWF vs. WCW. At the time, the WWF was transitioning from the Attitude Era to the Invasion after Vince McMahon had announced he bought out his competition in March of 2001, only to find out his son Shane had beat out his offer to buy the WCW himself. This would begin The Alliance which was made up of both former WCW and ECW stars that had joined the WWF, and the rivalry came to a head at Survivor Series 2001 where Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Big Show, Undertaker, and Kane) would face Team Alliance (Stone Cold, Booker T, Shane McMahon, Kurt Angle, and RVD) in the main event, in which if WWF would win, the Alliance would have to leave the WWF forever, but if the Alliance won, WWF would have to close its doors forever. There were also other WWF vs. WCW matches involved on the card, including more WWF vs. WCW matches that include Test vs. Edge for both the Intercontinental Championship and United States Championship, The Hardy’s vs. The Dudley’s in a Steel Cage match for both the WWF Tag Team Championships and the WCW Tag Team Championships, and William Regal vs. Tajiri in a Singles match. This was a very good PPV that allowed a lot of fans from the Attitude Era to see some dream matches and see two awesome unification matches to boot.
#1 – Survivor Series 2002
Survivor Series 2002 is my personal favorite Survivor Series event for one simple reason, and that is this was the event that the first-ever Elimination Chamber match took place, as the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H would have to defend his Championship against five hungry challengers in Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Kane, Chris Jericho, and Shawn Michaels. The match would ultimately be won by Shawn Michaels, who was competing in his second match in the WWF/E in four years, making that moment a pretty heart-felt one. Also on the card, we saw Brock Lesnar defend the WWE Championship against The Big Show, and Big Show would win the match after Paul Heyman would turn his back on Lesnar and side with the World’s Largest Athlete. Finally, my favorite match of this event was the Triple Threat Tag Team Elimination Match involving the “SmackDown Six,” as Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit as well as Los Guerreros challenged Edge and Rey Mysterio for the WWE Tag Team Championships. Many would consider this match one of the best in Tag Team history, and I would honestly agree with those select people. If you’re looking for a PPV filled with some nice matches and a lot of action, this is definitely the one for you.