Matthew Roberts
Whilst I’m sure my fellow writers will pick huge amazing career defining moments, I’ve decided to be a little more irreverent with some of my choices. These are genuinely five of my favourite moments in Survivor Series history, but not all of them are what you might expect and I’m hoping not too many of our scribes will have picked the same moments. So there’s no debuting Undertaker, no death of Hulkamania, no Montreal Screwjob, no Chuck Norris as ringside enforcer, no Vladimir Kozlov in the main event and not even Virgil valiantly answering the open challenge of Yokozuna . Instead there is…
Honorable Mentions;
The Jumping Bomb Angels cleaning house at SS 1987, the grand finale Survivors match at SS 1990, the All Japan Women being showcased at SS 1995, Sid smacking Jose Lothario with a video camera at SS 1996, Hardcore Holly being eliminated before the match has even begun at SS 2003, Shawn Michaels eliminating Mike Knox in less than minute at SS 2006, Edge’s surprise return at SS 2008.
RIC FLAIR SURVIVES (Survivor Series 1991)
Although you might have asked for a little bit more star power in Ric Flair’s first WWF pay-per-view match, teams pitting Flair, The Mountie, Ted DiBiase and The Warlord against Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith and Virgil did offer up a modicum of stellar talent . Things were evenly matched in the beginning and it was ten minutes before the first elimination (of Davey Boy by Ric Flair pinfall). Things seemed to be heating up a good few minutes later when Piper pinned Warlord…and then the match disintegrated into anarchy after 22 minutes as DiBiase, Mountie, Hart, Piper and Virgil were all disqualified at the same time during a “wild” brawl in and around the ring. Because Flair had been ejected from this by Piper and was able to extract himself from the melee he was able to stand alone in the ring as the Sole Survivor. It’s just so ridiculous that twenty minutes of action would end like this (and that the likes of The Mountie and Virgil were somehow worthy of “protection”) that it’s actually perversely entertaining. Even if as a twelve year old watching this at the time I thought it contravened all known laws of wrestling.
OWEN – THE BLACK SHEEP OF THE FAMILY (Survivor Series 1994)
I have a sneaking fondness for the Bret Hart/Bob Backlund world title match here anyway. It’s about as far away from a high-octane flip-flopping aerial battle as you could get but it had a compelling technical slant and, of course, lashings of drama. It was a submission match which could only end when one of the wrestlers corner-men (Davey Boy Smith for Bret, Owen Hart for Backlund) threw in the towel signifying that their man had quit. It was a nice throw back to the way Backlund had lost the World title a decade earlier. We all suspected shenanigans but what transpired was better than we could have imagined. Davey Boy was knocked unconscious and the distraction this created enabled Backlund to lock on the Chicken Wing. As the hold remained on, there was no one to throw in the towel for Bret and Owen got increasingly upset and pleaded with his parents Stu and Helen, sat at ringside, to throw in the towel on behalf of the Hitman. Eventually, after Bret had been in the hold for a number of minutes, Helen was persuaded by Owen to throw in the towel and we had a shock new winner. Owen then laughed and celebrated Backlund’s victory. It was just brilliant how so many different strands of the storyline came together.
DIESEL BREAKS DOWN THE PG-WALL (Survivor Series 1995)
The WWF of 1995 was a very different place to the Attitude Era that would follow within a couple of years and take the company to new heights. There was no swearing and bleeding was something of a no-no at the time too. Simply put, it was a sanitised product. Vince was under pressure to appease the sponsorship backers and television companies he still had left putting money into his bottom line. Things were changing though, ever so subtly, as Vince seemingly realised something had to change. Diesel’s run as WWF Champion had been a bust as far as takings were concerned, as SS 95 was the night it was coming to an end. Diesel wasn’t going out without a noise though. His attack that put Bret Hart through a table was iconic enough given the state of the promotion at the time but what really got me as a memorable moment was Diesel’s reaction to losing. As the referee counted and Diesel kicked out of the pinning attempt a fraction of a second after the referee’s hand slapped the mat for the third time, the camera seemed to focus in on the now former champion and those of us with good enough sight to lip-read could see the words “F***ing mother f***er” spill out of the disgusted lips of Diesel. It was memorable firstly because it was damn funny. Knowing how upset Diesel was about dropping the belt to Bret Hart of all people it’s even funnier. But it was also memorable as a very effective sell-job, emphasising just how much the World Title meant to the man who had just lost it.
OH FLASH, YOU ARE SO FUUUUNKAY (Survivor Series 1996)
There were so many moments at the 1996 show to enjoy, but the debut of Too Cold Scorpio as Flash Funk was just one of those daft moments in wrestling that had me smiling. We could wax lyrical about how it took Scorpio and ruined any chances he had of making it as a serious wrestler in the WWF (although I think he was just unfortunate to be in-between era’s as this would have gone down a storm in the cartoon era AND the Attitude era as far as I am concerned) but it just rocked. That his first big move on WWF soil was a Moonsault over the top to Vader (who should have been in the main event here if HBK/the Kliq hadn’t played their usual games) on the arena floor just makes it even more awesome. I loved this gimmick. And his debut was a fun moment.
CHILDHOOD DREAM REVISITED (Survivor Series 2002)
This show made it into some of our writers’ favourite shows, but not my list. Still as a fan who thinks that Shawn Michaels is the greatest in-ring performer he’s even seen in his lifetime the comeback of HBK was as emotional as they come. You hoped after SummerSlam 2002, where he didn’t seem to have missed a beat, that we might see more of HBK in the ring but few would have expected him to be in the main event of Survivor Series. Even fewer thought he would have had a chance of leaving the first ever Elimination Chamber match as the new World Champion. To be fair, it didn’t look as if Shawn was expecting it, with his unflattering haircut and ill-suited wrestling gear. But six years after being booed out of the same building in his match with Sid, redemption was gained when he lifted the World title in front of an appreciative MSG crowd.