The Survivor Series pay-per-view has always been an interesting concept. Being introduced to the world in 1987 the show saw teams of wrestlers doing battle. It was always fun to see what teams WWE would come up with for Survivor Series. With some captivating wrestlers on the roster, there were naturally some unique combinations that the company could present to the WWE Universe. Some of the combinations that WWE put together were fantastic and ones that brought fans to the arena in droves. Unfortunately, there have been some misses by WWE when putting together Survivor Series teams.
Below we will take a look at the 5 Best and 5 Worst Teams in the History of the Survivor Series.
Best: Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, Virgil and The British Bulldog
(Survivor Series 1991)
Potentially one of the best mid-cad babyface teams that were put together for the Survivor Series.
Bret Hart was an incredibly popular Intercontinental Champion and not far off from moving to the top of the card. Roddy Piper was consistently one of the most popular men in the company. Virgil’s stock was never higher with his win over Ted Dibiase at Summerslam. The British Bulldog was just starting his singles career and was getting a great response from the WWE Universe.
All four men were incredibly over with the Detroit crowd and it was a smart move to put them together in the 1991 Survivor Series opener.
Worst: The Bushwhackers and Men on a Misson (Survivor Series 1993)
This was just an embarrassing match all around, but the babyface team looked like clowns during it. Yes, there was a pun intended there.
The feud between Bam Bam Bigelow and Doink was a suitable mid-card feud. It provided some entertaining moments, even though it was a waste of Bigelows talents. However, it did give us this train wreck of a match.
The babyface team for this match was laughable. The four men were never taken seriously in WWE so how they were expected to carry a match was baffling. Sure, they were brought out more for comedy but they even failed in that avenue. It was an embarrassing effort for all involved.
Best: Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, Psycho Sid and The British Bulldog
(Survivor Series 1995)
WWE had a rare moment of creative genius in 1995. Having a wild card Survivor Series match with heels and faces on the same team was an interesting dynamic to explore. Unfortunately, this was only tried out for one year.
The year it was done, though, WWE put together a captivating team. All of the men involved were fantastic workers and had a history with each other.
It was interesting to see how they worked together during the match and it provided for some entertaining wrestling. It is a shame that WWE didn’t run with this idea more because they put together one hell of a team the first time around.
Worst: Doink, Dink, Pink and Wink (Survivor Series 1994)
It was a toss-up as to which of the teams in this match make the list. The clowns looked slightly more ridiculous than the kings so lets’ go with them.
WWE has not had the greatest track record with comedy over the years and this team is no different. The Doink character was floundering at this point in his career. There was no redeeming feature to him and the decision to put him with little wrestlers was pointless.
It was a vain attempt to bring some comedy to the Survivor Series and one that didn’t work well at all.
Best: Booker T, Dudley Boyz, Rob Van Dam, and Shawn Michaels
(Survivor Series 2003)
The match at Survivor Series 2003 centred around the near-year-long feud between Eric Bischoff and Steve Austin. The result of this match would determine who would retain sole possession of the General Manager role on Raw.
The babyface star power in this match was impressive. At the time, these were the five most over men in the company. It was a great idea to put them in the ring together and see what they could do.
Team Austin didn’t disappoint as they put on quite a display. The loss was inevitable and made the team look that much better. The sympathy they were able to elicit from the crowd was perfect and made them look great in defeat.
Worst: Big Boss Man, Mideon, Albert, and Viscera (Survivor Series 1999)
A Survivor Series match should not be a joke. It is supposed to be an exciting contest involving some of the best in the company. Alas, this match was laughable from the onset.
The team that was put together to face the Big Show was awful. The men put in the ring against him were there strictly to get Show over. It served no purpose to make the other men look strong.
There is also the issue of the four men in the match being lower mid-card talents, at best. Not exactly the type of talent you’d want in the ring for a Survivor Series match.
Best: Strowman, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns
(Survivor Series 2016)
With the brand split era came a battle of the shows at Survivor Series. It was a novel idea at first and did produce a hell of a Survivor Series team at the 2016 pay-per-view.
The five men involved with Team Raw were the biggest in the company. The success they all experienced before this match was phenomenal. It was spectacular to see all five in the ring at the same time.
The outcome of the match was not indicative of the greatness of this Survivor Series team. The five men represented the best Survivor Series team of the brand split era.
Worst: Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Eva Marie, Cameron, Naomi, JoJo, and Natalya
(Survivor Series 2013)
There have been some truly terrible women’s teams at Survivor Series. Before WWE took women’s wrestling seriously they used the divas as a prop. This was seen at Survivor Series 2013 when they presented us with one of the worst teams in WWE history.
Trying to poach off the popularity of Total Divas, WWE decided to put the women of the show together in a Survivor Series match.
The only problem was that one of the seven women on this team could wrestle. Natalya was the only woman who could work in the ring and it was sad to see her try and carry 6 others to a finish.
Luckily, WWE tried to focus on some legitimate women’s wrestling going forward, because this Survivor Series team was a joke.
Best: Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, Ax and Smash (Survivor Series 1989)
With the history of the Survivor Series, there was bound to be a great team from the Golden Era. It is hard to ignore how great this team was.
To start we had Hogan, who is one of the greatest to ever step into the ring. Jake Roberts was one of the most over men in the company, perhaps of all time. Then there was one of the greatest tag teams in the world, Demolition.
Putting these four men on the same Survivor Series team was a fantastic idea. It is hard to find a team, from the Golden Era, that matches the star power of these four men.
Worst: Butch, Luke, Nikolai Volkoff and Tito Santana (Survivor Series 1990)
In a time where all matches were, Survivor Series matches the were some thrown together, teams. The Alliance is at the top of the list of terrible thrown-together teams.
Luke and Butch were nothing more than a comedy act. Volkoff and Santana were both past their prime. Most teams would have at least one star on their roster but this one had none.
It was amazing to see this team go over at Survivor Series. There was no reason to have mid-card jobbers win a match on a pay-per-view.