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Survivor Series Memories
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John Pollock
Fight Network Journalist

POSTED: November 18, 2008 - 10:03 pm

CATEGORIES: Wrestling

This Sunday is the 22nd annual "Survivor Series" taking place in Boston, Massachusetts and built around the return of John Cena. The event has always been considered one of the big shows of the year but with a glut of Pay Per View product it has a difficult time standing out from the rest of the shows each year. The event does have a storied history over the past two decades and change, including the most famous pro wrestling of modern times, here is a look at the more note worthy moments (both good and bad) in "Survivor Series" history.

Survivor Series 1987
The very first show took on November 26th 1987 as a way to combat the NWA's presentation of "Starrcade" that year. The World Wrestling Federation was on fire at the time coming off of the ultra successful "WrestleMania 3" event earlier that year headlined by Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. Vince McMahon was able to bully the majority of Pay Per View providers into carrying his show over "Starrcade" telling the providers that they could not broadcast both events. The result was a strategic victory for McMahon as "Starrcade" bombed and helped accelerate the process of Jim Crockett having to sell to Ted Turner. The main event of the first "Thanksgiving Night Tradition" featured the team of Andre the Giant, Rick Rude, One Man Gang, Butch Reed and King Kong Bundy defeating Hulk Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Ken Patera, Don Muraco and Paul Orndorff.

The Undertaker Debuts
At the 1990 show the event was built around the huge surprise that fans had been told would hatch from an egg. By the day of the show the company didn't have a serious idea as to what they would actually do and enlisted Hector Guerrero to play the "Gobbledy Gooker" and dance with Gene Okerlund in one of the more epic failures in promotional history. Thankfully the company didn't use the debuting Mark Calloway in that capacity as he made his debut separately on the card as Ted DiBiase's partner as part of "The Million Dollar Team".

Hulk Hogan Drops the Title
At the 1991 show, just one year after making his debut the company placed the WWF title on The Undertaker to set up a rematch between ‘Taker and former champion Hulk Hogan at the following week's "Tuesday in Texas" Pay Per View. The match itself is a controversial one as Hogan went to the hospital after the show claiming that ‘Taker dropped him on his head during the tombstone piledriver spot. There were lots of skeptics backstage who felt it was Hogan's way of proving ‘Taker was not safe to work with and no one bought the bogus injury story.

A New Look WWF
At the 1992 "Survivor Series" it was the new look World Wrestling Federation that was committed to drug testing and ushering in a new look. Fresh off the Ultimate Warrior and Davey Boy Smith being fired from the company for drug trafficking, the company headlined this show with the new WWF champion Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels - a strong statement to the changing of the guard in terms of a main event match on a WWF Pay Per View.

Bret Hart Returns
At the 1996 event Bret Hart returned to Pay Per View since taking time off after WrestleMania that year. He was put over Steve Austin on this show and though the two had a great match, it would pale in comparison to their follow up match of the year at the 1997 "WrestleMania 13" show. This show also saw the New York City crowd turn on babyface champion Shawn Michaels as he dropped the title to the always popular in the northeast Psycho Sid. This show also featured the debut of Rocky Maivia.

The Screwjob
The "Survivor Series" will always bring about memories of the infamous "Montreal Screwjob" where Vince McMahon called for the bell to end the match between champion Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels as Michaels had Hart in the sharpshooter submission. Endless debate has spawned off of this one match and who was right and who was wrong. Despite fears of Bret Hart showing up on "Monday Nitro" the next night with the WWF championship title - there was no way he legally could have done such a thing as his contract did not expire that night with the WWF (Hart was actually scheduled to work up until and including the December "In Your House" show) nor was WCW able to place intellectual property of the WWF (the title) on their program. Documentaries have been made, each wrestler and those attached to the situation have written books addressing the famous night and 11-years later the match is still talked about. For the modern product it catapulted the WWF to another boom period with the rise of the Mr. McMahon character and gave WCW a golden ticket to cash in with the signing of Bret Hart but blundered his debut and tenure due to politics and bad booking. This is without question the most famous match of the modern era and one that is still referenced on WWE television.

Worst Finish Ever
The 2000 event was headlined by Steve Austin meeting Triple H with the storyline that it was Triple H who masterminded the car attack on Austin that in storyline covered for Austin missing close to a year with a neck injury. The 25-minute match ended the Pay Per View and left a sour taste with Austin hoisting Triple H in a car with a forklift and dropping Hunter some 50 feet to the concrete as the show ended. Aside from a non finish on a $30 Pay Per View - more eyes rolled when Hunter returned to television only three weeks later without so much as a scratch.

The Invasion is Over
What should have been one of the most compelling and profitable storylines the WWE could put together went out with a whimper at the 2001 event. In March 2001 World Championship Wrestling went out of business and the WWE scooped up the company along with a number of talent contracts. The concept of the WWE Vs WCW and ECW was strong enough to draw more than 700,000 Pay Per View orders for the "Invasion" Pay Per View in July of that year but sadly it was the only buy rate they would get out of this angle. Petty booking and politics prevented WCW and ECW from being booked on the same level and both "Raw" and "Smackdown" featured weekly inter-promotional matches to take any luster off the competing brands meeting on Pay Per View. The invasion ended at this show with Team WWE victorious and the letters WCW being put to rest with the occasional return for comedic references.

The Elimination Chamber
In 2002 the Elimination Chamber was introduced as the company presented this event from Madison Square Garden. The show was capped off with Shawn Michaels completing his storyline comeback with a World Title victory in the Chamber match after returning from a four year layoff earlier that summer. Michaels would only hold the World Title for a month as he dropped the title right back to Triple H at the December 2002 "Armageddon" event. The chamber proved to be an annual draw for the company being used sparingly and always giving a healthy lift to Pay Per View numbers.

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