It's the SURRRRVIVOR SERIES!!!

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

 The moments got smaller.

Not to defend the never ending Seth stuff, but arguably the moments were always getting smaller. The peak was always going to be the surprise return. But yeah, it's been okay but not consistently great, but then arguably that's just WWE all over really.

Anyway - recent Survivor Series - other than the Punk return, obviously the best thing was this:

And actually, I'm probably sadder about where we are now with Sami Zayn than I am CM Punk.

Poor guy's stuck teaming with a bunch of jobbers on SmackDown! We know he's better than that! 

That and the War Games concept probably getting its best use in WWE during that time.

[air_raid]

3 hours ago, The Reverend said:

Going back to the point though - having watched the '91 event just this week, they try again for a Hart/Dibiase back and forth (which I'd forgotten), but it doesn't quite capture the magic of the year prior. 

I’d forgotten Bret and Teddy were on the opposite sides two years running. There’s loads of either symmetry of teammates or opponents two years running or flipping from enemies to teammates or vice versa but being in the same match again, in the first 5 tapes. Especially with the tag teams between the first two.

I’ve mentioned this before but my favourite one was that not only were The Barber and Honky on opposite teams three years running, but were involved in finishes together that summed up nicely their relative and evolving positions on the totem pole - 87, Honky pinned Beefcake. 88, counted out together. 89, Brutus pinned Honky.

Plus there’s a less enjoyable repeat of Randy Savage only talking instead of wrestling for two years in a row.

3 hours ago, The Reverend said:

Looking back now you realise that compared to the other big events, the Survivor Series really was the lame duck for quite a few years. Rose-tinted glasses of the first 6 (of which even 91 and 92 are quite ropey really) do hide that fact. 

Objection your grace! 91 was a good tape. The opener was good, just marred by a shit finish. The Duggan eliminator was fun because all the heroes survived for a change, even the tag team one while depressing served a storyline purpose, then LOD went on last to send everyone home happy.

92 was silly though, dumping the format except one half-hearted one where the winning “babyfaces” did fuck all. Though at least in Virgil vs Yokozuna we may have seen the second best squash of all time, and Bret vs Shawn was great.

3 hours ago, The Reverend said:

What I really like about it, and I never really saw it at the time, is that it wraps up the Warrior/Hogan saga that started at the beginning of the year. Royal Rumble - first dissention, Wrestlemania 6 - the match between them, Survivor Series - sole survivors, and best buds again celebrating in the ring. The End!

I can’t figure out how to put a space back between the quotes so my comments are in bold. Mania VI and 4th Survivors I virtually watched back to back so this was had the subtlety of a hammer for me, although I found it confusing even as a child that the goodies and baddies just automatically were put together for the grand finale, without explanation or any on screen graphic to even suggest “this is how the draw came out, wink wink” - it was just “oh, so far it’s Ultimate Warrior and FIVE on the other side. You know, the bad guy side.”

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

The Drew Hell in a Cell match, AJ Lee’s return, and all the memes of him and Roman in the shark cage at last year’s Survivor Series. That’s probably it for stuff I’d consider top tier.

I was very happy with Gunther vs Punk as an old-fashioned “two wrestlers fight and the better man on the night leaves with the belt” match. Right up until the point Punker didn’t get to leave with the belt.

Im somewhat disappointed that the closest Punk came to being involved in a classic Survivors eliminator memory is when he and Orton both got pinned by Kofi, in a dreadful bit of wrong-way-round booking where instead of being a valiant loser then beating Orton in singles the month after to become a bona fide star, Kingston managed to eke out the win in Survivors only for Randy to slap him back down to the midcard at the next PPV.

[TheScarlettChad]

The 2023 War Games men's match was the ultimate "They shouldn't do this every year" example for me. I just didn't care about it. It wasn't a blood feud. Orton returning was ace, but I said at the time, probably on here too, that he'd become boring again, Which he did. 

Punk returning saved that PPV massively. And I think apart from the Seth neverending story, its been a good enough run. And he's got the belt, Until The Rumble? 

[wandshogun09]

Owen Hart is incredible during the Bret vs Backlund ‘Throw In The Towel’ match at Survivor Series 94. I didn’t appreciate it as a 9 year old kid but his performance on the outside is fantastic.

I remember being genuinely baffled by the match even happening at the time. We didn’t have Sky yet so I didn’t have access to the weekly shows. I had no idea who Bob Backlund was but between his $5 buzz cut, his pale and less than chiseled physique and his plain navy blue pants, it looked like someone just let a random Dad out of the crowd have a go. I wasn’t buying it. On top of that it was a pretty slow paced match by Bret’s usual standards and the chicken wing bit felt like it lasted a lifetime. It’s far from Bret’s best work but I don’t mind the match so much now and heel Backlund is someone I’ve grown to love as I’ve gotten older. But at the time, I couldn’t believe he actually won the title off my beloved Bret.

It felt like a mistake but more a massive injustice and it was all down to that horrible little bastard Owen. I hated Owen for a while after this show. I really bought into his crocodile tears and believed he was showing remorse for murdering the Bulldog with the steps and then he got me hook, line and sinker believing he was having a change of heart regarding Bret. Does it get much lower than manipulating your elderly Mum into quitting for your brother? The way he immediately showed his true colours once Helen chucked the towel in infuriated me as a child but I love it now. And his backstage promo with Todd Pettengill still cracks me up to this day. All wild eyed and then the big “WOOOOH” at the end. 

Speaking of backstage promos, new champ Backlund’s is quite the classic as well…

”I’m gonna SCRUTINISE you to the fullest. PASTEURIZE you, HOMOGENISE you and SYNCHRONISE you…back into MORALITY!”

Absolutely bloody mental.

But erm, yeah, looking back Owen has to be the MVP of 1994. What a year. Everyone knew he could go in the ring but nobody could’ve predicted he’d be such a great shithouse heel like he instantly became the second he kicked Bret’s leg out of his leg at the Rumble. Pretty much stole the show on all the big five PPVs that year, or at least was one of the main talking points coming out of them.

From High Energy in the fluorescent pyjamas in 92 to doing next to nothing in 93 to the ‘King Of Harts’ in 94. Hell of a transformation.

Edited November 27, 2025 by wandshogun09

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

What I always liked about early Survivor Series shows is how many stars would be on opposite sides one year and be on the same side the next like nothing happened 

Examples being, the Hart Foundation as heels in 1987 in the 10 team match vs the Bulldogs on the faces to both being on the face team in 88, Razor introducing Savage as his mystery partner to replace Mr Perfect as a face in 93 having opposed both as a heel the year before, Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon debuting in 96 on a team opposite Davey and Owen’s team to teaming with Davey (and Neidhart) as Team Canada the year after

[Chili]

Had Undertaker not been signed or been created, promo pictures show Bad News Brown as the original partner for Ted DiBiase, Greg Valentine & The Honky Tonk Man.

Hilarious to think about Bad News walking out (which they probably would have done) for the THIRD year in a row. More amusing that Honky Tonk Man would look a right schmuck given that this would have been the third year in a row he and News shared the same team. Jimmy Hart managing a Survivors team with News on for three years on the trot as well. 

Edited November 28, 2025 by Chili

[The Reverend]

2 hours ago, Chili said:

Had Undertaker not been signed or been created, promo pictures show Bad News Brown as the original partner for Ted DiBiase, Greg Valentine & The Honky Tonk Man.

Hilarious to think about Bad News walking out (which they probably would have done) for the THIRD year in a row. More amusing that Honky Tonk Man would look a right schmuck given that this would have been the third year in a row he and News shared the same team. Jimmy Hart managing a Survivors team with News on for three years on the trot as well. 

The other change (other than I believe Boris Zhukov subbing for Akeem in Slaughter's mega team!) was Rick Rude in the Natural Disasters team (eventually being replaced by Haku - I know Haku wasn't the biggest of stars in 1990, despite coming off a tag title run, but shows the line-up at the time if you have to leave him out). It just got me thinking that this would have been great as we would have seen a Rude vs Hogan match-up, something I couldn't recall before......but a little search found me this: 

Had no idea they had had a match. Sure it won't be a barn-burner, but will look forward to watching it later. 

 

[TheScarlettChad]

Survivor Series has always felt like the big debut/return show for me. Anybody else?

Undertaker in 1990.

Sting in 2014

CM Punk in 2023. 

I could be missing a couple in fairness

[SuperBacon]

6 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Survivor Series has always felt like the big debut/return show for me. Anybody else?

Undertaker in 1990.

Sting in 2014

CM Punk in 2023. 

I could be missing a couple in fairness

[BomberPat]

I remember at the 2000 Survivor Series, they made a big point of how Survivor Series was "always controversial" - obviously playing up the Montreal Screwjob, and then the kayfabe repeat of it in the Deadly Games tournament, all to lead into Eric Angle getting involved in the Kurt Angle/Undertaker title match. 

As a relatively new fan in 2000, I just bought into it that this was the show where fuck finishes and weirdness happened, but I don't recall them ever really trying to play up that reputation again. Montreal Screwjob callbacks became more a thing for matches in Canada or matches involving Hart family members than something that happened at Survivor Series after 1998, and Survivor Series started losing its way a little after 2000 in general:

In 2001, at least the main event was a Survivor Series match, but it was the Invasion gimmick more than the Survivor Series stipulation that made it so. The following year, there was no Survivor Series match, and they were trying out Elimination Chamber as the new gimmick match. A few years of relative normality, but with the big tag matches feeling less and less important as main event wrestlers wrestling and tagging together happened on TV all the time so the novelty had worn off, and then you end up arse deep in Survivor Series as a vehicle for Red Shirt vs. Blue Shirt brand warfare bollocks, and then War Games.

[JoeManco7]

1 hour ago, The Reverend said:

The other change (other than I believe Boris Zhukov subbing for Akeem in Slaughter's mega team!) was Rick Rude in the Natural Disasters team (eventually being replaced by Haku - I know Haku wasn't the biggest of stars in 1990, despite coming off a tag title run, but shows the line-up at the time if you have to leave him out). It just got me thinking that this would have been great as we would have seen a Rude vs Hogan match-up, something I couldn't recall before......but a little search found me this: 

Had no idea they had had a match. Sure it won't be a barn-burner, but will look forward to watching it later. 

 

Good find and having just watched it, it made me think about things.

After I got into WWF obsession in 1991, I first saw Rick Rude wrestle on Summerslam 1990 and Summerslam 1989 VHS tapes against the Ultimate Warrior and even then it was obvious matches against Rude were different compared to most of the other wrestlers. The man would bump and sell to a high level the same way Mr Perfect did on what wrestlers since then have said was a wrestling ring mat like concrete.

This house show (?) match was in 1988, so before the rivalry with Ultimate Warrior and Rude's run with the intercontinental title and I like it. Why didn't it lead to Hulk Hogan and Rick Rude having a feud and at least one big pay-per-view match? 

Rick Rude obviously had one of the best physiques as a pro-wrestler even then, but watching this makes you notice the size difference between him and Hogan. Rude is not a small man and it is not quite Eddie Guerrero vs Brock Lesner, but it makes you appreciate how big the Hulkster actually was. Did Vince McMahon not see Rude as big enough in size then to be considered WWF World Heavyweight champion or a serious challenger for it even though he did for Randy Savage?

Did Hulk Hogan not think a feud with Rick Rude would work for him, brother? During this match, the Ravishing one seemed to have no problem selling for the Immortal one, even putting him over in the arm-wrestling spot (sorry, should I have put that in a spoiler?!) which from various things I have read and heard about Richard Erwin Rood he would have actually won if it was legit. It didn't seem Rude was working too stiff against Hogan and the Hulkster threw at least one chop himself, but apart from the impressive backbreaker spot it didn't seem that Hulk would have to put up with the same stuff he would against wrestlers like Big Van Vader as long as there was money to be drawn.

So maybe this should have been put in the Low-level (or high-level) stuff you might have wanted to see, but as good for it's time this match was it makes you wonder what a wrestling match between Hulk Hogan and Rick Rude would have been like if it had happened in WWF or WCW during 1992 to 1994?

 

[theringmaster]

What I find interesting (or sad?) is that SSeries is one of 'the big four' but is no longer one of the 'big four' PPVs, MITB has replaced it in terms of importance (and for the record, it will be a cold day in hell when i call a PPV a PLE!)

[gmoney]

I'm sure I've heard Hogan nixed a long run with Rude for some reason, but I don't know I buy it. It seems to me like he just didn't fit the usual (but not always) monster heel mould that Hulk required and never was able to slot in. Or maybe he didn't want his wife's face adorning Rude's tights.  

[HarmonicGenerator]

I'm working from home today and because of this thread, I've stuck on the 1989 Survivor Series for background. 

 

I'm thankful ... for the UKFF. And my polka dots.

[The Dart]

2 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Survivor Series has always felt like the big debut/return show for me. Anybody else?

Undertaker in 1990.

Sting in 2014

CM Punk in 2023. 

I could be missing a couple in fairness

Kurt Angle,The Rock and Duane Gill too.

Edited November 28, 2025 by The Dart