Opinion: Some Great Survivor Series Matches

In case you somehow haven’t heard about it, this weekend will see “Survivor Series 2016”, which will be the thirtieth entrant in the series. Over the last twenty nine years, there have been about seventy Survivor Series elimination matches. Today we’re going to be looking at a simple question: which one is your favorite? There’s a long list of options to choose from but a handful stand out to me as major options. These are presented in no particular order, I’m talking about my favorites rather than the best and I’m ONLY talking about the elimination matches.

Team IRS vs. Team Razor Ramon – 1993

This is an interesting choice to start with as it’s based more on action than anything story driven. Marty Jannetty and the 1-2-3 Kid were flying all over the place and showing up almost everyone else in the match with their fast paced offense. That set up a hot ending with the two of them as the sole survivors which was a nice compliment to the big surprise of Randy Savage as Ramon’s replacement partner. The match was the perfect way to open the show with a lot of fun and a really hot ending, which you don’t get often enough in a match like this.

Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff – 2003

We’ll jump ahead ten years for a big change of pace. While the action was great in the 1993 match, this one is ALL about the drama and that’s thanks to Shawn Michaels. The boss of the winning team would control “Monday Night Raw” and as you know, Austin doesn’t trust anyone. Therefore, he was stuck with an old rival to carry his team in Michaels.

During the match, Michaels got beaten down and was left in a heap. That means Michaels was down to his last legs and if you’re a fan of the man’s work, you know that means it’s time for the Shawn Michaels Show. In all the years I’ve watched wrestling, I’ve never seen anyone that can sell a beating like Michaels and this was one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen him deliver.

Michaels fought back and got the match down to one on one with Jerry Lawler of all people making the match even better with his commentary. Lawler sold the idea that Michaels was still in it and would never die….until Batista interfered and cost him the match. It’s a performance for the ages and Michaels sold at a level he had almost never reached before or after in his career. If you can let yourself get into the match, you’ll have a blast with this one.

Team WWF vs. Team Alliance – 2001

I’ve spent a lot of time complaining about how WWE really needs to put something on these Survivor Series matches to make them work and this might be the biggest stakes in the history of the show. Simply put, whichever organization won the match would control the entire company. The match went on for a long time, running over an hour when you count in the entrances. It’s the definition of a one match show but that one match more than carries everything as far as it needs to go. The quality isn’t as high as some of the other matches but the drama is through the roof.

Team Randy Savage vs. Team Honky Tonk Man – 1987

Let’s go back to the beginning as this is the first match in Survivor Series history. This was a very simple idea: Honky Tonk Man shoved Elizabeth down and Savage wanted to kill him at any cost. It’s a simple enough story but above all else, this was a great way to set up the concept of the Survivor Series in general. The concept hadn’t been seen by the masses for the most part so this match was designed to show off how things could go. Honky Tonk Man wound up being down 3-1 and walked out like the coward he was. This match set up the idea and was a lot of fun at the same time. Everyone wins. Well, save for Honky Tonk Man.

Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown – 2005

The Michaels formula worked so well back in 2003 that it made sense to do the same concept two years later. This match didn’t have the same stakes (just bragging rights) but Michaels took another heck of a beating as he was down 3-1. Michaels fought back with everything he had despite taking a horrible beating and it was 2003 all over again. At the end of the day, there’s just no one that can hang with Michaels when it comes to selling like he’s on his last legs. Michaels came up short again (with Orton getting the final pin again) but it was one heck of a performance to help pick up a not great Survivor Series match.

Team Ric Flair vs. Team Roddy Piper – 1991

This is a situation where the ending really hurts the match. Above all else, this felt like a match that could have gone on for half an hour to forty five minutes as the second elimination doesn’t come until seventeen minutes into the match. The story is simple enough (Piper was Flair’s first big feud in the company) and the rest of the teams were pretty much on equal footing.

That’s where the long match time came into play. With the teams so even, it was interesting to see where the match was going to go. Unfortunately that’s also where the match falls apart as there were two eliminations in the first seventeen minutes but then five all at once for the ending. If this had been allowed to play out where it was going (to be fair that would have been nearly impossible), this could have been a classic. As it is, it’s more an entertaining what if scenario.

Team Powers of Pain vs. Team Demolition – 1988

Now this is more like it if you’re a fan of tag team wrestling. Actually it’s more like the greatest thing you’ve ever seen if you’re a fan of late 1980s tag team wrestling. There are twenty wrestlers in this match which lasts over forty minutes, meaning almost everyone gets a chance to shine and showcase themselves for at least a little while. Sometimes you just need to let people go out there and have an entertaining match, which is exactly what you have here.

On top of that, there’s a bit of history here as Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart teamed together (save for a house show) for the only time in their careers. It fits that this moment took place at Survivor Series because of all the history the two of them had at the event. The fact that it came in a great match made things even better.

And now for the match at the top of my list.

Team John Cena vs. Team Authority – 2014

This is one of the rare matches where the action and the drama came together. It takes a lot for me to get completely sucked into a match but that’s exactly what happened by the ending. The long segment of Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler was incredibly entertaining and made it feel like everything was on the line (which it was as the match was Team Cena’s jobs vs. the Authority’s power). Couple that with some very strong action and there’s very little that can compare to this one.

Oh and Sting debuted, finally erasing his name from the top of the list of biggest names to never appear in WWE. While I had an idea that it was Sting as soon as the music hit, the fact that it was actually happening made my head spin. It continued a long tradition of major names debuting at Survivor Series and that’s exactly what we got here. It’s a great way to end a great match, making it my favorite Survivor Series match of all time.

There are so many Survivor Series matches to pick from and there are a lot of great ones in there. You really can’t go wrong with any of these or several other options you can choose from. That of course brings us to the obvious question: what are your favorite Survivor Series matches? Let us know in the comments below.

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