The Survivor Series Revisited

Last week I looked at the tenth anniversary of the Montreal Survivor Series. As this weekend sees the WWE put on this year's event I thought I would share with you some of my favourite Survivor Series' by the year they aired.

1990

The 1990 show was one of my favourite events because my fascination in the product was at one of its peaks.
I enjoyed the special match at the end where the winners of the previous matches were teamed up in the 'final match of survival.'
This event also saw the debut of The Undertaker who became one of the WWE's most successful characters in history.

1995

I liked this one because of the 'wild card match'. It involved a mixture of heels and babyfaces on the same team. It was rare of the WWE to allow the goodies and baddies team up which made the dynamic of the match all the more interesting.
The final match of the night saw Bret Hart beat Diesel (Kevin Nash) to regain the world title. I was a little bit shocked at that finish as I was getting used to Big Daddy Cool as the champ. He had held the title for a year.

1993

This show was building towards Wrestlemania X and the highlight of the evening was Owen Hart's tease of turning on his brother, Bret. The two did eventually break-up but the foundation was set at Survivor Series 1993.
There was a brilliant tag match on this card featuring the Heavenly Bodies against the Rock 'N' Roll Express. It wasn't a long bout but it was good nonetheless.

1998

This show was built around a tournament where the winner won the vacant world championship. In the weeks before the event, The Rock had turned into a babyface and the fans were into his act big-time. The conclusion of this match saw The Rock win the world title after Vince McMahon - playing up the history of the previous year's event - told the referee to ring the bell when Rocky had Mick Foley in the sharpshooter. This act turned The Rock back into being a heel and led towards a showdown with Steve Austin at Wrestlemania XV.

1994

This was the last Survivor Series event that was held on Thanksgiving Night. I remember getting home from school and going straight to bed so I could watch it live later that night.
The two things that stand out is Bob Backlund beating Bret Hart to become the world champion at the age of forty-four. It was a few weeks after George Foreman had returned to boxing and won the world title so there was a bit of a similarity with the two.
The event also saw the tandem of Shawn Michaels and Diesel split up after Michaels accidentally kicked his partner in the face during the opening match. This feud reached it's denouement a number of months later at Wrestlemania XI.

I like the Survivor Series events because the show seems to begin the storylines that finish off at Wrestlemania. The match I am looking forward to at this year's event is the 'hell in the cell' bout between Batista and The Undertaker.