First there was Team Hogan vs Team Andre. Then came the Mega Powers, who of course led to the Hulkamaniacs. The Undertaker debuted. A year later, he would defeat Hulk Hogan to retain his newly-won WWE Championship. Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart would wrestle their first-ever classic in 92, though it would be the infamous 'Montreal Screwjob' involving the pair in 1997 that most remember. The Rock joined The Corporation. Stone Cold Steve Austin was run over by a car, then exacted revenge on the perpetrator, Triple H, 12 months on. In 2001, The Alliance were put to bed in the Winner Takes All Match. Shawn Michaels returned in '02, four years after his 'retirement', to become the World Champion in the first-ever Elimination Chamber match.
...and it all gets a little hazy from there.
Survivor Series used to traditionally kickstart the Road to WrestleMania. If you consider said 'road' as a part of a traditional 3-Act Structure story, Survivor Series marked the end of Act 1: where something happened that would ensure things would never be the same again. WrestleMania typically marks the 'happy ending' in WWE's calendar, the culmination of all of the past 12 months main gripes. The Royal Rumble match sets up the main event the lead-in to WrestleMania will be built around. At SummerSlam, you usually see the 'B' dream matches; i.e. the one's that work well on paper, but you'd never really thought about before (think Michaels/Hogan, Rock/Brock, Cena/Bryan - this is something WWE have done really well in recent times).
Without dream matches or the promise of finality, Survivor Series' role in the past was to stir things up, to muddy the road in order for WWE to clean up as WrestleMania gets closer. And that absolutely works as a concept. You should feel happy at the end of SummerSlam, pumped at the end of the Royal Rumble and satisfied as WrestleMania closes. With Survivor Series, you should always, ALWAYS, end the night thinking, "WTF?!?"
That feeling sustains us for a few months. As WWE television quality tends to dip in the autumn when the NFL season kicks off, it figures that around November they start reeling us back in by teasing out the stories they've been keeping in their back pocket when they knew there was no point playing their hand. And, with time on their hands, it's a perfect time for a big stunt to jolt their fanbase into life with the Rumble (always held on the first Sunday of the year with no competition whatsoever from NFL) guaranteed to bring eyeballs towards the product.
A quick glance at the stipulation around this Sunday's Team Cena vs Team Authority main event would suggest that they're going back to this annual tradition, with The Authority "not being The Authority anymore" if they lose (a direct quote - what that'd mean in terms of fictional stocks and shareholdings, I have no idea). However a closer look would also betray that it seems equally plausible that this is a bait-and-switch tactic thought up at the last minute to hype the WWE Network (airing this for free in the States) and that, come Monday, nothing meaningful will have changed in the WWE's status quo.
We know this because we've been burned too many times before, and those memories are fresh in the memory. Last year was a particularly low moment for the Survivor Series, as it saw Big Show propelled to the main event as an unbelievable challenger to Randy Orton's WWE Championship while fan favourites, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, languished in a meaningless, mid-card tag-team match. It was a fine card, by all means (highlighted by Roman Reigns arrival on the scene as a potential singles star with a fantastic showing in the night's traditional Survivor Series match), but lacked the necessary bite that years past had. The end of the night confused more than shocked, as after seeing Orton retain, then-World Champion John Cena came to the ring as if to suggest he wanted the two title belts ultimately unified (which came to pass).
The previous year's event ended significantly, but again in a manner that just served to confuse rather than compel. Little did we realise how impactful The Shield would become during their tenure as a stable in WWE - Seth Rollins now leads Team Authority and Dean Ambrose faces Bray Wyatt in the night's signature singles match - but their surprise debuts during CM Punk's title defence against Ryback and John Cena felt a bit random on an overall card that had most people nodding off by then.
Don't get me wrong, it isn't like the past few years have all been bleak: Roman Reigns' coming out party last year was voted onto WWE Parties Ireland's Top 10 Survivor Series Matches of all-time (list revealed in full during the pre-show entertainment of our upcoming Survivor Series Party in Woolshed Dublin), The Undertaker's Hell In A Cell match with Batista from 2008 lived up to its billing, The Rock wrestled his first match in nine years in 2012, and Cena's title defence against both members of DX in 2009 was also wildly entertaining from the moment Shawn Michaels opened the match with Sweet Chin Music.
Survivor Series just seems to be suffering from a (perhaps temporary) bout of middle child syndrome. Unlike its big brothers in Mania, SummerSlam and the Rumble, it lacks the gravitas and maturity to sell itself by reputation alone, while WWE seem more pre-occupied with younger and more exciting new concepts on the calendar, like the Money In The Bank pay-per view. The fact remains, though, that despite rumours to the contrary a few years ago, the company has wilfully kept one of its original four pay-per views in the line-up and had to annually build a card around the 'Survivor' concept. Much like a middle child's birthday. That fact alone means that they can once again remember why they fell in love with this pay-per view concept to begin with and why it'd be foolish of us to forever write it off. The fact that the Elimination Chamber PPV, traditionally held in February, has been dropped as a concept but the Chamber match will remain bodes particularly well for Survivor Series' chances of regaining relevancy in future years.
The challenge is that, due to its nature of being controversial after the fact, it's tough to tell when that interest will be regained. With a huge main event filled with game-changing stipulations on both sides, is that an indication that 2014 will be the year Survivor Series arises from its stupor? Let's adopt that premise for a moment and examine some reasons to be cheerful about this year's event:
- The 'Authority is no longer The Authority' stipulation, as delivered via a rare Vince McMahon cameo on Raw, felt forced and panicky in order to boost Network subscriptions, agreed. But the idea has made THREE of the past few weeks Raw shows engaging from start-to-finish. That must be a record for this time of year! (Especially since it's switched to three hours) We know how major booking decisions can get changed on the fly regularly in WWE (RIP The Streak). Seeing the boost this one stipulation has given to their programming quality, could they actually pull the plug on The Authority gimmick, leaving a void in power that's almost always much more fun than when they actually put someone new in charge? (Edit: as of this week's yet-to-air SmackDown, they've since added the stipulation that if The Authority win, Team Cena are fired. So you can choose to see that as a guarantee that Cena will win, or that they want you to think that resulting in an Attitude Era-like storyline that sees Vince McMahon, or an equivalent, re-instate them the following night on Raw)
- Survivor Series matches, especially since they began holding only one or two per year, are rarely bad. The anticipation leads fans to think up tons of fun scenarios, e.g. will Rusev be beaten for the first-time? He'll have to be if you're picking Team Cena to win. Or will he be the sole survivor? You'd guess that Rollins would have to survive if The Authority win, but would WWE have Cena lose to BOTH Rusev and Rollins? That'd be a big ask when they've got to keep him strong for a future title rematch with Brock Lesnar. Will Orton return? Will anyone turn on their team? If so, it's probably Dolph Ziggler, which could be awesome. Will we get any new feuds born out of something natural happening in the ring (always fun)? Will it go 45-60 minutes so we're not asked to believe that Ryback gets pinned after a clothesline?
- By the way, last month I speculated that one Shield member could usurp Roman Reigns' planned WrestleMania push, but I'm just throwing this out there...if we're looking at people who could fill a currently blank slot based on sheer momentum, listen to the cheers Ryback is getting right now. I'm skeptical, and you should be too, but we would've balked at Roman Reigns as a singles star in the immediate future too this time last year.
- To that point, for those of you who fear that Dean Ambrose's major push has fallen off a cliff since Hell In A Cell: relax, he's being tested. His chances of a major WrestleMania push are no more or less likely than they were a month ago. Remember, Daniel Bryan fought the Wyatts at this exact juncture last year too. And Ambrose and Bray Wyatt are holding up the PPV as far as major singles matches go, so they'll get time to work. What happened the last time they were put on a pay-per view as opponents, by the by? Oh yeah, only the Match of the Year to-date! I'm pumped for this one, even though WWE are struggling in finding ways to get me there.
- Apologies to Paige fans, but AJ/Nikki is exactly the title match the Divas division should have. The Bella Twins' feud seems to range between must-see and cringey from week-to-week (and it's been much more of the latter in recent times), but Nikki has possibly improved in the ring more than anyone else on the WWE roster over the past twelve months. They're easy to mock, but every PPV match involving a Bella since SummerSlam has surpassed expectations. We all know AJ can go in the ring when motivated (and she seemed bored doing the same thing, week-in and week-out with Paige), so I think it's time that we set our expectation levels to high for this one.
- Okay, we've seen variations of the GoldStars vs. Usos match for months at this stage, but MIZ AND MIZDOW will be involved in this one! Can everyone's new favourite comic pairing take the gold and solidify that their salvation continues for at least the short-term?
- And...I'm not gonna lie...I'm struggling for reasons to get excited about the Total Divas Survivor Series match. Maybe, god willing, there'll be no survivors?
Is 2014 a return to glory for the Survivor Series? We won't know until Sunday, I suppose. But then, unless you were privy to the backstage wranglings back then, 1997 didn't seem very remarkable either until it changed the industry forever. That's just how Survivor Series is and always has been. There's certainly cause for optimism, though.
WWE Survivor Series - Rick's Quick Picks
TEAM AUTHORITY (Seth Rollins, Rusev, Mark Henry, Kane & Luke Harper) over TEAM CENA (John Cena, Ryback, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show & Erick Rowan) - RUSEV sole survivor
BRAY WYATT over DEAN AMBROSE
NIKKI BELLA over Divas Champion, AJ LEE
4-Way Tag-Team Match: MIZ & MIZDOW over WWE Tag-Team Champions, GOLDUST & STARDUST, THE USOS & LOS MATADORES
Divas Survivor Series Elimination Match: TEAM NATALYA over TEAM PAIGE
Rick Nash is a former professional wrestler, the co-host of Balls.ie's official WWE podcast, Low Blows, and the founder of WWE Parties Ireland, who host their WWE Survivor Series Party in Woolshed Dublin THIS SUNDAY (tickets still available)! He is also a DJ and terrible sports gambler, so feel free to share some tips with him on Twitter.
