Survivor Series History

Event Info

The Survivor Series is the last of the "Big Four" annual WWE events, and the second oldest, behind WrestleMania. Following the success of WrestleMania III in 1987, WWE owner Vince McMahon sought to take advantage of the pay-per-view market, and broadcast the first Series on Thanksgiving Day later that year.

The Survivor Series Match

The original concept behind the Series was to have teams of four or five wrestlers face each other in single-elimination matches. A team member was eliminated when he/she was either pinned, disqualified, counted out or forced to submit, leaving the remaining team members to continue the match.

The wrestler(s) left on the victorious team after all members of the opposing team were eliminated were labeled the "survivors" or "sole survivor" if it were just one person left.

Notorious Moments

Perhaps the most memorable Survivor Series took place in 1997, where WWE owner Vince McMahon double-crossed then-champion Bret Hart in a bout with Shawn Michaels. It would be Hart's final pay-per-view appearance for the WWE, and he left for rival promotion WCW not long after. The incident became known as the "Montreal Screwjob."¹

At the Series two years earlier, Hart was also the first person to be sent crashing into the Spanish announce table. Today, wrestlers still use the table as a weapon, but the "tradition" started at the '95 Series.

At the 1990 Series, the WWE "hatched" the Gobbledygooker, a human turkey gimmick considered to be one of the worst ideas in professional wrestling history.²