This Sunday night, the WWE continues a Thanksgiving week tradition when it presents the 28th annual Survivor Series live from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
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For nearly three decades, a theme of survival has run through November in the WWE as random Superstars have formed alliances with the hopes of eliminating other factions of wrestlers in what is known as one of the "Big Four" pay-per-view events.
The event started on Thanksgiving night in 1987 and has evolved a lot over the years with many different takes and stipulations being placed on the elimination matches, leading into this year's Team Authority vs. Team Cena main event.
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Sports World News will countdown the Top 5 best Survivor Series events of all time. Feel free to share your favorite Survivor Series events and memories in the replies.
5) Survivor Series 2005: The 2005 edition of the event is in the way a forgotten classic as the it predicated around brand supremacy in the main event, in the form of an elimination tag team match that saw Team RAW take on Team SmackDown at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Shawn Michaels, Kane, Big Show, Carlito and Chris Masters represented the red brand while the blue brand countered with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Batista, Randy Orton, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Rey Mysterio and Bobby Lashley. In the end, SmackDown stood tall and Orton was the sole survivor for the third straight year while The Undertaker made a big return to close out the show. The match had a stamp of importance with Batista being in it as the World Champion and the brand extension still being relatively solid. Other memorable matches on the card include a great United States Championship clash between Booker T and Chris Benoit in Match 1 of their best-of-seven series, a bloody Last Man Standing bout between Ric Flair and Triple H and a WWE Championship contest that saw John Cena go over Kurt Angle in Angle's final Survivor Series appearance.
4) Survivor Series 2011: This edition of the November Classic was notable for two reasons, the first being the start of the Reign of Punk and the second being The Rock's long awaited return to the squared circle after a seven-year hiatus. Punk walked out of Madison Square Garden as the WWE Champion after defeating Alberto Del Rio, starting a reign that would go on to last 434 days before he eventually dropped it to The Rock in January 2013. As for the main event, The Rock teamed up with John Cena -- his WrestleMania XXVIII opponent -- and defeated The Miz and R-Truth. There was something for everyone in this event as it also included a traditional elimination tag team match pitting Team Orton (Randy Orton, Sheamus, Mason Ryan, Kofi Kingston and Sin Cara) against Team Barrett (Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger, Hunico and Dolph Ziggler).
3) Survivor Series 2001: While the Invasion storyline is much maligned, the conclusion of it led to a pretty interesting pay-per-view in 2001 live from the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina. The main attraction on this card was the traditional elimination tag team match that saw The Alliance take on Team WWE where the losing promotion would cease to exist. While in the long-run most of the Superstars ended up returning to the WWE anyway, it was still exciting at the time and provided a very star-studded main event that focused on Survivor Series tradition. The stacked Alliance team consisted of captain "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T (the only true 'WCW' guy) and Shane McMahon against a WWE All-Star team of The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane and The Big Show. It was a fantastic match with plenty of drama that led to a face turn for Kurt Angle, who betrayed the Alliance and helped aid the WWE to victory. Other great matches on the card include a U.S. vs. I.C. title unification match between Edge and Test and a Steel Cage WCW/WWE Tag Team Championships unification match between The Hardy Boys and The Dudley Boys. While the Invasion could have been booked much better, the final pay-per-view with the storyline served its purpose and was a solid event.
2) Survivor Series 1989: This is a classic event that saw some great teams form between the deep WWE roster at the time and also had its main talents split throughout the card at the Rosemont Horizon in Illinois. What's good about this card is it gave each team a captain and a team name based on that captain while really driving home the emphasis of working together to survive. Hulk Hogan captained one of the best teams of all-time when he teamed up with the WWE Tag Team Champions Demolition (Ax & Smash) and Jake "The Snake" Roberts against a team led by Ted Dibiase while The Ultimate Warrior teamed with The Rockers and Jim Neidhart to take on The Heenan Family. Other great matches on this card saw Rick Rude's team battle "Rowdy" Roddy Piper's team, Randy Savage's team go toe-to-toe with "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan's team and a squad led by the Big Boss Man taking on one captained by Dusty Rhodes. This event is a classic example of how this event was meant to be conceived and the excellence the tag team stipulation once led to.
1) Survivor Series 2002: Though this event could have a strike against it for not having any traditional elimination tag matches, the elimination theme was still sprinkled throughout it. The Elimination Chamber made its debut and Shawn Michaels capped off an unexpected comeback by winning the World Heavyweight Championship after last eliminating Triple H in the chamber match that also included Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam, Booker T and Kane at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show also featured a great undercard that consisted of a six-man table match pairing Jeff Hardy with Buh-buh Ray Dudley and Spike Dudley to defeat 3 Minute Warning in a bout that saw the Dudley Boys reunite. Elsewhere, Eddie & Chavo Guerrero defeated Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit and Edge & Rey Mysterio in a great three-way elimination tag team match for the WWE Tag Team Championships and Paul Heyman turned on Brock Lesnar by aiding The Big Show to the WWE Championship. Billy Kidman and Jamie Noble also had a solid bout for the Cruiserweight Title while Victoria won the Women's Championship from Trish Stratus in a memorable hardcore match to round out the card.
The WWE presents Survivor Series live this Sunday from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis as the Thanksgiving tradition enters its 28th year.
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