As witnessed in my last review, SummerSlam, Shawn Michaels had controversially retained the WWF Championship against Vader in the main event, as though Shawn technically lost that match by both countout and disqualification, two match restarts allowed the champion to outlast his monstrous challenger. The original booking plans called for Vader to lay claim to the gold a few months later, here at the tenth annual Survivor Series, before Shawn could win it back at the Royal Rumble in San Antonio, finishing out the title changes by dropping it to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 one year after their 60 minute Iron Man match. It seemed like a foolproof plan, providing plenty of unpredictability to the main event picture while cementing Vader as a true contender, likely for a showcase match with The Undertaker at 'Mania. But none of that would come to pass. Instead, Michaels, with a penchant for stirring up trouble and unhappy with Vader's more physical style, got into the ear of Vince McMahon and got the whole thing called off. Shawn petitioned for Sycho Sid to be his opponent instead, and at October's In Your House event, Sid beat Vader to officially earn the title shot. Sid and Michaels had some history, having formed a brief alliance in '95 and teaming together during the summer of '96, and Sid's offensive style was more basic and less punishing than Vader's. This swap would wreak havoc in terms of future booking, and capsized Vader's once-promising WWF career, leaving Vince with another hole to fill in his main event scene, after losing both Razor Ramon and Diesel earlier in the year. Just why Vince allowed Shawn to push him around to this extent is beyond me, but at least McMahon had managed to get Bret Hart re-signed after a bidding war with WCW, securing the future of his most reliable performer on a ridiculous 20-year contract. Bret and Shawn had proved themselves to be the two top faces of the WWF, and both would be in feature spots on the card for 1996's last major event.
- Survivor Series 1996 comes to you from Madison Square Garden in New York City, the first WWE pay-per-view to be hosted in the historic Garden since WrestleMania 10. MSG shows are typically always a good time, as everyone steps up their game in front of more vocal and passionate crowds, and this was certainly no exception. Crowd involvement played a major role in the main event, but just in general, there was much more noise and palpable excitement throughout the night than has been the case in plenty of my recent reviews. Jim Ross and Vince McMahon are the main commentary team, joined by Jerry Lawler, Sunny, and Jim Cornette throughout the night.
- Our opening contest is the first of three traditional elimination matches, as tag team champions The British Bulldog and Owen Hart team up with the New Rockers to take on The Godwinns and their partners, the newly debuting team of Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon. Furnas and Lafon had filled their resume with multiple runs in All Japan Pro Wrestling, brought in to the WWF to shore up the struggling tag division. They both offer uniquely different but still exciting ring styles, with Furnas’ explosive power and Lafon’s more graceful technical offense shown off in this match. It does take a while before Furnas and Lafon are fully unleashed, as the Godwinns wrestle most of the first 10 minutes themselves, taking out Marty Jannetty before being eliminated by Owen and Bulldog. A long heel beatdown then follows, before Lafon makes a comeback, eliminating Leif Cassidy with some type of inverted superplex that I’ve never seen before and looked terrific. Lafon also catches Bulldog to give his team the advantage, before the hot tag is made to Furnas, who absolutely cleans house. Owen is manhandled by Furnas in an impressive display, connecting with a gorgeous dropkick after botching it earlier, putting Owen away with a release German suplex that Owen almost didn’t make the full flip over for, just avoiding a devastating neck injury.
- Paul Bearer’s heel turn at SummerSlam was one of the more shocking moments of the year, with The Undertaker left to seek revenge, now completely on his own. Undertaker defeated Mankind in the first Buried Alive match, though “The Deadman” was jumped by The Executioner (Terry Gordy) and ended up six feet under. Now, for the fourth time this year, The Undertaker battles Mankind, and though the match includes no special gimmicks, Bearer is suspended above the ring in a shark cage. It’s clear from the opening bell that the crowd has lost interest in this feud, and without any Bearer interference to draw heat or a unique set-up to add intrigue, like a boiler room or an open grave, the match is contested in silence. Undertaker spends most of it working on Mankind’s hand, seeking to stop the Mandible Claw, which does little to actually stop Mankind’s signature submission from being applied. The Mandible Claw is applied twice after Mankind counters the Tombstone Piledriver and a Chokeslam, but the hold can’t keep Undertaker down. Undertaker wins decisively with the Tombstone, powering through Mankind’s mounted punches in the corner. A trapped and panicky Bearer is deposited in the ring, but The Executioner makes the save to give Bearer time to run, as this feud still hasn’t reached a resolution, and won’t be getting one anytime soon.
- The second elimination tag match of the night pits the team of Goldust, Jerry Lawler, Crush, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley against Marc Mero, The Stalker (Barry Windham in a strange militant gimmick), Jake Roberts, and competing in his debut match, a 24 year old Dwayne Johnson under his first guise as Rocky Maivia. Rocky is absolutely the star of this match and the only reason it would still be remembered, with Ross and McMahon bigging him up on commentary and a final stretch where Maivia eliminates Crush and Goldust in short order to stand victorious as the Sole Survivor. In terms of a first match under the national spotlight, this was a terrific way to set up a promising youngster for future success, and I thought Rocky did well living up to his strong booking, with some athletic maneuvers and plenty of babyface fire. Outside of the ending, this was long and not particularly interesting, although not terrible by any means. The highlight of the first 20 minutes was Roberts getting revenge for SummerSlam by eliminating Lawler with a DDT, which the crowd loved. Sunny got to try her hand on color commentary, which wasn’t nearly as bad a performance as I was expecting, though her heel character is too one-dimensional to remain interesting for a stint this long.
- Bret Hart took a long hiatus from wrestling after dropping the WWF title to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 12, resting up and recharging his batteries for over half a year. In the meantime, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was rapidly becoming the face of a generation, antagonizing the absent Hart in typical Austin fashion to add heat for a singles program between the two. Bret challenged Austin to a match here at Survivor Series, and WWF President Gorilla Monsoon upped the stakes by putting the number one contendership on the line. This one starts out slow, as Austin takes control after some chain wrestling, viciously attacking Bret’s head and neck. It does get near to the point of being too methodical, but Austin does keep things interesting on the attack, raking Bret’s eyes to escape a backbreaker and attacking Bret on the Spanish announce table. A Bret rally gets the crowd fully into it, as Hart hits Austin with a stun gun, one of Austin’s go-to moves, then an ultra-safe piledriver for a near fall. This match reaches absolute intensity as Austin stops a top rope dive from Bret by scaling the corner and wailing away on Hart with chops and strikes, before delivering a superplex, only for Bret to get a near fall by hooking the legs while both men are down on the mat. Despite that brief respite, Austin is now back in control, hitting a Stunner for a well executed near fall, wearing down Hart with a Texas Cloverleaf, and escaping a sleeper hold with a jawbreaker. But in a classic finish, Bret outsmarts Austin, gaining leverage while locked in the Million Dollar Dream to flip over, with Austin never realizing he was in a pinning predicament until the three count has been made. A fantastic match, and one that did wonders for legitimizing Austin, soon to be the biggest star in the business.
- The golden rule of wrestling dictates that a show-stealing match always needs to be followed by absolute bollocks, so bring out fake Razor Ramon and fake Diesel, two of the most embarrassing creations in WWE history. It’s so petty to declare that Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are so easily replaceable that Vince can just recycle their gimmicks, and it makes the company look extremely bush league, the ex who couldn’t move on from their more successful partner. The two imposters team up with Faarooq, who has now fully entered his Nation of Domination persona, and Vader, to battle Jimmy Snuka, Yokozuna, Savio Vega, and Flash Funk (2 Cold Scorpio). Funk/Scorpio is the only guy who showed up to compete for this one, putting together a fun sequence with Vader that included Funk hitting an impressive moonsault to the floor. A lackluster Jackknife Powerbomb from “Diesel” eliminates Vega, and Snuka then evens the score by pinning “Razor” with a Superfly Splash. That’s enough of that then, as “Diesel” then bonks Snuka in the back with a chair, and everyone brawls as the official disqualifies the whole lot of them. What was the point of this? (Also, the commentary for this match was just horrible. Jim Ross was in the midst of his ill-advised heel run, and Jim Cornette also joined in with JR and Vince, and his shrill voice absolutely did not mesh with the other two).
- Main event time, as Shawn Michaels defends the WWF Championship against his former bodyguard and tag partner, Sycho Sid. As stated in my King of the Ring 1995 review, crowd hijacking wasn’t common during this era, though as the 90’s wore on and the WWF’s product continued to lose fan interest, the crowds that turned up to shows slowly began to form their own opinions, often times running contrary to Vince McMahon’s booking. That night saw the main event completely overshadowed by chants of “ECW” in a form of protest, and while this crowd was not actively against this match like they were that one, they still opposed McMahon by throwing their support behind Sid. Shawn in the scrappy underdog role had worn out his welcome, and Sid’s intimidating presence and impressive power offense captured the imagination on this night. That crowd hijacking actually plays in favor of this match, unlike the one between Mabel and Savio Vega, as the majority of the booking is intended to get Sid over as a killer heel, and the fans rallying behind the challenger made Sid seem even more impressive. It helps that Sid was working with a guy like Shawn, who makes Sid look like a million bucks, bumping all over the place and selling like death. Sid gets a massive pop for hitting his one-handed chokeslam, then shuts down an attempted comeback from Michaels, battering the champion with a clothesline immediately following a kip-up from Shawn, awesome stuff. Sid seems to have this match completely wrapped up, but apparently doesn’t trust his own abilities, and gains an extra advantage by picking up a ringside camera and whacking Jose Lothario, Shawn’s manager and trainer, with it. Michaels nails Sweet Chin Music, but elects not to capitalize, instead heading to the outside to call for assistance for Lothario. Sid brings Michaels back into the ring, leading to the champion accidentally taking down Earl Hebner with a crossbody, then exiting the ring to again check on Lothario. I’m not really sure why they decided to have Michaels be distracted twice in one match, with an added ref bump that no one takes advantage of, but the end result is Shawn being obliterated by a powerbomb from Sid, who claims the WWF Championship for the first time. Sid did technically turn heel with the attack on Lothario, but the fans didn’t care about the health of the old man on the outside, going wild for Sid’s crowning moment. Even though the background surrounding this match really paints a picture of how awful Shawn could be behind the scenes, his actual performance in this match was stellar, and I loved how he continued to sell the impact of the powerbomb while joining the EMTs escorting Lothario to the back.
8/10
None of the tag matches were exactly classics, and the final one was a woeful glimpse at the worst of the WWF midcard, but this show had more than enough going for it to make up for that. Those two singles matches were both entertaining in their own way, with Bret/Austin the clear highlight of the night, and one of the best matches to ever take place at a Survivor Series. In addition, there were a number of standout moments, including Sid’s title win and Rocky Maivia’s debut, that helped cover for any lackluster action. Just like in 1995, the WWF nailed the landing to the final major pay-per-view of the year, and provided hope for what would prove to be one of the most influential years in company history in 1997.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Royal Rumble 1997, where Shawn Michaels gets another crack at toppling Sycho Sid, and Bret Hart and Steve Austin's feud spills into the Rumble match. See you soon.
- Henry
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