It’s Friday once more, and that can only mean it’s time for another installment of… Federation Fridays! We’re finally starting to live up to the title of this actually being a weekly thing. I’ve been pretty consistent since September, after the big gap of nothing from late May to August. I’ll be honest, this intro only serves as a way to mention the series title so I could link it to its tag archives, and since that’s been accomplished, we can make like Theokoles and begin our look back at what made classic WWF Survivor Series fun.
Survivor Series used to be one of my favorite WWF pay-per-views of the year, and what made it special wasn’t an enormous cage surrounding two rings or wrestlers from different television shows fighting over which brand was supposedly superior. It was the traditional elimination matches, where four or five wrestlers would join forces against another team, usually bringing several different rivalries together for one night. Unlike WrestleMania, SummerSlam, or the Royal Rumble, Survivor Series had its own identity, and I always looked forward to seeing which unlikely combinations the WWF would come up with each November.
The concept was simple enough. You’d have teams of four or five wrestlers, usually consisting of babyfaces on one side and heels on the other, with eliminations continuing until only one team had somebody left standing. Sometimes the teams had clever names, sometimes they were thrown together because the wrestlers happened to be feuding with somebody on the opposing side, and occasionally you ended up with combinations of superstars that you’d never see teaming together under normal circumstances.
And that was part of the fun.
When Rivalries Collided
What made the traditional Survivor Series matches so entertaining was that they gave the WWF an opportunity to bring several ongoing storylines together without having to resolve any of them. You might have Hulk Hogan feuding with somebody, Jake Roberts having problems with somebody else, and another couple of wrestlers who couldn’t stand each other, and suddenly all of those rivalries were part of the same match.
It was almost like one of those big comic-book crossover events where several different heroes temporarily joined forces against a collection of villains. Everybody had their own problems, everybody had their own reasons for being there, and the possibility of somebody getting eliminated by a wrestler they weren’t even feuding with added another wrinkle to the proceedings.
I also loved the entrances, with entire teams coming down to the ring together, sometimes wearing matching outfits or carrying whatever ridiculous team name the WWF had given them. You had The Hulkamaniacs, The Million Dollar Team, The Dream Team, and all sorts of combinations that could only have existed during that particular period in wrestling history.
The matches themselves could be unpredictable, too. A wrestler might get eliminated early through a countout or disqualification, leaving his teammates at a disadvantage, while somebody else could end up surviving against two or three opponents and become the hero of the match. You weren’t simply waiting for somebody to hit his finisher and get the victory, because every elimination changed the situation.
The Wild Card Match of 1995
One of my favorite variations on the formula came at Survivor Series 1995, when the WWF decided to throw the usual rules out the window with the Wild Card Survivor Series match.
Instead of simply putting the good guys against the bad guys, the WWF mixed babyfaces and heels together on both teams, creating combinations that ordinarily wouldn’t have made much sense. On one side, you had Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, The British Bulldog, and Sycho Sid, while the opposing team consisted of Razor Ramon, Owen Hart, Yokozuna, and Dean Douglas.
Think about that lineup for a moment. Shawn Michaels and Sycho Sid had already been enemies, Razor Ramon and Dean Douglas had their own issues, and several of these guys had absolutely no reason to trust their teammates. That was the entire attraction, because you weren’t just wondering which team would win, but whether these wrestlers could put their differences aside long enough to survive.
It was a fun twist on the concept, and one that I wish the WWF had experimented with more often. Survivor Series was practically made for this sort of thing, because the elimination format allowed the company to tell several little stories within one match without necessarily changing the direction of every feud involved.
WarGames Isn’t Survivor Series
Of course, Survivor Series eventually drifted away from what made it special. There were years when the traditional elimination matches became an afterthought, followed by the brand warfare era when much of the event revolved around RAW versus SmackDown, something I never found particularly interesting.
And now we have WarGames.
Don’t misunderstand me, because I love WarGames. It’s a tremendous match concept with a history of its own, and when done properly, it can be one of the most entertaining spectacles in professional wrestling. But WarGames isn’t Survivor Series, and I don’t think the annual expectation of two WarGames matches should come at the expense of the traditional elimination matches that gave this pay-per-view its identity in the first place.
There’s room for both concepts in professional wrestling, and frankly, I’d rather see WarGames treated as something special instead of another annual obligation that requires the company to manufacture two big team rivalries every November.
Bring Back the Survivors
What I miss most is the simplicity of the original concept. Take several ongoing feuds, put the wrestlers into teams, give them a reason to want to eliminate each other, and let the match tell the story. You don’t need two rings, an enormous cage, or a battle for brand supremacy to make that entertaining.
Survivor Series used to be the one night of the year when the WWF’s various rivalries collided, unexpected alliances formed, and you never knew who would be left standing when the final bell rang.
I miss that Survivor Series.
And I’d love to see it make a comeback.
If you missed last week’s edition, be sure to check out Federation Fridays #10: Whatever Happened to WWF’s Superstar Talk Shows?
