WWE’ssecond longest-running pay-per-view isSurvivor Series. The show was established as a part of WWE’s original Big Four PPVs, largely because there was a time when WWE only held four PPVs a year. However, even after the company expanded into holding monthly PPVs year-round, the history and prestige of Survivor Series carried it into still being one of the year’s most important PPVs.
The biggest selling point for Survivor Series for several decades wasWWE’s traditional Survivor Series elimination tag team match. Five, sometimes four, men or women on each team would face down an opposing team, with the winner(s) being declared after one team is eliminated entirely by pinfall, submission, countout, or DQ. Over the last few years,that match has been replaced by WarGamesas the signature match of Survivor Series. As a result, such a match hasn’t been held at the PPV since 2021, but it’s still worth reflecting on the best matches that made the PPV classic.
10Team Andre vs Team Hogan
WWE Survivor Series 1987
Following theiconic moment of Andre the Giantgetting slammed by Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III, the titans continued their feud. Said feud would culminate in the main event of the first Survivor Series, pitting a team of Hogan’s choosing (Don Muraco, Paul Ordnoff, Ken Patera, and Bam Bam Bigelow) against a team of Andre’s choosing (Butch Reed, King Kong Bundy, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, and One Man Gang).
The show was billed as “The Biggest Event Since WrestleMania III,” and it’s easy to see why with a main event of this magnitude. The entire card is littered with traditional Survivor Series matches, buthad the main event not delivered, such matches likely wouldn’t have become such a consistent staple of the PPV name. The match is especially highlighted by the final moments between Bam Bam and Andre, with the latter becoming WWE’s first Sole Survivor.
9Team Kofi vs Team Orton
WWE Survivor Series 2009
2009 was the breakout year for Kofi Kingston as a singles competitor. The future WWE Champion would enter his first main event singles feud with Randy Orton. The week before Survivor Series, Kingston’s star-making moment came at Madison Square Garden by laying the Boom Drop on The Viper through an announce table. WWE continued Kofi’s push by not only having him captain a Survivor Series team against Orton’s on the PPV but also becoming the Sole Survivor by pinning former World Champions Orton and CM Punk in mere seconds of each other in the match’s final moments.
History shows that Survivor Series matches are where stars would be born. Being a Sole Survivor was the surefire formula to get a Superstar over, and that formula worked on this night. Kofi Kingston came out looking like a megastar, and although it’d take 10 years for him to win a World Title, the moment made him a credible contender.
8Team Raw vs Team SmackDown
WWE Survivor Series 2016
In 2016, WWE reinstituted the brand split, meaning thatthe Raw vs. SmackDown concept was back at Survivor Seriesfor the first time in 11 years. The concept especially came back with a bang in the men’s traditional match, where both teams featured rivals who reluctantly teamed up in the name of brand supremacy.
There were two things that made this match so memorable. One was that there was so much foreshadowing for storylines to come, like how Kevin Owens' fury with Chris Jericho inadvertently costing his team an elimination would open the door for their inevitable breakup. Meanwhile,this match remains one of the best Survivor Series matches because every elimination led to a big moment. Everything mattered. Whether it was James Ellsworth costing Braun Strowman from under the ring, or The Shield reuniting to take out AJ Styles, every elimination felt significant and unforgettable.
7Team DX vs Team Rated RKO
WWE Survivor Series 2006
After DX stopped an interfering Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch from helping Edge win his Steel Cage title match with WWE Champion John Cena on Raw, The Rated-R Superstar recruited The Legend Killer (still carrying a grudge against Triple H for their 2004 feud) to take out their common enemies. Their late summer feud spilled into the fall and into Survivor Series.
This isthe first time a Survivor Series match was a clean sweep, with Team DX eliminating everyone on Team Rated RKO without any of their teammates being eliminated themselves. On paper, a match booked like that loses suspense if the babyfaces are never in peril, but the match emphasizes being highly entertaining to make up for lacking drama. Moments like Shawn Michaels asking “who was that?” after eliminating Mike Knox in the first 40 seconds, or when he put his arm around Melina are still fondly remembered today.
6Team Orton vs Team HHH
WWE Survivor Series 2004
Randy Orton was primed as the golden boy of Evolution until he won his first World Title at SummerSlam, leading to Triple H violently kicking him out ofone of WWE’s greatest factionsthe next night, then taking his title the following month. Their Survivor Series match had the added stipulation of the winning team running Raw for four weeks.
Randy Orton’s Best WWE Matches, Ranked
Randy Orton is a 14-time World Champion who has built a legacy of his own in WWE. Here are the best matches that he has had for the company.
Usually, traditional Survivor Series matches exist only for a fun time, or in the case of Raw vs. SmackDown bouts, “brand supremacy” is on the line. What separates this match from previous years is thatthere are actual stakes in this story that would carry massive implications for the rest of 2004. Each wrestler’s eager to use their respective week-long GM power to book themselves into a title match, giving each Superstar something to care about, even leading to in-fighting on both teams. Not only do the characters care, but the audiences are invested, too.
5Team Raw vs Team SmackDown vs Team NXT
WWE Survivor Series 2019
2019 was the year that the Wednesday Night Wars began. It was the year that WWE’s third brand started to regularly air at the same time and day as the debuting AEW Dynamite. While the stakes of WWE succeeding weren’t as high as in the Attitude Era whenEric Bischoff’s WCW beat WWE for 83 weeks, WWE still wanted NXT to look strong and on par with the more established Raw and SmackDown brand, leading to their involvement in the Survivor Series brand wars.
On paper, a match with 15 people sounds like a mess, but somehow, the booking for this match made it work. What makes this especially must-see isKeith Lee’s breakout performance,pinning Seth Rollins and nearly defeating Roman Reigns in the match’s conclusion. A star was supposedly born (sadly, Lee’s career would take a downturn then), and NXT was respected.
4Team Bischoff vs Team Stone Cold
WWE Survivor Series 2003
When Stone Cold Steve Austin retired from in-ring action, he’d become the Sheriff to Eric Bischoff’s General Manager, enforcing order when Bischoff encouraged chaos on Monday Night Raw. The authority figures' constant butting of heads would culminate in them deciding this brand wasn’t big enough for both of them. Ergo, both men captained five men of their choosing, with the stipulation being that the losing team’s captain would be fired.
The fate of WWE’s biggest Superstar was on the line. It was one thing to see in-ring career end, but on the chance that he’d be gone completely from television, that was enough to keep fans invested. When Batista’s interference helped Sole Survivor Randy Orton last pin Shawn Michaels, ensuring Austin’s firing, it proved to beone of the most emotional moments of the year. Hearts were visibly shattered throughout the crowd.
3Team Raw vs Team Smackdown
WWE Survivor Series 2005
The original brand split in WWE was implemented in 2002, but the classic SmackDown vs. Raw concept wouldn’t become a staple of Survivor Series until 2005. The first SmackDown vs. Raw video game would be released around the same time, so it’s likely that WWE wanted the traditional Survivor Series match to coincide with that.
Much like the 1987 main event, the success of future Raw vs. SmackDown matches hinged completely on the success of this first one. Had this bout not been as entertaining as it was, the concept wouldn’t have become an ongoing trend across the next few years and revived for the mid-2016 brand split revival. Plus, as if the match itself wasn’t fun enough,sole survivor Randy Orton’s celebration with the SmackDown roster was interrupted by The Undertaker in one of the best returns in WWE history, opening the door for their Hell in a Cell bout.
2Team Cena vs Team Authority
WWE Survivor Series 2014
The Authority had been running roughshod on WWE programming ever since Triple H turned heel by screwing Daniel Bryan over at SummerSlam 2013. Wrestlers, including John Cena (and fans who were sick of authority figures), were sick of seeing it. This would lead to Cena joining forces with the Authority’s equally disheveled employees for a five-on-five match with a double stipulation: if Team Cena won, The Authority would be expelled from WWE, and if Team Cena lost, his teammates would be fired.
A match like this exposes the one downside to elimination tags no longer being prevalent with WWE pushing WarGames to the forefront, as the WWE Universe doesn’t get star-making performances like Dolph Ziggler anymore. Back in the day, all it took was an electric sole survivor performance to make a new star. It especially helped in this case withthe late assistance from Sting making his overdue WWE debut.
1Team WWE vs Team Alliance
WWE Survivor Series 2001
No stakes in a traditional Survivor Series match have been higher than this. Here,the fate of multiple companies was on the lineas the best Superstars WWE had to offer joined forces to protect their company against the alliance of ECW and WCW. It was a truly winner-take-all scenario. The surviving company would live to fight another day, while the losing team’s companies would go extinct immediately.
The only thing holding this match back was that Rob Van Dam and Booker T were the only two true outsiders of the match, having been associated closely with their respective brands and not having made names for themselves in WWE yet. It wasn’t the WWE vs WCW/ECW bout that fans dreamed about, but the symbolism was there to make this feel special.It felt like a true sendoff for the Attitude Era, with key tropes of the era like twists and double-crosses being prevalent throughout.WWE’s best Survivor Series matchserved as a swan song to its most popular era.
