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Ranking the Best Traditional Match Teams in WWE Survivor Series PPV History
November 16, 2019Ranking the Best Traditional Match Teams in WWE Survivor Series PPV History
Before Hell in a Cell, Elimination Chamber and TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs matches each had an entire pay-per-view devoted to them, there was Survivor Series.
The annual event is one of the Big Four PPVs on the WWE calendar and is one of the longest-running events, going back to 1987.
The concept has been the same since the beginning. Teams of four or five Superstars compete in Elimination matches until one team is left standing.
For the first few years, WWE focused more on these gimmick bouts and did not worry about featuring title matches on the same card. Other than 1998, when the company held a tournament for the vacant WWE Championship, every year has included at least one elimination-style contest.
Each year, management tries to come up with interesting teams. Sometimes we get dream teams, and others we get enemies being forced to work together for the sake of winning.
Let's take a walk down memory lane and rank the top 10 teams in Survivor Series history. These rankings will be based on star power and how interesting the combination of Superstars was, not whether the teams won the match.
7. The Hart Family (1993)
Besides the Anoa'i family, the only other clan in wrestling who could fill an entire Survivor Series team back in 1993 was the Harts.
Bret Hart led brothers Bruce, Keith and Owen to victory over Shawn Michaels and His Knights, who were Barry Horowitz, Jeff Gaylord and Greg Valentine under masks.
The Hart family was already known around the world for its contributions to wrestling, and seeing four of Stu and Helen's sons work together was a dream come true.
This match was the catalyst for the feud between Bret and Owen that would last for several years. After The Hitman ended up winning the bout, The King of Harts blamed him for his elimination at the hands of The Heartbreak Kid.
6. Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Sgt. Slaughter and Ron Simmons (2006)
Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Sgt. Slaughter and Ron Simmons were already either retired or wrapping up their careers by 2006, but that did not stop them from competing at Survivor Series.
The team of certified legends took on The Spirit Squad in one of the most predictable matches in the history of Survivor Series, but it was still a lot of fun.
Kenny, Mikey, Johnny and Nicky did a good job putting over the legends. Frankly, The Spirit Squad does not get enough credit for how many times the group made other people look good.
Not one of the men on the babyface team was close to being in his prime, but Flair, Simmons, Slaughter and Rhodes still knew how to get the crowd on its feet. This was meant to make people nostalgic, and that is exactly what it did.
5. Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana and Ultimate Warrior (1990)
Most Survivor Series bouts are four-on-four or five-on-five contests, but in 1990, WWE booked a handicap match, with three of the biggest babyfaces of all time facing five dastardly heels.
Ted DiBiase, The Warlord, Rick Martel, Hercules and Paul Roma were the unlucky bad guys who had to deal with Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior and Tito Santana.
These were three of the biggest draws for the company at the time, and putting them together on one team was guaranteed to get fans excited.
This was the main event of the evening, and Warrior had already wrestled in an earlier match but he, Hogan and Santana took about 10 minutes to dispatch their foes.
WWE doesn't have a video of this match on Youtube, but you should take the time to check it out on WWE Network. Seeing these three megastars together was something special.
4. Team Austin (2003)
Back in 2003, Austin was serving as the co-general manager of Raw alongside Eric Bischoff, but the two had a poor working relationship, to put it mildly.
Linda McMahon proposed the idea of each man selecting five men to fight on their behalf at Survivor Series, with the winner gaining full control over Raw.
Austin selected four current and one future Hall of Famer when he picked Michaels, Booker T, The Dudley Boyz and RVD as his team.
Unfortunately, Austin's team came up short, but on paper, Bischoff's team of Jericho, Christian, Orton, Scott Steiner and Mark Henry seemed like the underdogs.
This is another case when both teams could have made the list if it had more than 10 places because Bischoff had a solid lineup, but Austin's was better.
2. The Hardys, Edge and Christian (1999)
Two of the biggest tag teams of The Attitude Era were The Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian. Their encounters were legendary, and they helped to take ladder matches to a new level.
Putting all four men on the same team was a guaranteed recipe for success. The only thing missing was Gangrel to manage his four former proteges.
Their opponents at the 1999 Survivor Series were The Hollys and Too Cool, two of the other duos helping to carry the tag team division at the time.
This ended up being the Match of the Night for many fans, and it's easy to see why. Edge, Christian, Matt and Jeff were some of the most exciting performers at the time, and they worked well as both opponents and allies.
Surprisingly, Hardcore Holly ended up being the sole survivor after pinning Christian.