Survivor Series '96

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '96

November 17, 1996 from Madison Square Garden

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler (to start) and Jim Ross (thankfully already done with heel JR)

Survivor Series Match: Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon & The Godwinns (w/Hillbilly Jim) def WWF Tag Team Champions The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart and "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith & The New Rockers (w/Clarence Mason) in 20:41- Furnas and LaFon are making their WWF debut here. JR mentions All Japan, almost unheard of on WWF TV, and that they were All Asia tag champs. In fact, outside the Steiners they were probably the most successful gaijin tag team in Japan in the '90s. Janetty and LaFon start. Janetty is playing around. LaFon is not. He lands on his feet after a monkey flip and kills Janetty with a clothesline. Cassidy comes in and Lafon outwrestles him. Phineas comes in and runs over Cassidy. Cassidy slams Phineas! Phineas blocks another attempt. The New Rockers double team and the heels gang up on Phineas to send him hog farmer in peril. After a few minutes Janetty misses an elbow off the second rope and Phineas tags Henry. Somewhere in there Janetty legit hurt his knee and they have to do some improvising before Henry takes Janetty out with the slop drop. Owen runs in with a spinning heel kick and Henry is also gone. Phineas tosses Owen over the top to the floor. Owen reaches out for a blind tag but Bulldog wasn't paying attention and they make a bit of a show out of it. Finally Bulldog gets in and powerslams Phineas to eliminate him. Furnas come in and he and Bulldog horribly mistime a spot where it looks like Furnas is going for a dropkick but Bulldog just runs right through him. Then stomps on Furnas as he's down, maybe out of real frustration. Furnas goes in peril. Cassidy Saito suplex for 2. Owen with a sweet ass sweet blind missile dropkick for 2. Furnas blocks a suplex and gets a small package for 2. Owen perfectplex for 2. Bulldog hits the delayed suplex. Furnas dodges Cassidy in the corner and gets a tag. LaFon lifts Cassidy up on the top rope and hits a reverse superplex! Cassidy is gone. That move woke the crowd up. Bulldog and Lafon do some counterwrestling, ending with a LaFon hook kick. Jackknife cover on Bulldog for 2. Owen gets a belly to belly suplex for 2. Neckbreaker and elbow off the second rope for 2. Enzuguri! LaFon kicks out! DONNYBROOK! LaFon gets a crucifix roll up on Bulldog to eliminate him! Bulldog clips his knee on the way out. Owen goes to work on it. Sharpshooter! Furnas comes in and Owen lets go to fight him off. LaFon hits a reverse enzuguri and tags. Furnas dropkick, his specialty, for 2. Huge belly to belly on Owen but he gets a foot on the rope. Furnas hits a release German suplex that Owen has to flip completely over on to keep from landing on his head, and that gets the pin and the win! Big debut for Furnas and LaFon. The match had some moments, but also some sloppiness. Owen and the Bulldog looked great, Furnas and LaFon had some Steiner-like tossing people around greatness at points but also struggled at times with the change of styles, and, to be honest, the Godwinns were so bad they drag the match down just by being in it. SURVIVORS: Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon **

 

The Undertaker def Mankind in 14:54- You'd think the Buried Alive match would have been the final blowoff. You thought wrong. Paul Bearer is being suspended above the ring in a cage in this one, and if Taker wins he can "get his hands on him". Bearer, not surprisingly, wants nothing to do with the cage. Taker comes down from the rafters for his entrance wearing what's clearly a Batman cape. Bruce Wayne should sue for gimmick infringement. When the lights come up we can see this is a very different Undertaker. No gloves, black leather gear, and he's got the teardrop tattoo. This is the look that in a couple of years would become synonymous with Ministry of Darkness Taker. Bearer is scared shitless and gets in the cage for protection. Mankind ambushes from behind and rams Taker's head in the cage. Brawl on the floor. Back in Taker whips Mankind hard from corner to corner. They go with a really good wide shot for this sequence and it really looks like the ring is moving. Taker's also whipping out some more wrestling, including a drop toe hold and fireman's carry takedown. He starts working Mankind's Mandible Claw hand. Clearly he watched the Shawn Michaels match. Taker misses an elbow drop. Cactus Clothesline! They go over the guardrail a bit into the crowd. Taker backdrops Mankind over the rail back onto the ringside mat! While they're standing on the apron Mankind hits a desperation low blow. Mankind cannonball senton off the apron! He hits the running knee in the corner back in. Taker pops out of the corner with a back elbow. Mankind with a piledriver! He goes for the claw but Taker blocks it. Big boot. He lifts Mankind up for snake eyes. Mankind hooks the claw in! Taker quickly flips him out to the floor to get out of it. Another hard rail shot for Mankind. Taker hits old school. Mankind gets a swinging neckbreaker. He comes off the top rope, but Taker grabs him with a goozle! Mankind counters by putting the claw on again! Taker goes down and they do the arm drops. Taker slowly recovers and pulls Mankind's hand out. Choke slam! Mankind dodges a charge and Taker goes over the top to the floor. He dodges another senton! Mankind hooks in a sleeper. Taker quickly back suplexes out. Sometime earlier Bearer had dropped the spike in the ring. Mankind now gets it and goes to work on Taker with it. He climbs on Taker's back. Taker flips him over and hits the tombstone! 3 count! Before he can get his hands on Bearer the Executioner runs out to save him. Taker fights him off, but Bearer is long gone. The matches between these two keep getting better and better. And even though it's still 1996, this was 100% an Attitude Era style match. ***1/2

 

Survivor Series Match: Jake "The Snake" Roberts, The Stalker, "Wildman" Marc Mero and Rocky Maivia (w/Sable) def Jerry "The King" Lawler, Crush, Goldust and WWF Intercontinental Champion Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Marlena) in 23:44- Sunny joins commentary for this match, replacing Lawler. This is the point that they were starting to get at a loose end as to what to do with her as she tended to overshadow anyone she was trying to manage. Yes, this is the Rock's famous debut, silly tassles, curly hair and all. The Stalker is Barry Windham with a giant mustache in honor of his dad. Roberts is a surprise replacement for an injured Mark Henry, and to say he doesn't look in ring shape is an understatement. He looks horrible. After a lot of guys going in and changing their mind, including HHH running away from IC title rival Mero, we finally have first contact with Mero and Goldust. All Mero early. Windham ducks Goldust clotheslines and hits his own. He's definitely lost a step. Commentary drops the "Stalker" thing altogether and straight up calls him Barry Windham, even going over as much of his history as being on WWF TV will allow. Trips avoids Mero again. Rocky is in for the first time with Crush. He immediately gets caught in the heel corner. Lawler comes in and Rocky no sells his tackle, then dropkicks and punches him to the floor. Lawler wants no more. Vince mentions Rocky is the "former Dwayne Johnson". HHH and Rocky are in together for the first time. Who knew then how important both would become to this era's history? HHH pounds him down in the corner as Rocky goes in peril. Crush shows why he hasn't been on PPV in forever. Rocky comes back on HHH with punches and a backdrop. Tag to Roberts. Pudgy Roberts punches all the heels. Short clothesline. HHH counters the DDT by backing Roberts into the heel corner. Lawler gets in and does some more "Jake's been hitting the bottle" mocking. DDT outta nowhere! Lawler's gone. More Roberts in peril. He jawbreakers out of a Goldust chinlock and tags Windham. Suplex with floatover on Goldust for 2. Crush hits Windham from behind. Goldust plants him with the Curtain Call and Stalham (Windker?) is gone. Mero gets beat down a bit, giving HHH an opening to finally come in and work him over. Crush carries Mero around in a bearhug. Goldust flying clothesline for 2. This Mero in peril sequence is going on *forever*, because their only other options are out of shape Roberts or green as hell Rocky, never mind the fact Rocky's getting the big run at the end. Er, spoilers. HHH puts Mero in the abdominal stretch and gets blatant help from Goldust right in front of outside ref Harvey Whippleman. Mero sunset flips HHH, who fights it forever before finally tagging Goldust. That was classic HHH right there. Best thing in the whole match. Mero comes back again and still stays in. Flying headscissors on HHH, followed by the match's approximately 10th backdrop. The Mero moonsault pins HHH. Crush comes in, goes for a press slam but it looks like Mero straight up tells him he's not gonna do it and they fumble around for a bit. Crush gets dropkicked to the floor. Mero plancha! Goldust pushes Crush out of the way and Mero splats on the floor! While TV is doing picture in picture replays Crush hits Mero with his heart punch finisher and pins him with zero fanfare. Crush ducks a Roberts short clothesline, hits him with the heart punch and Roberts is gone. Young Rocky is all by himself against Crush and Goldust. The veterans try to walk him through the end run but it gets ugly at times. Crush inadvertently heart punches Goldust and Rocky hits him with a wild crossbody for the pin. The he hits a shoulderbreaker on Goldust (a shoutout to his father I believe) for the last pin and match win. He gets an OK crowd reaction, not a spectacular one. As we know, the big early babyface push would backfire and the crowd would turn on him until he saved his career with his first heel run. The match was way too long for what most of these guys had to offer, 20ish minutes that felt like an hour. SOLE SURVIVOR: Rocky Maivia *

Video recap of the long-simmering Austin/Bret feud. The package also shows the recent angle between Austin and Brian Pillman, which included Austin destroying Pillman's ankle with a chair (birthing the term "Pillmanized"). Not shown in the package was the (in)famous follow up segment on Raw when Austin broke into Pillman's house and found himself at the business end of Pillman's gun, the first of many highly controversial angles put on by the WWF in this period. Vince and JR handle the next match themselves as a two man booth, with Vince letting JR take the lead more often and generally sounding much more casual and even enjoying himself with JR. More signs of positive change.

 

WWF Championship #1 Contender's Match: Bret "Hitman" Hart def "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in 28:36- This is Bret's big return match, having not wrestled on TV since Wrestlemania 12. Austin gets a noticeable pop from MSG. Bret gets a massive one. The winner gets a title shot at the next In Your House. Intense staredown. Austin gives Bret the double middle finger. After some lockup gamesmanship Austin jaws and Bret shoves. The next few minutes they go through some feeling out arm work tradeoffs. An Austin back elbow ratchets things up. Bret continues to focus on the arm. Austin hits a stun gun! He follows that up with a lot of work to Bret's throat area. Bret fights back up and we have a slugfest. Austin wins and does a little mudhole stomping. Bret reverses a corner whip and hits a clothesline. Inverted atomic drop. Bret roll up for 2. Austin counters a bulldog and we have a Bret bump. Austin sets Bret up for a superplex. Bret counters and hits his usual second rope elbow drop from the top rope. Austin eye rakes out of a backbreaker and uses momentum to send Bret to the floor. He runs Bret's back into the post. Bret charges, and he and Austin crash through the guardrail into the first row! Double leg takedown by Austin on the floor, and he slingshots Bret onto the Spanish announce table! Cabrera and Savinovich are down! Austin dives in and pounds away on Bret where the announcers normally sit. He (gently) slams Bret on the table. Elbow drop off the apron! Austin suplexes Bret back in. More Bret beatdown to dueling chants. Austin, a legitimately very smart man and always astute to what's going on, gets the crowd against him again by hooking up an abdominal stretch with illegal rope leverage. Ref Tim White catches him and Austin gives him a little Ric Flair on Tommy Young attitude. Crazy slugfest in the middle of the ring. Bret and Austin, not Austin and the ref. This time Bret wins the exchange. Bret hits Austin with a stun gun! Rolling cradle for 2. Bret with a piledriver. Austin kicks out. Bret goes up top. Austin knocks him down, chops the hell out of him, and this time hits the superplex! But Bret rolls his legs up after the landing and wraps Austin up in a pinning combination! Austin just kicks out. Stunner! But Austin didn't quite get all of it, and takes a second to pull Bret away from the ropes which allows Bret to kick out at 2! Austin hooks in a cloverleaf. Bret gets to the ropes. On a corner whip Bret looses footing and slides back first into the post! Austin covers for 2. Bow and arrow! Bret fights out. Austin fights off a Sharpshooter attempt. Bret hooks on a sleeper. Austin jawbreakers out. Million Dollar Dream! Austin going deep in the playbook. Bret climbs up the corner, flips over, and traps Austin down for the pin! Yes, it's a repeat of the finish of the Bret/Piper match at WM 8 but who cares. What a match. Crisp, intense, dramatic, it's professional effing wrestling at its absolute finest. Even in losing Austin's star continues to rise as he hung with Bret Hart every step of the way. And they'd lay down an even better match at the next WM. ****3/4

 

Survivor Series Match: Vader, Faarooq, (Fake) Razor Ramon and (Fake) Diesel & Flash Funk, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, Yokozuna and Savio Vega go to a no contest in 9:48- The Nation of Domination is here! Nation! Of Domination! This is the WWF debut for Flash Funk, formerly known as 2 Cold Scorpio in WCW and ECW. Fake Diesel you know as Mayor Glenn "Kane" Jacobs. Fake Ramon you probably don't know as Rick Bognar. He had a frankly unremarkable career both before and after this, though he was part of NWO Japan for a bit in New Japan as Rick Titan. Snuka was a surprise entrant after being inducted into the Hall of Fame the previous night. In its early years the HOF ceremony was the night before Survivor Series. I'd say Yokozuna is huge but I think I've exhausted all my fat Yokozuna jokes already. He's large, let's leave it at that. This would actually be his last match before WWF sent him out to extended fat camp before finally releasing him outright in '98. Jim Cornette joins commentary to annoy Vince and JR. Funk and Vader start. Vader lays in the corner beatdown and short clothesline. Funk hits a spinning heel kick that Vader starts selling while he's still half a foot away. A crossbody sends both over the top to the floor. Funk with a moonsault off the top to the floor! They get back in and he runs into a Vader tackle. Yokozuna's seen enough, comes in without a tag and gives Vader a uranage. Faarooq and Vega have a spunky back and forth. Vega is all over Fake Ramon before Ramon hits a horrible fallaway slam. Funk gets killed by a Fake Diesel clothesline. Faarooq spinebuster on Funk. Guys from both teams fight out of the other team's corners rinse and repeat. Snuka comes in and hits his stuff. He slams Vader! Vader pulls the top rope down on Vega to send him to the floor. Faarooq posts his back, and Diesel finishes hm with the fake jackknife. The real Superfly Splash takes out Fake Ramon. Diesel comes in with a chair and it's EVERYONE IN THE POOL TIME. The refs completely lose control and throw the whole match out. Crap ending, crap match. 1/2*

 

WWF Championship: Sycho Sid def "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels (c) (w/Jose Lothario) in 20:02- MSG loves Sid. Shawn gets very high pitched cheers and very low pitched boos so it's pretty obvious who's for who. Technically Sid is still a face, for now. Cautious lockup. Sid pounds away to the delight of the crowd. Shawn slides under Sid's legs and hits a crossbody for 2. They exchange slaps and some headlock/headscissors counters. Slugfest. Sid presses Shawn but he slips out. Shawn goes for a backdrop but Sid stops and cinches up for a powerbomb. Shawn scurries away. More speed as this continues to look like a normal Sid match in fast forward thanks to Shawn. Shawn clips Sid's knee and goes to work on it to more boos. "Let's go Sid" chant. Figure four! After a bit Sid reverses it and they both get in the ropes. Shawn continues the knee work to a 50/50 reaction at best. Sid pushes out of another figure four attempt and Shawn posts his shoulder. Slightly faster than normal Sid beatdown. Shawn dodges in the corner and dropkicks Sid's knee. Sid clotheslines Shawn 360 to the floor. Shawn gets whipped into the apron and Sid presses him down on the guardrail. Back in the ring we get a more normal speed Sid beatdown. As in slow. Shawn flip! He snaps Sid's throat over the top rope and tries coming off the top, but Sid catches him and gives him a backbreaker. Hard buckle whips. Shawn wants more. He slowly fights back and gets into another slugfest. Shawn tries coming off the second rope but Sid gets a boot up, and Shawn does a crazy slow motion roll where he's standing on his head a solid couple of seconds. If you've ever seen the Shawn "I'm a tree" meme online, this is where it comes from. Sid slaps on a cobra clutch. Shawn goes down and has a couple of near falls before fighting out. Sid goozle. Shawn eye pokes out and quickly tunes the band up. Sid blocks the kick. Choke slam! Sid being Sid he takes absolutely forever to follow up. When he finally goes for the powerbomb Shawn rolls up a small package for 2. Sid powerslam. Shawn flying forearm. He kips up, but Sid says "screw your comeback" and murders him with a clothesline for a long 2 count. Sid goes over and takes a camera. Lothario gets on the apron. Sid hits him with the camera! Superkick! Shawn sees his mentor down and goes out to help him. He and Sid get back in so they can do a dodged crossbody spot that takes Hebner out. I think they meant to do that before Shawn got out and got mixed up. Now Shawn goes out again while commentary talks about Lothario maybe having a heart attack. Sid hits Shawn with the camera! Powerbomb! Hebner does the super slow count, and Sid gets the pin and, after many delays, cancelled plans and real life incidents wins his first world title. MSG loves it. Shawn doesn't care and goes out to help/yell at the medics treating Lothario. Not surprisingly, Shawn carried Sid to probably his best match ever. The crowd reactions were a lot of fun too, with the male contingent at MSG wanting nothing to do with Shawn anytime he did anything on offense. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The Survivor Series matches aren't worth anyone's time unless you really want to watch the Rock's debut, but the singles matches delivered in spades. Overall it's probably WWF's best PPV in '96 and yet another big step toward the Attitude Era.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B