Survivor Series '01

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '01

November 18, 2001 from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC

 

Commentary: Jim Ross and Paul Heyman

 

After five months of fairly shabby storytelling, an insane level of title hotshotting, and late NWO level faction swaps that have mostly fallen flat, but, strangely, also mostly decent and watchable PPVs thanks to good matches and motivated wrestlers across the board, tonight the Invasion angle is coming to a close. I really like this grand finale is taking place in the Greensboro Coliseum, former home arena of NWA flagship Jim Crockett Promotions and someplace WWF tried to hit for a PPV once every year. On the agenda tonight: alleviating some of the title glut by merging the top midcard and tag titles from each brand, and a main event traditional 5v5 Survivor Series match that will determine the final victors in the Invasion and which of the two companies would stay in business.

 

WWF European Championship: Christian (c) def Al Snow in 6:30- Snow, one of the hottest acts back in the Attitude Era, is wrestling his first non-Royal Rumble PPV match in over a year. He's been a regular trainer on WWF's talent discovery show Tough Enough. Snow goes right to the basics, getting a waist takedown and riding Christian on the mat. He gets a roll up for 2 and Christian backs off quick. He gets Snow in the corner and hits some shots, getting a big "WOOOOOOO" on the chop in Flair country. Pumphandle suplex from Snow. Christian tights pulls Snow into the middle turnbuckle. Russian leg sweep for 2. Snow fighting out of a chinlock leads to a slugfest and Snow makes a big show of hooking Christian up for his signature headbutts, but Christian uses that to hit a suplex instead. Chrisitan screams at Snow to fight back as he stays in control. Snow goes into counter mode and hits some jabs. He hooks up Christian's arms again and this time the headbutts hit. Big forearm to the back of Christian's head. Superkick for 2. Spinebuster from Snow for 2. Christian hits a reverse DDT (mistakenly called the Unprettier by JR). Once again he lets Snow know about it and Snow wraps up a small package for 2. Slide under from Snow and he trips Christian from the floor. Crossbody off the top from Snow but Christian rolls through it for 2. Snow Plow! Christian *just* gets a foot on the rope to break the pin! Christian leads Snow on a chase around the ring and jumps him as he gets back in. The real Unprettier hits and Christian gets the pin to retain. Fine enough. **1/4

 

In the back Austin is making his usual late arrival to the arena. After he gets to the Alliance locker room Steph freaks out that he's going to turn tonight. Austin, as usual, doesn't give a rat's ass what anyone thinks. Angle parroting everything Steph says is some more comedy goodness from him after jumping sides. Then Shane freaks out and everyone else in the room offers to be the new leader. Austin tells them all to calm the fuck down. Once again the "WHAT" response is slowly starting to become a thing.

 

Elsewhere, Vince teaches a very nervous Linda about the advanced business concept "shit happens". Michael Cole then interrupts and gets told off for not getting Vince's name right. Vince says he's an expert at taking "calculated risks" in business. Uh....XFL? WBF? Think they might have something to say about that. Alliance commissioner William Regal then gets in Vince's face and says his mind games won't work, he knows Austin is as loyal to the Alliance "as I am to her majesty the Queen".

 

William Regal def WCW Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri in 2:59- This is a rematch for those that saw the UK exclusive PPV Rebellion a couple of weeks prior. There's history here with Tajiri being Regal's understudy when he first came to WWF, but the feud was built more on Regal attacking Tajiri's girlfriend Torrie Wilson than that, to its detriment. A note on Tajiri's title: the Light Heavyweight/Cruiserweight titles weren't important enough to even have a formal unification match. After the Invasion was over the Light Heavyweight title was quietly discontinued and the Cruiserweight title, the one with the much more prestigious lineage, was rebranded as a WWF title. After a small staredown Tajiri goes right to the kicks. Regal gets him up in a fireman's carry and hits a rolling slam. Knee to Tajiri's head. Tajiri basement dropkick to Regal's knee and he tries some more hammy kicks. Regal fights back with forearms. Tajiri ducks and tries to wrap up the tarantula but Regal fights it off. Dodge in the corner and this time Tajiri gets the tarantula on. Handspring elbow for 2. Regal tosses Tajiri over the top rope and Tajiri's throat gets tied up in the ropes! Not sure if that was intentional or not but they went with it. Regal's also taken a shot in the nose at some point, he's got blood all over the place. Regal tries a double underhook but Tajiri counters with an armdrag and hits a head kick. Regal ducks another kick, hits the double underhook powerbomb, and that gets a quick pin. Well, that was barely half the time of their already short Rebellion match. But as that one was good despite the brevity, between Tajiri almost getting hanged in the ropes and Regal's nose getting broken this didn't go as planned at all so probably best they cut it short. *1/4

 

After the bell Regal hits a second powerbomb, then Torrie runs in to check on Tajiri. Regal gives her one more powerbomb for the road. 

 

Unification Match: WCW United States Champion Edge def WWF Intercontinental Champion Test in 11:19- You want some last second Invasion title hotshotting? I've got you covered. Edge walked out of both No Mercy and Rebellion as IC champ. Then, the Raw after Rebellion he lost it to Test. No worries for him. On the Smackdown before this show he defeated Kurt Angle to take the US title Angle had held for barely three weeks. The winner of this match, and the later tag title match, won't automatically decide which title survives, the titles of the company that wins the main event will be the ones kept. As if there was much question of which side was winning. The winners of all the title matches also guarantee themselves immunity from firing no matter which side ultimately wins, which is a good extra incentive. Rough lockup after the bell and a somewhat surprising clean corner break. Another long lockup. Test shoves on the break. Speed run and Edge hits a crossbody. They lock up again and this time Test does not break cleanly in the corner. Clothesline from Test. They go to the floor and Edge gets dropped on the barricade. Back in Edge gets a hiptoss and dropkick to get some momentum back. He baseball slides Test into the barricade. Commentary, especially Heyman, is doing a good job of going over the long histories of both titles and making the fact one of them is (theoretically) ending tonight seem like the big deal it should be. Swinging neckbreaker from Edge back in. Test gives Edge a huge hot shot and hits a clothesline. Corner elbows from Test. Corner clothesline on the other side. Chinlock from Test with arm drops. Edge hits knees to the head to get free, dodges in the corner and hits a missile dropkick for 2. Powerslam from Test for 2. Edge goes for a crossbody off the second rope but Test dodges it and Edge splats on the mat. Slugfest sitting on the ropes in the corner and Edge fights off a superplex. He goes for a sunset bomb but Test fights that off. Test comes off the top rope. Edge dropkicks him in midair! Edge goes on a comeback flurry, stringing a bunch of high impact moves together. Test hits a knee to the gut and goes for the pumphandle slam. Edge counters into a reverse slam for 2. Spear from Test! Edge kicks out! Edge ducks Test's finishing big boot. He goes for the spear but Test dodges and Edge crashes in the corner. The pumphandle powerslam hits! Again Edge kicks out! Edge counters a powerbomb attempt with a flying headscissors! SPEAR! Test kicks out! Test counters the Edgecution DDT and goes for a full nelson powerbomb. Edge counters that into a cradle roll up and gets the pin to take the titles! That would be the end of the WCW version of the US title. But not the end of the US title, as it would eventually be brought back under the WWE banner in July of 2003 when they realized each brand in the brand split needed a midcard title too, not just the world titles (the IC title will also be retired and brought back during that time). The match was slow to start but had a good stretch run. It was much more a Test match than an Edge one so that'll cap the ceiling quite a bit. Edge was still rounding into his upper level singles wrestler form too. **1/2

 

In the Alliance locker room Steph is still having a freak out that if they lose tonight she might have to become a (ew) NORMAL PERSON. Honestly it's one of Steph's best promos to date as she goes over all the horrible things she'd have to do like grocery shop for herself and *gasp* CLEAN HER OWN BATHROOM. Her former love triangle partner Angle calms her down as only he can.

 

CAGE LOWERING MUSIC. While that's happening we cut to the back again, where Lita's worried about how Matt's been acting lately. Lita walking in to find Trish in the locker room that Matt just left doesn't help. 

 

Steel Cage Unification Match: WCW Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz (w/Stacy Keibler) def WWF Tag Team Champions The Hardy Boyz in 15:44- On the Rebellion review I detailed the Dudleyz swapping the WWF for WCW tag titles between No Mercy and then. That made them the only ever company triple crown tag champions with the ECW/WWF/WCW combination, but personally I'd put an asterisk on the WCW ones. The Hardyz dethroned barely two week champions Booker T and Test on the Raw before the show. I'm not looking but I'm almost willing to bet money Booker ate the pin in that one. Even though they've both been on top and wrestling each other a while now these are still the two teams you'd want in a spot like this. After all the gimmick matches they've had over the years, this is somewhat amazingly their first ever cage match. It's pin or both team members escape rules tonight. Fink makes a rare mistake getting both teams' titles backwards, and even the Hardyz graphic calls them the WCW tag champs. Title glut and hotshotting was so bad in the Invasion literally no one could keep up. Once again Heyman hits the title histories, exactly what you want in a match like this. Matt and Bubba Ray start with a quick Matt edge. Jeff tags in and he's still trying to make the baseball cap work. Bubba Ray hits Jeff with a side slam for 2. But, more importantly, the cap stayed on. D'Von gives Jeff some shots and the cap is finally gone. Jeff shotgun dropkick on D'Von and the Hardyz double team him. Matt counters a hiptoss attempt into a backslide for 2. D'Von responds with a suplex for 2. Flying back elbow from D'Von. Hangman's neckbreaker from Bubba Ray, followed by a trio of elbow drops for 2. Matt and D'Von fight over the first cage shot and neither pulls it off. The Dudleyz keep Matt in their half of the ring and in peril. Matt manages to hit Bubba Ray with a reverse DDT and gets a tag to Jeff. Jeff goes wild and we're quickly DONNYBROOKING. Poetry in Motion on Bubba Ray. And D'Von! About time going for it twice hit both times. The Hardyz decide to climb. The Dudleyz cut them off and everyone fights standing on the top rope. D'Von Russian leg sweeps Matt down. Bubba Ray hits Jeff with an avalanche Bubba Bomb! Bubba Ray decides to climb but Matt slams him off for 2. The Dudleyz double flapjack Matt into the cage! Bubba Ray tries to backdrop Jeff, but Jeff lands feet first on the cage! He gets one leg over the top before Bubba Ray drags him back down. Doomsday Device from the Dudleyz on Jeff! "What a rush!" says Heyman, very well done. Reverse 3D on Jeff for 2. D'Von throws Matt into the cage. Both Dudleyz squash Matt against the cage, then Jeff takes his turn for a cage shot. There's clearly been a mutual agreement to forget about tags, which makes sense in a cage match. Both Dudleyz go up top. Jeff dodges both of them! Now Matt goes up top. Double clothesline on both Dudleyz. Matt finally starts to build the Hardyz first momentum in a while. Cage shot for Bubba Ray and neckbreaker on D'Von for 2. DDT on Bubba Ray for 2. Jeff gives D'Von the south of the border dropkick. Double backdrop on Bubba Ray. Now both Hardyz go up top. Splash/legdrop combo on Bubba Ray! D'Von barely breaks the pin up. Matt climbs up the cage but gets cut off by D'Von. Matt ends up dangling upside down with his leg trapped in the top of the cage. The Dudleyz hit the Whazzup Drop on Jeff, then Bubba Ray gives Matt a cage shot to get him loose. "Stacy, get the tables!". Uh, how are they going to get into the cage? Nick Patrick tries to stop her but Stacy lets loose all the feminine wiles and Patrick is powerless. Don't blame him. She pickpockets the door key and unlocks the door to get a table inside the cage. The Dudleyz set up to 3D Jeff through the table. Matt tackles Bubba Ray to cut it off! Matt climbs again and gets onto the top of the cage before Bubba Ray tries to stop him. He fights Bubba Ray off, gets over the top and falls to the floor! Well, the Hardyz are only one guy escaping from winning.....but Jeff is trapped in the cage alone with the Dudleyz. That could be a major tactical error. Not running Marshawn Lynch on 4th and goal in the Super Bowl level. Jeff covers Bubba Ray and gets a long 2 count. Jeff tries to fight, giving D'Von a series of cage shots, then starts to climb. He gets up to the top. Damn, he might pull it off after all. But then he stops and looks back down into the ring. No. No no no no win the damn match Jeff, don't do this. He goes for the Swanton Bomb off the top of the cage but misses and goes through the table! Oh Jeffrey. Bubba Ray covers, and gets the pin to give the Dudleyz the unified titles. Once again the Hardyz do the home state job, but this one was all on Jeff letting the adrenaline go to his head. Unlike the midcard titles, this would be the end of the lineage of the WCW tag titles. I really enjoyed that match. These two teams continue to both work great together, and keep adding new wrinkles to keep their matches from getting stale. The finish might seem dumb, but it's totally in character for Jeff.  ***1/2

 

Jeff does the stretcher job after his massive crash and burn. Biggest Jeff Hardy crash and burn until TNA Victory Road '11. You know the one.

 

WWF Commissioner Mick Foley is in WWF NY. He says the commisionership is a joke of a job, but he's still rooting for WWF and he'll be having a discussion with Vince tomorrow if WWF wins. Laying the groundwork for what's coming post-Invasion. Elsewhere, Test takes out Scotty2Hotty to take his place in the upcoming battle royale.

 

Immunity Battle Royale- The winner of this battle royale, as the name says, will be immune from being fired no matter which side wins the main event. I won't get too deep into this one, pretty much every midcarder that's been on TV any length of time during the Invasion and not otherwise booked tonight is in this. Plus Test, who just inserted himself. That goof Shawn Stasiak manages to get himself eliminated the second the bell rings. Tazz runs in after the match started to join it. Refs should have stopped that. Hurricane puts the cape on and tries to fly but the APA say "nah" and easily eliminate him. Those guys never did have a sense of humor. DDP doesn't even make it to halfway, continuing his horrible WWF run. After that Chavo Guerrero and Hugh Morris run in to join the match. Do your damn jobs, refs. They both get eliminated pretty quickly though. The final four are Bradshaw, Test, Lance Storm and Billy Gunn (who's now officially in a tag team with Chuck Palumbo, you'll be seeing a lot of them before long). They pair off Bradshaw with Storm and Gunn with Test with nothing to much interesting happening while commentary has a full on bitch fest with each other, also not paying much attention. Gunn gets tossed over the top but hangs on and barely manages to get himself back on the apron. Not sure if he was supposed to skin the cat and couldn't. On the other side, Test eliminates Bradshaw and Storm and thinks he won. Gunn attacks and loads up for the Fameasser, but Test big boots him over and out to get the win. Nothing at all special with a predictable result. 3/4*

 

One of the glaring mistakes of the Invasion angle: instead of using the Alliance to build the WCW guys, these last couple of months it mostly turned into a vehicle to make another attempt at turning longtime WWF wrestler Test into a top guy. Which, as usual, Vince lost interest in soon after.

 

Booker T tells Shane he doesn't trust Austin. Shane tells Booker to trust him, Austin's fine. 

 

Six Pack Challenge for the Vacant WWF Women's Championship: Trish Stratus def Jazz, Ivory, Jacqueline, Mighty Molly and Lita in 4:23- After being stuck in limbo since Chyna's last WWF match at Judgment Day in May and subsequent contractual dispute with the company, the women's title is finally being freed following the low-key official release of Chyna earlier in the month. Former ECW wrestler Jazz is a surprise entrant making her WWF debut tonight after spending most of the year in OVW getting some additional training. This is two women legal and you have to tag in, not everyone in at once like later 6 pack matches will be. Jazz comes in last, charges in and tackles Lita! Guess they're starting. Double underhook suplex from Jazz. Lita gets a flying headscissors and both women tag out with Molly and Jacqueline coming in. Jaqueline gets a nice takedown into a cover for 2, then hits some chops. Speed run and Molly takes a hiptoss and dropkick, then tags out to Ivory, who runs into a dropkick. Sunset flip from Jacqueline and they do a nice series of cradle counters. Ivory slingshots Jacqueline into the ropes. Trish tags in and slingshots Ivory into the ropes, then flapjacks her. Molly hits Trish from the apron, allowing the Alliance women to gang up on her. Lita and Jaqueline make the save. Lita hits Poetry in Motion on Jazz. They go for it again on Molly, but Jacqueline cuts Lita off with a clothesline! Every women for herself. Molly hits a nice senton off the top on Jacqueline as things continue to break down. Lita hits Ivory with the Twist of Fate and goes up top. The moonsault hits! The other Alliance women save the pin. Double clothesline from Lita on Jazz and Molly. The crowd is 100% behind Lita. Off a Jazz whip Trish backdrops Lita over the top to the floor. Jazz charges but Trish ducks and low bridges her to the floor. Trish and Ivory have a rough exchange, but Trish manages to hit the Stratusfaction to win the title for the first time! The win did get a decent pop in Lita country, but a lot of people at the time were still unsure if Trish had the wrestling goods or not. Of course, history would show this was 100% the right call as we start to get into the best era for the women's division until the start of the NXT influenced modern era. The match was fine for all the women in it and the short time, everyone hit their spots more or less right. It's light years ahead of any Attitude Era women's match. *3/4

 

Vince gives Team WWF the typical "off to battle" general's speech. It's fine but it's no Henry V St. Crispin's Day speech. Or Theoden's speech before joining the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, one of the moments the movies nailed as well as in the book.

 

With that, it's main event time. As mentioned, this is a traditional five on five Survivor Series elimination match. The winning company will, for lack of a better word, survive. The losing company is FINISHED. Representing Team WWF are the Undertaker, Kane, Big Show, Chris Jericho and WCW Champion the Rock, who just defeated Jericho on Raw to take that title back and those two were still at odds. For the Alliance we have Hardcore champion and the only real breakout Alliance star Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Kurt Angle, WCW owner Shane McMahon and WWF Champion Steve Austin. Looking at those lineups you can quickly see another reason why the Invasion flopped, eight of the ten wrestlers in this match are longtime WWF guys and only two (Booker and RVD) came over from the WCW and ECW buyouts. Hovering over this is Vince's tease that someone from the Alliance will jump ship tonight, with everyone assuming it'll be Austin. Which pretty much guarantees it won't be.

 

Winner Takes Tall Survivor Series Match: Team WWF def Team Alliance in 44:47- I will give them credit, despite how lame the Invasion angle as a whole has been, this match really does feel like a big f'n deal. Booker's going with tape around his hands instead of his usual gloves tonight. Austin and Angle spend much of the time between intros and the start of the match in deep, sometimes contentious discussion. Since this is a much longer than normal Survivor Series match I'm going to break it up into segments.

WWF 5, Alliance 5: As soon as Rock gets off the turnbuckles doing his pose Austin is waiting for him and it's on! Rock and Austin slug it out in the middle of the ring while everyone else parks it on the apron. Chops from Austin in Flair country. Rock responds with the usual big right hands. Austin Thesz press! Double bird to everyone and he drops the elbow for 2. After some whip reversals Rock hits his own Thesz press and does some crazy Austin mannerisms while dropping his own elbow. Shane comes in to break up Rock's pin. Booker tags in and gets some shots in on Rock. Flying clothesline from Rock for 2 with Shane again diving in to save the pin. He's protecting his investment, I'll give him that. Jericho reaches for a tag and Rock does tag him. Flapjack from Jericho on Booker. RVD tags in to a bit of a pop. JR acknowledges that he's the "most popular" member of the Alliance. He and Jericho roll through some good basic counter stuff and Jericho hits a spinning heel kick. Suplex from Jericho. Forearm slugfest and Jericho hits some chops. RVD dodges a dropkick and hits the cartwheel moonsault for 2. Jericho blocks a hurricanrana attempt into the Walls! Once again it's Shane that runs in to break it up. Tags on both sides, now it's Kane and Booker in. No, Angle tags himself in on Booker. He wants Kane. Angle tries to punch but Kane grabs him and tosses him into the corner. Corner clothesline from Kane. Angle slips out of a suplex and gives Kane a German suplex! Kane sits back up and Angle tries to slug him back down. Side suplex from Kane. The clothesline off the top rope hits and, guess who, Shane breaks the pin up. The Brothers of Destruction hit a double team on Angle and Taker pounds away on him. Angle manages to hit a back elbow and tags out to Booker. Big boot from Taker on Booker. Huge legdrop. Shane's pin breakups are starting to get like a WWE 2K game when you can't stop the AI opponent from breaking pins up so the match goes on freaking forever. Taker cranks on Booker's arm and hits old school. More arm work follows. Clothesline from Taker and we get yet another Shane drive by. He's like an annoying fly you can't swat. Booker tags Austin in for the first time. He stomps Taker down in the corner. Taker dodges and Austin crashes hard into the ropes. Clothesline and Taker goes for old school on Austin, which hits again. Guess who breaks the pin up? Austin manages to back Taker into the Alliance corner and the gang beatdown is on. Taker gets free and slugs back on Angle. Angle hits a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Taker fights off a German suplex attempt and hits a DDT. Taker tags Show to get him in the match for the first time. He squashes Angle in the corner, already pulls his straps down and tosses Angle across the ring. RVD tries to run in and gets murdered by a clothesline. Gorilla press on RVD and Show attacks everyone on the Alliance apron. Goozle! Angle counters and gets Show up for the Angle Slam! Booker tags in and hits the scissors kick. Spinaroonie! Now RVD tags in. Five Star Frog Splash! Shane tags in. Elbow off the top. Cover and Shane gets the pin to eliminate Show! Everyone but Austin hit show with their finisher to make sure he stayed down and get rid of him as quick as possible. Brilliant booking.

Alliance 5, WWF 4: Shane, predictably, dances all over the ring celebrating his pin. Rock gets in and is less than impressed. Shane turns around and realizes he's completely screwed. Rock beatdown! Shane's in position in the middle of the ring, but Rock turns and tags Kane in instead. Chokeslam! Now Kane tags Taker in. Heyman's meltdown during all this is hilarious. Tombstone! We're not done. Jericho tags in. Lionsault! Jericho covers, Taker plays defense to make sure no one runs in, and Shane is gone. Shane getting murdered by everyone's finishers because they could. Also brilliant booking.

WWF 4, Alliance 4: Angle and Jericho take over with some good high speed back and forth stuff. Backbreaker from Jericho for 2. Austin breaks the pin up and distracts Jericho, allowing Angle to get a takedown and tag out to Booker. Booker pummels Jericho with a trio of slams and hits a kneedrop. RVD tags in and hits a kick combo. RVD corner shoulderblock. He backflips back and goes for it again. Jericho counters with a cradle for 2. Clothesline from Jericho and tag to Kane. Big boot and clotheslines on RVD. RVD tries to speed around Kane, has a punch blocked but manages to hit a high kick. He tries the backflip out of the corner again and Kane murders him with a clothesline. Might want to stop trying that one, RVD. Powerslam from Kane. Booker tries to distract so Kane flips him in the ring. That distraction allows RVD to hit Kane with a high kick. Spring up top. Five Star Frog Splash! But RVD is slower to follow up than usual. Kane goozle! Booker runs in and hits a side kick, which quickly leads to everyone running in and we're in a full on DONNYBROOK! While everyone else fights on the floor RVD hits Kane with a flying kick off the top rope and gets the pin to eliminate him!

Alliance 4, WWF 3: Taker quickly runs in and takes it to RVD. Both Booker and Austin also try and Taker places them in their own individual corners. Then Angle tries and Taker puts him in the last open corner. Taker runs back and forth hitting all four guys in their corners! Both Booker and RVD get 360 clotheslined to the floor. Snake eyes and big boot on Angle. Clothesline for Austin. Taker hits Angle with the Last Ride! Booker comes in with a chair but Taker big boots him to cut that off. Austin Stunner on Taker! He drags Angle on top, and he gets the pin to eliminate Taker!

Alliance 4, WWF 2: Rock and Jericho are the only two remaining for the WWF, and they're both laid out on the floor. Booker rolls Rock back in, then tags in and stomps away on Rock. Big side kick from Booker. That looked NASTY. Rock comes back with a DDT and Angle just saves the pin. Booker hits knees to the gut but runs into a Rock Samoan drop for 2. Rock reverses a whip to send Booker into Angle, rolls Booker up and pins him to eliminate him!

Alliance 3, WWF 2: RVD quickly runs in to try to keep Rock on the back foot. He springs up to the top rope, back facing the ring. Rock grabs him and pulls him down into a roll up for a long 2! Jericho's finally back up on the apron and looking to tag in. And Rock does tag out. Jericho cuts RVD trying to tag out off with a basement dropkick and hits a running forearm. Swinging neckbreaker from Jericho for 2. Jericho floats over in the corner and hits the misdirection bulldog. He goes for the Lionsault, sees RVD dodging and lands on his feet, but RVD gets him with a high kick. RVD split legged moonsault! It wasn't clear but it looked like Jericho got his knees up. He plants RVD with what will be called the skull crushing finale and pins him to even things back up!

WWF 2, Alliance 2: Getting down to the gritty nitty now. Angle runs in and stomps on Jericho. Austin and then Rock also run in as it's EVERYONE IN THE POOL again. They pair off, Angle and Jericho in the ring and Rock and Austin on the floor. Austin slingshots Rock into the post to take him out while Angle keeps Jericho grounded with a chinlock. When Jericho fights back up Angle gets a single leg takedown and cradles Jericho for 2. Austin tags in and hits some chops, then places Jericho up top. Superplex! That gets a long 2 count. They have a miscommunication on a rope run as Austin runs right by Jericho, then turns around and they grab each other and grapple to try and recover. Austin then hits a sort of northern lights suplex and drops an elbow for 2. Angle tags in and continues to keep Jericho in peril. Jericho counters a German suplex attempt with a roll into an angle lock! Angle does a brilliant roll counter to get out, he would be the expert, and after another small whip miscommunication hits a clothesline. Austin tags in and hits a suplex. He goes up to the second rope, then realizes Jericho's too far away and changes his mind. Some real sloppiness in this part of the match. The Alliance guys continue to keep Jericho isolated and in peril with quick tags and double teams. Austin grounds him with a chinlock. Jericho fights back up and we have a slugfest. Double clothesline! Both sides tag and here comes Rock. Snap belly to belly on Angle. Dragon screw from Rock into the World's Shittiest Sharpshooter. Angle taps! WHAT? (not an Austin what) Someone actually tapped out to that? Well that's lame. But, there also might be extra story reasons for that as we'll see later.

WWF 2, Alliance 1: Rock refuses to release the hold. Austin comes in and forces him to, which also knocks Hebner down in the process. Jericho tags himself in on Rock's back. Chops for Austin. Springboard crossbody from Jericho, but Austin rolls through it to get a 2 count. Austin tries a Thesz press but Jericho counters into a Walls attempt! Austin eye pokes to cut it off. Now Austin tries to put Jericho in a Boston Crab but Jericho fights out. Austin's bleeding bad from somewhere in or near his mouth. He tries a double ax handle off the second rope but Jericho counters with a gut shot. Lionsault attempt but Austin gets his knees up. Cover from Austin for a long 2. He puts Jericho on the top rope again and chops him. Jericho fights off another superplex attempt. Missile dropkick from Jericho for 2. Roll up from Jericho. Austin counters, stacks Jericho up, and gets a pin!

WWF 1, Alliance 1: It comes down to, as it inevitably seemed destined to, Rock vs Austin. Back and forth slugfest while Jericho argues with Hebner about his elimination. Rock spinebuster! Jericho grabs Rock and gives him a skull crushing finale! That feud finally blows up, and what a cheap petty move by Jericho. Heel turn foreshadowed. Austin crawls over and covers. Rock kicks out! Taker runs back in and, rightly, asks Jericho what the fuck is wrong with you as they return to the back. After both guys stagger back up Austin lays in some ground and pound. Austin and Hebner get into it, allowing Rock to attack Austin from behind. Austin momentum tosses Rock over the top to the floor. Austin and Rock exchange chops over the Spanish announce table. Post shots for Rock. Rock reverses and Austin goes over the Spanish announce table, then Rock dives over the table to continue attacking him. Back in Rock hits some more chops. Austin spinebuster! He hooks on a Sharpshooter! Rock has a long fight, almost goes out, then finally manages to get to the ropes. Hebner has to force Austin to break. Austin goes out and gets his WWF Title belt. Rock ducks a belt shot. Spinebuster into Rock's Sharpshooter! Austin gets a rope break. Rock says the hell with that and drags him back to the middle! And Hebner lets it go. Again Austin gets a rope break for real this time. Austin gets a sneaky style low blow on Rock. Double bird, kick, but Rock grabs the leg and spins Austin around. Rock hits a Stunner! Rock's slow to cover but does. Nick Patrick pulls Hebner out! He gets in the ring to try to take over. Rock's having none of it. He hooks up for a Rock Bottom on Patrick. Austin cuts it off and hits a Rock Bottom! Rock kicks out! Austin's furious at Patrick for not fast counting. Austin slugs Patrick down! Hell of a sell from Patrick on that. Austin drags Hebner back in. He goes for the Stunner but Rock counters and down goes Hebner again. Austin fights off a Rock Bottom. STUNNER! Austin covers but Hebner's out. Wait, Angle's running back in. Angle nails Austin with the WWF Title belt! Rock Bottom on Austin! Hebner does his slowwwwww count.....and Rock gets the pin to win! The WWF survives!

SOLE SURVIVOR: The Rock

 

Angle's nonsensical turn to the Alliance is reversed by a last second turn back to the WWF. If that was the plan all along he sure took a hell of a long time to pull the trigger, but I suppose it was at exactly the right moment. Probably explains why he tapped out so quickly to Rock's lame ass Sharpshooter too. That and some other logical and/or rough spot quibbles aside that was still a hell of a match, easily one of the best traditional Survivor Series matches ever. As I mentioned at the start of the match, despite the Invasion being an overall failure they did accomplish giving this match a true epic feel. And I think we can all celebrate the fact the Invasion angle is, finally and completely, over. ****

 

The next night on Raw most everything would be reset to their pre-Invasion factory settings one way or another. Jerry Lawler would be back for the first time since early in the year to replace Heyman on commentary. And the next big angle would kick off with the return of Ric Flair to WWF in his home town of Charlotte, his first appearance since the WCW buyout. But not as a wrestler (for now). As the new WWF co-owner and thorn in Vince's side, the man that Shane and Steph had sold their WWF stock to in order to buy WCW and ECW.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The last Invasion PPV continues the pattern of mostly good wrestling partially making up for the deficiencies in the overall storyline. In fact this was the best Survivor Series in years, as it has been the black sheep of the classic Big 4 PPVs almost since WWF first moved to monthly PPVs. As he's leaving the booth I'd also like to give one last shout out to Heyman, who did a superb job being the heel and pushing his side but still managing to be both informative and entertaining. Pretty much what you'd expect from the best non-wrestler in the history of the sport.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B