One of the unique aspects of professional wrestling is that portrays mostly fictional storylines, presented as sport. Because of the necessarily physical element of the product, it invites situations in which someone might get legitimately hurt. Moreover, there are those times when behind the scenes financial considerations, creative changes, or contract issues can all lead up to dramatic changes to existing plans.
Survivor Series has been around since 1987, and particularly in the last twenty five years has seen its share of dramatic turns and changes in response to real life happenings. This article takes a look at ten times when real life impacted Survivor Series plans.
10 10. 1999: Stone Cold Needs Time Off
Survivor Series 1999 was advertised to feature a compelling main event match pitting the top three stars of the day—The Rock, Triple H, and Stone Cold Steve Austin—against one another with the WWE Championship on the line. Before the PPV officially started though, WWE aired footage of Austin walking through the garage to the arena, only to be run over. The attack took him out of action, only to be replaced by The Big Show.
Austin didn’t get run over for real, but he was truly hurt, with real life injuries. WWE made the most of the circumstances—momentarily pushing Show who wound up winning the title and creating a mystery angle as to who had taken out Austin in the storyline.
9 9. 2017: The Need For Star Power In The Main Event
2017 featured a high profile Raw vs. SmackDown, traditional five on five match between top male Superstars from each brand. The lead up to the event saw WWE shuffle the deck, though. In particular, Triple H took Jason Jordan’s place on Team Raw, replacing the least established young talent with a surefire draw. Meanwhile, John Cena, who had been mostly absent from WWE programming, joined Team SmackDown for little logical reason in storylines.
The additions of Helmsley and Cena may not have added much of substance to the match itself, but did reinforce each team with a marquee name who would appeal to casual fans to beef up the high profile bout.
8 8. 1992: The Ultimate Warrior Needs Replacing
There’s no question The Ultimate Warrior was one of the most iconic characters in WWE history. He also had one of the most tumultuous histories with WWE management of any high profile performer.
For Survivor Series 1992, Warrior was scheduled to team with Randy Savage against heels Ric Flair and Razor Ramon. According to a WWE produced documentary about Warrior, he was suspended for use of performance enhancing drugs, and took exception, leading to a rift that sent him out of the company. WWE replaced Warrior with Mr. Perfect. Perfect had been a heel manager and broadcaster at that point, but WWE skillfully told the story over the course of an episode of Prime Time Wrestling of Savage recruiting him as a partner.
7 7. 2018: The Man Out Of Commission
Going into Survivor Series 2018, the stage was set for Becky Lynch to collide with Ronda Rousey as the respective Women’s Champions of their brands. Lynch had been building momentum and arrived as the hottest female star in the company, and a match with the most credible female fighter in WWE was certainly appealing.
That Lynch got hurt while executing an angle in which SmackDown’s women invaded Raw felt like a disaster, if only for taking the hard working star out of the most high profile match of her career. In hindsight, Lynch probably would have lost to Rousey at that point. Getting hurt may have been the best thing long term, for setting up this collision—with Charlotte Flair in the mix as well—for the main event of WrestleMania.
6 6. 2007: Matt Hardy’s Injury Puts The Faces At A Disadvantage
Survivor Series 2007 saw Triple H recruit Kane, Rey Mysterio, and the Hardy Boys for a face all star team to square off with a heel contingent led by Umaga. Matt Hardy wound up out of action. At the time, it seemed a bit spurious whether he was really hurt or if WWE were only selling a storyline of rival MVP attacking him. Nonetheless, Matt would go on to be out of action for months after WWE.com reported he underwent an emergency appendectomy.
The face team entered the match one wrestler down, without a replacement assigned. It turned out just as well for them as Triple H and Jeff Hardy survived to win for their team, likely as not the planned outcome anyway as the two were in the main event picture for the months to follow.
5 5. 1997: The Montreal Screwjob
There may be no more famous instance of real life impinging on WWE booking than the Montreal Screwjob. Bret Hart was the reigning WWE Champion and on his way out of the company to the competition in WCW. He refused to drop the title to real life rival Shawn Michaels, and particularly in Canada, so the powers that be orchestrated such that he would do so without having cooperated.
The aftermath of this match would become more legendary than the match itself, but fans did get to see the confusion when HBK apparently won via a lighting quick submission only to flee the ring. Hart visibly argued with Vince McMahon at ringside before spitting in his face (and later punching his lights out in the locker room).
4 4. 2014: Seth Rollins Gets Hurt
Seth Rollins emerged as arguably WWE’s top full time star in 2014 with a lengthy world title reign, stemming from the first ever Money in the Bank cash in in the middle of a WrestleMania main event. Rollins still had the belt come fall, when he was to defend it against Roman Reigns at Survivor Series.
Rollins got hurt with an injury that would take him out of action for over half a year. It’s not unreasonable to think Reigns would have beaten him for the title at Survivor Series, but instead The Big Dog won a tournament for the vacant title, last beating fellow Shield alum Dean Ambrose.
3 3. 1993: Upgrading The Main Event
The 1993 Survivor Series main event looked pretty straightforward. Reigning WWE Champion Yokozuna captained the heel team against his rival and top face in the company Lex Luger’s squad. The heels had Ludvig Borga and the faces had Tatanka as their upper mid-card, fringe main event representatives. The heels had tag champs The Quebecers, opposite top face team The Steiner Brothers.
WWE opted to amp up the star power, and arguably the drama with substitutions into the match. The heels injured Tatanka to set up The Undertaker taking his place. In turn, Luger incapacitated Pierre from The Quebecers to introduce Crush, hot off a heel turn, to the heel team. These changes served real life concerns about adding drama to the match and ramping up the star power.
2 2. 2012: The Heel Team Reconfigures Around Dolph Ziggler
When the card for Survivor Series 2012 started to take shape, one of the featured bouts was to see reigning WWE Champion CM Punk captain a team against wrestlers representing WWE legend Mick Foley. WWE sound up shuffling the deck, though, when Punk transitioned to a title defense against Ryback and John Cena. Dolph Ziggler took Punk’s place in the angle opposite Foley.
This change in creative direction served two functions. The show got a star-studded title match to bank on. Meanwhile, Ziggler got the rub of not only captaining the heel contingent, but emerging sole survivor at the front end of a major push.
1 1. 2018: Daniel Bryan Champions A Change In Direction
A week out from Survivor Series 2018, the main event was booked to see a rematch from the previous year as Universal Champion Brock Lesnar faced WWE Champion AJ Styles. Daniel Bryan beat Styles for his title, earning his way into the match five days before the PPV with a heel turn that he by all accounts personally championed.
Bryan championed the cause of not only becoming a villain, but doing so in his title winning match. That choice set up a fun dynamic with him unapologetically using low blows against The Beast to make the match competitive and break the mold of most Lesnar vs. smaller underdog matches.