Going into the event, Survivor Series 1991 represented a paradigm shift for this annual PPV. While WWE wouldn’t go full-tilt in abandoning the elimination tag team format like they would a year later (with only one such match, positioned in the mid-card), this edition was largely built a round a WWE Championship match between Hulk Hogan and new challenger The Undertaker.

RELATED: 14 Best Survivor Series Matches Ever, According To Dave Meltzer

The event wound up being one of some historical importance, with more than a few noteworthy hidden details that the WWE Universe probably didn't notice.

8 Hulk Hogan’s First Loss To a Heel In A PPV Singles Match

Hulk Hogan Vs The Undertaker Survivor Series

In the early years of WWE pay per view, one thing was for certain. The show would with Hulk Hogan posing victoriously—more often than not with the WWE Championship in hand. Hogan had endured three PPV losses prior to Survivor Series 1991, but the first came when he was team fell to Andre the Giant’s at the original Survivor Series. The second time, Hogan failed to win the 1989 Royal Rumble (though he’d make up for that by winning the next two straight). Finally, his lone decisive PPV loss up to that point had seen him pinned by the babyface Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI.

Survivor Series 1991 saw a shift as The Hulkster not only lost another one-on-one bout on PPV, but for the first time did so to a heel. With an assist from Ric Flair, the young Undertaker joined the ranks of the few men who can say they defeated Hogan for the title.

7 Ric Flair’s First WWE PPV Match

Ric Flair Survivor Series Debut

Ric Flair worked a mid-card level match of Survivor Series 1991, emerging as the sole survivor from his eight-man elimination tag team match. Interestingly enough, this was not only the first match of the PPV, but Flair also had his first ever WWE PPV match at Survivor Series.

Flair got an interesting kind of push in this match. He scored the first fall of the night when he pinned The British Bulldog. Roddy Piper evened the score for the babyface team when he took out The Warlord, but after that point, everyone left was disqualified for refusing to listen to the referee’s instruction to stop brawling. Everyone except, Flair, that is, who stayed out of the fray and wound up victorious by default.

6 The Undertaker Had The Shortest Title Reign Ever To Start At One WWE PPV And End At Another

The Undertaker Wins The WWE Championship Survivor Series 1991

Short title reigns are a part of wrestling. When such a title changes occur under a week apart, it tends to involve a mix of the title being won or lost at a PPV, regular TV broadcast, or house show. This was not the case when WWE held its two most closely scheduled PPVs ever--Survivor Series 1991 on November 27, 1991 and This Tuesday In Texas six days later on December 3.

Related: Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan & 9 Other Feuds Between Legends Nobody Talks About

Despite The Undertaker debuting in WWE at Survivor Series 1990 and having a sensational year, he add an undesirable record to his name in late 1991. He won the WWE Championship from Hulk Hogan at Survivor Series, and lost it back to Hogan in Texas. In doing so, he became the only champion in WWE to win and lose a title at two separate PPVs, six days apart. Bray Wyatt came closest to matching this dubious achievement in 2020 when he won the Universal Championship from Braun Strowman at SummerSlam, only to drop it to Roman Reigns at Backlash seven days later.

5 The 1992 Survivor Series Main Eventers Didn’t Look Like Stars One Year Earlier

Bret Hart Shawn Michaels Survivo Series 1992

The main event of Survivor Series 1992 would see Bret Hart defend the WWE Championship against Shawn Michaels. From today’s perspective, that sounds like a great main event, but just one year earlier, the idea of these two headlining might have been a real headscratcher.

Hart had some momentum as a singles star, reigning as Intercontinental Champion going into Survivor Series 1991, but he participated in the opening mid-card elimination tag team match, and was unceremoniously eliminated in the mass disqualification. Meanwhile, Michaels was still one half of The Rockers. Though he did pick up one elimination for his team, pinning Beau Beverly, he wound up eating a pin from Brian Knobbs that didn’t exactly make him feel like a star. Little could fans have guessed they'd both go on to be huge names, including a legendary series of matches with each other across the years.

4 The Legion Of Doom, Animal and Hawk, Get Their Lone WWE PPV Main Event Victory

Legion Of Doom Survivor Series 1991

Call them The Legion of Doom, call them The Road Warriors—whatever the title, Animal and Hawk’s awesome look and smash mouth style got them over as one of the most successful tag teams in pro wrestling history. True to form, they followed up previous successes across other promotions and abroad by becoming WWE’s top tag ream from summer 1991 to summer 1991.

Related: 5 Ways The Legion Of Doom Was Best In WWE (& 5 Ways They Were In WCW)

Despite their success and how over Animal and Hawk were, WWE’s style of booking rarely positioned tag teams in main event scenarios. As such, The LOD’s lone PPV victory came at Survivor Series 1991 as the two men left standing from an unconventional six-man elimination tag team match. Their partner, The Big Boss Man, didn’t make it to the end, but Animal and Hawk did outlast IRS, Earthquake, and Typhoon.

3 The Only Time Hulk Hogan Was Ever Pinned At A Survivor Series

Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan was booked as the undeniable face of WWE during its national expansion. He not only won most of his matches, but most of the PPV main events, period, from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.Though he didn’t win at the original Survivor Series, he suffered his elimination via countout. From there, he was a survivor in major matches at the event in 1988, 1989, and 1990.

The Undertaker pinned The Hulkster, though. In addition to it being the first time Hogan got pinned at this big four PPV, it also turned out to be Hogan’s last ever Survivor Series match. He left WWE from spring 1992 to spring 1993, then departed again over summer 1993, before winding up in WCW. Though Hogan would return to WWE off and on in the early to mid-2000s, he was never again in the mix as an in-ring performer by fall.

2 It Was The First Of Only Two PPVs When Bret Hart Walked In And Out As Intercontinental Champion

Bret Hart Champion

Bret Hart shows up on a number of fans’ lists for greatest Intercontinental Champions of all time. That’s little surprise given match quality or the way The Hitman and the title seemed to elevate one another from summer 1991 through summer 1992.

Related: 5 Best Intercontinental Champions Ever (& Their Best Match)

Interestingly enough, though, there were only two PPVs ever when Hart walked both in and out as Intercontinental Champion. The first was Survivor Series 1991, when Hart’s title was not on the line as he participated in an elimination tag team match. The second was six days later—his lone successful PPV Intercontinental Championship defense, opposite Skinner. Each other time Hart was involved in a match for this title on PPV, he was either in the process of winning or losing it. It's fitting the milestone would happen at this event, given Hart's impressive Survivor Series legacy.

1 For The Second Consecutive Year, Two Out Of Three Babyfaces From The Main Event Survived

sid lod bossman

Traditional Survivor Series elimination tag team matches feature teams of four or five competitors. There have been some variations, though, and that includes the main event of Survivor Series 1990 seeing the trio of Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and Tito Santana face a five-man team of heels in a “Grand Finale” match, featuring survivors from previous matches. WWE reprised the unlikely three-man team structure one year later, when an injury to Sid Justice, and creative choices around Randy Savage and Jake Roberts led to it being The Big Boss Man and The Legion of Doom against IRS and The Natural Disasters in the 1991 main evnet.

Just as Hogan and The Warrior made it to the end in 1990, it was Animal and Hawk who survived in 1991, quietly replicating the feat of two out of three babyfaces surviving the main event. WWE has never featured a three man team in the main event of Survivor Series since.