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This year will be the 31st annual Survivor Series event following its inception in 1987. It is one of the big four events besides Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble and Summerslam. Also, it is the second longest running pay-per-view event after Wrestlemania.
It is worth noting that the first Survivor Series came after the huge success of WrestleMania III. The past years have focused on competition between the two brands which will be the same case for this year's event in Houston. Over the years, there have been great matches and emotional moments taking place at Survivor Series.
With exciting matches already set up for this year's event, we want to take a look back at the five most memorable moments in the 30-year history of the event.
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#5 Undertaker defeats Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan faced the Undertaker at the 1991 Survivor Series event which took place at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The "Hulkstar" was at the height of his popularity and was already a champion for 248 days. The Undertaker, on the other hand, was the young indestructible force who had an evil persona.
At the time, Undertaker was only 26 years old whereas Hogan was a megastar, headed to the legendary status. The match saw The Undertaker, with outside interference from Paul Bearer and Ric Flair, defeat Hogan by a tombstone on a steel chair. This would mark his first title reign, which made him the youngest wrestler to ever hold the WWE title at that time
#4 The Rock and Cena team up
The Rock returned to the squared circle at the 2011 Survivor Series event for the first time in seven years. Former Interim General Manager John Laurinaitis booked a match with The Miz and R-Truth against John Cena and a partner of his choice. Cena chose his Wrestlemania 28 opponent as his tag team partner in what was described as the most charismatic tag team of all time.
The Rock accepted this invitation the following week to set up a tag team match for the ages. During the match, The Rock showed no ring rust even though Cena was in the match most of the time. This match ended with Rock hitting the Miz with a spine buster and following it up with his iconic people's elbow. After the match, Cena was on the receiving end of a rock bottom.
#3 First ever Elimination Chamber match
The first ever elimination chamber match took place at the Survivor Series 2002 event at Madison Square Garden. The then Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff came up with this concept to outdo the SmackDown hell in a cell match. The World Heavyweight Championship was contested in the chamber and the participants included Champion Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Kane, Chris Jericho, Booker T and Shawn Michaels.
Shawn Michaels and Triple H were the final two following the eliminations of Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Kane, and Chris Jericho in that order. Michaels went on to win the match after he delivered a "sweet chin music" to Triple H in what would be his final run as World Champion. This was a memorable moment for Shawn Michaels as he had just made his return after a 3-year hiatus. Also, this was his second title reign in four years.
#2 The debut of The Shield
The 2012 Survivor Series event was memorable as one of the most dominant stables of all time made their debut. The main event of the show was a triple threat match for the WWE championship. CM Punk defended his title against John Cena and Ryback. The "straight edge superstar" managed to retain his title and extended his title reign to over a year thanks to interference from three men dressed in black.
However, the highlight of the event was how this main event match ended. The Shield, dressed in black, got involved in the contest as Ryback was just about to pin Cena. They hoisted the big man and triple-powerbombed him through the announce table to the amazement of fans in the arena. This enabled Punk to easily pin Cena for the win while the night also marked the debut of the three young men that would later be known as The Shield.
#1 The Montreal Screwjob
The Montreal screwjob took place at the main event of the 1997 Survivor Series match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Bret Hart, one of the most popular performers of all time, was on his way out of the company to join WCW, a rival company at the time. He was the WWE champion and was scheduled to defend it for the last time at the event which was to be held in his home country of Canada.
The "Hitman" was pencilled to successfully defend his title on his final night before vacating it to join WCW. However, The WWE Chairman had other plans in mind. Vince McMahon did not want Bret to leave the company as champion. The "Hitman", on the other hand, was not willing to drop the title to Michaels in his home country. So the agreement was for the match to end in a disqualification and thus Bret would retain his title.
However, this plan was not implemented as Bret was betrayed. Vince schemed a plan to have Shawn Michaels declared as a winner of this high tension contest. The plan was executed when referee Earl Hebner, on direct order from Vince, stopped the match when Shawn put Bret on the sharpshooter submission hold to give Michaels the win. This would go down as arguably the most talked about match in history.
