Top five Survivor Series traditional tag team matches

It’s that time of the year again when the WWE fans start drooling about the prospect of traditional Survivor Series matches. And throughout its 26 year history; the Pay-per-view has always managed to produce fireworks when the teams assemble for the final showdown. With just two week away from the latest edition, there wouldn’t be a better time to refresh on the illustrious and controversial history of the annual event. So here is look at the five of the most glorified traditional Survivor Series tag team matches till date.

5- Team Raw (Shawn Michaels, Kane, The Big Show, Carlito and Chris Masters) vs. Team SmackDown! (Batista, Rey Mysterio, John “Bradshaw” Layfield, Bobby Lashley and Randy Orton) -2005

Now this match carried all the excitement because of the importance given to SmackDown by the company. The brands were split so brilliantly that sometimes it looked like Raw was competing with another WCW. And the writers didn’t hesitate much to utilize the situation and pit the two brands against eachother for a Survivor Series showdown. Eddie Guerrero was slated to be sole survivor of the match but Eddie was replaced by Randy Orton after his tragic death. The match lasted 24 minutes and showcased some array of brilliant moves with the most notable being the effort put in by the SmackDown guys to eliminate Big Show. Orton delivered an RKO to Shawn Michaels to win the match but his celebrations were cut short by a certain Undertaker who emerged from a flaming casket.

4- Team Piper (Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, Virgil and Davey Boy Smith) vs. Team Flair (Ric Flair, The Mountie, Ted DiBiase and The Warlord) – 1991

The match still stands out from the rest for its controversial ending and questionable ending. It ended in a disqualification for everyone except Ric Flair for the offence of brawling inside the ring. You heard me right, just for brawling inside the ring. Apart from the ending, this was one of the most entertaining matches in the history of the pay-per-view. The wrestlers through everything inside the ring, and at that time any match which boasted the lights of Flair, Bret Hart or Roddy Piper was bound to be good. Warlord, DiBiase and the other complemented the main stars brilliantly and ensured that the match would fire up the crowd until it came to an abrupt end.

3- Million Dollar Team (Ted DiBiase, The Undertaker, The Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine (with Virgil, Jimmy Hart and Brother Love) vs. the Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, Koko B. Ware, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) -1990

The match will be always known as the debut of the legendary Undertaker. The Phenom made his first WWE appearance in this Survivor Series and went on to win the WWE championship in the next year by beating Hulk Hogan. Looking from the current era it was a match which had Undertaker and Bret Hart on opposite sides, but back then the million dollar man Ted DiBiase and the American dream Dusty Rhodes were the ones entitled with the pressure of delivering the goods. The first elimination of the match was done by the Undertaker himself when he knocked out Koko B. Ware with a Tombstone Piledriver. Taker would then eliminate Dusty Rhodes with an axe handle before being counted out for going after Rhodes. DiBiase and Bret were the eventual finalists and they fought for a good five minutes before DiBiase pulled of a reverse flying body press to end the match in his favor.

2- Team WWE (The Rock, Chris Jericho, Kane, Undertaker and Big Show) vs. Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T and Shane McMahon) – 2001

The card says the whole story; with such big names in the ring at the same time there was no doubt that this would be etched into the stones as one of the best matches in the history. Fresh off the Monday night wars with WCW, the WWE was going through a transition period in 2001 and the invasion storyline which portrayed the WCW and ECW employees forming an alliance under Shane McMahon to go against Vince McMahon and his company. The long and twisted angle was given the climax by a traditional Survivor Series match with stipulation of “Winner Takes All,” the match itself produced many twists and turns with the WWE team falling apart in-between after Jericho attacked The Rock and Kurt Angle turning out to be mole of Mr. McMahon. The 45 minute epic ended with The Rock as the sole survivor and WWE standing tall in the wrestling world.

1- Team Austin (Shawn Michaels, Rob Van Dam, Booker T and the Dudley Boyz) vs. Team Bischoff (Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Christian, Scott Steiner and Mark Henry)- 2003

The match will be remembered mostly for a bloody Shawn Michaels who showed so much heart to defend the job of someone who was his bitter rival. After the fall of WCW, Eric Bischoff returned to television as the general manager of Raw and he was constantly troubled by his co-general manager Steve Austin, who retired from in-ring action before the beginning of the feud. The duo carried their rivalry to almost eight months before getting a final battle at the Survivor Series. And the match had a lot on the line as Austin’s team had to win to keep him in the company. The match went to and fro and nearing the end, Shawn Michaels was in the middle of a numbers game against Christian, Jericho and Orton. With blood oozing out from his head, Michaels would level the field by eliminating Christian and Jericho. The match ended with Batista helping Orton to win after a referee bump following Austin’s beating up of Bischoff. Austin was taken off TV after his gratitude speech addressing Michaels. The match also marker Orton’s long run as a sole survivor and cemented his name as the legend killer.