Survivor Series 1996 was supposed to be the beginning of a new dawn for the WWE following a year of losses brought on by the defections of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to WCW and the subsequent rise of the NWO. WWE had claimed what has to be considered its first real victory in the war with their competitors since WCW had debuted Monday Nitro in direct competition to Raw, when they managed to secure the re-signing of Bret Hart after months of negotiations. Despite his dissatisfaction with Shawn Michaels’ positioning as the top star in WWE and the money that was on offer to him at WCW, Bret had elected to stay loyal to the company that had made him famous and chose the long term security of a reported $20million dollar, 20 year deal with Vince McMahon, over an eye watering $3million dollar per year, 3 year deal in Atlanta. At the time, Vince McMahon breathed a huge sigh of relief- WCW wouldn’t be getting hold of another one of his biggest stars and he now had a massive extra selling point for the Survivor Series event- the return of ‘The Hitman’. It made Bret Hart the highest paid wrestler in the company, by a long way, and seemed to suggest that things might start going in WWE’s favour for once.
All of this was not to say of course that WWE weren’t still very much lagging behind their rivals in terms of television ratings, live attendance and pay-per-view buys- WCW were on fire thanks to the NWO, but when watching this show back, there is a clear indication that WWE felt that they had some momentum behind them, and a resolve to do their very best to take back the position as industry leaders. Not only would the Survivor Series see Bret Hart take part in his first televised match since that year’s Wrestlemania, some 8 months earlier, against the up and coming ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, but also the company were set to introduce a host of new acts into their narrative with Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon, Flash Funk (the former 2 Cold Scorpio) and one, Rocky Maivia, a rookie 3rd generation wrestler who had only been a pro for 6 months prior to his introduction and spent the majority of that working in the USWA as Flex Kavana. In the main event of the evening, Shawn Michaels would defend his WWE World Title against Sid and to boot the event was right back home in the hallowed halls of Madison Square Garden- as good a place as any for WWE to attempt to put the previous 12 months behind them.
To open the evening’s entertainment, The New Rockers along with Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart would take on The Godwinns and debutants Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon. The New Rockers were formed of original member Marty Jannetty and new partner Leif Cassidy (WWE’s revised name for Al Snow, who’d also earlier been Avatar in the company). The new version of the team was a pale of its predecessor, and not just because Snow, as good a wrestler as he was, was not in the same league as Michaels. Jannetty had been on a constant up and down struggle since the original team had split up in 1991- almost immediately after the split, WWE were unable to deliver the expected Michaels/Jannetty feud (that would surely have culminated at Wrestlemania 8) when Jannetty was put under house arrest for 6 months after attacking a policeman, it was justifiable that WWE decided to release Jannetty at the same time. They brought him back less than a year later and he finally did have a pay-per-view match with Michaels at the Royal Rumble in 1993 but was once again released, reportedly due to WWE believing Jannetty to have been intoxicated during the match.
Jannetty got another chance later in 1993 where his return, and defeat of Michaels for the Intercontinental Title caused Michaels to bring in Diesel as his bodyguard and win the belt back just a week later. At this point the lesser of The Rockers was going okay in a lower mid card role however, a 1990 lawsuit against Jannetty and the company by Charles Austin, a preliminary wrestlers who had been paralysed in the ring when Jannetty had performed his Rocker Dropper move on him, coincided with Jannetty’s disappearance from television in 1994 (though the two have never been officially connected, the timing is suspect- Austin ended up being awarded a massive $26.7million by the court, an amount that WWE was lucky enough to have covered by insurance). It wasn’t until later 1995 that Jannetty would show up again in WWE and after briefly reprising his babyface role would turn heel to team up with Cassidy and form The New Rockers. After nearly a full year without really accomplishing anything as a team, Jannetty wanted out but management wouldn’t comply with his wishes and so Jannetty left the company following this event- it would turn out to be the last he would work for them for over 10 years.
The early stages of this match featured some relatively untidy exchanges between Janetty and Doug Furnas in particular (possibly due to nerves on the part of Furnas, making his debut in the company, and at Madison Square Garden no less) and at some point Jannetty seems to pick up a knee injury (which appears to be legit as the commentators don’t reference it at any stage). The first two eliminations come when Henry Godwinn pins Jannetty after a Slop Drop but Henry is then eliminated quickly himself when Owen Hart hits him with a heel kick from behind and makes the cover. It is not long before the heels have a 3 on 2 advantage after a short exchange between Owen and Phineas Godwinn ends in a blind tag to Davey Boy Smith who scoops the other Phineas up and pins him following a running Power Slam. This now left the new team of Furnas and LaFon in a handicap situation against the Tag Team Champions and Leif Cassidy- a situation manufactured solely to help get them over immediately with the crowd.
Furnas and LaFon had been brought in as an attempt to improve the tag team situation in WWE at the time. As mentioned in my review of In Your House: Badd Blood, the tag team division in the company over the course of 1996 had been abysmal, lacking as it did in quality tag teams and having been dominated by manager Sunny who had completely overshadowed the individual members of the teams she managed. WWE had switched the belts to Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith in the absence of a regular tag team with enough credibility to hold them- a matter only confounded by the Smoking Gunns split in the month prior to this (though an indication of how much WWE thought of the importance of this split should be made abundantly obvious by the fact that the Survivor Series match that would contain the two men on separate sides of the ring, was given away on the Free For All portion of the show). With no real legitimate rivals for Hart & the Bulldog’s belts, this match was purely designed to bring in Furnas and LaFon and make them look a threat to the titles immediately.
Though in truth Furnas and LaFon would never really get over with WWE audiences in the long run, this bout does get them off to a good start with Phil LaFon’s offence in particular striking a chord with the New York crowd. He gets the next elimination when he pins Cassidy following a suplex variation from the top rope. LaFon then also manages to eliminate Davey Boy Smith after a string of moves and counter moves allows him to roll up Bulldog with a school boy pinfall from behind and take him out. Furnas too shows some quality with a magnificently executed dropkick before finishing Owen off with a release German Suplex. Rating 6/10. This was quite poor for the first half but was saved in the latter stages by some smooth exchanges that got the crowd into the match, and the new arrivals meaning that they had achieved what they had set out to with this one- though this was, unfortunately for Furnas and LaFon, probably the highlight of their WWE careers.
Match number 2 on the show was the 4th pay-per-view collision between Undertaker and Mankind in the space of 6 months in what many consider to be one of the Undertaker’s greatest ever rivalries. Prior to Mick Foley’s arrival in WWE earlier that year, ‘Taker had essentially become the 1990s equivalent of Andre the Giant- the special attraction, big man whose mere presence was enough for people to be drawn to him and who would rarely go after the title, despite also rarely losing. The character had been an undeniable commercial success, with ‘The Phenom’ staying over with crowds for years despite a long line of dead weight opponents where match quality was at a premium- from Kamala, through Giant Gonzalez, Yokozuna, King Kong Bundy, Kama and Mabel- Undertaker was matched up with little opportunity to shine. That all changed when Mankind hit WWE screens shortly after Wrestlemania 12 and immediately went after ‘The Dead Man’ and began a feud that would change the perception of the Undertaker forever. It would also have a profound effect on Mick Foley’s life as well, though in truth, the Mankind character was originally expected to simply be The Undertaker’s latest ‘Monster of the Week’ that would disappear once vanquished.
After defeating Undertaker at the King of the Ring in June of that year in a big surprise, he then managed it again at Summer Slam in the infamous Boiler Room Brawl that had ended when Paul Bearer, Undertaker’s manager for 5 years, turned on him and helped Mankind take the victory. This led to another match innovation when the pair met again at the October pay-per-view, In Your House 11: Buried Alive, in which the winner had to dump their opponent in a pre-dug grave and cover them with dirt. Undertaker actually managed to win this one, though immediately after the victory, ‘Taker had been attacked by The Executioner (played by Terry Gordy) who not only took ‘The Phenom’ down but also freed Mankind and then the pair buried the Undertaker. This was WWE’s way of removing The Undertaker from television for a month, and then give him a mild face lift which, after 6 years, the gimmick was in need of, and so for ‘Taker’s entrance at the Survivor Series, he descended in from the rafters with a bat-like cape and a new leather heavy costume. Furthermore, the announcers played up his new ‘more aggressive’ in-ring style (which in truth had begun in the aforementioned matches with Mankind earlier in the year).
This was a good, 15 minute encounter, once again far better than anything The Undertaker had done against his previous run of opponents, but by this time we had seen the pair face each other enough, and this wasn’t as good as their first match, or as novel as their encounters at Summer Slam or in the Buried Alive collision. The added stipulation of Paul Bearer being suspended in a cage above the ring wasn’t enough to give this one any extra oomph either. Eventually, The Undertaker scooped Mankind up for the Tombstone Piledriver to get the pinfall. Rating 6/10. After the match, the cage containing Bearer is lowered and it appears that The Undertaker might finally get his hands on his former manager however, The Executioner once more makes the save allowing Bearer to live to fight another day.
After that match there is an amusing little shot of Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon conversing with fans on America Online, in those early days of wider commercial internet usage, pro wrestling was ahead of the curve in many ways, and 20 years later, the web is now the primary driver of WWE’s business. Speaking of the internet, WWE’s popular claim in 1996 was that Sunny was the most downloaded person on AOL- more than any Hollywood or music star and she emerged from the back to join Vince McMahon and Jim Ross for commentary. McMahon and Ross had previously been accompanied by Jerry Lawler who was set to take part in the next match and Sunny was on hand to replace The King at this point. Interestingly, JR had taken on a rather heelish persona in the previous months following his introduction of the New Diesel and New Razor Ramon to the company. This event provides a fascinating insight to Ross’ ability to play a character, here showing contempt for McMahon, the format of the show, Sunny’s (and indeed other women’s) presence at ringside and in particular the referees. He also gets in some shots to WCW, as would be a regular occurrence during the Monday night war. But Ross, who was brilliant at emphasising the injustice when a babyface was cheated out of a match, is here batting completely for the other side- and excelling at this too.
Lawler’s team, comprised also of Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Crush and Goldust would go up against a team captained by Marc Mero. Mero was joined by ‘The Stalker’ Barry Windham, mystery opponent, Jake Roberts and another debutant- Rocky Maivia. Lawler is the first to be eliminated when Jake Roberts hits a DDT on him, and Windham is next to go after a Curtain Call by Goldust. After what seems like an infinitely long abdominal stretch by Helmsley on Mero, Mero manages to escape and then hit a moonsault on his opponent to eliminate the Intercontinental Champion from the match. Mero however, takes to the sky too many times and when he attempts to slingshot himself over the top rope onto Crush outside the ring, Goldust pushes Crush out of the way and Mero hits the deck. Crush then rolls Mero in to the ring and gets the pin, bringing it down to 2 against 2 (though the cameras miss the fall thanks to a replay of Mero’s aerial attempt).
It’s not long before Maivia finds himself at a numbers disadvantage when Crush uses his Heart Punch to eliminate Roberts. This has the desired effect as the MSG crowd get behind the rookie with chants of ‘Rocky! Rocky!’ less than 20 minutes into his career with the company. During these stages in the match, it is clear that Maivia was still incredibly green at the time of his debut in WWE- one wonders whether, with a deeper roster and in a period where the company had less urgency to create new stars, The Rock would have ever been given a chance as early as this. After Crush went for another Heart Punch, this time Maivia steps out of the way, meaning Goldust catches the force of it, Rocky then cross bodies Crush and gets the pin before also pinning Goldust after a Shoulder Breaker. Rating 6/10. Much like they did with Furnas and LaFon, WWE put Maivia over big here in his debut. While little of the cool of ‘The People’s Champ’ is on display, and it is clear that he still has a lot to learn in the squared circle, Maivia receives the desired response from the crowd- once again, WWE had achieved its goal with the contest.
While The Rock was taking his first steps in WWE, Steve Austin was preparing for the biggest match of his career up to this point. It’s often forgotten when WWE retells the story of the rise of ‘Stone Cold’ that even after the King of the Ring event, where Austin had cut his monster merch selling “Austin 3:16” promo, the company were slow on the uptake in pushing Austin to the top of the card. In fact, between that night (where Austin had won the King of the Ring tournament as a replacement for Hunter Hearst Helmsley, whose planned King of the Ring victory had been taken away from him as punishment for the Curtain Call, which had ironically also taken place at Madison Square Garden) and this show, Austin had only appeared on 2 of the previous 4 pay-per-views, the most recent of which was in the opener of the previous pay event (once again, ironically, against Hunter Hearst Helmsley). It wasn’t until Bret Hart re-signed with the company and personally requested that his comeback match be against Austin, that ‘Stone Cold’ would begin to shine again.
Despite this being the return to WWE of the company’s longest serving and arguably most popular roster member, there were scattered chants, even before the match, for ‘Stone Cold’. The Madison Square Garden crowd have always ensured that top babyfaces earned their support, and at the same time lumped praise upon the heels they are impressed with, and here they were handing their seal of approval to Austin. That’s not to say that they booed Bret, and as expected he received a hero’s welcome in the same arena he’d won his 2nd WWE Title at Wrestlemania X. In addition to this being Bret’s comeback match, and the promos that Austin had been cutting for the previous couple of months, challenging Bret to a match upon his return, the stipulation in this one was that whoever took the victory would face the WWE Champion at December’s In Your House, and so the stakes were high. With Hart unlikely to lose in his return match, would this mean that Hart and Michaels were going to play out their rematch from that year’s Wrestlemania on a b-level show, or was an upset in either this or the title match set to take place?
They set a deliberate pace in the early going, utilising plenty of rest holds and slowly built to turn this into an excellent slice of mat action. The match spilled out beyond the guard rail at one point, with Austin slingshotting Hart from the crowd over the railing and onto the ill fated Spanish Announcers desk. In the meantime, back in the ring Hart reversed a superplex attempt by Austin and then followed it up with an elbow from the second rope. As Austin’s aggression grew, tailored to pour more heat on him as the heel, the Madison Square Garden crowd only took to him more, with greater numbers of people cheering Austin’s comebacks with each exchange. Just over 20 minutes into the match Austin manages to hit a slightly underwhelming Stunner on his opponent which, combined with a moment’s hesitation in going for the pin allows Hart to kick out of the resulting cover. Over the course of the bout, Austin had been working on the ribs of Hart and he next attempted to capitalise on this by applying a Texas Cloverleaf, which Hart managed to escape by reaching the bottom rope. With the crowd now on the edge of their seats, Hart attempted to lock in the sharpshooter only for Austin to escape and then lock in the Million Dollar Dream. Caught in the hold, Hart kicked himself off the turnbuckle, sending both men careering backwards to the floor, where Hart’s momentum rolls him over Austin and the referee counted to 3- a la’ Bret’s Wrestlemania 8 finish with Roddy Piper- to secure the victory. Rating 8/10.
This was an excellent match which not only got Bret Hart’s return off with a bang but also elevated Austin thanks to the presentation of ‘The Rattlesnake as Hart’s equal. Bret would go on to have arguably the best year of his entire career between this night and the following year’s event, and this was a great way to start it. On commentary Jim Ross does an excellent job of selling the importance of both the victory by Bret and the performance of Austin, and protects both the quality of the victory and Austin in defeat with his analysis of the match ending moments. If there is one slight criticism to be had it is that the match maybe goes a few minutes too long- with a shorter middle section, some of the early part of the contest, which become slightly tedious at times, may have been mitigated to an extent. Hart would now go on to face the World Champion at the next pay-per-view as a consequence of this victory, that World Champion would be determined in the main event pitting Shawn Michaels against Sid, and following the Hart/Austin match, Sid cut a backstage promo where he promised to do anything to gain the title.
Before the main event however, there was one last Survivor Series match pitting Faarooq, Vader, The New Diesel and The New Razor Ramon against Savio Vega, Yokozuna, Flash Funk and mystery partner, ‘Superfly’ Jimmy Snuka. As previously mentioned, it was Jim Ross who had been selected as the on-screen fall guy for the ridiculously desperate concept of recasting both the Razor Ramon and Diesel characters in late 1996. After the original men in the roles had jumped to WCW and lit the company on fire, WWE and Vince McMahon were looking for any response to their rivals- and so when somebody (whoever it was, McMahon has to take ultimate responsibility for signing off on the idea) suggested reusing the Diesel and Razor Ramon names- after all, WWE owned the copyrights for the gimmicks (and had filed a lawsuit against WCW earlier in the year for what they considered to be a breach of those copyrights due to the on-screen portrayals of the characters Nash and Hall were now playing). As if the company realised ahead of time that this made them look, quite frankly pathetic, they took the unusual decision to have Jim Ross announce the pair as his new signings to the company- that way, when the inevitable happened, and the stunt blew up in their faces, WWE could pretend that it was just the snide heel announcer who was culpable.
Faarooq had also not long debuted in WWE, with the surname Asad and a gladiator type gimmick which required the former Ron Simmons to wear a silly blue helmet. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before they ditched the gladiator shtick, and the second name, and he soon became the leader of the Nation of Domination. The Nation was based on The Nation of Islam, and Faarooq was supposed to be its black power leader, Louis Farrakhan. This was a gimmick that would be incredibly controversial in today’s climate, and back in mid 90’s WWE, where the company hadn’t yet fully committed to the harder edged, politically incorrect format it would do by the end of the following year, it was pretty controversial back then too. Faarooq was accompanied by his manager Clarence Mason, a number of other suited individuals and PG-13 (bizarrely for the gimmick, a pair of Southern white rappers who wrestled on the indies, mainly in Jerry Lawler’s USWA- where the Nation gimmick had actually originated).
This was the shortest match on the card, and featured only 2 eliminations- the first saw Savio Vega fall victim to the New Diesel (portrayed of course, by Glen Jacobs, the man who would go on to star as Kane) when, after Faarooq had rammed Vega into the ring post, Diesel delivered a Jacknife Powerbomb and pinned him. Shortly after that, the New Razor Ramon was eliminated by Snuka when the 51 year old hit him with his Superfly Splash. This prompted Diesel to grab a chair and whack Snuka with it before all 8 men (included the eliminated Razor and Vega) got into a big brawl prompting the referee to call for the double disqualification. Rating 5/10. I don’t remember another Survivor Series match being thrown out in such a way before or after and I wonder whether the Hart/Austin contest had run over time, forcing this rather abrupt end. Nevertheless, it was successful in another introduction- that being Flash Funk who gave the WWE audience an early example of his aerial prowess with a beautifully executed moonsault from the top rope onto Vader who was standing on the floor outside the ring.
All that was left was the main event for the WWE Title between champion, Shawn Michaels and challenger Sid. Sid had returned to WWE in mid 1996 as the last minute replacement for the Ultimate Warrior who was supposed to be on Shawn Michaels’ team in the main event of In Your House 9: International Incident. Since that point, Sid had played a babyface on television and had defeated Vader at In Your House 11: Buried Alive in a match to determine the number 1 contender to Michaels’ crown. Going into the match, WWE had done more to establish Sid as the heel for the evening, and given Michaels’ position as the top face in the company, it was something of a surprise when Sid entered the arena, to a relatively warm response from the Madison Square Garden crowd. Given the reaction that those in attendance had already afforded Steve Austin, this was perhaps not that surprising in and of itself, however, when Michaels made his entrance with boos quite clearly audible all around the Garden- it was clear that the New Yorkers were in one of their belligerent moods.
It is perhaps a little difficult to put a finger on exactly why the New York crowd had turned ever so slightly against the company’s top star. Michaels was a phenomenal performer, and had consistently delivered on pay-per-view throughout his WWE career. Yes, he’d received the big push over the previous 12 months, but this had been well earned given that he’d been an active member of the roster for almost a decade and waited his turn while Hogan, Flair, Hart, Diesel and others had taken the main event spots. It is arguable that the MSG crowd were, as they are now, amongst the most clued up of wrestling crowds, and therefore aware of Michaels’ politicking behind the scenes as part of the Kliq (it is also possible that many on hand were also in attendance when Michaels and Hunter Hearst Helmsley, along with the departing Kevin Nash and Scott Hall had broken kayfabe back in May during the curtain call). Whatever the case, some had made their minds up about him before he walked to the ring that night- others were either convinced by what they saw during the match, or (more likely) jumped on the bandwagon as it wore on.
With this strange crowd atmosphere unfolding around them, these two put on a very good match, almost certainly the best of Sid’s career, with Michaels performing the same miracles (possibly even bigger ones) as he had with Kevin Nash earlier in the year. For the most part, Sid seems as determined and motivated as I’ve ever seen him to have a top calibre match and coupled with the noise being generated by the strangely split crowd, ends the show on a high- despite the heel coming out on top. The end comes after Sid reverses an attempt at the Sweet Chin Music by Michaels into a chokeslam, but Sid is frustrated when Michaels kicks out. Sid then knocks down a camera man and grabs his camera seemingly to hit Michaels with it, however Jose Lothario, Michaels mentor who at the time accompanied him to the ring, jumps up on the apron to stop him. Sid instead turns around and hits Lothario in the chest with it, and he hits the ground. After this distraction, Sid walks into a Sweet Chin Music however, rather than go for the cover, Michaels checks on Lothario while the commentators talk up the possibility of him having had a heart attack.
Sid then pulls Michaels back into the ring, but after Michaels goes for a forearm, Sid ducks and the referee takes the blow, knocking him to the ground. Michaels at this stage again goes to check on Lothario but Sid grabs the camera again, and this time hits Michaels with it. He then rolls Michaels into the ring, hits him with the powerbomb and pins him to win the belt. Rating 7/10. After the match Michaels recovers and instead of going after Sid continues to check on Lothario as medics carry him out of the arena, meanwhile Sid celebrates in the ring as the announcers talk up their surprise at the result and show concern for Lothario.
This event was all about 2 matches- and both of them delivered about as well as could be expected. The first- Bret Hart’s return match after 8 months out of action was an excellent, slow building clash that shook off any suggestion that Hart might be suffering from ring rust, or may not be the same following an extended break from the squared circle. It also put ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin over to a new level in a match that enhanced Austin’s reputation even more than his famous King of the Ring victory had. Then in the main event, Michaels had dragged a stunningly good match out of the perennially awful Sid and dropped the belt to him (mainly to build up to a Royal Rumble rematch between the two, which would take place in front of Michaels home town crowd at the Royal Rumble). The company had gone into Survivor Series 1996 with renewed impetus following the re-signing of Hart, and without a doubt it showed in these matches. But there was signs up and down the card that WWE were heading into an exciting transitional phase.
Firstly there were debuts for Phil LaFon, Doug Furnas, Rocky Maivia and Flash Funk, coupled with a new look Undertaker, the edgier Faarooq gimmick and the spiky commentary provided by Jim Ross. After years of resting on their laurels and complacent creative decisions, WWE were trying new things, promoting new acts and heading into a new era. Just one year later, things would feel as though they were at an all time low in the company following the Montreal Screwjob and the continuing runaway success of WCW however, many of the reasons that the promotion was able to rebound from the bad will that had struck them in the immediate aftermath of that moment was the groundwork they had laid here- much of the style that embodied the Attitude Era was being geared up or started. The stars of that period- Austin, The Rock, Foley, Triple H were all on a path up the card and a harder edge was already poking its head above the surface. In revitalising and rehabilitating their product enough to catch, and then overtake, WCW, even during one of the hottest periods in pro wrestling history, it took WWE a minimum of 18 months- that might be something that WWE should think about as it responds to its current ratings slump in 2015.
Overall Rating: 6.96
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