WWE Survivor Series 1996

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.