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.

WWE In Your House: Badd Blood

WWE In Your House: Badd Blood is a fascinating snapshot of WWE at a time when everything was about to change in ways that couldn’t have been imagined at the time, mainly due to the fact that things already seemed to be changing in ways nobody could have imagined just a few months before. Going on air a matter of hours after the death of Brian Pillman and with details of what had happened to him still filtering through, there is an atmosphere of shell-shock that grips this show through the disjointed commentary, unconvincing undercard action and underwhelming crowd noise that pervades most of the matches. While it would be churlish to suggest that Pillman’s death was not a massively significant moment (to his peers, his family and to the wrestling world at the time- it was devastating), there is a sense that history remembers the night more for the events that would take place in the ring near the end of the broadcast, than the untimely death of a trailblazer worthy of celebration.