4 biggest mistakes in WWE Survivor Series history
This Saturday, WWE will present the 37th annual edition of Survivor Series, with the Premium Live Event taking place live from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
While there have been many iconic feel-good moments at the show during its nearly 40-year history, there have also been moments that have left a sour taste in fans' mouths.
Join us as we look at four poorly made booking decisions made by creative at Survivor Series.
#4. Bad news for Barrett
In 2010, the summer saw the arrival of the faction The Nexus. A group consisting of rookies from the first season of NXT, led by Wade Barrett, the faction brought a much-needed injection of excitement to the product.
The group's run at the top would be cut short after they lost a huge match at SummerSlam. However, that could have been salvaged at Survivor Series when Barrett faced the then WWE Champion, Randy Orton.
Despite Wade possessing all the tools to be a great champion, the company chose not to give the title to Barrett that night.
Speaking on the Even Stronger podcast, Wade Barrett questioned the booking of The Nexus.
"It's something that even though I think it died prematurely, it's something that people still want to talk to me about this day. It probably only lasted six months really, Nexus, but people still to this day want to talk about the time we ripped up the ring, the time we attacked John Cena. The time we beat up Vince McMahon and ran the company. Really exciting times." (H/T SEScoops)
#3. WWE's wise man turns on The Beast
In 2002, a young Brock Lesnar rose to the top of the card alongside Paul Heyman to become the next big thing.
At Survivor Series that year, The Beast headed into Madison Square Garden as the WWE Champion, with nobody seemingly able to stop him. However, his reign would come to an end that night after Heyman shockingly betrayed him to help The Big Show win the gold.
This decision would prove to be a poor one as neither Paul or Brock made the same impact on the show without one another. Therefore, it was not surprising that when Lesnar came back to the company in 2012, Heyman followed shortly after to reform their dangerous alliance.
#2. The Celtic Warrior cashes in
In 2015, Roman Reigns won the vacant WWE World Heavyweight title, and despite being presented as a good guy, he was greatly rejected by the fan base. To build some sympathy from the fans, the company chose to have Reigns lose the gold at Survivor Series moments after he won it.
This came in the form of Sheamus cashing in the Money In The Bank contract on Roman, which was surprisingly met mostly with cheers.
Speaking to Talksport, The Celtic Warrior spoke about the night he cashed in as well the aftermath of what would go on to be a rather poor and forgetful title reign.
"So, what happened was I had just beaten Roman [Reigns]. I cashed in the Money in the Bank. This was on a Sunday at Survivor Series. I didn’t even know I was going to cash in until that night. And then the next night on Raw, the day on Raw, they told us they had put this group together, the League of Nations."
Sheamus then went on to say how his faction was doomed compared to top groups like the Wyatt Family and The Shield, as the League of Nations was only formed to build Reigns rather than him and his teammates.
"Of course they’re dominant because that’s the way they’re booked. But we weren’t booked that way. We were literally booked to build Roman." (H/T Talksport)
#1. Vince screwed Bret
One of the most iconic moments in WWE history, let alone Survivor Series, is undoubtedly the Montreal Screwjob.
In 1997, when it seemed as though Bret Hart was set to leave the company for WCW, instead of WWE letting him lose the world title in noble fashion to HBK, they chose to screw him by having the ref immediately call for the bell the moment Hart was locked in his own submission by Shawn Michaels.
During an interview with The Ringer, Bret Hart said that he still feels WWE management looks to paint their own narrative surrounding the event.
"Vince was the one that was dishonest and lying to me and setting me up and playing games,” Hart says. “If you watched that A&E special, you’ll notice that they still try to lie and pretend that they were somehow in the right or they did the right thing. That I was unprofessional and I should have just done as I was told. I’d never refused in my whole life, ever, to lose to another wrestler. Never mattered to me. It doesn’t matter to me now. I never refused. And it wasn’t because I was in Canada or anything like that. I lost many matches in Canada. It was just personal pride between two wrestlers." (H/T The Ringer)
Today, Bret Hart has seemingly squashed his beef with Shawn Michaels and WWE, but the wounds of the moment are undoubtedly still a major blemish to his legendary career.