Survivor Series - Molson Centre, Montreal Quebec Canada, November 9th 1997

The opening video focuses on Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, obviously. Specifically, it's about their difference of personalities and agreed upon mutual hatred. I’ve not captured it because, in all honesty, the video shown right before the main event is very similar but better.

I don’t think I can ever really do justice to the issues between these two men behind the scenes but for the avoidance of doubt, just treat every nasty word they say about each other on TV as exactly how they felt in real life. If anything, the way they run each other down on TV is a toned down version of the stuff they felt and said in real life! 

Classic four vs. four Survivor Series Rules match

Road dog and Badd Ass Billy Gunn and The Godwins (Henry O. Godwin and Phineas I. Godwin)

vs.

The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) and The New Blackjacks (Blackjack Windham and Blackjack Bradshaw)

Road Dog and Billy Gunn don’t have their theme music yet so Road Dog can cut a promo on his walk to the ring. He calls their opponents “steers and queers” and his own team Southern Justice. Road Dog and B.A Billy Gunn have been on a decent winning streak since forming their team and adopting this new, trouble making attitude. They’re still wearing the Blackjack’s cowboy hats which they destroyed, and they stole the LOD’s spiked shoulder pads a couple of weeks ago! 

Phineas starts off against Bradshaw but then when he tries to tag out, neither Road Dog nor Billy is too keen to accept it. They want to cause trouble, antagonise people and then keep their distance. The first elimination comes when Bradshaw counters an abdominal stretch into a roll up and pins Henry Godwin! Phineas tries to pick up where his brother? Cousin? I don’t think they ever actually said what relations they were! Left off against Bradshaw. Phineas catches Blackjack Windham with a big stiff clothesline out of nowhere and somehow that’s enough to pick up the three and eliminate him next. Phineas and Mosh are the next pair of legal men which gives JR a chance to talk about the pair of Tag Team title changes over the past month and the feud between these two teams specifically; the tag team division was in pretty good shape in 1997 as evidenced by this match, the LOD as champions and the various stables like DOA and Los Boricuas. I like tag team wrestling and always have. The crowd in this match are pretty loud and give Billy Gunn some loud boos when he finally tags in; he and Road Dog’s childish antics and trash talking is definitely getting them over! Much like the fans on Raw, the Canadians chant the F-slur at Billy which is just so uncool but I can’t judge a bunch of teenagers and men in 1997 by the standards of today. Come on guys, get it together. Billy ignores the homophobic chants and catches Mosh as he jumps into the corner, turning it into a sort of face-first back suplex which gets the three and eliminates him. Thrasher and Blackjack Bradshaw rile up the crowd and get them behind their odd-ball tag team against these three vs. two odds. After a back and forth where the heels tag in and out and work over Thasher, he manages to block a superplex attempt and jumps off the ropes, hitting the Stage Dive on Phineas to eliminate him next. Road Dog finally has to get in the ring and he’s hammered by Bradshaw who throws him around, hitting him with a stiff powerbomb and punting him in the back. Billy attacks him from behind and that allows Road Dog to roll him up and eliminate Bradshaw! The big Texan is pissed and clobbers both Road Dog and Billy before the referees finally make him leave, and now Thrasher faces this new tag team in a two on one situation. Thrasher puts up a good fight and counters Road Dog’s attempted slam into a crossbody. He likely has the three but Billy got a blind tag and is the legal man so comes off the top rope with a diving leg drop across the back of Thrasher’s head (kind of, he missed by miles but thankfully the replay from another angle makes it look better) to pin him and win the match for his team. Road Dog and Billy Gunn survive. I thought this was decent! It was quick, there was always something happening and I like most of these guys so I was happy with this opener! 

Classic four vs. four Survivor Series Rules match

The Truth Commission (The Jackyl, The Interrogator, Sniper and Recon)

vs.

The Disciples of Apocalypse (Crush, Chainz, 8-Ball and Skull)

I’m sure something was edited out of my copy of the show but we waste zero time heading into this next match. The build to this has focused on the 7 foot tall Interrogator and his short temper and dominant performances. He’s a useless wrestler but as long as he’s kept in tag team matches and short ring time, he’s definitely imposing! The Jackyl is the new leader of the Truth Commission and most of the group's appearances have been on the weekend shows so I haven’t seen a lot of them on Raw. Jim Ross calls him a cult leader like figure who has his followers eating out of the palm of his hand. In fairness, Don Callis has always been a very good promo but I’ve not seen much of him during this run so far..

The DOA rush the ring and this becomes an eight man brawl very quickly, settling down to Interrogator and Chainz as the legal men. Chainz does his best but can’t knock the big man down and runs right into a sidewalk slam to be the first man eliminated in about 60 seconds. Once again everyone spills into the ring and turns it into a mass brawl but then settles back down to Recon (aka Bull Buchanan) vs. one of the twins, either Skull or 8-Ball. After he’s slammed, the Jackal insists on being tagged in to steal the glory and pays for it, hammered with right hands and put down with a big spinning side walk slam to be the second man eliminated! Recon takes over where his leader left off as the Jackyl goes and joins the commentary desk rather than head backstage.

He uses the platform to take issue with JR calling him a cult leader. In the ring, Crush gets a near fall on Recon with a big belly to belly suplex and the DOA isolates and works him over. Skull and/or 8-Ball use a bit of twin magic to swap places behind the referee’s back without tagging and put Recon down with a clothesline to eliminate him. The Interregator distracts the referee to help Sniper avoid being pinned and then as the twin argues with the referee, Sniper hits a running bulldog to eliminate him next. Wikipedia tells me that that was Skull, so 8-Ball is the one left in the match with Crush vs, Sniper and the giant Interrogator. Jackyl sings the praises of him the most, calling him the biggest and most dominant force in the WWF. It doesn’t feel like a spoiler to say that the big man never quite reached his full potential in the WWF but he’s done big stuff in Hollywood in the 30 years since! The Interrogator tags in and hits 8-Ball with a sidewalk slam to eliminate him and leave Crush two vs. one against the Truth Commission. Crush hits Sniper with a big tilt-a-whirl slam to eliminate him but gets no time to celebrate as the Interrogator immediately gives him a sidewalk slam to eliminate him too. The Truth Commission wins, thanks to Sole Survivor, the 7 foot Interrogator and The Jackyl jumps up to celebrate with him like he personally won the match himself! 

Backstage, tuxedo clad Kevin Kelly speaks to Stone Cold Steve Austin (who’s doing the AOL keyword chatroom with fans at the time) and the Rattlesnake shows no concern over his neck. He’s just excited to get back in the ring and get even with Owen Hart tonight. There’s a bit more time filling here as we speak to different fans for their opinions on the main event before the next match.

Classic four vs. four Survivor Series Rules match

Team Canada (The British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon)

vs.

Team USA (Vader, Goldust, Marc Mero w/Sable and Steve Blackman)

Steve Blackman is the “mystery fan” who helped Vader out on Raw. he was arrested at the time but over the weekend, Vader has vouched for him as a “martial arts expert” and so this is his WWF debut. Blackman was a friend of Bret Hart’s who got him this job after training with him at the infamous Dungeon in Calgary. Blackman actually worked in the WWF briefly in 1988 as a jobber but was taken seriously ill, getting malaria and losing a huge amount of muscle mass! It took him years to get healthy and rebuild his body. During the pre-match promo with Vader he talks about his team and we get a glimpse of Goldust’s new attitude after callously dumping his wife on Raw - his face is painted black with “F U” on his cheeks and a he has a dismissive attitude, not even really paying attention to Vader’s promo. 

JR does point out that only one member of Team Canada is actually Canadian - Furnas is from Oklahoma, Bulldog is from England and Neidhart was born in California! The crowd don’t care and, as you’d expect, the fans in Montreal are strongly behind Team Canada and boo Team USA, who entered to The Patriot’s theme song. Marc Mero kicks off against Bulldog and throws a little US flag at him, so he wipes his ass with it and throws it at Sable which got a huge pop! The crowd starts chanting for Sable (because she’s hot) and that angers Mero who goes and leads her around the ring and puts her in a different corner. He’s so jealous! 

The men tag in and out and after a few minutes, during a brawl on the outside, Steve Blackman is counted out and the first man eliminated. JR makes excuses for him; he’s a fighter but not used to the WWF rules yet. That is fair enough. Vader rallies his team and with a splash on Jim Neidhart, evens things up and eliminates him next. Team Canada tries to isolate Vader and beat him up on the outside but he’s too big and strong and back in the ring he splashes Lafon and then follows up with a second one off the middle rope to eliminate the only actual Canadian on Team Canada. Vader tags in Marc Mero who hits a nice moonsault onto a standing Furnas and it looked very messy, it was an awkward landing and I’m not sure if Mero’s aim was off or Furnas failed to catch him. Either way, Doug looks a bit shaken up and tags out to the Bulldog who this crowd LOVES and he hammers Mero in the corner with ease but the running powerslam is countered and Mero uses his new boxer gimmick to regain control with a string of right hands. Bulldog tags out to Furnas and after a quick back and forth in and out of the corner, Furnas counters Mero’s roll up into one of his own to get the three count and eliminate him! Vader gets back in and at this point, JR makes a real point of drawing our attention to Goldust’s terrible attitude and his F U facepaint, which he says stands for “Forever Unchained” as he leaves his wife and family behind to “be the real him” whatever that means. He has the word Freedom written on his cast too, as he was working with a broken hand here. Vader is basically wrestling solo as Goldust refuses to get involved and, when Vader does finally ask for a tag he even drops off the apron to avoid tagging in. Vader is thrown around by Furnas and Bulldog with an impressive array of suplexes from the powerhouses. Vader finally catches Goldust and tags him in, throwing him into the ring and forcing him to help him out but Goldust is having none of it and just walks out, getting voluntarily counted out and eliminated.

He walked out on his team and his country just like he walked out on his family. Vader does his best to fight off the two Team Canada members, hitting a Vader Bomb on Furnas and eliminating him but as the referee gets him out of the ring, Bulldog hits Vader with the ring bell and knocks him out, pinning him to win the match and be the Sole Survivor! Weirdly, Bulldog just immediately gets out of the ring and walks to the back. I can only assume that he had other, family matters on his mind tonight with all that was going on backstage. 

I’ve enjoyed all three Survivor Series matches so far - the hot crowd definitely helps but they were all well paced and either too short to be back, or structured so that there was always something happening. No complaints! 

Before the next match, JR and Jerry Lawler let us know who won the Super Supper Sweepstakes, sponsored by Milton Bradley’s Karate Fighters! I mentioned this previously but it was won by a VERY EXCITED sounding Jaqueline Cook who picks Stone Cold Steve Austin. He’ll be having dinner with her and 10 of her friends. I’m honestly delighted for her - she sounded so happy! 

Kane (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Mankind

This match gets, in my opinion, an awesome video package focused on Kane’s path of destruction and Mick Foley’s attempts to stop him so far. I’ve left Mankind’s promo in too, so you can hear him describe this as not a wrestling match; this is Mankind vs. a brick wall and he won’t be going over it, he’s going to throw himself at it over and over until he goes right through it, even if he dies trying! God I love Mick Foley.

Mankind enters first and the match begins on the entrance ramp when he attacks Kane during his entrance. The match takes place with the arena bathed in the creepy red glowing lights which is a cool idea but I don’t think it really works in practice as you can’t totally tell what's happening. Kane picked Mankind up and threw him, back of the head first, into the ringsteps and that looked brutal but didn’t get much of a reaction because it's so hard to see.

Mankind puts up a fight and clotheslines Kane up and over the top rope as JR reminds us that Mankind has had lots of success against The Undertaker and has beaten him more than once. Someone in the back must have realised the lights were making it hard to see as while they fight on the outside they seem to get a bit warmer and brighter. Kane throws the ringsteps right into Mankind’s face which should be a disqualification but this isn’t that kind of match. Kane slowly works over Mankind in the ring but on the outside, Mankind finally mounts a comeback with a flapjack onto the ringsteps. Kane hits them face first but immediately shrugs that off. Mankind hits him in the head with a chair and that also has no effect but a piledriver finally knocks Kane off his feet! Mankind locks the Mandible Claw on Bearer while he has the chance but that allows Kane time to sit up and with Mankind standing on the apron, he grabs him around the throat and with one arm, launches Mankind backwards all the way through the Spanish announce table! That looked awesome.

Kane beats Mankind around the ring and tries to chokeslam him on the concrete entrance ramp but Mick uses a low blow and a DDT on the concrete to save himself. Kane is impervious to pain but Mankind can take all the pain in the world and keep getting up. He hits a running, diving elbow off the apron onto Kane’s chest (which probably hurt his own hips more than it hurt Kane) but Kane no-sells that too, sitting up and then gorilla pressing Mankind off the apron with a sickening splat on the mats at ringside. Kane waits in the ring for Mankind to crawl back to his feet and join him and when he does, he’s spiked with a Tombstone Piledriver. Kane wins a very entertaining brawl - what a great debut match! I loved all of this.

Classic four vs. four Survivor Series Rules match

Ken Shamrock, Ahmed Johnson and WWF Tag Team Champions The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal)

vs.

The Nation of Domination (Rocky Maivia, Faarooq, Kama Mustafa and D'Lo Brown)

Before they head to the ring, the babyface team cut a promo where they refer to the Nation of Domination as “a criminal element” three times. That feels wildly racist right? It’s not just me?

The team kicks off fast and Hawk gets kicked in the back as he hits the ropes and walks right into a Rock Bottom from Rocky, eliminating him in about two minutes! Ahmed Johnson dominates The Rock so he quickly tags out to the larger Kama who regains control for the Nation. With Ahmed down, Faarooq is brave and tags in and slowly works over his old rival targeting his lower back with punts and backbreakers. The Nation beat Ahmed up in their corner - including using Faarooq’s leather belt on him while the referee isn’t looking - but Johnson avoids the Dominator and hits the Pearl River Plunge on Faarooq to eliminate him. D’Lo wastes no time in picking up where his leader left off and jumps on Ahmed. The homophobic chants continue from the Canadians, chanting “Rocky’s gay” at him on the apron. As D’Lo and Ahmed wrestle it becomes clear that Faarooq still hasn’t left and is still at ringside arguing with the referees. It pays off as he trips Ahmed and then holds down his feet so that Rocky can pin and eliminate him next. Johnson isn’t happy, obviously, and so he takes off after Faarooq and brawls with him to the back. How are they STILL feuding? The match settles back down to The Rock vs. Animal. The Nation seem out of sorts without their leader and huddle to talk strategy but they do ok, isolating and working over Animal in their corner. Kama gets a little too over confident and while he celebrates a bit slam, Animal dropkicks him from behind sending him crashing into D’Lo on the apron. Animal catches Kama with a school boy roll up to eliminate him. With the referee distracted by Shamrock, D’Lo and The Rock hit a blatant low blow on Animal. The crowd is all OVER Rocky Maivia alternating between Rocky Sucks and Rocky’s gay chants - the Canadians hate him. The Nation are a more cohesive team and that serves them well as they work over Shamrock with a long sleeper and quick tags in and out to keep a fresh man in the ring. Shamrock gets a hot tag to Animal but just as he gets his team back into this match, Road Dog and B.A Billy Gunn come down to the ring wearing LOD facepaint and the shoulder spikes that they stole on Raw. It obviously distracts Animal who goes out to fight them and gets powder thrown in his face which blinds him and causes him to be counted out. Animal is eliminated and leaves to pursue Road Dog and Billy. With Shamrock left two on one, Jim Ross talks about Shamrock making both Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels tap out on the previous two episodes of Raw. Lawler mentions that “tapping out” isn’t a thing in the WWF which, to be fair at the time, it wasn’t but thanks to Shamrock and his UFC influence, tapping out to a submission rather than verbally submitting became a commonplace thing around this point in time. Pretty cool. Shamrock puts down D’Lo with a big belly to belly and locks him in the ankle lock to make him submit and eliminate Brown, leaving this as Ken Shamrock vs. Rocky Maivia one on one. The Rock blasts the world’s most dangerous man across the back with a steel chair while the referee  is busy getting D’Lo out of the ring but Shamrock kicks out and continues to fight back, kicking out of The Rock’s big round-the-world DDT (which I always thought was cool) and a prototype People’s Elbow, which didn’t get a reaction from the crowd or the commentators because it wasn’t a trademark yet.

Shamrock counters a DDT into a Northern lights suplex and gets on a roll with a hurricanrana and roars - he’s in the zone, he’s snapped! - and takes down The Rock into an ankle lock for the tap out! Ken Shamrock eliminates The Rock last to win this match for his team as the Sole Survivor. I don’t want to speak too soon but we’re five matches into this PPV and I’ve enjoyed all five of them! This was my favourite of the three Survivor Series matches so far.

This PPV is historic for lots of reasons but here’s one I wasn’t expecting - the first on screen appearance of the D-Generation X theme song! It’s a commercial for next month’s In Your House PPV which is titled “Degeneration X”. They hadn’t quite decided how to spell D-Generation yet.

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Owen Hart (c) (w/British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, Phil Lafon and Doug Furnas) vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin

Here’s a video package for this big semi-main event, as well as Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross laying out the stakes of this match for us. The story? Stone Cold is tough as nails and cannot be stopped. 

This is a fiercely pro-Canadian crowd and they all love Owen Hart but, with how popular the Rattlesnake has become, Stone Cold gets a big cheer when he comes out too. He has the awesome glass panel with a logo on it for his entrance but, annoyingly, the glass doesn’t properly break. It makes him look even more bad ass that he kind of just shoulder checks the broken glass as he swaggers out anyway. Austin has plenty of fans and signs but has fun shouting abuse at some of his detractors, dating them to come to the ring and giving them the finger. I suspect it's the signs that make light of his very real neck injury that upset him most. 

Owen has the whole of Team Canada with him for back up and Jerry Lawler has a good line saying that he needs that many people to carry all of his gold and flags - I do love the way he carries the Slammy awards around with him. His “I just broke your neck” Owen 3:16 t-shirt is good stuff too. Owen throws it at Austin who tears it up. It’s just a distraction and Neidhart tries to attack Stone Cold from behind. He takes a Stunner for his troubles but that does allow Owen Hart to pounce on the Rattlesnake. It doesn’t last long as Austin fights back with right hands. Owen goes for the piledriver early and Austin scrambles to get away from it - the crowd was actually chanting “break his neck” which is pretty sick. Team Canada leaves, presumably chased away by referees so Owen tries to leave too but Stone Cold runs after him and catches him with a clothesline from behind, bringing him back to the ring with chops and right hands. Owen uses a low blow and then chokes Austin with a camera cable, actually yelling at the referee to disqualify him - he wants to escape with his title by any means necessary. Back in the ring, Stone Cold fights back and when Owen tries for a piledriver, Austin gets out of it and drops him with a Stone Cold Stunner. That gets the three count and Stone Cold wins his second Intercontinental title in less than 5 minutes. Furnas and Lafon rush the ring to attack him and are both dropped with Stunners for their troubles too! 

This was too short to be good or bad - it was in fact so short it was more of an angle than a match - but four Stone Cold Stunners and a title change in front of a rabid crowd made it very enjoyable. 

This PPV sees the debut of  the first version of the very first WWF Attitude commercial, and the on screen debut of the WWF’s iconic scratch logo. Obviously this one had to be changed and didn’t turn back up for a while as Bret Hart had to be removed from it but, we’ll discuss THAT in a little while

WWF Championship

Bret Hart © vs. WWF European Champion Shawn Michaels

I don’t think I can really do justice to the size of this match at the time but it's fair to say that the WWF tried to present this rematch from Wrestlemania 12 more than once and had to be changed or cancelled because of fake injuries or backstage fights. Like I said in the opening, treat every word these two men said about each other on TV as how they really felt about each other and then some. 

Somehow it's like everyone knew that this match was going to be a huge deal. Shawn and the rest of D-Generation X get the dramatic walk through the backstage together for their entrance. As history would reveal, Shawn and Triple H both knew exactly what was about to happen in the arena, and the DX group got a huge amount of hatred from the fans in Quebec. You can very clearly hear someone screaming the F slur at Shawn before he even walks out onto the entrance ramp. He leaves Rude, Chyna and Helmsley in the back and swaggers to the ring solo, grabbing a fan’s Canadian flag as he does and then, in the middle of the ring, desecrates their flag by rubbing it on his crotch, laying it on the mat to have sex with it and then blow his nose with it before throwing it out of the ring. Just the cheapest of cheap heats and something which I’m sure pissed Bret Hart off even more. In fairness, being really protective and weird about their flag is a uniquely American trait. Bret gets the big walk to the ring from backstage too surrounded by the rest of the Hart Foundation - as it happens, Bret had a documentary crew with him at the time documenting his life. What are the odds they’d be doing that during the most important week of his life? He has said in the years since that he knew something was wrong but asked referee Earl Hebner to swear to him - on his own kids lives - that he’d look out for him. Earl did, and lied right to his face. But I’m getting ahead of myself! Vince McMahon has been missing from commentary all night but was shown backstage earlier, said to be there to “keep the peace and make sure this match definitely happens”. The Hitman gives his sunglasses to a fan in the front row as usual in what he knew would likely be his final WWF match as he prepared to leave for WCW - his contract with WCW started one week after this event, which is important for later. Shawn and Bret have banished DX and the Hart Foundation from ringside so that they can do this one on one. 

Shawn attacks Bret from behind to start this match but, as is pointed out by Lawler and Ross, the bell never rings to officially start the match. Bret wins the fist fight and hammers Michaels on the mat, throwing him out of the ring and slamming him into the ringsteps. It’s a very un-Bret Hart match as he brawls with Michaels, throwing him into the crowd and fighting with him among the people. It’s at this point that Vince McMahon, as well as a bunch of officials and referees come down to ringside. It’s not a big moment and he quietly heads down - I only noticed because the commentators mentioned it. Michaels turns the ride and chokes Bret Hart with a flag as JR mentions that “if Bret loses this match, he will leave the WWF” which wasn’t something they said at all on TV in the build up and is just tapping a nose to all the smart fans who knew the WCW deal was signed. 

They continue to fight up the ramp with Shawn taking a suplex on the concrete floor and being hit with a fire extinguisher and finally, after a solid 10 minutes of fighting around the ring surrounded by referees and officials, the two of them enter the ring and the bell rings to officially start this match. Bret is still in control but Michaels puts him down with a flying forearm and then just stomps on Bret’s head before choking him with the Quebec flag. 

The actual content of this match isn’t important really. Not historically anyway. Bret focuses on Michaels’ legs in the way he always tended to do and controls much of the match but, as they build towards the finish, Michaels tries to put Bret in his own Sharpshooter. He turns Bret over and then, after a few seconds, Earl Hebner rings the bell claiming that Bret submitted. Shawn Michaels wins the WWF Championship.

Earl leaves the ring and sprints to the back and both Bret and Shawn look very confused, looking to Vince McMahon for guidance. The PPV ends quickly thereafter with Shawn Michaels as the new WWF Champion but not looking very happy about it. That finish came out of nowhere didn’t it?