Survivor Series - Greensboro Coliseum Complex, Greensboro North Carolina, November 18th, 2001

The final PPV of the Invasion. The final PPV of either the WCW/ECW Alliance or the WWF (I know, but let’s pretend) 

The theme song for this event has been scrubbed from the WWE Network which is a real shame because say what you want about Puddle of Mudd, they have some bangers and Control is one of them.

Jim Ross and Paul Heyman welcome us to the show and Paul E says that this will be the “final PPV ever presented by the World Wrestling Federation”. They didn’t know it at the time but thanks to the pending lawsuit by the World Wildlife Fund over the WWF initials, he was only about 6 months out. 

WWF European Championship

Christian (Alliance) © vs. Al Snow (WWF)

This match was added earlier tonight on Sunday Night Heat. It’s a point I’ve made multiple times over the past few months but given that this is the final showdown between these companies and factions, it’s hard to ignore that most of the Alliance side are in fact WWF lifers in WCW t-shirts. Christian hasn’t wrestled anywhere BUT the WWF in his career at this point.

Al enters to the Tough Enough theme, which Maven was also using. That’s ALSO dubbed on the WWE Network. This is kind of exhausting now. 

They start off with fast wrestling exchanges and Al gets the better of that so Christian throws some punches and kicks. He’s countered into a suplex and Al matches his intensity with punches too. 

Christian slows things down with a sleeper and forces Al to fight back out of that too. JR makes a great point about how Al has been focused on his coach duties on Tough Enough and might have a little ring rust, while Paul Heyman talks about both these men’s histories and titles won. I’ll miss these two so much as a duo.

Christian tries a reverse DDT, Snow shoves him out and gets a near fall with a superkick and then another with a sitdown powerbomb. The fans exploded out of their seats for that one too! These people really want to see Snow win it. 

Christian connects with his reverse DDT but stands over Snow and taunts him instead of pinning and pays for it with a small package for another near fall.

Al Snow flies with a crossbody but Christian rolls through into a near fall of his own. This is really good!

Snow connects with his Snow Plough finisher but…Christian gets his foot on the ropes to break the pin. The fans are heart broken by that.

Chritian leads Snow around the ring and in a sneaky move, catches him with a stiff kick to the face while he comes back through the ropes and follows with an Unprettier to win the match and retain his European title. 

Backstage, WWF Champion Stone Cold arrives with Debra and finds the rest of Team Alliance waiting for him, along with Shane and Stephanie McMahon. He’s been ignoring all their calls and they need to know why - is he jumping ship to the WWF? Why was he smiling at Vince McMahon at the end of Smackdown? Austin emphatically says he is NOT jumping ship and tells everyone to calm down as RVD and Kurt Angle offer to be the new leader. Stone Cold tells them all to stop being paranoid and follow his lead - he WILL take down the WWF even if he has to do it by himself. 

Elsewhere, Vince and Linda McMahon arrive together. Linda is concerned about a risk of serious injury given how high the stakes are tonight. Vince tells her that “shit happens”. Michael Cole rushes up and asks for their thoughts and comments on tonight, and what Vince thinks about this potentially being the final night of the World Wrestling Federation. McMahon says that he’s a great business man and built an empire by taking calculated risk and tonight that’s what he’s done. Tonight’s main event isn’t 5 vs. 5 - it’s 6 WWF Superstars vs. 4 Alliance members. He turns to leave and runs into William Regal. The Alliance Commissioner tells Vince that he refuses to believe his hogwash and that Stone Cold is as loyal to the Alliance as he is to the Queen and he’s looking forward to seeing them both publicly humiliated on Raw tomorrow. He’d come to regret saying that, but we’ll talk about that later. 

William Regal (Alliance) vs. WCW Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri (WWF)

William Regal’s heel turn and jumping ship to the Alliance still makes very little sense to me even six week’s worth of shows after it happened. I loved he and Tajiri’s dynamic and I thought they’d have been a really welcome addition to the tag team division which is struggling with the break up of Edge and Christian and The Hardyz having their own issues and spending most of the year winning singles titles themselves.

The fighting Commissioner has shown a lot more brutality in his matches since the heel turn and has shifted from his pompous comedy character into more of a sadistic striker and submission expert.

William Regal’s nose starts bleeding in the early going - he’s had a bloody nose pretty much every time he’s gotten physical lately. I think it was broken and he was working through it.

Regal throws Tajiri up and over the top rope and the Japanese Buzzsaw gets his head tangled between the top and middle ropes. That looked brutal. 

Tajiri fights back with several stiff kicks in the ring and both men go down.

Regal shrugs them off and spikes Tajiri with a double underhook powerbomb to win a short, brutal match. 

Regal leaves..but then changes his mind and comes back to the ring to continue the beating giving Tajiri a second powerbomb. He looks pretty sinister with a sneer on his face and blood running down his face. That brings Tajiri’s girlfriend Torrie Wilson running down to check on him so Regal comes back to the ring for a second time and just like on Raw, gives her a powerbomb. What an asshole.

I’d like to talk here about the Cruiserweight and Light Heavyweight titles. The plan as mentioned during the build to this show was for X-Pac and Tajiri to have their own unification match but sadly X-Pac is injured. That means that as mentioned during the No Mercy Preview, the final Light Heavyweight title match on television took place in October. X-Pac was gone until early 2002 and while he did defend the title again on some non-televised events, when he returned to TV in March it was without the title belt. The WWF Light Heavyweight Championship was officially deactivated in March of 2002. 

I’ve talked a lot about the Light Heavyweight title and the things that could have been done with it. 2001 was probably its best year in terms of attention and defences but the company never got behind it. It could have been so much more. I’ve talked about it periodically in the previous three years worth of shows and reviews and I might even write a dedicated piece about it at some point but this is my final goodbye to the belt.

Tajiri likely would have won the Unification match and so his WCW Cruiserweight title (soon to be rechristened the WWF (and later WWE) Cruiserweight title) is the spiritual successor. That title stuck around for a while and if I do get the opportunity to cover 2002 and dip into 2003, we’ll see much more of it. 

Unification match - WWF Intercontinental Championship and WCW United States Championship

Test (Alliance) © vs. Edge (WWF) ©

This match gets a little video package. They did interact a few times but this match was still somewhat thrown together last week. Of note, they edited Mick Foley’s promo so that he refers to Edge and Test holding the correct titles - on Raw he got them switched.

Backstage before the entrances, Stacy Keiber goes to see Test and they continue their flirtation from Smackdown. She touches his ass.

Elsewhere Johnathan Coachman interviews Edge and clarifies that the winner of this match will hold both titles and be guaranteed a job regardless of who wins the main event. Edge mocks Test being dumped by “every chick on the planet” which is unfair - he was famously quite the chick magnet in real life. You should hear those girls in the crowd scream for him. They scream for Edge to though. 

It’s quite cool seeing both title match graphics side by side when they do finally make their entrances. 

Paul Heyman mentions that this arena is the same building where the first ever WCW US champion was crowned. That is quite cool given that this might be the final match for it (if the WWF wins of course). 

They start fast with punches and Edge takes down Test with a crossbody. They continue moving very quickly with neither man getting an early advantage. 

Test takes down Edge with a clothesline, chokes him and drops him across the security wall on the outside. 

Edge fights back with dropkicks, a baseball slide and then slams Test into the security wall on the other side of the ring. They’re very evenly matched.

Test does get some momentum with a long sleeper hold but Edge fights back to his feet and breaks it with elbows to the ribs and a spinning hel kick. 

Edge goes to the top rope but is caught by Test who tries a superplex. The two battle on the top rope with Test coming out on top and throwing Edge into the ring but when he tries to follow up with an ax handle Edge catches him coming in with a dropkick to the ribs.

He chains some clotheslines and a spinning heel kick together followed by a facebuster but Test kicks out. 

Test tried a pumphandle slam but Edge fights out of it and hits his Edge-o-Matic. Test kicks out. Test comes back with a Spear and Edge kicks out. Test follows with a pumphandle slam but Edge kicks out. Back and forth! Test tries a powerbomb but Edge counters it with a hurricanrana and follows with a Speak but Test kicks out! 

Edge goes for his Impaler DDT but Test counters that. Edge rolls through into a pin and holds on tight to get the win with a pure wrestling move! 

Edge is a double champion and Test is furious. This was probably Test’s best ever match and a great showing for Edge.

Backstage Stephanie McMahon whines to Kurt Angle that if the Alliance loses tonight she’ll lose all her money and become gulp a regular person! She’d have to get a job and clean her own bathroom like a regular person. Kurt reassures her that he’s sure Stone Cold is with them and won’t cost them the match tonight. She seems to have her mind put at ease by her old friend. 

Backstage as Lita and Jeff Hardy prepare for this next match, Matt walks in on them talking about how strange he’s been acting lately. He tells them that they should ALL be acting strange with their jobs on the line. He pumps them up - Matt and Jeff need to win the unified titles and Lita needs to win the women’s title later to make sure they all keep their jobs. The Hardyz leave and then Lita finds Trish coming out of the same locker room Matt did - was he alone in there with Trish? Drama. 

Steel Cage Unification match - WWF Tag Team Championship and WCW Tag Team Championship

The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy) (WWF) © vs. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) (w/Stacy Keibler) (Alliance) © 

These two teams have wrestled dozens if not hundreds of times on TV and PPV. The final showdown of WCW and ECW vs. WWF’s tag team division is a match between two WWF Teams which we’ve seen a lot of times before. It’s a shame but these four men do tend to produce great matches and amazingly this is only the second time they’ve squared off on PPV in a straight up two on two tag match (the first being Royal Rumble 2000’s excellent tables match). The cage adds a little newness to the match as well. 

This match was also thrown together - The Hardyz only won the titles 6 days ago on Raw. The main story for these teams is that Matt and Jeff are at odds - Matt keeps accidentally costing Lita matches and even hurting her, and is jealous of her and Jeff’s friendship all the while being a bit creepy towards other women. Given that Matt and Lita were still very happily dating in real life I don’t know why they decided on a “bad boyfriend” gimmick for him.

The teams actually get outside of the ropes and set this up as a proper tag team match within the cage, complete with tags which is unusual. The match can end via pinfall or escape and so Bubba and D-Von isolate Matt and there’s some early pin attempts after each big move.

The cage doesn’t come into play for a while but Matt counters Bubba’s backdrop into a DDT and takes Jeff who pours on the offence and the match breaks down with Poetry in Motion in both corners to the Dudleyz giving Matt and Jeff the first attempt to escape. They climb but Bubba and D-Von follow and with a side Russian leg sweep on one side and a Bubba Bomb on the other, they’re brought from the top rope back down to the mat. 

The Dudleyz send Matt face first into the cage with a double flapjack but when they do the same to Jeff he catches the cage and frantically tries to climb out. He’s stopped and while he sits on Bubba’s shoulders, D-Von flies off the top rope with a clothesline taking Jeff down to the mat. 

Bubba and D-Von dominate, beating down both Matt and Jeff and sending them into the cage face first and even crushing them against the cage with body splashes. 

Matt manages to sidestep a charge and comes back, running though both with clotheslines and getting a near fall on Bubba with a DDT. He sends them bouncing into the cage himself for good measure and when Jeff recovers he joins in. They send Bubba flying with a double backdrop and come off opposite corners with a tandem splash and leg drop to Bubba. D-Von barely breaks up the cover. 

Matt tries to climb out but is stopped and left dangling from the cage upside down. The Dudleys give Jeff a Wazzup headbutt and call for the Duchess of Dudleyville to get them a table. She does and after lifting her skirt to flash referee Nick Patrick, gets the key so that she can slide it into the ring through the door.

The Dudleyz try a 3D on Jeff but Matt saves him and after another DDT on Bubba, climbs the cage. Bubba follows and the two are left fighting at the top. Matt wins the exchange and Bubba crashes back into the ring allowing Matt to climb out. They’re half way to winning but that leaves Jeff in the ring two on one against both Dudley Boyz and a table! Jeff puts up a good fight running D-Von into the cage over and over before climbing up the cage. He gets to the top and has the match won - he just has to climb down. He looks back into the ring and spots that D-Von Dudley is laying on the table. Jeff can’t resist and after posing, dives off the cage with a Swanton Bomb! Dudley moves and Jeff crashes violently though the table. With Matt helpless on the outside of the cage, Bubba crawls into a cover and pins Jeff to win the match and become the Unified Tag Team Champions. 

This was a really good match but the big story is that Jeff Hardy’s error in judgement and being unable to resist that Swanton off the cage has cost him and Matt the match and the titles. 

Paul Heyman goes into super hype mode gushing about how The Dudley Boyz are now officially the greatest tag team in wrestling history. They’re certainly up there. 

Matt and Lita get into the ring as Jeff is tended to and eventually loaded onto a stretcher. 

After this match there’s a commercial for the upcoming WWF live events including tapings for Raw and Smackdown. This, plus the constant promotion of Wrestlemania X8 in Toronto really does take a lot of the drama out of tonight’s main event - they aren’t even pretending the Alliance might win and give us an Alliance Wrestlemania. 

WWF Commissioner Mick Foley is live at WWF New York. JR asks why he isn’t at the PPV with them. He calls the Commissionership a joke and says that he’s there because he was told to be. He says that he’s still planning on quitting even if the WWF wins tonight because he refuses to answer to Vince McMahon.

Backstage as Scotty 2 Hotty hustles to the ring for the immunity battle royal, he’s stopped by Test. He beats up Scotty and steals his slot in the upcoming battle royal. I guess he still needs to make sure he keeps his job no matter the outcome of tonight’s main event. 

I commented on it early with Al Snow and Christian, and I commented on it again at the start of the previous match but I do really want to stress that it feels fairly hollow - even with all the weeks of TV building to this show - that the final showdown between these two different companies is so heavily WWF vs. WWF. Edge and Test is another good example of two young men who had really never wrestled anywhere else but the WWF.

Most of the genuine “invaders” and fresh faces who joined the company from WCW or ECW are relegated to the battle royal on this show. That includes former WCW Champion and main eventer Diamond Dallas Page who was a big deal for the first couple of months but who quickly fell off the radar as soon as Undertaker was done with him. There’s a lot of talent that could have done more but alas, that’s for another day and I really don’t want to belabour the point on this show as really, this is an event I have mostly positive opinion on. 

Immunity Battle Royal

WWF Participants - Bradshaw, Faarooq, Billy Gunn, Chuck Palumbo, Albert, Perry Saturn, Crash Holly, Spike Dudley and Funaki

Alliance Participants - Lance Storm, Billy Kidman, Justin Credible, Diamond Dallas Page, Raven, Shawn Staziak, Steven Richards, Tommy Dreamer, The Hurricane

Wild Card Participants - Tazz, Chavo Guerrero and Hugh Morrus

Some of the entrants above are a surprise, specifically Tazz, Chavo and Hugh but given that this is a battle royal you’ll forgive me for not calling it blow by blow. 

The Alliance participants enter together first to Drowning Pool’s Bodies, the Alliance’s unofficial theme song. Test comes out last, making his stealing of Scotty’s slot official. 

The WWF participants come out together to this event’s theme song which, obviously, is still dubbed on the WWE Network. It continues to upset me a full 90 minutes into the show. 

It turns into a frantic fist fight between all men right away. Tazz comes down to join in after the bell, as does Chavo Guerrerro and Hugh Morrus. Paul Heyman is shown looking stunned at ringside as JR tells him to go and throw Tazz out himself. “If I were you I’d go into the ring, shock him with my bald head and throw his ass out”.

DDP is eliminated early in the match without fanfare by Chuck Palumbo of all people. That’s a crying shame. Chavo and Morrus work together to throw out Funaki and Raven but don’t get much further than that being dumped out by Billy Gunn. 

Tazz stops to shout abuse at Heyman and pays for it, getting dumped out. Paul laughs hysterically at him so Tazz lunges for his former boss! He dives behind JR to hide from Tazz as referees escort him from the ring. 

The field starts to clear and the final four are the Alliance’s Lance Storm and Test, and the WWF’s Bradshaw and Billy Gunn. 

Test throws out Billy but doesn’t see that he landed on the apron. Test shoves Bradshaw and Storm out at the same time and thinks he's won but he’s attackd by Gunn! He goes for a Famerasser but as he hits the ropes, Test follows in with a Big Boot and Test wins the Immunity Battle Royal. He cannot be fired for one full year no matter who wins the main event. 

Something else that’s missing from the WWE Network version of the event but that is burned into my brain is that here during the live broadcast was the first ever showing of the WWF Desire video, set to Creed’s “My Sacrifice”. It’s an amazing video and another one of those things that all wrestling fans of a certain age think of fondly. It was shown on WWF TV for a couple of months at the end of 2001/beginning of 2002 and while by the lofty production standards of modern wrestling this type of thing might seem basic and something you’d take for granted, at the time it was a real emotional mind blower for fans. 

Backstage, Booker T tells Shane O’Mac that he doesn’t trust Stone Cold. It’s nice to see these two together as they were such a double act in the first couple of months of the Invasion. Shane assures Booker that Austin will look after them and they can trust him - they both have EVERYTHING on the line. 

Six Pack Challenge for the Vacant WWF Women’s Championship

Lita (WWF) vs. Trish Stratus (WWF) vs. Jacqueline (WWF) vs. Mighty Molly (Alliance) vs. Ivory (Alliance) vs. Jazz (Alliance)

This is the re-emergence of the WWF women’s title which had been inactive since Chyna’s departure from television back in May. Officially the title was vacated only weeks before this event on November 1st when Chyna formally left the company. She had been gone in reality for a while.

This is Jazz’s debut as she was a mystery participant right up until her music hit. Paul Heyman is very very excited to see her but the fans are unmoved. That’s to be expected.

Jazz and Lita start out but quickly tag out to Jacqueline and Molly Holly who run the rope and trade dropkicks and an armdrag. Molly tags out to Ivory and the two veterans and former women’s champions trade roll ups for a string of near falls.

JR is sure to mention that while this match is for the WWF women’s title, the winner here will be the women’s champion for whichever company wins the main event going forward. Trish tags in and sends Ivory to the outside so she’s swarmed by the three Alliance members. Lita and Jackie join in and the six men brawl in the ring. Jackie and Lita work as a team and use the Hardyz Poetry in Motion on Ivory but when they try the same on Molly, Jackie turns on Lita.

There’s a flurry of activity as Ivory spikes Jackie with a facebuster, Molly takes out Jazz with a Molly-Go-Round and Lita almost wins with a moonsault on Ivory.

Jazz and Molly double team Lita but with Molly knocked out the ring, Jazz charges Trish. She pulls down the ropes and that sends Jazz out of the ring and onto both Molly and Lita.

With everyone down on the outside, Trish hits a nice looking springboard bulldog onto Ivory and covers her and, in somewhat of an upset, wins the WWF Women’s title! This was a huge win for Trish and a real show of faith from the company. I’ve talked a lot about it previously but she was a lifelong wrestling fan and had worked overtime off camera to get better and become a skilled performer so that she could move beyond being just eye candy and a manager. 

Something that’s been mentioned a lot on TV in the past month is the WWF’s new studio show, WWF Excess. It was launched due to the perceived success of Sunday Night Heat on MTV which was part arena show with matches and part live broadcast from WWF New York with a special guest and a host. I remember the episode of Excess before this PPV extremely well as it had multiple guests and was hosted by JR. Everyone talked about the show and wrestling in general like it was very real and I loved that as a 13 year old nerd who was obsessed with wrestling. I had a VHS tape which had both the Raw and Smackdown before this show, plus Excess and I watched all three regularly before rewatching this PPV.

Before the main event, after JR and Heyman have one last argument about how they aren’t going to miss each other, Vince McMahon rallies the troops - he has all of Team WWF in his office. Of note, Kane is wearing new ring gear. It’s a brighter red and a bit more camera friendly I think.

Vince says that he might be looking at five losers, but if they lose there isn’t a single WWF fan who’d forgive them. As Vince talks, The Rock constantly bounces on the spot. I mean relentlessly for the entire segment. It’s very, very distracting. He lists a bunch of former legends and names and does his best to motivate them. He says that while he has promised that Stone Cold will jump ship tonight, he wants them to think of that as untrue and not take it for granted. Stay focused and fight for survival. 

Winner Take All 5 vs. 5 Survivor Series Elimination match

Team WWF (WCW Champion The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Big Show, Kane and The Undertaker)

vs.

Team Alliance (WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T, WWF Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam and Shane McMahon)

This match has one of my all time favourite video packages which is sadly butchered on the WWE Network with the removable of the theme song. I’ve done everything possible to track down the original version and in the end, I had to take the good picture quality version from the WWE Network and manually edit the audio from another source onto it. Original audio and HD video - the best of both worlds. And It was so worth it.

This match has a BIG fight feel and the Alliance enter first - Shane McMahon first, then the man Paul Heyman calls the cornerstone of the WCW purchase Booker T (which is accurate, he’s the best thing they got out of the deal) followed by the best thing to come out of ECW during this Invasion, the WWF Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam. Next up is the traitor who jumped to the Alliance only three weeks ago Kurt Angle. That still doesn’t make sense but I did promise during the preview that there was one more twist to come. A Twist I think most people saw coming. Rounding out the team is the leader of the Alliance, the WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin. JR has said multiple times over the past several months that despite his flaws and change in attitude, Austin is arguably the greatest WWF Champion of all time. I wouldn’t argue.

Team WWF’s first man is the 500lbs Big Show who rushes the ring and all five Alliance members bail, giving him space. Next up is Kane and then his brother The Undertaker who’ve been leaders for the WWF since the Invasion began, Chris Jericho who has had MAJOR issues with his team captain lately but who seems to have buried his own ego for the sake of the WWF and finally the team leader, WCW Champion The Rock. 

Little bit of trivia about some of the men in this match - Undertaker, The Rock and Kurt Angle all debuted at Survivor Series. 1990, 1996 and 1999 respectively. JR incorrectly says that Undertaker won the WWF title from Hulk Hogan in his debut but it was actually one year later at the 1991 Survivor Series.

Austin and Rock start the match for their teams and waste no time going right to trademark moves with Stone Cold getting a pin fall in the first minute with his Thez press and elbow. 

The Rock returns fire with a Thez press and an elbow of his own. Shane breaks that pin up for the first time tonight and Booker T tags in. Rock and Booker know each other very well and as soon as Rock goes for a cover, Shane breaks that up too.

I’m not going to call this move for move because it’s a very long match and there’s a lot going on with tags and changes of names. The teams give us an early parade of everyone involved, tagging in and out after short exchanges. 

RVD dominates Jericho, Jericho dominates Angle, Kane and Angle trade suplexes as there’s a bit of heat between these two - Angle made Kane tap out for the first time in his career only two weeks ago.

The one important story is that every time a member of Team WWF tries a cover, Shane McMahon is there like lightning to break it up and get some cheap shots.

Everyone is getting very sick of Shane O’Mac including JR who exasperatedly shouts “damn man, come on!” as Shane breaks up what feels like his 8th or 9th pin attempt. The fans chant “Shane’s a pussy” as Undertaker works on Booker T’s arm. 

The fans erupt again into “WHAT” chants when Stone Cold gets involved and he and Undertaker briefly renew their rivalry with the Deadman coming out on top. The pin is broken up by - guess who? - Shane McMahon! 

Big Show gets legally into the match for the first time and effortlessly throws Kurt Angle around and does the same to RVD before shoving the entire Alliance off the apron. He got distracted by that and after an Angle slam, a Scissors Kick (and Spinarooni) from Booker T, a Five Star Frog Splash from RVD and finally a top rope elbow by Shane McMahon, The Big Show is the first man eliminated at 12:42. It did take four finishing moves to do it at least. 

Shane dances around the ring in victory and pays for it as The Rock catches him and gives him a beating. Shane pays for having been a thorn in everyone’ side, he takes a chokeslam from Kane, a tombstone from The Undertaker and a Lionsault from Y2J to eliminate Shane McMahon at 14:30. He took three finishers but I suspect he was beaten after the very first one. That brings the match to 4 on 4.

Jericho and Angle pick the pace up and exchange fast past wrestling and near falls. 

As the Alliance isolate and work over Jericho, I got a kick out of seeing The Rock casually chatting to Undertaker and Kane in the background on the apron. I’d love to know what they were saying to each other. Jericho tags out and after Kane dominates RVD for a bit, he is knocked down and absorbs a Five Star Frog Splash. Kane actually sits up and shrugs that off but as the match breaks down and everyone fights on the outside, RVD drops Kane with a diving kick from the top rope to pin Kane and eliminate him at 18:56.

Undertaker tries to get the WWF back in the match single handedly fighting all four Alliance members and sending Booker and RVD to the outside. He drops Angle with a big boot and Stone Cold with a clothesline and sets up a Last Ride on the Olympian. It connects but when Booker T bring a chair into the ring, he’s distracted and doesn’t go for a cover. Stone Cold gives Undertaker a Stunner and drags Kurt on top of him for the three count. The Undertaker is eliminated at 20:03.

It’s now just The Rock and Chris Jericho - who hate each other - against four members of the Alliance and JR somberly says that they better be on the same page because the WWF is in trouble here.

Booker takes over on The Rock and with quick tags to Angle and RVD dominates him. The Rock gets desperate and after whipping The Book into Kurt, rolls him up with a schoolboy to eliminate Booker T at 22:33! Earl Hebner continues to add to his legacy as the worst referee of all time as Booker T's shoulder was very clearly up here. 

It’s still 3 vs. 2 in the Alliance’s favour and RVD tries to keep up the pressure. He tries a springboard onto the top but The Rock catches him and brings him down with a powerbomb, allowing him to tag out to Y2J. Jericho and RVD have a fast exchange, countering and avoiding kicks. RVD tries the split legged moonsault but Jericho gets his knees up and with his new finisher - The Breakdown - drives Van Dam’s face into the mat and eliminates him at 25:48. It’s now 2 vs. 2. It's a terrible looking move which probably explains why Jericho didn't use it for very long. 

Kurt slows things down and traps Jericho in a sleeper as Austin whips The Rock into the ring post, taking him out. Jericho weathers the stop and continues to exchange submissions and wrestling with Kurt while The Rock eventually gets himself back up onto the apron. 

Stone Cold and Kurt Angle tag in and out and work well as a team, isolating Jericho with chokes, slams and elbows. It’s a safe but effective strategy. 

Jericho manages to get a tag to The Rock who knocks Austin off the apron and puts Kurt Angle in the sharpshooter. To everyone’s shock - especially Paul Heyman’s - Kurt Angle taps out! Kurt Angle is eliminated at 32:22!

Stone Cold is now two on one against The Rock and Jericho and the fact that he’s still fighting would seem to confirm that Vince McMahon was lying and Austin is not going to jump ship.

Jericho takes down Austin with a missile dropkick and with Austin bleeding from the mouth he just barely kicks out. The Rattlesnake counters Jericho’s roll up with one of his own and Y2J is eliminated at 34:50. It’s down to one on one! The Rock and Austin fight it out and The Rock takes him down with a spinebuster but a pissed off Jericho - bitter that he’s been eliminated and The Rock hasn’t - gives The Rock a Breakdown!

Austin crawls into a cover but The Rock kicks out. Jericho is about to go back to the ring and finish the job but The Undertaker runs down and drags him to the back. All throughout the match, shots of the Alliance and WWF locker rooms assembled around monitors to watch the match are shown and reacting to the events and I liked that a lot - it added to the drama.

Austin sends The Rock up and over the top rope and he crashes into the announce table, banging his leg. The two go to familiar territory, fighting at ringside and up onto the announce table. When The Rock turns the ride, the worst referee in all of wrestling, Earl Hebner keeps getting in the way and The Rock has to physically shove him away more than once. I hate that man.

Back in the ring, Stone Cold takes The Rock down and locks him in a sharpshooter. It’s a very loose looking one and somehow even worse than The Rock’s but the People’s Champion sells it anyway and just barely gets to the ropes. 

Frustrated, Austin goes and gets the WWF title belt to use as a weapon but The Rock ducks and with a spinebuster, locks in his own sharpshooter. In an awesome visual, Austin clings desperately to his treasured title belt as he crawls to the ropes.

He gets there and gives The Rock a low blow. He tries a Stunner but The Rock blocks it and hits a Stunner of his own! The Rock covers and just as Austin is about to lose to his own move, WCW referee Nick Patrick runs down and pulls Earl out of the ring to stop the count. The Rock is distracted by that and Stone Cold gives The Rock a Rock Bottom! The Rock just barely kicks out at two. 

Austin is furious and punches his own Alliance referee for not counting to three. He drags a groggy Earl Hebner into the ring but he does down again. Austin hits The Rock with a Stone Cold Stunner and Paul Heyman starts reading the WWF’s obituary but there’s no referee to count. Kurt Angle runs down and he hits Stone Cold with the WWF title belt! Austin stumbles into a Rock Bottom! He covers and the referee wakes up to count. Thanks to a last minute team change by Kurt Angle, the WWF wins with The Rock as the Sole Survivor at 44:57. I didn't notice it until I went back for the screenshot but Kurt actually takes the WWF title belt with him when he runs off through the crowd. 

The Alliance is dead and the WWF lives after a very enjoyable Survivor Series elimination match. The show ends with duelling shots of the Alliance locker room in a deep state of depression while the WWF locker room is jubilant.

The Rock celebrates in the ring as Stone Cold lays on his stomach and Vince McMahon comes out onto the stage, throwing his jacket down and his arms in the air in celebration. The Alliance is dead, long life the WWF.

This was a great show with multiple very good matches and high stakes with it being the end of a company wide, five month long storyline. I loved the main event and all the drama and the show ends with a real feel-good ending (unless you hate WWE of course). I’ll write plenty more about the Invasion itself but for now, that’s the end.