Survivor Series (1997) - Misplaced Pages

Professional wrestling
Part of a series on

History History of professional wrestling By year Early wrestling championships Gold Dust Trio 1980s boom Black Saturday 1994 NWA World Title Tournament Monday Night Wars Attitude Era 2000 All Japan Pro Wrestling mass exodus The Invasion Wednesday Night Wars
Notable promotions All Elite Wrestling All Japan Pro Wrestling All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling All Star Wrestling American Wrestling Association Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Extreme Championship Wrestling DDT Pro-Wrestling Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling Jim Crockett Promotions Joint Promotions Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide National Wrestling Alliance New Japan Pro-Wrestling Pro Wrestling Noah Ring of Honor Soft Ground Wrestling Stampede Wrestling Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling Total Nonstop Action Wrestling UWF International Women of Wrestling World Championship Wrestling World Wonder Ring Stardom WWE Others
Notable peopleEarly 20th Century Billy Riley Billy Sandow Ed "Strangler" Lewis Frank Gotch George Hackenschmidt The Great Gama Jack Pfefer Jim Londos Lou Thesz Salvador Lutteroth Toots Mondt Mid 20th Century Blue Demon Bruno Sammartino El Santo The Fabulous Moolah Gorgeous George Karl Gotch Mildred Burke Rikidōzan Sam Muchnick Stu Hart Verne Gagne 1970s and 1980s Akira Maeda André the Giant Antonio Inoki Big Daddy Billy Robinson Bobby Heenan Carlos Colón Dusty Rhodes Dynamite Kid Giant Baba Gordon Solie Harley Race Hulk Hogan Jim Crockett Jr. Jushin Liger Mil Máscaras Negro Navarro Randy Savage Ric Flair Satoru "Tiger Mask" Sayama Terry Funk Vince McMahon 1990s Antonio Peña Atsushi Onita Bret Hart Eric Bischoff The Great Muta (Keiji Muto) Jim Ross Kenta Kobashi Kevin Nash Manami Toyota Mitsuharu Misawa Paul Heyman Scott Hall Shawn Michaels Sting Stone Cold Steve Austin Ted Turner The Rock The Undertaker Toshiaki Kawada Triple H Vince Russo 2000s Batista Brock Lesnar Chris Jericho Eddie Guerrero Hiroshi Tanahashi Jeff Hardy Jeff Jarrett John Cena Kurt Angle Místico Randy Orton Rey Mysterio 2010s and 2020s Bryan Danielson CM Punk Cody Rhodes Kazuchika Okada Kenny Omega Nick Khan Roman Reigns Rossy Ogawa Tony Khan
By region Australia Bolivia Canada China France India Iran Israel Japan Mexico New Zealand Puerto Rico Russia Saudi Arabia United Kingdom United States
Styles British wrestling All-in style Mountevans rules Cruiserweight X Division Hardcore Intergender Lucha libre Midget Mini-Estrella Puroresu Shoot style U-Kei Women's
Concepts Attire Masks Wrestling singlet Wrestling shoe Backyarding Blading Championship World Heavyweight Dirt sheet Glossary of terms Kayfabe Gimmick Face Heel Shoot Heat Job Push House show Match types Music Rib Ring name Sports entertainment Tag team Weight classes Wrestling ring
Culture Cauliflower Alley Club Cauliflower ear Comic books Films Luchador films Magazines Paintings Gustave Courbet Thomas Eakins William Etty George Luks Ribera Steakhouse Ten-bell salute Video games Wrestling personalities in politics Zubaz
Media outlets Botchamania Box y Lucha Dark Side of the Ring Fighting Spirit Magazine Live Audio Wrestling OSW Review Power Slam Pro Wrestling Illustrated Súper Luchas Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Controversies Animals in professional wrestling Chris Benoit double-murder and suicide Death of Owen Hart Mass Transit incident Montreal Screwjob Murder of Bruiser Brody Murder of Rikidōzan Premature deaths Ring boy scandal Speaking Out United States v. McMahon Vince McMahon sex trafficking scandal WWE–Saudi Arabia relationship
Lists Attendance records Championships Matches rated 5 or more stars by Dave Meltzer Moves Promotions Rivalries Rosters TV shows Wrestling families
Related topics Combat sport Comparison of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts Martial arts Mock combat Pankration Shootfighting Sport wrestling Amateur Catch Shoot Submission Lancashire Luta Livre Pehlwani Stage combat Theatre
v t e

The 1997 Survivor Series was the 11th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the third and final Survivor Series event to be presented by Milton Bradley's Karate Fighters. The event took place on Sunday, November 9, 1997, at the Molson Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The event's tagline "Gang Rulz" refers to the various wrestling stables that feuded with each other heading into this event. Seven matches were contested on the event's card.

The main event was a standard wrestling match for the WWF Championship, in which Bret Hart defended the title against Shawn Michaels. It was the last of three WWF Championship matches between the two, who had previously headlined the 1992 Survivor Series and WrestleMania XII together. Michaels won the title in controversial fashion when Vince McMahon ordered match referee Earl Hebner to end the match as Michaels held Hart in Hart's own finishing maneuver, the Sharpshooter, even though Hart had not submitted. This incident became known as the Montreal Screwjob and marked Hart's last appearance on WWE programming until 2006. This was also the last time that Hart held a title in WWE until May 2010, and the last time he headlined a WWE pay-per-view until SummerSlam 2010. According to WWE, the Montreal Screwjob, which took place at the end of the last match on the card, is considered the beginning of the Attitude Era. A video package aired immediately before the Hart vs. Michaels match, featuring the first use of the "WWF Attitude" scratch logo.

The undercard featured Stone Cold Steve Austin versus Owen Hart in a standard wrestling match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, Kane versus Mankind, and four 4-on-4 elimination tag team matches were included.

Production

Background

Survivor Series is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV), produced every November by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1987. In what has become the second longest running pay-per-view event in history (behind WWE's WrestleMania), it is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, and was considered one of the "Big Five" PPVs, along with King of the Ring. The event is traditionally characterized by having Survivor Series matches, which are tag team elimination matches that typically pits teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. The 1997 event was the 11th event in the Survivor Series chronology and was scheduled to be held on November 9, 1997, at the Molson Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Storylines

Survivor Series consisted of professional wrestling matches involving wrestlers from pre-existing feuds and storylines that played out on Raw is War — WWF's primary television program. Wrestlers portrayed a hero or a villain as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

The Storyline feud between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels began after Michaels became the number one contender to the WWF Championship by defeating The Undertaker in the first Hell in a Cell match at Badd Blood: In Your House. On the following nights episode of Raw is War, while Michaels, alongside his friend Hunter Hearst Helmsley were blurting out insults to Vince McMahon by the announce table, Hart alongside members of The Hart Foundation appeared with Hart calling Michaels nothing more than a degenerate before challenging Triple H to a match later that night. Hart later lost to Helmsley by count out after Michaels hit him with Sweet Chin Music while he was blocking an attack by Helmsley's bodyguard Chyna.

Immediately after the Steve Austin vs. Owen Hart match and before the Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels match, a video package was aired featuring promos from Ahmed Johnson, The Undertaker, Bret Hart, Faarooq, Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels discussing their athletic backgrounds and injuries suffered, ending with Bret Hart saying "Try lacing my boots," and finally with the first use of the "WWF Attitude" scratch logo displayed on the screen. In later re-airings of the video package, Hart's tagline was replaced by Austin (also saying "Try lacing my boots").

In the main event, Shawn Michaels de. Bret Hart in 19:58 and became the new WWF Champion, after Michaels locked Hart into the sharpshooter. Even though Hart had not submitted, Michaels was declared the winner, as Earl Hebner, on direct orders from McMahon, called for the bell.

Reception

In 2015, Kevin Pantoja of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 6.0 , stating, "Shortly after the WWE Network launched, I watched this show and disliked it. Looking at it now, it’s pretty good. The Survivor Series matches, except for the DOA one, are all relatively fun. It also gets the score bumped up a bit more due to the historical value here. The main event, while not classic, kind of has to be seen by any and every wrestling fan."

Aftermath

The controversial ending surrounding Shawn Michaels defeating Bret Hart by submission and winning the WWF Championship due to Vince McMahon ordering the referee Earl Hebner to ring the bell without Hart submitting became known as the Montreal Screwjob. Hart left the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) immediately after the incident and moved to World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he became a two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, a four-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion and one half of the WCW World Tag Team Champions before retiring in 2000 after a severe concussion. Hart next appeared in the WWF (now known as World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE) in 2010 when he and Michaels called a truce and buried the hatchet on the Montreal Screwjob, having been inducted to the WWE Hall of Fame four years prior.

After Survivor Series, Shawn Michaels began his third reign as WWF Champion. He entered a feud with Ken Shamrock over the WWF Championship which culminated at D-Generation X: In Your House where Michaels retained the title after Shamrock won by disqualification after being attacked by D-Generation X (DX) members Triple H and Chyna. Michaels lost the WWF Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV before a four-year hiatus after a back injury during a casket match against The Undertaker at the 1998 Royal Rumble. He returned at SummerSlam 2002.

After winning the Intercontinental Championship, Stone Cold Steve Austin entered into a feud with The Rock over the title after The Rock stole Austin's title belt after a beat down from The Nation of Domination on the November 17 episode of Raw is War. Austin retained the Intercontinental Championship and regained the belt by defeating The Rock at D-Generation X: In Your House. Austin forfeited the title to The Rock the next night on Raw is War with the sole intention of going after the WWF Championship before hitting The Rock with a Stone Cold Stunner.

Vince McMahon's actions of screwing Bret Hart from the WWF Championship marked the beginning of the Mr. McMahon character, the tyrannical CEO of WWF. In 1998, McMahon began a legendary rivalry with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The events of the Montreal Screwjob repeated at the following year's Survivor Series, albeit worked, when The Rock locked Mankind in the Sharpshooter before Mr. McMahon ordered the referee to call for the bell, "screwing" Mankind and awarding the then-vacant WWF Championship to The Rock.

Results

No.

Results

Stipulations

Times

The New Age Outlaws ("Road Dogg" Jesse James and Billy Gunn) and The Godwinns (Henry O. and Phineas I.) defeated The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) and The New Blackjacks (Blackjack Windham and Blackjack Bradshaw)

4-on-4 Survivor Series elimination match