30 years of WWE Survivor Series: Ranking each event

12. Survivor Series 1998

The 1998 edition of Survivor Series revolved around the tournament for the vacant WWE Championship and while there were a lot of matches that night, 14 to be exact, the night still worked out and featured a great heel turn.

The Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon storyline was still hot at this time but Vince had also taken to picking on The Rock and tried to make it very difficult for both to advance through the tournament while paving the way for Mick Foley to win his first WWE Championship. However, Rock and Austin made their way through the first couple of rounds to get to the semifinals. A lot of the early matches in the tournament went very quickly but that was the point. They had short time limits on them and that meant that everyone had to be pretty aggressive. I’m not going to pretend they were all gems but it was entertaining.

Check out this final four. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mankind, The Rock and The Undertaker. Austin had Mankind beat but Shane McMahon, who had been demoted to being a referee, counted two and then flipped off The Rattlesnake in a fun swerve and Foley advanced to the final. The Rock beat The Undertaker when Kane got involved and the final match was set.

As they usually did, Rock and Foley put on a fun match and just when it seemed that Mankind was going to win the title, Vince McMahon went with a recreation of the Montreal Screwjob from the year before and The Rock turned heel and joined The Corporation. It was a great double turn as Rock became the most hated heel in the company and Foley became the most sympathetic figure in WWE. Some of the night was chaotic with all of the matches but it was a lot of fun and the ending was perfect.