30 years of WWE Survivor Series: Ranking each event

9. Survivor Series 2011

The 2011 edition of Survivor Series revolved around the main event and the return of The Rock, who returned to a WWE ring after a seven-year absence to team with his future WrestleMania opponent, John Cena. The duo would take on The Miz and R-Truth, who were actually a very entertaining tag team, and while the match was entertaining enough, the outcome was never in doubt and it was not the best match of the night. The crowd was really into it though.

Big Show vs. Mark Henry and Beth Phoenix vs. Eve Torres were the weak links of the night but every other match delivered. Dolph Ziggler pulled double duty that night and kicked the show off in a fun match with John Morrison for the United States Championship. The New York crowd really wanted Zack Ryder to come and get involved (this was the time he had his petition on Twitter) and the MSG audience popped something fierce when he came to the ring.

The Team Barrett vs. Team Orton traditional Survivor Series match was very entertaining. Orton had been played up to be unstoppable in these types of matches and it was nice to see them get away from that as Wade Barrett and Cody Rhodes were the two survivors here. Ziggler went out much too early and Sin Cara had to leave with a legitimate knee injury but everyone kept it together and looked good.

The penultimate match was the best bout of the evening as CM Punk challenged Alberto Del Rio for the WWE Championship. These two put on an instant classic and worked a great back and forth throughout. The crowd was really into CM Punk and they told a great story here. Del Rio was always able to block or counter the GTS, so Punk locked in the Anaconda Vice and began his 434-day reign as champ.