30 years of WWE Survivor Series: Ranking each event

3. Survivor Series 2001

2001 was such a big year for WWE. Vince McMahon had shocked the world of professional wrestling by purchasing WCW only a week before WrestleMania and as only he could do, worked it into a storyline immediately. Shane McMahon went to Monday Nitro on its final night and announced that he was now the owner of Vince’s main rival. It took a while for the story to really get legs and the Invasion angle certainly wasn’t what it could have been had some of the main players from WCW been involved but it was still fun to watch and it all came to a head at the 2001 edition of Survivor Series as Team WWF took on The Alliance in a number of fantastic matches.

Christian took on Al Snow in the opening match for the European Championship in a solid opener and that was followed up with with a quick match between William Regal and Tajiri that was pretty physical for how short it was. A unification match for the Intercontinental Championship and the United States Championship was up next as Edge took on Test and this is a very underrated match. They got some nice time to work and they took advantage. It’s easy to forget how talented Test could be when in there with the right opponent.

Another title unification match followed as The Hardy Boyz took on The Dudley Boyz in a Steel Cage Match and there’s never anything wrong when these two teams get together. I think a tornado tag would have worked better but this was still very good. The Immunity Battle Roayal was a fun idea and Test won that after losing earlier in the night. The Six-Pack Challenge for the vacant Women’s Championship was so short that it was hard to get invested.

The main event and the match that drew all the viewers in featured nine world champions. The only man not to ever hold a world title was Shane McMahon and he’s proven that he can mix it up with anyone. This was just a whirlwind of amazing wrestlers getting after it. The match went almost 45 minutes and Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock were the last two in and that’s always awesome. Kurt Angle proved to be the difference maker as he came back in and screwed Austin to give Team WWF the victory. The main event is one of the best in history as is the event as a whole.