A Survivor Series match is only as good as its best performance and for these matches, that means they were in good hands. These are the 10 greatest Survivor Series Performances of all time.
00:00 - Start
00:57 - 10
01:52 - 9
02:50 - 8
03:39 - 7
04:36 - 6
05:30 - 5
06:30 - 4
07:36 - 3
08:39 - 2
09:37 - 1
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00:00 - Start
00:57 - 10
01:52 - 9
02:50 - 8
03:39 - 7
04:36 - 6
05:30 - 5
06:30 - 4
07:36 - 3
08:39 - 2
09:37 - 1
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
Buy wrestling merchandise here: https://www.wrestleshop.com/
Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/
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SportsTranscript
00:00 After last week's debacle that made me question my love for pro wrestling in general, I think
00:04 it is time that we take a look at some of the reasons that Survivor Series actually
00:07 has lasted as long as it has.
00:10 When done properly, which is asking a lot for Survivor Series to be fair, but when done
00:14 properly, a strong Survivor Series performance can be a launching point for a wrestler.
00:19 It is a true breakout performance in a very literal sense, and while it is certainly no
00:23 guarantee that the momentum generated from such a performance will last until the Royal
00:27 Rumble or even the end of the year in some cases, that doesn't make the performance
00:31 on that cozy November night any less special.
00:33 Enjoy your turkey, Americans!
00:35 I am Tempest Hailing from PartsFunKnown, and these are the 10 Greatest Survivor Series
00:39 Performances of All Time.
00:41 But before we get on with this list, please make sure that you like this video, subscribe,
00:44 and enable notifications to always on so you never miss a fun list just like it, and make
00:48 sure you check out the latest special edition of Survival Series featuring The Bullet Club,
00:53 naming every member of The Bullet Club.
00:57 #10 - The Jumping Bomb Angels, 1987 Remember the original WWE Women's Tag Team
01:02 Championship?
01:03 WWE sure doesn't, but I do and I will never forget them because of the work of The Jumping
01:08 Bomb Angels.
01:09 You would absolutely not think that a pair of Japanese women's wrestlers would fare
01:13 well in the 1980s WWF, and long term I guess they didn't, but watching them at the first
01:17 ever Survivor Series will make you believe that they should have.
01:20 Itsuki Yamazaki and Norio Tateno were f***ing fantastic wrestlers, and the survivors of
01:26 the first ever Women's Survivor Series match last eliminating The Glamour Girls, Judy Martin,
01:30 and Leilani Kai, and let me tell you that alone is better booking for the Women's
01:34 Tag Titles than we've gotten in the last 5 years.
01:37 The next Women's Survivor Series match wouldn't be for another 8 years, which is preposterous
01:42 considering whenever I think of the first ever Survivor Series event, I think of The
01:46 Jumping Bomb Angels.
01:47 I realize I'm probably not in the majority here, but dammit, I like what I like.
01:52 #9. Randy Orton, 2004
01:55 The Ruthless Aggression Era was the era of Randy Orton being Mr. Survivor Series.
02:00 In three straight years from 2003 to 2005, Orton was the sole survivor of his team, but
02:04 his best performance came smack down in the middle in The Year of Our Lord 2004.
02:09 Still seeking revenge for his recent evolution betrayal, Randy Orton led his crew of Jericho
02:14 and Benoit into battle with Maven taken out backstage before the match for an immediate
02:19 disadvantage.
02:20 Orton's team was fighting from behind the entire way, and despite this, Orton was able
02:24 to eliminate Edge and Triple H to win the match and the most important prize in Survivor
02:28 Series history, control of Raw for one week.
02:32 Ooooooh.
02:33 Orton's other Survivor Series performances saw him being the mean old baddie putting
02:37 a stop to the valiant come-from-behind effort of the opposing Babyface, but here he was
02:41 the valiant come-from-behind Babyface, getting a clean win over Triple H, which, if you followed
02:46 the career of Randy Orton, proved very hard to come by.
02:50 8.
02:51 Asuka, 2017 When Asuka debuted a month prior to Survivor
02:54 Series 2017 at TLC, she sold way, way, way too much.
03:00 Why have her first impression to the main roster be her selling for 80% of a match with
03:04 Emma?
03:05 I don't know, but thankfully WWE's second chance to make a first impression came at
03:09 the biggest party of the autumn.
03:10 2017 wasn't a great year for Survivor Series in terms of quality of the matches sharing
03:14 its namesake, but what they did manage to accomplish was showing what a force Asuka
03:19 could be, as she eliminated three out of the five of the Smackdown women to give Raw the
03:23 win as the sole Survivor.
03:25 Considering the top star of the Smackdown team was Becky Lynch and she got eliminated
03:29 first in, check notes, TWO MINUTES, this one was a foregone conclusion very early, but
03:34 that also speaks to the scope of Asuka's aura at the time, so fair play to her.
03:39 7.
03:40 Roman Reigns, 2013 I love talking about this match because I f***ing
03:45 loved Roman Reigns until WWE replaced his code with John Cena's and hit enter.
03:49 This was the start of the "you gotta make Roman look really strong" era, and I don't
03:55 know if there has ever been a night where Roman looked stronger than this pre-character
03:59 change.
04:00 Maybe the 2014 rumble, but that's it.
04:02 The Shield immediately goes down a man as Ambrose goes out early and from there it is
04:06 a bad time for the bad guys until Roman turns his swagger up to 11.
04:10 He beckons to Rey Mysterio that he came all the way back just to get jobbed out, and then
04:15 beats 4 out of the 5 good guys to walk away the sole Survivor.
04:19 There were loads of incredibly forced Roman Reigns performances over the years where fans
04:23 were absolutely not receptive to it, but had any of them been even a sliver as badass as
04:28 this one at Survivor Series 2013, then I think Roman would have had a much better chance
04:32 of turning out to be what WWE wanted him to be from the jump.
04:36 6.
04:37 Seth Rollins - 2014 Speaking of The Shield, after Seth Rollins
04:40 stuck the chair-shaped knife in Roman Reigns' back, his major assignment for Survivor Series
04:45 was to keep the Authority in power.
04:47 The main event of Survivor Series 2014 is a sensational match, and it would not be half
04:52 of what it was without the efforts of Seth Rollins and another man who you might hear
04:56 about later.
04:57 This is one of the only entries on this list that isn't based off a dominant performance
05:01 with loads of eliminations, but rather the quality of work that was on display.
05:05 I mean, really, Seth only has one elimination in this match, and it's pinning John Cena
05:09 after Big Show turned on him.
05:11 But the final stretch, with Seth Rollins fighting to keep the Authority from certain damnation,
05:16 is one of the best mini-matches to end a Survivor Series match there has ever, ever been.
05:21 And while Seth may have failed to stop Sting from banishing his bosses, it turns out it
05:25 was merely a month-long sabbatical anyway, while his performance has stood the test of
05:29 time.
05:30 5.
05:31 Aja Kong, 1995 This might be the most dominant performance
05:35 from a single star in Survivor Series history.
05:38 It's either this or Big Show eliminating Big Boss Man and his band of merry boss men
05:42 in 1999, but I will always be partial to Joshi Wrestling legend Aja Kong f***ing up the WWF's
05:49 Women's Division so hard that the company decided to abort the whole division for a
05:53 few years.
05:54 Aja Kong was too much wrestling for those at the top, and time has told us what those
05:58 people were actually looking for in their women's wrestling, but at Survivor Series
06:01 1995, Aja Kong was simply the most dominant, devastating, and badass wrestler in the business,
06:08 eliminating all four of her team's opponents to win the match as the sole survivor.
06:12 There were some all-time great workers in this match, such as Lioness Asuka, which is
06:17 not an alternate outfit in WWE 2K23, don't worry, I did check, but Aja Kong was simply
06:23 too much for any of the other women in this match to handle.
06:26 Imagine what her WWE run could have been.
06:30 Number 4, Keith Lee 2019 Speaking of what ifs, bask in the glory that
06:36 is Keith Lee's performance at Survivor Series 2019.
06:40 Keith Lee didn't win this match, in fact he only got one elimination, but when this
06:44 match was over, all anyone could talk about was this mountain of twisted steel and snuggle
06:49 appeal.
06:50 The final stretch of this match with Keith Lee and Roman Reigns is electric, the kind
06:54 of lightning in a bottle feeling that WWE so wishes they could manufacture on demand,
06:59 with that kick out of the Spirit Bomb in particular feeling like the biggest nearfall of WWE's
07:04 whole year.
07:05 The streets were not high on WWE at this point after Hell in a Cell and Crown Jewel and the
07:10 Kofi thing and well, most of 2019, but this match and Keith Lee's performance in this
07:15 match made everyone forget about all of that if only for a half hour.
07:19 In a perfect world, this was a star-making performance for Keith Lee that would have
07:22 launched him towards Wrestlemania matches with Brock Lesnar, Walter, Roman Reigns and
07:27 all other opponents that would have been worthy of basking in his glory, but unfortunately
07:31 this isn't a perfect world in case the plagues and wars hadn't been enough of a hint for
07:35 you.
07:36 3.
07:37 The Undertaker 1990 Now an entry for a completely different reason.
07:42 To this point, all of the entries in this list have either been dominant or exceptional,
07:47 but in 1990 we saw a Survivor Series performance that set a new standard in establishing a
07:52 brand new character.
07:54 Had the first performance of The Undertaker been a flop, much of the course of WWE history
07:58 over the last 35 years would have been vastly different.
08:01 Thankfully for us, him and WWE, there was only one man that could have pulled off being
08:06 The Undertaker as well as The Undertaker.
08:09 His performance at Survivor Series was dominant as well, eliminating Coco Beware and Dusty
08:13 Rhodes, but it isn't the eliminations that people remember from this match, it's his
08:18 presence, it's the commitment to the character.
08:20 This may be wrestling, but you tell me that isn't the face of an undead wizard zombie.
08:24 There have been a number of great wrestlers that have debuted at Survivor Series and some
08:28 that have debuted in a Survivor Series match as well, but none have ever done so with greater
08:33 success than Johnny Longcoat over here.
08:36 Could have been the Eggman.
08:37 Cuckoo, cachoo, indeed.
08:39 2.
08:40 Dolph Ziggler 2014 This would be number one on loads of people's
08:44 lists, but there is one that I love even more than this all-time great performance from
08:48 Dolph Ziggler.
08:50 Only a year and a bit removed from his career to finding money in the bank cash-in, this
08:53 match and Ziggler's performance in this match proved that WWE could still have made
08:58 something of him at this point had they tried.
09:00 But while WWE may not be stubborn, they are extremely stubborn.
09:04 There is still 17 minutes remaining on this match's runtime when Big Show bonks John
09:09 Cena on the head and walks out on his team, and it is at that moment that Zigglypuff finds
09:14 a moonstone to become Zigglytuff and fight off Kane, Luke Harper, and Seth Rollins, three
09:19 on one, to ultimately win this match with the help of Sting.
09:24 Maybe if he hadn't been made to sell the world's most devastating pedigree for five
09:28 whole actual honest-to-God minutes, he would have been number one.
09:32 But for me, the best Survivor Series performance of all time goes to...
09:37 1.
09:38 Shawn Michaels 2003 I mean, Dolph Ziggler was basically doing
09:41 a Shawn Michaels tribute performance anyway, because no one has ever had a better underdog
09:45 performance in Survivor Series history than the Heartbreak Kid.
09:50 Shawn fighting on behalf of his former rival, tag partner, and Mania main event dance partner
09:54 Steve Austin, three on one, against Chris Jericho, Christian, and Randy Orton is one
09:59 of the all-time greatest babyface performances of his career, and think of the ground that
10:04 covers.
10:05 Shawn gets busted wide open, and literally only has the minimum amount of strength left
10:09 necessary to stand, yet is able to eliminate Jericho and Christian before falling to Orton,
10:15 who needed a run-in from Batista to even be able to get the job done, tugging at your
10:19 heartstrings all the way through.
10:21 There may have been better Survivor Series matches in the show's 36-year history, but
10:25 I challenge you to find a single performance from any Survivor Series match better than
10:30 this one.
10:31 It is wrestling in all caps, and by definition, that includes a big, fat W.
10:36 And that's our list.
10:38 Please make sure that you like this video, give it a subscribe, and check out this clip
10:41 from the latest special edition of Survival Series.