10 Fascinating WWE Survivor Series 1999 Facts
The whodunnit was the most intriguing part of the night by a wide margin.
Not since 1991 had there been a Survivor Series that was so generally lackluster. The pre-millennium Survivor Series (also emanating from Detroit, just like 1991) really exposed the thinness of the roster, in terms of having quality talent. Running four elimination matches, as well as an eight-woman tag that was utterly horrid (even at under two minutes) did plenty to show where the drop-off in top-of-the-class performers lay.
What can you really say about a show that spawns the sentence, "It was boring, other than the part where Austin was hit by a car"? An injured Stone Cold needed to be written out due to his recurring spinal issues, and thus WWE formulated an out for him. During a mid-show angle, Austin was chasing Triple H into the parking lot when he was mowed down by a waiting motorist (whose identity remained a mystery).
Aside from that little bit of business (and the simple debut of Kurt Angle), the 1999 Survivor Series was hardly anything to get excited about. The crowd at Joe Louis Arena reacted mostly coolly to the night's events,. Matches in the undercard that looked bad were, mercifully, kept beneath ten minutes. Quality-wise, 1999 was a highly uneven year, and the Survivor Series followed that trend to a tee.
Here are ten facts about the 1999 Survivor Series you may not have known.
10. It Was The Last Survivor Series To Have Four Or More Elimination Matches
These days, when Survivor Series is bestowed three elimination matches in and around the championship bouts, that's considered "good enough" for the old-school fans of the event. Some years there have only been one or two such matches, so three is a little bit closer to the spirit of the classic shows.
In 1999, WWE was gracious enough to go with four elimination matches. Though two of those matches sucked and a third one was average at best, it was still four traditional offerings. At least the effort was there. The only shows since then to offer exactly three elimination matches were 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2016.
But seriously, would it kill WWE to just make the entire show elimination matches again? Gosh, it'd make a long-suffering lad from New Jersey feel whole once again.