10 Fascinating WWE Survivor Series 2008 Facts
Featuring an innovative marketing technique: scaring Jeff Hardy's fanbase.
It had been nearly a decade since there were any truly bad Survivor Series events. That's where the 2008 Survivor Series stepped in, reminding everybody just how bad the now-ugly sister of the Big Four sorority could be.
What wasn't bad topped out at "decent", and what was bad dragged along the basement floor of hideous. The Divas elimination match was amateurish, a far cry from the top-shelf women's wrestling that modern fans have become accustomed to. Undertaker and Big Show's casket match was sluggish, for reasons this list will explore later. And the WWE Title match? Well, that had more problems than just the poor in-ring action.
The originally-scheduled match was to see Triple H defend against Vladimir Kozlov and Jeff Hardy. The day of the show, it was reported on WWE.com that Hardy was found unconscious in a hotel stairwell. Through some cautiously-worded innuendo, WWE seemed to be implying initially that Hardy (whose personal troubles were known) had some sort of drug-related episode. However, it was a complete fabrication.
The result of the publicity stunt wasn't one of intrigue and curiosity, but rather an intense loathing, an angry shock that WWE would employ grim faux-reality (mirroring actual wrestler deaths) in the manner that they did. The show was bad enough; the bad-taste storyline plunged it further down the commode.
Here are ten facts about Survivor Series 2008 you may not have known.
10. Beth Phoenix Was Responsible For A Surprising Survivor Series First
The Raw women did battle with their SmackDown counterparts in what was only the third women's elimination match in Survivor Series history. In the end, it was Beth Phoenix who clinched the match for the Raw contingent, pinning Maryse after the Glam Slam.
Though it was, as mentioned, merely the third women's elimination match in Survivor Series history, it's notable that Beth Phoenix became the first non-Japanese-born woman to survive at the event.
In the prior two examples, the 1987 women's match was survived by The Jumping Bomb Angels, Noriyo Tateno and Itsuzki Yamazaki. The second women's match took place in 1995, featuring representation from the All-Japan Women's promotion, and that was survived by fearsome bruiser Aja Kong. For what it's worth, Chyna did take part in an elimination match at the 2000 show, but was not victorious. All the other women mulit-person matches were worked under single-fall rules.