10 Awesome Wrestling Matches That Had Harsh Consequences
6. Team WWE Vs. Team Alliance (Survivor Series 2001)
Say what you will about the Invasion angle’s failings, but the story’s final match was fantastic. Each side’s top five competitors took part in a classic Survivor Series Elimination match, with the “Winner Takes All” stipulation forcing the losing faction to disband. In the end, Kane, Chris Jericho, Big Show, The Rock, and The Undertaker triumphed over Booker T, Kurt Angle, RVD, Shane McMahon, and Steve Austin, and the Alliance was laid to rest.
The Invasion’s failure was assured long before this match, and it’s hard to say that this specific match played a bigger role than any of WWE’s other disastrous decisions in running the story into the ground, but Survivor Series was symbolic of The Invasion’s shortcomings as a whole. 60% of the “Alliance” side was comprised of WWE defectors while WCW’s more famous stars sat at home, counting their money, and while an Alliance win here may not have saved the angle, it would have at least given it an interesting new wrinkle.
More than anything else, however, this match represents the death in competition on the North American wrestling scene. Team WWF’s win acts as a metaphorical last nail in WCW and ECW’s coffin, and while the buyouts took place months prior, this was the official deathknell. Business has never truly recovered since WWE became a monopoly, and it likely never will.