Madison Square Garden is the worlds most famous arena, and the home base for the WWE. Although its been cheaper to run in the nearby Barclays Center in Brooklyn for Raws and Pay Per Views, theres still something special about that place, so much so that Vince McMahon attends house shows there, something he does at no other arena. When we look at Madison Square Garden in relation to WWE history, the Survivor Series plays a big part in that history. The 1996 Survivor Series featured a main event of Shawn Michaels defending the WWF Championship against Psycho Sid. That match was notable for the home crowd overwhelmingly turning on the #1 babyface in the company and cheering the heel Sid. It would be a prelude to the Bret Hart dynamic the next year, and even the hijacking of televised events that weve seen this past year. That show was also notable for the first-time meeting between Bret Hart and Steve Austin that, from a pure wrestling point of view, may be a better match than their classic Wrestlemania 13 encounter. Another huge event was the 2002 edition of Survivor Series, which saw Shawn Michaels win his final World championship (and his first in five years) in the first-ever Elimination Chamber. That event also saw Brock Lesnar suffer his first defeat as he lost the WWF Championship to the Big Show after Paul Heyman turned on him. All in all, five championships changed hands that evening. The year 2011 saw Madison Square Garden host its first Pay Per Vew in nearly four years when it was the site for the Survivor Series.
