10 Worst WWE Survivor Series Matches Ever

Throughout much of the mid-2000's, wrestling traditionalists would routinely panic around this time of year that Vince McMahon's whimsical axe-wielding would finally strike on a pay-per-view that in 2017, will now celebrate its 30th birthday.

The Survivor Series was an idea of its time that somehow stuck around long enough to become part of WWE lore long after the company moved away from servicing its primary concept. Unlike the Royal Rumble, which only developed in stature with the inclusion of a WrestleMania title shot in 1993, the team elimination format required rigid groups of heels and babyfaces with individual conflicts at house shows and television tapings that could be collated. It made endless hypothetical promises to audiences that then didn't even need to be kept.

The (excellent) inaugral match in 1987 exquisitely bore this out. Bitter enemies Randy Savage and The Honky Tonk Man captained respective units featuring faces and heels that had respective gripes with each other underneath the top rivalry. On paper, Honky looked finally set to get some comeuppance for his recent wickedness, but he bailed from the contest. It offered Savage scant retribution, but at least gave fans part of what they'd paid to see.

The show couldn't maintain such continuity as the years went by. Generic matches were tacked on, and elimination contests often flattered to deceive.

Most are genuinely grateful that McMahon didn't confine the Thanksgiving tradition to his giant storage warehouse, but there have been certain contests that made a exceptional case for it.

A match more about who wasn't in it than was, Randy Orton's pedestrian championship show-closer against The Big Show was made ten times worse by fans continuing to place WWE under siege for their abject refusal to permanently elevate Daniel Bryan into the spot he deserved.

'The Yes Man' was forced into a placeholder team with CM Punk at the time in a transparent attempt from the company to give the fans what they thought they wanted in one match, rather than splitting both off into meaningful storylines for top titles.

Disastrous as a contest on its own merits (or lack thereof), the audience simply would not accept The Big Show as their babyface, no matter how much he 'endorsed' Bryan by literally stealing his 'Yes' taunt in another misguided effort from the organisation to sever the deep-rooted relationship between the crowd and their bearded hero.

The p*ss-poor finish didn't help. In an ending right out of the house show loop they'd bored audiences with for weeks in the build-up, Big Show floored Orton with his KO punch, but was distracted by Triple H's entrance music long enough to succumb to an RKO and punt kick.