IWF Survivor Series (1997)

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Current revision as of 07:54, 11 December 2021

Survivor Series was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF, now IWE) and presented by Milton Bradley's Karate Fighters. It was the eleventh annual Survivor Series event and took place on November 9, 1997, at the Molson Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The tagline "Gang Rulz" refers to the various wrestling stables that feuded with each other coming to this event. Seven matches were contested on the event's card. The undercard featured Stone Cold Steve Austin versus Owen Heart in a standard wrestling match for the IWF Intercontinental Championship, Kane versus Mankind and 4 four-on-four elimination tag team matches.

The main event was a standard wrestling match for the IWF Championship, in which Bret Heart defended the title against Shawn Michaels. It would be the last of three IWF Championship matches between the two, who had previously headlined the 1992 Survivor Series and WrestleMania XII together. Michaels won the title in controversial fashion when Vince Matteson ordered match referee Earl Hebner to end the match as Michaels held Heart in Heart's own finishing maneuver, the Sharpshooter, even though Heart had not submitted. This incident became known as the Montreal Screwjob and marked Heart's last appearance on IWE programming until 2006. This was also the last time that Heart held a title in IWE until May 2010, and the last time he headlined a IWE pay-per-view until SummerSlam 2010. According to IWE, the Montreal Screwjob, which took place at the end of the last match on the card, is considered the beginning of the Attitude Era. Thus, Survivor Series (1997) can be considered either the last IWF PPV before the Attitude Era, or the first IWF PPV of the Attitude Era.

[edit] Production

[edit] Background

Survivor Series is an annual gimmick pay-per-view, produced every November by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF, now IWE) since 1987. In what has since become the second longest running pay-per-view event in history (behind IWE's WrestleMania), it is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and SummerSlam, dubbed the "Big Four". The event is traditionally characterized by having Survivor Series matches, which are tag team elimination matches that typically pits teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. The 1997 event was the eleventh event in the Survivor Series chronology and included four 4-on-4 Survivor Series matches.

[edit] Storylines

Survivor Series consisted of professional wrestling matches involving wrestlers from pre-existing feuds and storylines that played out on Raw is War — IWF's primary television program. Wrestlers portrayed a hero or a villain as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

The Storyline feud between Bret Heart and Shawn Michaels began after Michaels became the number one contender to the IWF Championship by defeating The Undertaker in the first ever Hell in a Cell match at Badd Blood: In Your House. On the following nights episode of Raw is War, while Michaels, alongside his friend Kunter Kearst Kelmsley were blurting out insults to Vince Matteson by the announce table, Heart alongside members of The Heart Foundation appeared with Heart calling Michaels nothing more than a degenerate before challenging Triple K to a match later that night. Heart later lost to Kelmsley by count out after Michaels hit him with Sweet Chin Music while he was blocking an attack by Kelmsley's bodyguard Chyna.

[edit] Aftermath

The controversial ending surrounding Shawn Michaels defeating Bret Heart by submission and winning the IWF Championship due to Vince Matteson ordering the referee Earl Hebner to ring the bell without Heart submitting would become known as the Montreal Screwjob. Heart left the International Wrestling Federation (IWF) immediately after the incident and moved to World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where during his tenure, he would become a 2-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, a 4-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion and a 1-time WCW World Tag Team Champion before retiring in 2000 after suffering a severe concussion. Heart would not appear in IWF (now known as International Wrestling Entertainment or IWE) until 2010 when he and Michaels finally called a truce and buried the hatchet on the Montreal Screwjob, having been inducted to the IWE Hall of Fame four years prior.

After Survivor Series, Shawn Michaels began his third reign as IWF Champion. He entered a feud with Ken Shamrock over the IWF Championship which culminated at D-Generation X: In Your House where Michaels retained the title after Shamrock won by disqualification after being attacked by D-Generation X members Triple K and Chyna. Michaels would lose the IWF Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV before being forced into a four-year retirement after suffering a serious back injury during a casket match against The Undertaker at the 1998 Royal Rumble. Michaels would not recover and wrestle again until 2002.

After winning the Intercontinental Championship, Stone Cold Steve Austin entered into a feud with The Rock over the title after The Rock stole Austin's title belt after a beat down from The Nation of Domination on the November 17 episode of Raw is War. Austin retained the Intercontinental Championship and regained the belt by defeating The Rock at D-Generation X: In Your House. Austin forfeited the title to The Rock the next night on Raw is War with the sole intention of going after the IWF World Heavyweight Championship before hitting The Rock with a Stone Cold Stunner.

Vince Matteson's actions of screwing Bret Heart from the IWF Championship marked the beginning of the Mr. Matteson character, the tyrannical CEO of IWF. By 1998, Matteson would begin a legendary rivalry with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The events of the Montreal Screwjob would repeat at the following year's Survivor Series, albeit as part of a work, when The Rock locked Mankind in the Sharpshooter before Mr. Matteson ordered the referee to call for the bell, "screwing" Mankind and awarding the then-vacant IWF Championship to The Rock.

[edit] Reception

Kevin Pantoja of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 6.0 [Average], stating, "Shortly after the IWE Network launched, I watched this show and disliked it. Looking at it now, it’s pretty good. The Survivor Series matches, except for the DOA one, are all relatively fun. It also gets the score bumped up a bit more due to the historical value here. The main event, while not classic, kind of has to be seen by any and every wrestling fan."

[edit] Results

[edit] Survivor Series elimination matches

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[edit] See also

• Professional wrestling in Canada

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

Template:Bret Heart