10 Worst WWE Survivor Series Elimination Matches

In their best iterations, Survivor Series elimination matches can be some of WWE's best stipulation matches.

On many occasions, Survivor Series matches have been gems - but not on every occasion. For every inter-brand slugfest or Hogan and friends vs. the villains, you get some half-baked rubbish that stinks up the pay-per-view. 

Not all Survivor Series bouts are created equal, though the ones occupying this list could only find kinship with a tray of mould-encrusted yams. These are the 10 Worst WWE Survivor Series Elimination Matches.

10. The Hart Family vs. Shawn Michaels & The Knights - 1993

Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Bruce Hart & Keith Hart vs. Shawn Michaels, The Black Knight (Jeff Gaylord), The Blue Knight (Greg Valentine) & The Red Knight (Barry Horowitz). 

There is but one silver lining to this unfortunate affair in that the events late in the match and the post-match kicked off the build to Owen Hart’s heel turn and the run of his career in 1994, when he was the only member of the Hart Family eliminated in the match. That's a good thing for this match, because the King of Harts' origin story is all that saves this bout from worse placement. 

Originally, the match was supposed to be Bret and his brothers battling Jerry Lawler and three masked knights after a months-long angle where Lawler continuously dishonoured the Hart family. Lawler was pulled from the match, however, after being indicted on charges of statutory rape and sodomy, and he was hastily replaced by Shawn Michaels, who was returning from a brief walkout of the company. 

The Knights remained Shawn’s partners as WWF tried to re-engineer the angle to make Michaels the sole Hart instigator, playing on their Survivor Series 1992 match for the WWF Championship. 

Beyond the build to Owen Hart’s heel turn, this was 31 minutes of house show wrestling and hackneyed comedy, while game show host and guest announcer Ray Combs screamed at inappropriate times. 

9. Team Paige vs. Team Natalya - 2014

Natalya, Alicia Fox, Emma & Naomi vs. Paige, Cameron, Layla & Summer Rae. 

At the time, NXT's women's division was churning out the next great class of women's stars, with the Four Horsewomen of Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Bayley helping to demonstrate the difference in quality between unfettered developmental goodness and main roster malaise.

The starkness was no more evident than at Survivor Series 2014 when fans had to witness Team Paige vs. Team Natalya. The match was a pointless, heatless slog of an eight-woman tag that really served no purpose in neither the short nor long term.

It was a 14-minute showcase of poor timing, pointless heel humiliation, and general crowd disinterest, with the fans in attendance even chanting for Damien Sandow at one point.

The entire match consisted of Paige becoming frustrated when her partners were eliminated one by one, only to succumb herself in the end to a pin from Naomi in a clean sweep for Team Natalya, without any catharsis, nor semblance of quality wrestling.

8. The New Age Outlaws & The Godwinns vs. The Headbangers & New Blackjacks - 1997

Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn vs. Mosh, Thrasher, Blackjack Windham & Blackjack Bradshaw. 

This was the 1997 WWF tag scene in all of it’s uninteresting glory with the exception of the New Age Outlaws, who had united one month earlier and were picking up steam as a cutting edge duo. This still wasn’t the New Age Outlaws fans would come to know and love, however, as they were still finding their feet and weren’t exactly helped when saddled with three mostly-heatless duos.

The in-ring action in the opening contest of Survivor Series 1997 was wholly uninteresting, and the crowd made them know it by being deathly quiet for the contest, with Road Dogg’s loud taunts from the apron doing little to rouse the Montreal crowd. 

Really, this was just a 15-minute demonstration of how much work had to be done to restore the WWF's sagging tag division. The New Age Outlaws, who won by last eliminating Thrasher, proved to be a good start, though.

7. Fake Diesel, Fake Razor Ramon, Faarooq, Vader & PG-13 vs. Flash Funk, Jimmy Snuka, Savio Vega & Yokozuna - 1996

Fake Diesel, Fake Razor Ramon, Faarooq, Vader, JC Ice & Wolfie D vs. Flash Funk, Jimmy Snuka, Savio Vega & Yokozuna.

The 1996 Survivor Series was a great event, with one notable blemish in this match as a depushed Vader teamed with newly militant Faarooq, and the dead-in-the water imposters of Razor Ramon and Diesel against a horribly-out-of-shape Yokozuna in his last WWF match, soundly-relegated Savio Vega, the debuting Flash Funk, and a mystery partner revealed to be the returning Jimmy Snuka. 

In a year in which World Championship Wrestling were producing shock after shock, only Vince McMahon believed a sometimes-sentimental Madison Square Garden crowd could care about 53-year-old Jimmy Snuka. 

The match dragged in the early going, with the only notable moment being Yokozuna reportedly injuring Vader on a uranage. Around the eight-minute mark, the eliminations began as Fake Diesel pinned Savio Vega. Jimmy Snuka then eliminated Fake Razor Ramon before everybody else was disqualified for brawling. 

6. Total Divas vs. True Divas - 2013

Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Eva Marie, Cameron, Naomi, JoJo & Natalya vs. AJ Lee, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn, Rosa Mendes, Summer Rae & Tamina Snuka.

While the women’s elimination match at Survivor Series 2014 was bad, this one was worse as the only positive was the division was built around AJ Lee, but still heavily dominated by the Total Divas reality show. 

WWE cared so little about the booking of female talent, though, that a seven-on-seven match featured 12 eliminations in under 12 minutes, averaging an elimination every 58 seconds. The whole point of the match too was for the E! Network group to get their revenge on AJ Lee after she criticised Total Divas and the societal attitude that puts trash TV on a pedestal. 

Only adding to the match's problems was the notable inexperience of Eva Marie, JoJo, and others, which may have been behind the match being such a speed run. 

5. The Alliance vs. The Mercenaries - 1990

Nikolai Volkoff, Tito Santana, and Luke & Butch of the Bushwhackers vs. Sgt. Slaughter, Boris Zhukov, and Sato & Tanaka of the Orient Express. 

The complete definition of a “leftovers” match, the match was wholly designed to make the soon-to-be WWF Champion Sgt. Slaughter look strong. Slaughter’s partners were quickly eliminated, before Sarge slowly mounted a comeback and downed Nikolai, Luke and Butch before a passable three-minute sequence with Tito Santana. 

The match, however, ended in a DQ when General Adnan interfered, with the only enjoyable moment being that it gave fans a hilarious Howard Finkel announcement, initially misleading Slaughter into believing he survived. 

4. The Disciples of Apocalypse vs. The Truth Commission - 1997

Crush, Chainz, 8-Ball & Skull vs. The Jackyl, The Interrogator, Sniper & Recon. 

There isn't really much to write about this match. The 1997 gang wars were one of the worst elements of WWF TV that year and there is very little positive to be said about this match, with Don Callis (The Jackyl) somehow being the best wrestler in this wretched contest, and he was eliminated less than three minutes into the match.

Kurrgan The Interrogator was the sole survivor in this 10-minute contest, winning the match by last eliminating Crush. 

3. Team Jim Duggan vs. Team Colonel Mustafa - 1991

Jim Duggan, Sgt. Slaughter, The Texas Tornado & El Matador vs. Col. Mustafa, The Berzerker, Skinner & Hercules.

This match was truly bizarre as The Iron Sheik assembled a team of a viking, a gator hunter, and Ted DiBiase’s former lackey to take on Duggan and his recruits of a bullfighter, a human funnel cloud, and the guy collecting GI Joe royalty cheques. 

Tito Santana was the only person in this match who seemed to care as everybody else performed on autopilot. The babyfaces all survived as Duggan, Slaughter, and Santana all scored eliminations, last getting rid of The Berzerker.

There wasn’t much to sink your teeth into as a fan, however, since none of the heels were particularly being pushed at the time. 

2. The Four Doinks vs. Team Bam Bam Bigelow - 1993

Luke & Butch of The Bushwhackers and Mabel & Mo of Men on a Mission vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, Bastion Booger, and Samu & Fatu of the Headshrinkers. 

Heel Doink The Clown was masterfully portrayed by Matt Borne, but when he turned babyface in 1993, the gimmick leaned into every low-hanging joke you could muster. Then, once Doink ran afoul of Bam Bam Bigelow, we received one of the most embarrassing Survivor Series matches in the history of the pay-per-view. 

The match wasted no time degenerating into a cartoon, where foreign objects like balloons, turkey carcasses, scooters, and a banana peel all were used. Bigelow’s sidekicks were all made fools of, while Bam Bam succumbed to tedious clowning before he was pinned by all four opponents in a stack. 

During the final pinfall, announcer Vince McMahon even bellowed, "This is a cartoon!"

1. Clowns R Us vs. The Royal Family - 1994

Doink The Clown, Dink The Clown, Pink The Clown & Wink The Clown vs. Jerry Lawler, Cheesy, Queasy & Sleazy. 

Jerry Lawler and Doink The Clown had previously feuded after Doink turned on The King and dumped a bucket of water on his head after SummerSlam 1993, but the feud became dormant, only to be revived in September 1994 when Lawler decided to pop Dink's balloons. 

This led to two teams composed primarily of little people, and the match dragged on for a god-awful 16 minutes. Doink was eliminated first after 10 minutes, leaving his partners no feasible way to eliminate standard-sized Lawler, and a six-minute collapse saw Cheesy and Sleazy dispatch of the clowns. 

After it all, Lawler received a pie to the face anyway when The Royal Family turned on him.