Editorial: Hittin' The Ropes #4 - Thanksgiving Day "Classic"?

In 1998, wrestling was at its peak, at least in the modern sense. Austin was at the top of the heap with the Rock following closely behind. Vince McMahon had left the announce table and transformed into the evil Mr. McMahon and the Undertaker was feared once again. DX was fresh, Shamrock was over and Regal was named Steve. All in all, the WWF/WWE was riding the wave of popularity and was slowly gaining ground on WCW and the NWO.

Flash forward to 2008 and the landscape is entirely different. Austin, Rock and Shamrock are all gone. McMahon enjoys staying behind the scenes, DX has been water-downed and Regal researched his family tree and is now named William. The one thing that has stayed the same is that it is the end of November and we're looking forward to the Thanksgiving classic, the Survivor Series. Since we are 10 years removed from the "new golden-age of wrestling," I thought we'd look back at 1998's version of the Series along with looking forward to this Sunday's offering.

1998's Survivor Series had the subtitle/theme of "Deadly Game" and featured a tournament to crown a new WWE champion after Steve Austin had been stripped of the title 2 months before. Can you image a brand without a champion for 2 whole months in today's environment? The major players in the tournament were Austin, The Rock and Mankind; each man with a viable chance of walking away with the belt. Austin was embroiled in his ever-running feud with Mr. McMahon; The Rock was making his mark as the new corporate rebel, while Mankind was looking for McMahon family acceptance. Any one of these men could be sitting at the top of the mountain at the end of the night with Mankind looking to be the chosen one. With his new haircut, shave, shirt and tie, Mankind was the epitome of the corporate champion?just without the championship. McMahon looked to change all of this by feeding Mankind little known local "enhancement" talent, Dwayne Gill in the first round. After a nice match with Al Snow and a Shane McMahon screw job of Steve Austin, Mankind was all set to face The Rock in the finals of the "Deadly Game." Here are 2 men, not named McMahon or Austin, headlining one of the big 4 Pay Per Views of the year. This is where things began to get interesting. During the all out brawl between the Rock and Mankind (the first in a series by the way), McMahon made his presence felt by taking a seat at ringside. The battle went back and forth with Mankind slowly gaining the upper hand. Then seemingly out of nowhere, the Rock counter with a Rock Bottom but only received a 2 count. Frustrated he grabbed Mankind's legs and locked in the ever controversial sharpshooter. McMahon signaled for the bell without a Mankind submission, proclaimed the Rock the new corporate champion and undoubtedly etched the Survivor Series into the WWE fan's mind forever.

Back to 2008, the promise of an event this good seems unlikely. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of the traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series matchups and the lineup itself reads as a major PPV should; but the buildup and excitement just aren't there this year. Maybe it's because there's only 6 matches on the card. Maybe it's because the only real hype we've seen for this show has been based solely around John Cena. Maybe it's because no one really thinks Jeff Hardy can win the big one anymore. Or maybe it's because we've seen all of these matches before. Cena and Chris Jericho had a nice, long running feud that ended with Jericho being fired from the WWE. Triple H and Jeff Hardy have been on opposite sides of the ring for what seems like 4 straight months. And the Undertaker/Big Show match seems to take place every few years. Even the tag matches appear redundant with Kane and Mysterio, Miz/Morrison and Cryme Tyme, R-Truth and Benjamin, and Hardy and Henry all on opposite sides. I thought last week's Raw was supposed to be a "rebooting" of the WWE and all of its feuds? Plus the Survivor Series is where you go to see NEW matchups, new ideas and new teams you never thought would be together. Maybe it's just because this is the 22nd offering of the Thanksgiving Day tradition and ideas have just run low. I just see so much potential in one of my favorite WWE PPV events of the year but this time around, I might just pop in an old VHS and remember when the Series was still fresh. But who knows, maybe there are still a few surprises to be had...as long as it doesn't involve the GobbleyGooker.

(As always, feel free to email me at HittinTheRopes@yahoo.com with any thoughts, opinions or topics you'd like to see discussed. Also, please check out HittinTheRopes.paidtoblog.com for all my articles along with show reports and other pieces you'll only find there!)