Alex Marvez's weekly look at professional wrestling

By ALEX MARVEZ
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, November 15, 2007

No matter who prevails, World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon will always be the promotion's ultimate survivor.

The "Survivor Series" pay-per-view, which is being held Sunday in Miami, has featured some of WWE's most memorable moments since its debut in 1987. For example, the inaugural card led to the extinction of McMahon's top rival.

Jim Crockett had gambled his company's survival on projected pay-per-view revenues from the "Starrcade" show featuring the National Wrestling Alliance's top stars. McMahon countered by announcing plans for the "Survivor Series," a WWE pay-per-view that same night consisting exclusively of five-on-five elimination matches.

With "Wrestlemania III" a blockbuster success earlier that year, almost every cable company sided with McMahon and wouldn't carry Crockett's product. Crockett was forced to sell his promotion the following month to billionaire Ted Turner, starting a 13-year struggle for grappling supremacy that McMahon ultimately won.

Here is a look at five other noteworthy happenings from previous "Survivor Series":

-- The Montreal Screw Job (1997): This show featured the most controversial match finish in WWE history. WWE champion Bret Hart was leaving for Turner's World Championship Wrestling and couldn't reach agreement with McMahon about how he would drop the title before departing. Concerned that "The Hitman" would leave with his belt, McMahon secretly schemed with Shawn Michaels and referee Earl Hebner to wrest it from an unsuspecting Hart.

When Hart was placed in a sharpshooter, Hebner rang the bell to indicate a submission and handed the title to Michaels. An infuriated Hart threw a temper tantrum in the ring and legitimately floored McMahon with a punch during a backstage confrontation.

As devious as McMahon's action was, it kick-started WWE's slumping business and became the basis for a series of spin-off finishes. As for Hart, WCW squandered his talents before he was forced to retire in 2000 because of post-concussion syndrome. Hart did agree to accept induction into WWE's Hall of Fame in 2006.

-- The Mega-Powers (1988): During an era with fewer television and pay-per-view demands, McMahon had the luxury of scripting story lines with a slow build. He hit pay dirt with the gradual build of tension between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, a/k/a The Mega-Powers.

Hogan and Savage were the final survivors in their headline elimination match but the Macho Man was infuriated when a grabby Hulkster lifted The Lovely Elizabeth -- his valet and real-life wife -- into the air in celebration. Savage turned on Hogan in early 1989, leading to their headline bout on the wildly successful "Wrestlemania V" card.

-- The Comeback Kid (1994): Bob Backlund capped an improbable comeback by defeating Hart for the WWE title. Almost a decade earlier, Backlund and McMahon had a bitter falling out. Backlund quit WWE after refusing to dye his trademark red hair and turn heel. He faded from the wrestling business and even worked installing drywall until mending fences and returning in 1992.

Backlund -- who finally agreed to become a villain -- held the WWE title for only three days before losing to Kevin "Diesel" Nash in eight seconds. But that was three days longer than anyone could have predicted just years earlier.

-- Plucking Feathers (1990): WWE laid an egg -- literally and figuratively -- when trying to introduce a heavily-pushed mascot (Hector Guerrero) wearing an outfit that made him look like a mutated chicken. The Gobbledy-Gooker was hatched that night and quickly rejected by a disappointed live crowd. This ranks among the World Bodybuilding Federation, XFL and The Condemned as McMahon's worst creative concepts.

-- Not Quite Eliminated (2002): Just months after the Montreal debacle, Michaels suffered what was initially diagnosed as a career-ending back injury (he landed improperly on a coffin during a casket match against The Undertaker). But after a 3-1/2-year hiatus, Michaels recovered to mount a comeback capped by an emotional WWE title victory in the promotion's first elimination chamber match.

Fittingly, Michaels will be in the spotlight again during Sunday's show when challenging Randy Orton for the WWE title. Adam "Edge" Copeland also is expected to return after suffering a torn pectoral muscle suffered in July. For more information, visit www.wwe.com.

(Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro wrestling column for Scripps-Howard News Service. Contact him at alex1marv(at)aol.com.)