WWE Survivor Series 2001 was a noteworthy edition of the annual PPV. A half year removed from the acquisition of WCW, this was the PPV that blew off the disappointing Alliance angle, highlighted by a robust roster of marquee talent from the Monday Night War converging as WWE moved forward.
Related: 5 Great WWE Vs. The Alliance Matches From The Invasion (& 5 That Sucked)The main event itself offered what’s widely considered one of the best matches in event history, in a show some consider a silver lining to The Invasion for at least wrapping things up on a high note. Survivor Series 2001 wasn’t without a handful of Easter eggs and interesting points of trivia looking back on it.
No Actual WCW Talent Carried Any WCW Championships Into Survivor Series 2001
Looking back at WWE Survivor Series 2001, one of the more interesting quirks of the event is that a number of WCW titles were actively represented on the show. That included Edge carrying the United States Championship and The Dudley Boyz carrying the WCW Tag Team Championship into unification matches, as well as The Rock brandishing the WCW World Championship walking into the main event.
Despite WCW Championships being represented at the show, it’s interesting to observe that none of them were held by talents fans associated with the company. While Edge had worked briefly as an enhancement talent for the promotion, he was a WWE guy. The Rock had never worked there. The Dudleys at least made sense in The Alliance for their background with ECW, but they had never been a part of WCW.
All But One Wrestler Steve Austin Had Defended His Title Against In 2001 Was In The Main Event
The roster for the main event at Survivor Series 2001 was quite stacked, with The Rock, The Undertaker, Kane, Chris Jericho, and The Big Show representing WWE opposite Team Alliance’s Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and Shane McMahon. Of these talents, Shane McMahon was the least well-established as a main eventer, but his McMahon family lineage made him feel at home in this match.
Interestingly enough, all but one man whom Stone Cold had defended his WWE Championship against on PPV throughout his 2001 heel run was in this match, including partners RVD and Angle, as well as WWE representatives Rock, Undertaker, and Jericho. Chris Benoit was the only relevant name missing from the bout. Despite many fans calling Austin's heel run a failure, the matches from it were largely quite good, and this match was a fine cap to it.
No Women From WCW Wrestled At This Show
The advertising materials for WWE Survivor Series 2001 featured Lita and Torrie Wilson stand backing to back in camouflage. The image helped sell the idea of their respective WWE and WCW brands going to war one last time, but also seemed to imply a featured role for the women on the show.
While Lita did work the Women’s Championship Six-Pack Challenge match, Wilson did not have a match. (Interestingly enough, she did appear on the show, but actually in a babyface role, affiliated with WWE talent Tajiri.) It wasn’t only Wilson who missed the card. Despite WCW having its share of talented women and a number of good women's rivalries, no women at all affiliated with the company wrestled at Survivor Series. While, technically, Jacqueline and Mighty Molly each had had brief stints with the promotion, each were much better known by that time for their WWE efforts, making this aspect of the show feel particularly imbalanced.
Booker T’s First Survivor Series
While Booker T may not be the star most synonymous with Survivor Series, he did have a noteworthy resume as it pertains to this event. He participated in featured elimination tag matches in 2001, 2003, in the first ever Elimination Chamber match in 2002, and in world title matches in 2004 and 2006.
Related: Why Booker T Was A Rare WCW Star To Succeed In WWEBooker’s Survivor Series legacy began in the main event to this show. His participation in the big match was particularly noteworthy for him being the lone true WCW talent involved—the only man in the match who’d been with WCW to the end, and was inarguably better known for his WCW work than his WWE efforts at that time. Moreover, he survived to the mid-point of the match before taking a pin from no lesser star than The Rock.
The Rock’s Last Survivor Series For A Decade
The lines are fuzzy in terms of when the Attitude Era truly came to an end, but it’s clear that this incredibly popular time for WWE dwindled just as The Rock made his transition to Hollywood. Indeed, Survivor Series 2001 marked the very last time The Great One appeared at this event for ten years.
More than a simple point of trivia, it’s worth noting how important Survivor Series itself was to The Rock’s career. It’s the event he debuted at in 1996. It’s the event where he won his first world title in 1998. Moreover, it was the event where he wound up making his return to the ring in 2011, after over seven years without a match. So it is that the way Survivor Series 2001 ended feels especially poetic in hindsight, as The Rock stood triumphant, the main event’s sole survivor.
Survivor Series is second only to WrestleMania itself as WWE’s longest running annual PPV. A part of the event’s success is its evolution as it went from the novelty of featuring elimination tag team matches up and down the card, to innovations like the Elimination Chamber. The 2001 edition was a fitting setting to blow off the real Monday Night War and the kayfabe Invasion alike with WWE standing victorious. Twenty-one years later, fans will witness the next step in the show’s progress as it plays host to War Games for the very first time.
