Survivor Series 1997: The Montreal Screwjob Swallows an Entire Pay-Per-View

The opener puts eight wrestlers into a format that should create movement and instead produces a slow introduction to the night. The New Age Outlaws have personality, the Headbangers can add pace and the Godwinns provide the power exchanges, but the combinations rarely feel connected to one another. The match plays more like a collection of short tag segments than one elimination story.

Billy Gunn and Road Dogg are the most interesting act because their chemistry is already becoming obvious. They survive while the more established tag combinations eliminate one another, giving the eventual sole-survivor result some value for the team's rise. That historical benefit arrives after too much routine wrestling.

The Outlaws survive and move forward. The match is not a disaster, but it is a weak fifteen-minute opening statement and an easy place to save time on a rewatch.

The second elimination match doubles down on the opening problem. The Truth Commission and Disciples of Apocalypse are both faction concepts that need stronger personalities than this match can supply, and the wrestling settles quickly into heavy strikes and short power exchanges. The audience has little emotional reason to favor either side.

The Interrogator is protected as the central figure, but the eliminations do not create momentum so much as remove people from an overcrowded match. Don Callis as the Jackyl can add verbal personality at ringside and on commentary, yet the bell-to-bell material remains flat. Ten minutes feels longer.

The Interrogator survives alone. The result establishes him as the group's protected monster and does almost nothing to make the faction more compelling. This is the clearest skip on the event.

The national framing finally gives an elimination match a useful emotional foundation. Montreal supports The British Bulldog and his Canadian-aligned team, while Vader becomes the most credible anchor for a Team USA lineup that starts fracturing around him. The crowd understands the stakes even when the teams themselves are imperfect.

Steve Blackman's early countout and Goldust's refusal to cooperate make the American side feel increasingly unstable. Vader has to compensate, while Bulldog carries the opposing side toward the finish. The match occasionally gets messy, but the eliminations at least contribute to a coherent story.

Bulldog pins Vader and survives alone. The final stretch is stronger than the opening, and the hometown-adjacent reaction gives the result some weight. A decent elimination match that demonstrates why the format needs a clear team identity.

Kane's first pay-per-view singles match has one job: prove that the Badd Blood entrance was not the entire character. Mankind is an ideal opponent because Foley can make Kane's offense look destructive while supplying enough resistance to keep the match from becoming an extended squash. The physical contrast is simple and effective.

Foley takes the larger risks, including the ringside and ramp bumps that give Kane an aura of danger without forcing the new character to work at a frantic pace. Kane's offense remains deliberate and powerful. Paul Bearer's presence keeps the Undertaker connection visible without requiring Undertaker himself.

Kane wins with the Tombstone and leaves stronger than he entered. The match is not a classic, but as an early-stage character presentation it accomplishes almost everything required.

The final elimination match has more personality than the first two because several wrestlers have clear individual trajectories. Faarooq's early elimination leaves Rocky Maivia carrying more of the Nation's responsibility, while Ken Shamrock is positioned as the eventual finisher for the opposing side. The match gains structure once the teams shrink.

The early eliminations are still abrupt, and Ahmed Johnson's work can be uneven, but Rocky's confidence is increasingly visible whenever the match centers on him. The eventual Shamrock-Rock stretch feels more important than most of the combinations before it. That makes the final minutes the reason to stay.

Shamrock submits D'Lo Brown and then Rocky to survive alone. The result strengthens Shamrock and quietly gives Rocky more exposure as the Nation member who lasts deepest into the match. Solid rather than memorable.

The match is four minutes because the moment matters more than proving Austin can work a long match after the neck injury that changed his career. Montreal reacts to him like a fully formed top star, and the brief runtime lets the energy remain concentrated. Owen's role is to provide the opponent Austin most needs to beat.

There is enough brawling to establish hostility and almost no attempt to create a traditional championship structure. That is the right choice. Austin is returning, not auditioning for a technical classic, and the audience wants the Stunner more than a sequence of near falls.

Austin lands the Stunner, wins the WWF Intercontinental Championship and moves on. As a wrestling match it is limited; as a comeback moment it is exactly as long as it needs to be.

The match begins before the bell because Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels have reached the point where a normal lockup would feel dishonest. They brawl through ringside, trade shots around officials and let the Montreal crowd pour real hostility into every exchange. The opening is more compelling than a polished technical beginning could have been.

Once the match settles into the ring, Bret works the leg and Shawn sells while continuing to antagonize the building. Their chemistry is still present, but the bout never reaches the level of their best work because the real ending is waiting outside the planned wrestling structure. The tension comes as much from uncertainty as technique.

Michaels eventually applies Bret's Sharpshooter. Vince McMahon orders the bell, referee Earl Hebner ends the match even though Bret has not submitted, and Michaels is declared WWF Champion. The finish is the Montreal Screwjob, not a conventional submission victory in any meaningful wrestling sense.

That distinction makes the match difficult to score. The work before the finish is good, the atmosphere is extraordinary and the ending is historically indispensable while being competitively unsatisfying. The match becomes more important than it becomes great.

A B-level wrestling match attached to one of the most consequential finishes in wrestling history.