7 AWESOME THINGS THAT DISAPPEARED FROM SURVIVOR SERIES THAT COULD'VE BEEN GREAT TRADITIONS

Next to the Royal Rumble, the Survivor Series is one of my favorite events of the year. I know many fans share that same sentiment. What started as a great gimmick PPV featuring all elimnation tag matches, became quite dilluted over the years to the point where many times it was just another PPV.

However, besides the Traditional Survivor Series matches there have been many other great concepts and ideas that showed up randomly over the years that could have been great traditions had they not mysteriously disappeared.

THANKSGIVING NIGHT TRADITION (1987 - 1990)

When the Survivor Series was born in 1987 it was a direct response to the NWA's annual Thanksgiving Supercard Starrcade. The first four Survivor Series events were held on Thanksgiving night and then it became a "Thanksgiving Eve Tradition" for a few years until it ended up on Sundays like every other PPV.

I think to this day having this event on Thanksgiving would only enhance its importance. For cripe's sake all the stores are open for Black Friday on Thanksgiving Day anywhere so instead of going out and shopping, how about staying home and watching some wrestling as a family?

THE LEGENDS TEAM (2006)

Ric Flair. Dusty Rhodes. Sgt Slaughter. Ron Simmons (filling in for Roddy Piper). Let's ignore the fact that they faced the Spirit Squad for a second and focus on how amazing this team is. I'm always a sucker for the Legends and Hall of Famers getting a bit of the spotlight and I think having an annual Legends team would be Best for Business.

Even if they didn't wrestle it would be cool to see them put together and captain their own teams from the outside (ala Mick Foley in 2012). It would be a great way to rekindle old feuds. How about Team Flair vs. Team Dusty? Team Hogan vs. Team Piper? Team Austin vs. Team McMahon? The possibilites are endless.

THE WILD CARD MATCH (1995)

For some reason I feel like I'm alone in this, but I absolutely loved WCW's Battlebowl concept. It wasn't always executed as great as it could've been, but because of the random drawing aspect of it you could have some really exciting tag teams. (Mortal enemies Cactus Jack and Vader being forced to tag together comes to mind as a great Battlebowl moment)

Survivor Series 95 featured the first and last ever Wild Card match in which the teams were determined by random drawing. Good guys and bad guys on the same team? What? The madness!

The match itself was great and the random element made for some unique interactions.

TAG TEAM SURVIVOR SERIES MATCH (1987 - 1988)

There's no denying the the 80's was the golden age for tag teams in WWE. The case could be made that we're in the midst of a tag team resurgence right now. The first two Survivor Series events featured 10 tag team elimination matches and they were the show stealers of those events in my opinion.

The Hart Foundation, Demolition, The Rockers, The Brain Busters, Strike Force, British Bulldogs, and so many other great teams made these matches the gems that they are. Oops forgot the Young Stallions!

MEMORABLE DEBUTS (1990, 1996, 1999)

The Undertaker, The Rock, and Kurt Angle all debuted at the Survivor Series. Although Angle was in a singles match, it would be cool if each year one of the spots on one of the teams on the card was designated for a newcomer from NXT.

TEAM NAMES (MISC)

The Rude Brood, The Visionaries, The Mercenaries, Roddies Rowdies, are just a few of the best team names in Survivor Series history. Nowadays its just Team and then whoever is the leader. Team Cena, Team Orton, Team Alliance, blah blah blah.

THE GRAND FINALE MATCH OF SURVIVAL (1990)

Why this only happened one year is beyond me. In 1990, a new concept was introduced in which the Sole Survivors of each match would face off in an ulimate Grand Finale match of Survival to find out who the Ultimate Sole Survivors were. This added even more signicance to each match. In fact they had a scorecard you could follow along with at home and write the names in of the winners to see who would be on which team in the Finale.

#survivorseries