Bray Wyatt: Survivor Series

On paper Bray Wyatt’s Survivor Series history looks great but is contrary to Wyatt’s character. 

After being a manager for Harper and Rowan the previous year, 2014 was Wyatt’s in-ring debut. In a good match, he faced Dean Ambrose. Unfortunately, the WWE went into one of their many toxic traits and the finish was a lame DQ. Imagine paying to see a match at a big four event only for a BS finish to prolong a feud to the next event. At least this was a chair shot and not a rouge exploding monitor! 

There can be little argument that 2015’s Survivor Series PPV is one of the worst PPVs of the past decade (unless it is more of a decade, of course). At this, The Undertaker and Kane trounced Wyatt and Harper as well as the Wyatt Family as a whole at the event marking 25 years since “The Dead Man”’s debut. Although a nice nostalgia bit for ‘Taker, Dylan Diot from 411Mania highlights: “Unfortunately, it was done at the expense of the Wyatts who are pretty much dead as a dangerous faction and join the growing list of roster members who are dead in the water right now” and TheSportster’s Michael De Sua commented, “it’s frustrating to see Wyatt lose every single feud he’s in.” 

Survivor Series 2016’s men’s Raw vs SmackDown match was very good for Wyatt. Yet it does raise the question as to why cult leader Wyatt would work alongside enemies for the justification of corporate brand warfare. This illustrates a bigger issue in WWE in which wrestlers abandon any grudges for the sake of a coloured shirt. 

After failing to make the event in 2017 and 2018, Wyatt returned in 2019. This time, Wyatt was the Universal champion. Despite being widely praised for his The Fiend persona, Bray had lost notable moment after a problematic rivalry with Seth Rollins and by SS had not regained the lost steam. The 2019 Survivor Series match with Bryan was good but did not help The Fiend character recover, with a better match between the duo taking place at 2020’s Royal Rumble. 

Arn Anderson: The Great American Bash

“The Enforcer”’s Bash history is something he should be bashful about, especially after I’m about to bash his records at the event. 

After debuting at the event during the inaugural 1985 Supercard, Arn had a number of good matches, largely alongside Minnesota Wrecking Crew partner Ole. This peaked in multiple highly-regarded WarGames matches. Arn continued having good to great matches under the NWA banner but when WCW took over, things plummeted downhill.  

After a WWF stint, he returned in 1990 for a wasted match for someone of his talents. In this, he, Barry Windham, and Sid of The Horsemen lost to the out-of-date alliance of Paul Orndorff and Junkyard Dog as well as a debuting El Gigante. JYD weirdly no-sold anything and the match ended with a Horsemen loss via DQ. At the time too fans would have been disappointed the newly-arrived Gigante did not get involved but perhaps this was a blessing in hindsight. 

At the terrible 1991 Great American Bash, Arn Anderson main evented in an undeserving handicap where he and Paul E. Dangerously lost to Rick Steiner. Missy Hyatt was supposed to have been in the match but was not allowed to after the ruling by The Athletics Commission. 

1995 saw Arn lose his TV title to The Renegade. Perhaps the worst match of Arn’s career, The Renegade won with a diving splash in a match filled with moves and moments that highlight just how green Renegade was. Unbelievable booking choice to have Arn lose his mid-card belt to someone Anderson had to do 80% of the work for. Anderson carried it the best he could but you can only do so much against a worker as lousy as The Ultimate Warrior impersonator. 

1996 saw Arn and Ric Flair of The Four Horsemen carry American football stars Steve “Mongo” McMichael and Kevin Greene to a good match. Imaginably, the talent was one-sided from The Horsemen. It was good for what it was but felt unfitting for two stars of the caliber of Anderson and “The Nature Boy”. Afterwards, McMichael joined the duo’s stable, becoming perhaps the worst member of the group.

Arn’s history at the event is a story of two halves. The early NWA work was good, as well as the tag match in 1996 in which Arn and Flair beat the footballers in a good bout. Yet despite this, the worse matches stand out and people more often remember the bad stuff over the good stuff. This makes sense as the bad was really bad or pointless. 

Epilogue

Every and any good wrestler will have a bad match. Yet to make it a common trait per event is something worth noting. As established, it is not often the wrestler’s own fault as it can be down to the opponent, booking, or an additional external factor. These wrestlers have managed to repeat the feat of a rare bad match each time they compete, which just illustrates how not even the best can always have top-tier matches. Oscar Wilde probably put it best: “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes”.