3) Kurt Angle
– Survivor Series 1999
Kurt Angle had a lot of hype surrounding him due to his amateur wrestling background. Angle won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in freestyle wrestling. A few years later, he made his WWF debut at Survivor Series 1999.
WWE ran vignettes for Angle for several weeks before Survivor Series, hyping up his debut. At Survivor Series, Angle successfully defeated Shawn Stasiak, making his presence known to wrestling fans. He won the match with his patented ‘Angle Slam’.
You can watch the highlights from the match here:
Angle would go on to become very successful in WWE, becoming a multi-time World Champion and Hall of Famer. Another example of a fantastic career starting at the Survivor Series PPV.
2) Sting
– Survivor Series 2014
Sting is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers in history. He was also a rarity as before 2014, he had never stepped foot inside of a WWE ring at any point in his career.
This all changed at Survivor Series 2014. The main event featured Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan and Ryback) vs Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev and Luke Harper) in a Survivor Series elimination match.
Sting appeared and hit Triple H with his signature: Scorpion Death Drop, costing Team Authority the win and setting up a future match with ‘the Game’.
You can see the highlights of his debut here:
Sting went on to lose both of his WWE PPV matches before he was forced to retire due to injury. He lost to Triple H at Wrestlemania 31 and Seth Rollins at Night Of Champions, where his career also ended.
His debut at Survivor Series was monumental as he was the last holdout from WCW to come over to WWE. It was incredible to finally see Sting inside of a WWE ring. Even though many wrestling fans wished it happened a decade earlier, at least it happened!
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