Tournament A Good Shakeup From Usual Format
Generally-speaking, I hate the traditional mixed-tag format of the Survivor Series, so I really liked the championship tournament approach of this event. It wasn't perfect, but it really mixed things up enough to be unique and entertaining.
Whenever there is a tournament, it means a lot of shorter matches in lieu of several longer ones. This works well in matching up all the best superstars against each other, but at the same time kid of diminishes the impact of each (e.g stars like Stone Cold or The Rock are better when their theme pops once rather than 3-4 times).
What makes this PPV stand out to me, though, is the continued involvement of Vince McMahon himself into the proceedings. It's intriguing how they are basically re-enacting the real-life Montreal Screwjob into the fabric of the entertainment here. This will only get more interesting in the future when McMahon himself starts climbing into the ring more, but for now just having him seem to call all the shots is an interesting development.
This is basically the period where the WWE really starts blurring the lines between the owners of the promotion and the promotion itself. The McMahons go from the behind-the-scenes owners to front and center in the thick of the action.
Overall, I'll rank Survivor Series 1998 as a solid event because of all the talent it features. Nothing truly epic happens, but there are a lot of good pairings here and the dramatic "corporation" angles are great.
Whenever there is a tournament, it means a lot of shorter matches in lieu of several longer ones. This works well in matching up all the best superstars against each other, but at the same time kid of diminishes the impact of each (e.g stars like Stone Cold or The Rock are better when their theme pops once rather than 3-4 times).
What makes this PPV stand out to me, though, is the continued involvement of Vince McMahon himself into the proceedings. It's intriguing how they are basically re-enacting the real-life Montreal Screwjob into the fabric of the entertainment here. This will only get more interesting in the future when McMahon himself starts climbing into the ring more, but for now just having him seem to call all the shots is an interesting development.
This is basically the period where the WWE really starts blurring the lines between the owners of the promotion and the promotion itself. The McMahons go from the behind-the-scenes owners to front and center in the thick of the action.
Overall, I'll rank Survivor Series 1998 as a solid event because of all the talent it features. Nothing truly epic happens, but there are a lot of good pairings here and the dramatic "corporation" angles are great.
- zkonedog
- Mar 17, 2019