WWE Survivor Series Elimination Match -- Detailed Stats & Records

Hi folks! With WWE Survivor Series 2020 only a couple weeks away, I figured it’d be interesting to do some digging and conjure up some stats and records for anyone who may be curious. I will be mostly focused on the unique Survivor Series elimination match type, rather than other things which are not directly affecting those in any way. Please let me know if anything is wrong, and if so I will make corrections. Thank you.

How Many Matches?

Let’s begin with the amounts. I have counted 86 traditional Survivor Series elimination matches in total, with only nine of these featuring women. Here’s my tally below:

Men’s 4v4 = 39
Men’s 5v5 = 29
Women’s 5v5 = 5
Men’s Tag 10×10 = 4
Women’s 4v4 = 2
All other types = 1 >>> Men’s & Women’s 5v5v5, Women’s 7v7, Men’s 3v3, 3v5, 1v4, 4v5

Most Successful Eliminators

The current WWE Champion Randy Orton sits at the peak of the Survivor Series mountain for several reasons. He has the most eliminations of 16. Other WWE Superstars following him are:

Big Show = 13
Shawn Michaels = 12
Rey Mysterio = 9

I looked at the most successful women’s eliminators and found the following:

Sasha Banks = 6 (with 4 from last year’s match, tying Aja Kong’s record from ’95)
Asuka = 5
Natalya = 5

On the men’s side, Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman share the record with Sasha Banks & Aja Kong for most eliminations in one match, which they got in 2013 (Reigns) and 2018 (Strowman). Kong remains the only superstar to eliminate every possible opponent on her team’s behalf.

Participation Award

Sometimes it’s about taking part, even if you don’t win all the time. These superstars featured in more Survivor Series matches than any other. Natalya holds the record in women’s matches with 6, in which she has survived to the end on two occasions:

Shawn Michaels & Randy Orton = 11
Kane = 9
Big Show & The British Bulldog = 8

Survivor Series Elimination Match

Victory Medal

Just to show how the WWE Champion is so good at surviving, here’s another one proving it. This includes the times a wrestler ‘survived’ the match, and not necessarily when they were eliminated but were still on the winning side:

Randy Orton = 5
The Ultimate Warrior = 4
Hulk Hogan = 4

There has only been one time in the history of Survivor Series where a match hasn’t ended with a decisive winner. In 1996, the match contested between the teams of Diesel, Faarooq, Razor Roman & Vader vs. Flash Funk, Jimmy Snuka, Savio Vega and Yokozuna was ruled a No Contest.

Sole Survivor

What could be more thrilling than going one-on-one and coming out victorious as the sole survivor? These WWE Superstars have done that, and I included the years as well. No one has yet to achieve this on more than three occasions:

Randy Orton = 3 (’03-’05)
The Ultimate Warrior = 3 (’88-’90)
Dolph Ziggler = 2 (’12, ’14)
Ric Flair = 2 (91, 06)
The Rock = 2 (96, 01)
Hulk Hogan = 2 (89-90)

On the women’s side, only three superstars have ever been named a sole survivor; including Beth Pheonix in ’08, Asuka in ’17, and Nia Jax in ’18.

Tick Tock

What are some of the shortest and longest elimination matches in the history of Survivor Series? I have those too, with men’s and women’s matches being separated. Beginning with the shortest:

The Big Show’s clean sweep in the 4v1 elimination match against Big Boss Man, Mideon, Prince Albert and Viscera in 1999, remains the shortest at 1:27. This is unlikely to ever be beaten. Later the same night, he defeated Triple H & The Rock to become WWF Champion.
In 2008, Beth Phoenix’s sole survivor victory happened in just 9:39. With help from Mickie James, Candice Michelle, Jillian Hall & Kelly Kelly, Team Raw defeated Team SmackDown’s Maria, Maryse, Michelle McCool, Natalya & Victoria.
As it turns out, last year’s tri-brand Raw vs. SmackDown vs. NXT match was the longest in women’s history, ending in 28 minutes on the dot. Candice LeRae, Io Shirai and Rhea Ripley shocked the world by defeating both Raw & SmackDown teams.
The longest traditional elimination match in Survivor Series history stands at 52:55. In 2016, Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton brought it home for Team SmackDown (assisted by AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose & Shane McMahon) to overcome the challenging Team Raw members of Chris Jericho, Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens. Before this, the record was held by the end of the ‘Invasion’ angle in 2001; when Kurt Angle betrayed the WCW/ECW alliance.

Survivor Series Elimination Match

Not The Main Event?!

Despite Survivor Series having a special match type since its inception, it has not always been booked as the main event. In fact, it hasn’t done so a staggering 22 times since 1987. On 16 occasions it has been substituted for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match of some kind.

In 1998, Survivor Series had zero elimination matches. Instead, a tournament was featured to crown a new vacant WWF Champion; which The Rock won by defeating Mankind in the final. Fast forward to 2002, it again had no traditional Survivor Series matches, although it had a tables elimination and the first-ever Elimination Chamber match; which Shawn Michaels won to become World Heavyweight Champion.

In the early days of Survivor Series, it was common for every match on the card to be a traditional elimination. WWE phased this way of booking out over the years, til we were most likely to get 1 or 2 per year. Over the past few years however, especially since the Women’s Revolution and rise of NXT, the average has risen to 2-3 a year.

Before moving on, another factoid I’d like to share is that between the first and second Women’s Survivor Series matches, there was a 21 year gap from 1987 to 2008. All Survivor Series matches between 1988-2007 were contested by men. This year, we will see the 10th Women’s match in 33 years.

Clean Sweep Award

Allow me to end this short piece on Survivor Series with a list of teams who performed the ‘clean sweep’. By definition, the team who won had none of their members eliminated. This has happened on 8 occasions since it was first achieved in 1990 by The Visionaries. Only one team has done this in a 5v5 match, making it the most one-sided win in the history of Survivor Series (aside from Big Show’s solo victory).

With that said, I’d like to thank you for reading! And I hope you enjoy the gallery of the most dominant teams in Survivor Series history.