WWE
Sean Coyle, ESPN 7y

WWE Survivor Series Moments: WWE Reigns Supreme

WWE

Ahead of this weekend's Survivor Series, we're taking a look at five of the most memorable moments in Survivor Series history.

Moment 3:  WWE Reigns Supreme,  2001 Survivor Series (Nov. 18, 2001)

The Monday Night Wars produced some incredibly compelling television during its nearly six-year run as Monday Night Raw and Monday Nitro went head-to-head. The two companies battled week after week to gain ratings advantages over the other. Each brand had extended periods where they would hold the top spot, creating the most tumultuous time in professional wrestling.

The competition officially came to an end -- or so we thought -- when Vince McMahon bought out his adversary, purchasing WCW on March 23, 2001.

In an attempt to capitalize on the popular era, the Monday Night Wars were incorporated into a storyline pitting WCW and ECW -- the Alliance -- against the WWE. The story unfolded with Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Paul Heyman leading the Alliance to challenge Vince McMahon's WWE for dominance. It sounded great on paper, especially given the enthralling nature of the real Monday Night Wars, but it fell a bit flat. However, while the four month long program never really caught fire, the feud's culmination at the 2001 Survivor Series was blazing hot.

The match saw Team Alliance: Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Shane McMahon and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin take on Team WWE: The Rock, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Kane and the Big Show. It was everything that the entire program should have been: dramatic, intense and with a little twist at the end that allowed the WWE's real-life victory to be played out on television. It's tough to go wrong when 10 of the most talented performers on the roster go at it for 45 minutes. When you add on the highly entertaining bickering between Jim Ross and Paul Heyman on commentary, the end result was one of the more satisfying traditional Survivor Series matches in history.

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