Mike Reviews WWE Survivor Series 2003
By Michael Fitzgerald on 21 November 2025
Happy Survival Friday Everyone!
We’re back with another WWE show from 2003 today, as we take a look at Survivor Series. The big matches here are Goldberg taking on Triple H, and the McMahon Family warring with The Brothers of Destruction in two separate matches, as Kane takes on Shane in an ambulance match whilst Vince takes on Undertaker in a Buried Alive match. I feel like this is some kind of warped episode of Oprah “You get a gimmick match, and YOU get a gimmick match!”
We’ve also got two Survivor Series Elimination Matches, with SmackDown having one to advance the Brock Lesnar and Hardcore Holly feud (yes, really) whilst the Raw one has Stone Cold Steve Austin’s career on the line
You can view the full card for Survivor Series 2003 by clicking below;
Survivor Series is emanating from the American Airlines Centre in Dallas, Texas
Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler for Raw (yes, they got their jobs back following Unforgiven and the Coach/Snow duo didn’t even get to do one pay per view together) whilst Michael Cole and Tazz call the SmackDown matches
We get the usual dramatic opening video package with gravelly voice man and wicked sounded woman talking about surviving
They’ve got the ambulance set up on one side of the entrance way and the grave on the other, just so we the viewers know that the McMahon matches are the ones we should care about the most
Opening Match
Survivor Series Elimination Match
Team Lesnar (SmackDown Champion Brock Lesnar, WWE US Champion The Big Show, Matt Morgan, Nathan Jones and The A-Train Vs Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Hardcore Holly, John Cena and Bradshaw
Lesnar took the SmackDown Title from Angle in the autumn of 2003, so Angle has put together a team to take on Lesnar’s team here. Hardcore Holly is the main feud for Lesnar at the moment though, as Lesnar broke Holly’s neck in 2002 so Holly wants some payback. John Cena had recently turned babyface, as Faarooq got injured and Team Angle needed a new member, with Cena eventually agreeing to do it. Cena wouldn’t be a Heel again until 2025. Cena is immediately over with the crowd, who seem to have bought into Cena as a babyface. Holly doesn’t even get to compete in the match, as he jumps Lesnar before the match starts and the referees decide to disqualify him, because I guess we have to milk that eventual Lesnar Vs Holly match a bit more huh? And, as Vinny V would say, Holly got DQ’ed for KICKING TOO MUCH ASS!
Elimination #1
Hardcore Holly disqualified before the bout even starts
Team Angle gets right back into it though, as Bradshaw takes out A-Train with a Lariat and we’re now at 4-4 for each side. Well, good work if you can get it for Holly and A-Train there. You had to know that they’d let native Texan get an elimination in some form, and there you go.
Elimination #2
The A-Train is eliminated by Bradshaw (1) in under a minute – Clothesline From Hell
Bradshaw doesn’t get to enjoy the pin-fall that long though, as Jones cheap shots Bradshaw from the apron and Big Show gets a Choke Slam to send Bradshaw to the showers.
Elimination #3
Bradshaw is eliminated by The Big Show (1) after 1 minute – Choke Slam
Things finally settle down into a standard match now that we’ve had the quickfire eliminations at the start, and it’s a totally fine opener. Lesnar and Cena do a bit together and it’s actually quite good, with them working it at a quick clip. Both Morgan and Jones (that sounds like a firm of solicitors) have good physiques but they are also pretty green, meaning that they have to keep it simple with strikes and power moves, but neither does anything especially egregious in there. The commentary team likes to say that Lesnar’s team weighs an entire tonne, because in WWE that means something. It ignores of course that 1 tonne of crud is still crud (well, Lesnar doesn’t fit that description but Big Show was physically falling apart during this timeframe whilst Jones and Morgan were both greener than turtle excrement, so their impressive combined mass doesn’t really work as a barometer of their quality).
Team Lesnar work some heat on both Cena and Benoit, with Benoit in particular doing an excellent job of selling it all. Eventually it’s hot tag Angle, leading to Angle throwing future TNA foe Morgan around with suplexes. Jones and Lesnar all take some suplexes as well, leading to Jones accidentally catching Morgan with a big boot and allowing Angle to get the Olympic Slam for three, although it looked like Jones could have got in there to break it up and just didn’t. The camera was zoomed in really close to the pin-fall, perhaps deliberately to masque Jones’ potential bumbling.
Elimination #4
Matt Morgan is eliminated by Kurt Angle (1) after 9 minutes – Olympic Slam
Angle decides that we need to get rid of Jones as well, and locks in the ankle lock with Jones shockingly tapping out. However, this allows Lesnar to sneak in with the F-5 to Angle, and that’s Angle eliminated as well. I must say that I’m surprised they had Jones tap out so early into this Heel run, but then again he was pretty awful, so I guess there wasn’t much point in protecting him too much.
Elimination #5
Nathan Jones is eliminated by Kurt Angle (2) after 10 minutes – Ankle Lock
Elimination #6
Kurt Angle is eliminated by Brock Lesnar after 10 minutes – F-5
Benoit gets a big scalp soon after that though, as he locks Lesnar in the Crippler Crossface and Lesnar actually taps out, with Benoit getting to tap out a top guy with his finish clean in the middle, which foreshadowed Benoit’s eventual Royal Rumble win and WrestleMania XX Main Event appearance.
Elimination #7
Brock Lesnar is eliminated by Chris Benoit (1) after 12 minutes – Crippler Crossface
So Big Show is now at a 1 on 2 disadvantage, and they don’t milk it for too long as Benoit flies off the top rope with a shoulder tackle to put Big Show down and that leads to Big Show fighting off the Crossface. Cena gets blind tagged in during that, but Benoit takes a Choke Slam. The ref is distracted by Benoit being down in the ring, and that allows Cena to clock Big Show with his signature chain before following up with a very impressive F-U to Big Show for the three count. The crowd erupted for the big move at the end and it was very well done.
Elimination #8
The Big Show is eliminated by John Cena (1) after 13 minutes – F-U
SURVIVORS: JOHN CENA & CHRIS BENOIT
MOST ELIMINATIONS: KURT ANGLE WITH 2
RATING: **3/4
Thoughts: This was fine, with Cena and Benoit getting big wins over Big Show and Lesnar respectively. Morgan actually was okay in there, but Jones was way out of his depth whenever he was required to do anything more complicated than knee someone and yell
Cena and Benoit shake hands following the match, putting their feud on the backburner
Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon have a conversation backstage about their matches tonight. Well, I say conversation, it’s mostly Vince ranting whilst Shane looks annoyed. We then get Vince and Stone Cold Steve Austin sharing a creepy laugh in the corridor, seeing as both of them are in severe jeopardy tonight career wise
Match Two
WWE Women’s Title
Champion: Molly Holly Vs Lita
Lita had recently returned from injury and was thrust into an immediate feud with Women’s Champ Holly, which made sense seeing as the fans hadn’t seen Lita for a while so putting her into the Title picture was a good way to drum up some interest. Oh pardon me one moment, SO F### YOUR RULES MAN. Sorry, I just felt a sudden urge to yell that along with Lita’s angry shouty entrance music. Lita’s attire just looked weird here, with it resembling something that Felicity Shagwell might wear as opposed to wrestling gear. Lita switching to trousers in 2004/05 was a definite improvement. This match isn’t terrible, but it’s mostly punching and kicking, with Lita occasionally doing something a bit more exciting, like a suplex.
Holly does bust out Great Muta’s handspring elbow in the corner at one stage, and that looks nice. Lita eventually fights her way back into the contest after Holly has worked some heat, giving us a crossbody from the top rope and a ten punch in the corner. Holly tries to respond with her own ten punch, but that just leads to Holly getting powerbombed by Lita. Lita tries heading up for the Moonsault, but there’s no water in the pool, leading to Holly getting the Molly-Go-Round for two in a good near fall. Holly removes the middle turnbuckle pad following that, in full view of the referee I should add, and Lita goes face first into that for three after around 7 Minutes. Why wouldn’t that just be a DQ?
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: MOLLY HOLLY
RATING: **
Thoughts: The finish was dumb, but the match was okay for the most part and the crowd got into it by the end
We get the dramatic video package for the next match
Match Three
Ambulance Bout
Kane Vs Shane McMahon
This was the final match in a long horrible feud between the two that started with Kane giving Shane’s mum, Linda, a Tombstone Piledriver. Kane was supposed to be an unstoppable monster now that he’d lost his mask and gone completely off the deep-end, but trading beat down’s with Shane hadn’t exactly helped his monster image. Kane had just about snuck by Shane back at Unforgiven in a Last Man Standing match, and tonight we’ve got a match where you have to shove your opponent into the back of an ambo and then close the doors in order to win. They put the ambo dangerously close to Kane’s pyro in the entrance way, which could have been a very tragic outcome. I believe we got a surreal go-home angle for this match where Kane and Shane went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant and talked about how they were going to kill one another whilst sharing chicken fried rice, as you do.
Kane basically lands on his head right from the first move, as Shane crossbody’s him from inside the ring over the top to the floor, but Kane manages to survive that. They brawl around ringside following that, with Shane thankfully focusing on using weapon shots in order to get any offence rather than being presented as an equal physical threat to Kane. Shane gets his signature flying elbow from the top rope through the commentary table onto Kane, but Kane sits up from that, leading to Shane fleeing to the back for more weapon shots, this time with a Singapore Cane. Poor Kane is just having to absorb constant weapon shots here, but at least they’re working the match more believably than they did back at Unforgiven, as Shane has needed weapons and the element of surprise to have any luck with Kane here, which is how this match should be structured as Shane shouldn’t be a physical match for the monster.
Shane actually reverses a car into Kane at one point and then summons his own personal ambulance to the car park, as I ponder whether that is legal. Famously Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie suffered a delayed Dusty Finish back at WrestleMania XIV when they put The New Age Outlaws into the “wrong” dumpster backstage as it wasn’t the one in the arena. Kane survives that anyway and fights his way back into the arena, where Shane gets flung into the ambulance a few times. Shane replies in kind, and swings the ambo door right into Kane’s FACE at one stage, as Kane for some reason decided not to get his hands up for that. Maybe that shot scrambled Kane’s brains and that explains his bullshit political beliefs 22 years later?
Shane gets the Van-Shaneanator from the top of the ambulance onto Kane, with a handy crash pad styled device thankfully being used to break Shane’s fall to insure that he doesn’t crack his pelvis and tailbone on the concrete. Kane of course manages to survive that and fights his way out of the back of the ambo, which he should do as he’s meant to be a monster and the very idea that Shane McMahon could physically debilitate him long enough to trap him in an ambulance stretches the bounds of credibility even in a wacky fake sport like this. Shane gets some chants from the crowd as Kane ragdolls him around, but it doesn’t really help as Kane gives Shane a Tombstone onto the concrete and then traps Shane in the ambulance after 13 Minutes for the decisive clean win.
WINNER: KANE
RATING: ***
Thoughts: Probably the best Kane Vs Shane match, as they focused on Kane being the unstoppable monster and Shane only really got anywhere in the match when he was using weapons and/or running away, which is the only way he should have ever got close to Kane during this run. It took them till the last confrontation, but they FINALLY got it right with Kane still having some semblance of his heat left, although he’d cooled significantly from the initial Linda Tombstone attack by the time Survivor Series rolled around
We get a tease for a match at WrestleMania XX, as Brock Lesnar is being interviewed by Josh Matthews and Goldberg walks over for a confrontation
Jonathon Coachman is here (who Jim Ross thinks should volunteer for “enema research”. I’m sure that’s something that costs you 60 Euros in certain parts of Hamburg…). Coach has a neck brace on because The Dudley Boyz gave him a 3D the previous week on Raw. This leads to Coach getting into an argument with Mark Cuban, who owns one of Dallas’ sporting squadrons and is sitting in the crowd, because Mr. Cuban wants to see Stone Cold Steve Austin beat up Eric Bischoff later on tonight. This brings Eric Bischoff down to the ring for a fight with Cuban, which ends with Randy Orton giving Cuban an RKO. I don’t think this led to anything like a Coach and Bischoff Vs Austin and Cuban match, so it was kind of a pointless segment even though the live crowd got into it. I mean, fans already didn’t like Randy Orton, did we really need him beating up a local sports team owner as well just to really ram the point home?
Evolution are hanging out backstage, leading to an entirely unrealistic moment where Ric Flair prevents one of his friends from boffing a gaggle of pretty ladies, because Triple H has a match later on. Pfft, JCP Era Ric Flair would have demanded that Arn Anderson sleep with the entire gaggle all by himself before a big Main Event, and Arn STILL would have won later on! This is one of the many reasons why Horsemen > Evolution
Match Four
SmackDown Tag Team Champions
Champions: The Basham Bros (Doug and Danny) w/ Shaniqua Vs Los Guerreros (Eddy and Chavo Jr)
Prior to No Mercy ; Eddy had been both United States and Tag Team Champion, but the WWE was doing a storyline where Eddy’s life was slowly falling apart so that he could eventually rebound in 2004, so he and Chavo are in the process of breaking up as a team so that things can get even worse for poor Eddy. The Basham’s feuded together in OVW but are now a team on the main roster, with the idea being that they are gimps and Shaniqua is their dominatrix. It was 2003, what can I tell ya ¯\\(ツ)/¯
The Basham’s apparently tricked Eddy into thinking that his sister had been in an accident on a recent episode of SmackDown, so Eddy is full of intensity here and looks good as he tears into The Basham’s. The Basham’s take some good bumps and are decent stooging Heels to start, but they make use of the ref being distracted arguing with Chavo in order to cut Eddy off with a Double Stun Gun (the move, not the item) with Shaniqua doing some standard “beefy woman manager beats up the male wrestler” spots outside of the ring as well when the referee isn’t looking.
Eddy sells well in the heat and it’s eventually hot tag Chavo, with Chavo perhaps running around a bit too much at first rather than just letting The Basham’s run at him, meaning that it’s a bit of an awkward segment at points. The crowd seems to only care about Eddy in this one and isn’t that bothered about the other three wrestlers. Eventually Shaniqua tries getting into the ring and that earns her a Frogsplash from Eddy, which the crowd accepts because Shaniqua has been a jerk all night and also looks big enough to hang physically with a guy Eddy’s size. However, Chavo accidentally catches Eddy in the face when giving Doug Basham a Swinging DDT, which leads to Chavo getting rolled up by Danny when Chavo checks on his uncle after about 9 Minutes.
WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: BASHAM BROS
RATING: **1/4
Thoughts: Standard SmackDown match that they put onto pay per view. Not bad but not especially good either. Just some folks having a wrestle
The Raw commentary team let us know that Shane McMahon is at the hospital and then send us to a video package for the next match
Match Five
Survivor Series Elimination Match
Team Bischoff (Chris Jericho, Christian, Randy Orton, Mark Henry and Scott Steiner) w/ Stacy Keibler, Eric Bischoff and Theodore R. Long Vs Team Austin (WWE Intercontinental Champ Rob Van Dam, Raw Tag Champs The Dudley Boyz, Booker T and Shawn Michaels
The storyline here is that Bischoff and Austin are both the Co-General Manager’s of Raw but they don’t get along, so this match has been booked as a way of trying to switch the dynamic’s currently in play between the two. Stone Cold is currently not allowed to attack people unless provoked, so if his team wins here then that rule gets waived. However, if Austin’s team loses then he has to leave as Co-GM. That doesn’t seem like an especially fair trade in all honesty, but then again I guess Stone Cold REALLY likes attacking people without sufficient provocation so he felt it was worth putting his livelihood on the line in order to secure the privilege? It’s still an entirely lopsided stipulation though really, although they do the best they can in the video package to make it seem like it all makes sense.
All of Austin’s team are very over with the crowd and get a chant of some kind before the match starts, which is nice to hear. The opening exchanges are pretty good hear, especially when Jericho and Christian are in there with RVD. It’s just what you want form one of these big 6/8/10 person tag matches where they make a lot of quick tags so that we get frequent freshening up of who is in there and the action never lets up without people getting too tired. Steiner and RVD even do a fun bit together at one stage, which is impressive considering that Steiner was struggling with some serious health issues at the time, including a terrible case of Drop Foot, which limited his ability in the ring and meant that he had little in the way of good matches in this WWE run before he recovered somewhat and had a much better time in TNA later on in the 2000’s. Keibler didn’t like managing Steiner at the time, as she was doing it against her will, so she distracts Steiner and that allows The Dudleyz to catch Steiner with a back suplex/neckbreaker combo, leading to Booker pinning Steiner with the Book End. Booker gets little time to celebrate though, as Henry catches him with The World’s Strongest Slam and that’s the end of Booker’s night.
Elimination #1
Scott Steiner is eliminated by Booker T (1) after 7 minutes – Book End
Elimination #2
Booker T is eliminated by Mark Henry (1) after 8 Minutes – World’s Strongest Slam
Henry was starting to get a bit less crappy during this time but we weren’t in 2010 yet, so he’s mostly awful in there and kind of just lumbers around like he might tear a muscle just walking a couple of steps. Amazingly The Dudleyz manage to muscle Henry up for the 3D and then RVD adds a Frogsplash, leading to all three piling on top of Henry like they’re playing the arcade game WWF Wrestle Fest, and that’s enough to eliminate Henry from the match.
Elimination #3
Mark Henry is eliminated by Rob Van Dam (1) after 10 minutes – Frogsplash
Jericho and RVD do another bit together, and it’s fun once again, with Orton eventually getting tagged in for the first time and drawing some good Heel heat. Watching Orton as a quick moving youngster when he’s now a smart veteran who picks his spots is a fun blast from the past. Jericho ends up giving RVD a cheat shot by shoving him off the ropes and that allows Orton to get the RKO, setting himself up for a shot at RVD’s IC Title at the next pay per view in the process.
Elimination #4
Rob Van Dam is eliminated by Randy Orton (1) after 12 minutes – RKO
D-Von goes at it with Orton next, with the Dallas fans deciding to chant for some guy named “table”. Whoever that person is, he’s certainly very over, maybe WWE could sign him up to a contract and have him be the face of their new Slim Jim advertising campaign? Jericho gets tagged in and D-Von seemingly has Jericho pinned, only for Christian to provide a distraction which allows Jericho to get the Flashback for the three count.
Elimination #5
D-Von Dudley is eliminated by Chris Jericho (1) after 14 minutes – Flashback
We finally get Shawn Michaels tagged in officially, and the crowd is happy to see him. However, Shawn is quickly cut off and beaten up, starting a trend this evening of Shawn getting his butt whipped. Bubba gets tagged in and runs wild, and it’s a bit sloppy in all honesty as Bubba seems a little too excited. Jericho catches Bubba with an unseen mule kick though and Christian follows up with the Unprettier to send Bubba to the showers.
Elimination #6
Bubba Ray Dudley is eliminated by Christian (1) after 17 minutes – Unprettier
Shawn now enters one of the better Survivor Series performances, as the three remaining Heels give Shawn a beatdown whilst Shawn sells and looks to try and find a way to stay in the contest. It’s effective storytelling and the crowd gets into it, chanting for Shawn and cheering whenever he tries to fight back. Shawn even starts bleeding when Christian flings him into the ring post at one stage. It’s a proper gusher too, resembling the blood that Shawn lost at Badd Blood 1997 in fact. Shawn manages to catch Christian with a Super Kick OUTTA NOWHERE though and that’s enough for the three count.
Elimination #7
Christian is eliminated by Shawn Michaels (1) after 20 minutes – Sweet Chin Music
Shawn continues to have the crap kicked out of him, as they’ve been very smart with how they’ve structured this, as Shawn is being presented as picking his spots and being resilient rather than being a bad ass who is taking it to three opponents all by himself. It’s been sell sell sell, with the occasional offensive move thrown in to show that Shawn isn’t a total lost cause, and the crowd is biting on all of it. Austin does a good job at ringside too by cheering Shawn on. Shawn manages to catch Jericho with an Inside Cradle and that’s another upset three count.
Elimination #8
Chris Jericho is eliminated by Shawn Michaels (2) after 24 minutes – Inside Cradle
Jericho attacks Shawn with a chair following that, which really should be a DQ against Orton when you think about it seeing as we’re essentially in a 1 Vs 1 match now, but instead the match continues with Orton getting a near fall from the chair shot as the crowd continues to love this. The referee ends up getting accidentally taken out by an Orton crossbody, leading to Bischoff getting into the ring and attacking Shawn. Austin heads in with a Stunner to both Bischoff and Orton, which would seemingly break the “no provocation” rule but I guess we’re past worrying about that stuff now? However, as Austin removes Bischoff from ringside, Batista runs in an Powerbomb’s Shawn, leading to Orton getting the three count.
Elimination #9
Shawn Michaels is eliminated by Randy Orton (2) after 27 minutes – Batista run-in
SOLE SURVIVOR: RANDY ORTON
MOST ELIMINATIONS: RANDY ORTON & SHAWN MICHAELS BOTH WITH 2
RATING: ****1/4
Thoughts: This is one of the better Survivor Series Elimination Matches, as the action up to Shawn going 1 Vs 3 was fast paced and enjoyable, and then they totally upped the ante when it was Shawn selling his backside off and ALMOST managing to pick up the win. Definitely worth watching if you’ve never seen this one
Shawn apologies to Austin for losing the match, but Austin is respectful to Shawn and helps Shawn to the back before coming out to cut a nice emotional promo. Austin then gives a gloating Coach a Stunner for the road so that everyone can have a laugh at the Heel’s expense. Brent “Gunner Scott” Albright looked like he was one of the security guards with Coach who got battered there
Co-Main
Buried Alive Contest
Vince McMahon Jr Vs Biker-Taker
It’s another “trap your opponent in the thing” match! Vince cost Undertaker the SmackDown Title back at No Mercy, so Taker is looking for payback here and to also remove Vince from the equation so that he won’t be there to screw Undertaker again. So the idea here, if you’ve never seen one of these matches, is that you have to throw your opponent into the grave and bury them alive. I’m not sure if they ever officially decided how much someone has to be buried for it to “count” in one of these prior to Survivor Series but Tony Chimel says you have to “cover their body completely” in dirt in order to win. Sign of the night thus far is a fan that spells buried as “baried” which is one those face palm moments for most wrestling fans that makes us all look dumb to non-fans (granted, a bunch of us ARE dumb, have you read some of the stuff that gets posted in the pay per view review threads?).
Thankfully they don’t even try to let Vince get any proper offence in on Undertaker here, with Undertaker busting Vince open immediately with a punch and then just focusing on destroying Vince. This is supposed to be one of those “Vince finally gets his” moments, but the crowd is oddly flat for it all. Indeed, the entrances for the match didn’t get a tonne of buzz either in the arena, as I’m wondering if they just saw this as a cold programme or if the previous stuff with Shawn and Stone Cold burnt them out? Regardless, Undertaker continues to destroy Vince whilst Vince bleeds like nuts and the crowd just sort of sits there and watches it all without seeming to really care.
According to Michael Cole on commentary; Vince threatened to have Undertaker’s wife r@p£d and his house blown up by terrorists in the build for this, which is certainly a way to promote a Professional Wrestling pay per view bout I guess. Undertaker heads to the grave at one stage and brings back a shovel to the ring, which does at least get a reaction from the crowd when Undertaker brains Vince with the shovel in question. Vince is losing so much blood in this one that there is literally a puddle of it underneath him at one stage. Undertaker finally decides that Vince has been battered enough and carries Vince to the grave. Vince gets a brief flurry with a low blow and a shovel shot, but Undertaker shrugs that off and drags Vince into the grave. However, Kane now shows up and helps Vince win, setting up Kane Vs Undertaker at WrestleMania XX and the return of The Deadman character. Match lasted about 12 Minutes
WINNER: VINCE MCMAHON
RATING: *
Thoughts: You’d think that Vince McMahon getting battered for nearly 12 minutes straight would be a fun cathartic moment, but the crowd didn’t care and Undertaker did the beatdown in possibly the least entertaining way he could, so it ended up being a really flat match. Vince did one of the all-time goriest blade jobs though, so if you’re into that kind of stuff then this will scratch your psychotic itch if nothing else. This marked the end of Biker-Taker of course, a gimmick that many don’t seem to like and has retrospectively been considered a low point in Undertaker’s career, but it was probably a necessary evolution at the time because being an undead zombie wasn’t really going to work for him as the Attitude Era wore on and he needed something a bit more contemporary. Plus, he’d been doing a version of Phenom/Deadman Undertaker for nearly 10 years; so making him an angry biker for a bit freshened up the act somewhat until it was time to switch back. By 2004 the fans were probably ready for spooky Undertaker to return and this was as good a way as any to bring that version of Undertaker back
Main Event
Raw World Title
Champion: Goldberg Vs “The Game” Triple H w/ Ric Flair
Goldberg had defeated Triple H for the belt back at Unforgiven, at which point Triple H had gone away to film a movie/get married. He did the whole “Heel puts a Bounty on the babyface” promo before leaving though, which led to a bunch of Heels trying to cash in. Eventually it was Batista who did it, Pillmanising Goldberg in the process. Thus we have the main storyline for this match, with Goldberg hobbled due to his bad wheel. Because what’s more fun than watching Bill Goldberg sell for long periods of time eh? That worked so well back at Unforgiven, so why wouldn’t we be excited to get to see it again here at Survivor Series?
They once again dub out the WWE version of Goldberg’s theme for the WCW one, and I’m still mystified as to why. Surely they own that theme? They made it so that they didn’t have to use the WCW one anymore. Goldberg gets a big shine on Triple H to start, with Triple H selling it well, but Goldberg stupidly goes for a press slam and his ankle buckles, which leads to Triple H targeting the appendage. Hey, Flair is at ringside, maybe he just suggested that Tri do a version of one of Flair’s matches with Sting or Luger? Flair distracts the referee and that allows Triple H to clock Goldberg’s ankle with a chair. Well, as cut offs go that’s a pretty effective one to go with I guess.
The match kind of dies now, because Goldberg lying around a selling his leg is just not what people watch a Goldberg match to see, even though Goldberg actually does a good job of selling all of Triple H’s leg based offence. The ref ends up getting bumped when Goldberg counters the figure four, which leads to a Triple H attack with an international object for two. Triple H drops an elbow on the ref out of frustration and then brings in the sledgehammer. Goldberg manages to fend that off and then makes a pretty decent one legged comeback actually, destroying Flair, Batista and Orton with the hammer. In a nice touch, Goldberg thinks about hitting Triple H with the hammer, but then decides he doesn’t need it and throws it away for the Spear and Jackhammer to pick up the win.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: GOLDBERG
RATING: **
Thoughts: Pretty boring in the middle, but the finishing sequence was done well and they gave Goldberg the battling clean win. Of course he’d lose the belt a month later anyway, but he got to stand tall (no pun intended) on this night at least
In Conclusion:
The Raw Survivor Series Match was awesome and the Kane Vs Shane Ambulance bout was surprisingly fun, but that’s about all Survivor Series 2003 has to offer and I wouldn’t recommend you checking out the whole show. There was a lot of filler and a big chunk of matches were just kind of “there” and didn’t really add much to the overall card. Survivor Series 2003 meandered as a whole for me and I didn’t really enjoy it, even though it never really strayed into Stinker territory either. Watch the Raw Elimination Match and then call it a day I think
Not a recommended show