WWE Survivor Series: Ranking the 10 Greatest Matches

4) Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship (1992)

It wasn’t the first, nor the last time that Bret “the Hitman” Hart would square off against the “Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels in a five-star match. Michaels was entering this Champion vs Champion match at Survivor Series as the Intercontinental Champion, who was young and hoping to make a big impression in the main event picture.

The two showed some of their best in-ring chemistry with plenty of back-and-forth action where they would use all parts of the ring. About two-thirds of the way through the match, you could hear Bobby Heenan yelling that Hart had thrown everything at Michaels and could not put him away – everything except the Sharpshooter.

Michaels looked like he was on his way to his first WWE Championship as he had pushed Hart into the ring post and then a bodyslam outside the ring. And yet, Hart was always known as one of the more resilient champions in WWE at the time who didn’t give up so easily despite having his back worked on with that being the focus of Michaels’ offense that led up to Sweet Chin Music, however Michaels didn’t go for the pin right away.

Instead, the young HBK wanted to add more offense and that allowed Hart to fight back and catch Michaels in the Sharpshooter for the Hitman to retain in a match that was easily one of the best these two had. They would have more wars over the WWE Championship as the years continued, including one that had a more infamous Survivor Series about five years down the road.

The only negative was that the match ended with someone dressed as Santa Claus to put a hat on Hart and snow fell in the arena. Because even good things had to be ruined by pointless booking back in the early 1990s, too.

Next: No. 3