WWE Survivor Series 2011: Why the Traditional Elimination Match Is Necessary

The first Survivor Series took place 25 years ago and went on to become one of WWE's "Big Four" events along with Summerslam, WrestleMania and The Royal Rumble.

The thing that made this event unique was that it featured elimination tag team matches usually consisting of teams of four or five superstars.

There was generally a feud between the two team captains, but sometimes the other teammates have beef with opponents on the other team too.

These matches have been personal, like when Ric Flair led a team against Roddy Piper, and they have also been silly like when Doink the clown led a team against Jerry Lawler.

These matches can end up with a five on one situation or they can go back and forth. What is great about these matches is you never know how it will end up. That first elimination is important, but will not always dictate the winner.

The 1998 edition of the event is the only year not to feature a standard elimination match of some kind. It instead had a tournament for the WWE title. This night was alos unique as it is one of the only PPV's in WWE history to feature 14 matches and not one of them going over 17 minutes.

In recent years WWE has put some more effort into the elimination matches by having bigger stars appearing as team mates, but they still have taken a back seat.

I used to look forward to survivor series because it was one of the few PPV events where it seemed like everyone got some screen time.

I have never understood why WWE would hire such a big roster and the just waste half of it, so this kind of event where there were multiple ten man matches appealed to me.

For whatever reason the WWE decided it did not want to utilize these matches more than once a year, and that is fine, but I do not want to see a repeat of 1998 where we end up with nothing.

There has been little to no talk of the traditional elimination match this year so I am wondering if WWE decided to overlook it again.

The five on five matches are exciting and entertaining and I think WWE is missing the boat by not using this event to feature more of them.

What do you think, does the traditional elimination match need to be included at Survivor Series?