5 most shocking Survivor Series eliminations

#1 Triple H (Survivor Series 2002)

Shawn Michaels miraculously wins the World Title inside the Elimination Chamber

Shawn Michaels injured his back at the 1998 Royal Rumble in his casket match with The Undertaker, which led to what everybody thought was his retirement two months later after losing the WWF Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV. It was a career sadly cut short, as he retired only a few months before his 33rd birthday. After four-and-a-half years out of in-ring competition, which saw sporadic appearances by Michaels on TV in various roles, he returned to WWE full-time in June 2002 as a surprise member of the nWo, just one short month before it was disbanded for good. It was extremely odd, and people just assumed he would be there in a non-wrestling role as Kevin Nash’s old pal, who at the time was the leader of the final iteration of the nWo.

When the nWo came to an end in July 2002, Triple H and Shawn Michaels decided to don the old green and black DX gear for what appeared to be a reunion, but on the very night that they made their first official appearance as a reformed unit, Triple H attacked Michaels with the Pedigree before they even finished their entrance. It begged the question, why was this happening? Why did Shawn return if his back was too injured to wrestle? The Pedigree from Triple H seemed to kill all of the speculation that HBK was going to return to the ring as a wrestler, as the bump he took was one of the worst Pedigree sells of all time, but we were all so very, very wrong.

It turned out that Michaels was, in fact, gearing up for a return, and in August at SummerSlam, he defeated Triple H in his first WWE match in over four years. He later earned a spot in the first ever Elimination Chamber match, which took place at Survivor Series that November. This was going to be a short-term return for HBK, so it was assumed that he would be eliminated and one of Triple H’s other recent rivals, most likely Chris Jericho or Rob Van Dam (Kane and Booker T were also in the match) would win the World Heavyweight Championship. Or, of course, Triple H would retain it himself, which was the most likely outcome.

Instead, Shawn Michaels put on the performance of a lifetime, and just when it looked like Triple H was going to get his win back over his old friend turned bitter enemy, Michaels pinned him and won the World Title! It might not seem like a big deal now since he spent another seven years wrestling after this, but at the time it was unthinkable that HBK could become a champion again. But it happened, which is why Triple H being eliminated from the Elimination Chamber match at the 2002 Survivor Series is the most shocking Survivor Series elimination of all time.