World Wrestling Federation pay-per-view event
The 1997 Survivor Series was the 11th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the third and final Survivor Series event to be presented by Milton Bradley's Karate Fighters. The event took place on Sunday, November 9, 1997, at the Molson Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The event's tagline "Gang Rulz" refers to the various wrestling stables that feuded with each other heading into this event. Seven matches were contested on the event's card.
The main event was a standard wrestling match for the WWF Championship, in which Bret Hart defended the title against Shawn Michaels. It was the last of three WWF Championship matches between the two, who had previously headlined the 1992 Survivor Series and WrestleMania XII together. Michaels won the title in controversial fashion when Vince McMahon ordered match referee Earl Hebner to end the match as Michaels held Hart in Hart's own finishing maneuver, the Sharpshooter, even though Hart had not submitted. This incident became known as the Montreal Screwjob and marked Hart's last appearance on WWE programming until 2006. This was also the last time that Hart held a title in WWE until May 2010, and the last time he headlined a WWE pay-per-view until SummerSlam 2010. A video package aired immediately before the Hart vs. Michaels match, featuring the first use of the "WWF Attitude" scratch logo.[1]
The undercard featured Stone Cold Steve Austin versus Owen Hart in a standard wrestling match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, Kane versus Mankind, and four 4-on-4 elimination tag team matches were included.