WWE Survivor Series is the second-longest running annual PPV on the WWE calendar. While the early years of the events were full of elimination tag team matches between teams of four or five, WWE leaned back over time, to a point at which only select feature matches were staged in that format.

Related: 10 Great Survivor Series Matches No One Talks AboutIn 2003, there were two such matches, and the Raw brand’s encounter between teams representing Stone Cold Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff was an especially strong outing, featuring exceptional performances by Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton in particular.

The Storyline Between Stone Cold Steve Austin And Eric Bischoff Set Up This Survivor Series Match Well

One of the limitations of the traditional Survivor Series format is that the matches didn’t have clearly defined stakes. In the early years, the novelty of seeing a high volume of stars, often in odd combinations was enough to sell a PPV, but as time went on, the lack of titles on the line was among the factors that demanded a change. The relatively recent past has focused on brand warfare at the November PPV which worked in some cases but tended to feel contrived, particularly when the lines between brands were more fluid or a draft had just mixed up talents, making it harder to buy into performers being all that committed to representing their shows.

The best elimination tag team matches tended to follow from a story set in motion months earlier and to have a real sense that something was on the line. Steve Austin vs. Eric Bischoff fit that mold nicely as the two shared Raw GM duties and never saw eye to eye. Their feud tapped into past real-life animosity between the two and culminated in Bischoff rallying heels and Austin rounding up top babyfaces for a match with control of the brand on the line.

The Talent Pool Involved In Team Austin Vs. Team Bischoff Has Aged Well

While the lineups for Team Austin and Team Bischoff may not have felt star-studded in their moment, they have aged quite well. Austin had Shawn Michaels representing him, but also Rob Van Dam and Booker T who hadn’t yet hit their stride in WWE, but would each win a world title there within the next three years. Additionally, he had The Dudley Boyz, who, for all their accomplishments were on a downward slide, though they’d reinvigorate their act in Impact Wrestling, where Bubba Ray in particular would reach new heights, winning a world title of his own.

For Eric Bischoff’s team, Randy Orton and Chris Jericho were top flight stars. Mark Henry would only put the pieces together years later to make good on his main event potential, winning a World Heavyweight Championship. Similarly, Christian had butted his head against the glass ceiling in WWE at that time, but would go on to main event in Impact soon after, only to return to WWE and at last win two world titles there. Scott Steiner was on the tail end of a disappointing solo run in WWE, but with time, his run as WCW Champion has made him a nostalgic favorite among fans, in addition to him putting on some very good performances in Impact in the folowing years and ultimately garnering a WWE Hall of Fame ring.

The net result? Every single one of the ten men in this match was a past or future world champion, except for D-Von Dudley--an underrated singles wrestler who also goes down as an all-time great tag team wrestler, in his element in a big team match.

Randy Orton Started A Trilogy Of Sole Survivor Performances

Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff at WWE Survivor Series 2003 was a well-structured elimination tag team match that went back and forth before the heels took a three-to-one advantage in the final stretch. That set up Shawn Michaels for a dramatic underdog performance. All the more, it set up Randy Orton for an excellent heel performance. He pinned Rob Van Dam midway through the match and, after some theatrics involving Eric Bischoff, Steve Austin, and ultimately Batista, it was Orton who picked up the decisive pin fall to win for his team.

Orton picked up this major victory a year before emerging sole survivor for a babyface team against Triple H’s squad a year later, and then pinning HBK again as the last two men in the match, winning for Team SmackDown in 2005. It was only in 2006 that Michaels and Helmsley alike achieved a measure of revenge when they co-captained a team that swept Orton and Edge’s heel crew (particularly poetic for the DX partners last dispatching of Orton in that case). All of these factors made Orton’s big performance in 2003 in some ways the start of a four-year story at Survivor Series (not to mention a fifth year, if one were to count Orton beating Michaels one-on-one in 2007, after this quartet of team matches was done) and a key contribution to the argument Orton's the greatest performer in Survivor Series history.

The Aftermath Of Team Austin Vs. Team Bischoff Diminished The Outcome Of The Match

A part of why fans may not remember Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff as fondly as they should is that, despite having very clearly defined stakes, the match didn’t actually end up meaning much. Stone Cold lost his position as co-GM of Raw, it’s true, but he returned to the brand in the less well-defined role of “Sheriff” a month and a half later, more or less picking up where he’d left off.

Related: 5 WWE Stipulations That Meant Nothing (& 5 They Actually Followed Through)It's unfortunate the ramifications of the match weren't as profound, and WWE wound up more or less moving on as if this match hadn't really happened, because it wore away at the luster of what should have been an iconic Survivor Series classic.

Despite not being as well remembered as Survivor Series greats as the original main event, the 2001 match that blew off the Invasion angle, or the 2014 match that featured Sting's first WWE appearance, 2003’s Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff certainly belongs in the top five greatest Survivor Series elimination tag team matches of all time. That’s on account of its storyline, star power, strong layout, and quality of performances on the part of Randy Orton and Shawn Michaels in particular. It’s a forgotten gem worth revisiting for fans who’ve lost sight of it.