WWE Survivor Series 2011: Elimination Matches Must Be a Bigger Factor Next Year

Survivor Series is part of WWE's "Big 4" pay-per-view events each year along with SummerSlam, WrestleMania and the Royal Rumble.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the event that has given fans so many great moments over the years. From the debut of The Undertaker, to the first elimination chamber, this event has always been a favorite among fans.

This year, however, I cannot help but feel that WWE dropped the ball with Survivor Series. In a night which could have been used to feature so many of WWE's great stars they decided to have only one elimination match.

The five on five match has plenty of great WWE stars to cheer for, but there are so many who are left off the card who could have benefited from even a few minutes of time on a PPV event.

The elimination match features Randy Orton, Sheamus, Sin Cara, Kofi Kingston, Mason Ryan, Wade Barrett, Hunico, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler.

Sure, this is ten guys, but these ten guys also get screen time every week on Raw and/or SmackDown. Let's take a look at the list of people who we will not be seeing tonight.

Alex Riley, Brodus Clay, Curt Hawkins, David Otunga, Drew McIntyre, Michael McGillicutty, JTG, Santino, Tyler Reks, Zack Ryder, Daniel Bryan, Epico, Primo, Ezekial Jackson, Heath Slater, Both Usos, Jinder Mahal, Johnny Curtis, Ted Dibiase, Yoshi Tatsu, Tyson Kidd and Trent Baretta.

That's 23 men whom the WWE pays to show up, but will have little to no impact on Survivor Series. There could be a few run ins by a couple people on the list, but overall WWE left a lot on the table tonight. And that's not even counting the 11 active Divas who are not in action.

With a meager six matches and 21 superstars this marks one of the smallest PPV cards in WWE history when compared to other years and events. When compared to the original Survivor Series 50 man card, this seems very small.

The second Survivor Series also featured 50 superstars, and the third featured 40. This used to be an event which would showcase nearly the entire roster in all its glory.

This event would often show why WWE was the top company over all the other wrestling promotions. They would parade their entire roster out to put on a show for the world.

Now Survivor Series has fallen so far that there were even rumors that WWE was going to do away with the event after this year. This would be a bad move in my opinion as it is one of the PPVs which all others are judged by.

This is WWE's second longest running PPV after WrestleMania and I think they need to do more to revitalize it.

I think the guys in the corporate offices forget that we fans may actually like a PPV with three or four of these big elimination matches once a year.

The Usos, Ezekial Jackson and Yoshi Tatsu vs. Epico, Primo, Jinder Mahal and Tyler Reks, there I just created a match that would have allowed eight superstars to get more exposure and could have only taken up 15 minutes of the card.

WWE has a huge pool of talent who are being paid to basically be jobbers and appear on Superstars, I get that it takes time for people to get better but I thought that was the point of FCW.

I love Survivor Series and I hope WWE does more to keep this great PPV around because I have many fond memories from the event from over the years.

Tonight's Survivor Series saw Team Barrett members Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett be the only survivors against team Orton. Sin Cara hurt his leg during the match so we will have to see how long he will be out for.

What do you think, is WWE dropping the ball by not having more elimination matches?