There are some events in WWE history that one can look back upon as a paradigm shift for the company and, in some instances, the industry as a whole. The 1996 Survivor Series was one such event.

Held on November 17 at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York City, the show featured two industry-altering events in the span of three hours, making it one of the company's most historically significant pay-per-views of all time.

At the time, there was no way of knowing just how instrumental the two events would be in WWE overcoming the ratings beatdown it was enduring from WCW on a weekly basis, but hindsight tells us had that year's fall classic not gone down exactly as it did, there is a real chance we would not be discussing the company today.

A Blue-Chip Debut

Young Rocky Maivia exploded through the curtain that night, his body adorned with horrifically conceived teal gear, but what he wore was irrelevant. It was the first appearance of the highly touted third-generation star, whose charisma was obvious and look undeniable. He looked like a star and carried himself like one, even if the in-ring portion of the package still had to catch up.

Most importantly for him and the future of the company, he was treated like one.

Maivia overcame a two-on-one disadvantage late in the traditional Survivor Series elimination tag match, defeating Crush and Goldust to win the bout for his team. It was a major triumph and an early announcement to the wrestling world that he was going to be a major deal for them moving forward.

And he would.

Once he shook the smiling babyface persona right out of the early 1980s and developed his promos, he would become one of the biggest stars in the industry. As the The Rock, his meteoric rise from the leader of The Nation to WWE champion in 1998 gave way to sustained main event status in WWE and crossover appeal.

Within two years, he had Hollywood beating down his door to work on film projects, but it was his work in front of WWE cameras, the connection he built with the audience and his work as a sports entertainer that helped him become a transcendent Superstar.

He was larger than life, a leader in the Attitude Era and one of the key reasons Vince McMahon's company was able to overcome such a one-sided, 83-week ass-kicking. 

None of that happens without that magical debut, in which the company showed incredible faith in this young, yet largely inexperienced performer to shine in a big spot. He wasn't the only defining star of the upcoming Attitude Era to break out that night in MSG, though.

Glass (Ceiling) Shatters

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin had momentum on his side entering the Survivor Series. He was in the middle of a feud with Bret Hart, had just participated in the hugely controversial Brian Pillman gun incident and was gaining fan support for the foul-mouthed, finger-flipping revolution he was leading in the usually family-friendly promotion.

He still needed that one match to really define him, though. And he got it in front of a live pay-per-view audience, in the most famous arena in the world and against the best wrestler in the universe.

Austin and Hart delivered a five-star classic that proved everything ol' Stone Cold had claimed: He was a double-tough S.O.B., but he was also a hell of a professional wrestler. So much so that he was in the driver's seat in the closing seconds of the match, using the Million Dollar Dream given to him by Ted DiBiase upon his arrival in the company a year earlier. Hart countered it into a roll-up, just narrowly outlasting Stone Cold. 

The Texas Rattlesnake lost that night, but it didn't matter. The fans witnessed him nearly beating The Hitman in the biggest match of his career. He was every bit the future Hall of Famer's equal and it showed.

One year after an inauspicious start to his WWE career, which saw him saddled with a terrible Ringmaster name and total lack of personality, Austin was on the road to becoming the biggest star in company history and the face of the Attitude Era, alongside that kid from earlier in the night.

More than the night the two most defining stars of the Attitude Era broke out, though, Survivor Series serves as a reminder to those wielding power in WWE today.

Patience is Key

What would have become of the company if, weeks after Maivia's debut when fans started booing the one-dimensional bore-fest, McMahon had taken him off of television or stuck him under some ridiculous gladiator's helmet?

What might WWE look like today, if there even was a company, had management tossed Austin aside when The Ringmaster failed to catch on with audiences?

The answers are not at all positive.

Because WWE gave Maivia and Austin a chance to find themselves rather than cutting them off at the knees or transitioning them from one failed gimmick into another underwhelming one, they had the opportunity to develop into the megastars they eventually became. 

It is patience not necessarily allotted to the men and women in today's WWE. Within a couple weeks, they are pulled off the show, given nicknames like "Bearcat" and expected to run with it, despite everyone recognizing it's not going to get over. So then, instead of consistent, star-making runs, talent is shoved into a vicious cycle of start-and-stop pushes and repackaging that never catches on.

On this, 25 years to the day after The Rock's monumental debut and Austin's glass ceiling-shattering performance against Hart, it would behoove McMahon and Co. to look at why that night was so important and how the pieces came together, and implement that approach today.

The talent is certainly there for stars of that magnitude and the drive, too. Patience is key, though. Until that develops so that the talent can, WWE will find itself looking back on the Attitude Era fondly through retrospective documentaries rather than filming new ones about the exciting future that awaits.