The Name on the Marquee: WWF Survivor Series (11.24.1988)

-Originally aired Thanksgiving night, 1988.

-We’re in Richfield, OH, again.

-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura. Gorilla notes that you can feel, hear, and feel the excitement in the building tonight.

CO-CAPTAIN ULTIMATE WARRIOR, CO-CAPTAIN BRUTUS “The Barber” BEEFCAKE, SAM HOUSTON, BLUE BLAZER, & JUMPING JIM BRUNZELL
vs.
CO-CAPTAIN HONKY TONK MAN, CO-CAPTAIN OUTLAW RON BASS, BAD NEWS BROWN, GREG “The Hammer” VALENTINE, & DANGEROUS DANNY DAVIS (with Jimmy Hart)
-We get co-captains this year, probably because nobody wanted to deal with figuring out if Hulk or Savage got to be the captain for the main event. Jumping Jim is your first substitution of the night, replacing the departing Don Muraco. There’s some impressive continuity on the heel side this year, as Honky, Bass, and Davis were on a team the previous year and apparently decided to give it another shot. Speaking of impressive continuity on the heel side: Honky, black tights. Bass, black tights. Brown, black tights. Danny Davis, black & white tights. Valentine, c-c-c-c-c-c-combo breaker blue tights. I’m not sure it would have added anything but I think just for the sake of “different,” they’d have something if everyone on a team wore similar gear for Survivor Series.

-Beefcake and Valentine trade punches. Davis offers a little outside interference before tagging in proper and getting KOed by a sleeper immediately. Big pop for that, too.

-Valentine heads back in to resume the issue with his ex-partner. Ventura thinks Beefcake is making a tactical mistake by not tagging in after being in the ring so long. Yes, two full minutes of Danny Davis, it’s a miracle he can still walk. Valentine works the leg until Beefcake manages to tag the Blazer. Blazer and Brunzell trade off working the arm. Dropkick by Brunzell, but Valentine gets a sneaky tag to Bad News Brown, and Brunzell gets attacked.

-Slams and fists by Bad News. Brunzell makes a comeback, but Paterally misses a charge and falls victim to the ghetto blaster, getting eliminated and officially ending his long fruitful run of being treated semi-credibly.

-Sam Houston comes in and takes a shit-kicking while Warrior stupidly distracts the referee. Legdrop by Bad News, but it only gets two because being totally bald screws with the necessary aerodynamics for a legdrop. You really need halfway-baldness to get maximum effectiveness out of a legdrop. Valentine and Bad News try a double-team, but Valentine screws up and punches Bad News, and Bad News decides he’s not in the mood for this shit and walks back to the locker room, eliminating himself.

-Houston takes advantage of the distraction with a sneak attack on Valentine. Valentine fights him off and tags in Bass. Houston eats a cowboy boot, but Bass has trouble putting him away. Bodypress off the ropes by Houston gets two. Bass keeps fighting back and pounding him down. Houston tries a monkeyflip, but Bass counters with a powerslam, and that finally finishes off Houston.

-Warrior, super-fresh and pissed off, finally enters the match and cleans house on all of his remaining opponents. He rocket launches Blazer onto Bass for a big pop, but it only gets two. The heels try another sneaky tag, but Blazer sees it this time and manages to bodypress Honky. He follows with a monkeyflip. Valentine tags in and Blazer manages to beat him around, too, until taking a nutsack full of Hammer on a botched leapfrog. He shakes it off and goes to the top, but Honky pushes him off and Blazer lands knees-first, allowing Valentine to get rid of him with a figure four. Owen actually had to take a little time off due to that leapfrog, too.

-Brutus comes in, apparently feeling that he’ll just keep fighting Valentine until he gets it right. Valentine fights him off and Honky comes in to take control, but Brutus fights off the Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Bass tags in and tries to put Beefcake away, but Beefer gets a foot on the ropes. Honky tries going off the top rope, but Brutus meets him with a shot to the gut and mounts a big comeback with a second wind. Sleeper is clamped on, but Honky goes to the ropes and causes both of them to tumble out to the floor. It’s a double-countout and Warrior is left against Valentine and Bass.

-Heels double up on Warrior and Bass hammers away at him. Heels keep double-teaming every time Warrior looks to make a comeback, but Warrior fights them both off with clotheslines, and Warrior takes advantage of a moment of confusion to pin Bass, the illegal man. He takes care of Valentine and eliminates him, too, seconds later. 1 for 1. Hot, fast-paced start to the show.

CO-CAPTAINS POWERS OF PAIN, BRITISH BULLDOGS, HART FOUNDATION, ROCKERS, & YOUNG STALLIONS
vs.
CO-CAPTAINS DEMOLITION, BRAINBUSTERS, CONQUISTADORS, FABULOUS ROUGEAU BROTHERS, & BOLSHEVIKS (with Mr. Fuji, Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart, and Slick)
-Davey Boy starts with a Conquistador, and that doesn’t go well, so Jacques Rougeau tags in and winds up getting press slammed onto Raymond. Rockers double-team the Bolsheviks until Ax tags in and pounds down Janetty. Ax does the boot-ramming spot, but instead of Smash, he gets help from the Rougeaus to show team unity. Tully Blanchard tags in and gets pinballed from opponent to opponent until tagging Jacques back in. Jacques tries to…excuse me—RAYMOND HAS A MOUSTACHE, JESSE, WHY IS THIS SO GODDAMN DIFFICULT FOR YOU?

-Dynamite and Raymond go at it, which shows a lot of guts by Raymond, actually. Jim Powers tags in and gets trapped in the wrong corner. Bret Hart tags in and Raymond goes for a backdrop, but Bret counters with a cradle and eliminates him. There’s a hell of a background story to this one. A few weeks prior, Jacques Rougeau and Dynamite Kid got into a very ugly brawl backstage that led to the Bulldogs departing from the company after this show. Wanting to avoid any further incidents from the Bulldogs on their way out the door, Vince booked the match to have the Rougeaus eliminated first and the Bulldogs eliminated late in the match, so the Rougeaus could be showered, dressed, and out of the arena by the time the Bulldogs were eliminated. And for good measure, when the agents laid out the match for everyone, they actually went to the Bulldogs seperately and described a completely different match, so the Bulldogs weren’t expecting the Rougeaus to get eliminated when they did.

-Conquistadors get beaten around by the Harts and the Powers until Ax tags in and overpowers Bret with axehandles and boots. Tully comes off the top with an axehandle but runs into a clothesline. He tags Ax in and then trips up Shawn Michaels so Shawn is easy prey for an attack by Ax. Press slam into a backbreaker by Nikolai Volkoff. Spinebuster by Arn Anderson gets a big “ooooo” from the crowd, but only a two-count.

-Rapid fire tags follow as everyone takes a turn wrestling every opponent. It leads to a Warlord/Ax showdown, which draws a big pop. Demos double team Warlord, but Smash has bad luck when he’s in there all alone. Barbarian boots Smash from every direction. Tully Blanchard tags in and gets pounded on by the Anvil and by Dynamite Kid. He launches Dynamite out of the ring with a handful of tights and Dynamite gets trapped in the wrong corner.

-Jim Powers, of all people, saves the day, beating Boris Zhukov from pillar to post until Boris reverses a bodypress and rolls up Powers for a three-count, making things even at four vs. four.

-We get another Powers/Demos showdown, and this time Demolition wins it decisively. Decisively enough that they feel secure about tagging in a Conquistador, who in turn immediately tags Nikolai Volkoff. Boris Zhukov tries a backdrop, but some stealth chicanery from the Rockers causes him to get rolled up, and the Bolsheviks are gone.

-Conquistadors tag in and hold their own against the Rockers, including an impressive backdrop on Janetty that gets some serious elevation. Ax and Arn Anderson gang up on Janetty, but Janetty faceplants Arn and gets out of there. Brainbusters and Demolition go to work on Davey Boy Smith. Davey Boy is able to tag out and the Harts go to town on the Conquistadors. They do the decapitator on a Conquistador and the crowd is shocked that it only gets two.

-Dynamite beats the shit out of Conquy and can only get two-counts. Barbarian squashes the Conquistador too, but accidentally headbutts him to the heel corner and Tully Blanchard gets a cheap shot on Barbarian to turn the tide. Tully Blanchard has been telling a pretty funny story through the entire match, doing everything he possibly can to avoid actually staying in the ring.

-Demolition pounds down the POP. Arn Anderson winds up being outwrestled by Marty Janetty, but fares better with Jim Neidhart. Hit Man adds a backbreaker and an inverted atomic drop. He follows with a German suplex, but makes the classic mistake of leaving his own shoulders down on the follow-up pinfall attempt, so he accidentally pins himself to eliminate the Foundation.

-Bulldogs gang up on Tully Blanchard. The Rockers make their way in and it’s a four-man brawl between the Rockers and Brainbusters, with Ax helpfully offering his partners the advice, “Kick his ass!” from the apron. Both teams are disqualified and brawl their way back to the locker room.

-Conquistadors get absolutely destroyed by the Bulldogs and the Powers of Pain while Jesse correctly observes how weirdly empty the ring now looks with only eight people out there. Demolition handles Davey Boy Smith fairly well before making the mistake of tagging the Conquistadors back in. They keep beating on Conquy, but then accidentally knock him back to his own corner again, and Ax is getting pretty fired up, pounding on the Barbarian and tossing him to the floor.

-Conquistador comes back in and absolutely nothing will put them away. I’m guessing that full body suit and mask get pretty damn smelly after 45 minutes, come to think of it. Smash is able to tag in and connects with a clothesline that puts away Dynamite and sends the Bulldogs packing.

-Powers of Pain are the only team left from their group. Warlord tries to finish them off but misses a charge. Demolition manages to keep Warlord on their side of the ring and take control pretty decisively while Mr. Fuji keeps jumping on the apron and waving his cane for some reason. Smash gets sent into the ropes and Fuji yanks the rope down, causing Smash to fall out and getting him counted out. Fuji screws his own team.

-Ax is super-pissed and takes it out on Fuji, who denies pulling the rope down even though it was fairly obvious. Fuji takes a shot at Ax with the cane, but Smash has recovered by then, so the Demos gang up on him and slam him to the floor. Powers of Pain feel sorry for Fuji, help him to his feet, and bring him over to their corner (with the Conquistadors hilariously celebrating in the ring because it takes so long that it looks like the POP might get counted out).

-Powers of Pain go back to work on the Conquistadors. Fuji hooks a leg from the outside, and that’s enough to finally put away the jobbers and get the duke for the Powers of Pain. The Powers celebrate by lifting Fuji on their shoulders and Demolition returns to clear the ring, which totally confuses the crowd because they thought Fuji was turning face. 2 for 2, by the way. I prefer this one to the 1987 20-man match because this one had more storytelling. The jobbers being hard to kill, the Brainbusters trying to avoid actually having to wrestle, the double turn. There was all kinds of stuff to keep track of in that ring tonight.

-Sean Mooney talks to Bad News Brown, who insists that he deserves a title shot against Randy Savage.

-Gene Okerlund is disproportionately outraged at Mr. Fuji, who turned on Demolition because they stopped listening to him and got arrogant in the past few months.

-Royal Rumble! Sunday, January 15, 1989!

CO-CAPTAIN HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN, CO-CAPTAIN JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS, KEN PATERA, TITO SANTANA, & SCOTT CASEY
vs.
CO-CAPTAIN ANDRE THE GIANT, CO-CAPTAIN DINO BRAVO, HARLEY RACE, RAVISHING RICK RUDE, & “Mister Perfect” CURT HENNIG (with Bobby Heenan & Frenchy Martin)
-Oooooh, this one has a substitution of a substitution. The Duggan/Snake team was supposed to include Junkyard Dog. Dog left after this match was first announced and he was replaced by B. Brian Blair, who got fired for refusing to job to Arn & Tully, and the roster was getting so thin at this point that they had to turn to jobber Scott Casey to fill out the team. Also, this time, it’s Tito Santana screwing up the potential for team colors, as he’s decked out in all white while all of his partners are wearing shades of blue.

-Patera starts with Rude. Gorilla gives us some surprising continuity on commentary, acknowledging that Patera retired him in an angle years earlier. Patera backs Perfect into the face corner and Snake tags in to work the arm. Tito tags in and helps. Scott Casey gets into the match and that doesn’t go well. Duggan tags in and Andre keeps trying to interfere from the outside, which Duggan keeps no-selling. How the fuck do you no-sell ANDRE?

-Scott Casey tags in and manages to survive long enough to tag out again. Even the announcers are sort of starting to tune this one out and Gorilla goes to work hyping the Royal Rumble. Crowd is dead when Duggan’s not in there. Patera tags in and charges, and that never goes well for Ken Patera. Rude connects with a boot and hits the Rude Awakening to eliminate Patera. Scott Casey suddenly looks like a redshirt who just saw Bones die.

-Casey takes on all comers and like the Conquistadors, it’s his night to shine. Dino gets the side suplex out of nowhere and it looks like a total fluke when Casey is eliminated.

-The match continues to die until Duggan tags in again and the crowd pops for every little thing he does. One of the most fascinating things about these old shows is how some of the biggest stars are guys that would be hopelessly unemployable today. The crowd pops like crazy for Duggan and today, he’d be languishing in the indies until he gave up and finally went back to his old job at Foodland.

-Tito tags in and works his magic, doing a lot of near-fall spots to get the crowd awake again. He finally gets a three-count on Harley Race. I have no idea why they didn’t just do some angle with Race & Bobby Heenan here. Harley just sort of BECAME a face after this for no reason.

-Andre steps in, choking Tito and sitting on him. Andre tries a backdrop and Tito stupidly tries to counter with a sunset flip. Tito, I love you, but you deserved to lose on that one. And so you did.

-Duggan connects with a three-point stance on Andre, causing him to get tangled in the ropes. Co-captains seize the opportunity and just go nuts on Andre until he finally gets free and tags Rude. Rude revives their issue and taunts Jake with hip swiveling. Andre puts the boots to Jake while Perfect chokes him. Heels take turns just destroying Jake, but art imitates life and Jake won’t die no matter how screwed he appears to be.

-Hot tag to Hacksaw and he goes to work on Dino. Frenchy interferes from the floor and Duggan gets pissed and cleans house with the 2×4, getting himself eliminated. “Bullshit!” Duggan yells. Bulltrue, Jim.

-Jake’s alone against four guys and holds his own against Perfect. Perfect tags in Dino, who overpowers Jake, but Jake manages to fight him off and goes to the floor for a breather. Back in, Rude beats on him until Jake hits a DDT out of nowhere and pins him clean.

-Pretty clever finish to this one. Andre steps in next and chokes Jake until he passes out. He gets himself disqualified, but Perfect calmly steps in and pins the unconscious Snake. Perfect and Bravo are your survivors. 3 for 3. Jake clears the ring with Damien during the post-match celebration. Match picked up after a very slow start and I dug the face side’s performance as valiant underdogs.

CO-CAPTAINS MEGA-POWERS, HERCULES, HILLBILLY JIM, & KOKO B. WARE (with Elizabeth)
vs.
CO-CAPTAINS TWIN TOWERS, “The Million Dollar Man” TED DIBIASE, KING HAKU, & RED ROOSTER (with Slick, Virgil, & Bobby Heenan)
-Koko’s wearing tights with “WWF” printed across the ass, which he’s probably doing because he so badly wants to demonstrate that he’s a company man, but really, all he accomplished was requiring the company after 2003 to find a very alert man and put him in charge of blurring Koko’s ass on all the old footage.

-Savage and DiBiase start and Savage has no trouble with DiBiase at all. DiBiase dives out of the ring when Hercules tags in and the Red Rooster comes in to show his stuff and impress the Brain. Hercules overpowers him, but Rooster fairs a little better with Koko B. Ware and manages to tag out. Hogan tags in to a super-pop and double teams King Haku with help from Hillbilly Jim.

-Rooster tags back in and has trouble with Koko, then has trouble with Hillbilly Jim, then has trouble with Koko again, then has trouble with Hulk, and Savage finally puts him out of his misery with a flying elbow. Heenan’s pissed.

-Haku tags in and doesn’t do much better. Hercules gets a near-fall on an elbow that Jesse says “is as close to a three-count as you’re ever going to see.” I dunno, I think a three-count tends to be much closer to a three-count. Hillbilly and Akeem duke it out and Akeem wins the battle with a splash off the ropes to eliminate Hillbilly and make the match even.

-Koko sneaks in with a dropkick and the rest of the faces take turns trying to take down Akeem, but the big man just won’t leave his feet. Bossman tags in and hits his side slam on Koko B. Ware to eliminate him…uh, in theory. He gets off Koko after the two and the referee just kinda has to stay there and count three. I think that’s legal because Koko was exhibiting clear intent to job. Little-known rule.

-Hogan enters the ring for the Hogan-Bossman confrontation that the crown was waiting for. He destroys Bossman with no trouble and slams him for good measure. Bossman hits a spinebuster out of nowhere, but celebrates instead of going for the pin. He tags in Akeem and they gang up on the Hulkster. DiBiase steps in to offer some help, but Hulk hulks up fairly early in tonight’s proceedings and sets up DiBiase for a beating by Hercules. Hercules gets tripped up by Virgil and DiBiase rolls up the mighty one to eliminate him.

-Hercules taunts DiBiase on his way out of the ring and DiBiase takes the bait, which allows Savage to sneak in and roll him up to eliminate him.

-Savage and Hogan switch off on Haku. Haku grounds Hogan with a thrust kick and Bossman tags back in to do his thing. Everybody takes a turn with Hogan, but can’t eliminate him. Hot tag to Savage and he takes care of everybody until Slick sneaks up and trips him. A melee erupts and in the midst of it, Bossman handcuffs Hulk Hogan to the bottom rope on the heel side and takes some free shots at him with the nightstick. Bossman gets himself counted out in the process. Bossman then heads back inside and destroys Savage with the nightstick, which gets Akeem disqualified.

-The referees won’t let Slick leave ringside until he unlocks Hulk, and Slick just settles for waving the key in front of his face and taunting him. Haku accidentally KOs Slick with a kick to the face intended for Randy Savage, and Elizabeth dashes over, picks Slick’s pocket, gets the key, and frees Hogan. Savage is able to make the hot tag, Hogan takes care of Haku with the usual, and The Mega-Powers are your survivors. 4 for 4. Elizabeth celebrates with Hogan post-match, drawing a nasty-looking glare from Savage.

9.0

The final score: review Amazing

The 411

Maybe I'm overrating the shows, but I really dug the early Survivor Series events. They simply worked; the good workers could shine and the weaker guys could limit their participation, and it helped every match. This is a good show. Not giving it a 10 because it just doesn't feel like a 10, but it's solid enough.