horrorfan_1986

WWE Survivor Series
November 23, 1989

The Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, The Red Rooster, Brutus Beefcake and Tito Santana) vs The Enforcers (The Big Boss Man, Bad News Brown, Honky Tonk Man and Rick Martel) w/ The Slick and Jimmy Hart
Backstory time. Dusty had been feuding with Honky a bit during the Summer (They even met at Summerslam), but his main feud was against Boss Man. Akeem defeated Beefcake in the KOTR, so that led to Beefcake feuding with Bossman/Akeem. Tito and Rick had been feuding ever since Martel turned heel at Wrestlemania 5. I can't recall the Roster really feuding with anyone. For some reason (Not sure why), Akeem was pulled from the PPV and replaced by Bad News Brown. Woohoo, on to the match. Match starts off with former IC champions, Honky and Tito. Honky gains control and tags in Martel. Martel is in total heel mode only wanting Santana when he's hurt. Several tags occur until both members of the Former Strike Force gets back in the ring. Santana goes for a Figure Four, but Rick shoves him off. Santana goes for a roll up, but Martel grabs the tights and pins Santana. The Red Rooster is attacked by Boss Man and gets a bear hug. Jesse and Gorilla talks about how Rooster should never be in the ring with Bossman due to the size difference. Bossman tags in Bad News Brown so he can hold Rooster for Bossman to hit. Rooster ducks and Bossman nails Brown. Brown already hates everyone, so an accidental punch doesn't make him feel any better. He pushes Bossman so Bossman pushes him back. Brown has enough of it and just walks out and is counted out. For Brown, it actually works for his character. Brutus comes in and starts fighting with HTM. Brutus hits a High Knee (His finisher in WCW as the Bootyman) and pins the greatest IC champion of all time. Interestingly enough, Honky eliminated Brutus from their match in the first Survivor Series in '87. It all comes full circle eh? Martel comes in and tries to hold the ropes to pin Brutus. The ref sees him and kicks his arms off. Beefcake uses the momentum to pin Martel. So we're down to Boss Man vs Rooster, Dusty and Beefcake. Rooster makes the mistake trying to wrestle Boss Man and runs right into the Boss Slam to eliminate the unover bird. Dusty comes in and ducks a closeline and hits a crossbody to win the match. Sole Survivors: Dusty Rhodes and Brutus Beefcake. I'm not a huge fan of the finish. I would of much rather had Dusty win with the Bionic Elbow. Pretty entertaining match though, especially considering the only face who could work (Santana) was eliminated first. The commentators played their part well by saying when something was a bad move or not which would play a part later on in the match (Boss Man vs Rooster for example). I don't really have any complaints, for the guys in the match, it was better than it should have been. In the middle of the match, we even get to see Saphire in the crowd. She would make her actual debut shortly after this PPV. 22 Minutes. 3 Stars.

The 4x4's (Jim Duggan, Ronnie Garvin, Bret Hart and Hercules) vs The King's Court (Randy Savage, Dino Bravo, Greg Valentine and Earthquake) w/ Queen Sherri and Jimmy Hart
Duggan and Savage were feuding over being the King of the WWE as Duggan was the former King. Ronnie Garvin and Greg Valentine would be having a great old school feud since earlier in the year. Valentine and Hercules had a short program during the Valentine/Garvin feud (When Garvin was a ref). I can't recall Bret having anything to do with this match, although he along with Neidhart would feud with Valentine and his future partner HTM for most of 1990. Earthquake replaced the Widowmaker (Barry Windham) for unknown reasons (I believe injury though). The 4x4's all carry out their own 2x4 which reminds me of the short lived Union faction of 1999. Garvin early on does the Garvin Stomp (The move Orton ripped off, but made rather boring) to Valentine. In comes Hercules to get a piece of Valentine. Bravo is tagged in and it occurs to me that Bravo and Hercules could of made a great tag team. Both had the gimmick of being very strong and they're both wearing the same shade of light blue tights. Bravo tags in his big buddy. Earthquake hits his sitdown splash to eliminate Hercules. Duggan comes in to try and chop down the big guy. Bret Hart sneaks in and Duggan knocks 'Quake over with the school boy. Garvin is tagged back in with Valentine. Chop Chop Chop, they're both just chopping the hell out of each other. I love it. These two were made for each other. Stiff, brutal and had no problems going long matches. Blind tag by Duggan and Valentine walks right into the 3 Point Stance closeline. Valentine is eliminated (Boo!). Garvin tries locking in his Sharpshooter, but Bravo rakes his eyes. It's pretty weird seeing someone try to use that move in a Bret match. Ironically enough, Garvin is from Montreal Canada. Which of course is the setting for the most infamous time when someone uses the Sharpshooter in a Bret match besides Bret. Bravo uses a side slam to eliminate Garvin. I'm not sure if Bravo ever really had a finishing move. I can remember him using the gutwrench suplex some, but the commentators never talked about it. Savage and Bret tags in with the fans going crazy. Even back then, it seemed as if they knew Bret was something special, so being booked against Savage was a big deal. Savage plays the coward heel and tags out before too long. The heels work over Bret and Duggan is zero help (Bret tags him, but Duggan tags him right back in after a few moments). Savage nails Bret with the flying elbow drop to eliminate him. So it's Duggan vs Savage, 'Quake and Bravo. It seems as if the WWE loves 3-1 tonight. Duggan is fighting all of the heels until Sherri pulls down the top rope. Duggan falls out of the ring and is counted out. Sole Survivors: Savage, Earthquake and Bravo. Once again, not too happy about the ending. Duggan could of easily eliminated Bravo, but just couldn't overcome to 2-1 odds against Quake and Savage. However, the match fullfilled it's purpose of introducing the fans to the power of Quake (His PPV match debut I believe) and keeping Savage looking good. Not quite as enjoyable as the first match though. I wish Savage and Hart fought more. 24 Minutes. 2 Stars.

The Hulkamaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts and Demolition) vs The Million Dollar Team (Ted Dibiase, Zeus and Powers of Pain) w/ Mr Fuji
Hulk had been feuding with Zeus since the early Summer to help promote the No Holds Barred movie. I believe Jake and Dibiase had just started their feud, but I might be mistake. I do know that they continued to feud leading into their WM match. Finally, the Powers of Pain and Demolition had just reached their one year anniversary of their feud from when Fuji turned on Demolition and the two teams had a double turn. Which FYI, was IMO the best double turn in WWE history. Hogan and Zeus starts things off with Zeus beating the shit out of Hogan. Zeus starts choking Hogan out. The ref keeps trying to get Zeus to stop, but Zeus pushes him away twice. After the second one, the ref has enough and DQ's Zeus. Ventura thinks it's BS that the ref is helping Hogan. With how limited Zeus was, this was for the best especially since it just helped build their feud up. Hogan gets in a tag and Powers of Pain and Demolition fights it out for a few minutes. In a scene out of last year's event, Mr Fuji uses his cane to trip up Ax. Warlord pins Ax after an elbow. Smash is pinned 5 minutes later after a top rope closeline from the Barbarian. The WWE really dropped the ball with the Powers of Pain. Jake and Dibiase has a long segment of the match fighting with each other. It's pretty entertaining too. Jake finally tags in The Hulkster, but he has to deal with all 3 heels. The Powers of Pain works over Hogan and delivers a spike piledriver. The ref unhappy with all of the interfering DQ's BOTH members of the Powers of Pain. Jesse calls foul again. I gotta agree with him there. Roberts and Dibiase goes at it again with Jake looking good. Hogan is just laying on the mat selling the beatdown for minutes. Say what you will, but when Hogan needed to, he was a great seller. Virgil comes down to the ring wearing a cast (I have no idea what happened to him). Virgil tries to distract Roberts, but gets a DDT For his effort. Loud pop from the DDT. Ah, the days when the move wasn't just a jobber move. Dibiase uses the moment to take down Roberts and hits his backwards falling punch (Looks so much better than it sounds) to pin Roberts. We finally get a 1 on 1 match tonight. Hogan quickly Hulks up and does his normal routine and finishes Dibiase off. Sole Survivor: Hulk Hogan. I hated how 3 out of the 4 heels were just DQ'd. In kayfabe, it did look like the ref was playing favorites. I was really impressed by The Barbarian at this time. With this match not being in the main event, I really feel as if having Hogan lose to someone would of been a great idea. Losing to the Powers of Pain Spike Piledriver wouldn't have hurt Hogan, but could of really made the Pains look like a million bucks. As much as I love the Hogan celebrations, sometimes it's smart to have the heel go over. Compared to some of the guys who were put in the main event for heels around this time, I think a Barbarian main event push could of been a wise move. But alas, they decided against it. With so many brawlers in this match, the Roberts/DiBiase segments really looking good. Meanwhile, everything else looked like the same old shit. Not bad, but nothing really special. 26 Minutes. 2 Stars.

Roddy's Rowdies (Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, and The Bushwackers) vs The Rude Brood (Rick Rude, Mr Perfect, Rougeau Brothers) w/ Jimmy Hart
Since returning to the WWF, Piper had been feuding with Rick Rude. Snuka would have a short (Semi-meaningless) program with Rude and Perfect. The Rougeaus and Bushwackers feuded for a few months and would continue to feud until Raymond retired. Rude is wearing a great pair of tights with his team's faces on the front with the background of heaven while Piper's team faces are on the back in a cemetery background. This one has potential of being complete crap with one team made up of great in ring wrestlers and the other team being 3/4 just gimmick wrestlers. Mr Perfect starts it off, but ends up being bitten by all the faces (Well it is Thanksgiving). He tags out to Jacques. Raymond is no match for Snuka as he takes all of Snuka's trademark moves. Jimmy finishes him off with the Superfly Splash. Mr Perfect continues to sell for everyone, working his ass off. Raymond tags in, but doesn't last long as Piper piledrives him to eliminate him. Perfect continues to sell, this time to Piper. In comes Butch, but he's quickly rolled up by Perfect to eliminate him. Luke doesn't fare much better as he gets a Rude Awakening from Rude. Snuka gets worked over by Perfect and Rude until finally tagging Piper in. Rude is in the ring and we get the match up we've been waiting for. The two fights it out and heads outside of the ring where the fight up the aisle until both being counted out. Kinda lame finish for them, but with their feud coming to an end in Dec in a steel cage match (Great btw), they needed some building without either guy really looking bad. Snuka and Perfect has a great segment with Snuka nearly being pinned several times. Snuka tries some headbutts, but can't get a pin. Perfect plex finishes Snuka after a few minutes. Sole Survivor: Mr Perfect. As bad as Snuka was, his segment with Perfect was...well perfect. This match was so much better than I imagined. I would of liked to have the Bushwackers eliminate Jacques and Raymond to build up their feud some more. Other than that, I can't think of much I'd like to see different. We got some comedy, more heat for the Rude/Piper feud and it was another major step in building Mr Perfect up to be a champion in '90. Hennig deserves much of the credit for getting a good match out of the terrible Snuka. 22 Minutes. 3 Stars.


The Heenan Family (Andre the Giant, Arn Anderson, Haku and Bobby Heenan) vs The Ultimate Warriors (Ultimate Warrior, The Rockers and Jim Neidhart)
Warrior had been battling the entire Heenan family in 1989 (Mainly Rude). By this time, he entered a short program with Andre that was a flashback to their 1988 feud. The Rockers and the Brainbusters had been battling off and on for close to a year. Neidhart (as the Hart Foundation) had been wrestling the Brainbusters as well. Haku is just Heenan's unofficial right hand man being involved in feud he is needed in. It should be noted that Heenan replaced Tully Blanchard the day of (I believe) the show because Tully failed a drug test and was fired. This was a very last minute choice since all of the building up videos during the show still had Tully apart of the match. Before the bell, The Rockers and Neidhart fights with Andre in a losing effort. As Warrior gets to the ring, the bell rings. Warrior closelines Andre out of the ring. Andre is unable to get back in the ring and is counted out within seconds. It sucks, but Andre was in no condition to wrestle. So I can't really be too bummed about it. Without Bret, Jim isn't too valuable to the match and is quickly superkicked in the back of the head by Haku and pinned. The Rockers do some quick tags working over Haku's left arm. Arn is tagged in and tries to suplex Marty, but Shawn pulls him down. With Arn hurting, Bobby tags in, hits on punch but quickly tags back out. Ha, Heenan is perhaps the best cowardly heel ever. Arn hits a spinebuster on Marty, but just gets a 2. Bobby is tagged in and knees Marty's throat a few times and pins him. Bobby quickly tags (and retags) Arn Anderson back in the match so he doesn't need to wrestle Warrior. Michaels hits a top rope crossbody to eliminate Haku. Anderson is pissed that he's forced to do all of the work in the match and forces Heenan to tag in. Michaels beats down on Heenan and is forced to tag Anderson back in. Arn hits his spinebuster on Michaels to eliminate him. Heenan is knocked off of the apron by Warrior and Warrior hits his press slam/splash on Arn to eliminate him. Once Heenan comes to, he yells for Anderson to come back not knowing that he was eliminate. Some comedy between Warrior and Heenan and Heenan is pinned after Warrior's finish. Post match has Warrior celebrating while Heenan is walking to the back. Warrior runs to the back closelining Heenan on the way.
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Sole Survivor: Ultimate Warrior. This match was destined to be a tough match to do. Once Tully was fired and knowing that Andre couldn't wrestle much, it really limited what they could do. A Rockers/Busters mini match could of really made this a great match. Instead, it's left with Anderson (his final match) working his ass off trying to pull out some nice sequences with the Rockers while Heenan added some comedy. For such a last minute disaster of Tully being suspended/fired, they were able to produce a fun match. At the same time, this could of been so much better had Tully been there. Having the Warrior in the main event as opposed to Hogan really showed how much Warrior had progressed since arriving roughly a year earlier. 20 Minutes. 2 3/4 Stars.

Overall
This is how you do a Survivor Series PPV. You have several teams going out there creating a fun night. Sure this didn't have any spectacular matches, but they were all fun. More importantly, it created a much different environment than any other night of the WWE. These days, the Survivor Series is just another PPV which IMO makes it less special. Sure you might get a MOTYC, but it's the same old shit. For a 3 hour PPV event, it showcased every feud, no matter how big or small that was going on in the WWE. All the matches were as good as I expected or better. So basically, it's not a PPV that you have to see, but you won't be disappointed if you do see it.

Best Match: Rude Brood vs Roddy's Rowdies
Worst Match: Hulkamaniacs vs Million Dollar Team

Overall Grade: B

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KenTheKiller

Sounds like a solid PPV. A year before Heenan's team faced Hogan's team, right?

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horrorfan_1986

Well kinda, it was Heenan/Jimmy Hart. 1990 had Hogan, Boss Man, Tugboat and Duggan vs Barbarian, Haku, Earthquake and Dino Bravo.

Once against the Barbarian looked like a star, but was jobbed out.

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