Survivor Series '88

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '88

November 24, 1988 from the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, OH

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura

WWF Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior, The Blue Blazer, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, Sam Houston and Jim Brunzell def The Honky Tonk Man, "Outlaw" Ron Bass, "Dangerous" Danny Davis, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Bad News Brown (w/Jimmy Hart) in 17:50- Warrior's team all run in full speed with him. Commentary mentions Brown is a "loner" and say this is the first time they've ever seen him in a tag match. Foreshadowing. Former Dream Team partners Beefcake and Valentine start. Davis gets an early cheap shot in. Beefcake makes short work of him with the sleeper. Valentine works Beefcake's leg over. He goes for the figure four but Beefcake pushes out. Blazer (Owen Hart) whips out the flippydo. Valentine gets a sneaky tag to Brown. Brown and Brunzell go back and forth a bit, ending when Brown nails him with the Ghetto Blaster and eliminates him. Brown stays in and laughs off beanpole Sam Houston's attempt at offense. Houston does what he does best: take a beating. Brown stays in a long time without tagging out, but hey, it's only Houston. Finally he tags out to Valentine, but then wants right back in. They go to double team Houston, but Houston ducks and Valentine nails Brown! Brown has some words and storms off, taking the countout. Houston rolls up a distracted Valentine for 2. Bass gets in for some Texan on Texan violence and Houston does what he does best. Again. Houston gets a springboard reverse crossbody for 2 but doesn't tag out. He tries a monkey flip but Bass catches him, turns it into a powerslam, and eliminates Houston. Here comes the Warrior. All the heels go down. Warrior rocket launches Blazer onto Bass but it's only good for 2. Valentine and Blazer botch a leapfrog spot but quickly recover. Blazer goes up top but Honky pushes him off. Valentine hooks the figure four in and it's good night Blazer. Beefcake goes face in peril and is triple teamed by the heels. Honky goes for the Shake Rattle and Roll but Beefcake backdrops out. Sleeper on Honky. He dives through the ropes to try to get out. Honky and Beefcake brawl on the floor and both guys are counted out. Valentine and Bass double team Warrior until Warrior hits them with a double clothesline. Warrior hits both Bass and Valentine with double ax handles and eliminates them both to win. SOLE SURVIVOR: The Ultimate Warrior. Very abrupt ending. Perfectly watchable match. **1/4

The Powers of Pain, The Rockers, The Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs and The Young Stallions def WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition, The Brain Busters, The Conquistadors, The Bolsheviks, and The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers (w/Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart & Mr. Fuji) in 42:12- This is the proper, serious version of the Conquistadors, not anything like the Edge and Christian version. Same outfits though. Like last year there's guys wrapped all around the ring apron. They constantly have to move to make space for rope running. It's team elimination, so when one wrestler is eliminated his partner is also out. DBS and Uno start. Well I think it's Uno. He's the first guy in so, it's Uno. Wrestling logic. DBS press slams Jacques into Raymond. Shawn does his corner flip over Zhukov, a huge spot back in this day. Ax axes Janetty. Arn and Janetty are in together! The Rockers and Brian Busters were just starting their feud that would tear up the house show circuit and make the Rockers WWF stars. Janetty and Tully slugfest. Lots of quick tags happening. No one has been eliminated but almost everyone has cycled in at some point. Bret wraps up Raymond in a small package (with a little un-Bret like slippiness, he doesn't quite get Raymond's head locked in) to eliminate the Rougeaus so they can shower and get out of town before the Bulldogs legit kill them backstage (A rib gone wrong. A harmful rib, if you will. Old BTE references FTW.). Roma springboards to the TOP rope and gets a reverse crossbody from there for 2. Bret goes mild FIP for a bit. He and Tully have a quick sequence. Mid-'80s Tully vs mid-'90s Bret would be a hell of a dream match. Smash catches Shawn on a crossbody attempt and drapes him over the heel corner so they can all work on him. Arn with the World's Greatest Spinebuster on Shawn! But he hesitates to cover and Shawn kicks out. Janetty spins out of a hiptoss attempt and turns it into a slam. Monsoon: "I've never seen anything like that before". More quick tags on both sides. Ax and Warlord end up in together and the crowd eats it up. Anvil powerslams Tully for 2. Powers gets the 2nd rope springboard, but Zhukov reverses it to eliminate the Young Stallions. Quite the comedown from their performance in last year's match. Tully tags in, sees the Barbarian across from him, and skedaddles right out pronto. The Demos pound Barbarian down. Janetty gets a sunset flip on Zhukov for 3, and the Bolsheviks are gone. Janetty turns a backdrop into a roll up for 2. Now Tully doesn't want to get in with DBS, but uses the ref to heel 101 him down. The Harts hit a version of the Decapitation Device on Uno (Dos?) for 2. Dos (Uno?) gets confused and tries to tag out in the face corner. He's on the ropes (figuratively) but Barbarian gives him a headbutt that sends him into the heel corner. Demolition puts Barbarian in peril. After a tag the Rockers and Busters are at it again. Bret goes through the Five Moves of Doom on Tully. He gives Tully a German suplex with a bridge. The ref counts 3, but Tully got a shoulder up and Bret didn't. The Harts are eliminated. The Rockers and Busters go into full donnybrook mode, and the ref DQs all of them. They keep fighting all the way up the aisle.

It's down to Demolition and the Conquistadors against the POP and Bulldogs. Uno and Dos both fight off pin attempts. DBS gets a crucifix on Smash for 2. There's still a lot of back and forth and quick tags with all four teams involved, but this is the stretch of the match that goes on a tick too long. Dynamite gets a couple of near falls on Tres. Smash dodges Dynamite's headbutt off the top rope, clotheslines him and gets the pin to eliminate the Bulldogs. This is Dynamite's last WWF appearance. The Bulldogs would go back to Stampede for a bit before joining All Japan until Dynamite's forced retirement due to chronic back problems in '91 (which were already showing at the time of this match) and DBS's WWF return as a singles wrestler. Warlord posts his shoulder and goes FIP. Fuji gets on the apron to bark orders. As Smash runs the ropes, Fuji opens them up and Smash tumbles to the floor! WHAT? Smash is counted out. Ax confronts Fuji and they argue. As soon as Ax turns his back, Fuji whacks him with his cane! Ax body slams Fuji on the floor, and the Demos leave. Mass confusion. The Conquistadors try to wrestle, but the POP go out to help Fuji! What is going on here? Commentary is baffled and befuddled. Monsoon: "Something stinks here". Ventura: "Yeah, and it ain't Cleveland". The POP re-enter the match, and Fuji stays at ringside. Fuji hooks UnoDos's leg with the cane, and Warlord covers for the win. SOLE SURVIVORS: The Powers of Pain. The POP celebrate with Fuji until Demolition run in and fights them off. Double turn complete. For the second straight year, the tag team match steals the show at Survivor Series. It drug a little down the stretch, but the action was nonstop throughout with lots of interesting pairings, and the double turn helped elevate it even more. ****

Intermission time in the arena means promo time on TV. Bad News Brown explains himself, saying his teammates were conspiring against him. Basic R-Truth conspiracy theory: see them everywhere. He also demands a title shot against Savage because he won the WM battle royale and promises to go straight to Jack Tunney. Meanwhile, Fuji explains that he dumped the Demos because they stopped listening to him, so he found a team that would. Mean Gene: "You can't trust this man!".

Andre the Giant, "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, "King" Harley Race and Dino Bravo (w/Bobby Heenan and Frenchy Martin) def Jake "The Snake" Roberts, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Ken Patera, Tito Santana and Scott Casey in 30:03- First things first: who the smeg is Scott Casey? Well, he's that rare guy that you could call a super jobber. He'd lose to established names, but also get the occasional TV win against other jobbers. Perfect had just joined the WWF after dropping the AWA World title in May. He was still using his real name as his ring name. This is early on in the "Damien gave Andre a heart attack" Andre/Roberts feud that will run until WM 5. Rude and Patera start. Rude's tights tonight are....interesting. Women's hands right over his crotch and on his ass. Perfect legit runs into Duggan while running the ropes. Santana and Perfect have a nice high octane sequence. Bravo turns a Casey monkey flip attempt into an inverted atomic drop and the heels take turns beating on the super jobber. Duggan "clotheslines" Perfect, running full body into him. Payback for earlier? Perfect does a 360 corner sell over the top and out. Santana gets a glancing .6 flying forearm on Rude, who kicks out. Casey and Duggan are both looking rough tonight. Very sloppy wrestling. The Rude Awakening takes out Patera. Bravo's side suplex thankfully eliminates Casey. Duggan wanders by the heel corner and Andre, who hasn't been off the apron yet the whole match, pulls him in. Santana gets a couple of good near falls on Bravo. A Race piledriver on Santana gets 2. Flying empanada! Race is gone. Andre finally gets in and chokes the life out of Santana. Santana tries a sunset flip! on Andre, but Andre sits on him and pins him. Not the brightest idea. I bet Duggan told him to do it. Duggan comes in punching and Andre gets tied up in the ropes. The faces go to town on him a bit. Roberts and Rude renew their rivalry. Ventura wonders who Cheryl Roberts is cheering for. Roberts hits the buckles at 100 MPH and goes FIP. Bravo hits him with a huge jumping piledriver, but Roberts gets a foot on the rope. Roberts rolls away from Bravo diving elbows and gets the hot tag. Duggan cleans house, goes down to the 3 point stance, but Frenchy grabs his foot and drags him out. Bravo slams him on the floor. Duggan runs around, grabs his 2x4, and whacks Bravo with it. Duggan is DQ'd. Duggan: "SHIT!" (bleeped out of course) It's 4 on 1 with Roberts the last face standing. Roberts gets the upper hand on Perfect. A frustrated Perfect tags out. Bravo backdrops out of a DDT attempt. Rude tags in. Roberts is full of babyface fury and bushido but is wearing down. While Rude walks over to tag out Roberts pulls his tights down, turns him around for a DDT, and Rude is gone. Andre comes in, starts choking Roberts and refuses to let go. Andre is DQ'd. While the refs are getting Andre out Roberts collapses in the middle of the ring, absolutely done. Perfect runs in, covers him, and gets the win. SURVIVORS: Mr. Perfect and Dino Bravo. It had some moments but not enough to fill all the time it got. *3/4

WWF Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Hercules, Koko B Ware and Hillbilly Jim def The Twin Towers, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, The Red Rooster, and Haku (w/Bobby Heenan and Slick) in 29:10- The Mega Powers vs The Twin Towers was the big placeholder feud going on, using the usual "Hogan vs big guy" formula, while time ticked down to the Mega Powers explosion. Savage and DiBiase renew acquaintances to start. DiBiase runs away from Herc (the "DiBiase trying to buy Herc as a slave" feud was going). Poor Terry Taylor. Listening to how commentary is forced to talk about one of the most underrated wrestlers of the era is just painful. A Hogan/Jim double big boot on Haku gets 2. Rooster tries to slam Jim and that doesn't go well. Marty Scurll has a better chance of slamming Bad Luck Fale (I wish I could remember exactly which New Japan show they did that on, it was hilarious). Rooster remembers he's Terry "Flair Lite" Taylor for a minute as he and Ware have a nice speed sequence. The Savage elbow finishes Rooster off. Heenan berates him as he heads to the back. The faces celebrate like they've won the whole match while the heels have a strategery huddle. More quick tags with nothing really remarkable happening. Akeem and Jim shockingly have a pretty decent sequence, ending when Akeem pins him with the 747. Ware dropkicks Akeem from behind as he celebrates. The faces take turns trying to knock Akeem down. Vince Big Man Logic Rule 1: the bigger they are, the less they fall. The Boss Man Slam finishes Ware. Now they do the "won't fall down" sequence again with Boss Man. Hogan slams him but Boss Man gets right back up and hits Hogan with a spinebuster. Hogan goes in peril a bit before Hulking Up on DiBiase and tagging in Herc. DiBiase goes into super selling mode. Virgil grabs Herc's foot and DiBiase rolls him up and eliminates him. While DiBiase is still jawing with Herc Savage sneaks up, rolls DiBiase up, and eliminates him and the rest of the heel side workrate. Hogan goes in peril again. Haku locks in the Tongan Nerve Grip of Applied Mechanics +1. Boss Man plants Hogan with the Boss Man Slam but doesn't go for a cover. He tries to come off the top rope but Hogan dodges and tags. Slick whacks Savage with his cane while he's running the ropes. Then Slick gets in Elizabeth's face and tries to drag her to the back. Hogan saves her, but is ambushed by the Twin Towers. Boss Man is counted out. Was he even the legal man? They handcuff Hogan to the bottom rope and Boss Man goes to work on him with his nightstick. While all this is going on Haku is beating up Savage in the ring. Boss Man attacks Savage with the club, Akeem joins in, and Akeem is DQ'd. Hogan's still handcuffed and Slick taunts him with the key. Savage fights Haku off and goes to tag but there's no one there. Haku accidentally kicks Slick off the apron. Elizabeth runs around, finds the key and frees Hogan. Ventura: "She's going after Slick's wallet!'. Haku goes for a splash off the top but Savage dodges and tags Hogan. Big boot/slam/legdrop/good night. SURVIVORS: The Mega Powers. Hogan checks on Savage for about a second before he starts posing. Savage takes a while to recover from the beating Haku gave him. Hogan celebrates with Elizabeth and Savage joins in but does not look happy as the show goes off air. This is the kind of clusterfrell booking you get when everyone's protecting their spot and no one wants to eat a pin. *1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: A mostly forgettable show. The tag team match is must see and one of the best traditional Survivor Series matches ever but that's about it. The Mega Powers tension isn't even enough to watch here, as it's much more overt at the Rumble a couple of months later.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-