Survivor Series '93

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '93

November 24, 1993 from the (Old) Boston Garden in Boston, MA

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan

After going with a more normal PPV card in '92, this year returns to the traditional Survivor Series format.

WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, The 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Janetty def Diesel, Irwin R Schyster, "The Model" Rick Martel and Adam Bomb (w/Harvey Wippleman) in 26:58- Mr. Perfect was originally going to be on Ramon's team, but had to drop out due to injury (a reoccurance of his longstanding back issue that would force him back into wrestling only part time until jumping to WCW in '97). Ramon announces Savage as his replacement. Savage had just started working a feud with the newly heel turned Crush and commentary wonders if he can keep his focus for this match. Foreshadowing! Ramon and Martel start, a rematch of the bout to fill the vacant IC title after Shawn Michaels' suspension. More on that later. After some basic hammerlock counter wrestling Martel hits a back elbow and Ramon slaps him. Martel tries a springboard reverse crossbody but Ramon rolls through it and gets a 2 count. Ramon and Bomb have a big man standoff. Bomb's wearing nuke green contact lenses. He wins a power exchange, shocking Ramon. Long test of strength. Ramon uses a nice suplex-like move to get out and covers. Martel tries to make the save, but Ramon dodges and he hits Bomb instead. Wippleman comes in and gets punched, and the whole heel team starts imploding. IRS makes peace. Kid gets tossed around by Bomb, then Diesel. After a nice tiltawhirl flying headscissors Kid makes a tag to Savage. Savage takes out all the heels, slams Diesel, hits the big elbow drop and gets the 3! Diesel is shockingly gone early after doing almost nothing of note. Savage hits IRS with an ugly crossbody for 2. Martel knees Ramon in the back from the apron and the heels go to work on it. Well, Martel and Bomb do. IRS does his usual. Ramon gets a kneelift on a backdrop attempt and boot up in the corner to make it over and tag. Savage slams IRS and loads up for the elbow again, but as he does Crush comes out. The face team holds Savage back. IRS sneaks up and gets Cheap Raw Finish 1A, the distraction rollup, to eliminate Savage. After getting pinned Savage chases Crush to the back. Janetty gets knocked around. Martel locks in an abdominal stretch with Bomb's help. Wippleman, IRS, Crush and whoever need to get out there too and do the whole abdominal stretch leverage daisy chain Bullet Club has hilariously been doing lately. Janetty dodges and Martel posts his shoulder. Ramon choke slams IRS, hits the Razor's Edge and IRS is gone. Ramon and Martel corner slugfest. Donnybrook! Ramon hoists Martel up for the Razor's Edge but IRS whacks him in the stomach with his briefcase. Ramon falls to the floor and gets counted out. Kid and Martel crank up some speed sequences, with Kid getting a Japanese armdrag. He speeds around Bomb and knocks him to the floor. TOPE SUICIDA....Bomb catches him and slams him on the floor! Fantastic. Bomb hits him with a slingshot clothesline coming back in! Kid dodges a charge and gets a rollup for 1. Enzuguri! Martel tries coming off the second rope. Kid gives him a gut punch and tags. After a Janetty hot tag run and a double team Kid rolls Martel up for 3. Almost instantly Janetty rolls Bomb up for 3 to win! Fun, solid Survivor Series match. Strange seeing Bomb getting the Big Man Push while Diesel was the first guy out, considering how the next year played out. The ending even led somewhere, as Kid and Janetty would form a regular team and go on to win the tag team titles. SURVIVORS: The 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Janetty ***1/4

 

Bret, Bruce, Keith and Owen Hart (w/Stu Hart) def Shawn Michaels and The Knights in 30:57- This was originally going to be Jerry Lawler and his knights as part of the ongoing feud, but just before this show took place Lawler found himself in a spot of legal trouble, accused of raping a 15 year old girl (charges that were later dropped by the accuser). Ironically Shawn had just come back from a suspension for steroid use, a massive no-no due to the feds' investigation into the WWF. Shawn is wearing an IC title belt of his own, saying he's still the real champion because no one beat him. All the Knights are wearing masks, but the Black Knight is former Lawler USWA rival Jeff Gaylord, the Red Knight is Barry Horowitz, and the Blue Knight is Greg Valentine. If it was WCW Jack Victory would probably be playing all three. Shawn does his annoying dick heel best to work his way into the feud, and even brings up losing to Bret at last year's Survivor Series.

 

Before the match Family Feud host Ray Combs does a way too long and unfunny introduction, then unfortunately joins commentary. Bret's in rare short tights to match his brothers. Owen and Shawn start. No, Shawn wants Bruce. Smart, go for one of the guys that hasn't wrestled in a while and never on this stage. Of course Bruce gets the upper hand with Shawn selling like a mofo. Shawn and Red get run into each other. Shawn slips out of a Keith slam attempt and tries a suplex, but Keith turns it into a small package for 2. Owen outwrestles Red until he gets eye poked. He shakes it off and hits dropkicks. Black gets armdraged around. Bret hits atomic drops and a diving clothesline on Blue. Bruce gets kneed in the back by Shawn and the heels go to work on it. Red double underhook suplex for 2. Bruce gets a backslide on Black for 2. After getting tagged in Bret gets a couple of near falls on Black. Owen hits a spinning heel kick. The pin is broken up and we have a donnybrook. After a long and tortured setup process all four heels are whipped into each other. Owen hits Black with a missile dropkick off the top and pins him. He clips Red's knee and all the faces take turns working on it. After a while Keith hooks a figure four in. Shawn breaks it up. Red trips Keith and Shawn does a slingshot dive on his arm. Now the heels go to work on Keith's arm for what feels like two hours. At the end of it Keith dodges Shawn getting rocket launched by Blue and tags. Bret hooks Red in the Sharpshooter and Red is gone. Shawn and Bret finally end up in the ring together, but the camera is on Stu trying to get Keith's arm back in wrestling shape. Bret powers out of the Mandatory Chinlock Spot. After a tag to Owen it's Donnybrook 2. Shawn slides under Owen to the floor, then sells a Stu punch like he got hit by Mike Tyson. Owen with a plancha! He hits a bulldog on Blue and locks in his own Sharpshooter. Blue is gone, and Shawn is all alone against the whole Hart family. Naturally he stalls getting back in the ring and begs off. Bret atomic drops him into the face corner and everyone gets a shot in. Shawn hits Bruce with a glancing superkick for 2. Bret starts rolling through the Five Moves of Doom with Shawn continuing to sell like a pinball in zero mavity. Owen hits a crazy running belly to belly suplex for 2. As he hits the ropes Bret is on the apron and he knocks Bret off and all the way to the guardrail. Shawn uses the distraction to roll Owen up and eliminate him. All the Harts go to check on Bret and Owen is furious. As he slowly leaves he asks "What about me?" on the aisle. After some more weak Bruce and Keith/Shawn stuff and pretty good Bret/Shawn stuff Shawn decides he's had enough and takes a walk, taking the countout. After the bell Owen comes back out and he's HOT. He pulls Bret down, gets in his face, gets in his other brother's faces, and shoves everyone in sight. The others try to reason with him but give up and leave. Owen stays in the ring and celebrates to a chorus of boos. The match was way, way, way, way too long for what they had to offer. Keith looked almost OK, but Bruce's work was very rough. None of the guys playing the knights got in a groove, not to mention the fact the whole "knights" concept was pointless after Lawler got pulled. But everyone only remembers one thing from this: the start of Owen's heel turn, and that part was very well done. SURVIVORS: Bret, Keith and Bruce Hart. *1/2

We have a commentary swap for the next match as Jim Ross and Gorilla Monsoon (yay!) move over from Radio WWF to TV. Monsoon and Heenan have some fun as they cross paths on the floor. Then there's an ad for Wrestlemania 10, heading back to Madison Square Garden for the big anniversary show. After that is a recap of changes made to the teams in the main event. First, after Tatanka finally suffered his first loss at the hands of Ludvig Borga, Yokozuna squashed him with a Banzai Drop. Tatanka was replaced by the Undertaker, showing the first flashes of the patriotism that he would show later in his face American Badass days. After that, Lex Luger took out Pierre of the Quebecers (the new tag champs after beating the Steiners on Raw in September) with his loaded forearm. Pierre was replaced by new Mr. Fuji stable member Crush. Oh, and before anyone asks, yes Pierre is PCO.

 

Smokey Mountain Wrestling Tag Team Championship: The Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) def The Rock 'N' Roll Express (c) in 13:41- These two teams have been trading the SMW tag titles back and forth since the company's formation (though most changes were with former Midnight Expresser Stan Lane on the Bodies instead of Jimmy Del Ray). Bit of history here as this is the RNR's first match ever in a WWF ring. This match is under WWF rules rather than SMW, which will be important later. The Bodies do the Suzuki-Gun ambush before the bell and throw the RNR to the floor. They flip Gibson back in, then try to flip Morton in, but Morton turns the tables and flips both heels out to the floor. Gibson holds the ropes open for a Morton TOPE SUICIDA! MAMA MIA! Cornette is livid. Like about to shoot on how awful AEW is livid. Reset with Gibson and Del Ray. The have a great high speed run that ends with a Gibson flying headscissors. Morton and Pritchard slightly mess up a leapfrog spot. Morton has hiptosses for everyone, then dodges Del Ray's superkick and he takes out Pritchard instead! The RNR roll through some more double teams and even whip the old rowboat out. They do some work on Pritchard's knee. More RNR double teams as they're in complete control. Pritchard finally gets away with an eye rake, but Del Ray walks right into an armdrag. More RNR outsmarting of the heels and they roll out to regroup. Pritchard and Morton do multiple whip reverses in the corner, leading to Pritchard turning a Morton backdrop attempt into a powerbomb. Morton goes face in peril. I know, I know, I'm shocked too. Pritchard lifts Del Ray into a standing moonsault for 2. Morton gets thrown out. Del Ray hits a springboard moonsault from the second rope to the floor! Pritchard powerslam for 2. More Midnight Express style double teams get a couple more near falls. Del Ray lifts Morton up for a powerbomb, but he turns it into a hurricanrana for 2! Morton then gets a desperation small package for 2. Del Ray with another moonsault, this time from the top rope. Gibson breaks the pin up. Morton double DDTs the heels, rolls through and gets the tag. Donnybrook! Morton rolls Del Ray up. Pritchard grabs him and throws him over the top rope. Gibson thinks it's over because in SMW that would have been a DQ. Not under WWF rules. Morton hits a crossbody off the top but the pin is broken up. Double dropkick by the RNR. Morton covers, but behind the ref's back Cornette tosses the tennis racket to Del Ray, who whacks Morton in the back of the head off the top rope with it. Pritchard covers, and we have new champs! Really good, if sometimes a bit disjointed, NWA/southern style tag match on a WWF show that the northeast WWF crowd didn't give two shits about. ***1/2

Recap of the build for the next match, where the now face turned and not Matt Bourne Doink the Clown told Bam Bam Bigelow that he'd be facing not one, not two, not three, but four Doink clones. The prematch promo with the heel time has everyone but Bigelow and Luna chowing down on food, which sadly plays into the next match way too much.

 

The Bushwhackers and Men on a Mission (w/Oscar) def Bam Bam Bigelow, Bastion Booger and The Headshrinkers (w/Luna Vachon and Afa) in 10:58- The heels are still eating as they come in. All the faces are wearing Doink makeup and wigs. So....where's the real Doink? Commentary doesn't even bother to ask. There's a big "We want Doink!" chant that the faces play along with, but methinks the crowd's not too happy with this. Luke and Booger start. It's awful. Samu comes in and beats Luke down. The faces start offering him balloons and he bites all of them. The last one has water in it, which surprises Samu and Luke rolls him up for a pin. Pause for everyone reading to mental facepalm. Gird your loins folks, it's only going to get worse. Fatu beats Luke down. Or it could be Butch. With all the facepaint it's harder to tell than usual. Booger hits a legdrop. Bigelow comes in and tries to get things serious for a minute. Booger hits the booger drop or whatever it was called. But instead of pinning LukeButch, he's distracted by food! He goes for the drop again, but MOM pull LukeButch out of the way. The Bushwhackers hit the battering ram, and Mabel covers Booger to eliminate him. Fatu attacks ButchLuke with a turkey. Really. Mo gets the scooter Luke rode in on and rides around the ring with it. Vince: "What is going on?". Might be Vince's biggest understatement ever. Bigelow enzuguris Mo and throws the scooter to the floor. Fatu hits a splash off the top rope, but doesn't get the pin because now *he's* distracted by the food! Oy vey. The other Bushwhacker comes in and threatens to throw clown stuff on Fatu from a bucket. Fatu SLIPS ON A BANANA PEEL AND GETS PINNED. Son of a bitch, I'm a quarter of a nerve away from going full on Jim Cornette on this match. I'm talking modern day angry old man Jim Cornette. Bigelow is the only heel left and he tries to have a wrestling match with all the crap all over the ring. Mabel comes in. I should mention, no one on the face team has tagged in or out the whole match, they've just swapped. Jim Cornette and FTR. After some big man shoulderblock standoffs Mabel eventually knocks Bigelow down. Bigelow dodges an avalanche. Butch gets one of the buckets and throws confetti on Luna. While Bigelow's distracted by that he gets squashed in the corner by MOM, and all the faces pile on top of him to pin him. What. The. Flip. That was beyond atrocious. That was a joke, but not a funny joke. Even as a comedy match that was a pathetic excuse for anything remotely resembling what a wrestling match should be. The Gobbeldy Gooker reveal was better than that. I'm not even joking. SURVIVORS: Anyone that's still alive and sane after watching that garbage. MINUS FIVE STARS

 

The All Americans ("The All American" Lex Luger, The Undertaker and The Steiner Brothers) def The Foreign Fanatics (WWF Champion Yokozuna, Ludvig Borga, Crush and WWF Tag Team Champion Quebecer Jacques w/Mr. Fuji, Jim Cornette and Johnny Polo) in 27:59- Yokozuna and Taker go nose to nose before the bell. Something's really not right here- Rick's wearing matching boots. Scott and Jacques start. Jacques offers the insincere handshake. Scott offers a Spaceballs salute in return. Scott belly to belly suplex for a quick 2 count. Rick tags in and Jacques does the scardey runaway into the heel corner, tagging Yokozuna. Steinerlines and tackles knock Yokozuna to the floor. Rick gets caught and beat down in the heel corner. Borga throws him outside, with Rick inadvertently landing on top of a cameraman. Rick goes up top and hits Borga with a flying tackle for 2. He goes up again. It looks like Borga was supposed to catch and powerslam him, but he misses and Rick flops face first into the mat. Borga covers and Hebner counts 3 even though Rick puts his shoulder up. Rick rolls out and several guys check on him as it looks like he had his bell legitimately rung. Scott presses Jacques and throws him into Crush, who catches him. Crush ducks a leapfrog and hits a spinning kick to Scott's face. Randy Savage comes out, being held back by a gaggle of officials. Crush presses Scott and drops him all the way down to the floor while staring Savage down. The scrum gets Savage back behind the curtain. More kicks and some knee work from Crush on Scott. Savage is out again! Scott dropkicks Crush in the back, sending him to the floor. Crush doesn't care, barely sells and goes right for Savage. They brawl on the aisle as Crush gets counted out. When the camera gets back on the ring Scott's being pounded on in the heel corner. Jacques hits a piledriver. Scott comes back, hits a press slam and tags Luger. Luger slams Jacques, hits an elbow off the second rope, and that's all it takes to pin him. Scott comes back in, but Borga wants Luger. Borga stiffs the shit out of Scott with clotheslines and an avalanche. He goes up top. Scott catches him, climbs up and hits a superplex! Yokozuna breaks the pin up, then stays in the match. Seriously, are all the matches tonight lucha rules and no one bothered to tell us? Scott tries for the Frankensteiner. Yokozuna grabs the rope to stop, hits the legdrop and Scott's gone. Luger comes in and we have our Summerslam rematch. Yoko pounds away. Luger dodges a big splash. Luger clothesline. Yokozuna counter clothesline. Borga rib punches. Luger dodges a Yokozuna avalanche and tags Taker, who's finally in for the first time tonight. Taker leaping DDT on Yokozuna! The crowd finally wakes up for this. Borga tries a cheap shot from the apron. Taker takes him out, but Yokozuna uses the distraction to hit a belly to belly suplex. Taker sits up. Yoko clothesline. As Taker starts to sit up again Yokozuna hits him with a dropkick! Nice. He drags Taker to the corner and hits the Banzai Drop. But instead of covering he goes for a second one. Taker sits up and Yoko splats. Flying clothesline. They go to the floor. Taker no sells a stair shot as both guys are counted out. And the WWF title match for the Royal Rumble is set. It's down to Borga and Luger. Borga hits a bunch of power moves for near falls as Luger slowly starts hulking up. Luger reverses a suplex. Double clothesline. While Hebner's distracted Fuji gives him the salt bucket and he whacks Luger with it. Crawl over and cover. Luger kicks out! And now the full hulk up. Luger hits a DDT and power moves of his own for near falls. After a bit more back and forth Luger hits the loaded forearm for the win. Decent mini match to finish it there. It would turn out to be the heavily pushed Borga's last major WWF appearance, as he'd suffer an ankle injury at a house show in January before the Rumble and leave the WWF soon after, never to be heard from again. SOLE SURVIVOR: Lex Luger **1/2

As the show closes snow starts falling and Santa Claus comes out to celebrate with Luger. I'm done.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Another up and down show to close out an up and down year of major transition. The fact the crowd in one of WWF's major hub cities had a hard time getting invested in anything shows the struggle the company was facing, and would continue to for a few more years.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-