WWF Survivor Series 1988 (11.26.88) review 

 

November 26, 1988 

 

We’re in Richfield, Ohio at the Richfield Coliseum for the second Survivor Series. This venue hosted last year’s show too. We have 13,500 on hand and a buyrate of 2.82. The 1987 version did a stonking 7.01. 1988 hasn’t captured the imagination like 1987 did. Tonight, as with 1987, we have four Survivor matches and the women have been ditched outright. So, there are three men’s matches and a tag. Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura. 

 

Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, Jim Brunzell, Sam Houston & Blue Blazer vs. Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine, Bad News Brown, Ron Bass & Danny Davis 

Warrior and Beefcake are introduced as co-captains. Boy, that’s a proper time capsule moment. I don’t think there’s any point after this match where parity would exist between them and Warrior would go on to win the big strap in 1990. Beefcake is popular in late 1988 and he dumps Davis with a sleeper about a minute in.  

 

Beefcake has two feuds ongoing with HTM and Bass. Warrior is still somewhat entangled with Honky as well, although not for much longer. If Jumpin’ Jim Brunzell seems like an odd choice here it’s because Don Muraco was originally in that spot but left the company. Blue Blazer, if you’re not aware, is a masked Owen Hart making his PPV debut.  

 

Bad News dumps Brunzell with the Ghettoblaster. There was a fair amount of dead weight and jaybrones knocking around. Brunzell was on his own at this point as B. Brian Blair had left the company. Brunzell himself would be gone in early 1989. Vince brought him back a couple of times but he never repeated the Killer Bees success. 

 

Plucky upstart Sam Houston takes some decent bumps, nice late kick outs and looks quick compared to everyone else. His issues were more on offence. Bad News gets hit by Hammer by mistake and he walks out. However, Valentine had tagged in, so I don’t think that’s a legal count out. Bass puts Houston out with a powerslam. Sam had been beaten up for half the match before his elimination.  

 

Blazer looks incredible during his spell in the ring. He’s exciting, innovative and has a great mix of aerial offence and technical skill. Hammer beats him with a Figure Four after Blazer takes a spill off the buckles thanks to Honky.  

 

Honky Tonk Man, who has a terrible case of jobberitis* (bar Summerslam ‘88 baby) again avoids a pinfall here. He’s fighting with Beefcake and they both get counted out. That leaves Warrior against Bass and Hammer. Both guys who are happy to lie down for an upcoming talent.  

 

*Jobberitis is when your shoulders are allergic to canvas and can’t stay there for three seconds. It’s a medical condition that has afflicted several stars over the years.  

 

Warrior stinks but he is getting very popular. His high energy business has gotten over with the marks. He finishes both Bass and Valentine with double axe handles. Running ones, not even off the ropes. The match was decent until the last few falls, but I get they wanted to push Warrior hard so here we are. **½ 

 

Demolition, Brain Busters, Rougeau Brothers, Los Conquistadores & Bolsheviks vs. Powers of Pain, Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs, Rockers & Young Stallions 

It’s so weird seeing Arn & Tully in the WWF. Even though I know it happened, it just feels wrong. It’s also very strange, in retrospect, seeing Harts, Rockers AND Bulldogs all on the same team. Arguably three of the finest tag teams in the WWF’s entire history. This is the end of the road for the Bulldogs as Dynamite Kid has gotten into it with the Rougeau’s backstage with various ‘pranks’. Including one where Jacques punched Dynamite Kid in the face with a roll of quarters and knocked out two of his teeth. Banter though eh? Dynamite claims his real reason for leaving was a disagreement with management over plane tickets. Any way you slice it, this is his final WWF match and essentially the end of his career. He went to AJPW after this but never wrestled in America again.  

 

There’s a lot of talented boys in here and we get a lot of fast tags. Bret catches Ray Rougeau with an inside cradle to send them packing back to French Canada. It’s weird they put the faces up by a team and just stay there for ten minutes. Apparently, so scuttlebutt says, it was to allow the Rougeau’s to leave the building before the Bulldogs were eliminated. To avoid a backstage fracas. Watching the Brain Busters segments, I wish they’d just put the belts on them immediately. Marty Jannetty is also on excellent form here. A big question mark on this match is over the double turn and while the Powers of Pain have not gotten over before this, they’re actually over here. Maybe they panicked into that double turn too early?  

The Bolsheviks get rid of the Young Stallions after Jimmy Powers botched a springboard crossbody. Boris rolls through it. The Rockers get rid of the Bolsheviks right after that thanks to Marty with a sunset flip. Jannetty is great at taking heat and great at creating weird angles for offence. He may be the MVP of this match! 

 

Tully isn’t far behind as he leans heavily into Sportz Entertainment. His tag in, spot Warlord, tag out bit is awesome. As is his ‘protecting the ring’ bit after tagging.  

As for Dynamite Kid in his last match, he clearly protects himself by not doing the diving headbutt (switching to a knee drop). He also has a weird look; longer hair and a moustache. Los Conquistadors have a bizarre match. They kick out of a bunch of moves throughout the entire match, despite being essentially makeweights, and make it to the end of the match. Bret vs. Tully makes me sad Blanchard never stuck around to challenge Bret in singles. It’s very good. Bret pulls out the German suplex on Tully but pins himself and the Harts are out. 

 

The Rockers and the Brain Busters get into a big old fight and the ref’s kick both teams out. That’s not a popular decision. Got to save that for another time. So, we’re left with Demos & Conquistadors vs. Powers & Bulldogs. That’s not what we were hoping for when the match started, I can’t lie. Essentially the match is dead for the final ten minutes. Which is a pity because it was a right rollicking good time before that. 

 

Your mileage on the last ten minutes may vary on how much you like Barbarian and Bill Eadie. Conquistadors continue to survive! Dynamite misses his diving headbutt and gets pinned with an awful clothesline from Smash. Just dreadful. What a way to end your WWF career, eh? Between the double DQ and the Bulldogs going was NINE MINUTES. Completely unnecessary in my humble opinion. The storyline kicks in just after that as Mr Fuji starts getting involved. “But why?” asks Jesse Ventura.  

Fuji causes Smash to fall out of the ring to no reaction, other than a few kids laughing. The trouble with WWF crowds is they need to be told what’s happening and have stuff ‘teased’ beforehand. They didn’t do any of that here. Demos get counted out and take exception to Fuji’s bullshit and kick his ass. This gets a huge face pop! The trouble with Fuji’s turn is that it was too subtle. He should have just whacked Smash with a cane. Afterwards, things get more confusing as the Powers of Pain go to help Fuji. Powers of Pain immediately put Conquistadors away to another babyface pop. The crowd is confused. It IS Ohio to be fair. To straighten the crowd out Demolition run back down to beat up the Powers of Pain but that gets a negative reaction. Oh dear.  

They struggled to tell a big story here. The crowd didn’t bite on it correctly and didn’t understand what was happening. Wrestling should be simple. You can tell complicated stories but in the ring, you have to dumb it down a bit to make sure everyone gets it. Sort everything out in promos afterwards if you have to. It didn’t help that Demolition had no issues with Mr Fuji, even during the match, right up the point where he turned on them. The last 10-15 minutes of this really killed it but beforehand it rocked. So, we’ll call it ***½.  

 

Video Control takes us backstage where Sean Mooney interviews Bad News Brown. He points out he’s never lost and getting beaten in a Survivor Match on count out doesn’t mean shit. He then accuses Randy Savage of hiding behind his woman. Oh ho, fighting words. Elsewhere, Mr Fuji addresses why he just turned on Demolition. Apparently, they stopped listening to him so he recruited a new tag team. Barbarian cuts a promo here and I don’t think I’ve ever heard him talk before.  

 

Andre the Giant, Harley Race, Rick Rude, Mr Perfect & Dino Bravo vs. Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, Tito Santana, Ken Patera & Scott Casey 

SCOTT CASEY? This was originally Junkyard Dog, but he left the company and was replaced in this match by B. Brian Blair, but he left too. So, we’re onto third choice Casey, who is 100% a jabronie. Jake and Duggan are co-captains, and both have an issue with Andre. Bravo is co-captain for the heels, for reasons I don’t understand. This is Patera’s last match in the WWF and it’s probably overdue. He’s broken down and wasn’t that good to start with.  

 

On the other end of the scale is Hennig, making his WWF PPV debut and looking excellent in the process. Casey, predictably, looks way out of his element. Casey got released early in 1989 and never caught on anywhere big again. It shows how little the WWF think of Patera at this point that he’s out first, ahead of Casey, thanks to a Rude Awakening.  

 

Casey continues to stink the joint up, looking bad against Race of all people. Dino gets rid of Casey with a sideslam. Heels up 5-3 here. Jake and Duggan getting what they deserve for selecting Patera and Casey. Santana takes a spell in the ring, which helps the pacing of the match a great deal. Race is out next, beaten by Tito’s Flying Forearm. It shows how low Race is on that totem pole now and he looked rough out there. He’ll be gone soon too. Andre sits on Tito and it’s 4-2 heels.  

Jake proceeds to get beaten up for five minutes solid, hot tags Duggan in and Jim, the big thicko, the fucking dickhead, promptly gets himself disqualified for whacking Dino Bravo with the 2×4. Jake looks on wondering why he’s chosen such dumbasses as partners. Should have drilled Jim with the DDT and and turned heel mate. Would have been justified. 4 on 1 heels. 

 

Logically, Jake should eliminate some scrub quickly (IE Dino Bravo) but instead gets beaten up for another five minutes. How incompetent are the heels for not beating one guy? You could argue that Rude and Andre want a measure of revenge for past issues but surely Hennig, on his PPV debut, wants to get a pin? Anyway, Rude pisses about posing for too long, gets drilled with the DDT and he’s gone.  

Andre has seen enough and decides to end this. He chokes Jake to death and gets disqualified. Well sure, murder is illegal in wrestling. Mr Perfect just strolls in and pins the corpse for the heels to finally win and fucking DINO survived. God damn it. This was way too long for what it was. There were too many nobodies involved near the start and the booking sucked. On the Coliseum Video version, they clipped this 30:00 match down to 8:00 and I would have been happy to watch that version.  

The good thing is that Andre looked fine in this match. They were able to hide him away and when he did come in, he looked like an absolute monster. To the point where Jake had no shot against him, nor did anyone else. Andre had spent the previous year stumbling, bumbling and falling over himself. He needed to look like a killer. Especially after that heart attack angle.  

 

Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Hercules, Hillbilly Jim & Koko B Ware vs. Ted DiBiase, Big Boss Man, King Haku, Akeem & Red Rooster 

Not exactly the main event you’d expect. Lots of dead weight in there. Hillbilly Jim is making his final PPV appearance (until WrestleMania X7’s gimmick battle royal). He wouldn’t leave the company until 1991 but didn’t even make a Rumble appearance in that time. Akeem is the retooled One Man Gang, who was now paired with Boss Man as the Twin Towers. Terry Taylor is the Red Rooster, he jumped from NWA (via Dallas) and was such a stooge they gave him a shitty gimmick for a laugh. The idea is that Bobby Heenan thinks he’s useless and will give him constant instruction from ringside.  

 

First Hogan powerplay of the night is him getting a separate entrance and coming out here after the WWF champion.  

Also worth noting that, once again, Savage is wearing Hogan’s colours as part of their mega-team. Red Rooster makes several terrible errors of judgement including trying to slam Hillbilly Jim and not running away from Hulk Hogan. They make him look like a complete dumbass. Big boot, slam and Savage adds in the Flying Elbow. Bye Terry! Interesting that Hogan gives Savage the pin…on the worst guy in the match…after already roughing him up. It comes across as condescending.  

 

Akeem vs. Jim is some ugly ass wrestling. Akeem drops him with the 747. 4-4. Koko gets in there, mad at Akeem’s cultural appropriation. Imagine getting a white guy from Chicago and calling him the “African Dream”. Boss Man is designed as the ‘big bad’ here. So when he’s being beaten from pillar to post by Hogan, he can’t get him to bump. Not even from the big boot! Then there’s another powerplay from Hogan as he no sells for DiBiase, Savage’s big rival. It’s subtle but it’s designed to make Hogan look like the big dog, again.  

 

The faces get cleared out with Boss Man pinning Koko and DiBiase getting rid of Hercules, with an assist from Virgil. Savage immediately dumps Ted with a cheeky roll up while he’s still celebrating. Again, it’s interesting that DiBiase, Savage’s big rival, takes a clean pin while Hogan’s rival isn’t going to.  

To tease the possibility of the Mega Powers losing, they run a load of heat on Hogan, which is way more effective than the time killing in the other matches tonight. The idea being that despite the numbers advantage, the heels can’t put Hogan away. Boss Man does something monumentally stupid in here, hitting his finish and not pinning at all (at least have Savage save on that one, come on). Slick trips Savage and goes after Miss Elizabeth and Hogan has to go and save her because Savage is in the ring. The Twin Towers go after Hogan and Boss Man, who’s legal, gets counted out while he’s handcuffing Hogan to the ropes. Thus protecting Hogan’s rival from a pin. Powerplay #3.  

 

The chaos continues as Boss Man beats up Savage with the night stick and Akeem, who was the legal man, is disqualified. This wasn’t sensible from the heels and the booking has gone off the rails a bit. Haku is now left against both Mega Powers. Boss Man didn’t need to get counted out and Akeem didn’t need to get disqualified. They just look like idiots now. It’s not a good look for Hogan either, who has beaten nobody. Liz gets the key to the cuffs from Slick after Haku accidentally kicks him off the apron. Another fuck up by the dipshit heels in this match. Anyway, Hogan gets the hot tag and puts Haku away, scoring the winning pinfall for his team while Randy is lying around in the corner.  

While Savage is lying around recovering Hogan poses and celebrates with Liz.  

Savage is all…what the fuck bruh? Like, he is fuming. You can see him pointing accusingly at Hogan, while the Hulkster just ignores him. Oh, brother.  

 

Anyway, the match was not good. It’s not well structured at all and the fake drama at the end where Haku is left alone didn’t work. The heels all make stupid decisions and get eliminated because they’re dumb, rather than something good achieved by the faces. The uphill battle for the Mega Powers feels forced and Hogan doesn’t need Liz to get the key for him.  

 

The story of Hogan being a manipulator is only slightly an onscreen thing and more a behind the scenes thing. The way he’s treated in the match, compared to Savage, is palpable. He’s considered the threat, not Randy. He’s the star, not Randy. He’s celebrating at the end not slumped in the corner, like Randy is. You can see why Savage got sick of him and the turn, when it does come, is justified by bullshit like this.  

 

The 411: 

The Survivor gimmick is already a bit tired by the second show and this could have benefitted from being broken up a bit. The main event did what it set out to but could have done it better. The Hogan-Savage story is fine but everyone else is expendable. The tag match is easily MOTN but suffers from booking issues too. The other two matches are forgettable. One allowing Warrior to stand tall. The other allowing Andre to get some heat back after a dismal SNME angle the month beforehand. Several of the matches drag with big dead segments. The following year they tried to rectify this by switching from four matches to five but having all of them be Survivor style. The idea being that they could do shorter matches. We’ll be back to see if that worked in due course.