WWF Survivor Series 1991 (11.27.91) review 

 

November 27, 1991 

 

“The Gravest Challenge” 

 

We’re in Detroit, Michigan at the Joe Louis Arena. 17,500 people at this show. Buyrate for Survivor Series 1991 was 2.21. 300,000 buys. That makes it the weakest PPV event of the year (so far). There’s a suggestion buys were split by This Tuesday in Texas with people opting to get that instead. However, TTIT only managed 140,000 buys with WWF being accused of greed by running two PPVs in the space of a week. Survivor Series was increasingly becoming the fed’s least purchased “Big Four” PPV though. Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan 

 

If memory serves correctly, this show sucks and I don’t like Survivor shows at the best of times.  

 

Video Control starts us off with footage of the cobra attack on Randy Savage. It’s AMAZING. I love it. This is clipped compared to what they showed on the Survivor Series Showdown so they might have gotten a little heat about it. Anyway, Jack Tunney doesn’t allow Savage to wrestle on Survivor Series because he’s snakebite crazy. Some key points here; Tunney accepts total blame (“it wasn’t me, damn it” – Vince), “all reptiles” are banned from ringside from now on and Savage is reinstated and signed to wrestle Roberts at This Tuesday in Texas. Despite leading people into believing this would happen at this PPV, which they’ve already bought. Suckers. Trying to shift the big reason for buying the show to the next show is scandalous.  

 

Ric Flair, Ted DiBiase, Mountie & Warlord vs. Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, British Bulldog & Virgil 

There is a Flair/Piper feud going on, and Roddy is still red hot as a babyface. He’s clearly struggling in ring though and would effectively retire in 1992. Davey has gimmicked himself up to high hell now with dreadlocks and more Union Jacks on his tights that a Reform conference. They take it in turns to pinball Ted around and guess whose spots look the worst? Yep, Virgil. The guy DiBiase is feuding with. Bret’s stuff with DiBiase is elite. They had some very good matches around this time.  

 

Davey seems really well suited to wrestling Flair, and their cameo in here suggests it should have happened. It did but only on house shows in early 1992. I bet they could have had a banger. The Mountie is a less good opponent for Davey and can barely take a bump. Flair eliminates Davey by blindsiding him off the ropes. An odd choice for first man out. Bret does the same thing to eliminate Warlord, and Piper gets the pin. The crowd dig the repeated spot with the faces ‘cheating’ but just getting a receipt.  

 

We eventually get some good DiBiase-Virgil action, with Virgil lifting the Million Dollar Dream. It breaks down with Flair taking his signature bump during a scrap with Piper, and everyone spills in for a brawl. The referee then disqualifies everyone who was in the ring. Which is DUMB AS FUCK and Flair wins because he was on the floor, which is also DUMB AS FUCK. A good match, which ruined itself with the worst possible conclusion. *** 

 

Everyone in the ring is disqualified? Get the fuck outta here. Would have been much better if everyone was counted out, even if that also makes NO SENSE. Garbage booking. How did they even come up with that? It’s so bad.  

 

Promo Time: Randy Savage 

He’s not fit to wrestle tonight but will be fine next week. Bait and switch, baby. 300,000 suckers bought into it. Savage says nothing of note, pointing out Jake Roberts is the real snake. I mean, it’s literally in his name Randy, we all figured that out. Liz then comes out to cut the kind of promo that shows why Savage never let her talk.  

 

Colonel Mustafa, Hercules, Skinner & Berzerker vs. Jim Duggan, Sgt Slaughter, Texas Tornado & El Matador 

It’s like someone chucked a thick coat of gimmick paint over the entire match. The heel team might be the worst one ever assembled. I’m assuming Sheiky, baby, is the captain. The rest of them all give off ‘guy four’ energy. Kerry von Erich is 31 years old here and absolutely finished as a talent. It’s so sad to see. This feels like a collection of talent assembled for Heroes of Wrestling. Live on PPV! In front of 400 people. Sheik is really struggling to move around. Slaughter beats him with a clothesline. Not the Slaughter Cannon. Just a clothesline. Sheik incapable of rolling a shoulder at this time of his life. This is him essentially finished, returning in 2001 at the Gimmick Battle Royal, where he literally couldn’t take a bump to save his life.  

 

We get some middling action but with some effort involved. Especially from Berzerker. Then Tito dumps out Herc, who did nothing, with the flying forearm. People have started ducking into it to take it, which makes it look way worse. Skinner gets tricked by a blind tag, and Sarge rolls him up. 4-1 now. Heenan suggests Berzerker will win. Three Point Stance and another clothesline ends it. 4-0 sweep. Some absolute shite here. Just a bunch of washed guys struggling for 14 minutes. ½* 

 

Would the match have been improved by Big Bully Busick, who quit the company just beforehand? Sadly, we’ll never know.  

 

Promo Time: Jake Roberts 

Lovely Xmas jumper on Jake. Okerlund quizzes him on the snake and he’s all “I’m innocent Mean Gene”. Jake cuts a promo on Original Sin and blames everyone else for what happened. Randy bit Randy? “The thing in the bag was simply a toy. I’ve always been the snake you should worry about.” He even riffs off Liz’s terrible promo earlier. Sometimes he got a bit cryptic for his own good, but Jake is one of the best promos, ever.  

 

WWF Championship 

Hulk Hogan (c) vs. Undertaker 

Ohhh, defending the belt in the midcard Hulkster? TROUBLE A BREWIN’ BRRRRRRROTHER! Hogan, in a fit of petulance, pushes over Undertaker’s casket. I like that he throws his bandana at Taker, who doesn’t even flinch as it sails an inch past his ear. Living the gimmick. They lean heavily into the Undertaker’s persona here with Hogan selling fear of Taker’s no selling.  

I know Hogan would sell like a champ for everyone during the 80s, but this is another level. Look at his eyes, brother! Undertaker dominates the match, but it crawls along at a glacial pace. Taker, in this early iteration of the gimmick, was such a fucking boring wrestler.  

So, nothing happens for like ten minutes. Hogan’s comeback goes nowhere but then he completely no sells the Tombstone. Like, doesn’t even stay down for a pinfall attempt. Should have just had him lose clean. Dumbass Hogan gets distracted by Ric Flair, who strolls out to argue with the fans. Flair does nothing at all, Hogan just attacks him from behind. Bearer finally remembers, at the second attempt, he’s supposed to trip Hogan up. Flair slides a chair in and Taker Tombstones Hogan on it for the win.  

 

Hilarious stuff from Hogan here though. He yelled “AAARRRRGHHH, you got me brother” and pretended to have a legitimate neck injury. Taker totally freaked out about it. Then he saw the video and Hogan’s head never touched the chair. Anyway, fuck Hulk Hogan. Hulkamania is dead. DUD. 

Yes, the match is horrendously boring, and they don’t even stick the finish, but at least Hogan took a job. Doesn’t happen very often. What’s more interesting is what happens next. They do a rematch with a screwy finish, which leads to the belt being available to the Rumble winner. Flair wins and this leads to him being the WWF’s main star while Hogan, thanks to an emerging steroid scandal, effectively disappears. This in turn leads to Hogan leaving to do television, bumping into Eric Bischoff and getting recruited to WCW. Meanwhile Flair’s run leads directly into Bret Hart winning the belt and the rise of the WWF’s New Generation. The Monday Night Wars follow and everything else is history. But this is pretty much it for Hogan as the WWF’s top guy. Which felt unthinkable at one point, but everything ends eventually. Hulkamania 1984-1991. Rest in piss.  

 

Video Control gives us some backstage interviews as people go for snacks and a toilet break. Piper and Flair both get to ramble about the title situation. Piper compares Flair to David Duke (of KKK fame). Not sure about that mate! Does he think Hogan is black? Jack Tunney orders a rematch between Hogan and Taker at This Tuesday in Texas. Which was the whole gimmick to start with. Get the belt off Hogan so he can win it back LIVE ON PPV. It didn’t work. The lack of buys may even have helped convince McMahon that’s Hogan’s time as the top guy in the business was over, and the fed needed to change tack.  

 

Nasty Boys & Beverly Brothers vs. Rockers & Bushwhackers 

The Bushwhackers are particularly insufferable here. Although it doesn’t help that the Bevs are so shit. The bumping and selling from them is laughable, even if they are taking joke spots. The Rockers are, as you’d expect, excellent regardless. Shawn is a clear star in the making. His work is elite. It’s a shame he got so into the Mr Perfect school of overblown selling. The match is only ever good when the Nasties and the Rockers collide. The Nasties could bump, man. Shawn totally steals the show with dives, and he drills Knobbs with a superkick on the floor.  

 

The main issue is they give this match SOOO much time. The crowd are mostly bored after the Bushwhackers antics have ended and there’s only so many spots Shawn can insert without being referred to as a spot monkey.  

The match serves as fuel for a potential Rockers split, which I think was too soon, but Shawn had clearly had enough of poor dumb Marty. Jannetty’s slam on Sags causes Shawn to get clipped by Sags’ feet and he’s pinned and eliminated. And is hot about it. They’d keep them together for another month after this but eventually pulled the trigger on a Shawn turn.  

 

Gorilla manages some of his worst work here, somehow managing to miss Shawn getting pinned. He thinks Michaels has walked out on his partner. Jannetty battles on for a few minutes, but the Nasties cheat to beat him. The narrative around Shawn is what drives the match, but he’s also a big old showstealer, doing most of the bigger spots in the match. This is easily the second-best match on the show. Even with the Bushwhackers involved. *¾ 

 

In the post-match, despite being shown Shawn getting pinned AGAIN, Gorilla accuses him of walking out on his partner. OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES, YOU OLD CUNT.  

 

Natural Disasters & IRS vs. Legion of Doom & Big Bossman 

And here is YOUR main event. Originally Jake Roberts was in this, and the idea was that Savage would be reinstated. That would have been far better than what we end up with. A pointless six man that no one really cares about. The crowd love the Roadwarriors but that’s about it. This isn’t very good, but at least the pacing is ok. We lose Bossman early to pile the odds on LOD.  

 

Typhoon gets clonked in the head with the briefcase in a friendly fire incident to even it up. Quake is Naturally (disasters) fuming. He’s so mad he walks out on IRS and is counted out. That leaves poor Irwin alone against the tag champs. For some insane reason we got another FOUR minutes with IRS on his own. They should have jacked him up for the Doomsday Device inside a minute. Not content with boring everyone, IRS also manages a massive botch with failed communication with Hawk. Animal hot tags in to zero reaction, which should have set alarm bells ringing. Clothesline off the ropes put IRS away and we can all go home. DUD 

 

Backstage Gene Okerlund locates Taker for an interview, and he pops open a coffin. “Hulkamania is dead”. OHHH YEEEEEESSSSS.  

 

The 411: 

Well, this show stinks. I’ve seen it several times and it’s not getting any better. Worth seeing for Flair’s influence on the company and the fun of the opener and then Hogan losing the belt. Everything else sucks, and we’re here for 2.5 hours. Avoid! It’s so bad that Vince McMahon abandoned the Survivor concept next year. There’s only one Survivor match in 1992. The only reason you would be watching this in modern times is if you’re a completist or you want to see every title change. If you’re watching for the latter, you can skip the entire match and just watch the finish, as nothing happens.