The Piledriver Report 11.04.09: Survivor Series - From Surviving To Just Another Pay Per View

Posted by Ronny Sarnecky on 11.04.2009

When the Survivor Series was first created, the WWF presented a unique pay per view to the fans. Two teams of five would compete against each other in an elimination match. Over the years, the WWF has moved away from focusing on these elimination matches, and instead more of the focus goes to the non-traditional Survivor Series matches. The Piledriver Report looks back at the beginnings of the Survivor Series pay per view, and yearns for the days when the November pay per view featured “teams of five striving to survive.”

Thursday, November 26th, 1987 will go down in history as the day that Jim Crockett Promotions took its first steps towards the realization that they could not compete with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation.

Leading towards Thanksgiving Day of 1987, the holiday was looked at as a celebration of Crockett's Mid-Atlantic promotion. The NWA's top promotion was heading into their first foray into the world of pay per view television. Pay per view was supposed to be the golden goose that gave Jim Crockett Promotions an added revenue stream that would allow them to compete with the WWF. Unfortunately, they didn't count on one thing.

THE BEGINNINGS



Coming off of a hugely successful WrestleMania III pay per view broadcast, the WWF decided to create a new pay per view show scheduled for Thanksgiving night called the Survivor Series. This new supercard wasn't just used to compete with the NWA's Starrcade event. The WWF used the first Survivor Series to help drive the first nail in Crockett Promotions' coffin.

Cable companies were thrilled to add the WWF's new show to their pay per view line-up. They had vision of making Thanksgiving an annual wrestling holiday. Many were going to offer a special combination deal to those fans that purchased both wrestling super shows. This was not to be. The World Wrestling Federation threatened all of the cable companies that whichever companies carried Starrcade, the WWF would not offer them the Survivor Series, nor next year's WrestleMania IV to broadcast. Needless to say, most cable companies decided to go with the WWF, due to their previous success over the NWA's inaugural pay per view telecast.

When the WWF introduced the concept of the Survivor Series to the fans, the tag line was "teams of five strive to survive." I remember being in high school looking forward to this new event, while also wondering what the WWF was trying to sell us.

The first Survivor Series event was held at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio. When the broadcast being, the rules were finally explained. Each match was to be held under elimination rules. The match would end once one team had all five members eliminated from the match. Therefore, as team members are eliminated, your team could find themselves at 3-1, 4-2, or even a 5-1 disadvantage. It was a unique concept that seemed to click immediately, at least for me.

The very first match in Survivor Series history featured team captain Randy Savage, along with Ricky Steamboat, Jim Duggan, Brutus Beefcake, and Jake Roberts against Hercules, Danny Davis, Ron Bass, and Harley Race being led by their team captain the WWF Intercontinental champion the Honky Tonk Man. The second match on the card featured a Ladies Survivor Series match at a time when the ladies were wrestlers, and not "divas." The Fabulous Moolah led Rockin' Robin, Velvet McIntyre and The Jumping Bomb Angels (Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno) against the WWF Women's Champion Sensational Sherri, WWF Women's Tag Team Champions The Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai and Judy Martin), Donna Christanello and Dawn Marie. The third match was a tag team variation of the Survivor Series match with 10 tag teams. If a person from a tag team was eliminated, their partner was also eliminated. The match featured WWF Tag Team Champions Strike Force (Tito Santana and Rick Martel), The Young Stallions (Paul Roma and Jim Powers), The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond), The Killer Bees (Jim Brunzell and Brian Blair) and British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) against The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), The Islanders (Haku and Tama), Demolition (Ax and Smash), The Bolsheviks (Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov) and The New Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Dino Bravo). In the main event, Hulk Hogan captained Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Ken Patera against captain Andre the Giant, Rick Rude, King Kong Bundy, One Man Gang, and Butch Reed.

After the show, I was hooked. The Survivor Series was extremely unique. The Series gave the fans several different scenarios that you do not see everyday. In the beginning of 1987, Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat were waging an all-out war against each other. After turning into a babyface in October, Randy Savage was now on the same side of the fence as "The Dragon." How would Savage coexist being teammates with the man that beat him for the WWF Intercontinental championship eight months earlier?

The second match-up featured the awesome work rate of the Jumping Bomb Angels. Watching Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno battle Leilani Kai and Judy Martin in a tag team match once every other wrestler on their teams were eliminated was incredible. These four women put on a display that made you forget that women's matches are usually bathroom break matches.

My favorite Survivor Series match was the Survivor Series match featuring all of the tag teams in the WWF. I'm a huge fan of tag team wrestling, and to see each team on display in one match was a great sight. Look at all of the tag team talent in that match. Santana/Martel, the Rougeaus, the Killer Bees, the British Bulldogs, the Hart Foundation, the Islanders, Demolition, and Valentine/Bravo (the Young Stallions and the Bolsheviks were the lone "scrub" teams in the match). Can you imagine at tag team Survivor Series match in 2009? I don't think the WWE has enough teams to complete the match. Let's see, there would be Big Show/Chris Jericho, the Hart Dynasty, Rhodes/DiBiase vs. DeGeneration X, Cryme Tyme, Mark Henry/MVP. That's it. Six total teams, with three of those teams normally competing on the singles scene. There aren't even enough teams to compete in the 1989 Survivor Series tag team match when the WWF changed the matches to four on four elimination matches.

TWEAKING THE CONCEPT



While the WWF tweaked the card in 1989 to four on four matches, it allowed the WWF to add an additional Survivor Series match to the card. In 1990, the WWF added a new element. To capitalize on the popularity of Hulk Hogan and the WWF World Champion the Ultimate Warrior, the WWF created a Grand Finale Match of Survival. This match feature all of the survivors from the previous matches on the card to compete in one final match. The face survivors Tito Santana, Hulk Hogan, and the Ultimate Warrior faced off against the heel survivors Ted DiBiase, Rik Martel, the Warlord, Paul Roma, and Hercules. The underlying reason for this "grand finale" match was to get both Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior in the main event of the evening. Despite this behind the scenes reason, I loved the idea of a grand finale match. The grand finale match gave the fans the survivors of survivors. It was a cool concept, that unfortunately only lasted that year.

In 1991, the WWF presented its first traditional non-elimination match during a Survivor Series event when the Undertaker captured his first WWF World title in a singles contest against Hulk Hogan. This Survivor Series also provided us with our first three on three elimination match. It was three on three, as Psycho Sid was injured, and his replacement Randy Savage was "healing" from a "snakebite" along with Jake Roberts being removed from the heel side to make the match even.

In 1992, the WWF loaded the card with non-elimination matches. Only The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) and The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) vs. Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster) and The Beverly Brothers (Beau and Blake) (with Jimmy Hart and The Genius) match was a traditional Survivor Series match.

While the 1993 show went back to mostly team elimination matches, each pay per view until 1998 had non-elimination matches sprinkled in. The 1998 show featured a one-night tournament to name a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion. Since 1998, the traditional Survivor Series matches have taken a back seat to the non-elimination matches for the most part.

SURVIVOR SERIES TODAY



Survivor Series 2009 takes place on November 22nd at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. Currently, there have only been two matches announced. John Cena will be defending the WWE World title in a Triple Threat match against Shawn Michaels and Triple H. The Undertaker defends the World Heavyweight championship against the Big Show and Chris Jericho, also under Triple Threat rules.

So far, the WWE hasn't announced any traditional Survivor Series elimination matches. They probably will announce one or two shortly. At least, they should. Especially if they are looking for RAW vs. SmackDown! matches that will help them capitalize on the RAW vs. SmackDown! video game, as was the rumor as to why they held the RAW vs. SmackDown! Bragging Rights pay per view.

Despite the Survivor Series being one of the "Big Four" pay per views, I no longer get excited as the Survivor Series draws near. With the WWE looking at revamping their "B" level pay per view shows by adding gimmicks like Hell in a Cell, Submission Only, Tables, Ladders, and Chairs, and Extreme Rules, now is the perfect time for the WWE to revamp the Survivor Series.

The Survivor Series started out as a unique concept. Over the years, they have lost their way. It's time for the WWE to go back to their original format. Five on five, or four vs. four match-ups featuring competitors that rarely wrestle one another going up against each other for one night only. Teammates who once feuded are now partners, or they can twist things up by having men who are feuding being forced to team with each other. This would spark the Survivor Series from becoming just another pay per view. Now, if we can only get enough tag teams to bring back the 10-team tag team elimination match.