Shining a Spotlight 11.17.06: Survive...Survive...SURVIVE! (Pt. I)

Posted by Michael Weyer on 11.17.2006

Part one of a look back at the Survivor Series as we count down to number 20.

The late 1980's were a great time to be a wrestling fan. Oh, I know the late ‘90's were good too but 1986-89 was a time when the wrestling world was so alive. A lot of that was because there were a lot more promotions then. You had WWF, NWA, AWA, UWF, World Class, Florida, Pacific Northwest, Continental and more. So weekends offered a lot of great options to flip around the local channels to get some wrestling shows.

It was on one of those shows back in the late summer of 1987, that I first saw a commercial that got me hooked. It was on "Superstars of Wrestling," a black screen and the sound of a crowd chanting "Survive…survive..SURVIVE!" as the words "Survivor Series" came onto the screen. I had no idea what this Series was but that commercial immediately made me want to find out.

I know it's very hard to believe for younger fans but back in 1987, there were only two major supercard shows then. The NWA had Starrcade while WWF had put together Wrestlemania and that seemed to be it. So when WWF announced they were doing another major show, it was big news. But what many "marks", like myself at the time, didn't realize was that it was even bigger than it seemed.

Starcade '87 was going to be Jim Crockett's first foray into the then-burgeoning pay-per-view market. More importantly, it was going to be the sign that Crockett and the NWA were ready to step up and really compete with the WWF, especially with the recent purchase of the UWF.

Unfortunately, Crockett made several key errors that would lead to his dream show turning into a nightmare. First off was the big main event as Crockett thought it would be a good thing for Ric Flair to lose the title before the show and thus regain it at Starrcade. This meant they had to find someone who could be credible enough to beat Flair for the title but then look like a total loser by dropping the belt to Flair two months later at the biggest show of the year. Even Dusty Rhodes didn't want that.

Eventually, Ronnie Garvin was chosen and defeated Flair in a good cage match in Detroit on September 20th to win the title. The problem was that Garvin was a longtime mid-carder at best and while fans got behind him winning the title, once he really was champion, he didn't connect as well. Still, it seemed he would at least provide a good challenge for Flair at Starrcade, after of course defending the title for a while. But before that could happen, every major heel in the company refuse to job to an obvious lame-duck champion like this. So, the NWA had to announce that Garvin was taking a 40-day "sabbatical" to train for the big rematch against Flair. Saying this was a bad decision is a massive understatement. It ruined the long-time rule (which they really did stick to back then) that a champion had to defend the belt in 30 days or be stripped of it. This also meant even the marks knew what the result of the rematch would be. Even the Apter mags couldn't defend this decision.

Crockett followed that up with an even worse idea, which was relocating the card from its traditional home in Greensboro to Chicago. Crockett intended to give it a cosmopolitan air and make the NWA more important. How was this a bad move? To start off, they were in the UIC Pavilion, a college campus sports stadium that, when sold out (which it wasn't), held about 10,000 people less than Greensboro did. Also, Chicago is a union town so Crockett found himself paying far more for everything from setting up the ring to flying all the wrestlers up. Finally, there was the fact that Chicago was far more inclined to WWF than the Southern-style booking of Crockett. Almost everyone under Crockett, including his brother, David, warned him this was a bad idea but he went ahead, determined that Starrcade '87 would be the biggest payday they'd ever had.

There was just one small problem…much in the same way the Titanic had a small problem with that iceberg.

Vince McMahon was not going to let Crockett move into the field he'd paved the way for. Instead, he decided to seriously go head-to-head by unveiling the first ever Survivor Series, to take place on Thanksgiving night. This was a huge move as many had considered the night Starrcade's only. Crockett acquiesced by moving the show to the late afternoon, figuring the PPV companies would be in for a double treat with wrestling fans getting both cards. But McMahon counted with one of his most hardball moves ever, declaring that any company that carried Starrcade would not be allowed to carry Series or the next Wrestelmania. Once again, Crockett got hit by his failure to make the NWA more famous in the mainstream as 95% of the companies went with McMahon. Crockett took a bath and the move to Chicago was shown to be even worse a mistake as the higher costs of doing the show in Chicago cut into what money he made. Had he stayed in Greensboro, he might have been able to make a decent profit but here, he was lucky to break even. What was to be Crockett's leap to the big time instead helped put him in the hole that led to his downfall.

It certainly did not help that the Survivor Series was a card truly innovative for its time. A half dozen matches, each with teams of five going at it in elimination rules. It remains a great way to get several feuds on at once while in dramatic circumstances. The rules of team members eliminated in various ways meant you could have three on two, four on two, even five on one matches at any point. Plus the fact that it was only the second regular PPV WWF offered made it seem more special. Coming off the high of Wrestlemania III, this was WWF striking when it was really hot and that first show is an example of it.

For the record, the first SS eliminations came with Jim Dugan and Harley Race both counted out while fighting outside the ring. The first single elimination was Ron Bass getting pinned by Brutus Beefcake. The first winners were Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat and Jake Roberts when the Honky Tonk Man elected to leave the ring rather than face them. The card had matches that haven't really popped up since such as a woman's match as well as one that had ten tag teams going at it. Seeing nine guys lining each side of the ring was a great picture. I know it's hard to imagine there was a time WWF actually had ten teams to spare for a match like this but it was cool.

The main event pushed the Hulk Hogan-Andre the Giant feud. Andre had taken several months off after Wrestlemania to shoot The Princess Bride and this was his first match back. He and Hogan went at it a bit but in the end Hogan was counted out, leaving Bam Bam Bigelow alone against Andre, King Kong Bundy and One Man Gang. Bigelow managed to eliminate Bundy and OMG but fell to Andre who was then attacked by Hogan. So you had a rarity of a major event won by a heel while setting up the big rematch between the two men.

The show was a huge hit and so a follow up was no surprise. The 1988 version had "co-captains" for each team to further the storylines. The biggest event probably happened in the tag team matchup. Demolition had been reigning as the champions for a while and, like the Road Warriors before them, had started to hear more and more face pops from the crowds. At the same time, WWE thought it was time to give the heel teams more shots at the tag titles. Demolition had been feuding with the Powers of Pain, another team "inspired" by the Warriors, who had been introduced as faces but weren't quite suited for it. So this match was a great opportunity to do a unique switch.

It came down to the Demos and, of all teams, the masked Conquistadors against the Powers. As Smash went to the ropes, their manager, Mr. Fuji, yanked the rope down, causing Smash to spill out onto the floor. Smash argued about it, as did Ax and when Ax turned his back, Fuji hit him with his cane. Smash came up to slam Fuji to the floor as he was counted out, eliminating both men. As they marched to the back, Warlord and Barbarian came out, helped Fuji to his feet, brushed him off and then went into the ring with Fuji directing them. Fuji tripped a Conquistador with his cane, allowing Warlord to get the pin. The Powers then hoisted Fuji onto their shoulders before the Demos returned to run them out, switching both teams around, one of the more unique turns in WWF history.

The main event also boosted storylines as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage beat the Powers of Pain to win their matchup. This was notable for Hogan being handcuffed to ropes while Savage was double-teamed, causing more tension that would lead to their inevitable blow-up. Once again, the Series main event helped set the stage for the promotions' big program for the next year.

In 1989, the Series took the first of what would be several changes. Instead of teams of five, there were now only teams of four and the tag team matchup had been eliminated. It also had the idea of teams having specific names to get them over while continuing the nice gimmick of the team members basically paired against their opposite numbers (Hogan vs Dibiase, Warrior vs Rick Rude, etc). Of course, there was the bad idea of WWF still continuing their stupid Zeus angle against Hogan, which didn't even make the main event.

The 1990 Series continued this trend with a new twist: The survivors of those various matches would meet up in a special match at the end of the night. This ended up being Hogan, Warrior and Tito Santana against Ted Dibiase and the "Visionaries" (Rick Martel, The Warlord, Hercules and Paul Roma), who had made history by being the first team to win without any members being eliminated. This would turn out to be the only time such a "Survivors' Survivor" match would take place. Of course, the card is notable for two other reasons. The first was that it had the debut of the Undertaker, who from the start showed the unique heat that would make him a superstar. The other notable bit was…oh, how to explain this. For weeks, WWF had been showcasing a strange egg that would "hatch" on the show. This led to some major talk among fans with many suspecting this was a way to introduce a new star, maybe a NWA castoff of some sort or a returning face. Finally, Gene Okerlund was there as the egg hatched to reveal a bizarre figure dressed (somewhat) as a turkey. It was really Hector Guerrero going under the name of, I swear I'm not making this up, the Gobbledygooker. Okerlund and Gooker proceeded to do a goofy dance in the ring as the fans booed loudly. Even WWE is pretty embarrassed by this today; an Easter Egg on the Eddie Guerrero DVD is Hector and Okerlund talking about it with a "what the hell were we all thinking?" mentality.

It was in 1991 that the Series began to break away from the traditional mode. First of all, instead of Thanksgiving Day, it took place the day before. One match was only three on three due to Randy Savage and Jake Roberts both taken out due to the infamous "snake bite" incident a bit earlier. Ric Flair won the first match when everyone else was disqualified for brawling inside the ring. The big move was for the first time, a singles match took place as the Undertaker, with help from Flair, defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF title. It was a surprising move for Hogan to put Taker over like this but then, he ended up winning the belt back only days later at a special Tuesday night PPV.

The '92 show was even more of a departure as there was only one regular elimination matchup, Nasty Boys and the Natural Disasters vs Money Inc and the Beverly Brothers. The rest of the show was like any other PPV with tag and singles matches, including Yokozuna making his debut by crushing Virgil and Big Boss Man defeating Nailz in a nightstick on a pole match. The card was notable for the main event that was suddenly changed. Originally, Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior (under the ironic nickname "the Ultimate Maniacs," insert your own joke here) were to face off against Ric Flair and Razor Ramon. Only weeks before the card, Warrior walked out on the company so WWF made the surprise move of turning Flair ally Mr. Perfect face and having him team with Savage. Even more of a surprise was that the match was quite good, a wild brawl with Henning taking it to Flair, Savage and Henning winning after Ramon was DQ'ed for hitting the ref.

The other interesting note of that card was the main event as Bret Hart, who had stunned everyone by winning the WWF title from Flair a month earlier, defended it against Intercontinental champion Shawn Michaels. The match was slow at first but soon turned into a great battle with Bret winning by making Shawn tap out to the Sharpshooter. Given what would occur five years later, the twist of fate is very unique to say the least.

There was criticism from fans over this break from tradition so WWF made up for it the next year by returning to the classic 4-on-4 elimination matches. There was one rather notable exception. At the time, Vince was working openly with USWA and Smokey Mountain and breaking his long time ban on making it sound like WWF was the only promotion around. So for the first time ever, a non-WWF title match took place on a WWF PPV as the Heavenly Bodies defeated the Rock n Roll Express to win the Smokey Mountain tag team titles. There were several notable substitutions in matches. Henning was unable to make it to the card for the opening match so Randy Savage took his place, which turned out to be an excuse to further his feud with Crush. Also, Bret Hart and brothers Owen, Bruce and Keith were to face off against Jerry Lawler and his masked Knights, which would have been the capper to the Bret-Lawler feud. However, Lawler was brought up on charges of statutory rape with a 13-year old girl in Memphis (the charges would be dropped) and so, in a touch very ironic to look at today, Shawn Michaels was put in his place. After all his Knights were eliminated, Michaels elected to leave the ring and was counted out. The most important part of the match was that Owen was pinned and blamed Bret for being distracted, setting the seeds for the great feud they'd have.

Another substitution was in the match up with Bam Bam Bigelow, Bastion Booger and the Headshrinkers against Doink the Clown's men. It turned out that Doink's guys were the Bushwhackers and Men on a Mission in clown makeup ("What a clever disguise they picked out!" was only one of the many great one-liners Bobby Heenan had). Calling what happened a comedy match would be generous yet the Boston crowd was still into it as Bigelow (who had absolutely no business being involved in a feud this ridiculous) was finally pinned at the end to allow the Doink team to fully survive. The main event pitted Lex Luger, the Steiners and the Undertaker against Crush, Yokozuna, Jacques Rougeau and "evil Finland native" Ludwig Borga. The match was notable for Undertaker and Yokozuna finally going at it one on one with Heenan freaking out every time the Undertaker sat up from a Yoko assault ("Look at him! The man is not human, McMahon!"). In the end, Luger pinned Borga to win but it was clear the fan heat for him had faded.

The 1994 Series had a few 5-on-5 matches. The first one pitted Razor Ramon's team against Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart and Jeff Jarrett. It came down to Ramon being the only guy left against the entire opposing team but when Michaels accidentally kicked Diesel, Diesel chased him out, everyone else trying to keep them apart and thus Ramon was the winner of the only match where an entire team eliminated itself. There was a four on four match with Jerry Lawler taking on Doink, each man partnered with three midgets and the less said of that the better. The biggest match was Bob Backlund defeating Bret Hart to win the WWF title when Owen tricked their mother, Martha, into throwing in the towel to get Backlund to win for what would be only a two-day reign before losing it to Diesel. The main event was Undertaker defeating Yokozuna in a casket match with Chuck Norris helping to keep the heels at bay. Yes, you read that right but I have to admit, the sight of Walker spin-kicking Jarrett to the floor is still a fond memory.

In 1995, the Series moved to the Sunday night slot it still occupies. There was the return of the women's elimination match up as Woman's Champion Alundra Blayze lost to Aja Kong, which was to set up a big feud for them but Blayze ended up walking out on WWF only days later. One match was notable for being a "wild card" matchup with Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, Davey Boy Smith and Sid against Ramon, Owen, Yokozuna and Shane Douglas, a very interesting mix of faces and heels. It led to some great moments like Michaels attempting to kick Ramon, accidentally striking Sid and giving a hilarious "Oh, well" shrug. There was also Johnson's impressive feat of body-slamming Yokozuna. Another nice moment occurred in the matchup pitting the Undertaker's team against Mabel's. With no eliminations for either side, Jerry Lawler tried to piledrive Savio Vega but Vega escaped and tagged ‘Taker who single-handedly destroyed Lawler, Issac Yankem (now known as Kane) and a pre-HHH Hunter Hearst Helmsley, causing Mabel to run off.

There were two singles matches, each with varying degrees of importance. First, Dustin Rhodes made his debut as Goldust, a character that would turn out to be ahead of his time by a few years as he defeated Bam Bam Bigelow. The main event pitted Bret Hart against Diesel in a no-DQ matchup as after a year of poor business, Kevin Nash finally dropped the WWF title in a wild battle notable for Bret being shoved off the ring apron and into the Spanish announcer's table, inaugurating what has since become a tradition. After the match, Nash attacked Bret and started his path to becoming on of the sport's first "tweeners."

The 10th annual show took place at Madison Square Garden and the New York crowd inadvertedly caused the card to change a bit. There were several notable bouts on this show. The Undertaker introduced his new leather outfit style as he had a wild brawl with Mankind, finally pinning him. One elimination match had the capper to the Jake Roberts/Jerry Lawler feud as Roberts eliminated Lawler with a DDT. Perhaps more importantly was the same match had the debut of a high-flying, smiling, super-babyface who wound up being the sole survivor. Few could have foreseen what changes would come for Rocky Maivia in the future. There was also Jimmy Snuka making a surprise appearance for a match that turned into the first no-contest in SS history when all participants were DQ'ed.

But it was the two singles matches that would have the biggest impact. The first came with Bret Hart making his return to the WWF after several months off to accept the challenge of Steve Austin. For half an hour, they went at it in an incredible match that mixed brawling with fine technical wrestling. In the end, Bret was caught in a "Million Dollar Dream" sleeper but walked up the ropes, bounced back and used leverage to pin Austin. But far, far more telling was the crowd reaction. It was expected that Bret would be returning as the super-babyface but the New York crowds gave Austin quite a few cheers during the course of the match-up. Had the show taken place in another city, it's very possible the Austin face turn that would lead the WWF to its greatest heights might never have happened. The main event had Sid beating Michaels for WWF title with the crowd cheering the heel Sid on.

They were two unique turns in the eyes of the WWF that would, in their differing ways, pave the way for the controversy that would erupt at the next Series. Which will be covered next week.


Well, among the other columns to check out:

Story Lines begins to tackle the works of Scott Keith, who I've made my feelings clear on.

Just S'Pose wonders what might have been if David Von Erich hadn't died. A good read if a bit far fetched that a small territory guy could have gotten an NWA run like that.

Meehan wonders if K-Fed's new single status may be a boon to WWE.

The Crystal Ball turns 1, congrats!

JP Counts down the 10 Best Eddie Guerrero matches.

Don't forget Triple Threat, Column of Honor, Ask411, Hidden Highlights and all the rest.


Next week I continue my look back at the Series along with reader mailbag. For now, the spotlight is off.