The rather terrible build for this year’s Survivor Series pay-per-view has had me reflecting on the Survivor Series’ of my youth. I have a great love of elimination matches, and the former, “Thanksgiving night tradition” played a big role in that. Fitting multiple feuds into one match, seeing guys (and on occasion ladies) teaming up together who didn’t normally team up. We even saw, on the earlier events, some traditional Survivor Series matches featuring five tag teams per team. Twenty guys in one match, good luck seeing that today aside from a battle royale. Back then you had quantity in match participants instead of quantity in matches.
The first two events (’87 & ’88) only had four matches each, with a fifth being added in ’89. The 1990 Survivor Series saw the introduction of the Grand Finale Match Of Survival. A match which saw the winners/sole survivors from the nights previous matches come back for one final match. It was only used the one time, which is a shame as I feel like it could have been an interesting addition to later years, adding in a sort of bragging rights element. And speaking of gimmicks that were only used once, the 1995 event had a wildcard match that had heels and babyfaces mixed together on the same teams. Although, I’ll be the first to admit that gimmick may have gotten old fast.
But, one of my most disappointing Survivor Series memories, and for some god awful reason I am going to relive with a review, was from 1992. It was the first year that broke from the model of having all (or most) of the card be elimination tag matches. It had only one elimination tag match, which featured the likes of The Beverly Brothers, and The Nasty Boys. That wouldn’t be so bad if there were others, but to have that be the ONLY traditional elimination match was kind of sad.
As if that weren’t enough, the rest of the card was highlighted by such classics as Yokozuna vs Virgil, The Headshrinkers vs High Energy and The Big Boss Man vs the forgettable Nailz in a nightstick on a pole match. Even The Undertaker’s involvement in the show was more camp than five star classic as he faced Kamala in a Coffin match. But hey here we go.
The Headshrinkers vs High Energy: Right off the bat, I have never understood who thought those neon and checkerboard jackets and matching Hammer pants were a good idea for Owen Hart and Koko B. Ware. Ultimately, this was a decent opener. A fairly by the book tag match. Not bad, but there’s no reason they couldn’t have added a couple more guys to each side and turned it into a traditional elimination match, which I feel would have added to it.
The Big Boss Man vs the ex con Nailz – nightstick on a pole match: Geez, what can I say about this match? Even being the mark that I was at that young age, I hated Nailz. He lumbered around the ring whether he was on offence or defence, his promos were bad, the Fed couldn’t get rid of him soon enough in my young opinion. And this match proved no different. I’ll give all the credit in the world to Boss Man as a legend, but he couldn’t save this match. They both looked kind of awkward climbing up to reach the nightstick. The worst of it though, is that after taking a beating with the nightstick, taking the Boss Man’s side slam finisher to lose the match, and then taking one final nightstick shot to the head, Nailz still promptly rolls out of the ring and walks to the back, not selling a single part of the beating he just took.
Tatanka vs Rick “The Model” Martel: I had forgotten how good of a match this was. Sadly, portions of the match were overshadowed by promoting the yet to debut Doink The Clown. But this was a good match. The crowd was pretty hot for it. If the WWF insisted on having some regular non-elimination matches on the show, this would have been a great opener. Tatanka was hot with the crowd at this time, as he was still undefeated. And it could have been a good blow off for their feud which had been going on since Wrestlemania VIII.
“Macho Man” Randy Savage & Mr. Perfect vs Ric Flair & Razor Ramon: Originally supposed to be Savage teaming with Ultimate Warrior, things had to get shifted when Warrior left the company, whether he was fired or quit, stories exist for either possibility. So Mr. Perfect was thrown in nine days before the pay-per-view. Personally, I would have liked a little more build to Perfect’s face turn, but given the issues with Warrior, it was what it was. As one of the main events of the show, I guess I can understand leaving it as a regular tag match.
But again, if they chose to make this an eight man elimination match, they could have played up Savage’s team being short a man, and once Perfect was approached by Macho Man, really play off the question of trusting Perfect with Savage and his other potential team mates. A good tag match overall, but I’ve never really liked the DQ finish. I feel like with the build they had and Perfect’s face turn, that a definitive pin or submission finish would have been better. I know Flair was a top guy, and Razor was in the midst of a big push, but I don’t think it would have hurt his run too much to job to Savage.
Yokozuna vs Virgil: This is a perfect example of a match that could have been added into the Headshrinkers vs High Energy match. Yoko had debuted less than a month before Survivor Series, so he was still mowing down lower mid-card wrestlers. Having him involved in an eight man elimination match, they could have had Yokozuna eliminate the entire opposing team. The WWF had built him up as such a monster so much so that it wouldn’t have hurt guys like Koko B. Ware, Owen Hart, or Virgil to lose to him. And would have made him look like the beast he was. Instead, we got a squash match that clocks in at 3:44.
Beverly Brothers & Money Inc. vs Nasty Boys & Natural Disasters – Survivor Series Elimination Match: This match was predicated by the Nastys and the Disasters both being former clients of Jimmy Hart, the manager of then tag champs, Money Inc. An okay match, nothing special at all. Made more disappointing by it being the only traditional elimination match of the show.
Kamala vs The Undertaker – Coffin Match: The looks on Kamala’s face in this one are priceless. I’ve always enjoyed this match for its ridiculousness. If I believed in guilty pleasures, this would be one. That being said, it’s a bad match. Add to that the participants apparently had to score a pinfall before disposing of their opponent in the coffin. And as a lovely momentum killer, Undertaker nailed the coffin shut. Almost two minutes pass from the pin to the final nail being nailed into the coffin. No wonder they switched to caskets with hinged lids.
Shawn Michaels (Intercontinental Champion) vs. Bret “Hitman” Hart (World Champion) for the WWF World Championship: This was a fantastic wrestling match from start to finish. Not surprising given the participants. The bright spot in an otherwise mediocre Survivor Series.
It’s sad to think that they actually planned to drop Survivor Series off the Pay Per View Calendar a few years back. Thankfully, they changed their minds a few months later and it didn’t affect the event at all. I can understand not using a full card of traditional elimination matches nowadays. That said, the gimmick model of events like Hell In A Cell and Elimination Chamber work well. A card with two traditional Survivor Series matches highlighted by a couple hot feuds and title matches. Traditional Survivor Series matches may not have the spectacle of a Money In The Bank or a Hell In A Cell, but those elimination matches are what set the Survivor Series apart from events like “Battleground” and “Over The Limit”.
Instead of letting the Survivor Series flourish, the WWE builds it poorly, which is evident by this year’s event being a week away and only has three matches booked, and then they say, “See, the Survivor Series doesn’t bring in buys.” With this type of booking, they are creating their own self-fulfilling prophecy.
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