It’s the Thanksgiving tradition, as the Survivor Series 1988 review features the WWF embarking on the second installment of the popular tag team-themed pay-per-view.
We’ve got the Mega Powers still going strong and a couple of hot secondary storylines to discuss.
Grab your turkey and get ready for Thanksgiving fun in Blake’s Survivor Series 1988 review.
- Date: November 24, 1988
- Location: Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, OH
ANNOUNCE BOOTH: Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse ‘The Pilgrim’ Ventura welcome us. Hell of an upgrade from Superstar Billy Graham at Summerslam.
Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, Sam Houston, Blue Blazer, and Jim Brunzell vs. Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine, Ron Bass, Bad News Brown, and Danny Davis – Survivor Series Elimination Match
Good mix of talent for this match. Beefcake gets the crowd rocking by locking on the sleeper and quickly eliminating Davis. Brunzell’s trunks are something awful and thankfully we work our way towards Bad News beating his ass. And he hits the Ghetto Blaster to eliminate Brunzell.
Houston makes his way in and Bad News hits a VICIOUS boot to a running Houston’s face. Valentine is now in the match to beat up Houston. Instead, he accidentally hits Bad News. That won’t work. Bad News is pissed and walks out of the match to eliminate himself. Won’t be the last time we see that from him in a Survivor Series match.
Bass into the match to the delight of no one. Powerslam to Houston and one of Texas’ finest cities has been eliminated. Warrior joins the fray and all hell breaks loose. Blue Blazer in there now and we work our way to him tapping out to the Figure Four from Valentine.
So now it’s Warrior/Beefcake vs. Honky/Bass/Valentine. Never thought I’d say this, but decent back and forth from Beefcake and Honky. Sleeper hold applied to Honky and then both men fall to the outside and get counted out. That leaves Warrior to go up against Bass and Valentine.
Double clothesline from Warrior and he pins Bass, with Jesse correctly pointing out that Valentine was the legal man. So then Warrior hits the double ax handle and pins Valentine for the victory at 17:50.
The wrestling wasn’t great, but I enjoyed this for what it was. Plus you had the debut of Owen Hart as the Blue Blazer.
• Rating: **
Demolition, Brain Busters, Conquistadors, Bolsheviks, Fabulous Rougeaus vs. Powers of Pain, Hart Foundation, Rockers, British Bulldogs, and Young Stallions – Survivor Series Elimination Match
HOLY SHIT. In case you needed a reminder of just how stacked the WWF tag team scene was at the time, here you go. After dealing with Dusty Rhodes’ horrendous booking and bad management in Jim Crockett Promotions, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard bolted after losing their NWA World Tag Team titles to the Midnight Express in mid-September. So there’s another defection on top of Powers of Pain leaving earlier in the year.
Then there’s the pay-per-view debut of The Rockers, comprised of two dudes named Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty. They were on TV in June (after being brought back after a failed WWF run where they were fired after one match in 1987), but this is the first big spot for them. So there’s your setup.
It’s truly an impressive sight to see all of these guys on the apron. Trivia: Shawn’s first opponent in a WWF PPV ring is Nikolai Volkoff. He and Marty both do some fighting with the Bolsheviks before Ax makes his way in to destroy Marty’s back. Now we’ve got Arn in there to battle Jannetty. I already miss Arn and Tully in JCP. Tully is in and get takes punches from nearly everyone on the face side of the ring. JIM POWERS IS IN THE MATCH. He legit does nothing and tags Dynamite back in the match. Brilliant move.
Powers back in now and Smash throws him around like a rag doll before Bret finally gets tagged in to go up against Jacques. And Raymond gets tagged in, only to see Bret hit the small package to eliminate the Rougeaus. We work our way towards Barbarian and Smash brawling, which the crowd is eating up with a spoon. Spirits go down when one member of the Conquistadors comes in. More tags than a department store at this point.
Biggest heat comes when Warlord and Ax square off and the cheers are equal for both. Eventually we get Zhukov eliminating Powers to send the Young Stallions packing. Funny spot from Tully where he gets tagged in and sneaks his way over to tag Volkoff since he wanted no part of Barbarian. Great heat for this. Marty finds himself in the match and gets rid of the Bolsheviks with a pin. Because you have so many fresh guys waiting, this match is total non-stop action. No, not TNA. It’s much better than that.
Both members of the Conquistadors are surprisingly kicking out of good moves. More great heel work from Tully to give Demolition the advantage over Barbarian. We then get a disputed near fall where Bret hits the suplex on Tully, but it’s ruled that Bret had his shoulders on the mat when the ref counted the three. Hart Foundation are outta there. Then we get full-on mayhem between the Brain Busters and Rockers, which causes the refs to send both teams home. They keep brawling down the aisle. THE CONQUISTADORS ARE STILL IN THIS DAMN MATCH.
Things get pretty slow with only two teams left on both sides. We finally get Smash pinning Dynamite to eliminate the Bulldogs, which would be their last PPV match as a team. How can you not be impressed with the Conquistadors? Hell of a showing. Maybe it’s Edge and Christian under the masks.
Fuji keeps getting up on the apron trying to use the cane, but Smash isn’t obeying orders. That of course leads to Smash running off the ropes and Fuji hanging onto the rope to send Smash outside. JESSE IS ALL OVER IT. Demolition gets counted out and then Ax yells at Fuji. And then Fuji hits Ax with the cane, and Smash helps Ax with the bodyslam on Fuji. Crowd eats this up.
So then we get the big moment where Powers of Pain go over to help Fuji back to his feet, thus completing the much-needed double turn. Barbarian scores the victory at 42:12, but the story here is obviously Fuji aligning with Barbarian and Warlord. So after the match we get Demolition hitting the ring, and the crowd probably isn’t quite sure what to make of this. They are buzzing, but not really cheering anyone.
As with any 40-minute match, there are a couple of slow spots. But overall, this was great stuff and highly entertaining. Must-see for the incredible depth of the tag team division.
• Rating: ****
BACKSTAGE: Sean Mooney with Bad News Brown. This man wants a title shot at Randy Savage and says he smelled a conspiracy from his own team earlier.
IN THE LOCKER ROOM: Gene Oklerund wants to know what the fuck is going on with Fuji and Demolition. So Fuji says he found a new team to demolish Demolition. Good stuff to push the turn.
Jake Roberts, Tito Santana, Scott Casey, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and Ken Patera vs. Andre the Giant, Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, Harley Race, and Dino Bravo – Survivor Series Elimination Match
Jesse immediately continues of his hatred of Duggan by wondering how the hell he’s the co-captain of his team. We get Rude and Patera to start things off, which is easily the biggest mismatch in wrestling history. And Bravo is immediately tagged in, which is easily the most equal matchup in wrestling history. Perfect makes his PPV debut by getting some good shots in on Patera.
Casey into this thing and HAVE I MENTIONED I LOVE JOBBERS? He luckily gets outta there quickly, which leads us into a Hacksaw/Perfect battle. Has Patera been eliminated yet? Just checking. Well Casey is back in the match and gets offense in on Perfect. Should have never happened. Hot tag to Patera (if such a thing exists) and thankfully Rude hits the Rude Awakening to eliminate him from this match. And then Bravo hits the sideslam to eliminate Casey.
Time for more Hacksaw/Perfect interaction until Rude gets tagged in. We work to a good sequence from Tito and Bravo, and Tito eliminates Race with the flying forearm. Andre enters for the first time and straight up annihilates Tito. He eventually sits on Tito for the pin.
We’re down to Jake/Hacksaw vs. Andre/Rude/Perfect/Bravo. Andre gets tied in the ropes and Jake gets his chance to go ballistic on him. Rude finally gets tagged to take the upper hand. Perfect now getting his licks in on Jake, as does Andre. Long sequence of Jake getting beat up until Hacksaw gets the hot tag. He gets some offense in until Frenchy gets a cheap jab in. Hacksaw then decides to be an absolute moron and take the 2×4 in the ring to beat up Bravo. What a buffoon. Naturally he gets DQ’d and leaves Jake all by himself against four men.
The next 10 minutes of the match feels like a complete decimation of Jake. Then we change course and Jake hits the DDT on Rude to eliminate him. So there’s Jake finally getting his revenge for the Cheryl fiasco. Andre comes in and gets DQ’d for choking Jake unmercifully in the corner. And Perfect slides in right after and pins a beaten Jake for the win at 30:03.
Somewhat slow at times, but it told the story of Jake fighting against all odds, and also showcased Perfect’s outstanding talents. This was solid.
• Rating: ***
Big Boss Man, Akeem, Ted DiBiase, Red Rooster, and King Haku vs. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Hillbilly Jim, Hercules, and Koko B. Ware – Survivor Series Elimination Match
And this is your PPV debut for Akeem, which is the real highlight. Then there’s the secondary feud of DiBiase and the freshly turned Hercules. We get a return to WrestleMania IV with Savage and DiBiase starting the match. Herc gets in and chases DiBiase around for a bit before we get the highly anticipated showdown between Rooster and Koko.
It gets to Hogan vs. Rooster and I think we know how this is gonna go. Hogan hits the boot and tags to Savage who hits the Flying Elbow to eliminate the Rooster. A few slow bits of action and Akeem rightfully sends Hillbilly to the showers. Then we get the good guys all taking turns trying to knock down Akeem but to no avail.
Boss Man finally gets into the mix and immediately sideslams Koko to eliminate him. Now we get the crowd into this with Hogan and Boss Man squaring off. Hogan slams him after some back and forth and Boss Man follows it up with a slam of his own. The Towers double team Hogan and now KING HAKU IS IN TO GET HIS REVENGE. As you’ll recall, Hogan made a mockery of the crown at Saturday Night’s Main Event the month before. Haku does some work and DiBiase does as well. Of course, Hogan starts no selling everything DiBiase throws at him before tagging in Herc.
After Virgil trips Herc, DiBiase scores the pin. Seconds later, Savage rolls up DiBiase after he was distracted with Herc going at Virgil on the outside. We get Haku working over Hogan for a while. Boss Man gets in and goes up top for some reason. Hogan moves out of the way and tags Savage to send the roof off the place. Slick move from Slick allows Boss Man to get back in control. But Slick takes it further by pulling Elizabeth into the aisle, and Hogan does not like this one bit. He goes after Slick and clobbers him. Akeem and Boss Man attack Hogan and handcuff him to the ropes. SPECTACULAR STRATEGY.
So, during that process Boss Man gets counted out and does not care for that one damn bit. Therefore, he beats up Hogan with the nightstick. Akeem decides to push the referee and now he’s been DQ’d. So we’re down to Hogan/Savage vs. Haku. That won’t go well for the true king of wrestling. And as expected, Hogan wipes out the managers and Elizabeth gets the handcuff keys and lets Hogan loose while Savage is getting destroyed by Haku.
The diving tag to Hogan and it’s boot and leg drop time to give the good guys the win at 29:10. Hogan picks up Elizabeth after the match and the seeds of jealously have been officially sown as Savage looks concerned about this. Far from a great match, but we know where it’s heading.
• Rating: **
Blake’s Survivor Series 1988 Awards
- Best Match: 20-Man Survivor Series Elimination Match
- Survivor Series 1988 MVP: Hulk Hogan
- Overall Survivor Series 1988 Rating: 6.5/10
- Thoughts: You don’t get anything truly terrible here. The tag team elimination match was awesome, plus you have the Demolition/Powers of Pain double turn. Everything else served its purpose, and although the main event wasn’t anything special, the post-match antics from Hogan started the big push towards the Mega Powers exploding.
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