WWF Survivor Series 1989

WWF Survivor Series 1989
Chicago, IL
Rosemont Horizon
November 23, 1989

After watching SummerSlam 1989 a couple months back, I just HAD to watch Survivor Series 1989. I’ve been reading so much love for this event, and wrestling in 1989 in general, on the internet over the last few weeks. Both the WWF and the NWA were delivering red hot, albeit completely different, pay-per-views and events throughout the year. So many fans look back fondly on 89, as both major companies are just so damn entertaining and re-watchable. Events like Series 89 are like comfort food for those of us who grew up in that era.

As a kid, I was never the hugest fan of this event. The matches are all hard-fought, classic battles, but the booking feels so off for this show. Long before I even knew what booking was, I just didn’t like a lot of the eliminations and I was especially irritated by the Million $ Man suddenly feuding with Hogan and being aligned with Zeus for absolutely no reason. I also didn’t understand why they switched from 5 on 5 survival matches, not realizing how much the roster had been trimmed over the year. Because of all this, I didn’t rent this tape very much in the 90s. I seem to remember that it also disappeared from the closest video stores and I never bothered to seek it out elsewhere until years later.

I have a much greater appreciation for Series 89 now. A lot of the booking still irritates me, but I really enjoy the quality of the matches and how seriously everything was still taken. I love the whole concept of the Survivor Series and love these first few years when it was strictly about team elimination matches. Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura are on commentary once again, and they do an awesome job of weaving together all the stories in the match and discussing the strategies of each team. They expertly put over the ability to exist as a team, and point out the mistakes, like guys not tagging when they should and costing their team in an elimination.

The show features the absolute CLASSIC opening where Vince McMahon roars through all the teams and team members! Fuck does that ever get me fired up to watch the event! The Rosemont Horizon in suburban Chicago is packed and going crazy for this card. The fans are right into all the eliminations and there are some monster pops throughout the show. The heat in the building kind of dies out after the Hogan match in the middle of the show, and the main event is really lacking in excitement, but overall it’s a great crowd and atmosphere.

1) Dusty Rhodes, Brutus Beefcake, Tito Santana, & the Red Rooster defeated the Big Bossman (w/ Slick), the Honkytonk Man (w/ Jimmy Hart), Bad News Brown, & Rick Martel in an elimination match at 22:04

Damn great opener, bringing together a lot of the main characters of the WWF’s mid-card. I might go so far as to say this is my favorite match of the night. It’s really well paced, with a ton of action and fun eliminations. I still can’t help but immediately start re-booking this card in my imagination. There was a dearth of talent compared to the years prior, and it was a necessary move to trim the teams down to four men. But I think these teams could have been better pieced together. Anyway, I love the great showing of the Big Bossman in this one, as his team members drop off one after another. Bad News walking out on his team was so funny in 88 and is still hilarious again a year later. He wasn’t even scheduled to be on the card, but was needed to replace the injured Akeem. The Bossman looked like a boss as he mowed through the Rooster and seemed to be on the verge of pulling off an upset, but the unexpected crossbody from Rhodes was an exciting surprise finish. Great eliminations in this match and a huge win for Rhodes and Beefcake. In an amazing part that I always forget about, Bossman beats the shit out of Rhodes with his nightstick after the match until Beefcake cleared him from the ring. Great match!

I absolutely love all the between match interviews with the teams. It was laugh out loud hilarious to hear the 4x4s roaring about taking down the King’s Court. These segments are priceless!

2) Randy Savage (w/ Sensational Sherri), Dino Bravo (w/ Jimmy Hart), Greg Valentine, & the Earthquake defeated Jim Duggan, Bret Hart, Ron Garvin, & Hercules in an elimination match at 22:25

On top of the already depleted roster, there were a number of substitutions needed for this event, including the Canadian Earthquake taking the place of the Widowmaker in this match. The Widowmaker Barry Windham is one of the great “what-ifs?” in wrestling, as he was a major jump from the NWA and was reportedly being primed for a run against Hogan in early 1990. Instead, Windham had to tend with both an injury and a scandal in his family, leaving the company just months after debuting. It’s crazy to think about all the great matches Windham could have had. Now, the huge problem I have with this match is the Macho Man captaining a team against Hacksaw Jim Duggan. I get that this was a feud at the time, but wow… what a far cry from his two red hot main events against Hulk Hogan. Considering the monster buyrate for SummerSlam, it’s downright shocking that they had Hogan pin Zeus clean in the main event. Even with his limitations, Zeus was a draw and they were already planning the No Holds Barred PPV. It’s equally stupid that they cooled off Savage and had him in this mid-card feud, rather than trying to get back at Hogan. By the time the No Holds Barred PPV rolled around, the match had no juice and just felt so incredibly flat. They really could have used Series to put over Macho and Zeus. It’s not like Hogan never lost at Series, having been counted out two years prior. I just don’t get their thinking, as they left a lot of money on the table by fucking around with the Hogan-Macho feud.

As for the match itself, it’s pretty awesome. This is the debut of the Canadian Earthquake and he already looks like a fucking superbeast. Him squashing an established mid-card star Hercules in the first few minutes was a major statement. He was such a major presence throughout the match and you could tell they were planning big things for him. Garvin and Valentine’s fun mid-card feud was a part of the first half of this match and they were unloading with some fucking WICKED chops. Garvin was just chopping the ever-loving shit out of both Valentine and Bravo and the crowd was loving it. At the time it seemed nuts that a “tag team guy” like Bret Hart lasted longer than both Hercules and Garvin, as that was not the style of the era. It’s interesting watching these older PPVs with the knowledge that Bret would go on to be a five time world champion and main eventer, because although he was amazing in the ring, he was definitely not presented as any kind of a singles threat. It was super awesome seeing him and Savage go at it on PPV and they had a really nice sequence in the back half of the match before Macho puts him away. Much like the first match, this ends up being 3 on 1. Some of Jesse Ventura’s greatest commentary of all time can be found on these 1989 pay-per-views. Here he hilariously buries Duggan and celebrates when the King’s Court finishes him off by countout. Jesse ragging on Duggan was a staple of his commentary and it still makes me laugh out loud to this day. Really good to see the bad guys look strong in victory. Now if it had only been over Hogan’s team.

3) WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, & WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition defeated Ted Dibiase (w/ Virgil), Zeus, & the Powers of Pain (w/ Mr. Fuji) in an elimination match at 27:32

Ughhhh, this whole match just frustrates the hell out of me. The idea of Dibiase captaining a team against Hogan is beyond stupid. Dibiase was in a great feud with Jake the Snake, but otherwise had firmly been in the mid-card all year, not even beating Superfly Jobber Snuka clean at SummerSlam. Then you have the Powers of Pain who were jobbing to the fucking Bushwhackers on house shows. They clearly lost the feud to Demolition back at Wrestlemania and weren’t even featured at SummerSlam. To top it all off were the asinine eliminations in this match. Jesse Ventura was IRATE at the blatant favoritism towards Hulk Hogan, and it certainly seemed like the referee was helping him out. I liked the initial insanity of Zeus destroying Hogan and getting DQ’d for throwing the ref around. This was an awesome start to the match. If this match had been booked better, it would have been a perfect setup for Savage fly off the top rope and shockingly pin Hogan with a big elbow. Man what an amazing moment that would have been. The crowd would have gone molten and no doubt ignited interest in the No Holds Barred PPV. But instead it just lead to nothing as the match plodded along. Demolition are treated like total losers, with Ax and Smash both getting pinned in weak eliminations by the Powers of Pain. In the stupidest moment of this whole card, both Warlord and Barbarian get dq’d for double teaming and beating up Hogan. This was super weak and Jesse calls out the outright favoritism towards Hogan. This happens in every fucking tag team match and never leads to a DQ, yet is used as a cheap way out here. Three DQs and Dibiase being left alone against Hogan and Jake for ten minutes was a terribly uninspired conclusion. The match crawls to a finish and of course Hogan can’t share the spotlight with Roberts and has to be the sole survivor. I tried really hard to like this match, but I just can’t. It just irritates the hell out of me and brings down this whole event.

4) Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect (w/ the Genius), Jacques & Raymond Rougeau (w/ Jimmy Hart) defeated Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, & the Bushwhackers in an elimination match at 21:30

During this match Ventura and Monsoon start discussing the rumored dissension in the Heenan Family, and Ventura mentions that he heard from a source that there was pushing and arguing going on. They really sell the point that Heenan is not at ringside with Rude. The match itself is a goofy brawl, as you’d expect from Rowdy’s Roddies. The fans have cooled down a lot after the last match, but still go pretty nuts for the Hot Rod himself. They get the tag team guys out early and the focus is clearly on the Piper-Rude storyline. The feud was pretty fantastic and I’d argue they could have gone all the way to Wrestlemania. The double countout brawl to eliminate them makes you think that there was more to come, but other than house shows, this feud just fizzles out by early 90 unfortunately. Mr. Perfect winning was a given at that point, and Snuka was on his way to being a jobber to the stars. Perfect’s act was finally complete with the Genius at his side, and he was set for a major push.

5) WWF IC Champion the Ultimate Warrior, Jim Neidhart, & Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated Andre the Giant, Haku, Arn Anderson, & Bobby Heenan in an elimination match at 20:28

This main event has always felt ridiculously flat. I don’t really understand the logic of putting this on last. The Warrior was super over, but still nowhere near the level of Hogan. Watching this event as a kid, and having no knowledge of the Tully Blanchard situation, I was super confused by Bobby Heenan’s inclusion in this match. It seemed so cheap to have Heenan in a main event match, and even worse was him pinning Marty Jannetty. They could have had Heenan pay off someone like Bad News Brown at least. It certainly would have made for a more interesting story – to see Heenan desperately trying to buy some help for his team. The opening surprise of the Warrior racing down and clobbering the Giant until he falls out of the ring and gets counted out was also so confusing. It pops the crowd huge, but taking Andre out so fast leaves Heenan’s team looking ridiculously weak. There was no chance Heenan, Haku, or Arn Anderson would be winning this thing. Another odd booking choice was to not have Demolition opposing Heenan’s team, given that they were embroiled in a feud with the Brainbusters and soon Haku and Andre. It’s hard for me to fully enjoy this event with these thoughts constantly swirling around my brain. On the positive side, there was some sweet wrestling action with the Rockers, Haku, and Anderson in the middle portion of the match. Warrior destroying Heenan to finish this off was a given, but the crowd exploded nonetheless. Monsoon and Ventura rushed through their closing remarks and the event concluded with the Warrior’s music playing over still shots from the show.

I enjoyed this Series for what it was, and while the matches are mostly all good solid battles, I just can’t get past the booking. This event certainly has aged well for me though, and it’s still a fun watch. But man, it just could have been that much better!