WWF Survivor Series 1990

WWF Survivor Series 1990
Hartford, CT
Civic Center
November 22, 1990

After watching Survivor Series 1994, I needed to cleanse my palate with a much better classic Survivor Series event. I absolutely LOVED Series 1990. This has to be one of my most watched events of all time. This is the event that’s responsible for bringing me back to being a full fledged WWF fan after being mostly away from watching after Wrestlemania VI. This Series reached mythical status for me as both Matt and other friends were able to watch this event on satellite and told me about how amazing and incredible it was. I remember waiting forever to finally rent the tape when it was released and it certainly did not disappoint.

Over the years, my opinion has gone down quite a bit on this show. Like I said, I loved it so much as a kid and was even lucky enough to purchase a used copy that I practically wore out. But it certainly has its flaws. All of the matches are ridiculously short, full of really cheap eliminations. This Survivor Series, more than any other, is the epitome of the hilarious “pinned by a clothesline” punchline. So many unbelievably cheap finishes in these matches! Simple stuff that even Reno Riggins would ordinarily kick out of is presented as extremely deadly.

It’s been quite a few years since I last watched this show, as I was so disappointed by it last time. With fresh eyes and lowered expectations, I ended up really enjoying this. The whole show is treated like a sprint to the Grand Survival match. Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper really emphasize the need to get through the main matches quick, as guys knew that they might be required to pull double duty. If you cut through all of Hot Rod’s yammering, he actually does a really great job of selling this point, and the importance of hitting harder and faster than if it were a regular match. If you follow the logic of what they were going for, this Series ends up making a lot more sense. The Grand Survival match added a greater sense of urgency to these matches, compared to previous years. Still though, the majority of the eliminations really sucked and still bring down the quality of the show.

I’ve already started working on my fantasy rebooking of this entire show. There were a couple big names left off this card, most notably the Macho King and the recently returned British Bulldog. If they scrapped the Grand Survival match, which didn’t really amount to much, they could have had 5, five on five matches and gave them a lot more time. A lot of fans wouldn’t agree, but I so enjoyed the lengthy and slower paced survival matches found on the first three shows and on some of the later ones.

As mentioned, Monsoon and Piper are on the call from the then-home of the Hartford Whalers. I love how brightly lit the arenas were for these early 90s events. No fancy entrance ways, but the arenas always looked so damn good. The fans are super hot for the majority of the show, and there was so much hype for the egg, the Grand Survival match, and of course Ted Dibiase’s mystery partner. All of the elements were in place to make this show memorable and legendary!

1) WWF World Champion the Ultimate Warrior, WWF IC Champion Kerry Von Erich, & the Legion of Doom defeated Mr. Perfect (w/ Bobby Heenan) & Demolition Ax, Smash, & Crush (w/ Mr. Fuji) at 14:20

First off, this is the end of the road for Demolition Ax, who famously is completely and entirely out of fucks to give. Ax is in the Zero Fucks Hall of Fame, as he didn’t even bother to gel his hair down and looks completely disinterested. What a sad end to the one of the greatest WWF teams of the era. It’s completely ridiculous to have the fucking heavyweight champion in the opening match, and what did the Ultimate Warrior even have to do with Mr. Perfect at this point? I have no recollection of a feud between them. All of the matches on this show are wrestled at a breakneck pace, with constant action and energy. With the shorter match lengths, they’re all very exciting and certainly the eliminations were unpredictable. Ax gets pinned minutes into the match and looks like he could care less as he casually rolls out of the ring and walks out of the company. The cheap eliminations begin early on this show, with LOD and the remaining Demolition quickly getting double DQ’d. There are SO MANY of these cop-out eliminations throughout the night. The ending of this match is all kinds of fun as Perfect takes a great beating from the Warrior and Tornado while the crowd loses their shit. He manages to put away the Tornado, then even gets the perfect plex on the Warrior who kicks out in a super moment. Warrior squashes him for the win. Great moment, but why the fuck was this the opening match?! This really should have gone right before the main event. It’s not like the Warrior did a lot in this match anyway.

Hilariously Piper is already sweating and worn out after the first match. A lot of people hate Piper’s commentary, but I really enjoyed his frenzied call. On this show it really added to the chaotic feel of these matches.

2) Ted Dibiase (w/ Virgil), the Undertaker (w/ Brother Love) (mystery partner), Greg Valentine, & the Honkytonk Man (w/ Jimmy Hart) defeated Dusty Rhodes, Koko B. Ware, & WWF Tag Team Champions Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart at 13:54

Here of course is the surprise that would draw me back into being a dedicated WWF fan for nearly the next decade. I’ll never forget my friend coming over to tell me about the debut of this invincible new wrestler, whose name he thought was “The Gravedigger.” We immediately dumped out all my LJNs and used Ax for the Gravedigger, mowing through all the other wrestlers, exactly as he described. I anxiously waited for Superstars to find out who this mysterious newcomer was, and you can certainly say that the rest was history. The Undertaker’s debut was incredible, one of the best of all time, but in the breakneck speed of this card, he’s really not out there for very long. It’s amazing that the Undertaker’s televised career begins with him locking up with Bret Hart, a neat fact that’s been very understated. It doesn’t take long for the Undertaker to destroy Koko B Ware, kicking off an unmatched legacy. A whole series of super cheap eliminations follow, with the Anvil pinning Honky with a simple powerslam, Dibiase pinned the Anvil with an actual fucking clothesline, and Dibiase pinning Dusty Rhodes with a simple axehandle off the top. Man, they weren’t even trying with these eliminations! Stupidest of all, the Undertaker gets counted out while brawling with Dusty Rhodes in the aisle, despite not even being tagged into the ring!? Made zero sense! Hilariously, R&B Greg Valentine outlasts the Undertaker in this match. The mini match after all the eliminations between Bret Hart and Ted Dibiase is some of the best wrestling seen on WWF PPV in 1990. Piper strongly puts over how Bret was wrestling in honor of his brother Dean who had just passed away the day before. Bret scores so many near falls on Dibiase, and the fans are red hot for this excitement. Dibiase’s roll through pin was fantastic, and this little sequence certainly did a lot to put Bret on the map going into 1990. At least he didn’t get pinned after a fucking clothesline!

3) Rick Martel, the Warlord (w/ Slick), Paul Roma, & Hercules defeated Jake Roberts, Jimmy Snuka, & Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty at 17:42

This ends up being the longest match of the night, clocking in at just under 18 minutes. Pretty sad considering the shortest match the year before still clocked in at over 20 minutes. A couple good 1990 feuds here with Jake/Martel and Rockers/Power & Glory. From all accounts, they were building up to P&G winning the tag team titles from either the Rockers (had that title change counted) or the Harts at Wrestlemania VII, but were shoved aside upon the arrival of the Nasty Boys in a few weeks. Too bad, as Herc and Roma were looking awesome at this point, scoring major wins at both SummerSlam and here at Series, as well as doing great showings in the Royal Rumble match. This survival match is pretty good and thankfully slows things down. Lots of tags in this match and better and more serious eliminations. I always enjoy the weird combinations you get to see at Survivor Series, like Jake squaring off against the Warlord. It’s fun to look back in hindsight and see Jake and Shawn Michaels as the last two wrestlers left on the Vipers. Funny too because I recently watched Jake squash a young Michaels on the Unreleased set. Much like the Hitman in the previous match, Jake has to battle the odds, in this case 4 wrestlers. The fans were really excited to see Jake mow through the opposition. Instead, the finish is yet another fucking mess as Jake DDTs the Warlord, but Martel jumps in and tries to spray him in the face with Arrogance. Jake chases Martel to the back and gets counted out like an idiot. And Martel doesn’t get counted out! In the fucking match before, they counted out the Undertaker for the exact same thing, even though he wasn’t the legal man, and do the same thing here. Man, these are the things that have brought down my overall enjoyment of this show. Regardless, it’s super cool to see an entire team survive for the first time in Series history.

I should mention how much I loved seeing all the between match interviews with the teams. These have always been a personal highlight when watching these shows. What’s really interesting is the dedication to the troops and the brewing war in Iraq. Hulk Hogan really slams this home and Piper goes nuts with it on commentary. The Hulkster’s insane patriotism got me so excited about the USA as a kid.

4) Hulk Hogan, the Big Bossman, Tugboat, & Jim Duggan defeated Earthquake (w/ Jimmy Hart), Dino Bravo, Haku (w/ Bobby Heenan), & the Barbarian at 14:49

Wow this match is just terrible. The teams are so primed for a grueling hoss battle, but they zoom through this in record time. The first few minutes are great with Duggan beating the shit out of Haku, but the eliminations come fast and furious right after. Haku gets pinned by the Bossman slam – okay awesome, then Duggan gets DQ’d like an idiot and Hogan pins Dino Bravo with a sneaky roll up. The stupidest was how Tugboat wasn’t even tagged into the match until after the 10 minute mark (“I forgot he was even there!” declares Gorilla) and immediately brawls with Earthquake to a double countout! What the fuck! These eliminations are all awful. I loved seeing the match boil down to Hulk Hogan and the Barbarian. It’s really a shame that we never got any Coliseum Video title matches between Hogan and the likes of the Barbarian or Warlord. Barbarian beats down Hulk for a couple minutes, but Hogan simply Hulks Up, then the big boot and legdrop finish the Barbarian off in seconds.

Up next is a special interview with the Macho King Randy Savage. Apparently he was dealing with injuries at this time, but really, he should have been on this show in some capacity. This interview kickstarts his brewing feud with the Ultimate Warrior, which ended up being fucking awesome in the early months of 1991!

Speaking of interviews, one of the worst moments in PPV history is next with Sgt. Slaughter’s absolutely ear-wrenchingly awful promo with his horrendous “music” playing on loop in the background. Should anyone ever want to torture me, they would simply need to put this on loop. I fast forwarded straight through this, yet my brain still could hear it and feel the pain.

5) Nikolai Volkoff, Tito Santana, & the Bushwhackers defeated Sgt. Slaughter (w/ Gen. Adnan), Boris Zhukoff, & the Orient Express (w/ Mr. Fuji) at 10:52

This really should have been the opener. I don’t even know what the point of this was, as they whip through the eliminations in record time. They put over Slaughter strong as his whole team is eliminated in the first two minutes. From there he easily dispatches Volkoff and the Bushwhackers before having a basic match with Santana for a few minutes. Rowdy Roddy Piper is just insane on commentary about the war in Iraq and supporting the troops. He’s making insulting and borderline racist comments about Iraqis. This match ends like all the rest – in a really cheap disqualification. It’s awesome to see the “Arriba Man” as Hogan calls him in the following promo make it to the main event.

After months and months of speculation, it’s time for the giant egg to hatch. This is hands down one of the worst surprises in wrestling history. Even as a kid I hated it and thought it was beyond stupid, as did the extremely disappointed crowd in Hartford who booed the shit out of this garbage. There’s been so many wild theories and myths spread over the years about what was supposed to be in the egg, like how the Undertaker was supposed to debut as The Eggman and other such nonsense. I believe that the plan all along was to debut the Gobbledy Gooker. In the commentary you can hear Monsoon and Piper shilling him as the new mascot for Survivor Series. I think the idea was that he would get over big as a wacky mascot character, but it bombed in spectacular fashion. The best part was of course Mean Gene dancing along and trying to copy the Gooker’s moves. Big points to Okerlund for always doing his best with what he was given to work with.

6) Ultimate Match of Survival: Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, & WWF World Champion the Ultimate Warrior defeated Ted Dibiase (w/ Virgil), Rick Martel, the Warlord (w/ Slick), Paul Roma, & Hercules at 9:07

What a disappointment this ended up being. I’m not surprised that they never ran this concept again, as after all the hype, it lead to a night of rushed matches and horrible non-finishes, and ended in the most fucking predictable fashion imaginable. The heels are of no threat here. Once they get Tito out of there early, Hogan mows through the opponents, completely overshadowing the Warrior. It’s kind of funny that the heel side ends up with Dibiase and Hercules, who were feuding just two years earlier at Series. Surprisingly Dibiase gets eliminated before Hercules. Even as a kid I found this so extremely disappointing, and I sometimes wouldn’t even watch this far into the tape.

Well, I certainly enjoyed watching this show for the fun and nostalgia, but as a Survivor Series, it’s a really big letdown from the first three years, and the concept wouldn’t be the same again from this point forward. Such a shame, as I hold Series 87 – 89 in such high regard – three of my favorite pay-per-views of all time. I guess most fans probably didn’t care for the slower paced, serious Survival matches. It was such a unique concept and there was so much potential for matches within matches and really interesting stories.