1990 Survivor Series
The 4th annual Survivor Series took place on Nov 22nd 1990 from the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford Conneticut. Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper
Match #1
8 Man Tag Team Elimination Match
World Champion The Ultimate Warrior, Intercontinental Champion The Texas Tornado Kerry Von Erich And The Legion Of Doom Vs Mr Perfect And Demolition w Bobby Heenan And Mr Fuji
Kerry technically lost the title before the Survivor Series on a taped show but it wouldn't be aired on TV until mid December. Which is a big WTF for the fans in the know. This is Ax's last WWF match ever, as he left the promotion following this match and the lameass story angle was that Tunney just decided that only 2 members of Demolition would be allowed in the company. Animal jumps Smash then Perfect tags in and gets clobbered by the faces. Tornado in and he gets caught by the heels and Ax tags in. He starts hammering then gets reversed to the corner and walks out into a claw. Smash breaks it up and Warrior tags in and hits Ax with a clothesline then hits the shoulderblock and ends Ax's night with a big splash at 3:23. Ax did very little after that shellfish scare over the summer. Hawk and Perfect go next and Perfect gets squashed. Smash back in and he gets beat up. Hawk charges and hits the post shoulder first. Hawk rallies and goes up top and hits the flying clothesline but Crush, who hasn't done much of anything breaks it up and the LOD/Demo's brawl. Hawk kicks the ref and it ends up drawing a double DQ. Lameass cop out considering they didn't do a proper blowoff on a big show, they just had the LOD beat Demolition at long forgotten house shows and on Superstars and stuff, another botched storyline. That leaves Perfect against Warrior and Tornado. Tornado and Perfect have their mini match, even though it was over in real time and Tornado was technically feuding with Dibiasie for costing him the belt. Perfect takes advantage and bounces his head off an exposed turnbuckle. Missed who uncovered it and a perfect plex gets the pin at 11:02. Warrior comes charging in and splashes the turnbuckle and Perfect kicks him down. Perfect plex but it only gets 2. Heenan tries interfering but gets tossed into ringside and Warrior "warriors up" and hits the clotheslines of death and the flying shoulder block and splash to advance to the grand finale at 14:20. Im going 2 1/2 stars. I hated them throwing out LOD/Demo like that. Heenan gets beat up some more postmatch.
Match #2
Ted Dibiasie, The Mystery Partner, And Rhythm And Blues w Virgil And Jimmy Hart Vs Dusty Rhodes, Koko B Ware, and Tag Champions The Hart Foundation
Everyone who is a true wrestling fan knows this match. Dibiasie introduces from Death Valley, The Undertaker!! He has Brother Love as a manager at this point. Taker starts with Bret and he runs into a choke and gets dropped. Anvil tags in and gets slammed. Koko tags in and does that retarded stinger leap and clothesline himself on the ropes for the 100th time. Taker with a somewhat weak tombestone ends Koko's night at 1:39. Despite people calling the polka dots Dusties worst outfit. Im not so sure it was better than the poncho, with the top hat and a dried turkey foot on it. Bret asked for time off because his younger brother died the day before this show, but Vince said no way. Boy, the Survivor Series has alot of bad karma on it going all the way back to 1987. Bret back in and Taker calmly tags out and gives Bret a nasty look. Hammer and Bret go at it then Honkee tags in and Bret tags Anvil on a blind tag and Honkee runs into a powerslam and is gone at 4:16. Dibiasie in and he gets beat up by Anvil but, Neidhart gets to close to Virgil and he trips him, Dibiasie with a rollup at 5:49. Dusty in and he goes nuts on Dibiase Taker back in and he clobbers Dusty then hits a flying axehandle and pins Dusty at 9:17. Brother Love kicks Dusty outside and Rhodes goes after him as Taker tags out. Taker beats Dusties ass down the entrance way and gets counted out. LAME!! HE WASN'T LEGAL!! I know they were doing it this way to keep him strong. Should of called it a dq for picking on the guy who was already eliminated. Taker gets pissed and kicks Rhodes ass to the back. Hammer in and he goes for the figure four and gets package and pinned at 9:57. Bret Vs Dibiase. Bret with a pescado and the crowd is getting behind him. Bret fakes a knee injury and Dibiasie gloats. Bret rolls him up for 2 on the possum play. Irish whip reverse and Bret goes into the corner chest first. Bret with a crossbody off the ropes and Dibiasie rolsl through for 3 at 13:54. Bret says *beep* on camera. Good match. 3 stars.
Match #3
8 Man Tag Team Elimination Match
Jake The Snake Roberts, Superfly Jimmy Snuka, And The Rockers Vs The Model Rick Martel, The Warlord And Power And Glory w Slick
Jake has the white contact lens in place at this time so he's selling the whole half blind, no depth perception thing. Marty starts with Warlord and slaps him then gets caught in the corner then uses speed to escape but Warlord shrugs off the dropkicks. Shawn in and he helps Marty schoolboy the Warlord for 2. Shawn in and he gets caught in the corner but Warlord hits Herc by mistake. Martel tags in and Jake comes in and runs him off. Marty back in and he gets caught in a bearhug by Warlord then claps his ears to break. Marty goes up top and hits somethings then goes back up but gets powerslammed on the way down and he's done as usual at 5:03. Shawn in and he gets clobbered good by the heels. Hottag Snuka and he controls on Martel. Snuka tries a crossbody rebound out of the corner but Martel rolls through and grabs a handful of tights for the pin at 9:28. Jake lunges at Martel who scampers away and tags Herc. Martel clotheslines Jake from the apron and Piper blurts out "YOU CHEAP ASS!!" which was risque for this time period. Shawn tags in and gets the crap kicked out of himself for about 5 minutes. Powerplex ends his night at 15:40. Jake gets caught in a bearhug by Warlord then gets lose and hits a ddt, but the heels distract the ref and Martel misses with the perfume spray and Jake goes to the bag and chases Martel out and is counted out at 17:42. Unlike Taker being counted out earlier, Martel wasn't the legal guy but since the storyline didn't call for him being counted out, he was allowed to advance with the entire team of the Visionaries. Ill go 3 stars.
Match #4
Hulk Hogan, The Big Boss Man, Hacksaw Jim Duggan And The Tugboat Vs Earthquake, Dino Bravo, The Barbarian And Haku w Jimmy Hart And Bobby Heenan
After Summerslam, for no reason, Rick Rude started feuding with Boss Man by insulting his mother. Jack Tunney, about 2 weeks before this event suspended Rude indefinatley for continued comments about the old bat, and that is probably the dumbest storyline I can think of for a guy leaving the company. Rude should of been on the disasters team, but is replaced by Haku. Doesn't help. Haku and Boss Man go and Haku misses a cross body off the second rope then Bossman catches him with the scrapbuster and pin at 3:15. Everybody gets a turn then Duggan fights with Quake but he runs the ropes and Hart opens them so Duggan spills out. He gets pissed, grabs the board and chases Jimmy who runs between Quakes legs and Quake gets clobbered with the board and Duggan is DQ'd as usual at 6:12. Hogan slams Quake then does the 10 punch but gets slammed out of the corner. Bravo tags in and does some damage, then gets suprised small package by Hogan, and that IS a suprise at 7:59. Quake comes back in and Hogan gets beat on and then hottags Bossman who goes to work, Barbarian kicks him on a run by and Quake drops two big elbows and pins him at 9:08. Hogan back in and he tries to slam Quake and gets squashed. Hogan makes a desperation tag to Tugboat who hasn't been in AT ALL and the crowd goes TOOOOOT!!! (despite what the marks say, they weren't booing). Tugboat and Quake immediately fight outside and are double counted out at 11:33. Barbarian and Hogan are left, and Barbarian hits a piledriver then a top rope clothesline. Hulk up, big boof legdrop, see ya at 14:49 and poor Heenan gets his ass kicked some more. What a lousy night for Bobby. 2 stars.
Macho King does a promo to kill 5 minutes.
Match #5
Nikolai Volkoff, Tito Santana And The Bushwhackers Vs Sgt Slaughter, Boris Zukoff And The Orient Express
We are SERIOUSLY into the dregs of the WWF 1990 at this point. I don't like putting Santana in that category but that's what he has been reduced to after his feud with Martel that never went anywhere. Slaughter cuts a 5 minute anti American promo which probably means they will rush the match since he's pissing away air time. Akeem was supposed to be on this team, but as usual, November is a house cleaning period for the WWF and he left so Boris got the go ahead. What a worthless piece of crap he was for ANY SS team. Tito knocks his brains out in 48 seconds with the flying forearm and the pin. Sato in and he works on Santana, Tanaka in and he accidently kicks Sato. Cold tag to Butch who is riled up and he beats up both Japanese guys then tags Luke for the wussy battering ram and Sato is gone at 1:46. Tito back in and he pops Tanaka with the forearm and pin at 2:13. This sucks. Slaughter is alone and Nikolai comes in without tagging and gets into trouble. Slaughter kicks his ass for about 2 minutes then a clothesline and elbow drop end his night at 5:25. Bushwhackers double slam Slaughter then Luke the idiot goes up top and jumps off into knees and a gut buster ends him at 6:30. Butch is more capable but he misses a charge in the corner and gets pinned after a clothesline at 6:53. Slaughter celebrates and Tito dropkicks him in the back and the crowd wakes up. The referee gets bumped and Adnan jumps in with the flag and jabs Tito. Slaughter with the camel clutch but the ref signals the break. Tito wins by DQ at 10:52. 1 1/2 star. Worst SS match up until that time. Slaughter was allowed to pin 3 slobs to help build his credentials because Vince was looking to make money off the war and Tito was allowed to be a winner tonight, because they needed a baby face for the heel team to pin because they are gonna get killed by Hogan and Warrior anyway. Also Sgt loses by DQ so nobody loses face. Ive been watching this stuff too long.
Mean Gene gets introduced to the *beep* THIS is the reason for the rushed match earlier? I watched this show for the first time when I was 12 and I was embarrassed as hell BACK THEN! FF
Match #6
Grand Finale Survivor Series Match
World Champion The Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan And Tito Santana Vs The Million $ Man Ted Dibiasie, The Model Rick Martel, The Warlord, And Power And Glory
Warlord jumps Santana so Hogan hits him back which lets Santana hits the flying forearm and the pin at 28 seconds in. Warlord was probably still wasted from the ddt anyway. Tito and Dibiasie have a showdown and Ted gets a stun gun and pin at 1:51. Hogan clobbers Dibiasie then gets caught by the heels. Roma witha forearm shot off the top then P+G do the powerplex but Hogan pops up and hits an axe bomber on Roma and a pin at 5:57. Hottag Warrior and he beats the crap out of Martel then Hogan back in and a clothesline sends Martel spilling to the floor and the pussy takes a walk at 7:17. He gets booed big time, even for a heel that's low to desert your own heel team. The heels chances are pretty much gone now. Dibiasie pounds on Hogan but another hulk up, he shouldn't be allowed to do it more than once. Big boot and legdrop finish Dibiasie at 8:30. Warrior tags in and he mops up on Hercules with a big splash at 9:07. At least they had the decency to let Tito in on the main event so the heels didn't suffer a complete squash, but it was pretty lopsided anyway. 2 stars.
Overall Opinion: Despite the garbage of the Goukar and it causing the last two matches of the show to be rushed, this might be my favorite SS event. The grand finale was a pretty good idea, but alas they never followed up on it. PPV sales were down this year so they decided to start working in singles matches which have pretty much anhiliated the ppv's gimmick. Also, the CV was readily available in my area back in the day. Some places even had 2 or 3 copies. Now it's a bitch to find and will probably run you $25 to $50 for the tape with the original box.
Final Score: This show gets an even 4.0 stars out of 10.0 from me. I still like it for nostalgia. Ill watch it over most of any of the recent ppv's anyway.