HITMAN383 Rant for WWF Survivor Series 1988

- The HITMAN383 Rant for WWF Survivor Series 1988. When you think of “Survivor Series” today, it’s just another PPV. Some matches, some people getting run down by cars, some folks getting thrown off cranes … you know, the usual. But back in the day, the Survivor Series saw none of that … they saw those elimination tag matches LOOOOONG Elimination tag matches. So lets head back to the 2nd Survivor Series … The 1988 WWF Survivor Series! (This is the Coliseum Video version… clipping, wonky match orders and all)

- BTW, I use this system:
***** - Excellent,
**** - Great,
*** - Good,
**- Okay,
* - Decent,
DUD - Awful.

- Live from Richfield, Ohio.

- Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura.

- Opening Tag Team Series Match: Demolition, The Conquistadors, The Bolsheviks, The Brain Busters, & The Rougeau Brothers vs. The Powers of Pain, The Young Stallions, The Hart Foundation, The Rockers & The British Bulldogs: Pretty big elimination match, huh? Davey kills an Conquistador to start, so Jacques Rougeau gets in. He gets killed, too, so The Russians get in. Shawn Michaels gets in for the faces, and he manages to toss around Boris. Jannetty gets in to get a two count, and Ax tags in. Ax dominates, and brings Arn Anderson in. Marty is able to backdrop and dropkicks him, bringing Tully in. Slugfest won by Jannetty, and he atomic drops him into the face corner for a beating. Jacques tags in again, and still no one can stop Marty! He tags Dynamite Kid in, who quickly snap suplexes Jacques for two. Raymond switches off, and gets sunset flipped for two. Jim Powers and Boris Zhukov tag in, and Powers dominates, so Smash tags in. This is just too fast paced to review. I mean NO rest holds in an eighties match! Bret and Jacques have a go now (with a BIG entrance pop for Bret), and Hart cradles him for the first pin at 4:55. Yes, all the above happened in under five minutes! That means that the Rougeau’s are out, and I say don’t let the door hit you, baby. Nikolai comes in next, and go’s with Paul Roma, and a flying bodypress by Roma gets two. Jim Neidhart comes in with a dropkick (!!), but Smash tags in to abuse him. He gets nailed off of a criss cross, however, and Barbarian gets in. He slugs in out with Smash (which was a big deal at the time), which Smash wins, and a Conquistador tags in. Both Powers of Pain abuse him, and then let Bret have some too, until Smash gets in. Demolition dominate him, but Bret rallies a comeback, only to run into a knee off of a corner charge. Blanchard gets back in, but quickly tags Smash, and Bret tags Shawn. Wow, Bret and Shawn working together?!? (Seeing them today, joking around together in the background of the recent Slammys RAW during Triple H’s promo was great. As someone who lived through 1997, it makes me ridiculously happy to see them finally bury the hatchet) Smash kills him, however. They put Michaels in the heel corner, and all the heels gets their licks in. Nikolai hits a backbreaker, and tags Tully in. He and Arn hit a spinebuster for two, and a Conquistador (the announcers don’t know them apart, and neither do I) gets in, but Shawn tags Marty. Jannetty slams him for two, so Volkoff gets back in. Marty dropkicks him, but it doesn’t really effect him, so Davey Boy Smith gets back in. HE easily slams the Russian around, but a tag to Tully is still made. He dominate the Bulldog, but misses an elbow, and both guys tag. It’s Warlord vs. a Conquistador now, and you guess who controls that! Ax tags in, which gets a big pop for this confrontation, and Ax pounds him, then tags Smash to go to work. Warlord starts no-selling, however, and tags Barbarian to pound some. A big slugfest is won by Smash (!), but he tags Tully, who quickly gets press slammed. Neidhart gets back in, and powerslams him for two. Dynamite gets in, but Tully dumps him to the floor, and tags The Enforcer. Arn kills the little guy, but makes the mistake of tagging a Conquistador. Even HE knows it’s a mistake, because he quickly tags Zhukov. Powers gets tagged in, too, and he kills the Russian. Boris rolls through a bodypress, however, and pins Powers at 14:50 to eliminate the Young Stallions! Match continues with Boris and Michaels, which Shawn controls since Zhukov is still tired. A 2nd rope fist drop gets two, and Barbarian comes in. He shoulderblocks Boris into his corner, so he tags Blanchard, but Tully wants no part of Barbie and tags Volkoff. Funny moment there, as Tully shuffles across the ring to tag in calmed fear. Big boos for being a pussy from the crowd though. Nikolai actually beats up Barbarian (this was long before he was JTTS), and tags Ax to abuse him. Nikolai comes back in, but this time doesn’t find success, and Shawn gets in. Boris gets the tag too, but Shawn nails him, and tags Marty, who does a sunset flip in for the pin at 17:33 to eliminate the Russians. Arn quickly comes in to take on Marty, who gets shot into the heel corner, and abused. A Conquistador gets in again, and yet again gets beat up. Man, shouldn’t they know not to tag them yet? (That’s what made the running gag so great when they actually made it to the end) He does manage a backdrop, however, before tagging the Demo’s in. Ax with a slam, as the incredibly fast pace starts slowing down. Davey tags in, and destroys a Conquistadors, so he tags Tully. Tully gets beat up too, but he throws Davey into a corner to get him down. The Conquistadors go back to work, but he walks right into a boot, of course. The Anvil dominates the loser, and allows Bret a 2nd rope elbow for two. Shawn comes in to dropkick the jobber, and Marty gets a flying back elbow. Dynamite chops him, and does his snap suplex. He hits a 2nd rope knee (beauty, too) for two, and a backbreaker for two. For those that don’t know, Dynamite was like the Chris Benoit of his day. (And Chris Benoit became the Charles Manson of his day) Barbarian gets in to do more damage, and the poor guy FINALLY tags out to Blanchard. He cheats to win, and gets Barbie into the heel corner for a pounding. Smash hooks a head-vice on him, to make the first rest hold of the match some twenty-three minutes in. For 1988, that’s really good, for those unfamiliar with the time. Gee, why not just tag Arn, he has the gas to go, I promise. He can go when HE’S been in there twenty-three minutes ALONE, let alone in this match. He takes that advice, and tags Arn, but he quickly lets a Conquistador in. That fails, as usual, but Ax is able to come in and do another head-vice. The Brain Busters go to work now, but Barbie takes out Arn, and tags Marty. He hits a flying back elbow, and tags the Anvil in. He gets nailed, however, and Tully does a top rope bodypress for two. Jim hits a vertical suplex, and Bret hits a backbreaker. Atomic drop connects, and he beats him into the neutral corner. He manages a nice German suplex, and that puts the Busters out at 26:21. The ref. disputes that, however, and say’s Bret’s shoulders were down, but Tully’s came up, so the Harts are eliminated! Crowd doesn’t like that one! Dynamite comes in, and nearly kills Blanchard with a tombstone, but it only gets two. Shawn comes in, but gets caught with a boot, and a brawl breaks out between the Rockers and the Brain Busters. Rockers win that with a double superkick, but the ref. DQ’s both teams at about 28:00. See back then, DQ’s weren’t hard to come by. Great, so four of the best workers in this are out? Who’s idea was that? That leaves us with Demolition and the Conquistadors (they’re STILL here, those Jobbers!) vs. The Powers of Pain and the Bulldogs. Smash dominates Dynamite with a head-vice, and then tags a Conquistador in. Maybe it’s Edge and Christian’s dad’s? (Okay, so this was likely written in 2001 based on that reference, and the Survivor Series 2000 reference in the intro) He misses a senton bomb (or a swanton, or whatever it is this week), and gets pounded by the Powers. We get to a Smash/Davey Boy showdown, and Davey takes it into a wristlock. The Bulldog’s dominate Smash for a while, but Ax gets in. Dynamite clotheslines him, and tags in Davey, who go’s with a Conquistador. One guess who wins that. (Davey) Davey pulls out the running powerslam (What do I win?), but doesn’t cover, rather tagging Barbarian. Ax gets in too, and Barbie gets pounded. Smash comes in, and dumps Barbarian to the floor, as Jesse makes odds on the chances the Conquistadors have in this. Davey comes in and kills a Conquistador, and passes him to Dynamite like a crack pipe for more abuse. He hits a falling headbutt for two, but gets kicked in the head, allowing Smash to tag in. He runs into a boot, however, and the Kid hits the snap suplex. He misses a top rope headbutt, however, and Smash easily pins him at 35:28, leaving the Powers alone. Barbarian gets put in the wrong part of town (heel corner, for those unfamiliar with “Gorilla Speak”) (Who doesn’t speak Gorilla?), but still manages to tag Warlord. He misses a charge into the post, and the whole heel side works the injured shoulder, officially making him Ricky Morton. Then, in what would end up making a really big angle, Smash tries to bounce off the ropes, but Fuji (his manager) “accidentally” moves the ropes, and Smash falls to the concrete. That leads to Demolition being counted-out at 38:57, leaving the Conquistadors alone. That, however, is not the big story here. Ax argues with Fuji over what just transpired, and Fuji whacks him with the cane as a result. That leads to the Demo’s slamming Fuji on the floor (turning them face), but what happens? The Powers of Pain help him up! That pretty much turns them heel, as Fuji is now aligned with them. That was really, really big for the time, and would lead to the final showdown at WrestleMania V. See, back then they could stretch angles out for five months like that, and still make them hot. After all that, the Powers easily squash the Conquistadors for the win at 41:32. The crowd cheers, however, so they hold Fuji up on their shoulders to drive the heel turn home. Nope, still cheering, as they seem to think that Fuji’s a face now. So to REALLY bring it all home, The Demo’s run back out and brawl with the Powers. Really, really long match, especially for an OPENER (Well, it wasn’t actually the opener… wacky Coliseum Video…), but the crowd actually stayed hot for it. The first half was really, really great, and fast paced, and the second half was still very good, but not quite as good. Something like “Full Metal Jacket,” I guess. Still, *** ¾. (I think I might have shortchanged this one a bit during the BUExperience… might be worth a re-watch sometime)

- Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, The Blue Blazer, Sam Houston & Jim Brunzell vs. The Honky Tonk Man, Danny Davis, Greg Valentine, Ron Bass & Bad News Brown: Brutus starts with Valentine, and the Beefer trades punches, but loses that confrontation. Davis tags in, but gets quickly gets put in a sleeper to eliminate him at 1:17. Well that was to the point. We cut to later, as Bad News pounds Brunzell. A slugfest is handily won by the big man, and he blasts him with the Ghetto Blaster to put Jim out at 2:23. Looks like we’re just showing eliminations now. Cut to Valentine and Houston, and a heel miscommunication leads to Valentine and Brown fighting. That leads to Bad News walking out, and eliminating himself at 3:28. Cut to Houston and Bass. Why would you want two jobbers going at it? Bass proves to be the better of the jobbers, however, as he powerslams him and eliminates him at 4:15. Cut to the Blazer (Owen Hart) gut wrench suplexing Valentine, and then hitting a backdrop. He heads up, but Honky shoves him off, and Greg puts him out with the Figure Four at 5:10. Cut to Beefcake and Honky having a slugfest, and Brutus hits an atomic drop. He slaps on the sleeper, but both guys tumble to the floor for a lame double count-out at 5:59. What’s with all the count-outs and DQ’s tonight? (Um… it’s Survivor Series) I guess no one really wanted to do the job. That leaves Warrior alone with Valentine and Bass, which isn’t exactly the Mega Powers or anything. They dominate, but it only goes so far, as Warrior starts his comeback. He puts Bass out with a clothesline at 7:44, and Valentine with a double ax at 8:07. As my Mandalay tapes show (Heavily clipped WCW Home Video releases on ‘Best of Starrcade,’ ‘Best of Great American Bash’ etc), I don’t like rating clipped matches, but I will anyway because I still could see enough to judge it. It was about a * from what I saw, but I’m glad they didn’t show the whole 17:50 that it ran. (It was actually a pretty good match, but look at the balls on this kid, throwing down a rating on something with ten minutes cut out of it. Punk.)

- Backstage, Bad News Brown says that he will be the WWF champion soon. Well, that plain sure worked out, huh?

- Warrior wants some talk time, too, but G-D knows what he’s saying. Something about how his team won or something. Well, DUH!

- Survivor Series Elimination Match: Jake Roberts, Ken Patera, Tito Santana, Scott Casey & Jim Duggan vs. Dino Bravo, Harley Race, Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude & Andre the Giant: Cut right to Patera hammering Rude, but running into a boot off of a corner charge, and then taking a Rude Awakening to be eliminated at :33. Cut to Rude killing Casey (a jobber), and then Race gets in to abuse him some more. Dino gets tagged in, but takes a backslide for two. He still manages to hit the sidewalk slam and pin Scott at 1:36 to end Casey’s only real WWF glory. Cut to Bravo and Santana, as Tito pulls out a sunset flip for two. He gets nailed, however, and Race piledrives him for two. A forearm shot gets another two, but Santana hits a flying forearm shot to pin the king at 2:41. Andre comes right in to pound Tito, and chokes the hell out of him. Tito tries to fight back, but the Giant simply sits on his face and pins him at 4:04. Duggan runs in, and ties the big man up in the ropes with a clothesline, then pounds. Roberts comes in to hammer him too, and he chokes the big man. Andre escapes, and tags Rude, who throws Jake into the corner and poses. He continues to dominate the snake man, and we cut to later as Hacksaw clotheslines Bravo. Duggan gets knocked to the floor, however, and a slam is enough to piss him off, so he grabs the 2x4 and whacks Dino with it for the DQ at 6:44. That leaves Jake Roberts against Dino Bravo, Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, and Andre the Giant. Doesn’t look to good, does it? Cut to Rude bearhugging Roberts, and then he heads up top for a nice knee drop. He makes the mistake of posing, however, which gets his ass exposed (as usual), and then he gets DDT’d to put him out at 8:05. Andre’s right on him, however, and he chokes the life out of Roberts. I mean he’s just killing him here. He goes too far, however, and gets DQ’d at 9:00. Andre proves to be a genius, however, as his extreme killing of Roberts allows Hennig to simply cover Jake for the winning fall at 9:17. Talk about taking one for the team! Again, I’m glad they cut this down from around 30:03, because it probably sucked. This version I’ll call at a * ¼. (It didn’t suck, though the clipped version sort of ruined the flow of the match, and butchered the nuanced psychological masterpiece of the Roberts/heels portion )

- Sean Mooney is with Andre, who gloats about his win.

- Mooney now talks with Roberts, who cuts a great promo about the heels. Back in his day, Jake could cut promo’s with the best of ‘em. Today, he shows up drunk and slurring, but in 1988 it was a different story. In an odd moment, he punches the locker in a fit of rage, but actually stomps his foot while he does it, as if it was another wrestler. (I dunno, I think if Heroes of Wrestling proved anything it’s that Jake can cut a great promo when he’s fucked up too)

- Main Event: Survivor Series Elimination Match: Akeem, The Red Rooster, Haku, Ted DiBiase & The Big Bossman vs. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Koko B. Ware, Hillbilly Jim & Hercules: Couldn’t they stick Andre in there instead of Terry Taylor? In addition: The whole night, everyone came out with their team as a unit … but not Hogan. Oh no. He gets a separate entrance with his music, and everything. Even World freakin’ champion Macho Man doesn’t get that! Talk about ego! (I wouldn’t have minded that if Hogan was champion, but yeah, what the fuck dude? How he came off as the face in the eventual feud, I’ll never know) Savage starts with DiBiase, since they’ve fought about 20,000 times over 1988, and know eachother inside out. Ted controls, but misses a charge to the corner, and Savage clotheslines him. Hercules gets in, so Ted bails out, and tags the Rooster. Terry hits an atomic drop, and goes for a Sharpshooter, but Herc escapes and tags Koko. He doesn’t fare well with Taylor, however, and Akeem comes in to hammer a bit. He’s too fat to do more than that, however, so he tags Haku in. He quickly misses a leg, and Herc gets back in. Slugfest won by Herc, and he tags Hogan. He hammers Haku, and clotheslines him out of his boots. Well, Haku doesn’t WEAR boots, but you get it. A series of elbow drops follows, and in comes the Hillbilly. He and Hogan hit a double big boot for two, but Akeem gets tagged in anyway. Oh, this should be classic. Luckily, Akeem knows he sucks, and tags Rooster right away. Taylor gets slammed, however, and Koko gets in. Powerslam by Ware for two, and he hits a nice missile dropkick for two. Hogan comes back in, and kills the Rooster, but allows Savage to finish him with the big elbow at 6:10. I’m shocked Hogan let Savage get the fall! A brawl erupts between the sides, which the faces easily win, and celebrate like they won the match. Gee, it’s just the RED ROOSTER! You didn’t eliminate Bossman, or DiBiase or anything. Once it all settles down we have Haku and Savage fighting. Savage loses that, so Hogan comes in, to fix everything. He takes a dropkick, however, as Haku is kicking BOTH Mega-Powers asses. (MONSTER MENG! MONSTER MENG! MONSTER MENG!) Hulk comes back with a slam, however, and tags Herc. He drops some elbows for two, but takes a side suplex from Haku. Akeem gets in, and misses an elbow, so Hillbilly gets in to hammer him. A big boot staggers the fat man, but the proportions of his gut allow him to clothesline Hillbilly, and hit the 747 splash for the fall at 9:54. Ware fights him next, and catches with a dropkick from behind. That staggers Akeem, and Ware tags Hogan. He throws the fat man around some, and brings Savage in to hammer him. They STILL can’t knock him down, however, so Herc gives it a try. Still they can’t knock him out, so Koko tries. He fails, too, and misses a splash to the corner. That allows Bossman to tag in, and hit the Bossman slam to eliminate Koko at 11:45. Hogan comes in to face the Bossman, and the crowd goes nuts to see this. Hulk destroys him, and atomic drops him into the face corner for some abuse. Gee, Bossman used to be MUCH fatter than he is today. (Also, more alive) A big boot stagers him, and a slam finally gets him off his feet! He tries a shoulderblock, but takes a spinebuster slam as a result. He tags Akeem, and the Towers take Hogan down with a double back elbow. Haku tags in, and pounds Hogan, using a headbutt to get a two count. Bossman comes back in to try his luck, and hits the Nash rope-choke spot. First of all, to answer a few questions I’ve had about this, I KNOW Nash wasn’t the inventor of that spot. I mean, here we are in 1988, and Bossman just did it. I just call it the “Nash rope choke spot” because I want Kevin Nash to always be associated with a spot I don’t particularly care for. I mean, the guy just sits there and waits for the other guy to sit on him. Please. So Big Kev. gets that distinction. Now that that’s settled, lets get back to the match. Bossman chokes Hogan with his boot, and tags DiBiase, who clotheslines the Hulkster. He drops a fist a couple times for a two count, and Hogan hulks up. Atomic drop connects (because you KNOW it’s the 80’s) (Hogan’s atomic drops ended the Cold War, you know), and Herc gets in. He had an issue with DiBiase at this point, so the crowd pops. Herc absolutely kills him, as DiBiase sells like a champ, but Virgil trips up Herc, and allows Ted to roll him up for the pin at 16:34. That leaves the Mega Powers against DiBiase, Bossman, Akeem, and Haku! Ted is still distracted with Hercules, however, and Savage sneaks in to roll HIM up for the pin at 16:55! Talk about irony! Haku comes in to face off with the Macho Man, and hammers the champ, but misses a falling headbutt. Savage, intelligently, clips Hakko’s leg before he tags Hogan to prevent HIM from tagging in the meantime. Now THAT I can really appreciate. You know a wrestler doesn’t have it in cruise control when he does stuff like that. Haku kills Hulk, however, and Bossman comes in to slam him. He waists time before the cover, so it only gets two, and Akeem comes in to do his thing. His thing consists of forearm shots, basically. Haku comes in with a suplex for two, and does the nerve hold. Hey, at least they went a full twenty minutes before they started out with rest holds. ESPECIALLY considering who’s in there. Bossman gets the tag, and hits the Bossman slam, but doesn’t make the cover. Dumb ass. Even Slick yells at him about it. He heads up top, but takes his sweet time to do it, and then misses his splash, of course. Hulk makes the hot tag to the champ, who beats up the WHOLE heel team, but gets tripped up by Slick. He then oversells it in total Hennig style by doing THREE flips. That allows Bossman to hook a bearhug, and since both faces are hurt, Slick tries to kidnap Liz (I can only imagine the interrogation he had to go through from Savage backstage). Hogan stops him in the isle, however, but Akeem nails him from behind. He beats Hulk back to the ring, where the Bossman is waiting, and he handcuffs Hogan to the bottom ring rope. Hey, at least it was without the ladies shoe this time. During all this, however, Bossman gets counted out, and is eliminated at 23:30. Doesn’t matter to him, however, as he still beat the hell out of Hogan with his nightstick. And he’s REALLY fat, BTW. I mean HUGE at this point. Since Hogan’s stuck, the heels have their way with Savage, and Bossman chokes HIM with the nightstick, too. However, since Bossman was already eliminated, but Akeem and he worked over Savage, Akeem gets DQ’d from the match at 25:01. Gee, will ANYONE of the upper-carders do a clean job tonight? I mean, if I can’t expect it from AKEEM, I certainly don’t expect it from Hogan. But that was the 80’s mentality. They felt that if you jobbed, you wouldn’t get your heat back so easily, but once the 90’s rolled in, they started figuring things out. (Eh, I don’t mind ‘Survivor Series style’ eliminations as much today. There’s a time and a place, and Survivor Series is that time and that place) Anyway, Haku destroys Savage, since Hogan is still cuffed to the ropes, and everytime Savage makes a mini-comeback, he has no one to tag! A heel miscommunication allows Liz to steal the keys from Slick, and Hogan gets the cuffs off. In the ring, Haku hits a 2nd rope splash for two, and Savage finally tags Hulk. Hogan kills Haku, and hits the leg drop to end the match at 29:06. Afterwards, the faces celebrate, and Hogan gives Liz a big hug. That leads to Savage shooting him a pissed off glance, and would eventually build to WrestleMania V ! The match itself was really fine, especially considering who was in it, and the lack of resting, exciting storyline and pace kept it good. *** ¼.

- Backstage Jesse asks why Savage looked so pissed, but Savage blows him off. Jesse stirs up shit, however, bringing up how Hogan loves to hug Liz and everything, but Randy continues to deny any problems. I loved this angle, all around, so I love this stuff.

- Bottom Line: The WWF release is a two-hour tape, and I really can’t see any problems with it. I mean, look at it this way, over half of the tape is the opener and the main event. And both are very good matches, so you already can’t lose. The other two matches are heavily cut, and what is shown is completely decent, plus the fact that the Hogan vs. Savage storyline starts here makes it historically significant.

- Recommended. (But seek out the widely available WWE unclipped Anthology version)