Hulkamania was raging so hard near the end of 1987, and so was competition with the Crockett family. Both facts led the WWF to introduce a new pay-per-view concept, the Survivor Series, aired on pay-per-view the night of the fifth Starrcade.
It’s clear that something is working when a packed house of fans in Ohio are SO unbelievably hyped for four Elimination Matches.
Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura – wearing a pilgrim hat – handle commentary. Mean Gene Okerlund and young Craig DeGeorge trade interview duties.
Ventura explains canon that would last decades – in the Survivor Series, participants can be eliminated one of four ways: pinfall, submission, disqualification, or countout. Remember it.
The best thing about most Survivor Series into the mid-90s is the batshit insane team promos before each match, with everybody obviously instructed to ham it up hard in the background as the captain or manager speaks. 1987 isn’t the peak of the artform, but it’s a great start. Some look amused, and some buy in – Tama for instance randomly flexes and hugs Haku. Brutus Beefcake’s eyes look so wide that it gets uncomfortable. Hacksaw Duggan to his left looks almost innocent. Whatever the promo, there is always movement from one of the most colorful cast of characters in history and it’s as wrestling as it gets.
1. Elimination Match: Macho Man Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Jake Roberts, Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Brutus Beefcake w/ Elizabeth vs. Honky Tonk Man, Harley Race, Hercules, Outlaw Ron Bass & Danny Davis w/ Jimmy Hart and Bobby Heenan
They kept this pretty compact at 20 minutes and I thought it was pretty brilliantly laid out, with not many sections you’d call “heat” – they went spot to cool down to spot over and over and I thought it worked, keeping the crowd popping and giving everybody some shine. Honky played his part and everybody else was laying their shit in and moving fast, like the checks or dosages were bigger than ever. Savage and Steamboat are in prime form, Savage in particular so on point and precise with everything he does that the crowd cannot deny falling in love with their new babyface hero.
Beefcake vs. Hercules starts, the choice nobody could have expected. Davis gets thrown around a lot and lasts longer than you’d think. Ricky Steamboat vs. Harley Race for 60 seconds is awesome, with a great spot where Ricky skins the cat twice and ends up working Race into a showdown with Hacksaw. Race and Hacksaw get counted out soon and Bass goes down to a jumping knee from Beefcake right after that. Beefcake takes the briefest amount of heat before Honky eliminates him with the neckbreaker, a finish Beefcake hilariously kicks out at 3 on to show the boys who’s boss.
Jake is quiet, like they didn’t really include him in the layout discussion, but the beat he takes between his short-arm clothesline and the DDT that eliminates Danny Davis is incredible and basically the origin story of Randy Orton.
Savage pins Hercules with the elbow drop and in a stroke of genius, Honky ends up opposite Jake, Steamboat, and Savage – his WrestleMania opponent, the guy he took the IC Title from, and his current rival who lost the IC Title at Mania. They don’t really take advantage of the moment before Honky says fuck it and walks out. Very fun wrestling. ***3/4
Andre the Giant is in a MOOD: “I’m here for one reason Hogan, I’m here for your SOUL! And tonight, I will be a SURVIVOR!!!”
2. Elimination Match: Fabulous Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, The Jumping Bomb Angels & Rockin’ Robin vs. Sensational Sherri, The Glamour Girls, Donna Christianello & Dawn Marie w/ Jimmy Hart
“I’ll tell you something, Gorilla, these girls throw them punches and make the moves just as hard as the men do,” says Jesse just a couple minutes into this match, an observation that is undeniable when about half the ladies are tagged into this match. The match is generally good, with action that occasionally meanders but also action that is highlighted by some serious stand-out performances.
Fabulous Moolah, awkwardly a babyface, gets eliminated early and lets the Jumping Bomb Angels and Velvet McIntyre shine. Those guys are great, hitting and sometimes having to fight their way through some complex awesome spots. They seem tailor made to lead their divisions, if WWF wanted to go with it. The Glamour Girls were solid workers too who just needed a gimmick, and they got it. Judy Martin works like a giant towards the end and it leads to a big pop when she finally goes up for a butterly suplex. Sherri meanwhile was new and getting weirder every week, an obvious star in the making.
Velvet pins WWF Women’s Champ Sherri with a victory roll where both their faces read pure pain, but a couple minutes later Kai pins Velvet and it ends up Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Glamour Girls. They crush it, popping the crowd with well-timed bridges and high-flying spots before Jimmy Hart takes an all-timer backwards bump off the apron to setup the Angels win and a massive pop. Women’s Revolution, right here right now. ***1/4
Respect to Jimmy Hart for the wardrobe changes this evening.
3. Elimination Match: Strike Force, The British Bulldogs, The Killer Bees, The Rougeau Brothers & The Young Stallions vs. The Hart Foundation, The Islanders, Demolition, The New Dream Team & The Bolsheviks w/ Jimmy Hart, Bobby Heenan, Mr. Fuji, Johnny V and Slick
The Tag Team Elimination Match is more iconic than maybe anything else involving Survivor Series, 20 jacked up wrestlers and their managers all gimmicked up running through professional wrestling sequences. The tags and eliminations come quick early, then the eliminations get spaced out more and more as teams get eliminated and the match starts to lose its shine. All the work is solid but nobody besides Strike Force, The Hart Foundation, and maybe Demolition REALLY stands out, even if the cast as a whole is phenomenal. The Killer Bees and Young Stallions chosen to go the distance was, in retrospect, not a great choice. **1/2
4. Elimination Match: Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Magnificent Muraco, Ken Patera & Bam Bam Bigelow w/ Oliver Humperdink vs. Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, One Man Gang, Rick Rude & Butch Reed w/ Bobby Heenan and Slick
This is what you might call a spectacle, going 20 minutes like all the other matches and though it doesn’t fill the time as well. There’s a confusing bunch of stories and characters here, some working and some not. Bam Bam Bigelow is just a couple months into what might be a big babyface run and he is as impressive as the WWF is advertising, while the fact that Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant are involved creates a captive audience. But, pre-Akeem One Man Gang? Babyface Don Muraco? Jailbird Ken Patera? Repeat Paul Orndorff? Lots of big bodies here just to take falls.
Mr. Wonderful gets a pop that would make one think there’s still something there, while a brief taste of Hogan vs. Rude early is impressive. Hogan downs The Natural, One Man Gang pins Patera, Rude rolls up Orndorff, Muraco eliminates Rude, and One Man Gang takes out Muraco – all in 12 minutes. Hogan and Bam Bam square off with Andre, Bundy, and One Man Gang – until Hogan gets counted out. Bam Bam gets THE SPOT against the three big guys, and it’s not pretty but Bam Bam cartwheeling around to somehow overcome and eliminate Bundy and Gang is a blast. He stands up to Andre but is quickly put down with the most ugly, gorgeous butterfly suplex you have ever seen. Iffy match, wild finish. **3/4
Hogan returns to the ring to run off Andre and pose.
Happy Thoughts: I’m not going to tell you whether to watch the first ever Survivor Series or not, but what I saw was a fun experiment in a fun era with nothing that’s really must-see outside of the entire experience. 6/10
