Review of WWF Survivor Series '89

The Dream Team v. The Enforcers
Dusty Rhodes (captain), Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Tito Santana & The Red Rooster v. The Big Boss Man (captain), Rick “The Model” Martel, Bad News Brown & The Honky Tonk Man

In a wrestling world ruled by the Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan, perennial main eventer the nation over Dusty Rhodes could only reach #3 baby face status during his time in the WWF. But in a world dominated by Hogan and Warrior my young mind wouldn’t have bought Dusty as any higher than those to, as he did like someone’s disheveled uncle.

Anyways, this match focused on Rhodes’ feud against The Big Boss Man, back when he was a mean security guard and would handcuff his no name opponents and beat them with the ball & chain and the nightstick. Rhodes ended up taking the nightstick as his own and the feud was on. He was seconded by Beefcake, who was having a run against Martel, a guy that was also still feuding with Santana stemming from their WrestleMania V break-up. Honky Tonk Man was on his way down the card after dropping the Intercontinental Title a year earlier and was relegated to losing to every new face in the company and returning “jobs” to everyone who helped but him over earlier; so here he’s paired with Rooster because of a “Pearl Harbor-style” guitar shot, just like every Honky feud started. Bad News was here as a replacement for Akeem, Boss Man’s usual running buddy in the Twin Towers, who apparently was out with an injury or something as he was in all the promotional material for the show almost right up until the event. Bad News kept up his loner gimmick by walking out on his team.

The match ended with Rhodes and Beefcake as survivors after Rhodes pinned Boss Man to end the match. This acted as the final blow off in the feud between Rhodes and Boss Man so it made sense the good guy won. Plus Rhodes was the biggest star in the match, and the company wanted to keep Beefcake strong for his upcoming pay per view tag team cage match with Hulk Hogan against “The Macho King” Randy Savage and Zeus, stemming from the motion picture No Holds Barred.

4 x 4s v. The King’s Court
”Hacksaw” Jim Duggan (captain), “Rugged” Ronnie Garvin, Hercules & Bret “Hit Man” Hart v. “Macho King” Randy Savage (c), Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, Dino Bravo & Canadian Earthquake

The main issue leading up to this match was the over who was the WWF’s resident king, as Savage had recently beaten Duggan to be the true “King” of the WWF. During this time period the crown or “King of the WWF” had been passed around like a secondary championship as since 1987 the crown had gone from Harley Race to Haku to Duggan and now to Savage.

The secondary issue was between Garvin and Valentine, a story that had been going all through 1989 and saw Garvin “retire” as a wrestler only to come back with stints as a referee and a ring announcer to torment Valentine. Hercules and Bravo also had a minor issue over who was the strongest man in the WWF. Bret was still technically part of the Hart Foundation at this point but he and Neidhart were also working in singles matches at the same time. Earthquake was a last-minute substitution for “Widow Maker” Barry Windham, who was either injured, had already left back for the NWA or was simply a booking decision to put the recently debuted big man on PPV. It also should be noted that Jimmy Hart managed Valentine, Bravo and Earthquake so it was a very unified heel team.

The villains dominated this match as Savage, Bravo and Earthquake all came out as survivors. This effectively acted as a blow off for the Savage-Duggan feud and kept Savage big for the upcoming cage match with Zeus against Hogan and Beefcake. This was essentially Earthquake’s debut and was logical to keep him strong considering the big things they had in store for him. I don’t know the logic behind Bravo’s victory, but Valentine was sacrificed due to his feud with Garvin going until Royal Rumble ’90 so this acted as a way to put more heat on their angle. As for the other faces, Hercules was on his way down the card and Hart was still a persona-non-grata at this point.

Roddy’s Rowdies v. The Rude Brood
Rowdy Roddy Piper (captain), Superfly Jimmy Snuka & The Bushwackers (Luke & Butch) v. Rick Rude (captain), Mr. Perfect & The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers (Jacques & Raymond)

Piper had returned to the WWF at WrestleMania V after his first of many “retirements.” He worked as host for the WWF’s flagship Prime Time Wrestling program along with Rude’s manager Bobby Heenan. This led to a Rude sneak attack on that program and *poof* instant feud. Piper also proved to be a distraction for Rude during his Intercontinental Title match with Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam ’89, causing him to lose the Championship. As for the others, The Bushwackers battled The Rougeaus at WrestleMania V and would meet again at Royal Rumble ’90 so the two teams were pretty used to each other. Perfect was about to get a huge push and Snuka was a logical first step up the good guy ladder. I would also like note that these were two of the best teams put together ever based on team personalities, as Roddy’s team were all unorthodox brawler types while the heels all had that arrogant, pretty-boy, talented cheaters thing going on.

The booking was pretty straightforward here as the Bushwackers and Rougeaus got eliminated early on to focus on the singles stars. Rude and Piper were both counted-out so that they could continue their run against each other on the house show circuit which led Mr. Perfect to beat Snuka clean as a whistle in the middle of the ring in order to get the sole survivor victory and establish himself as a legit top-card threat.

The Hulkamaniacs v. The Million $ Team
Hulk Hogan (captain), Jake “The Snake” Roberts & Demolition (Ax & Smash) v. “Million $ Man” Ted DiBiase (c), Zeus & The Powers of Pain (Warlord & Barbarian)

Going in to this Hogan was WWF World Champion and Demolition were the WWF World Tag Team Champions so this was essentially the main event match. Despite Hogan having problems with DiBiase in the past, his real issue here was with Zeus, who had come from Hogan’s movie No Holds Barred to challenge him in the “real world” of pro wrestling. I wish I was making that up.

Meanwhile Roberts and DiBiase had the secondary issue here that would gain in steam over the next few months when Roberts stole the Million $ Championship. Demolition and the Powers had fought the previous year at the Survivor Series and all the way up to WrestleMania V, so this was like part two of their rivalry.

Naturally Hogan came out as the sole survivor in this match, but in order to keep the villain team strong, they were all disqualified. Zeus was disqualified for blatantly choking out Hogan, while the Powers were thrown out for double-teaming. Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who was running on commentary during this match, was incredulous that DiBiase’s team were all disqualified for beating up Hogan, and claimed the refs were playing favorites for Hogan. Hogan then pinned to DiBiase to get the glorious solo win, as his team had been eliminated one-by-one earlier by DiBiase and the Powers.

The Ultimate Warriors v. The Heenan Family
Ultimate Warrior (c), Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart & The Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty) v. Andre the Giant (c), Haku, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan & Arn Anderson

The Heenan Family was a group all managed by Bobby Heenan; the first time that an entire manager’s stable were all placed together to form a logical team. Warrior and Andre had the main story here as after Warrior had beaten Rick Rude, another of Heenan’s charges, for the Intercontinental Title, Heenan sent his biggest man out to get the Title back. Essentially this match was just an exercise to get Ultimate Warrior “over” with the fans, as the house show matches during this time period between Warrior and Andre that would headline cards were about thirty seconds long with Warrior winning after a few clotheslines and a splash. Andre’s health was deteriorating rapidly at this point and could only be counted on his short bursts.

The Rockers and The Brain Busters had been tearing up the undercards on house shows with their tag matches at this point so this looked to be their big blow off, but unfortunately Tully Blanchard got fired for a failed drug test either the day of or the day before the show and so Heenan himself had to be a legit last minute fill in. All the promotional material, even on the day of the show, still advertised Blanchard as participating. There is also speculation as to why this match closed the show as opposed to Hogan’s, with the logic being that this crew would need some time to reorganize the match. This was also Anderson’s last night in the WWF, as he and Blanchard had been planning on going back to the NWA anyways, only now Anderson would be going back solo.

As for the match itself, Andre was eliminated by count-out immediately, proving his deteriorated state. The match continued until it was down to Warrior and Heenan, leading to some quick comedy and a quick victory for the Warrior.

When you look from top to bottom the forty men compiled here made up quite an impressive roster, even if not all of them were utilized in their best ways. The teams also showed how the WWF viewed their talent on the pecking order as the captains were essentially viewed as the top guys on the roster, both on the hero and villain side and results showed who were in line for pushes as relative new guys like Mr. Perfect and Earthquake were primed for top spots.

For more information on Survivor Series:
Top Survivor Series matches
Top Survivor Series elimination matches
Top Survivor Series performers
Top Survivor Series events
Survivor Series ’09 preview
Survivor Series ’09 results