‘WWE Vintage Collection TV Report #74 – November 1st, 2009

Shown on Sky Sports in the U.K.

By Stephen Lyon.

This week: The start of a month-long look back at the history of the WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view event. This week focused on 1987 and 1988, with the two matches featured being: Strike Force & the British Bulldogs & the Young Stallions & the Killer Bees & the Rougeau Brothers vs The Hart Foundation & Demolition & the Islanders & the New Dream Team (Greg Valentine & Dino Bravo) & the Bolsheviks (1987); and Hulk Hogan & Macho Man Randy Savage & Hercules & Koko B. Ware & Hillbilly Jim vs Ted DiBiase & Big Boss Man & Akeem & King Haku & the Red Rooster (1988).

The Show:

Show opened with a short video looking back at the main event of the first Survivor Series in 1987, focusing on Andre the Giant becoming the sole survivor of his team, pinning Bam Bam Bigelow, who was on Hulk Hogan's team, after Hogan had been eliminated via being counted out.

1) Strike Force & the British Bulldogs & the Young Stallions & the Killer Bees & the Rougeau Brothers defeated The Hart Foundation & Demolition & the Islanders & the New Dream Team (Greg Valentine & Dino Bravo) & the Bolsheviks (with their respective managers, Jimmy Hart, Mr Fuji, Bobby Heenan and Johnny V in their corner), when the Young Stallions & Killer Bees became the remaining surviving teams. This ten tag team, 20 man Survivor Series elimination match came from the first ever Survivor Series event on November 26th, 1987, in Richfield, Ohio. It famously went head-to-head with the NWA's Starrcade 1987 pay-per-view show, causing Jim Crockett to lose a ton of money after ppv companies chose to carry the WWF show rather than his NWA show, and hasten the sale of the company to Ted Turner the following year. Announcers for this match were Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura. Match was joined in progress (and was heavily clipped to around 20 minutes - in reality, the match had lasted 36 minutes), after the Bolsheviks had already been eliminated. The rules were if one member of a tag team was pinned, counted out or disqualified, their tag team partner was also eliminated. Both Demolition members beat up the Stallions and the Rougeaus, before Ax pinned Raymond Rougeau after a powerslam to eliminate the Rougeaus team. After a commercial break, Smash was pounding on Dynamite Kid, to the extent that he ignored the referees warning and Demolition were disqualified as a result.

Strike Force's Tito Santana squared off against Jim Neidhart, and managed to nail him with a flying forearm off the ropes for a certain pin, but Bret Hart made the save, elbowing Tito in the back of his head at the two count. This was enough for Neidhart to immediately pin Tito and eliminate the Strike Force team. The British Bulldogs squared off against the Islanders' Haku, combining well with Davey Boy Smith giving Haku a standing suplex and Dynamite Kid delivering a diving headbutt off the top rope. However, Kid forgot that those sneaky Polynesians have hard heads (according to Ventura on commentary), and headbutting Haku knocked Kid groggy, allowing Haku to pin him after a sidekick. After another commercial break, Jim Brunzell was attempting to slam Bret Hart. Haku interfered, dropkicking Hart on to Brunzell for a pinfall attempt. However, Brunzell continued the momentum and rolled over Hart for the pinfall and Hart Foundation elimination. This left the Killer Bees & the Young Stallions vs the Islanders. Finish of the match came when the Stallions took care of Tama outside the ring, and Jim Brunzell tried to sunset flip Haku. He was struggling, so B. Brian Blair put on a Bees mask and came in with a sunset flip of his own for the pinfall win for their team. 

Next, we moved on to 1988, and a pre-match promo, with Gene Okerlund interviewing the 'Mega Powers' team of Hulk Hogan & Macho Man Randy Savage & Hercules & Koko B. Ware & Hillbilly Jim, complete with Miss Elizabeth. Elsewhere, Sean Mooney then interviewed the 'Mega Bucks' team of Ted DiBiase & Big Boss Man & Akeem & King Haku & the Red Rooster, accompanied by their respective managers, Virgil, Bobby Heenan and Slick.

2) Hulk Hogan & Macho Man Randy Savage & Hercules & Koko B. Ware & Hillbilly Jim (w/Miss Elizabeth in their corner) defeated Ted DiBiase & Big Boss Man & Akeem & King Haku & the Red Rooster (w/Virgil & Bobby Heenan & Slick in their corner), when Hogan and Savage were the survivors for their team. This match was the main event of the second Survivor Series pay-per-view event, taking place on November 24th, 1988, again in Richfield, Ohio. Announcers for this match were Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura. Match was joined in progress, with Koko B. Ware softening up the 'Red Rooster' Terry Taylor with a dropkick, before Hulk Hogan tagged in and slammed Taylor, leading to Savage delivering the flying elbow to pin and eliminate the crowing cockerel. Next elimination came when Hillbilly Jim squared off with Akeem. Jim gave Akeem a big boot, but couldn't slam him. Akeem then squashed Jim with the 747 splash to eliminate him and even up the numbers. After a commercial break, Ware battled against Akeem, dropkicking him, but struggling to knock him off his feet. Big Bossman tagged in and almost immediately pinned Ware after a Bossman slam. Hogan faced Ted DiBiase, giving him an atomic drop, then tagging in Hercules. DiBiase and Hercules had 'history', as Herc had turned babyface after refusing to be bought by DiBiase and become his 'slave'. Hercules dominated DiBiase, but Virgil tripped the big man from outside the ring, and DiBiase gave him a knee to the back before being able to roll him up for the pinfall elimination. Seconds later, DiBiase himself was gone, after Herc distracted DiBiase and Savage rolled him up from behind. This left Hogan & Savage vs Boss Man & Akeem & King Haku.

After a commercial break, Boss Man missed a big splash and Hogan tagged in Savage. Boss Man & Akeem overpowered and beat up Savage, as outside the ring, Slick stalked Miss Elizabeth, man-handling her in the aisle. Hogan recovered to make the save for her, nailing Slick. However Boss Man & Akeem dragged Hogan back to ringside and handcuffed him to the bottom rope outside the ring. Boss Man was the legal man and was counted out, but he continued to pummel Hogan with his nightstick. Boss Man & Akeem then double-teamed Savage in the ring, leading to Akeem himself being disqualified after delivering a 747 splash. After a commercial break, Slick taunted Hogan with the keys to the handcuffs, as a groggy Savage tried to tag in Hogan, only to find he wasn't there (not realising he was handcuffed to the bottom rope on the other side of the ring). Slick climbed on to the ring apron to hold Savage, but Haku missed Savage and caught Slick with a side kick instead, knocking him down at ringside. Hogan punched Heenan, knocking him out, as Miss Elizabeth ran to the other side of the ring to retrieve the handcuff keys from Slick's pocket in order to free Hogan. Ventura was hilarious on commentary here, yelling, "She's going after his wallet! She's trying to pick-pocket Slick!" Back in the ring, Haku missed a big splash from the top rope, and Savage was finally able to make the hot tag to the newly-freed Hogan. Seconds later, Hogan hit the big boot and legdrop on Haku to win the match. Afterwards, Hogan celebrated in the ring, flexing and posing in his usual manner as a groggy and hurt Savage gathered his bearings on the ring apron. Miss Elizabeth climbed into the ring, and at the exact moment that Savage finally turned around to face Hogan, the Hulkster grabbed Elizabeth in a big embrace, taking her off her feet. The look that Savage gave Hogan was incredible - a 'dirty look' of bewilderment and disgust. It was so subtly done, yet at the same time, impossible to miss, and was the start of the build towards the 'Mega Powers exploding' three months later, and leading to their match together another two months after that at Wrestlemania V. If only the big matches these days had five to six month builds......    

Gene Okerlund closed the show by announcing that next week will see the continuation of this Survivor Series retrospective, mentioning that next week we will see 'the debut of the most prolific superstar in history'. He was either talking about the Gobbledy Gooker or The Undertaker, not sure which.

Closing thoughts: I'm disappointed that they went all the way back to 1987 again, in their Survivor Series lookback. As mentioned last week, they covered the 1987 to 1997 period in Survivor Series history last year. Why not cover the following ten years, 1998 to 2008? At least they never duplicated the same matches from last years' shows. Both matches were okay, although the last ten minutes of the Mega Powers vs Mega Bucks match was very entertaining, with all of the shenanigans and start of the Hogan vs Savage build.

Match Results:

1) Strike Force & the British Bulldogs & the Young Stallions & the Killer Bees & the Rougeau Brothers defeated The Hart Foundation & Demolition & the Islanders & the New Dream Team (Greg Valentine & Dino Bravo) & the Bolsheviks (with their respective managers, Jimmy Hart, Mr Fuji, Bobby Heenan and Johnny V in their corner) ('WWF Survivor Series 1987' pay-per-view event - Richfield, Ohio: 26/11/87).

2) Hulk Hogan & Macho Man Randy Savage & Hercules & Koko B. Ware & Hillbilly Jim (w/Miss Elizabeth in their corner) defeated Ted DiBiase & Big Boss Man & Akeem & King Haku & the Red Rooster (w/Virgil & Bobby Heenan & Slick in their corner) ('WWF Survivor Series 1988' pay-per-view event - Richfield, Ohio: 24/11/88).

Please note: I DO NOT sell DVDs or tapes of any of these shows. Sorry!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s report. For other reports like this one, be sure to check it out my website archive at http://www.classicwrestlingreports.com .

It’s no longer updated, but this website carries all of my previous WWE Classics tv reports that have been featured on the old WrestlingObserver.com website.

As always your questions, comments and thoughts are always welcomed, and you can contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Until next week, have a good week.

Stephen Lyon,
St Helens, England, U.K.