WWE Survivor Series 1989 Match Ratings and Commentary
(Credit: WWE)
Let’s look back at another old school WWE Thanksgiving tradition, Survivor Series. The 1989 version was an underrated classic piece of nostalgia from the Rosemont Horizon. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
WWE Survivor Series ‘89- 11/23/1989
(Survivors in bold)
Dusty Rhodes, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Tito Santana, and The Red Rooster def. The Big Bossman, Rick Martel, Bad News Brown, and The Honky Tonk Man: ★
“Macho King” Randy Savage, Dino Bravo, Earthquake, and Greg Valentine, def. Jim Duggan, Hercules, Ronnie Garvin, and Bret Hart: ★★★
Hulk Hogan, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, and Demolition def. “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, Zeus, and The Powers of Pain: ★★★
Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, and The Fabulous Rougeau Bros def. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, and The Bushwackers: ★★
The Ultimate Warrior, Jim Neidhart, and The Rockers def. Andre The Giant, Haku, Arn Anderson, and Bobby Heenan: ★
Warrior (Credit: WWE)
Show Highlight—
The Intro. Not only do all the main stars tell us what they are thankful for in a wonderfully campy way (Dusty Rhodes: “Wha ma thankful fo? My pokerdothhs!”) it segues into Vince McMahon breaking down the entire card, superstar by superstar. If there’s one thing Vince McMahon did incredibly well, is he knew how to sell his product. His voice carried such a special weight to it that evoked meaning and high-stakes. His guttural roar made shit sound like you had to watch and it was a life and death matter. Also fun, is listening to those same guttural roars not match up when the card is subject to change and he clearly had to do another v/o session: “—AND THE EARTHQUAKE!” Any old school fan of my generation loves this shit and it hits in the feels.
What Worked—
Team names and sizes. Survivor Series ’89 was my first SS so this is my version of what’s right in terms of how many men to have on one team. 4 always seemed just right. But then again, I’m a sick bastard that needs evens to survive; case in point, I can only eat Skittles four at a time: two rounds of having two Skittles on opposing sides of my mouth. Weird, I know. 1989 was also the first year of having the teams have team names as well. They’d get better as the years would go on, The Warriors, the Hulkamaniacs, and the Million Dollar Team weren’t exactly literary puns coined by Lanny Poffo, but the King’s Court and 4x4s worked.
Bad News quits. In kayfabe, why in the world would you pick him as your partner? The slightest slight and he’d say fuck it and split. Never gets old.
4x4’s vaudeville act. When four guys team with Duggan and have nothing in common, give them 2x4s and there will be synchronicity. I loved their little color guard routine, which ironically of all people, ol’ Hacksaw dropped the board.
Garvin’s chops. Ishii and Suzuki seemed like amateurs compared to Ronnie Garvin here. He leathered the chest of Valentine.
King’s Court vs. 4x4s. The heavy lifting in-ring obviously went to Savage and Bret Hart, who carried this to being one of the best sleeper matches in Survivor Series elimination match history. Bret was super over with the females in the crowd, and Duggan came off like the number 3 babyface behind Hogan and Warrior for his pops when he was fighting from underneath. The finish sucked, Sherri being the one that ultimately got Duggan counted out. They went out of their way to protect her and get her heel heat, but it take away the shine from Savage, Eathquake, and Duggan by doing so.
Hogan/Jake match—From my review of the top Survivor Series Traditional Matches:
I loved looking at the poster on the box at the video store, so blown away that all my favorite guys were all on one team with no duds. Gorilla and Jesse Ventura are hilarious in this, as Hogan continuously gets lucky breaks with cheap finish DQs to improbably skim by, much to Jesse’s chagrin. DiBiase was at his best, trying to break the necks of Jake and Hulk as he carried them to an under-appreciated finish.
Bobby’s bumping. It's amazing how Bobby had so much star power and that he essentially carried this match, from storyline purposes and the heat he got from cowardly coming in and out of the ring. Heenan looked like a natural from how unnatural his bumps were. Can you believe he was the same age than as AJ Styles is now?
What Didn’t Work—
Dusty’s color. Where’s the Dusty Rhodes I know, bleeding modestly like that?
Lame eliminations. This Survivor Series had the first team names and 4 on 4 matchups, but it also was the birth of some of the lamer finishes in the Thanksgiving Tradition. Fuji tripped Ax, fist drop by DiBiase sent Jake back, Heenan knee dropped Marty (after yelling at him to kick-out to get heat).
Ultimate Warrior promo. This was weird even on the Warrior-scale. I don’t know how poor Mean Gene could keep it together from this bullshit. Warrior actually said, “Each of these men have taken steps in parts unknown. Each one has an organ donor card, and if he shall fall, he leaves all that he has with the others that stand before him.” Organ donor card? What does that imply? And by the way, I wonder what in the hell was Warriors barometer for a good take. I can’t imagine Warrior slipping back into Jim Hellwig mode after a flub going, “Cut, cut, Kevin—let me do that again, that didn’t make any sense.”
Show Cringe—
Andre’s early exit. In the 1987 edition, Andre looked in shockingly good health (for him). Here, he’s clearly immobile and not able to go. Once he was eliminated, any drama for the match was out the window. The pops for Warrior were diminished considerably, too. The logical finish of the match was having Warrior beat Andre, but perhaps Andre could have stayed on the outside the entire match (as he was doing back then) from refusing to tag with Arn Anderson. Maybe then that would have bought him time? Who knows if his knees and back were so shot that he couldn’t even lean on the ropes for 20 minutes, which probably seemed to be the answer just by looking at him here. Andre was rapidly declining towards his 1990, WWE retirement in a few months.
(Credit: WWE)
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