Nickr’s rant for Survivor Series 1989
Live from the Rosemont Horizon (now the Allstate Arena) in Chicago Illinois (YAY!) on Thanksgiving Day, November 23rd 1989
We get a look at the different buildings here in Chicago and then inside the Horizon where everybody is getting prepared. On the opening shot you can see that the building I live in is on the far right hand side right next to Navy Pier.
The show opens with the different superstars and what they are thankful for. Some are funny (Ted Dibiase and Roddy Piper) while others are just stupid (Dusty Rhodes and The Bushwackers)
Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura
The Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, Brutus Beefcake, The Red Rooster and Tito Santana) VS The Enforcers (Big Boss Man, Bad News Brown, Rick Martel and Honky Tonk Man with Slick and Jimmy Hart)
Dusty was feuding with the Boss Man and Dusty comes down with the Boss Man’s knifestick. Santana starts with Honky. Honky jumps Santana from behind but he comes back with some rights and a slam. Tito goes for the right arm. Honky kicks him in the head and tags Martel. Martel hits a standing drop kick and draws some heat by posing. Santana reverses an atomic drop and rolls up Martel for 2. Hammerlock sequence by both men. Martel hits an elbow and tags the Boss Man who gets hip lock and Tito tags Rhodes. Battle of the fat boys now and Rhodes takes advantage but Boss Man comes back. He tags Bruti who goes after the right arm but is poked in the eye. Boss Man tags Honky who hits a weak snap mare but misses a falling forearm. Martel gets the tag and hits a back breaker for 2. Beefcake fights back and tags the Rooster. Terry Taylor hits a big backdrop for 2 but misses a charge. Honky is back in and works over the Rooster. Boss Man back in now and taunts the Dream Team. Rooster starts to fight back but loses a slugfest. Martel back in and hits a snapmare and some kneedrops for 2. Taylor cradles Martel for 2. Honky is back in and Rooster gets a sunset flip for 2. Both men collide and get hot tags. Santana and Martel are in now. Tito with 2 dropkicks and a slam. Elbow off the 2nd rope followed by a backdrop. Tito goes for the figure four but Martel pulls him off. Martel with a slam but misses an elbow. Santana rolls up Martel but Martell reverses it to pin Santana at 9:16. Dusty continues with Martel. He hits a dropkick (!) and an elbow smash for 2. Beefcake is back in and works on the left arm. Beefcake sees a monkey flip coming and tags Rooster. Side headlock but Taylor is hit with a back breaker. Boss Man is back in and hits a knee. Bear hug follows and a long one. Taylor bites Boss Man to get out of it. Brown is tagged for the first time and doesn’t want to get in so the Rooster sends him in the hard way. He puts his head down and pays for it. Brown hits a headbutt and a forearm shot and a knifeedge and taunts the Dream Team to allow a double team. But Rooster moves out of the way and the Boss Man nails Brown and just like last year Brown gets into a shoving match with his teammates and he leaves the ring and is counted out at 15:27. Beefcake continues the match with the Bossman. Beefcake hits some rights but is elbowed. Honky gets the tag and works over Bruti and hits a back suplex for 2. Beefcake fights back but is poked again in the eyes. Beefcake hits the high knee for the pin at 17:23. Martel works over Beefcake now and tries choking him. Chinlock follows. Beefcake gets up from it but takes a knee. Martel hits a backbreaker and rams him onto the turnbuckle twice. Beefcake with a sunset flip from the apron and but Martel nails him and tries to pin him with his hands on the ropes but the ref catches it and Beefcake rolls up Martel for the pin at 20:13. Down to 3 against 1 now. Boss Man misses a charge on the Rooster but hits the Boss Man slam on him for the pin at 20:58. Dusty comes back in and hammers away. Beefcake with some shots now and hits a couple of knees. Dusty back in again and hits a cross body for the pin at 22:01. Survivors are Brutus Beefcake and Dusty Rhodes. Slick then throws the knifestick to the Boss Man and he nails Bruti and Dusty with it. They handcuff Rhodes to the top rope and Boss Man really hammers Rhodes with the knifestick but Bruti makes the save with his hedge clippers. Other than the long bearhug spot this was a pretty fun match. **1/2
The 4X4’s (Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Rugged Ronnie Garvin, Bret Hart and Hercules) VS The King’s Court (Randy Savage, Greg Valentine, Dino Bravo and Canadian Earthquake with Jimmy Hart and Sensational Queen Sherri)
Savage won the King of the Ring title from Duggan and thus we have this feud. The 4X4’s all have 2X4 boards and they clear the ring of the King’s Court. Where’s Jerry Lawler when you need him? Duggan starts with Savage and attacks the Macho King outside the ring. Herc is in and hits a clothesline and a press slam on the King. Valentine gets the tag and a slugfest develops. Herc hits an atomic drop and Greg oversells it. Bret Hart gets the tag and takes Valentine down with an armdrag. Duggan in now and rams Valentine in the corners. Ron Garvin comes in and chops Greg down like a tree. He hooks a sleeper but Valentine gets into his own corner and tags Bravo who stomps away on Garvin and hits an inverted atomic drop and a chop. He misses an elbow though and Herc comes in and hammers on Bravo. Bravo throws Herc into the corner though and Earthquake gets the tag and hits his butt splash to pin Hercules at 3:57. Duggan continues with Quake and can’t knock him down with a shoulderblock but Bret comes in and school boys Quake. Garvin comes in and pounds on Quake but only gets 2. Bravo in now and Bravo hits a low kick. Valentine back in and hits a fistdrop for 2. He tries the figure four but is pushed for 2. Valentine tags Savage who hits a top rope double ax handle and a kneedrop for 2. Bravo back in and Garvin gets a backslide for 2. Savage hammers on Garvin and Valentine comes in and a chopfest develops. Garvin gets a blind tag and Duggan hits the 3 point stance clothesline for the pin at 7:31. Bravo pounds on Duggan now. Savage in and hits a stun gun for 2. Quake comes back in and pounds away and slams Duggan but misses an elbow drop. Garvin back in again and so is Bravo. Garvin hits a head butt and does his AWFUL Garvin stomp. He tries the Sharpshooter but gets poked. Bret and Savage get tags and the crowd pops for this matchup! Savage is rammed into the turnbuckle and takes an inverted atomic drop. Bravo gets the tag and is backed into the wrong corner. Bret hits a 2nd rope elbow for 2. Garvin is tagged back in but takes the sidewalk slam and is pinned at 11:17. Savage gives Garvin one last kick before Ronnie leaves. Duggan gets a USA chant going. Quake and Duggan continue and Duggan does the 10 punch count and works on the right arm. Bret gets the tag and they hit a double clothesline. Savage gets the tag and the crowd pops again. Duggan hits Savage in the corner and Bret hits a kick. Bret ties Randy in the ropes and hammers away and Duggan gets some shots too. The ref gets Savage out and Savage hits a snap mare but misses a knee drop. Bret hits a backbreaker for 2. A weak cradle for 2. Savage runs into a boot but Bret misses a 2nd rope elbow. Bravo comes in and slams Bret and hits an elbow. Bear Hug follows. Quake gets the tag and does a high choke hold and hits an elbow for 2. Bravo back in but Bret fights back. Triple team in the corner occurs. Savage back in and nails Bret. Savage inadvertently knees Bravo and Bret gets the hot tag to Duggan. Duggan hammers on Randy but misses an elbow. Bret comes back in and is dragged into the wrong corner. Bravo hammers on Bret and Bret rams his shoulder into the post. Bravo hits a shoulderbreaker and Savage comes in and hits the flying elbow smash for the pin at 19:06. 3 VS 1 again. Duggan tries to get the crowd behind him. He is shoved into the corner by Quake and is hammered. Quake misses a charge and Duggan hammers all 3 men. Crowd is going nuts for this guy. Savage back in and Duggan clotheslines him and Bravo but Quake hammers him. Quake slams Duggan and hits an elbow for 2. Bravo gets the tag again and works over Duggan. Savage hits a double axhandle. He misses a rope butt splash and Duggan hits an atomic drop and Sherri pulls the top rope down and Duggan’s to the outside and is nailed by Quake. Duggan is counted out at 23:23.Survivors are Randy Savage, Dino Bravo and Earthquake. Duggan clears the ring with the 2X4. Pretty subpar match here *1/4
The Hulkamaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, Ax and Smash) VS The Million Dollar Team (Ted Dibiase, Zeus, Warlord and Barbarian with Mr. Fuji)
Notice that Virgil isn’t there? The Million $ Team tries to keep the Hulkamaniacs outside the ring but Jake unleashes Damian to clear the ring. Zeus wants Hogan all to himself. Their teammates have to restrain both men to avoid a brawl. Jake starts the match with Zeus but Zeus says “I want you Hulk Hogan!” so Jake makes the tag to Hulk and the crowd pops big time for this confrontation. Zeus no sells all of Hogan’s offense until Hogan is kicked from behind by Barbie and Zeus snaps Hogan’s neck and starts choking him out. He throws the ref down twice and the ref DQ’s him at 3:21. Zeus continues to choke Hogan and everyone has to pull Zeus off of the Hulkster. Oh well at least Zeus is out pretty quick. Dibiase starts pounding on Hogan now. He works on him in the corner and chops him but runs into a boot and Jake gets the tag. Jake pounds on Dibiase and clotheslines him to the outside. Back in Ax gets the tag and pounds away on Teddy. Smash comes in and they double team on Dibiase. Hogan gets the tag now and he and Demoliton all pound on Dibiase at the same time. Ax comes in again and hits a clothesline for 2. Dibiase hits a desperation elbow and gets the tag to the Warlord. Warlord works over Ax. Barbarian comes in and the POP do some double teaming of their own. Barbie with a shoulderbreaker. He misses a 2nd rope elbow. Warlord back in and runs into an elbow but Ax is tripped by Fuji and Warlord hits an elbow for the pin at 9:50. Smash pound on Warlord now. Hogan gets the tag and hits a clothesline and a slam. Jake gets the tag and works on the right arm. Smash tags in again and picks up Warlord but is eye poked. Barbie gets the tag and puts his head down. Smash catches the foot but misses an elbow. Barbie hits a high kick and Dibiase comes in and hits a double ax handle and chops Smash down. He hits 2 fistdrops for 2. Double chin lock by Ted. Smash gets up and takes another slam. Dibiase misses his blind 2nd rope elbow but Smash doesn’t tag out. Dibiase makes a blind tag to Barbie and takes a stun gun. But Barbie hits his flying clothesline to pin Smash at 13:41. Roberts comes in and tries the DDT but is backdropped. Barbie misses an elbow and tries the DDT again but is dragged into the wrong corner. Warlord rams Jake into the corners. Barbie does the same thing and does a standing headbutt. Barbie hits a backbreaker and tags Warlord. Warlord continues to pound on Jake and he tags Dibiase who nails Hogan. Double team by the heels and Ted taunts Jake and he goes over and spits on Hogan and Gorilla and Jesse have a funny argument about it. Dibiase hits a piledriver but Jake’s foot is on the ropes on the pin. Barbie comes in again and hits a falling headbutt. Snap mare and Barbie goes to the top and misses a diving headbutt. Hogan gets the hot tag and starts hammering on Barbie. He hits a clothesline and 2 elbows for a 2 count. Barbie takes a suplex for another 2. Warlord comes in illegally and the POP work on Hogan but he comes back with a double clothesline. The POP however hit a spike piledriver but since they exceeded the 5 count for doubleteaming they are both DQ’d at 19:44. Hogan is out however and Jesse is very angry that the Powers Of Pain are DQ’d. Dibiase works on Hogan now and hooks the Million Dollar Dream. Hogan goes down but Jake saves him. Dibiase hooks the dream again on Hogan but is rammed into the corner. Dibiase goes to the 2nd rope but is hit in the stomach and Jake gets the tag. He hammers on Dibiase and hits a backdrop. Stungun on the top rope followed by several kneedrops. He hits the short clothesline but Virgil comes down to the ring and jumps on the apron. Jake DDT’s Virgil but is caught by Dibiase and is pinned at 23:50 with Ted’s feet on the ropes. Down to Hogan and Dibiase and Hogan is dead in the corner as is Virgil. Dibiase works over Hogan now. He hits a clothesline for 2. Chinlock by Dibiase. Hogan gets up and out of the hold and both men are clotheslined. Dibiase gets up and hits a back suplex but Hogan gets up and hulks up and hits 3 right hands and the big boot/legdrop finished it at 27:30. Mediocre match but the drama was there *3/4
Randy Savage and Zeus are interviewed for the upcoming cage match between Hogan and Brutus Beefcake on a PPV entitled No Holds Barred. Beefcake and Hogan follow with an interview of their own and Sherri comes in and throws powder in the eyes of both men and Savage and Zeus come in and choke both Beefcake and Hogan out. Most of the wrestlers from the locker room have to come in and break it up
Jesse speculates that there are problems in the Heenan Family after the intermission.
Roddy’s Rowdies (Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, Luke and Butch) VS The Rude Brood (Ravishing Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, Jacques and Raymond Rougeau with The Genius and Jimmy Hart)
Bobby Heenan isn’t with Rick Rude which is weird. Luke starts with Perfect. Perfect slams Luke but misses an elbow. Butch comes in and bites the leg. Piper comes in and bites the arm. Snuka comes in and bites the arm. Butch comes in and bites Perfect’s ass. What a beginning to this match! Snuka is back in and Jacques draws some heat by doing a flip inside the ring. He does a nip up drawing some more heat. Snuka gets tired of this and Jacques starts hammering but takes a flying headbutt. Snuka does the double leap frog and hits a knifeedge. Snuka hits a backbreaker and hits a flying fistdrop. He slams Jacques and hits his Superfly Splash for the pin at 4:01. Rude is back in and works on Snuka but takes a headbutt and Perfect comes in and Rude tries to get up and pulls the top rope down and Perfect goes to the outside. Snuka then hits a double knoggin knocker. Roddy Piper comes in now and hits a knee lift. He hammers on Perfect. Luke gets the tag and hits a snap mare and a knee drop. Butch tags in again and so does Snuka. Luke gets in and bites again. Butch puts his head down and gets kicked. Piper back in again and hits an atomic drop. Raymond comes in for the first time. Piper tries a piledriver but gets a sunset flip instead for 2. Raymond hits a savat kick for 2. Piper comes back with a pile driver and pins Raymond at 7:38. Henning comes in and works on Piper but is cradled for 2. Perfect gets a snap mare and a neck snap for 2. They go thru a headlock sequence and Piper slingshots Perfect into the post. Butch gets the tag and covers Perfect for 2. Another cover for 2. Luke comes back in and hammers on Henning some more. Luke is kicked into his own corner and Piper starts punching away on Henning and hits a knockdown blow which Perfect oversells. Butch comes back in and bites Perfect’s ass but Perfect rolls up Butch for 3 at 10:44. Piper rolls up Perfect for 2. Snuka comes in and hits some chops. Luke comes in and hammers on Henning and hits a headbutt for 2. He hits another headbutt but Perfect makes a tag to Rude and he’s caught. Luke bites the face of Rude but takes the Rude Awakining for 3 at 12:13. Snuka is now in trouble now. Rude gets the tag and works over Snuka in the corner. Perfect gets the tag again and works over Snuka some more. Perfect hits a dropkick for 2. He gets kicked in the head but Perfect tags Rude and works on the chinlock. Rude hits a couple of eyerakes and scratches him. Perfect comes in again and Snuka cradles him for 2. Snuka starts to fight back and hits a headbutt and a flying tackle but Perfect continues to work over Snuka. Double KO spot occurs and Snuka gets the hot tag to Piper and Rude also gets the tag. Crowd pops here for this one. They slug it out and Piper hits a backdrop. They both go to the outside and brawl and both Piper and Rude are counted out at 18:35. Down to Snuka and Perfect now. Perfect throws Snuka’s head into the ropes and Snuka comes back. Perfect hits a hip toss and arm drag and dropkicks Snuka to the outside. Perfect hits a suplex for 2. Snuka comes back with some chops. Rollup by Perfect for 2. They go thru a couple of more rollups for 2. Snuka follows Perfect into the corner with a chop. Perfect reverses a cross body for 2. Perfect comes thru with the perfect plex for the pin at 21:26 to be the Sole Survivor. Snuka then attacks both Perfect and the Genius. What a sore loser. Good ending to an otherwise boring match *1/2
The Ultimate Warriors (Ultimate Warrior, Jim Neidhart, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jeanetty VS The Heenan Family (Andre The Giant, Haku, Arn Anderson and Bobby Heenan)
Heenan is a last minute replacement for Tully Blanchard who was fired earlier in the day. The Heenan Family jump the Warriors before UW is introduced. Andre rams the Rockers together and chokes the Anvil. UW now comes down and attacks Andre sending him to the outside. The Heenan Family try to help him up but Andre is counted out at :27. UW sends Haku and Arn back in the ring. Arn gets pounded in the corner. Anvil comes in and hits a back elbow. He hits a flying tackle in the corner. Andre gets beat up outside as Anvil hammers Haku. Andre finally leaves. Anvil hits Arn but gets nailed but Haku. They slug it out and Arn is tagged in and he works on Anvil. Haku comes in and Anvil hits Arn but Haku hits his superkick and pins Anvil at 3:30. Shawn comes in and gets hammered by Haku. Haku misses a falling headbutt and Marty comes in to work on the right arm and so does Shawn. Quick tags by the Rockers now as they work on the right arm of Haku. Haku hits one clothesline and catches Marty but Shawn dropkicks Marty down on Haku. Arn gets the tag and Marty pounds on him but puts his head down. Marty blocks a suplex but Haku gets the tag. Shawn saves Marty from a double suplex and they double superkick Haku and Arn. Marty hits a flying elbow for 2. UW gets the tag and chops Haku but gets eye poked. UW hits a backdrop but misses an elbow. Haku drags UW in the corner and Bobby wants Haku to tag Arn. UW works on the right arm and tags Marty. Marty continues on the right arm but Arn tags Haku. Weasel chant starts for Heenan. Marty misses a charge and Heenan comes in hits Marty and comes back out. Haku hits a superkick for 2 after Arn hits Marty in the back. Heenan comes back in and kicks on Marty and pins him at 8:49. Unbelieveable. Arn continues with UW. UW hits a high bear hug but is eye poked. Haku gets Bear Hugged as well into an inverted atomic drop. Shawn comes in and hits a dropkick for 2. Shawn is thrown to the outside and UW throws him back in the ring. Haku hits a headbutt and tags Arn. Bobby holds Shawn and Arn drags him to the corners but Shawn does a backflip and arm drags Arn and rubs his face into the mat. UW comes in and a double team on Arn occurs. UW slowly works over Arn and tags Shawn. They hit the rocket launcher on Arn for 2. Arn fights back and tags Haku. Haku misses a spinning cross body and Shawn hits the rocket launcher to pin Haku at 12:50. Arn tags Bobby who pounds Shawn but tags Arn immediately. Arn tosses Shawn to the outside. Shawn gets a sunset flip for 2. Arn argues with Bobby for not tagging when Arn went down. Arn does tag Bobby and hammers Shawn but when he gets hammered he tags Arn in the corner. Double KO occurs. Arn works over Shawn. Shanw comes back with some backflips but takes a Spinebuster for 3 at 15:37. Down to 2 VS 1 now. UW knocks down Arn but is thrown outside the ring. Bobby jumps to the top but the ref brings him down. Arn works on UW outside the ring. Bobby comes in and kicks UW but UW gets up and Arn is tagged in. Arn is grabbed by the throat, But takes a pretty low blow. Double team in the corner occurs. UW sends Arn into Heenan who gets knocked off the apron. UW hits the Gorilla Press and flying splash for the pin at 18:16. Bobby who has no idea that Arn has been eliminated sees Arn leaving ringside and yells “Come back here!” But then he sees UW behind him and his look of shock tells the whole story. UW sends Bobby hard into the turnbuckle. He goes flying to the outside and tries to leave but UW brings him back in the ring. UW hits a flying tackle and splash for the final pin at 20:27. Ultimate Warrior is the survivor. Pretty funny match which was booked at the last minute and it’s best match of the night honors ***. UW hammers Heenan when he leaves to end the show.
Summary: Well this show wasn’t bad but it wasn’t particully good either. It has it’s ups and downs so I’ll go with NEUTRAL FEELINGS on this one.