Apologies for the delay in this folks, but sometimes life gets in the way of wrestling.
Nov 26, 1987 was the date when the concept of the Survivor Series was born onto our screens. And we’re shown footage from the first Survivor Series event where Andre the Giant led the winning team against Hulk Hogan.
We’re going on a trip through Survivor Series moments and our first match comes from 1987 and we begin with a tag team survivor series match led by Strike Force (Tito Santana and Rick Martel), The Young Stallions (Paul Roma and Jim Powers), The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond), The Killer Bees (Jim Brunzell and Brian Blair) and British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) against The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), The Islanders (Haku and Tama), Demolition (Ax and Smash), The New Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Dino Bravo) and The Bolsheviks (Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov).
With a match as insane and busy as this one was its going to take a million words that probably won’t make much sense together to explain the tag match in any sort of detail. so for this week, we’re only really going to look at the eliminations in the early stages and more detail in the later stages. (also, the Bolsheviks were not mentioned on Vintage, but a little research pointed them out as the first eliminated tag team in this one).
The first men sent out of this match (that we saw aired on Vintage) were the Rougeaus who were eliminated by Demolition. After the ad break we see Demolition eliminated by DQ when Smash hit the referee. Strikeforce are eliminated by Hart Foundation (Jim Neidhart) after Bret Hart gets involved to make a save on a three count for Neidhart who immediately turns it around to get the three count. The footage jumps here taking us to the point in the match where we end up seeing the British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid) knock himself out with a headbutt leaving the Islanders to get the three count of them to eliminate the Bulldogs.
(This would be the point in the match where the New Dream Team were eliminated by the Young Stallions, but it wasn’t shown on Vintage. I’m only pointing this out because otherwise they seem to have just disappeared in the match).
The Hart Foundation try to take some dominance in this match, and it isn’t until the Killer Bees get into the ring and try to get some offense in that the ref gets distracted and it looks like the Killer Bee is setting Hart up for slam by lifting him up. As the ref is distracted, one of the Islanders try to deliver a drop kick to the lifted man to knock the Killer Bee down and underneath Hart. This doesn’t work when the Killer Bee rolls over again getting Hart under him to get the cover on the Hart Foundation and a three count to eliminate them.
The footage jumps and we’re down to the last three teams here, the Islanders vs. the Young Stallions & the Killer Bees. It looks like the Islanders are going to take control and all the men run into the action. The Killer Bee on the outside sticks a mask on, jumps in and takes over from his tag team partner to get the pin, the three count, and the win here. The other Killer Bee also puts on a mask so you can’t tell who is who (and so you can’t tell that the man who got the pin was not the legal man) and they celebrate in the ring. Survivors here, Young Stallions & Killer Bees.
The “Mega Powers” team appear to be pretty angry at various other members of the other team in this promo. And as per usual, the other team also take a chance to hit verbal assault on the “mega powers” team members in the following promo.
This is the main event from Survivor Series 1988. Featuring the “Mega Powers” Hulk Hogan & Macho Man Randy Savage with Hillbilly Jim, Hercules & Koko B. Ware vs. “The Twin Towers” Big Boss Man & Akeem with The Red Rooster, Haku & Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. Akeem is in to begin but he tags in Rooster straight away who gets powerslammed by Hillbilly. Hillbilly tags in Koko who powerslams Rooster. Koko fakes a move and then gets up high to drop a drop kick for a two count. Koko tags in Hogan who hits a punch and a kick before planting Rooster so that Savage can go up high and hit a flying elbow to eliminate Rooster. all the men jump into the ring here.
The footage cuts to Hogan in with Haku as he scoop slams him and then tags in Hercules who hits a few elbows for a two count. Haku comes back with a suplex before tagging in Akeem. Akeem scoop slams, and goes for an elbow which gets missed. Hillbilly gets tagged in and starts in on the offense. Hillbilly manages to turn things around until Akeem uses his size to knock him down. Akeem drops his body weight down on Hillbilly for the three count.
Back in, Koko is trying to take on Akeem before tagging in Hogan who almost immediately tags in Savage who tries to knock Akeem off his feet. Hercules is tagged in to keep up the fight to try and knock Akeem down. Then as Koko is tagged in as he makes a mistake by landing neck first on the turnbuckle only to be slammed by Boss Man and eliminated.
The match jumps
