Ahhh the traditions of the season as the costumes are put away, the candy is all eaten, and Thanksgiving approaches. Everyone starts really getting into the holiday spirit at this time of year with the weather changing, decorations starting to be put up, and big meals on the way for all. But wrestling fans really start looking forward to Thanksgiving because it always signals when the WWE puts on their annual Pay Per View entitled Survivor Series. Starting over twenty years ago in 1987, the Survivor Series began as a night of who could come out on top and persevere through multiple opponents. While things have changed a bit as time has gone on, it still remains one of my favorite shows every single year and it gives a brand new meaning to the phrase, “only the strong survive.” Nothing says “I’m thankful” like a bunch of grown men and women beating the hell out of one another.
When the Survivor Series began, it was defined as a PPV that was much different then the others shown throughout the year. Tag team matches full of virtually random partnerships would pit their strengths against other teams in hopes of eliminating every one of their opposition and coming out the victor. It was always awesome to see some of the teams that were put together and then who they would end up going against. Watching my favorite tag team Demolition join forces with one of my favorite wrestlers Jake Roberts just blew my mind as a kid. Some time later it was really cool to watch all the survivors from the elimination tag matches team together at the end of the night to come out as the “ultimate survivor.” Sadly the traditional style of the PPV has changed drastically and there came a time when we’d be lucky to get even one elimination tag match. The WWE has heard the fans and given us a few more at recent events, but the days of old are what I really long for and for the first time ever…they’re now all on DVD for me to enjoy.
1987 saw the premier of Survivor Series and what ended up being huge matches with tons of wrestlers lining the ring. There were only four matches on the initial card but that included a gigantic twenty-man (10 tag team) match pitting all our favorite and most hated teams against one another. The beautiful women of the WWE joined forces to duke it out in a battle of good versus evil that made the men never want to turn away even for a second. Our inaugural match saw such legends as Harley Race and the Honky Tonk Man team up to battle it out against a team led by Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage. The main event match brought even more girth into the ring as Andre the Giant lead a team of massive men including One Man Gang and King Kong Bundy up against Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr. Wonderful, and the immortal Hulk Hogan. Maybe it wasn’t perfect but this first Survivor Series was so much fun because it was a brand new format to a PPV that would hold for years to come.
The second year of our Thanksgiving tradition saw yet another gigantic twenty-man match as ten tag teams split off against one another. It must have been incredibly difficult for anyone at ringside to see a damn thing going on inside the ring. The other matches didn’t really make this one of the better Survivor Series events as the spark and thrill just wasn’t there. Great names like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, Ted Dibiase, and many others were on hand, but something was just lacking. Not sure exactly what it was, but there was fear that maybe this new formatted PPV just might not end up working.
It was time for that fear to be completely blown out of the water as 1989 rolled around and my favorite Survivor Series of all time hit the airwaves. This was just an extremely fun PPV from start to finish. Some great team partnerships made for truly interesting match-ups and pairings that I’d never thought I’d see; especially as a young kid of ten when this event occurred. While all of the matches were excellent to watch and enjoy, it was the main event that really was exciting. Hulk Hogan had recently starred in a film called No Holds Barred in which his main nemesis was a beast of a man named Zeus. Zeus had made his way into a WWE ring aligned with Randy Savage giving us this oh so awesome team of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and my tag team of choice Demolition.
Year four of the Survivor Series saw a slight change to the format, but it didn’t hurt the PPV whatsoever. There were five traditional elimination matches with the teams battling it out until one team had survivors left over. At the end of the night, the remaining survivors would split up into two teams for a final match to determine the “ultimate survivors” as the event came to a close. On that night there were also two infamous debuts that have long gone down in wrestling history. The first was that of the ominous Undertaker who is still wrestling today and has become a living legend in the WWE. Our other debut wasn’t quite so scary, but may have been just as creepy. A large egg was on the set of the Survivor Series and eventually cracked to reveal the Gobbledy Gooker. Trust me, if you don’t know what that is…then there’s no way my explanation can do it justice. You have to see it for yourself to believe it.
1991 marks the last event in this first volume of Survivor Series: The Anthology and it also had a big change to the format of the night. For the first time since the inception of the event, there was going to be a singles match. Four elimination matches were the showcase of the night and they included some really good pairings including the Legion of Doom and the Big Boss Man. Not all of the matches were that entertaining, but that’s bound to happen from time to time. The focus of the night though was all on the WWE Championship match between Hulk Hogan and the still rather unknown phenom, the Undertaker. It was a decent match and paved the way for a shocking ending that saw the Hulkster suffer a defeat to the Dead Man. It’s unfortunate though because this singles match would soon become a running trend on the PPV and lead on to the traditional tag matches becoming almost extinct.
Disc 1 – Survivor Series 1987
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: “The King” Harley Race, Hercules, Danny Davis, “Outlaw” Ron Bass,” & Honky Tonk Man Vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, & Randy “Macho Man” Savage
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Glamour Girls, Dawn Marie, Donna Christanello, & Sensational Sherri Vs. Velvet McIntyre, Rockin’ Robin, Jumping Bomb Angels, & The Fabulous Moolah
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Bolsheviks, Demolition, The Dream Team, The Islanders, & The Hart Foundation Vs. The British Bulldogs, The Young Stallions, The Rougeau Brothers, The Killer Bees, & Strike Force
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: Andre The Giant, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, King Kong Bundy, “The Natural” Butch Reed, & One Man Gang Vs. Hulk Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Ken Patera, The Magnificent Don Muraco, & “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff
Disc 2 – Survivor Series 1988
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: Ultimate Warrior, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Sam Houston, The Blue Blazer, & Jim Brunzell Vs. Honky Tonk Man, Danny Davis, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, “Outlaw” Ron Bass, & Bad News Brown
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: Demolition, Los Conquistadores, The Brain Busters, The Rougeau Brothers, & The Bolsheviks Vs. Powers Of Pain, The Rockers, The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, & The Young Stallions
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Ken Patera, “El Matador” Tito Santana, & Scott Casey Vs. Andre The Giant, Dino Bravo, “The King” Harley Race, Mr. Perfect, & “Ravishing” Rick Rude
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: Hulk Hogan, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Koko B. Ware, Hercules, & Hillbilly Jim Vs. Big Boss Man, Akeem, “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase, King Haku, & Red Rooster
Disc 3 – Survivor Series 1989
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Enforcers Vs. The Dream Team
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The King’s Court Vs. The 4×4’s
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Million Dollar Team Vs. The Hulkamaniacs
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Rude Brood Vs. Rowdy’s Rowdies
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Heenan Family Vs. The Ultimate Warrior
Disc 4 – Survivor Series 1990
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Perfect Team Vs. The Ultimate Warriors
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Dream Team Vs. The Million Dollar Team
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Visionaries Vs. The Vipers
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Natural Disasters Vs. The Hulkamaniacs
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Alliance Vs. The Mercenaries
~ The Survivors Final Match: “The Model” Rick Martel, Power & Glory, The Warlord, & “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase Vs. Hulk Hogan, “El Matador” Tito Santana, & Ultimate Warrior
Disc 5 – Survivor Series 1991
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase, The Mountie, & The Warlord Vs. Bret “Hit Man” Hart, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Virgil, & The British Bulldog
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: Sgt. Slaughter, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Texas Tornado, & “El Matador” Tito Santana Vs. Col. Mustafa, The Berzerker, Hercules, & Skinner
~ WWE Championship Match: Hulk Hogan Vs. Undertaker
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Beverly Brothers & The Nasty Boys Vs. The Rockers & The Bushwhackers
~ Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Legion Of Doom & Big Boss Man Vs. The Natural Disasters & I.R.S.
The events are shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and they look exceptional after finally being brought to DVD for the first time. The first couple discs show their age a bit but that can’t really be helped. But by the time you get to the 1989 event though, things start looking awesome.
The events are heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and it also comes through wonderfully. All of the commentary can be heard through the center speaker while the music and crowd noise surrounds the room through the others.
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he final score in my ratings is a bit off simply because there are no special features, but do you really need them? Finally we get the earliest years of the greatest PPV on DVD and you want to complain about no special features? For shame! Survivor Series is an awesome anthology and these are truly some of the better events in the tenure of the PPV because it was when the WWE still held totally true to the traditional elimination tag matches. That’s not to say every event in later years sucked, but some of the quality began to fade as the original focus of the PPV began to get lost. Pick up this set immediately and remember what it was like to enjoy the Thanksgiving tradition with all of your favorite WWE superstars.
WWE Home Video presents Survivor Series The Anthology: 1987 – 1991. Featuring: Hulk Hogan, Ted Dibiase, Andre The Giant, Undertaker, Ultimate Warrior, Mr. Perfect, Hercules, Big Boss Man, and many more. Running time: 900 minutes on 5 discs. Rating: PG. Released on DVD: November 3, 2009. Available at Amazon.com
