WWF Survivor Series 1988 Page 2
·
The Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, Sam Houston, The Blue Blazer &
Jim Brunzell v. The Honky Tonk Man, Danny Davis, Ron Bass, Greg Valentine &
Bad News Brown
HTM shows two
fatal logic flaws:
1. Using Bass
and Davis again after their poor showing in 87
2. Using Bad News when he's obviously a psychotic loner.
·
Well, no one ever accused Honky of being the sharpest knife in the
drawer. Davis goes out in short order via the sleeper. CLIP ALERT! We're back
with Brown killing Brunzell dead. Ghetto Blaster finishes it. CLIP ALERT! Now
it's Sam Houston (yet another Jake Roberts relative) getting beaten on, but he
moves and Hammer nails Bad News by mistake. That's more trouble for Bad News
than he wants, so he walks out on his team. CLIP ALERT! Ron Bass takes out Sam
Houston fairly easily. CLIP ALERT! Blazer misses a dive off the top rope and
Hammer locks on the figure-four for the submission. CLIP ALERT! Beefcake kills
Honky, and they both fall out of the ring for a double countout.
So it's Warrior
v. Bass & Valentine 2-on-1, and now the psychotic, Freddy Krueger-like
director who's been hacking at this match calms down and lets us see the ending.
And the ending lasts all of a minute, as Warrior pins both after double
axehandle blows to the head. Match was brutally clipped down to 8 minutes, from
I believe 30 or so. Thank god. Survivor: The Ultimate Warrior.
·
Jake Roberts, Ken Patera, Tito Santana, Scott Casey & Jim Duggan v.
Rick Rude, Dino Bravo, Harley Race, Mr. Perfect & Andre the Giant
CLIP ALERT!
Jesus, someone get the director a valium or something. We cut right to Rude
finishing Patera with the Rude Awakening. CLIP ALERT! Dino Bravo ends jobber
Scott Casey's night with the side slam. CLIP ALERT! Race gets pinned by Santana
with the flying jalapeno. Andre comes in right after and basically sits on him
to pin him. Duggan jumps in and ties up Andre in the ropes, allowing Jake to
choke him out. The heels work him over and…CLIP ALERT! We magically jump to
Duggan preparing to finish Bravo, but he gets hassled by Frenchie Martin and
uses the 2x4 to respond, drawing a DQ. So Jake goes 1-on-4. Quick DDT dispatches
Rude. Andre chokes him half to death in the corner, drawing a DQ. But Jake is
gone, and Mr. P just rolls him over and pins him. Survivors: Dino Bravo &
Mr. Perfect. Clipped down to 8 minutes again, from 30.
·
Main event: Akeem, Haku, Terry Taylor, Big Bossman & Ted Dibiase v.
Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Hillbilly Jim, Koko B. Ware & Hercules
Because when you
see the Red Rooster and Koko B. Ware on opposing teams, you know it's MAIN EVENT
TIME, BABY! Savage & Dibiase start and that's pretty much the peak of the
match, as it's all downhill from there. Everyone goes through the motions until
Savage and Hogan double-team future boss Terry Taylor and dispatch him with the
big elbow. Everyone stops to regroup. Akeem and Hillbilly go for a bit, and that
ends quickly with a splash to get rid of ol' Jim. Law of the jungle says Koko
should go next, because he's next on the WWF jobber food chain. Akeem celebrates
and the face team blitzes him.
And sure enough,
when Koko comes in he runs into the big boys and gets Bossman Slammed and
pinned. Well, the dead weight is gone, at least. Hogan does the usual to Bossman
but gets caught with a sidewalk slam. The heels beat the crap out of him, which
is always refreshing to see. Hulk tags out to Hercules, who goes after Virgil
like an idiot and gets pinned by Dibiase. Savage pins Dibiase right after. We're
left with the Twin Towers & Haku v. The Megapowers. Boring segment as Haku
uses the VULCAN NERVE PINCH OF DOOM to subdue Hulk. Bossman hits the Slam, but
misses a splash off the top and Savage gets a hot tag. The Towers beat on Hogan
outside, and Bossman is legal so he gets counted out. L-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AME!
Hogan is then handcuffed to the ropes (and Woman throws hot coffee in his face
and Elizabeth hits him with a shoe…oh, sorry, I'm 8 years ahead of myself
there).
Akeem beats on
Savage until the ref DQ's him for excessive brutality or something.
L-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AME! That leaves Haku against the Mega-Egos 2-on-1. Ah,
but Hogan is still handcuffed, so he's able to beat on Savage for a while.
Meanwhile, in a fascinating pathos play outside the ring, Slick is busy waving
the keys in front of Hogan, even though he really has no reason to even be at
ringside anymore other than giving Hogan the opportunity to get the keys. And
surprise surprise, Hogan gets the keys after a Haku superkick goes astray and
knocks Slick out. He tags in, mops up, and finishes it with the usual at 29:12.
What a pile of shit that match was. 1/2*
The Bottom Line:
Injuries just destroyed this show, as jobbers filled in left and right and the
resulting matches, aside from the good tag team Series match, sucked bigtime.
The Demo & Powers of Pain double-turn was big, the rest was meaningless
time-filler.
Not recommended.