Venue: Rosemont, Illinois
Date: 23/11/89
Attendance: 15,294
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura
The third annual Survivor Series saw teams cut from five members to
four and the addition of team names. Could the 1989 edition live up to the high
standards of the previous events?
Review
The Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, Brutus Beefcake, Tito Santana &
The Red Rooster) vs The Enforcers (The Big Boss Man, The Honky Tonk Man, Rick
Martel & Bad News Brown)
Eliminations: Martel pinned Santana; Bad News Brown was counted out;
Beefcake pinned Honky; Beefcake pinned Martel; Boss Man pinned Rooster; Rhodes
pinned Boss Man. Rhodes and Beefcake were the survivors.
Notes
The Big Boss Man and Dusty Rhodes were feuding at this time as were
Tito Santana and Rick Martel following their split back at Wrestlemania...
Martel got the better of Santana again by eliminating him from the match
first... Boss Man accidentally nailed Bad News Brown (who was replacing the
injured Akeem) causing Brown to walk out on his team. Brown did the exact same
thing last year you might remember... Brutus Beefcake scored big wins over The
Honky Tonk Man and Rick Martel... Rhodes pinned Boss Man to win the match for
his team but Boss Man got his heat back by handcuffing Rhodes and giving him a
few shots with the knight stick... Good opening match which the crowd
appreciated.
The 4x4's (Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Bret Hart, Ronnie Garvin &
Hercules) vs The King's Court (Randy Savage, Greg Valentine, Earthquake &
Dino Bravo)
Eliminations: Earthquake pinned Hercules; Duggan pinned Valentine;
Bravo pinned Garvin; Savage pinned Hart; Duggan was counted out. Savage,
Earthquake and Bravo were the survivors.
 |
| Here's the original King's Court team with Barry Windham included |
Following Summerslam Randy Savage defeated King Hacksaw Jim Duggan
to become the Macho King so this was a continuation of that feud. Ronnie Garvin
and Greg Valentine were still embroiled in a feud, and this was the second half
assed attempt to give Bret Hart a run as a singles wrestler. He would be back
with Neidhart within a couple of months. Hercules is now just a mid-card
jobber. Barry Windham was supposed to be on the King's Court team but left the
company prior to the event. Windham was billed as the Widowmaker during his
short WWF stint in 1989. Hart and Savages had some great exchanges. A feud
between these two would surely have got Hart over as a solo act not to mention
the great matches they would have produced. Duggan is left alone to face three
guys and yet lots of illegal double teaming goes unpunished by the referee.
Keep that in mind for the next match. Duggan eventually is counted out to
protect him from a loss in the ring… Passable contest.
The Hulkamaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts & Demolition) vs The
Million Dollar Team (Ted Dibiase, Zeus & The Powers of Pain)
Eliminations: Zeus was disqualified; Warlord pinned Ax; Barbarian
pinned Smash; The Powers of Pain were disqualified; Dibiase pinned Roberts;
Hogan pinned Dibiase. Hogan was the survivor.
Notes
Hogan was still feuding with Zeus here ahead of the No Holds Barred
pay-per-view which would contain the movie and then a steel cage final battle
between Hogan & Brutus Beefcake and Zeus & Randy Savage. Dibiase
resumes his feud with Jake Roberts who had recently returned from injury.
Demolition and the Powers of Pain were still feuding over a year after their
issue began... Zeus was disqualified in the opening minutes for relentlessly
choking Hogan and shoving down the referee. It kept him looking like a monster
and prevented him from having to take a loss before No Holds Barred... The
Powers of Pain defeated both members of Demolition yet it would be Andre the
Giant and Haku who were about to (temporarily) relieve Ax and Smash of the
championship... The Powers of Pain were both disqualified for continuously
double teaming Hogan which begged the question why these rules were not
enforced in the previous match. No consistency! It did make it look like the
referee was favouring Hogan... Dibiase eliminated Roberts with a bit of help
from Virgil before Hogan made his comeback to defeat Dibiase and win the
match... After the match Zeus and Savage attacked Hogan and Beefcake in the
locker room to set the stage for No Holds Barred… The match was fine for what
it was but while the Zeus' disqualification made sense in hindsight, the double
disqualification of the Powers of Pain was too much. Quite why Hogan or Roberts
couldn't have beaten one of them is beyond me.
 |
| Hogan bodyslams Zeus to the delight of his teammates |
Roddy's Rowdies (Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka & The Bushwackers)
vs Rude's Brood (Ravishing Rick Rude, Mr Perfect & The Fabulous Rougeau
Brothers)
Eliminations: Snuka pinned Jacques; Piper pinned Raymond; Perfect
pinned Butch; Rude pinned Luke; Piper and Rude were counted out; Perfect pinned
Snuka. Perfect was the survivor.
Notes
Piper and Rude were feuding after Piper had a hand in Rude losing
the Intercontinental Title to the Ultimate Warrior at Summerslam... The first
half of this bout was comedy (not the good kind) with the Bushwackers leading
the way with lots of biting and stomping around the ring... The Rougeaus both
went down without much of a fight before Perfect and Rude restored parity by
eliminating the Bushwackers... Snuka took a beating setting up for a hot tag to
Piper so we could get a big showdown between Piper and Rude, except it didn't
even last a minute as both men got counted out. What a joke... It came down to
Perfect and Snuka and it was a decent wrestling contest where Perfect went over
clean to remain undefeated… Once again overall the match was okay.
 |
| Mr Perfect and Rick Rude have Jimmy Snuka in trouble |
The Warriors (The Ultimate Warrior, Jim Neidhart & The Rockers)
vs The Heenan Family (Andre the Giant, Haku, Arn Anderson & Bobby Heenan)
Eliminations: Andre was counted out; Haku pinned Neidhart; Heenan
pinned Jannetty; Michaels pinned Haku; Anderson pinned Michaels; Warrior pinned
Anderson; Warrior pinned Heenan. Warrior was the survivor.
Notes
There was a real mid card feel to the main event not helped by the
fact that Andre didn't like or respect the Warrior and refused to work with
him, therefore we got Andre being eliminated in the first minute of the bout by
count out. This left Haku, Arn Anderon and Bobby Heenan as Tully Blanchard was
fired before the event for failing a drug test. Anderson would also leave
following the event. The outcome was never in doubt here... Haku beat Neidhart
who, as good as he was as part of a tag team was never going to get over as a
singles wrestler... Heenan got a cheap pin fall over Jannetty after Haku had
done the hard work... Shawn Michaels got a big win over Haku but then went down
clean to Anderson... Warrior was left alone but he easily despatched Anderson
and then Heenan for an anticlimactic finish… This match, while still decent,
should have been moved to the middle of the show especially knowing that
Blanchard was gone and that Andre wouldn't work with Warrior.
 |
| Bobby Heenan is about realise he's alone with Warrior |
Overall
The 80's and early 90's WWF PPVs with fewer matches tend to get
higher ratings as there were usually less lousy filler matches shoved in. All
matches here were above average to good so the overall rating looks good.
However there was nothing really standout or historically significant on this
card. A definite step down in quality from the first two Survivor Series events
but still an entertaining show. Survivor
Series 1989 drew 385,000 buys on pay-per-view.
Results
1 Dusty Rhodes, Brutus Beefcake, Tito Santana & The Red Rooster
def The Big Boss Man, The Honky Tonk Man, Bad News Brown & Rick Martel
(22:02) **3/4
2 Earthquake, Dino Bravo, Randy Savage & Greg Valentine def
Hercules, Bret Hart, Jim Duggan & Ronnie Garvin (23:25) **
3 Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts & Demolition def Ted Dibiase, Zeus
& The Powers of Pain (27:32) **1/4
4 Mr Perfect, Rick Rude & The Fabulous Rougeaus def Rowdy Roddy
Piper, Jimmy Snuka & The Bushwackers (21:27) **1/4
5 The Ultimate Warrior, Jim Neidhart & The Rockers def Andre the
Giant, Arn Anderson, Haku & Bobby Heenan (20:28) **1/2
Rating
11.75/25 = 47% Rating
Star Rating Guide
***** Excellent/World Class
**** Very Good
*** Good
** OK/Acceptable
* Poor
DUD Abysmal
SQ Squash (Less than 1
min)
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