Survivor Series (1989 TV Special)
9/10
Quite different
2 April 2004
Warning: Spoilers
*SPOILERS*





This Survivor Series was kind of strange. The atmosphere was just kind of... off, but in a good way. This was the first time we had 4-on-4, rather than 5-on-5, matches, and not enough tag teams for a 20-man match. I think it made the matches better and faster-paced, plus we got 5 matches rather than 4. With matches of this type, that's a big difference, and you can tell.

The opening match was memorable for Brutus Beefcake continuing his short-lived hot streak, eliminating both Honky Tonk Man and Rick Martel. This was one of the best performances up to that point, behind only the Macho Man the year before and Bam Bam Bigelow at the first Series. He survived and overshadowed his team captain, Dusty Rhodes. It was also fun to watch Bad News Brown abandon his team for the second year in a row. Think about how much different this match, as well as his match from the year before, would have been had he stayed. While the Ultimate Warrior would have beaten him, BNB might have put up a good fight against Rhodes and Beefcake. But why did they need him to replace Akeem? Was he injured?

The second match was marred by some inexplicably low heat. It was simply a squash from the beginning, never mind Duggan eliminating Valentine. Toward the end, Earthquake, Dino Bravo, and the Macho King cut the ring off and wear Bret Hart down for about 5 minutes before Macho eliminates him. The same thing happens right afterward, as they beat Duggan to a pulp and he gets counted out. Very anticlimactic. I have never seen a match this one-sided at a pay-per-view.

Then came the supposed main event, which is memorable to me because it is the Powers of Pain's one pay-per-view highlight. Then-tag champs Demolition simply jobbed to the Warlord and Barbarian, continuing the Survivor Series' 15 minutes of fame tradition. And Hulk Hogan gets a lot of hype, even though he only eliminated one opponent. The rest of the Million Dollar Team was disqualified.

Not much to say about the next match, except for Roddy Piper and Rick Rude's feud is highly underrated today.

The Ultimate Warrior got the last match, probably to see if he could handle main event status. He did this time. He was instrumental in all his team's eliminations, and survived. This was one of Shawn Michaels' best performances in his pre-Heartbreak Kid days.

Funny how there were no tag team feuds in this event. If you look at it, all the opposing tag team feuds were leftovers from early '89. And I was disappointed at how the Hart Foundation jobbed. Neidhart was just a piece of meat.
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