WWF Survivor Series 1987
November 26, 1987
Richfield, OH
The inaugural Survivor Series was a big middle finger to Jim Crockett and the NWA. When Crockett announced Starrcade on PPV on Thanksgiving, Vince McMahon countered with Survivor Series and didn’t allow cable companies to air both shows (you can read more in my Starrcade ‘87 review).
The Survivor Series was the first non-Wrestlemania PPV (other than the Wrestling Classic) and set in motion the idea that the WWF would be offering multiple PPVs over the course of a calendar year.
The WWF was still hot at this point and while near the end, we were still in the Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant feud that made Mania III a huge success. So did Crockett stand a chance? Not really. Let’s see how the first Survivor Series plays out.
The Card
Survivor Series Match
The Honky Tonk Man, Hercules, Danny Davis, Ron Bass and Harley Race vs. Randy Savage, Jim Duggan, Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat and Brutus Beefcake
Honky Tonk Man in a prematch promo says this is the greatest Survivor Series ever assembled. It’s the first afterall, so I mean, he’s right!
I wonder if Harley was ever embarrassed to be a King in the WWF.
It’s worth writing that wow is Elizabeth beautiful.
Savage has turned face and got a huge reaction. No surprise he’d be champ by Mania.
You know, say what you want about Beefcake (and I usually say a lot)…but he was over.
We lose both Duggan and Race to a double countout.
Beefcake nails Bass with the high knee and Bass is gone. This has been fun so far.
Shake Rattle and Roll takes out the Barber. Good storytelling with Ventura and Gorilla explaining how Beefcake needed to make the tag but didn’t.
Jake spikes Davis with a DDT and he’s gone. Danny Davis shouldn’t be going toe to toe with Jake anyway.
Savage is so active outside the ring, running all over the place, going to the top rope. It really adds to the match and his character.
Steamboat mocking Honky’s dance was quite a sight.
Savage drops the big elbow and Hercules is gone.
Team Savage wins, Sole Survivors: Savage, Roberts and Steamboat. Honky Tonk Man fights Savage for a bit before he gets beat down, and then decides to leave realizing he’s down 3-1. Fun opener that showed the Survivor Series format works for sure. Smart booking to have Honky left with all the IC Title contenders.
Survivor Series Match
Judy Martin, Leilani Kai, Dawn Marie (no, not that Dawn Marie), Donna Christanello and Sensational Sherri vs. The Jumping Bomb Angels, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin’ Robin and The Fabulous Moolah
Sherri had recently won the Women’s title from Moolah, which is the main story here.
I won’t lie, I don’t know most of these people. Marie, Christanello and the Angels are new to me.
McIntyre gets Christanello out with a nice victory roll.
McIntyre is pretty good, nice hurricanrana!
Robin takes out Marie with a crossbody.
I don’t know the names of the Angels, but one of them is awesome.
The other just did a flying armdrag off the top rope! Where were these two in WWF history?
Robin’s clearly not the best worker in the match. She’s botched almost anything and just botched a monkey flip.
Sherri takes Robin out with a vertical suplex.
McIntyre is good too. Spinning crossbody? That’s pretty cool.
The Galmour Girls take out Moolah with a double clothesline. Bit of a surprise, but her chain wrestling was pretty boring anyway.
McIntyre and the Jumping Bomb Angels left on one side? That’s awesome. This has been really fun so far.
Small screw up with the timekeeper as he rings the bell when one of the Angels bridge to get their shoulder up.
Velvet gets Sherri with a giant swing!
She gets Sherri with a victory roll! I assume that was the next Women’s title feud.
Crazy sunset flip. I feel bad I don’t know the Bomb Angels from each other. But they’re awesome.
Electric chair drop by Kai takes out McIntyre. Once again, a great story was told as the announcers focus on how McIntyre’s back was injured. It was also great psychology as McIntyre had been getting eliminations with all of these victory rolls. Down to the Bomb Angels and the Glamour Girls.
Kai is eiliminated by a crossbody.
Jimmy Hart even takes a bump to the outside!
Team Moolah wins, Sole Survivors: The Jumping Bomb Angels. Great clothesline for the win. Wow. I need to research more about the Jumping Bomb Angels because they are awesome. Apparently this set up a Women’s Tag Team title feud between these two teams. Anyway, great match! Maybe the best Women’s match I’ve ever seen in the US.
Survivor Series Match – 10 vs. 10
Strike Force, The Young Stallions, The Fabulous Rougeaus, the Killer Bees and the British Bulldogs vs. The Dream Team, The Bolsheviks, Demolition, The Islanders and the Hart Foundation
Let’s just throw all the tag teams in at once! This could be nuts.
Interesting rules: if one member of the tag team gets eliminated, the other is gone too. This is a cool concept that would be cool to see today, although there isn’t enough teams for that.
Zhukov gets eliminated by Santana, so the Bolsheviks are gone.
I don’t really like the pacing for this one. Too many quick tags and way too many guys involved.
Ax takes out Jacques when he missed a crossbody. We are at 4 teams vs. 4 teams.
The Demos get DQed when Smash shoves the referee away.
Strike Force get eliminated when Bret breaks up a pinfall by Santana on Anvil, then Anvil pins Santana? How weak was that?
No falls for a while, and we keep getting move after move. On one hand it’s awesome, non-stop action. On the other, there’s no real story being told, it’s just move after move.
Dynamite goes for a flying headbutt on Haku and hits it…but knocks himself out and Haku takes him out with a kick to take out the Bulldogs.
Roma gets Greg Valentine with a top rope sunset flip to take him out. That was nice. Best move I ever saw Roma do.
Down to the Harts and Islanders vs. the Bees and Young Stallions. This match really seemed like it was designed to get the Stallions over.
Bret gets eliminated when Tama knocked Jumping Jim over when he holding Hart…but he rolled through and got the pin. Down to the Islanders against Bees and Stallions.
Team Strike Force wins, Sole Survivors: The Killer Bees and the Young Stallions. B. Brian Blair puts on a bee mask and gets a sunset flip on Tama even though he’s the illegal man, and Jumping Jim puts on a mask as well. Sure, why not. I thought this went way too long and while it was mostly nonstop action, I could never really get into this. Still, I wouldn’t say it was bad.
We get to see how ”The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase celebrates Thanksgiving. He tells us money is the key to survival. He’s not wrong. We do get the hilarious moment where Dibiase tells a kid to dribble a basketball 15 times for $500, then kicks the basketball after the 14th dribble. Great stuff.
Ventura mentions that he’s never seen female wrestlers do the movies the Jumping Bomb Angels did. He’s right! They were awesome.
We get a Honky Tonk Man promo. For some reason we’re killing a lot of time before the main event.
Survivor Series Match
Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Ken Patera and Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Andre the Giant, Rick Rude, One Man Gang, Butch Reed and King Kong Bundy
Crazy team Hogan promo. Hogan looked like he was in a trance at the end.
Huge cheers for Bigelow. Too bad he didn’t work out in his first stint.
Orndorff also gets huge cheers. Him and Hogan were feuding earlier in the year.
Hogan makes quick work of Reed and drop the leg for the elimination.
Hogan vs. Andre time…no, Hogan tags out to Ken Patera. Way to go Hogan.
Andre, great heel that he is, motions that Patera isn’t worth it and tags in Bundy.
OMG lands on Patera and gets rid of him.
Man Bam Bam is over. Huge cheers when Hogan tagged him in.
Surprisingly Orndorff is gone after Rude rolls him up and holds the tights.
Powerslam from Muraco takes out Rude. That’s a shame, Rude was the best worker here by far.
Big splash from OMG takes out Muraco. Hogan and Bigelow vs. Bundy, Andre and OMG.
Bigelow escapes Andre and we have Hogan vs. Andre!
OMG pulls Hogan out of the ring as h was beating on Andre, but Hogan takes out both OMG and Bundy. Hogan gets counted out!
This leaves Bigelow vs. Bundy, OMG and Andre.
Bigelow keeps fighting and hits a slingshot press to take out Bundy!
OMG misses a top rope splash (looked awful) and Bigelow gets the pin, leaving Bigelow vs. Andre.
Team Andre wins, Sole Survivor: Andre the Giant. Andre hits a butterfly suplex for the win. Everything from Hogan vs. Andre to the end was pretty bad to be honest, but crowd was definitely in it which is what matters. Match also seemed designed to get Bigelow over, and while it kinda worked Bigelow (backstage) wasn’t ready for that kind of push. Hogan comes back and takes out Andre to let the crowd go home happy.
Overall, this PPV was solid. I liked the first two matches a lot. The tag survivor match was quite long, but it wasn’t bad, and the main event did what it was supposed to. While the PPV meant nothing in the long run, it crushed Crockett’s NWA PPV. Somehow, the NWA show was worse quality wise than the WWF show, which was rare for that time and happened at the absolute worst time possible for the NWA.
Final Grade: B