Classic Review: WWF Survivor Series 1989

We’ve been to 1987 for the Survivor Series! We’ve been to 1988! And now it’s time to leave the friendly confines of Richfield, Ohio, and head on down I-90 to Rosemont, Illinois, home of the powerful DePaul Blue Demons¹!

This is the fourth of a big 10 Classic Reviews on the newsletter this month! (They insist you call blogs newsletters now, it’s actually a federal law.) It’s also the second-to-last Survivor Series show I’ll be doing for the month.

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WWF Survivor Series
November 23, 1989
Rosemont Horizon - Rosemont, IL

They call it “Allstate Arena” now. Not me. Not anyone else with any taste. It’s the same damn building, I’m not changing from the way cooler name.

• Updates this year: No more teams of five striving to survive! We instead have teams of four striving to survour! There is no huge, 20-man tag team elimination match, because there aren’t enough tag teams. It’s a smaller roster of notables overall, actually. You may think nothing was going wrong at all by 1989, but the WWF was not as hot as it had been a couple years prior, and the peak years of Hulkamania had drawn to a close. They weren’t unaware, and neither was Hogan. He was plotting his big escape to Hollywood² and the WWF had the Ultimate Warrior in line to replace him on top.³ We’re also back to single captains and we have team names because Vince liked to brand everything. “Rude’s Brood.” Great name.

• But we’re once again here on Thanksgiving Night, and we’ve still got Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse “The Body” Ventura on the call! And here’s the event intro video! ANDTHEEARTHQUAKE!

The Dream Team vs The Enforcers

The Enforcers are captained by Big Boss Man, who’s backed up by Bad News Brown, Rick Martel, and Honky Tonk Man. They’ve got Slick and Jimmy Hart in their corner, and the team all come out together. Dusty Rhodes is the captain of the Dream Team, with Brutus Beefcake, Tito Santana, and Red Rooster backing his play. The non-captains get their entrance to Beefer’s music, and then Dusty gets his own music.

Dusty and Boss Man were in a feud at the time, having plenty of experience working together from 1986-87 when Dusty took a shine to the big child in JCP. Like then, Dusty was beating him all around the loop.⁴

Tito, an established fan favorite, and Honky, the most truly loathed guy on the heel side, start it off. You can build up from there, but you start with two guys who are really over. Martel tags in to go one-on-one with Santana, his former Strike Force partner. Martel is in his “Model” days now, but still in the baby blues with the long hair.

The first bit with Dusty tagging in to smack Boss Man around is met with big cheers and a hot Dusty start, but Boss Man fights back quick. Lots of quick tags. Ventura knows what it’s like to be chased around by various and sundry women, as Martel does.