[1990-11-22-WWF-Survivor Series] Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior & Tito Santana vs Rick Martel & Hercules & Paul Roma & Warlord & Ted DiBiase

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[flyonthewall2983]

This was an interesting concept, but it felt a little rushed and too obvious about babyface/heel. Would have been more interesting if they did a combination of this, and what they did in '95 with the wild card match.

[Matt D]

I think every Survivor Series should have something like this, and the Ultimate Survivors get a title shot at the Rumble or something.

 

As a kid, this immediately made me think Tito was a big deal.

[Loss]

I always thought this was a cool match for kids -- Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior against a ton of bad guys! But yeah, it could have been executed much better. It was cool to see Tito included in this, but it was definitely rushed.

[PeteF3]

Tito getting in on this was about the coolest feature of this match to me. In all their years in the same company I think this is the one and only Hulk/Tito team, or the only one on any kind of stage. The opponents are no match for the power of Hulkamania, Warrior Wildness, and Arribaderci. Yes.

 

Tito even gets in a token pinfall on Warlord to open. Pretty bad match otherwise. The Grand Finale was better in concept than in execution. It's an admirable attempt to equate Hogan and the Warrior, and this is about as close as they came since WM6 to successfully pulling that off.

[soup23]

Really here to give a happy ending. It was weird that in this match Martel was more protected than Dibiase. I wonder if they knew by this point whether it would be Slaughter/Hogan at WM 7. I would assume with how the Savage/Warrior feud is shaping up.

[thebrainfollower]

As a kid I used to love speculating what might have happened if this concept had been tried before this match each year. We debated that in school for weeks.

 

89 - Hogan, Warrior, Dusty & Beefcake vs. Savage, Earthquake, Perfect & Bravo - not a bad match

 

88 - Hogan, Savage & warrior vs. Perfect, Dino and POP (that might have cemented the idea these guys are heels now)

 

87 - Savage, Jake, Steamboat, Bees and The Young Stallions vs. Andre........okay that one might not have worked so well. If I were forced to book this I would have Andre murder Jim Powers just cause, then casually walk off. Though I think Jesse and Gorilla could have gotten over the idea that 7 on 1 (or nine if you wanna throw in the Jumping Bomb Angels) is too much for even a giant and Andre would have to be nuts to try it.

[flyonthewall2983]

Now you got me thinking as to other years after they could have done this

 

91: Flair and The Nasty Boys vs. Jim Duggan, Sgt. Slaughter, Tito Santana, Kerry Von Erich, Big Bossman and LOD. Not exactly much opportunity for a FIP spot.

 

93: All the face teams won that year, actually. Not sure how you could split it up.

 

94: Razor Ramon vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, King Kong Bundy, Jerry Lawler and his midgets.

 

95: In looking at the card, what would make the most sense is Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, British Bulldog & 123 Kid vs. Undertaker, Savio Vega, Fatu & Henry Godwinn.

 

96: Again, all faces survived that year. Would have been interesting to put Rock in a situation where him and another face were against a whole team with him coming out strong at the end. Could have squashed some of the heat that would come his way later.

[soup23]

Interesting to tell they really put a lot more thought into the 1990 match as far as who advanced knowing they had the grand finale. Only other yearst that look like decent matches to me is 88-89.

[PeteF3]

93: All the face teams won that year, actually. Not sure how you could split it up.

Luger, Bret, Keith, Bruce, Kid, Jannetty, Doinkwhackers, and Doinks on a Mission vs. The Heavenly Bodies.

[Kevin Ridge]

Thanks for joining us Warlord. He did wrestle another match earlier but still that was quick. Santana gets in some offense but he’s eliminated. The eliminations are fast. Martel pulls a Bad News Brown and walks out on his team. DiBiase won’t be paying him the bonus. Way too rushed.

[thebrainfollower]

With a young Vince Russo as special referee I'm pretty sure this match has happened in Jim Cornette's nightmares.

 

93: All the face teams won that year, actually. Not sure how you could split it up.

Luger, Bret, Keith, Bruce, Kid, Jannetty, Doinkwhackers, and Doinks on a Mission vs. The Heavenly Bodies.

 

[thebrainfollower]

If I were forced to book 88-89 I'd probably have the Demos come out and distract the POP who go out and brawl like crazy with them. Dino gets pinned clean as a sheet by the Warrior and Perfect gets murdered 3 on 1 until he's finally had enough and gets himself counted out.

 

89 you have Hogan, Beefcake and Dusty all hurting from 2 different post match attacks. Earthquake puts Dusty out with the sitdown splash early. Beefcake gets isolated and pinned with the Savage elbow. 4 on 2, Warrior again manages to pin Bravo, but Earthquake attacks him after that and they get counted out. Hogan fights off Savage and Perfect for a while until a ref bump, Zeus returns to do another number on Hogan. Ref catches it and disqualifies Savage for it but a completely exhausted beaten and bloodied Hogan gets perfect plexed and pinned to avenge Perfect's humiliation from the previous year. And that MIGHT cause Hogan-Perfect to draw a lot better cause darn it Perfect pinned him and that didn't happen often.

[BackToBionic]

My favourite part is when Santana comes out Monsoon and Piper are just gushing over how great a guy he is and what a class act he is. Then Warrior comes out and they're silent through his entire entrance before Monsoon finally breaks the silence with something like "What a match this will be!" Kills me every time.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

I always mark out when heels just say the hell with it and walk back down the aisle to the dressing room in the middle of a match. Two thumbs up for Martel doing that in this match.

[garretta]

Yes, this was rushed, but considering that everyone had already wrestled, it sort of fit the storyline. These type of matches aren't supposed to be hour-long classics anyway, and to have to wrestle two of them in one night really puts these guys over as superathletes no matter how short the match is.

 

Hulkamania? Of course. Warrior Wildness? Okay. Arribaderci? Who the hell writes this slop? If it wasn't written, and if Warrior came up with it out of his own head, he should never be allowed to do an unscripted promo again, period.

 

Interesting that Hogan comes out, not just before Warrior, but before Tito. I've heard that the two of them had been friends since their AWA days, so maybe this was Terry Bollea's way of paying tribute to his friend Merced Solis. At any rate, it was a great tribute to a class act.

 

I never thought I'd see Hulk Hogan and Paul Roma in the same ring, except maybe for a battle royal. To see Hogan actually pin Roma reminds is a reminder of just how unique the Survivor Series is as an event, maybe even more so than the Royal Rumble.

 

So Martel takes the walk back to the locker room this year. I wonder if they still do that spot in elimination matches today?

 

Teddy gets pinned before Herc? Interesting. Maybe that's so Warrior isn't shown pinning Teddy clean before their title match the following night on NBC.

 

Warrior holding the rope open for Hogan symbolizes everything that was wrong with his title reign. He could never get out of Hogan's shadow or truly take the top face position away from him, and it's obvious after watching this yearbook that if Vince had any thoughts of Warrior as anything but a placeholder until he could get the belt back to Hogan, he forgot them pretty quickly.

 

Gino and Piper were decent here, but they screamed way too much for my taste. Vince probably wanted them to sound more "enthusiastic", but all it got these two were obvious cases of laryngitis by the end of the night. The '91 Rumble's even worse, from what I remember. Piper was good at putting over the match strategy, which didn't leave a whole lot for Gino to do. His best line was about DiBiase wanting his bonus money back from Martel after Rick took a walk. Rod tried to sell the heels as a more cohesive unit than the faces, which was a nice touch. But my favorite exchange was this (I'm paraphrasing slightly):

 

Gino: "How many times have we seen the Hulkster get it done, Hot Rod?"

 

Piper: "He's always gotten it done.......except against me."

 

Too bad Piper refused to heel for the sake of his kids; Hogan/Piper would have been a decent second main event for Mania VIII whether it was for the IC belt or not, with Savage/Flair for the World title being the other one. (Remember, Piper was injured and couldn't work a match at Mania VII.)

 

Finally, I have no doubt that Warrior/Sarge at Rumble and Hogan/Sarge at Mania were in the plans by now; if they weren't, there would have been some dissension between Hogan and Warrior to leave the door open for a Mania rematch. Piper actually mentions possibly lingering bad feelings between the two before the match starts, but of course nothing comes of it. (Conversely, the past history between Herc and DiBiase is utterly ignored.)

[dawho5]

Loved seeing Tito here. He did well enough for himself before the inevitable.