Thursday, November 24th, 1988
Richfield Coliseum
Richfield Township, Ohio
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Off The Grid, Volume 52:
I still am kind of surprised I haven't done this show yet, but there were a lot of Survivor Series to go through. Of all the arenas they ran for multiple pay per views, Richfield Coliseum is one of the more random ones. Jesse Ventura in a pilgrim hat and Gorilla Monsoon are our hosts tonight.
Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, Blue Blazer, Sam Houston & Jim Brunzell vs. Honky Tonk Man, Danny Davis, Greg Valentine, Ron Bass & Bad News Brown
They sure did not stack Warrior's team here. I like the blue tights with the yellow boots here for Valentine. Beefcake slaps on the sleeper hold on Davis and that's all that takes. Per Wikipedia, he lasted all of 78 seconds. They wisely keep things quick here, with lots of tags and no dull spots. Brown hits the Ghetto Blaster and Brunzell is eliminated. That seemed like a foregone conclusion. Sam Houston seems like the next foregone conclusion and he runs into a big boot from Brown. Brown holds Houston up, but Houston ducks and Valentine accidentally hits Brown. Brown doesn't like it and decides to walk away and is counted out. They all beat up on Houston and Bass finally hits a powerslam to eliminate him. Warrior is finally in the match and destroying everyone. He hits the shoulder tackle on Honky and then launches Blue Blazer off the top rope onto Bass, who kicks out at 2. We get a mess up on a leap from Blazer onto Valentine's head. Blazer goes up top, but Honky shoves him off and Valentine gets the shin guard flipped around. He slaps on the Figure Four and Blazer is gone. Honky goes off the top and gets hit in the midsection by Beefcake on the way down. Beefcake slaps on the sleeper and they roll out of the ring. They start brawling and Beefcake slaps on the sleeper again. Both men are counted out, leaving it as a two on one for Warrior. As you would expect, Warrior overcomes the double team and eliminates Bass. He hits a double ax handle and that's enough to get rid of Valentine and making Warrior your sole survivor. This started off really strong and lost a little bit of momentum as it went on. It was still a pretty enjoyable match overall though.
Match Rating: **3/4
Demolition, Brain Busters, Bolsheviks, Conquistadores & Fabulous Rougeaus vs. Powers Of Pain, Young Stallions, Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs & Rockers
The ring has been specially reinforced. I am shocked that Vince would ever agree to pay this many people for one match. The only thing that doesn't make sense about this match is how far around the ring each team member is. You can basically make a tag from just about anywhere. I'm not even going to try and bother to recap this one. We get a fairly quick elimination when Bret gets a small package on Raymond Rougeau. Apparently they were eliminated early because of the heat with Dynamite Kid and this gave them a chance to leave the arena. Dynamite seemed like a great guy. Things are pretty sloppy for the most part here. It doesn't help that they can barely run the ropes. Jim Powers gets eliminated by Boris Zhukov, which is a pretty good sign that you're going nowhere. The Rockers use a blind tag on Zhukov and eliminate him with a sunset flip. The managers have not played a role in this match so far. We get a pretty lengthy stretch with no eliminations until Bret hits a German suplex into a pin and Blanchard gets his shoulder up, but Bret doesn't. I'm surprised Bret was fine with that finish. We get another double elimination with the Rockers and Brain Busters, this time as a disqualification. Having that happen two matches in a row seems a little repetitive. I have never really figured out why the Conquistadores made it as long as they did in this match. Just as I type that, Gorilla and Jesse say the same thing. Gorilla puts it at 100 to 1 that they are the last team standing. Dynamite misses with a top rope headbutt and Smash hits him with a clothesline to eliminate him. Mr. Fuji just randomly gets on the apron and just keeps swinging his cane at nothing. Smash runs the ropes and Fuji lowers the middle rope and he falls through it. He is counted out and Ax is out to confront him. They get into an argument and they slam Fuji to the floor. Powers of Pain then go outside to check on Fuji and help him up. Gorilla and Jesse are onto it and Fuji is now in their corner. Fuji trips up one of the Conquistadores and Barbarian hits a headbutt for the victory. The crowd cheers out of habit, but they immediately celebrate with Fuji. Out comes Demolition and they attack the victors. The crowd isn't quite sure how to react here. This was a looonnng match. A lot of the action was pretty good, but it just took forever and I'm not really sure Fuji executed that finish as good as he should have.
Match Rating: ***
Sean Mooney is with Bad News Brown and he lets us know that he smelled a conspiracy because everyone wants to be the first to beat him. He wants a shot at Randy Savage's WWF Championship.
Mean Gene is with Mr. Fuji and Powers of Pain. Mr. Fuji says that he made Demolition.
Mean Gene is now with Bobby Heenan's team. After two lackluster interviews, this was more the style we are used to.
Sean Mooney is now with the Mega Powers team. It's kind of odd to see Koko B. Ware and Hercules mixed in with the main event level.
Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, Scott Casey, Ken Patera & Tito Santana vs. Andre The Giant, Dino Bravo, Mr. Perfect, Harley Race & Rick Rude
Lots of punching and kicking in this one. This really is the prefect type of match for a guy like Duggan. He brings good energy in his spots and doesn't have to do too much. On the other hand, did anyone care about Scott Casey? Ken Patera is eliminated by Rude and no one cares. Patera is about as dull of a wrestler as they ever had in the Hogan era. Bravo then eliminates Casey and no one cares about that either. Tito hits the flying forearm on Race and gets him out of there. Andre finally gets in there and surprisingly shows some pretty good intensity here. He just sits on Tito and that's enough to eliminate my guy. Duggan charges in and we get the tied in the ropes spot. The crowd loves this and then Jake gets his chance to get some right hands in. After taking a beating, Jake finally tags in Duggan and sends Dino soaring with a back body drop. Jim Duggan then does what he does best, which is lose by DQ, leaving Jake all by himself against four opponents. Bravo and Rude take advantage of the situation, but all it takes for Jake is to pull down Rude's pants and he then hits the DDT to eliminate him. Andre comes in with a vengeance and starts choking the life out of Jake. He refuses to break the hold and gets disqualified. He hits him with a headbutt on the way out and Mr. Perfect runs in and pins him to score the victory for him and Bravo. Jake goes and grabs the bag with Damian and throws it in the ring. No one is in there, so he carries it towards Andre and he heads to the back. Once they got rid of the no namers, things picked up, but not enough to make this anything really special. This may have been Andre's last good performance though.
Match Rating: **1/4
Mean Gene is with the heel team of your main event. Akeem isn't wearing his hat and looks like he just left a wedding. Who in the world thought it would be a good idea for the Red Rooster to be on this team?
Akeem, Big Boss Man, Ted DiBiase, King Haku & Red Rooster vs. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Koko B. Ware, Hillbilly Jim & Hercules
As you would expect, the crowd is crazy into this, so that automatically scores some points. Koko hits a missile dropkick on Rooster, but he surprisingly kicks out. So Hogan comes in and hits him with a big boot. He tags in Savage and he hits a top rope elbow drop for the easy elimination. Hillbilly gets in some offense on Akeem, but the momentum quickly changes after Akeem hits a clothesline. He hits the 747 and eliminates Hillbilly. The Twin Towers move onto Koko and Boss Man hits the Boss Man Slam to eliminate him. Hogan and Boss Man are in there now. Hogan gets him up for the slam, but Boss Man comes back with a spinebuster. We get some more tags, leading to Hercules and DiBiase in there. Virgil trips up Hercules and that's enough of a distraction for DiBiase to roll him up and eliminate him. Savage then does the same to DiBiase and now he's gone too. We get a Hogan arm drop scenario with Haku's dreaded nerve hold. After that fails, Boss Man hits the Boss Man Slam. Being the intelligent heel that he is, he decides to celebrate instead of pinning him. He goes for a top rope splash and Hogan is able to move out of the way. Hogan gets the hot tag to Savage, but it doesn't last long thanks to Slick. Slick then goes after Elizabeth. Hogan chases after Slick, but it backfires when Boss Man handcuffs Hogan to the bottom rope. Boss Man is counted out in the process and then hits Hogan with the nightstick. Boss Man then goes and helps with Savage and that gets Akeem disqualified. Hogan is still handcuffed and Haku was taking care of him. Regardless it's Savage and Hogan against Haku, so even though they tried for drama, no one in the arena thinks Hogan is losing. Slick and Heenan get knocked out and Elizabeth is able to retrieve the keys for the handcuffs. Savage is getting beat down by Haku and hits a top rope splash for a 2 count. Savage is able to make a tag to Hogan and he does his usual for the easy victory. Despite the predictability, the overall pacing of the action was well done in this one and the crowd was into just about everything. After the match, Hogan picks up Elizabeth and Savage isn't digging it. The announcers don't make any mention of it and we go off the air.
Match Rating: ***
This was about what you would expect from a Survivor Series during this era. None of the matches were bad, but nothing really stands out as a must watch either. There were a few odd wrestlers on here, which kind of makes it more of rewarding watch if you are a diehard fan of the era. I can't really go out of my way to recommend the show, but I also can't say anything really bad about the show. It's significantly better than a lot of the Survivor Series shows that you'll get after this one.
Overall Rating: 54%
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