Long term planning

Scott,

I’m just watching Survivor Series 90 and I noticed a couple of things that I wondered if you had any insight on:

Clearly the idea of The Undertaker’s debut was to give him a strong introduction, but after he’s gone from the match the focus shifts to Bret Hart. He has a nice little one on one with Ted Dibiase before experience wins it for the MDM.

Similarly, in the Vipers vs Visionaries elimination match, Jake Roberts takes on tough odds with his sidekick Rocker Shawn Michaels. Again, he has a decent showing before being put away by Power and Glory.

I really love that these guys were given some spotlight even though the matches they were part of had bigger stories attached (Dibiase/Rhodes; Roberts/Martell). Was this on purpose (as both would become singles competitors by the next year’s SS) or was it more a case of common practice to try and shine seemingly lesser (tag team) guys up?

​Bret’s first singles push was in 88 and he was actually supposed to get another one at that point, but Vince changed his mind about firing Jim Neidhart and decided to keep the tag titles on the Hart Foundation instead. That was the famous Phantom Title Change with the Rockers. So the shine on Bret was a very deliberate choice on their part to make him into a viable guy. Ditto with Shawn Michaels, where they spent months planning the breakup of the Rockers because everyone knew Shawn was going to be a star. You’ll find a bunch of singles matches on Coliseum video with him at the time as well, working with top guys like Ted Dibiase to get him ready. They did used to know how to elevate guys, believe it or not.

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