Top Five Survivor Series Teams

My Top 5 All-Time Favorite Survivor Series Teams

By No One Can Beat Megabucks

November and Thanksgiving. Nowadays it is a forgotten time period, meant to either skip or overlap with preparations for the Christmas season. Not for me.

I manage to avoid picking up an STD – Skip Thanksgiving Disorder – with my love for the feeling of autumn being here, the anticipation and preparation of the foods to be served on that day, and of course, remembering traditions past and present. One such tradition centers around professional wrestling, for throughout the ‘80s, the industry used the holiday to promote special shows. The idea being, after your meal, why not get out with your family and friends and enjoy some grappling? Forget those pesky real sports like football!

As wrestling veered more and more towards the idea of supercards at closed-circuit locations and then pay-per-view, we got two mainstays for big Thanksgiving shows. The first was Jim Crockett Promotions (member of the NWA) and Starrcade, which had its first installment on the Thanksgiving of 1983, and continued annually until moving to December in 1988. This was because Vince McMahon, ever eager to overtake his rivals as he expanded the World Wrestling Federation nationally and worldwide, combatted the JCP show in 1987 with his own new pay-per-view: the Survivor Series.

The idea of the Series was, the WWF roster would form teams of five, later four, and compete with one another in elimination matches. When a wrestler lost, whether it be by being pinned or submitting, or being disqualified or counted out of the ring, they were eliminated from the competition. This continued until one team was totally gone, at which point the other team, no matter how many members remained, won the match.

Most Survivor Series teams were put together based on which wrestlers were already allies, but more often, it centered around who had common foes, or which opposing team the wrestlers’ archenemies happened to be on. Over the years, this led to a number of strong, well-thought-out combinations. Some, not so much. Of course, it also just helped that certain larger-than-life personalities would be joining forces. Some you normally wouldn’t see team up elsewhere.

And this is what I’m here for: to talk about those memorable teams. Here now is my Top Five Survivor Series Teams, presented in chronological order. You’ll find that my favorites embody, even combine, the winning elements I mentioned above. As a word of warning, I am partial towards the early days of the event, meaning the 80s and early 90s.

So let’s begin at the very first Series, which in my opinion contained some of the most well-booked team-ups of the event’s history…

Team Andre (1987)…And almost immediately, I get to what I consider the BEST Survivor team, period. The first Survivor Series was a spiritual sequel to the iconic Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant match at WrestleMania III, since Hogan and Andre would be in the same match for the first time since that legendary evening in Pontiac, Michigan. The hitch was, it wouldn’t be a one-on-one match. Both men would captain their own teams of five. And boy, was Andre’s stacked.

You begin with two solid upper midcarders: “Ravishing” Rick Rude and “The Natural” Butch Reed. The selections made sense, as the team would be co-managed by Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and “The Doctor of Style” Slick. Reed had been a signature part of Slick’s stable, and Rude a rising member in the Heenan Family. Plus both of them had a beef with members on Hogan’s team: Reed with Don Muraco (who came to the defense of the fallen Superstar Billy Graham, who sustained a “career-ending injury” at the hands of Reed and one of his teammates. Rude led “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff back to the babyface side when Heenan started favoring him amongst his family members.

But speaking of BEEF…that brings us to the REAL reason why Andre’s team was a real killer : the Murderer’s Row of WWF bad guy super heavyweights of the time. The Giant himself, of course, but he was backed up by his Heenan stablemate : King Kong Bundy, the 400 pound terror who had tried to take the WWF title from Hogan at the WrestleMania before Andre’s opportunity, and a long-standing monster in the company. And at their side was a relatively new titan to the roster: the similarly-sized, mohawked One Man Gang, the enforcer of the Slick stable that helped Butch Reed put Superstar Graham out of action for good. With these three alone, it was truly a Giant Team!

Team Macho Man (1987)…but first, an honorable mention to Hulk Hogan’s team, which was novel in that aside from Bam Bam Bigelow, who found himself alone against the three giants that were Team Andre’s core, the Hulkster had to trust a former “Hogan Revenge Squad” of some of his old rivals: Muraco, Ken Patera (who became a good guy when Heenan “abandoned him” during his legit prison sentence), and especially Orndorff, who had just betrayed him the year prior en route to a series of title matches. But even this detail was outdone when we get to the Randy Savage vs. Honky Tonk Man Survivor match. (some fans would say the “Macho Man” always managed to steal the show from the Hulkster anyway!)

Like Andre’s team, we start with two popular midcard acts: Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and Hacksaw Jim Duggan (there because of his rivalry with Team Honky Tonk member, Harley Race). But when we get to the three “main” members, we see that the strength in this team was plain good storytelling.

The anchors to the team were Savage himself, along with Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat. Boy, was the year before different for all these men. Because basically, both Savage and Roberts spent 1986 trying to kill Ricky Steamboat. Jake used his finishing move, the DDT, on “the Dragon” on an exposed concrete floor during an episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event. The “Macho Man” one-upped “The Snake” by attempting to crush Steamboat’s throat using the ring bell in an Intercontinental title defense on Superstars of Wrestling. In between, Savage and Roberts even had a “battle of the bad guys” title match on another episode of SNME.

So why were these three men on the same side?

They all hated the Honky Tonk Man THAT much.

Within 1987 alone, the Elvis impersonator smashed a guitar over Jake’s head, and stole a win from him at WrestleMania III. He cheated to get away with Steamboat’s Intercontinental title in a surprise victory. Which led to him annoying the “Macho Man” by claiming he and not Savage was the greatest champion of all time. When he got a chance to prove this on another SNME episode, he not only prevented Savage from winning the title, he not only humiliated him with another guitar shot, but he was the first man to physically harm Elizabeth when he shoved her while she begged him to stop his attacks.

So come Survivor Series, not only did this match feature the perfect team brought together by revenge, but it had the perfect finish. After various eliminations, Honky was left facing the three men he managed to piss off within the same year. And true to his character, he took the coward’s way out by running away and taking the loss for his team.

More honorable mentions: the 10-man tag team Survivor Series teams of 1987 and 1988. The WWF’s tag team division was on another level in the later ‘80s, and that they could have matches of twenty men representing the top tag teams of the day proves that. And the matches themselves were almost nonstop action classics.

The Hulkamaniacs (1989)…by 1988, the original format for the Survivor Series needed some tweaking. With the women’s division downsized, there was a spot that was filled with a third male elimination match, also with ten men. And the 1988 WWF roster was stretched thin to accommodate it, such that teams included enhancement talent like Scott Casey and Jim Brunzell, who was downgraded greatly after being part of the Killer Bees. The main event had to reheat cooled-off stars from 1-3 years prior. Hillbilly Jim, who already felt like he was from another era, was back alongside the “Megapowers” of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, as was Koko B. Ware, who had settled into the role of making pushed stars look good.

So in 1989, the Survivor teams were reduced to four members a piece, leading to a show of five elimination matches. Not only that, but the teams were upgraded to have their own names, such as Rude’s Brood, Roddy’s Rowdies, the 4×4’s, the Million Dollar Team, and of course what 1980s lineup would be complete without a team of…Hulkamaniacs?

And a quite impressive team it was. Hulk Hogan naturally was captain, and after a year without the belt, was WWF champion again. But he wouldn’t be the only one with championship gold. Alongside the Hulkster were the tag team champions, Demolition. Which was a novelty because Ax and Smash seldom interacted with Hogan, whether it be as rivals or as partners. In another world, the Megapowers vs. Demolition would be an easy dream match! Even while both were on the “hero” side of the fence, they were all busy fending off challenges in their respective divisions. So it was a surreal meeting of three WWF super powers when Hulk, Ax, and Smash joined up.

Their fourth man, while holding no championship, was no slouch in popularity nor in his standing in the WWF roster: Jake “The Snake” Roberts. With his python Damian; his sudden and devastating DDT finisher; and cool, philosophical interviews, Jake too was the top of many WWF fans’ favorites lists. His presence was needed to counteract the Million Dollar Team’s captain, Ted DiBiase, who had forced Roberts to (storyline) miss months of competition due to a neck injury. Aside from flirting with a brief feud for the WWF title back in late 1986, “The Snake” was another who barely crossed paths with Hogan. In fact, this feud led to an urban legend/lost media story involving a mostly unseen segment of the Snake Pit talk show, where Roberts got the better of the Hulkster, and even dropped him on the floor with the DDT. But another story for another day!

Rare team-ups? Some of the most popular figures in the company together? Dusty Rhodes’ lineup for the 1989 event was called “The Dream Team,” but it can be argued that the gathering of forces in the Hulkamaniacs were the true dream team that night.

The Warriors (1990)…come next year’s Survivor Series, the WWF’s new head of the pack, the Ultimate Warrior, would form a team similar to the Hulkamaniacs…although you needed to be a longtime fan of wrestling in general to truly get the significance.

Warrior had been poised to be the new face of the company, having beat Hulk Hogan for the WWF title at WrestleMania VI. How that ended up working out is yet another story. Here, he was on hand to help combat the forces of “Mr. Perfect,” Curt Hennig, who had recruited Demolition for his “Perfect Team” (Demolition had gone through a few changes since 1989, having gone back to “the dark side” and adding new member Crush). Naturally, Warrior would recruit Perfect’s rival at the time, fellow champion “Texas Tornado” Kerry Von Erich, the holder of the Intercontinental title. So like the Hulkamaniacs, this was already a two-champion team. To match up with Demolition, the Warrior’s team would be completed with the tag team they were in a feud with : the Legion of Doom, Hawk and Animal. As it was, Warrior had been teaming with his “brothers in paint” in six-man matches against all three Demolition members across the country.

As formidable as the Warriors were on the surface, again, digging a bit deeper explains more about how appropriate this team was. Of course, it includes three men who painted their faces for battle. The two singles champions of the WWF being together. But here’s where wrestling knowledge comes in and enhances things. First of all, Warrior and Von Erich knew each other quite well from their time in World Class Championship Wrestling, where the Von Erich family ruled. Warrior spent the formative years for his character in WCCW too, wrestling as the “Dingo Warrior.” Meanwhile, Kerry was usually referred to by his WCCW peers and fans as “The Modern-Day Warrior.” And here is where “The Warriors” REALLY makes the most sense as a nod to all its members’ histories. The Ultimate Warrior and the Modern-Day Warrior teamed with the unit that, up until their WWF debut, were better known as the ROAD WARRIORS. So “The Warriors” was not just a nod to its captain, but to the pasts of all its members. This bit of trivia, along with being another union of WWF super powers like Hogan’s the year prior, is why The Warriors belong in my top five.

The All-Americans (1993)…and for my last entry, we fast forward a few more years. As the 90s arrived, the Survivor Series underwent changes. More traditional singles and tag team matches featured on the show…but the team elimination format never totally went away. Even in 1992, when there was only one elimination match.

With the team matches sharing billing with other fare, it felt like some details were downplayed, as teams went back to not even having group names. This carried over into the 1993 Series…except for the main event, which features my last entry into my top 5, which did in fact have a name : the All-Americans.

Lex Luger had just turned into the next heir apparent to Hulk Hogan’s all-American hero role that past summer, and was having trouble with the “Foreign Fanatics” Yokozuna and Ludvig Borga, along with their allies such as Mr. Fuji-stablemate Crush (from Hawaii…no, wrestling didn’t always have a good understanding of the non-continental United States) and the Quebecers, the spinoff to Jacques Rougeau’s Mountie character which also included the man still going strong in recent years as PCO.

What to do? Form a Survivor Series team, of course!

Originally, said team consisted of the Steiner Brothers, long before promos about being fat and involving convoluted math, and as Brian Zane spelled out his full name, Native American Tatanka. Or, as people remembering the techno WWF album would call him, Tatanka (Buffalo!) Unfortunately, all his meme names could not help him when he finally lost his undefeated streak to the “Fanatics,” and got an injury that would keep him out of the pay-per-view to boot. Again, what to do?

Call for the Phenom.

Luger revealed none other than The Undertaker as the All-Americans’ new fourth man (complete with Taker showing off a coat with a colonial American flag), and this is what put the team over the top in my considerations. They already had one of the best tag teams in the world, although their WWF push had cooled off, and now they had the damn Undertaker…which was not unlike faces in dire trouble getting Andre the Giant back in the day, as their last line of defense. We can go on all day about Lex not catching on as Hogan #2, and that SummerSlam ending, but still, he was a name and a presence.

But like the previous entry of The Warriors, the All-Americans’ appeal to me mainly had to do with acknowledging wrestling’s past. Luger? Steiners? Mean Mark, er, Taker? This wasn’t the All-Americans, this was Team WCW! This was something I might see in a War Games match in 1990, not the Survivor Series. Well, assuming Sting wasn’t around for whatever reason, and they persuaded Mark to join the Dudes with Attitudes. (Mark Callous would probably be much better than El Gigante, by the way)

Hey, why wasn’t there a War Games that year? They were kind of building everything around the faces and heels having a signature faction. Probably it was because the so called good-guy team totally outnumbered the Four Horsemen. Sting, Lex, Steiners, Gigante, Orndorff, and Junkyard Dog. Almost double. And 1990 JYD in the Match Beyond would be just an ill fit. And….oh, sorry, I’m getting off topic. Anyway, for earlier 90s WCW nostalgia, the All-Americans finish my Top Five All-Timers for Survivor Series teams.

Other honorable mentions…
Team Hogan and all the tag team teams from 1987 and 1988, of course.
Team Andre/Bravo (1988)…nowhere as memorable as Andre’s first, but by default almost, probably the best you’ll get from that year, as the other teams were plagued with jobber-to-the-stars and actual jobbers, as mentioned above. Having a team with Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, and Harley Race is nothing to sneeze at.
Rude’s Brood (1989): A great cocky heel team with Rude and Perfect together again, joined by the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.
I am tempted to put in the Heenan Family here, and I would have if it remained Andre, Haku, and both Brain Busters. As it was, Tully Blanchard was fired for failing a drug test and Bobby Heenan himself had to step in.
Team Piper (1991)…best of another weak crop. Roddy Piper and Virgil made sense since they had the issues with Ted DiBiase, no complaint there, plus this was peak Virgil as a babyface, having won the Million Dollar Title months ago. Then you add Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith…solid midcard team. (Sidenote: Ric Flair deserved better. First you see he’s teamed with DiBiase…and your interest is piqued. Then you realize the remainder of the team were cartoony figures Warlord and Mountie, and you’re like…meh…)
The Teamsters (1994)…Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Jeff Jarrett…decent representation of the 1994 heel roster, and it’s novel to see the Kliq and Harts together, along with Slapnuts.
The Dark Side (1995)….no it really wasn’t that great, but interesting to look at Undertaker teaming with Henry Godwinn, Fatu, and Savio Vega before most of us knew what the BSK was.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and be thankful for your polka dots!