The SmarK Rant for WWF Survivor Series Showdown – 11.12.89

The SmarK Rant for WWF Survivor Series Showdown 1989 – 11.12.89

Originally written 12.06.25

Apparently I’ve never done this show before and it’s pretty easy to find online, so let’s have at it. The concept is simple, with each team providing a singles match. Technically an episode of Prime Time Wrestling branded as a “Showdown” show.

Taped from Wichita, KS, on 11.01.89

Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan, with Roddy Piper adding hosting from a second site.

Big Bossman v. Tito Santana

Although Bossman has the African Dream in his corner, Tito has the American Dream, so it’s a very dreamy match. “Bossman sure sweats a lot, doesn’t he?” notes Vince, which greatly offends Jesse. Just wait until IRS debuts. They slug it out and Tito wins that battle. Vince has a point, he’s REALLY sweaty here. Tito frustrates him with dropkicks and sends him to the floor to think it over as we take a very long time to get going here. Tito grabs a headlock in the ring and dropkicks him again as we get more stalling from Bossman. Finally Boss drops him on his head with a back suplex to take over and then puts him in a body vice that he turns into an awkward powerbomb as we take a break. I don’t think he was intending to do one there, but the powerbomb would have been a good move for him. Back with Bossman working the back and choking Tito on the ropes, but he misses the elbow and Tito makes a comeback. Bossman beats him down again with clubbing forearms and then goes to a chinlock before punching him down again. Finally Bossman misses a charge and hits the corner with his knee, allowing Tito to come back and go to work on it. Tito tries the figure-four, but Akeem tosses the nightstick in for the knockout shot with the ref distracted. But then Dusty has time to use his OWN nightstick, and puts Bossman out and puts Tito on top for the surprise pin at 12:11. A decent match with a good finish. **3/4

Back at the studio, Bobby Heenan tries to gaslight us about who used the club first, but Piper calls him a LIAR. “I heard they took away your 976 line” notes Piper. Bobby: “I don’t call those dating lines.” Piper: “So how did you meet Rick Rude then?”

UPDATE! WITH MEAN GENE OKERLUND!

Last week on Superstars, Demolition regains the WWF tag team titles from the Brainbusters due to their imminent departure becuse of Tully’s nose candy habit. Back at the studio, Gorilla predicts that Bobby will never see another piece of gold in his family again, which of course was definitely not true.

Mr. Perfect v. Bushwhacker Butch

Well this is certainly a style clash. Butch bites him and gives him a thumb to the eye to send him to the floor, but Perfect slugs him down in the corner. But then Butch bites him again and Perfect has to retreat and make sure his shots are up to date. Back in the ring, Perfect with the kneelift and necksnap to take over and Butch does some pretty good selling to draw heat. Butch bites the leg again, so Perfect puts the boots to him while Jesse rightfully buries the laissez faire refereeing job done by Danny Davis. He’s probably afraid of getting fired again by corrupt old Jack Tunney! They slug it out and Butch comes back with an atomic drop, but then goes after the Genius, which proves to be a mistake because he’s THE GENIUS and planned for that. And indeed, NOW YOU’RE GONNA SEE A PERFECTPLEX at 6:51 to finish. Butch could work a normal babyface face when asked, and this was fine. **1/4

Hercules v. Randy Savage

Macho King is the only King that America needs. #MACHOKings. They fight for the lockup and Herc overpowers him, so Savage backs off and perches on the top rope. This is kind of weird because Macho was still doing trunks at this point, shortly before he permanently switched to his shirt and tights combo. Herc and Sherri do a tug of war for Macho and the obvious person wins that battle, and Herc hits Macho with a press slam that has a few reps as well. Savage bails to talk it over with her, and then suckers Hercules in for a sneak attack, magnficently attacking from behind like a true alpha. We take a break and return with them fighting on the floor, as Savage drops the double axehandle and Sherri gives him a shot for getting in her face earlier. Back in the ring, Macho with the double axehandle for two. These two were peak heel greatness together. Necksnap gets two. Savage to the top for the flying elbow, but Hercules moves and makes the comeback with clotheslines. But then Herc gets distracted by Queen Sherri, as any red blooded man would, and he tries a suplex on Savage and gets tripped up for two. Don’t mess with Sherri, she’ll fuck you up. Savage goes up and Herc catches him with a backbreaker, but it only gets two. So Herc gets more clotheslines, but Sherri low bridges him and Herc hits the floor. He tries pulling Savage out there with him, but Savage grabs the purse, knocks Herc out, and pins him at 11:00. Jesse: “I’m surprised that Hercules has such a glass jaw that a PURSE could knock him out!” BWAHAHAHAHA! Anyway this match kinda slapped despite being a tad stilted at times, and I wouldn’t kick it out of bed for eating crackers. ***

The Brother Love Show with special guests THE COLOSSAL CONNECTION. Kind of surprising how fast Vince pulled the trigger on putting the belts on Andre & Haku, actually, since they basically came out of nowhere as a team to replace the Brainbusters.

SURVIVOR SERIES REPORT! WITH MEAN GENE OKERLUND!

Gene notes that the object is to “decimate” your opponents, but that would actually mean there was 10 guys on the team because decimate literally means “reduce by one tenth”. I SURE HOPE SOMEONE GOT FIRED OVER THAT MATH BLUNDER. We hear from the Macho King’s team, complete with the departing Widowmaker, who didn’t make it to the show. And the babyfaces do their response, as Bret Hart calls him “Black Widow”. Ouch. Also we hear from Dusty Rhodes and his team of midcard losers, including the Red Rooster, who has to feel personally attacked by all the turkey references. Man 1989’s show was not exactly a barnburner, was it?

Ultimate Warrior v. Tully Blanchard

Tully tries for a lockup and keeps getting shoved away, so he offers a handshake of forgiveness and Warrior squeezes his hand like Superman did to General Zod. So Tully goes to the eyes, but Warrior shakes it off and runs him into the corner for an EPIC bump over the top turnbuckle and facefirst on the floor. You can’t say Tully was half-assing it here. I mean, he was probably so high on coke that he couldn’t feel pain anyway, but still. Tully takes ANOTHER huge bump over the top and tries to retreat to the dressing room, but Warrior presses him back into the ring and goes to the top with a double axehandle, but he misses a blind charge while Vince backfills a story about dissention in the Heenan Family to cover up for Tully’s departure. Tully chokes him down in the corner to take over, but Warrior gets a clothesline and then misses the big splash. Warrior also misses an elbow and then misses a blind charge, but Tully goes up and Warrior powerslams him on the way down. So Bobby calls out AA for the DQ at 5:58, surprisingly our first bullshit finish of the show. Tully was bumping all over but Warrior didn’t seem particularly motivated here. * This sets up the big Survivor Series brawl with both teams, as the babyfaces back the heels down and stand tall. And that, oddly enough, was functionally Tully’s exit from the sport and his last ever WWF match. He had the one WCW match and a couple of ECW matches but otherwise his career was over after the drug test failure. It’s just wild to me that he went out in such a boring manner, doing a random DQ job on a PPV special, when I think we all figured he’d go out in a blazing car wreck while high on amphetamines and wind up in jail or something.

Meanwhile, we hear from the Hulkamaniacs, because as usual Hulk has to name the team after himself like the raging narcissist he is.

Ted Dibiase v. Demolition Smash

Smash chases Dibiase out of the ring, but he walks into a cheapshot and Dibiase beats him with forearms. Smash fires back and hammers him down, but they head to the floor and Dibiase takes over out there. Back in the ring, Dibiase with a neckbreaker and that gets two. Dibiase drops knees on the back of his neck and gets two from that, before going to a chinlock. Ref: “Whaddya say, Smash?” Smash: “AAAAAAAAAAARGH!” That’s not technically a no. We take a break and return with the same chinlock. Smash fights out of that, but Dibiase puts him down again for two and goes back to the chinlock. Smash runs him into the corner to break and makes the comeback, but ZEUS comes down and SNAPS THE NECK behind the ref’s back, and that’s all she wrote for Smash at 10:00. Zeus definitely still had a bit of aura left at this late stage of his run, which is impressive. **

And we wrap it up with Bobby and Roddy still squabbling, as Bobby begs for comp tickets to Survivor Series for his Hollywood friends, like “Jason Harvey” from the Wonder Years. That had to be some kind of rib on him given his WCW appearances.

Kind of a pretty good show for the time, actually! If I had this one pop up in my weekly TV rotation back in 1989 I’d have been pretty pumped for it and happy with the unique matches we got. A fun show, thumbs up.