The SmarK Rant for WWF Survivor Series Showdown – 11.18.90

The SmarK Rant for WWF Survivor Series Showdown – 11.18.90

Originally written 09.02.25

Taped from Indianapolis, IN on 10.29.90

Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan

This one at least has a strong theme, with singles matches composed of opponents at the PPV.

Sgt. Slaughter v. Tito Santana

Tito goes for the arm and Sarge fights him off while Gorilla explains the “Ultimate Survivor” gimmick that they dropped after only one try. Slaughter beats on Tito with knees and an elbow RIGHT TO THE BREAD BASKET and a double stomp. Slaughter with a gutbuster for two. He hangs Tito in the corner and beats on him with forearms, and then cuts off a comeback attempt with a suplex on the top rope. Who outside of Vince would look at aging, balding Slaughter at this point and think “We’re gonna push this guy to the World title and have him headline house shows with Hulk Hogan for six months”? Like they literally had to cancel a stadium Wrestlemania a few weeks before the show because no one bought him as a top guy! Tito comes back with a sunset flip for two, but Slaughter does his usual corner bump off a missed charge. Back in, Tito goes up with a fistdrop from the middle rope and drops a knee for two. Tito with the chinlock and they sell it like a sleeper hold and Gorilla is like “It’s not even locked in properly” to really kill it. Slaughter escapes with a backbreaker while Gorilla notes that Adnan should “go back to his country in a wooden box” for daring to wave the Iraq flag at ringside. Slaughter goes up and misses a flying splash, but Tito misses a dropkick and Sarge goes up again. So Tito slams him off the top and hits the flying forearm, but Slaughter bumps to the floor. Tito runs Sarge and Adnan together on the apron and slams Sarge inside, but Adnan hooks the leg and Sarge falls on top for the pin at 11:34. Man Tito was determined to drag something out of Slaughter here no matter what and he mostly succeeded. **1/2

Meanwhile, Sgt. Slaughter and his team of geeks are out to DESTROY. And then we get Tito Santana and his team of slightly lesser geeks, as Tito pretends like he just wrestled Slaughter by having wet hair, even though Slaughter made no effort to do the same in his interview.

Rick Martel v. Marty Jannetty

Model takes Marty down with an armdrag and does some jumping jacks to celebrate while Bobby has some quality dad jokes about Snake’s tragic blinding. Martel works the headlock but Marty chases him out of the ring. Back in, Martel catapults him under the ropes to take over. Martel misses a charge and Marty works on the leg off that. Marty with a leglock as Gorilla notes that there’s only one way to see Survivor Series. “Or pay me $240 and I’ll tape it for you” notes Bobby. Sounds like the new ESPN deal. Marty keeps him on the mat with the leglock and then puts him down with a kneebreaker and goes back to the leglock again. Bobby talks about taking care of his guys at Christmas, and Gorilla snarks “Shower shoes for Haku and antlers for Barbarian, is that your holiday bonus for them?” Marty gets tossed and bumps on the floor, and Martel goes to work on him in the ring. Martel goes up and Marty hits him on the way down and comes back with a flying elbow and kneelift. Martel misses a charge and Marty faceplants him out of the corner for two, but Martel tosses him again. So Marty tries a slingshot back into the ring, but he lands on his head and Martel pins him at 10:49 in a weird finish. Like he literally just took a standard somersault bump into the ring, I don’t see what the damage was supposed to be. Match was pretty decent, though. **3/4

Meanwhile, we get an actual angle as the Visionaries and Vipers do their interviews with Sean Mooney, but Jake Roberts runs in during Martel’s promo and they get into a brawl.

Earthquake v. Big Bossman

In the pre-match promo, Mean Gene notes that there’s only three ways to get eliminated: Pinfall, disqualification, or countout. Or of course if you submit. So….FOUR ways, then. Maybe he was a big fan of the Spanish Inquisition sketch. Quake bullies him into the corner to show off his muscle, but Bossman goes to a headlock and slugs him into the corner. We get a shot of Gorilla and Brain supposedly broadcasting in the arena so I’m assuming there’s an angle coming up. Quake overpowers Bossman again, but misses an elbow and Bossman trips him with a schoolboy for two. Bossman to the top, but Quake catches him in a powerslam and Bobby leaves the announce table to go watch. Ah, there we go. Quake uses the power of his ass to work Bossman over in the corner and Bobby gets some shots to avenge the departed Rick Rude. It really was a heinous miscarriage of justice from senile old Jack Tunney. Quake drops an elbow on Bossman and steps on him before going to a bearhug. Bossman claps out of it, but Quake puts him down again with a big boot and puts the boots to him. Back to the bearhug while Bobby borrows the megaphone to slander Bossman’s mother some more, and they slug it out until Bossman makes the comeback with the enzuigiri. Quake gets tied in the ropes in the Andre spot, but Bossman charges and lands on the floor, allowing Bobby to get some cheapshots out there. So Bossman chases him back to the dressing room and Quake wins by countout at 10:55. This felt like a Coliseum Video Exclusive with that finish but it was an all right hoss match. **1/2

Bret Hart v. The Honky Tonk Man

Honky switching to “Hunka Hunka Honky Love” was a pretty bad move that killed a lot of his rizz, to be honest. Didn’t really matter, because Survivor Series was his last notable appearance in the WWF anyway and he was gone by December. Meanwhile Brian and Gorilla speculate on the mystery partner and/or the giant egg, which definitely provided for a very wide range of quality in the payoffs. Honky with the big stall to start and Bret takes him down with a hammerlock and works on the arm. We take a break and return with Honky slugging away in the corner, but Bret takes him down with an atomic drop before missing an elbow. Honky with a chinlock, but Bret fights out and runs him into the turnbuckle before dropping a leg for two. Snap suplex gets two. Backbreaker gets two. Bret goes after Jimmy Hart and runs Honky into him, and that gets the pin at 10:25. Honky didn’t seem terribly motivated here. **

Meanwhile, we hear from the Million Dollar Team and the Dream Team. Koko takes the opportunity to sing yet again, and Dusty doesn’t care who the mystery partner is. Well they sure would by the time of the match.

The Texas Tornado v. Demolition Smash

Smash is doing the ridiculous masked Demolition gimmick now, which thankfully was aborted by the time of the PPV. They slug it out and Kerry goes for the claw, but Smash blocks it like a stabbing victim in a horror movie and bails to the floor. Back in, Smash tries to beat on Kerry in the corner, but Tornado works the arm while Gorilla wishes coronary trauma on Bobby. “A hush has fallen over this crowd” notes Gorilla while Kerry holds the armbar. Smash slugs away in the corner while Mr. Perfect runs in and goes after Kerry, and that’s a DQ at 7:23 as all of Demolition runs in as well and they all beat up Tornado. And then the Warrior team makes the save so we can have the big bench clearing brawl before Survivor Series. Perfect regained the IC title from Kerry Von Erich two days after this aired, although the title change didn’t air until December. ¼*

And we hear from the Perfect team and wrap it up with Gorilla and Bobby recapping the PPV card again.

This was definitely an improvement over the Summerslam Fever show in terms of hyping up the PPV and putting on better matches that made sense in context. Worth watching as a show? Not really.