That Was Then 11.09.07: Looking Back At Survivor Series 1993 & 1994

Survivor Series 1993

After experimenting with a more traditional card the year before, Survivor Series returned to the team elimination format in 1993. The company was in a bit of a rough period at this point, both because Vince McMahon was going on trial for steroid distribution (and I believe had been handed the paperwork a week or so before this show) and also because Hulk Hogan had departed the company a few months prior, and they did not yet have a new top babyface to carry the promotion. In the meantime, the WWF had its first real long term heel champion in Yokozuna, who had squashed Hogan on his way out of the company and been unstoppable since.

The show opened with IC Champion Razor Ramon, Marty Jannetty, the 123 Kid, and Mr Perfect taking on IRS, Diesel (Kevin Nash), Adam Bomb, and Rick Martel. Actually, I lied: it was supposed to be Perfect in this match, but he ended up not appearing on the show (from what I heard, it was his back injury acting up again) and was replaced by Randy Savage. In a move that seems rather strange to look back on, Diesel was the first one eliminated when Savage hit him with the big elbow, and Savage was ready to go for a second big elbow on IRS when Crush, who Savage was feuding with at the time, came to ringside and distracted Savage, allowing IRS to roll him up for the pin. IRS was eliminated next by Razor, but hit Razor with his briefcase and knocked him to the outside where he was counted out, leaving Jannetty and the Kid against Martel and Adam Bomb. Though the heels were clearly the favorites in this situation, Jannetty and Kid pinned both to win the match and establish themselves as a team. They would go on to win the WWF World Tag Team Title for a week before Jannetty got himself fired again. Too bad, because I thought this team had a lot of potential.

Up next was Bret Hart leading brothers Owen, Bruce, and Keith against Shawn Michaels and the Red, Blue, and Black Knights. It was originally supposed to be Jerry Lawler leading the knights, but he ended up being accused of statutory rape, and the decision was made to take him off the PPV (and TV entirely) and slide Michaels into the match instead, on a week’s notice. Of course Lawler’s situation was never acknowledged on TV, and he disappeared with almost no explanation. In the meantime, he had been feuding with not just Bret and Owen, but the entire Hart family, leading Keith and Bruce to come out of retirement for this match. The Harts worked well together, and eliminated all three knights (Barry Horowitz, Greg Valentine, and Jeff Gaylord for those who were wondering) without suffering a single elimination, leaving Michaels 4-on-1 against the Harts. Due to a miscue, Owen got whipped into Bret and knocked him off the apron and into the guardrail, then got rolled up and pinned by Michaels. Owen absolutely flipped out because Keith and Bruce had gone to check on Bret instead of saving him from elimination, and he stormed off to the back in a rage. The Harts recovered and turned the tables on Michaels, who ended up taking off to the back and taking the countout loss, giving the Harts the win. Owen came out of the back to rejoin his brothers in the ring, but instead of celebrating, he instead tried to pick a fight with Bret, much to the chagrin of the entire rest of the Hart family. This was the first inkling that Owen resented living in Bret’s shadow, and ended up leading to the on again-off again feud between Bret and Owen that would last the better part of three years.

In the middle of the show, we get a real rarity on a WWF PPV when a non-WWF title is defended as Smoky Mountain Wrestling Tag Team Champions the Rock N Roll Express defend against the Heavenly Bodies. I thought it interesting to note that Jim Ross, on commentary, describes SMW as a regional promotion, just so the viewers didn’t go and get any crazy ideas about Smoky Mountain being on the same level as the WWF. From what I hear, people thought this was a pretty good match in terms of workrate, and I’ll admit it’s been a few years since I’ve seen it, but I just remember this match boring the hell out of me, and also the crowd. It is notable as the first apperance of the RNR on a WWF PPV, and it would be the last until five years later during the fourth-rate NWA invasion angle of early 1998, when both were getting pretty close to over-the-hill. Yeah, I’d be willing to bet that Ricky and Robert don’t have quite as many girls soiling their panties these days as they did in the 80s. At least, none under 300 pounds or 45 years of age. Anyway, the RNR thinks they won on an over the top rope disqualification, but since the match is contested under WWF rules, the match continued, and the Bodies used Jim Cornette’s tennis racket to get the win and the SMW Tag Team Title.

For our semi-main, we get our comedy match of the night, as Bam Bam Bigelow, Bastion Booger, and the Headshrinkers take on the Four Doinks. A bit of backstory here: Doink had originally come on the scene in late 1992, but after several months of performing cruel tricks on kids at ringside, he ended up becoming a full-blown heel wrestler. One of the interesting gimmicks to this character is he’d have a second guy dressed just like him under the ring, and when Doink got in trouble, the second Doink would come out and take over for him. Later in the summer, yet a third Doink appeared, so when this match was announced, everyone thought it’d just be four actual Doinks. Instead, what we got were the Bushwhackers and Men On A Mission with Doink facepaint and green hair on. The match itself lasted all of maybe ten minutes as the Four Doinks beat all four members of Bigelow’s team en route to victory, then as Bigelow made his exit, the real Doink appeared on screen, made fun of Bam Bam, and wasn’t funny at all.

Finally we come to the main event of the evening, as the All-American (Lex Luger, the Steiners, and the Undertaker) take on the Foreign Fanatics (WWF World Champion Yokozuna, Ludvig Borga, Jacques Rougeau, and Crush). Originally it was supposed to be Tatanka and not the Undertaker on Luger’s team, but Ludvig Borga had used nefarious means to end Tatanka’s undefeated streak, then he and Yokozuna attacked him and put him on the shelf so he would miss Survivor Series, and Luger picked the Undertaker to replace him. Later, Luger knocked out Pierre Oulette and gave him a concussion, so they subbed Crush in on the Yokozuna team, and here we are. Rick Steiner was the first one out, then Crush was counted out when Randy Savage tried coming to the ring to get to him, and Crush went to the floor to brawl with him. Scott Steiner and Jacques Rougeau were both eliminated in short order, leaving Luger and Undertaker against Yokozuna and Borga. After a short heat segment, Luger tags out to Undertaker, and he and Yokozuna end up brawling on the floor and both get counted out, leaving a still badly beaten Luger alone with Ludvig Borga. Borga pounds the crap out of him, but Luger comes back with the steel-plated forearm and knocks out Borga for the win.

Survivor Series 1994

Survivor Series 1994 took us down to San Antonio, Texas, and the entire show was built around a Texan theme with the announcers dressed up as cowboys, a western-themed intro video compete with howling wolves, and even Chuck Norris as a special enforcer referee in the main event. Also of note is that this year, the elimination matches returned to 5-on-5, or at least the ones not involving midgets did.

The show opened with IC Champion Razor Ramon, the 123 Kid, Davey Boy Smith, and the Headshrinkers (Sionne and Fatu) taking on Jeff Jarrett, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Owen Hart, and Jim Neidhart. I remember trying to draw up my own dream card for this show about a week before this match was announced, and I actually came up with this very match and decided it wouldn’t happen because it’d be way too heavily lopsided toward the babyfaces. Sure enough, this match all belonged to the heels, because even though the face side got some good offense in, once Diesel tagged in it was all over. He gave Fatu the Jackknife and pinned him. Then he gave the 123 Kid the Jackknife and pinned him. Then he gave Sionne the Jackknife and pinned him. Then he kicked Davey Boy in the face and knocked him out of the ring where he got counted out. All these eliminations took place in the span of about two minutes without Diesel ever tagging out, and left Razor at a 5-no-1 disadvantage. Much like Jake Roberts, he fought valiantly, but the numbers seemed to be just to great for him to overcome. However, unlike Jake’s previous situations, luck was on his side as Diesel held Razor for Michaels to hit with the superkick, but Razor moved out of the way and Michaels kicked Diesel. This had been happening several times leading up to Survivor Series, and finally enough was enough and Diesel came after him. Michaels ran to the back, Diesel chased him, and the rest of the team followed trying to break them up. In the end, the entire heel team got counted out and, against all odds, Razor Ramon came out the victor. Even though I feel like some of my favorite wrestlers ever got ripped off, I have to admit that this was pretty cool booking.

Unfortunately, the next match was not, as Doink teamed with his midget pals Dink, Wink, and Pink against Jerry Lawler and his midget pals Queasy, Sleazy, and Cheezy. The match was worked in the old Memphis style, which would generally be okay if taken in small doses, but the midgets in there really killed it, and once Doink was eliminated, you knew right away what the outcome was going to be. Doink’s midgets got eliminated one by one and Lawler’s entire team survives. After the match, Lawler congratulates himself on winning the match all by himself and kicks his partners out of the ring because he hates midgets. Outside the ring, Lawler’s midgets start partying with Doink’s midgets, and Lawler gets pissed and chases them around ringside until Doink comes out of the back and hits Lawler in the face with a pie. It was as great as it sounds and more, and I daresay that this match is worth the price of the video, nay, the entire DVD collection on its own merits. Truly one for the ages…ages 5 and under.

Fortunately, things got much, much, much better next as WWF World Champion Bret Hart defended the title against former champion Bob Backlund in a Submission Match. The story here was that Bob Backlund, who lost the WWF Title in 1983 right before the Hogan Era started, came back to the WWF and despite being in his mid 40s by this point, wanted to take another run at the WWF Title. He got a shot at Bret in the summer, but ended up losing the match. He was so upset over the loss that he snapped and attacked Bret, then attacked pretty much everyone else who crossed his path. Finally this match was signed, and though it was a submission match, the match would be decided by each wrestler’s cornerman (Bret had Davey Boy and Backlund had Owen) who would throw in the towel when he thought his man had enough. The match might not be for everyone, but anyone who’s a fan of Bryan Danielson matches will love this, as it was a 40 minute straight wrestling match that was unlike most of what you were seeing in the WWF in those days. Finally, Owen interfered, and as Davey Boy chased him out of the ring and around ringside, he accidentally crashed headfirst into the ring steps and knocked himself out. All this outside the ring activity distracted Bret and allowed Backlund to trap him in the crossface chickenwing, and now Owen suddenly seemed to realize what he had done, and that his brother was now trapped in this dangerous hold and Davey Boy wouldn’t be able to throw in the towel to save Bret. He truly seemed to regret what was happening, and pleaded with his parents, who were sitting at ringside, to come out and throw the towel in for Bret. He brought them out from behind the barricade and to ringside and, after several more minutes of watching Bret in the crossface chickenwing, Bret’s mother Helen couldn’t stand it anymore and threw the towel in, giving the match and the WWF Title to Bob Backlund. Owen grabbed the towel and ran off to the back in celebration, as he had just suckered his parents into costing Bret the WWF Title. In the meantime, Bob Backlund had regained the WWF World Title 11 years after losing it, and once more stood atop the wrestling world as the World Heavyweight Champion. Unfortunately, this reign would only last three days before he was beaten in eight seconds by Diesel at Madison Square Garden, but it was nice while it lasted and was fucking awesome booking.

After all that, we get the next elimination match as Lex Luger, Adam Bomb, Mabel, and the Smoking Gunns take on Ted Dibiase’s Million Dollar Team of Tatanka, King Kong Bundy, Bam Bam Bigelow, and the Heavenly Bodies. Luger was embroiled in a war against Dibiase after Tatanka turned heel and joined Dibiase’s Corporation after spending the entire summer accusing Luger of doing just that. The match comes down to Luger 3-on-1 against Tatanka, Bundy, and Bigelow, and Dibiase’s men take turns beating on Luger until Luger gets a surprise small package out of nowhere to pin Tatanka, but Bundy comes right in with a splash and pins Luger to win the match. This was I believe the first time Luger was pinned clean on WWF TV, and it was pretty clear by this point that the WWF was losing confidence in his ability to headline and that the whole Luger Experiment was drawing to a close.

The final match of the evening was the Casket Rematch between the Undertaker and Yokozuna with special enforcer referee Chuck Norris at ringside. The Undertaker and Yokozuna had a Casket Match for the WWF Title back at the Royal Rumble, and it has become kind of an infamous match because Yokozuna ended up having like ten guys come in and help him beat up Undertaker and throw him in the casket, then smoke started pouring out of the casket and Undertaker levitated from behind the video screen and up to heaven, or so I guess we’re led to believe. Anyway, the point of having Chuck Norris at ringside was to keep something like that from happening again. Sure enough, a bunch of wrestlers make their way to ringside, but the only one with the guts to challenge Norris was Jeff Jarrett, and Norris calmly kicks Jarrett right in the chest and sends Jarrett flying backwards. Frankly, I’m surprised that this doesn’t get a lot more TV play than it does. Anyway, Undertaker recovers and rallies to victory despite IRS cleverly coming out of the crowd to attack him, and that was the last we would see of Yokozuna until Wrestlemania 11.

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