Rebooking Survivor Series 1988

[MMK]

SURVIVOR SERIES 1988

The Mega Powers of Pain
Hulk Hogan/ Randy Savage/ Warlord/ Barbarian W/Miss Elizabeth
VS
The Million Dollar Team
Ted Dibiase/ Bad News Brown/ Ax/ Smash w/Mr.Fuji

(How could they have not combined the Mega Powers and The Powers of Pain? It practically writes itself. Fuji "inadvertantly on purpose" gets Demolition disqualified which results in Ax shoving Fuji and some dissention in Demolition. But they do not officially break up with Fuji just yet. That happens on SNME in the coming weeks when, during a title defense, Fuji stabs Demolition in the back and helps The Powers of Pain win the titles. Powers of Pain hold the titles up until Mania 5 where Demolition win them back. This makes a lot more sense then the clusterf*** booking we got at the actual event where they did a double turn which, from Fuji's perspective made absolutely no sense. If hes going to turn on Demoltion in favor of POP why not wait until the titles are on the line so he get's something out of it? Made abo****ely no sense.
Anyway, back to the match at hand. Bad News is in the match because he actually had a feud with Savage going on at the time. He naturally gets eliminated leaving Dibiase alone against the Mega Powers. I'd have some miscommunication between Hogan and Savage leading to Hogan getting eliminated probably via countout while fighting Virgil on the floor after Virgil was harrassing Elizabeth or something)
Sole Survivor: Macho Man
(After the match Hogan comes in the ring to celebrate with Savage. Macho takes exception to Hogan's presence seeing as how he was eliminated and Savage feels he should have this moment to himself. This plants the seeds for their eventual breakup.)


The Snake Warriors:
The Ultimate Warrior, Jake The Snake, Hercules, The Rockers
vs
The Heenan Family:
Ravishing Rick Rude, André the Giant, King Haku, The Brain Busters
w/Bobby The Brain Heenan

(This match combines the Warrior/Rude and Jake/Andre feuds that were going on at the time. As well as The Rockers/Busters feud and the storyline invovling Hercules leaving the Heenan Family and being usurped by King Haku. All The Heenan Family stable members stick together and I think The Warriors team would have been one of the most impressive and coolest ever assembled, minus Hercules of course. But hey, somebody's gotta get pinned.)

Sole Survivor: The Ultimate Warrior. Warrior was white hot at this point. Post match beatdown from Rick Rude thus furthering their feud.

The Hart Family
The Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs, The Blue Blazer
VS
The Jimmy Hart Band
Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine, The Rougeau Brothers, Danny Davis
W/Jimmy Hart

(A number of reasons for this match. First, Bret, Davey, Anvil, Dynamite and Owen (Blue Blazer) are all real life relatives (except possibly for Dynamite). Second, Jimmy Hart and The Rougeaus had feuded with both the Harts and Bulldogs throughout 88. Honky and Hammer were about to form a team that would go on to face the Harts at Wrestlemania 5, and adding Danny Davis keeps all the Jimmy Hart guys on one team. Here we get the Hart Foundation stable together 9 years prior to them being an actual stable in 1997 (minus Dynamite Kid in place of Brian Pillman of course).
FINISH: The Harts and The Blue Blazer survive. It would have been cool to see Bret and Owen win together. Bulldogs were on their way out of the WWF, and everyone on the Jimmy Hart side except for The Rougeaus were on the downside of their career. So the win goes to the Harts.

Outlaws and Order
Outlaw Ron Bass, Big Bossman, Dino Bravo, Mr.Perfect
w/ Slick
VS
The Barbershop Quartet
Brutus Beefcake, Jim Duggan, Ken Patera, Dino Bravo

Sole Surivor: Mr.Perfect.
(The main feud in this match is between Beefcake and Bass, but no one really cared about that. Perfect being the sole survivor of his first ppv event would have been a great way to kick off his career. He actually did win at the ppv, but he was a co-survivor with Bravo and they essentially won via forfeit because there opponent could not continue to compete. Having perfect finish off Beefcake with the perfect plex for a solid 123 win would have been a better start to his run in the WWF. In fact, thats the only reason I'd even include this match on the ppv. Perfect was not at this point associated with Bobby Heenan, nor was Bravo with Jimmy Hart so they do not need to be a part of the Heenan or Jimmy Hart teams.)

There was a lot of filler enhancement talent used at Survivor Series 88. I feel including the likes of Red Rooster, Hillbilly Jim, Conquistadores, Young Stallions, Bolsheviks, Scott Casey, and Harley Race (who was long past his prime) diluted the matches they were involved in. Survivor Series should be all killer, no filler. No need for these jobbers. It only makes the matches feel less special and more predictable. Tito Santana was also used at this event but I would have held off on his return until his partner Rick Martel was cleared to return as well.

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

I absolutely love what you did with this year's event. I wasn't so big on some of your changes from the 1987 Survivor Series, but you vastly improved the real-life card with your version. There's only two major problems I see, along with one slight thing I disagree with.

One is that you're inconsistent with how many people are on each team. Some matches you have 4 guys to a team. Others you have 5 to a team. I definitely think you should stick with one or the other.

The other thing, which was just a typing error obviously, was the final matches (the Beefcake team vs. Ron Bass team), you have Dino Bravo listed as part of the babyface and heel team for that match. Obviously Bravo is with the heels, so I was just wondering who you actually meant to put as the final member of that babyface team.

As far as the slight disagreement, is moving Demolition and the Powers of Pain to team with the Mega Powers and Dibiase. The double turn (or in your case, simple heel turn) was a pretty big story that honestly deserves it's own match and shouldn't either be in the shadow of the hype behind the Mega-Powers main event, or actually over-shadow the main event. I would maybe switch Demolition and the Powers of Pain to another one of the matchups so they're not conflicting with the Mega Powers/Dibiase feud/storyline in the main event. Maybe put those teams on Beefcake and Bass's team (which was more of the lower card guys as you put it), which can give that match more of a story (and also make it a 5 vs. 5 match), and move Boss Man to the main event match, and put Akeem with him Bad News and Dibiase (and another heel to keep with the 5 vs. 5 matches), and put three other babyfaces with Hogan and Savage.


That'd be the only change I would make. Other than that, you drastically improved the actual 1988 card.


And I love the Hart Family team. That is absolutely epic.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

The problem I have with this rebooking is that it scraps the simply amazing tag teams Survivor match, which in my opinion is certainly in the top 5 series matches of all, maybe even second only to the Final Survivor main event of 2001.

Unlike many of the cards of 1985-93, I feel that this one was actually booked very well, and, even with the lesser known wrestlers that were involved, each match meant something. As such, it is one of the few Survivor Series cards that I wouldn't touch (along with 1995 and maybe 1998)

The next two or three, on the other hand....

 

[The Brain]

I'm not sure if you're forgetting some of the feuds that were going on at this time or if you're erasing them as part of your rebooking.

The big feud was The Mega Powers vs. The Twin Towers so I'm surprised that this was ignored and Akeem was left off your card. The Warrior vs. Rude feud had not yet begun. Warrior was feuding with Honky Tonk Man. Another big feud at the time was Hercules vs. Ted Dibiase so they should be on opposing teams.

Again, I loved the ten team elimination match. I understand why some people don't but I wouldn't want to lose that. I agree with dd23 that putting the Demolition/Powers of Pain double turn in the main event is a little much. I thought it was fine the way it was.

The Hart team is pretty cool to us knowledgeable fans but back then the relationship between Davey and the Harts was never mentioned and we had no idea who the Blue Blazer was.

Hillbilly Jim, Koko B. Ware, and Red Rooster do seem out of place in the main event but with the Mega Powers & Twin Towers being the main focus them filling out the rest wasn't all that bad. I don't mind Rooster and Bad News Brown switching places but that's about it. It would have been nice if Don Muraco and Junk Yar Dog didn't leave right before the event so they could have been in instead of Jim Brunzell and Scott Casey.

I know I'm being boring here. I have plenty of ideas for rebooking WrestleMania and SummerSlam but I really think the early years of Survivor Series was done right.

The other thing, which was just a typing error obviously, was the final matches (the Beefcake team vs. Ron Bass team), you have Dino Bravo listed as part of the babyface and heel team for that match. Obviously Bravo is with the heels, so I was just wondering who you actually meant to put as the final member of that babyface team.

My guess is Koko B. Ware

 

[THTRobtaylor]

It's hard to rebook Survivor Series of that era because they were already very carefully designed to be an entree to the WWE.

Every match had a main eventer and then each level of the card, and you could quickly know who was who and on the up/way down in 2 hours, even if you'd never seen a show. Regular "booking logic" didn't really apply, this was the one they wanted to "entice new viewers" with, with a view to increasing Mania buys...

Rebooking them under normal logic would have undermined them and the success. Indeed it was only once they started going that way the PPV lost its way from 91 onwards.

 

[King Patrick Star]

I love your thread and I love your card, MMK. Here's my version.

Hercules, Scott Casey, and The Young Stallions (Jim Powers and Paul Roma)
vs.
Ted DiBiase, Dino Bravo, and The Conquistadors (Uno and Dos) (with Virgil and Frenchy Martin)

Koko B. Ware, Hillbilly Jim, and The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty)
vs.
Haku, The Red Rooster, and The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) (with Bobby the Brain Heenan)

Jim Duggan, Jake Roberts, Ken Patera and Tito Santana
vs.
André the Giant, Rick Rude,Mr. Perfect and Harley Race (with Bobby the Brain Heenan)

Brutus Beefcake, Jim Brunzell, and The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian)
vs.
Ron Bass, Bad News Brown, and Demolition (Ax and Smash) (with Mr. Fuji)

The Ultimate Warrior, The Blue Blazer, and The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) (with Sam Houston)
vs.
The Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine, and The Fabulous Rougeaus (Raymond and Jacques Rougeau) (with Jimmy Hart and Danny Davis)

The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage), and The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid (with Miss Elizabeth)
vs.
The Twin Towers (Akeem and Big Boss Man), and The Bolsheviks (Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov) (with Slick)

I kept everyone that was on the original card on my version. Instead of three 5-on-5 and one 10-on-10 traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team match, I made it six 4-on-4 matches. I liked your idea of giving each manager their own teams. The Brain is so smart that he has two teams.

 

[MMK]

I absolutely love what you did with this year's event.

The other thing, which was just a typing error obviously, was the final matches (the Beefcake team vs. Ron Bass team), you have Dino Bravo listed as part of the babyface and heel team for that match. Obviously Bravo is with the heels, so I was just wondering who you actually meant to put as the final member of that babyface team.


And I love the Hart Family team. That is absolutely epic.

Good eye. I didn't catch that. It should say Koko B.Ware on the babyface side. Not Dino Bravo. Koko fought Bossman at Summerslam 88 so he seems like the obvious choice. By the time I got down to that final match I was running out of viable main event ppv worthy babyfaces, but Koko is the best of the rest.

 

[MMK]

I'm not sure if you're forgetting some of the feuds that were going on at this time or if you're erasing them as part of your rebooking.

The big feud was The Mega Powers vs. The Twin Towers so I'm surprised that this was ignored and Akeem was left off your card. The Warrior vs. Rude feud had not yet begun. Warrior was feuding with Honky Tonk Man. Another big feud at the time was Hercules vs. Ted Dibiase so they should be on opposing teams.

Again, I loved the ten team elimination match. I understand why some people don't but I wouldn't want to lose that. I agree with dd23 that putting the Demolition/Powers of Pain double turn in the main event is a little much. I thought it was fine the way it was.

The Hart team is pretty cool to us knowledgeable fans but back then the relationship between Davey and the Harts was never mentioned and we had no idea who the Blue Blazer was.

Hillbilly Jim, Koko B. Ware, and Red Rooster do seem out of place in the main event but with the Mega Powers & Twin Towers being the main focus them filling out the rest wasn't all that bad. I don't mind Rooster and Bad News Brown switching places but that's about it. It would have been nice if Don Muraco and Junk Yar Dog didn't leave right before the event so they could have been in instead of Jim Brunzell and Scott Casey.

I know I'm being boring here. I have plenty of ideas for rebooking WrestleMania and SummerSlam but I really think the early years of Survivor Series was done right.



My guess is Koko B. Ware

Yes. It was meant to be Koko.

I'm not going to disagree with anything you said, but don't forget this is REBOOKING. If I don't like a particular feud (like Herc-Dibiase for instance), then I'm going to scrap it and rebook it to my liking. Same goes for the Twin Towers. I can't stand Akeem. I would have kept him as One Man Gang and kept him off the card. He simply can't wrestle and wasn't over at all. Just another fat guy for Hogan to slam. So if I'm rebooking he's one of the first to go. As for Honky-Warrior, I didn't forget about it, I just feel it was time to move on. Honkys time as a legit IC contender was over by November 88. The Rude/Warrior feud began the month after Survivor Series during the buildup to Royal Rumble 89, but I would simply start it a month earlier. Plus I think it's important to keep all the Jimmy Hart guys on one team, meaning Honky has to be opposite the Hart Founation team on my card.

I liked the 10 man tag team matches as child, but looking back they were pretty terrible in terms of wrestling quality. The matches were also horribly edited for coliseum home video because they ran SO long and had to be trimmed down. Participants just didn't get enough time in the ring with 5 teams on each side.

But to those who liked the all team matches, I will be bringing them back in the next few events Ill be rebooking. I just feel like there were so many tag teams in the 80s, sticking them all in one match was too much of a good thing.