15. Survivor Series 1989
If you’re looking for some old school fun, the next two entries on the list are for you. Hulk Hogan was still the WWE Champion at this event but things were starting to change and The Ultimate Warrior actually got to close out this show. He was becoming just as popular as The Hulkster with the crowd and he would go on to beat Hogan at the next WrestleMania. The format changed with this show as well as teams went from five to four and there was no 10-on-10 match this time around.
This was Dusty Rhodes’ first year in WWE (gotta love those polka dots) and he led his Dream Team into battle against Big Boss Man and The Enforcers. Again, I love when they had the team names. The match started a little slow but picked up at the end with some fun eliminations and Dusty Rhodes and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake came out on top.
The second match saw Randy Savage lead The King’s Court over The 4×4’s. Sorry, loving the team names here. Savage had Dino Bravo, Earthquake and Greg Valentine to battle Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Bret Hart, Ronnie Garvin and Hercules. The ending was a little weak with Duggan gettin counted out to end the match but it was fun leading up to that. Savage, Earthquake and Dino Bravo were the survivors here.
Next up were Hogan and his Hulkamaniacs (Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Demolition) taking on The Million Dollar Team of Ted Dibiase, The Powers of Pain and Zeus. WWE was still trying to capitalize on the No Holds Barred angle between Hogan and Zeus but this probably should have ended with the tag match at SummerSlam. There was still talk of trying to get this angle all the way to WrestleMania VI but it thankfully ended soon after this match with a weird pay-per-view event. Zeus actually got disqualified in the first few minutes of this match and Hogan eliminated Dibiase to pick up the win.
The Rude Brood, obviously captained by the Ravishing One himself, took on Rowdy’s Roddies next and while those two were able to continue their storyline, the standout here was Mr. Perfect, who was the sole survivor of this match. He was still riding the undefeated streak and this was a perfect (get it) way to keep that going.
The final match of the night was The Ultimate Warriors, consisting of Warrior, Jim Neidhart and The Rockers going up against The Heenan Family. Heenan actually wrestled in this match alongside Andre the Giant, Haku and Arn Anderson. Tully Blanchard was supposed to be in this match but was fired the day of the event, which is why Heenan had to be in there. The Weasel actually got a few licks in during the match but this was always going to be about The Ultimate Warrior and it played out that way.