30 years of WWE Survivor Series: Ranking each event

7. Survivor Series 1987

Go ahead and bash me all you want for putting the inaugural Survivor Series event this high in the rankings but there’s something to be said for Vince McMahon taking a chance and trying something new. Coming off the crazy success of WrestleMania III, Vince decided to run another pay-per-view event in 1987 with a different concept. He would take all of his superstars and put them into multi-man matches. This was a chance to create matchups you wouldn’t normally see, and even as a kid, I thought it was brilliant.

Running head to head against NWA’s Starrcade, Survivor Series obviously worked as evidenced by the fact that I’m sitting here writing about it 30 years later. Vince wanted to capitalize on WrestleMania and advertised that this would be the first time since that amazing night at the Pontiac Silverdome that Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant would square off against one another.

There were only four matches on the card that night but with the new concept, every single one of them felt fresh and tried hard to include some of the storylines that were already happening in WWE. Even if the matches didn’t have much on the line, it was still great to see all of these random wrestlers in the ring together. The night opened with the team of Brutus Beefcake, Jake Roberts, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat (which did seem weird given the history of Savage and Steamboat) taking on Harley Race, Danny Davis, Hercules, The Honky Tonk Man and “The Outlaw” Ron Bass. Savage, Steamboat and Jake “The Snake” were the survivors here and you could tell that Macho Man was really starting to connect in a positive way with WWE fans.

The women were up next as Fabulous Moolah, The Jumpin Bomb Angels, Rockin’ Robin and Velvet McIntyre picking up the win over Dawn Marie (not that one), Donna Christanello, The Glamour Girls and Sensational Sherri, who if you’ve forgotten was a phenomenal wrestler before becoming a great manager. This was a fun match that gave a real spotlight to some of the great women’s wrestlers of the era.

The next match up was a crazy 10-on-10 bout featuring the best tag teams WWE had to offer. The tag division was so strong back then and they got 37 minutes to work. There was solid action throughout and once again, the babyface side came out ahead as The Killer Bees and The Young Stallions outlasted the other 16 men to win the match.

The main event obviously revolved around the Hogan-Andre saga but there was a lot of fun things to take out of this match. They teased Hogan and Andre early and often but it took a while before they actually got into it, which gave some other people some time to shine, especially Bam Bam Bigelow. He didn’t have a huge following yet and he was able to showcase his skills in front of a huge audience. Hogan actually ended up getting counted out and in an era where the faces usually won out, Andre was the sole survivor in this match. Naturally, Hogan still came out and owned the end of the night but this was a really fun concept that was so new to the WWE Universe and deserves this spot in the rankings.