Survivor Series 1988 - The Double Turn

[Cobra1000]

anyone with link to the doube turn and/or POP killing roma

 

Here ya go for the turn

[LCJ]

Just wondering why WWE only released the first ten years of Survivor Series on DVD. Maybe it's because a lot of Survivor Series events actually stopped (or at least cut down on) the traditional elimination tag matches in later years?

Might be something to do with the constant blurring of the WWF logo?

 

They still managed to release twenty years worth of Royal Rumbles, Summerslams and Wrestlemanias in box sets though with the blurring of the WWF logo.

[Dashing]

They're only releasing the Survivor Series anthology sets in stages, not all at once. The rest are on their way.

[TheBigBoot]

Whilst the Powers & Fuji are celebrating in the ring to the sound of cheers, the Demolition lads run back out and twat them to the sound of boos. How very confusing. Most people seem to think Fuji had turned face. To add to the insanity, when the Powers high-tail it down the aisle, they're still behaving like faces. Not only that but they'd been left against a boring, go nowhere heel team in the Conquistadors.

 

Badly executed?

 

It wasn't exactly Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIII, no.

 

That said, like kostan I loved it at the time since that was one of the first PPVs I remember allowed to stay up for although I think it was technically in 1989 (I'm sure it wasn't shown until around the next January or something silly like that over here). It was certainly the first one I taped the best bits from (edited matches as they went along) off Sky Channel and the show seemed to last for about five hours and that was the second match (first show I taped in full was WrestleMania V). After watching bits and pieces before then, I'd only properly got into WWF after WrestleMania IV and naturally I loved the Powers of Pain because they were one of the first new babyface teams I saw coming (along with The Rockers who instantly became one of my favourites, even more so than the POP). They had a cracking finisher for the era and that whole cool 'massive guys in facepaint' (don't think I ever seen The Road Warriors at that point) thing going for them.

 

In retrospect, I think turning them was the beginning of the end for the Powers even though it worked out great for Demolition (who got over really well as babyfaces over the next year). Had they stayed face I honestly think POP would have been the babyface team to end the Demos long reign of terror since at that point there was no Striker Force (Martel was injured), Bulldogs were on their way out, The Rockers were "too small" (they never did get that run) and The Hart Foundation had already held the straps fairly recently (and they were teasing a Bret singles run). Instead of dropping the straps to create a top babyface team to rival them, Demolition just swapped sides and took that spot as the top babyface in effect becoming their own successors.

 

Yeah but i think the OP is specifically referring to the night of the change and how you as a fan took it initially

 

Spot on: yes he is. Problem is I'm not sure how many on here were watching at the time. That was pre-1989, mass satellite TV, BSkyB, WWF's boom period in the UK, etc. Maybe I'm underestimating how many had cable and it is more than I think, its just I seem to remember seeing a thread on here a few months back on what got people into wrestling and it was full of people who got into it later (mainly 1991-92 era). From his post I'm guessing Dashing was a teenager at the time (in his late thirties/early forties now) but I'd imagine there are quite a few who weren't even born in 1988. After all it was twenty two years ago now.

[Dashing]

I wasn't around at the time. I was born in 1987, which makes me 23 now. What I really meant with this thread was how you received the angle the first time you saw it, not necessarily live or at the time. I got into wrestling in 1992 but obviously went backwards to watch things from a young age. I probably saw the angle in question sometime in the mid 90's.

[TheBigBoot]

Dashing: Ah, okay cool - I was going off what theskipperreturns said about it being specifically about when it happened. Turns out we were both wrong.

 

As far as going back and watching things that happened beforehand, I think that's one of the best things about becoming a wrestling fan. When I first got into wrestling in 87/88 for as much rasslin' as was on both ITV and cable, there weren't really any official video releases over here (maybe one or two World of Sport type comps). When WWF and later WCW, USWA, WCCW, Mid-Atlantic, and even old school British Wrestling etc. started bringing out tapes here around 1990 I'd say that was the moment that flipped me from wrestling fan to borderline obsessive.

 

So yeah, I did the exact same thing and went back through older WWF events (but also did so with the other territories as well) I'd heard about the stuff around WrestleMania II onwards from people who had been watching longer than me, etc. but there was plenty of stuff I'd never heard of as well.

 

Getting back on topic, looking at it that way I imagine that Powers of Pain/Demolition angle would be confusing to anyone watching it for the first time - even if some kid was to watch it for the first time today I think they might think Fuji had turned babyface.

 

Edit: This was the thread I was thinking of (re. above) about getting into the rasslin, was way too busy at the time and never did post in it so might bring it back up later:

http://ukff.com/index.php?showtopic=116505&hl=Moment

[kostan]

For the fans, did you guys know that Warlord and Barbarian will be in Germany at the end of February for two dates? They will be at a meet and greet AND wrestling later in the evening.

[Adam Young]

I must have watched SS88 around 91/92 and i'll admit that I thought Mr Fuji had turned face. The first time I ever saw Demolition on TV, they were a heel trio along with Crush. That might have made me logically assume that they were heels all the way from 88-90/91.

[The Reverend]

In hindsight it does seem strange that they used this show to do the switch from heel to face. After all it wasn't as if they didn't have an abundance of TV programming back then they could've done it on or had to hype up the next months PPV. It does just reek of poor booking. Does anyone know if there was anything on Superstars, Challenge etc. leading up to Survivor Series that may have pointe to the split?