Survivor Series Memories

[tiger_rick]

I think 1990 was my first. Not on tape but through the majesty of WWF magazine. I don't know if kids today would understand the magic that came through those pages. Everything is so instant now. I take it for granted and I've lived it so I'm sure they do. Back then, I didn't know if I'd see the tape in 6 months, 6 years or ever. But I was still enthralled by just reading those glorious write-ups while the glamour and the colour jumped off the page. It's probably still by favourite. I love the match of survial. Hogan and Warrior teaming was remarkable back then. It should have been Bret and not fucking Tito alongside them but that's by the by. I'm not entirely sure if this was the first one I saw though. I think that might have been 87 or 88 from the video shop. It's the one where the ten man tag is cut to ribbons. Then I saw 89 which I absolutely loved and this one.

There was something magical about the survivor series tapes in the video shop. The bright yellow covers and those casts of characters who jumped out at you. Just utterly glorious. We rented them all at least twice but spent about 10 years deciding each time.

There was magic in Vinny Mac's run through of the card at the beginning. Obviously seeing name talent against each other was a huge deal in the era of squash match heavy TV but I was so desperate to see any wrestling I could get hold of that it could have been anything involving these characters and I'd have been immersed.

I like 1991 for all its faults. I can see why they played with the formula after a few years so the Title match is a good additon but they fucked it over out of greed trying to sell Tuesday in Texas. Bret, Bulldog, Piper and Virgil are about my favourite team ever though. It's a shame that opener broke down because I bloody loved it. I didn't really know Flair but I was into him as the invading champ, still hated Dibiase, Mountie and Warlord in the right way.

Agree with Ian that 1992 is were it hit the skids. remember picking that tape up years later and just being utterly confused by the card. it's also in that period between SummerSlam 1992 and Royal Rumble 1993 where the WWF is a compltely different promotion. I was lucky enough to see both of those shows relatively soon after they happened by begging and borrowing the tapes and it's just astounding the difference there is in 5-6 months. A guy won the Rumble who wasn't even in the company at SummerSlam as far as I was aware.

I think 1993 is a decent show by 1993 standards but suffers from Lawler's absence. I liked the four Doinks idiocy as a kid but can see that others won't have. It's a return to all Survivor matches which I craved back then. 1994 can go fuck itself though. just because of the result of the WWF title match. The opener is a massive cop out too.

Never saw 1995 until years later. 1996 I bought on tape when it came out and it's a really good show. I'd seen very little WWF through 1995 and 1996, hardly anything bar Rumble and Mania, so again, it was a compltely different promotion. I remember buying my brothers some mini figures and rings from Index with my sixth form grant as a treat and people like Mankind, Ahmed Johnson and Austin were alien to us.

1997 was a lazy one match show and that one match was soured by the biggest controversy in company history. I can genuinely say that I've never been invested in Survivor Series matches since. There have been good shows and even some corking tag matches (particularly the early Raw vs. SD era) but it's not something I look forward to anymore.

[BomberPat]

11 hours ago, pitseleh said:

On the subject of terrible looks, you can't beat Undertaker's hideous gold pants at Survivor Series 2000.

Fucking state of them. 

My first thought when I saw the thread title was "Undertaker's magic gold troos". 

I don't know if this is true or not, but the story I always heard was that Undertaker's gear had gone missing, and he had to borrow a pair of trousers from The Godfather.

[The Reverend]

Survivor Series ’90 will always hold a special place for me. I was lucky enough to see the WWF in the mid to late 80’s as my Nan had cable TV (pretty rare in those days) and I remember seeing the Ricky Steamboat vs Jake Roberts feud (I’ll always remember seeing the lizard that Steamboat bought out to counter Damian – bugger me, we never got anything like that on World of Sport!!) but after she moved house I never saw any until that big first wave of popularity hit in mid-1990. Being that my parents were never much one for embracing new and exciting technology we never even got a soda-stream let alone Sky TV, I never saw any of the WWF shows – but I certainly heard about them. I remember being at the local swimming pool during the summer holidays that year and overheard a couple of kids talking about the LOD coming out at Summerslam to batter Demolition and help the Harts win the belts. To my 11 year old ears – this was pure excitement off the scale! 
The next month I started high school and what came with it was a bunch of new classmates from other primary schools who had that marvelous Sky TV. The WWF was really picking up pace at this point and I started getting the WWF Magazine (sorry Beano – you’re no longer needed!) and the first sticker album (goodbye lunch money – hello 10 packs of stickers!).  I was obsessed – but strangely not having actually seen any shows! 
The first magazine I got was the December 1990 issue (Texas Tornado cover)  and had a cool scorecard and run-down of Survivor Series 1990 – I couldn’t wait to see it. 
I finally got a VHS copy off a classmate and took it home  one Friday for the weekend. I think I must have watched it about a dozen times over the next couple of days (my parents weren’t overly impressed “How many times have you watched this?” was my Dad’s pissed off response to not being able to watch Grandstand and my Mum liked the colourful costumes but when she saw the opening match with Ax ‘punching’ Animal and the camera picking up that the blows were a good inch clear of his head couldn’t resist with “He’s not even hitting him – I’m sure this isn’t real!”) 
So being this was my first show, and the fact that I got to see all of the stars in action (a great thing about the old Survivor Series and the Royal Rumbles) I will always love this show – even if the action can be a bit crap at times (and don’t mention the Gobbldeygooker!) 
I always like the Survivor Series as well because it reminds me of those dark, cold winter nights when I’d get home and after a jacket potato and Grange Hill would put on the latest Thanksgiving offering. Ah – halcyon days!

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

 

 

 

Rick's written loads I agree with but this image is making me feel weird.

Ahhhhh.

[Drfunke]

54 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

My first thought when I saw the thread title was "Undertaker's magic gold troos". 

I don't know if this is true or not, but the story I always heard was that Undertaker's gear had gone missing, and he had to borrow a pair of trousers from The Godfather.

Anyone going to the ITR Undertaker show should ask!!

[tiger_rick]

29 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Rick's written loads I agree with but this image is making me feel weird.

Ahhhhh.

Didn't even realise, I'd picked up the yank cover. Only saw yellow!

[IANdrewDiceClay]

9 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

It’d be like Bret Hart suddenly wearing non-pink attire or Mark Henry turning white. 

Speaking of which, I remember in late 96/early 97, Bret Hart showed up on Raw in a weird prototype outfit. One elbow pad, long black knee pads, all white boots and the white bits on his tights were pink. No logos or writing or anything. What a mess.

[wandshogun09]

I think I asked about that on here ages ago as that also baffled me at the time. Shawn Michaels was on commentary and even got a dig in about it. “Nice white boots, Bret” or something in a really sarcastic tone. 

[Supremo]

I was going to write about how weird it is that every Survivor Series after 2002 became instantly forgettable and I genuinely couldn’t even guess a single main event, but then I remembered the anomaly to that rule.

Fuck yeah. How could I forget? My match of the year and arguably the best thing they’ve done this decade. Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series 2016 is utterly fantastic. Everything Goldberg’s run in 2003 should’ve been, they absolutely nailed it here. 

What makes it even sweeter was how convinced everyone was, myself included, that not only was Goldberg going to get booed by the smart crowd (Toronto, wasn’t it?) but it was also a certainty that this would be a one-and-done deal, where Brock hits a couple of German Suplexes, then an F5 for the win. It was fun seeing Goldberg do that brilliant babyface promo, but there was no point getting too invested, right? 

Crash!

Bang!

Wallop! 

What a moment! Two Spears, a Jackhammer and it’s over to a huge ovation. Awesome. Goosebumps even now. I felt like a kid again.

Magic from start to finish. Five stars.

[tiger_rick]

If anyone ever doubts that Brock Lesnar just gets it, there you go. Their best bit of booking since 2000. Easily.

[BomberPat]

12 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

If anyone ever doubts that Brock Lesnar just gets it, there you go. Their best bit of booking since 2000. Easily.

I find the booking of Brock Lesnar endlessly fascinating, because he exists in this weird spot where none of the conventional rules of wrestling apply. While people complain about the "Suplex City" format being repetitive and predictable, I'd argue that Lesnar is by far the least predictable wrestler on the roster.

That match with Goldberg wouldn't have worked if it was anyone else, because it was the fact that it's Brock Lesnar that made it so insane. The first "Suplex City" match with John Cena only worked because it was those two. That match with Randy Orton that ended by stoppage - that finish works because it's Brock Lesnar. There's something about the aura of legitimacy and believability he brings to the product that lends itself to booking decisions they wouldn't dare try with anyone else. And the matches with Goldberg are the pinnacle of that.

My favourite part was how pretty much everyone predicted that Lesnar would fuck up Goldberg in the Rumble, and that would be the set-up for a Wrestlemania match. Then the Rumble comes along, and Goldberg just fucks up Brock in a matter of seconds again. It was glorious.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

That match between Goldberg and Lesnar stunned me into silence until at least Wednesday. It was a dream result that I thought they would never ever do. And it happened!

Their WrestleMania match was unreal as well. As 4 minute matches go, it may have topped 123 Kid vs Owen.

[returner82]

6 hours ago, Drfunke said:

Anyone going to the ITR Undertaker show should ask!!

"Well, you know, I was trying something different, you know, I had this new character, you know, and I wanted to, you know, get away, you know, from the typical, you know, Undertaker look, you know? Sara had bought me these gold, you know, pants, you know, and I thought they looked, you know, pretty good, you know, so I figured, you know, I might wear them, you know, at Survivor Series, you know?"

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Watching some Survivor Series related videos on YouTube last night, I was reminded of the brilliant end sequence from I think 2009 that saw a pre New Day Kofi Kingston roll up and pin Punk then in a split second pop up and belt Orton with Trouble in Paradise to win the match

[Jazzy G]

First Survivor Series I watched was 1992. I can't say I was blown away by the format as that was a pretty weak card. Shawn Vs Bret was solid. I was just stunned by how much has changed since Summerslam.

I remember watching 2002 with a load of mates in my Mum's pub. We had the big screen in the corner and it was a fun night. The highlight for me was Scott Steiner's "Gimme the fucking mic" before stumbling through his promo.

The actual Survivor Series matches can be fantastic. Austin's future being placed in the hands of Shawn Michaels and that performance by him. Ziggler, STING!There are plenty of opportunities to tell some great stories. I'm so glad they decided not to kill it off like was rumoured.It can be up there with the Rumble in terms of kickstarting an angle, getting somebody over or just sheer unpredictability.