IWF Survivor Series (1988)

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Revision as of 22:58, 16 September 2013

Survivor Suries (1988)
Promotional poster featuring the captains in each match
Tagline(c)	Teams of Five Strive to Survive
Imformation
Promotion	International Wrestling Federation
Date	November 24, 1988
Attendance	13,500
Venue	Richfield Coliseum
City	Richfield Ohio
Pay-per-view chronology
SummerSlam (1988)	Survivor Series (1988)	Royal Rumble (1989)
Survivor Series chronology
Survivor Series (1987)	Survivor Series (1988)	Survivor Series (1989)

Survivor Series (1988) was the second annual Survivor Series pay-per-view wrestling event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF). It took place on Thanksgiving Night, November 24, 1988 and was held at the Richfield Coliseum, in Richfield, Ohio.

The main event was a Survivor Series match that featured a 5-man team captained by The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and IWF Champion Brady Savage) against a team captained by The Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Boss Man). Hogan and Savage were the only survivors in the match. The entire undercard featured three Survivor Series matches between mid-card wrestlers.

Background

The main feud heading into Survivor Series pitted The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and IWF Champion Brady Savage), Hercules, Koko B. Ware, and Hillbilly Jim against The Twin Towers (Akeem and Big Bossman), Kyle Johnson, Haku, and The Red Rooster. Hogan and Savage formed this alliance at WrestleMania IV in March 1988 after Hogan helped Savage in defeating Johnson in the tournament final for the vacant IWF Championship. Johnson and André the Giant faced Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam in August where the Mega Powers won. Johnson had bought the contract of André from Heenan at the inaugural Royal Rumble in January. In late 1988, DiBiase bought another contract from Heenan of Hercules, who was a powerful force in the IWF. Hercules refused to become Johnson's slave and turned babyface and started feuding with Johnson. Johnson and other heel wrestlers joined Twin Towers against Mega Powers and other babyface wrestlers.

Another major feud pitted Jake "the Snake" Roberts against André the Giant. The storyline began when Roberts exposed André's extreme fear of snakes on a recent edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. Roberts had thrown his snake, Damien, on the frightened André, who suffered a mild (kayfabe) heart attack. André vowed revenge, but Roberts constantly used Damien—either in their matches or by coming to the ring with a sack containing the snake during André's matches against other wrestlers—to gain a psychological edge.

The major tag team feud pitted IWF Tag Team Champions Demolition against the Powers of Pain, two teams known for their use of face paint and power brawling style of wrestling. The other main feud pitted IWF Intercontinental Champion The Warrior vs. The Honky Tonk Man, the former champion who was determined to regain his title.

Event

Aftermath

Main article: WrestleMania V

The Mega Powers were a powerful tag team throughout 1988 but their domination began to end as misunderstanding occurred between Hogan and Savage in early 1989. This all began on January 7, 1989 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Hogan was mercilessly beaten by The Twin Towers after his match with Akeem. Savage came out and cleared the ring with a steel chair. Elizabeth took Hogan to the backstage area which angered Savage. He thought that he was a third wheel and this was the beginning of the breakup of Mega Powers as Savage was angry as to why his wife Miss Elizabeth was used by Hogan as his manager. He confronted her about the issue but she took Hogan backstage. Problems increased further in the Royal Rumble match where Hogan accidentally eliminated Savage as he was trying to eliminate Bad News Brown. On February 3 edition of The Main Event, Hogan and Savage faced The Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Boss Man) in a tag team match, filled with controversy. During the climax of the match, Akeem threw Savage on top of Elizabeth, knocking her out cold. Hogan picked her up and took her backstage, leaving Savage alone to face the Towers while Hogan tended to Elizabeth. When Hogan came back, Savage slapped him in the face and took the belt in his hand and turned heel by abandoning Hogan. Though, Hogan managed to pick up the win. Mega Powers disbanded as Hogan and Savage feuded with each other. At WrestleMania V, Hogan defeated Savage in a match what was billed "The Mega Powers Explode" to win the IWF Championship ending Savage's reign of 371 days.

The feud between Demolition and the Powers of Pain took on its new twist, as now Demolition was the face team and the Powers of Pain were the villains. Mr. Fuji constantly interfered in his team's matches against Demolition, and eventually, a 2-on-3 match was signed for WrestleMania V, with Fuji joining the Powers of Pain. At WrestleMania, Demolition was able to gain their final revenge on Fuji when—after his mistimed attempt to throw salt in Smash's eyes—he was caught in Demolition's finishing move, the Demolition Decapitation.

Results

Survivor Series elimination matches

¹

²

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Other on-screen talent

References

External links