Survivor Series (1990)

Survivor Series (1990)
Promotional poster
Tagline(s)	"The WWF Thanksgiving Night Tradition!"
Information
Promotion	World Wrestling Federation
Date	November 22, 1990
Attendance	16,000[1]
Venue	Hartford Civic Center
City	Hartford, Connecticut
Pay-per-view chronology
SummerSlam (1990) Survivor Series (1990) Royal Rumble (1991)
Survivor Series chronology
Survivor Series (1989) Survivor Series (1990) Survivor Series (1991)

Survivor Series (1990) was the fourth annual Survivor Series pay-per-view professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 1990, at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

This event is famous for seeing the on-screen debut of The Undertaker,^[2] who went on to become the WWF World Heavyweight Champion at the next Survivor Series, and the appearance of the Gobbledy Gooker. In addition, Sgt. Slaughter, who then portrayed an Iraqi sympathizer, insulted servicemen stationed in Iraq for Thanksgiving during Operation Desert Shield. Randy Savage challenged The Ultimate Warrior for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Rick Rude was replaced by Haku after being suspended by WWF President Jack Tunney for insulting the mother of the Big Boss Man; in reality, the suspension explained Rude's departure from the WWF over a dispute.

Aftermath

Crowd reaction to the Gobbledy Gooker was extremely negative, with fans loudly booing as the costumed Héctor Guerrero danced in the ring with announcer Gene Okerlund. Although the character made a handful of appearances in taped promos following the Survivor Series,^[3] the Gobbledy Gooker soon disappeared and was not mentioned again until the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania X-Seven. Several years later, WrestleCrap would use the name for its "Gooker Award", presented for the worst gimmicks, storylines or events in wrestling.

Sgt. Slaughter and Randy Savage both received matches against the Ultimate Warrior for the World Heavyweight Championship. Warrior was initially successful in answering both foes' challenges. Meanwhile, Slaughter and his manager, General Adnan, cut several anti-American promos – all airing at a time when the United States was engaged in Operation Desert Shield, all to build up heat for his match against Warrior at the 1991 Royal Rumble. Slaughter – with help from both Savage and Savage's manager, Sensational Sherri – won the World title from Warrior at the Royal Rumble, with the event taking place two days after the start of the Persian Gulf War.

Hogan went on to focus on wrapping up his feud with Earthquake with a series of stretcher matches, which Hogan won, before going on to challenge Slaughter for the WWF World Heavyweight title.

Since the formation of Demolition in 1987, they had been compared to the Legion of Doom as to who the best power-brawling tag team was. The feud between Demolition (which by now was Brian Adams and Barry Darsow as Crush and Smash, respectively) and LOD continued to rage into the end of 1990, with LOD eventually proving decisively they were the best team. (In part, the feud had not had the anticipated intensity because of Bill Eadie's reduced role in the tag team; he had competed as Ax, due to health problems and his focus on gaining an office role.) As such, Demolition began losing their push, Mr. Fuji was phased back in as their manager (after dramatically splitting from them two years earlier) and their last major tag team appearance at a United States pay-per-view event was at WrestleMania VII, where the team lost to Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao. LOD, meanwhile, would eventually become World Tag Team Champions.

The Undertaker would quickly become over with fans as he easily handled lower-card competition during his first months in the WWF. He quickly earned his first main-event feud with the Ultimate Warrior, with that feud starting shortly after WrestleMania VII and kick-starting a career with WWF/WWE that has lasted for more than 25 years.

Results

Survivor Series elimination matches

^1

^2

^3

^4

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Other on-screen talent

References

• "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts". Wrestling's historical cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. pp. 88–89. 
• Survivor Series '90 Review
• hoffco-inc.com – Survivor Series '90 review
• 1990 Survivor Series Results

External links

• Official 1990 Survivor Series website