The 1988 Survivor Series was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the second annual Survivor Series and took place on Thanksgiving Day in the United States on Thursday, November 24, 1988, at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield Township, Ohio for the second consecutive year. The event centered on the Survivor Series match, a tag team elimination match that pits teams of multiple wrestlers against each other.

Four matches were contested at the event, all contested as Survivor Series matches. The main event was a 10-man Survivor Series match between a team captained by The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage) and a team captained by The Twin Towers (Akeem and the Big Boss Man). Hogan and Savage were the survivors of the match.

Production

Background On Thanksgiving Day in the United States in 1987, the professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) debuted a pay-per-view (PPV) event titled Survivor Series. The event was characterized by featuring only tag team elimination matches that were dubbed Survivor Series matches. Of the four matches at the inaugural event, three pitted teams of five wrestlers against each other, while the other featured five tag teams against each other (totaling 10 wrestlers per team), but with the stipulation being that if one member of a tag team was eliminated, both members of that particular tag team were eliminated. A second Survivor Series was scheduled for 1988, establishing Survivor Series as an annual Thanksgiving event and becoming one of the promotions original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and SummerSlam, eventually referred to the "Big Four". It has also since become the second longest running pay-per-view event in history (behind WrestleMania). Like the prior year, the event was scheduled to be held on Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 24, 1988, at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield Township, Ohio.Ian Hamilton. Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition (p. 160)

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

Another major feud pitted Jake 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 XII. 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 WWF 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 Powers, previously heels in Jim Crockett Promotions, had been brought into the WWF as babyface mercenaries by previous champions Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) to avenge both their title loss to Demolition at WrestleMania IV and an injury Demolition had inflicted on Martel back in June. The other main feud pitted WWF Intercontinental Champion Ultimate Warrior vs. The Honky Tonk Man, the former champion who was determined to regain his title.

Event Preliminary matches The first match of the event was a five-on-five Survivor Series match between the team of Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, Sam Houston, The Blue Blazer (in his pay-per-view (PPV) debut), and Jim Brunzell, and the team of The Honky Tonk Man, Ron Bass, Danny Davis, Greg Valentine, and Bad News Brown; as such, this match was mainly among Intercontinental Championship contenders, and low to mid-card wrestlers. Don Muraco was originally scheduled to be a part of Warrior's team, but left the WWF, so he was replaced by Jim Brunzell. Beefcake scored the first victory of the night for Warrior's team, using a sleeper hold to force Davis to submit at the 1:18 mark. Brown evened the odds for the heel team about four minutes later, hitting Brunzell with a Ghetto Blaster, a type of kick to the back of the head. Not long thereafter, Valentine and Brown were setting Houston up for a double-team move when Houston dodged a running forearm club by Valentine, who instead struck Brown. Brown—playing up his character as an uncooperative loner—was angered and walked out of the match, getting himself counted out. Bass pinned Houston after a running powerslam, evening the sides at 3-apiece. The Blue Blazer used his speed to daze Valentine, but while attempting to finish the veteran Valentine off with a top-rope move, Honky ran over and pushed Blazer off the ropes; Valentine quickly applied a figure four leglock to force the submission. Beefcake then got the upper hand over Honky and locked on the sleeper hold, but Honky got to and slipped through the ropes, taking Beefcake with him; both men were ultimately counted out, leaving Warrior as the lone member of his team. Bass and Valentine worked over Warrior for a while, but Warrior dodged a double-clothesline attempt and knocked both men down, quickly pinning both men back-to-back—first Bass, then Valentine—with double axe handles to win the match and be the sole survivor.

+ Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:CommentatorGorilla MonsoonJesse VenturaInterviewerGene OkerlundSean MooneyRing announcerHoward FinkelRefereeEarl HebnerJoey MarellaTim White The second Survivor Series match was a 10-on-10 variation of tag teams, in which if a wrestler from a tag team was eliminated, his partner was also eliminated. The match pitted the Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty), The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid), The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), and The Young Stallions (Paul Roma and Jim Powers) against Demolition (Ax and Smash), The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard), The Bolsheviks (Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov), The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques Rougeau and Raymond Rougeau), and The Conquistadors. Hart pinned Raymond with a small package, eliminating The Fabulous Rougeaus from the match. Zhukov hit a reverse diving crossbody on Powers and pinned him to eliminate The Young Stallions, but shortly after, he was pinned by Jannetty with a sunset flip, thus eliminating The Bolsheviks from the match. Hart hit a German suplex on Blanchard, but the referee saw his shoulders down, so he counted the pinfall, eliminating The Hart Foundation. The Rockers began brawling with Blanchard and his partner Anderson. The Rockers and the Brain Busters were both disqualified due to brawling in the ring and were eliminated. Dynamite hit Smash on the mat and went to the top rope. He tried to hit a diving headbutt, but Smash got up and clotheslined him and then pinned him to eliminate the British Bulldogs. Initially, Smash was unable to handle the powerful Barbarian of the Powers of Pain, but Demolition eventually gained the advantage when Ax moved out of the way of a charging Warlord, who injured his shoulder on the steel corner post of the ring. Both Demolition members took turns to work on Warlord's injured shoulder until the Powers of Pain looked ripe to be defeated. However, at this point, Demolition's manager Mr. Fuji opened the rope, causing his own man Smash to fall from the ring and get counted out, thus eliminating Demolition. Afterward, Ax confronted Fuji, who denied everything, but when Ax shoved him off and turned his back in disgust, a fuming Fuji struck him with his cane from behind. The sufficiently recovered Smash, who had been watching all this, collared the manager and threw him to Ax, who slammed him to the ringside mat, causing Demolition to turn babyface. After Demolition strode away to cheers from the crowd, The Powers of Pain momentarily resumed the match with the Conquistadors, but then they suddenly ceased and stepped out of the ring and turned heels when they picked the hated Fuji up off the floor, dusted him down and guided him round to their corner. Moments later, Fuji tripped Conquistador #1 with his cane, allowing the Barbarian to hit the masked man with a diving headbutt and pin him to eliminate The Conquistadors, making the Powers of Pain the survivors. After the match, the Powers celebrated with Fuji on their shoulders Demolition ran back to the ring and chased Warlord and Barbarian out to the floor where Fuji ordered them to retreat to the dressing room, leaving Demolition alone with the fans.

In the third Survivor Series match, André the Giant, Rick Rude, Dino Bravo, Mr. Perfect, and Harley Race fought against Jim Duggan, Jake Roberts, Scott Casey, Ken Patera, and Tito Santana. Junkyard Dog was originally scheduled to be a part of Roberts' team, but left WWF. B. Brian Blair replaced the Junkyard Dog to be a part of the team, but he also left WWF, so he was replaced by Scott Casey. Rude hit Patera with a Rude Awakening at 8:18 mark and pinned Patera to eliminate him, leaving Roberts' team with 4 members. A minute later, André's team member Bravo hit Casey with a side suplex and pinned Casey to eliminate him. Roberts' team was left with only three members, while André's team had still five members. However, Santana hit Race with a flying forearm smash and then pinned him to eliminate Race, leaving André's team with 4 members. Heel team captain André came in and quickly used his massive height and weight to crush and eventually pin Santana, leaving the heels with a 4–2 advantage. Later, Duggan used his 2×4 on Bravo, getting disqualified in the process. Roberts, the only member left on the face team, held his own and when Rude cockily attempted to tag one of his partners into the ring, he caught Rude from behind and hit with a DDT, eliminating him. André quickly got into the ring, applied a chokehold on Roberts, and refused to release it, getting disqualified in the process. Before André left, he headbutted Roberts. Perfect took advantage and pinned Roberts to win the match. Perfect and Bravo became the survivors for their team. After the match, Roberts recovered, retrieved Damien and chased Andre, Perfect, and Bravo from ringside.

Main event