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Yearly Review: WWF November 1989

Hulk Hogan has plenty of challengers to deal with. Will he survive with the gold?
WWF World Championship Scene: (currently held by: Hulk Hogan) Hogan was the captain of a Survivor Series team which would compete against Ted DiBiase’s team at the Survivor Series later in the month. Hogan led Jake Roberts, and the WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition. DiBiase led Zeus, and the Powers of Pain. At the Survivor Series event, Hogan’s team prevailed over DiBiase’s after Hogan was able to pin DiBiase following a leg drop.

Hogan still had issues with Mr. Perfect who destroyed the WWF World Championship during last month’s taping of SNME.

He was also defending the championship against Bad News Brown on the house show market on a regular basis. Perfect continued to assure everyone that he would win the WWF World Championship.

As you may also recall, Hogan was having problems with Zeus and Randy Savage centered on the No Holds Barred movie. During the November 20th taping of WWF Superstars, it was announced that Hogan and his longtime friend Brutus Beefcake would compete against Randy Savage and Zeus inside a steel cage match.

WWF Intercontinental Championship Scene: (currently held by: the Ultimate Warrior) At the November 19th Maple Leaf Gardens house show, Warrior was able to successfully defend the championship by beating Andre the Giant. The previous month Bobby Heenan had tricked Warrior into accepting a cage match against Andre to set up the match.

Warrior was the captain for another Survivor Series team as he led Jim Neidhart and the Rockers into battle against the Heenan Family, which consisted of Andre the Giant, Haku, Arn Anderson and Bobby Heenan. Warrior gained the win for his team after pinning Heenan following a splash.

On the house show market, Warrior primarily continued to defend the championship against Andre but also defended the championship against Mr. Perfect and the Genius.

WWF World Tag Team Championships Scene: (currently held by Demolition) There weren’t any major new developments for the champions this month as they were partners for Hulk Hogan for the Survivor Series match at the pay per view. They continued to defend the championships on the house show market primarily against the Powers of Pain and the team of Arn Anderson and Haku.


Other Happenings: 
- During the November 18th Superstars episode, Rick Martel began modeling clothing to continue his new model attitude.

- Tully Blanchard was fired from the WWF after the November 1st taping of Wrestling Challenge due to a failed drug test. Haku took his place teaming with Arn Anderson on the house show market as a result and Bobby Heenan took his spot at the Survivor Series event.

- Dusty Rhodes continued his feud with Big Bossman by costing Bossman a match against Tito Santana at the Survivor Series Showdown by using his nightstick. During the November 20th taping of Superstars, Bossman taunted Sapphire at ringside but Rhodes made the save again.

- Ron Garvin and Greg Valentine continued their feud that will seemingly not end. During the November 20th taping of Superstars, Garvin prevented Valentine from using his illegal shin guard on Jimmy Snuka.

- Rick Rude and Roddy Piper had their feud continued as Rude stuck up for Brother Love who was embarrassed by Piper.

- Mr. Fuji issued a challenge to the Rockers on behalf of the Powers of Pain to a match during the November 20th taping of Superstars. The Rockers responded by attacking Fuji which would essentially be a yes.

Survivor Series 1989 Results:
- Dusty Rhodes, Brutus Beefcake, Tito Santana and Red Rooster defeated Big Bossman, Rick Martel, Bad News Brown and the Honky Tonk Man in an elimination match. After the match, Bossman attacked Rhodes and Beefcake but Beefcake recovered to scare Bossman away from the ring with his hair clippers.

- Randy Savage, Dino Bravo, Greg Valentine and the Canadian Earthquake defeated Jim Duggan, Bret Hart, Ron Garvin and Hercules in an elimination match.

- WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan, WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition and Jake Roberts defeated Ted DiBiase, the Powers of Pain and Zeus in an elimination match.

- Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, and the Rougeau Brothers defeated Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka and the Bushwhackers in an elimination match.

- WWF Intercontinental Champion Ultimate Warrior, Jim Neidhart and the Rockers defeated Andre the Giant, Haku, Arn Anderson and Bobby Heenan in an elimination match.

Buy-rates: 
Survivor Series 1989: 3.3

Bob's Opinion: 
It's good to see Hulk Hogan involved in more than one feud. He had his issues with DiBiase, Perfect and the combo of Zeus and Savage still going on. Heck, Bad News Brown was in on the action as well. I recently had a co-worker talk about Brown believing that he should have won the WWF World Championship. I don't see that being a good idea.

Anyway, Hogan has a lot going on and there is a lot of interest in the WWF World Championship scene. I always enjoyed the Model gimmick. It was a shame that Martel wasn't able to gain singles success with a Intercontinental Championship run.

Not much of an opinion of what was going on at the time. What were your thoughts on what was going on in the WWF at this time?

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Thanks for reading and for your support! 

Comments

  1. Why we're Bret and Neidhart on different SS teams? Was this during one of the stop/start Bret singles pushes?

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  2. Continue to love the reviews from this era, dude -- This is when I started to get into wrestling at the tender age of 10 right after the first Wrestlemania -- Keep it up, please...

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  3. I was a huge rick martel mark! really loved his wcw comeback until he got injured at superbrawl viii.

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  4. I'm still upset that Hogan never wrestled Zeus in a singles match on TV or PPV.

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  5. Threadjacking,

    Where is the NFL thread? How can I whine about my Bears without a thread?

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  6. It would appear that Bret was wrestling singles matches quite often, but he was also working with Neidhart. It wasn't a full singles push, I don't believe.

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  7. ARROGANCE! "one shot will get you in the royal box!"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm9AbH7CnBc

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  8. The Hogan Survivor Series match is pretty awesome, worth a look on youtube. Dibiase is just in the zone.

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  9. wasnt this around the time when he was jobbing to dino bravo, and was finally going to win one against him than fucked up his ribs and bravo just thought he was selling well and continued to stiff kick him??

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  10. That wouldve been WrestleCrap for sure....

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  11. It was way cool to see Hogan in the ring together with Roberts, even if only teaming with Demo. Man I always wanted a Hogan/Roberts program. I read they tried in '86 but that fans were clearly backing Roberts & chanted "DDT".....not sure I totally buy that in '86 but it's not that unbelievable. So Hogan nixed the program after a few house show matches & a "Snake Pit" incident to protect himself, which is semi-understandable in '86. I can never find much on this online & I may be way off. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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  12. 1988 was a weird year for Bret. They wanted to give him a singes push, but it went nowhere. By the end of the year, the foundation was back together - but they still had Bret work matches even in 1989. They knew he was good, but wasn't sure where he'd fit in with the other big named guys. Then in 1990 the foundation got a major push gain, but then finally they had Bret win the ic tittle at SummerSlam.

    Respectfully, I always liked Bret - but it never felt right to see that belt on him until maybe 1995 or 1997. Probably because I thought guys like Duggan, Bossman, and Hogan should have stayed. I know there was no way in hindsight Hogan would stay. His heart wasn't in the business anymore and went in for himself.

    Also I regret WCW couldn't convince Bret to put over Hogan once. I mean you let Bret kick out of the leg drop six times, hogan then superhuman powers out of the sharpshooter - hogan then wins by a fluke roll up perfect *****

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  13. I liked Zeus. They needed to let him use his metal armbands and have hogan cough up fake blood.

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  14. I think WWF got it right in the way they used Zeus....

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  15. I know this sounds ridiculous, but why was Tully fired for failing a drug test? I would imagine that a large chunk of the WWF roster at the time was also doing drugs like Tully. Why was he the only one to get caught and fired?

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  16. LOL @ your Bears. Conte is amazing. Enjoy Cutler for 5 years or rebuilding. Either way, that team is a mess.

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  17. As I've noted before, you had to be doing a LOT of drugs to get dinged for it in the 80s. Even Tully has said that this was the low point of his life.

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  18. I think so. A lot of the SS89 lineups had weird elements though (especially the Hogan match...why revive Demolition vs. Powers of Pain AND have the Powers go over the Demos clean, only for it to go nowhere? Hogan/Beefcake/Duggan/Jake vs. Savage/Zeus/DiBiase/Perfect would be more epic)

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  19. The WWE has a policy of only allowing deities to wrestle tag matches, see also the McMahons v God / HBK match.

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