Survivor Series 1990 is an incredibly special event for fans of wrestling. Even if you are not a follower of WWE, you know who the Undertaker is. He made his WWE debut at this event in Hartford, Connecticut at the Hartford Civic Center. Undertaker was billed as the mystery partner for The Million Dollar Team, led by Ted DiBiase. I do not want to take away from the other matches on this card because it was quite a stacked event. Fans in attendance probably did not realize how special this event was though.
Survivor Series 1990 card
Let us get this out of the way early, Undertaker made his debut due to Bad News Brown being out of action. Yep, the greatest debut of all time was unplanned and due to happenstance. There was another first at Survivor Series 1990 too. More on that in a bit.
Survivor Series 1990 was the fourth time the WWE had presented this PPV event. It was held under stringent “survivor series” rules – no singles match for instance. It was also customary for the team to go by a name – you know, for marketing and to show camaraderie.
The first match on the card featured –
The Warriors – Animal, Hawk, The Texas Tornado, and The Ultimate Warrior. They took on The Perfect Team – Ax, Crush, Mr. Perfect, and Smash.
Match number two featured –
The Million Dollar Team – The Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine, Ted DiBiase, and The Undertaker. They fought The Dream Team – Bret Hart, Dusty Rhodes, Koko B. Ware, and Jim Neidhart.
The third match would probably be Randy Orton’s favorite, if only based on the name of one team. Here we saw The Visionaries – Hercules, Paul Roma, Rick Martel, and The Warlord in action. That eclectic mix of athletes took on The Vipers. Jake Roberts led Jimmy Snuka, Marty Jannetty, and Shawn Michaels into action.
The Hulkamaniacs – Big Boss Man, Hulk Hogan, Jim Duggan, and Tugboat were involved in the fourth match. They took on The Natural Disasters – The Barbarian, Dino Bravo, Earthquake, and Haku. Not feeling that Survivor Series name guys, not going to lie.
The last traditional Survivor Series match saw The Alliance – Butch, Luke, Nikolai Volkoff, and Tito Santana team up. They challenged The Mercenaries – Boris Zhukov, Sgt. Slaughter, Sato, and Tanaka.
The interesting thing about Survivor Series 1990 was just how traditional it was. The winners of their respective matches would team up in an “ultimate survivor” match.
This final match featured Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, and the Ultimate Warrior in a handicap match. Their opponents were Hercules, Paul Roma, Rick Martel, Ted DiBiase, and The Warlord.
The debut of the Undertaker
I am sure no one knew when the Undertaker was making his debut that he would be as successful as he was. While he was not so successful in his debut, he did not win the match, nor was he the ultimate survivor, he did well otherwise.
The Undertaker made an impression on fans. His teammates and opponents helped make him look even more intimidating. It was the perfect storm, how he was booked early on. This was the alignment of the stars, whatever you want to call it. Everything worked without much of a hitch.
What is your favorite match? Would you have changed out any wrestlers for others for a “dream team”? Let me know in the comments.
This article was originally published on the Gravis Ludus Wrestling website.