The primary-ever WWE Survivor Series in November 1987 proved to be a historical event for a lot of reasons.
For starters, it was the primary ever Survivor Series, kicking off an event/PPV/PLE/whatever you would like to call it that continues to be amongst WWE’s biggest events of the calendar 12 months 4 a long time later. Then there’s the undeniable fact that the show was created specifically to mess with Jim Crockett Promotions, WWE’s competitor on the time. That November, JCP was set to carry its annual Starrcade event on Thanksgiving, prompting WWE to schedule Survivor Series for a similar day. Even after Crockett attempted to maneuver the show to the afternoon to present PPV corporations the choice to air each, a powerplay by Vince McMahon resulted in all but five PPV corporations dropping Starrcade and airing Survivor Series as an alternative, kicking off JCP’s downfall and eventual sale to Ted Turner, resulting in the creation of WCW.
While those are the 2 major reasons the inaugural Survivor Series is remembered, there may be one other reason it has strong historical value. And that, imagine it or not, is due to the second match on the cardboard; a five on five all women’s Survivor Series match that saw Sensational Sherri, Dawn Marie, Donna Christianello, and The Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai and Judy Martin) tackle The Fabulous Moolah, Rockin’ Robin, Velvet McIntyre, and The Jumping Bomb Angels (Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno). Given it was 1987, a time when women’s wrestling in america was still treated mostly as fodder, a match like this might seem misplaced for a WWE show. And yet, the 20-minute bout, considered one of only 4 to make the primary Survivor Series card, looks like a match that would not be misplaced within the modern-day wrestling landscape.
Survivor Series Saw One Of WWE’s First Attempts To Establish Women’s Wrestling In The US
A giant reason for that was the talent WWE decided to showcase on this match. From a marquee standpoint, the largest names WWE fans would’ve recognized were Moolah, the long-time WWE stalwart, and Christianello, who had worked for the promotion back when it was referred to as the WWWF. And yet, each were among the many two eliminated early within the match, alongside Marie and Robin. As such, the match focus turned to Sherri, the WWE Hall of Famer who was just as renowned for her ring work as her valet skills, McIntyre, a well-renowned Irish wrestler with experience within the US, Europe, and Japan, and arguably the 2 best women’s tag teams on the time within the Jumping Bomb Angels and the Glamour Girls. With the ultimate nine minutes focused on those individuals, the match was less of a stereotypical, Moolah style match most fans expected from women on the time, and into something more in keeping with the All Japan Women’s style occurring in Japan.
In other words, it offered a glimmer of hope for girls’s wrestling on the time. As a substitute of being a sideshow, talents just like the Jumping Bomb Angels and Glamour Girls showed they may very well be the show, offering progressive wrestling that even the boys weren’t delivering on the time. And briefly, it seemed as if it will carry over, because the Jumping Bomb Angels and Glamour Girls, already feuding before Survivor Series, would have a series of well-received bouts throughout early 1988, and a WrestleMania match between them was supposedly within the cards. Alas, that glimmer quickly faded; by the spring, each teams had left WWE, never to return, and the ladies’s division went from potentially breaking out to having to attend many more years before it got its just due.
