Throwback Thursday: Looking back at WWE Survivor Series 1990

Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Last time, I covered the WWE Survivor Series 1987.

WWE Survivor Series 1990

Date: Nov. 22, 1990

Venue: Hartford Civic Center (XL Center), Hartford, Conn.

Some random notes

This was the fourth annual Survivor Series and is remembered mostly for the television debut of The Undertaker.

I promise you other things happened on this show, too.

First off, this was the second year in a row that WWE used a four-on-four format for Survivor Series. The match began as five-on-five, which is still being used for this year's event.

This was the first year that the survivors from each match went into a grand finale match at the end of the night.

The Undertaker wasn't the only gimmick to debut on this night, as did the Gobbledy Gooker, who hatched from a giant egg that was sitting in the arena.

As soon as the Gooker came out of the egg, the fans in Hartford booed.

Gene Okerland tried his best and had the line of the night when he said, "He got a pair of legs like my mother-in-law, pal."

He followed that up with, "Look at the feet on this thing."

The stupid turkey thing dragged Okerlund to the ring and did and danced with him. Vince McMahon was probably backstage dying with laughter. He was alone in that laughter.

The man inside the suit was actually Hector Guerrero. You can tell there was a luchador in that costume by the way it moved around the ring. The fact that Guerrero could be so agile in that stupid costume was a testament to his physical talent.

Too bad it was wasted in a turkey costume.

Another thing McMahon was probably so proud of was his over-the-top openings where he just yelled all of the participants in each match. He was so ridiculous during these.

Randy Savage (then known as the Macho King) did an interview with Okerlund where he bad-mouthed The Ultimate Warrior. Their feud eventually culminated in a retirement match at WrestleMania 7.

Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper called the action and with that said, let's get to the matches.

The Warriors (Ultimate Warrior, Legion of Doom & Texas Tornado) def. The Perfect Team (Mr. Perfect & Demolition)

No, The Perfect team was not at a disadvantage. That was because Demolition was a trio by this point with Ax, Smash and Crush.

On the other side was the WWE champion, The Ultimate Warrior, who was donning a white strap for the title belt. Warrior changed the color of the strap for both

The Ultimate Warrior was the WWE champion at the time and had a title belt with a white strap. Warrior changed the straps the both the WWE and Intercontinental title, going with yellow and even purple at various points.

Speaking of the Intercontinental championship, the current title holder, Texas Tornado also opposed The Perfect Team.

The good guys did a pre-match interview with Okerlund and it was as chaotic as it sounds.

Animal and Smash started the match off. Each man wound up on the wrong side of the ring at various points and paid for it.

Smash eventually tagged in Perfect, who briefly stayed in before chaos ensued and members of both teams jumped into the ring.

Once things calmed down, Tornado ran into Ax and they began battling. Tornado got the claw in on Ax, but Crush broke it up. Warrior eventually got in and quickly eliminated Ax.

All of the bad guys jumped in after the elimination, but Warrior easily cleaned house. Crush finally halted his momentum.

Crush had a small window of offense, but Warrior fended him off and tagged in Hawk. Crush tagged in Perfect, who was quickly thrown around by the Legion of Doom member.

Perfect managed to use Hawk's momentum against him and The Perfect Team then isolated on their side of the ring.

Both members of the Legion of Doom made their way into the ring to fight against the remaining members of Demolition. After a few moments of chaos, the referee disqualified all four men, leaving Perfect to go against Tornado and Warrior.

Warrior was ready to go against Perfect, but the latter asked to face Tornado. Warrior gave him what he wanted and Tornado knocked him around like a rag doll, as a reward.

Even Mr. Perfect's manager Bobby Heenan wasn't safe, as Warrior tossed him around outside of the ring.

In the midst of the commotion, Mr. Perfect slammed Tornado's head into an exposed turnbuckle and followed that up with the Perfect-plex to eliminate him.

Warrior inadvertently jumped into the same turnbuckle, which allowed Perfect to hit another Perfect-plex, but Warrior kicked out.

As expected, Warrior dug down deep, hit a flying tackle followed by a splash to pick up the win as the sole survivor.

The Million Dollar Team (Ted DiBiase, The Undertaker, Rhythm & Blues) def. The Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, Koko B. Ware & The Hart Foundation)

DiBiase had touted for weeks that he bought the best partner money could buy, but he kept it a secret until right before the match started.

Once in the ring, he introduced The Undertaker to the television audience for the first time.

Piper's reaction: "Look at the size of that ham hock!"

Piper wasn't alone in his shock and awe of what he was looking at. Everyone in the arena couldn't believe what they had just feasted their eyes on either.

That was because The Undertaker was in complete contrast to everyone else on the roster at that time. Everyone else, including the heels, was colorful and vibrant.

The Undertaker, on the other hand, was dark and solemn.

The first person to get to work against The Undertaker on television was Bret Hart, who was one half of the tag team champs. Hart was easily dominated and quickly tagged in Jim Neidhart. He didn't do any better.

Ware was next. He failed miserably and received a tombstone for his efforts. He was eliminated.

Hart jumped back in and threw a flurry of punches, but Undertaker was unfazed. The Undertaker then willingly tagged himself out in favor of Greg Valentine to face Rhodes.

Rhodes got the better of Valentine, which allowed the good guys to isolate him. Valentine managed to fend them off and tag in his partner, the Honky Tonk Man.

Honky Tonk Man went to work on Hart, but gloated a few seconds too long, which allowed Hart to tag in Neidhart without him knowing. Honky Tonk Man ran the ropes, but ran right into a power slam from Neidhart and scored the pin fall.

DiBiase quickly jumped in to replace Honky Tonk Man, but he wasn't able to get the better of Neidhart, who tagged in Rhodes. Rhodes got funky like a monkey and even hit a drop kick.

Rhodes gave way to Neidhart, who continued the barrage on DiBiase.

Virgil helped his boss by tripping up Neidhart, which gave DiBiase the opening to eliminate him.

Rhodes eventually got back into the fray and made DiBiase flip, flop and fly, but DiBiase managed to recover and tag in The Undertaker.

Rhodes couldn't take that much of The Undertaker and quickly tagged in Hart. Jimmy Hart could be heard on the outside of the ring yelling, "You better call 9-1-1 now!"

The Undertaker tagged out again, but it was to Hart's benefit, as he tagged in Rhodes. However, Rhodes made the mistake of allowing DiBiase back into his corner, which allowed The Undertaker to tag himself back in.

Less than a minute later, The Undertaker eliminated Rhodes, leaving Hart all by his lonesome.

Rhodes wasn't done fighting for the night, as Brother Love delivered a couple of cheap shots while he was recovering outside of the ring. Rhodes eventually got to his feet and almost put his hands on the manager.

The Undertaker saw this and swooped in to thwart Rhodes. With the two fighting their way backstage, The Undertaker was eliminated via count-out. It was now down to DiBiase and Valentine against Hart.

It looked like one of the referees outside of the ring was Shane McMahon.

Back in the ring, Hart turned a figure four attempt from Valentine into a small package to eliminate him.

Hart looked as though he was going to overcome seemingly impossible odds to walk away as the sole survivor, but DiBiase eventually got the better of him by reversing a cross body into a pin to secure the win.

This was just as much about Hart as it was about DiBiase. He took a lot of steps forward in the eyes of the fans. As for DiBiase, he had a WWE title match against Warrior on The Main Event the next night.

The Visionaries (Rick Martel, Warlord, Power & Glory) def. The Vipers (Jake Roberts, Jimmy Snuka & The Rockers)

Heading into this match, Martel had damaged Roberts' eye by way of his fragrance, Arrogance. Roberts, damaged eye and all, wanted nothing more than to get his hands on the model.

Jannetty started against The Warlord. Jannetty used his speed advantage against Warlord, but it didn't have much effect on him. The bigger guys rarely sold for The Rockers unless they did a move in tandem.

Shawn Michaels eventually tagged in, as he went up against Martel. Michaels got the better of Martel and then turned to Roberts so that he could get his hands on the model. Martel saw Roberts and quickly tagged in Paul Roma of Power and Glory.

Roma didn't stand much of a chance against Roberts. Roberts then tagged in Snuka. Snuka intimidated Roma, which forced him to tag in his partner Hercules. Snuka made quick work of Hercules, who tagged in the massive Warlord.

Snuka tagged in Jannetty, who was quickly overpowered by Warlord. Jannetty managed to lands some blows to Warlord, but he never left his feet.

Jannetty then tried to hit consecutive moves from the top rope. The first one was successful, but Warlord turned the second one into a power slam and pinned him.

Michaels replaced his partner and somehow got the better of Warlord. He then tagged in Roberts, who managed to get the big man off his feet. Eventually, Michaels and Roma got back into the match.

Roma gained the upper hand on Michaels and the bad guys isolated him. After taking a lot of punishment, Michaels fended off Martel to get to Snuka.

Snuka came in like a proverbial house of fire and beat on Martel.

However, Martel reversed a cross body to eliminate Snuka. Roberts jumped in to finally get his hands on Martel, but the model managed to slither away again to tag in Hercules.

The numbers game and his impaired vision began to catch up with Roberts. However, he managed to evade Roma's fist from the top rope and tagged in Michaels.

Michaels got a lot of offense in on Roma, but the latter was able to tag in his partner without Michaels knowing. Hercules quickly gained the advantage on Michaels.

The Visionaries began making quick tags on Michaels. Power and Glory landed their finish, which sent Michaels to the locker room and left Roberts all by himself.

Roberts managed to hit the DDT on Warlord, but the referee was distracted. Martel attempted to spray Arrogance in Roberts' face again, but he moved out of the way.

Roberts then rolled back to his corner and reached for the famous burlap sack that contained his snake, Damien. Roberts unleashed Damien on Martel and chased him all the way to the locker room. Unfortunately for Roberts, he was counted out, which left Martel's entire team as the survivors.

It was the first time in the brief history of Survivor Series that an entire team survived.

The Hulkamaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Jim Duggan, Big Boss Man & Tugboat) def. The Natural Disasters (Earthquake, Haku, Dino Bravo & Barbarian)

Tugboat. Good old Tugboat. You may also know him as Typhoon. You may know him by his real name of Fred Ottman, but he'll forever be remembered as The Shockmaster.

Tugboat and Earthquake eventually teamed up to become … The Natural Disasters. That was very original.

Every time I see King Cuerno from Lucha Underground, I can't help but think about Barbarian. Speaking of Barbarian, I'd take him and Haku on a Survivor Series team against the rest of the rest of the roster if this was a real fight.

Duggan and Haku kicked things off, but after a series of tags, Boss Man made quick work of Haku and sent him packing.

Boss Man eventually gave way to Duggan after Barbarian failed to convert a move from the top rope.

The good guys' momentum came to a halt when Earthquake entered the match.

The massive Earthquake easily got the advantage of Duggan. Duggan then got a hold of his 2x4 and began hitting everyone in sight with it, which caused him to be disqualified and eliminated.

Hogan replaced Duggan, as all of the bad guys attempted to get their hands on him. He cleared the ring and even slammed Earthquake.

Earthquake managed to fend off Hogan and slam him to the mat. He then tagged in Bravo, who jumped right on Hogan. Hogan snuck in a small package on Bravo and eliminated him.

Hogan then tagged out in favor of Boss Man, who went to work on Earthquake, but all it took was two elbow drops from Earthquake to send Boss Man packing.

Hogan quickly jumped in the ring to replace Boss Man. Earthquake got the better of Hogan, but the former WWE champion crawled over to Tugboat to tag him in.

Earthquake and Tugboat eventually fought on the outside of the ring and were both counted out, leaving just Hogan and Barbarian.

If you've watched enough Hogan matches, you knew it was only a matter of time before Hogan found a way to defeat Barbarian.

That is exactly what happened. Barbarian threw everything but the kitchen sink at Hogan, but Hogan hulked up, hit the big boot and the leg drop to win the match.

The Alliance (Nikolai Volkoff, Tito Santana & The Bushwackers) def. The Mercenaries (Sgt. Slaughter, Boris Zhukov & The Orient Express)

I think Slaughter's pre-match interview lasted longer than the match. Slaughter spent a good chunk of time talking about how much he loved Iraq and how much he despised his homeland of the United States.

All of Slaughter's talk didn't save his team, as Zhukov and both members of the Orient Express were ousted in less than five minutes.

Volkoff was the first to take on Slaughter. He had an early advantage, but Slaughter knocked the crap out of him to take control.

Slaughter beat up on Volkoff before eliminating him. The Bushwackers jumped to take advantage of the numbers, but were unable to secure the win. Both were summarily eliminated by Slaughter.

Santana jumped in to finally give the good guys hope.

The referee was inadvertently knocked out during the match. While he was down, Santana hit the flying forearm. That allowed General Adnan to hit Santana with the Iraq flag.

Slaughter then locked in the cobra clutch and thought he had the match won. However, he was disqualified, giving Santana the victory.

Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior & Tito Santana def. Ted DiBiase, Rick Martel, Warlord & Power & Glory

Warrior changed his face paint and trunks before this match.

He also said arrivederci when referring to Santana during his pre-match interview. Someone should have told him that was Italian.

As soon as the match began, Santana and Hogan teamed up to eliminate the Warlord.

Santana's celebration was short-lived, as the bad guys isolated him. Santana fought against DiBiase for a little bit, but eventually succumbed to the Million Dollar champion, leaving just Hogan and Warrior for the good guys.

The bad guys went to work on Hogan for a long time, but Hogan eventually hulked on Roma and eliminated him.

Martel jumped on Hogan next, but didn't do much damage, which allowed him to tag in Warrior.

Warrior ran into the ring hot and knocked Martel all over the place. Hogan came back into the ring and knocked Martel out of the ring. Martel stayed out there and ran to the locker room, which got him counted out and evened the odds.

Once the odds were even, you knew it was all over. Hogan hit the leg drop on DiBiase to eliminate him and Warrior polished off Hercules to seal the victory.