10 Best Survivor Series Elimination Matches EVER - According To Dave Meltzer
7. Hulk Hogan's Team Vs Andre The Giant's Team (1987, ***3/4)
The first ever Survivor Series main event is a glittering celebration of 1980s WWE boom period pomp. Overspilling in size, star power and sensationalism, Hulk Hogan's cronies squaring off against Andre The Giant's gang of superheavyweights spectacularly embodied how the company had outperformed JCP, the NWA territories and every other promotion in the hearts and minds of new fans.
It's far from a technical classic, but it didn't want or need to be one. Hogan and Andre's first physical confrontation since WrestleMania 3 was the selling point, and the crowd were white hot for their eventual showdown. Add in a host of simmering individual rivalries back when that actually used to be thought about ahead of the Survivor Series, and little fails.
If WWE arguably mishandled one element of the match, it was the booking of the closing sequence. Being kept strong for the most-watched wrestling match ever in 1988 despite extreme limitations, Andre The Giant was the sole survivor following Hogan's count-out elimination earlier in the battle.
As revealed by Bruce Prichard in later years, Vince McMahon's 'HOGAN MUST POSE' ethos for the end of pay-per-views resulted in a bitter 'Hulkster' returning to chase away the villains and offer little kudos to his team's final fighter Bam Bam Bigelow. Though he'd won, Andre looked a bit of a sap as Hogan's megalomania closed the broadcast.