Preliminary matches The first match of the event was a five-on-five
Survivor Series match between the team of
Ultimate Warrior,
Brutus Beefcake,
Sam Houston,
The Blue Blazer (in his
pay-per-view (PPV) debut), and
Jim Brunzell, and the team of
The Honky Tonk Man,
Ron Bass,
Danny Davis,
Greg Valentine, and
Bad News Brown; as such, this match was mainly among Intercontinental Championship contenders, and low to mid-card wrestlers.
Don Muraco was originally scheduled to be a part of Warrior's team, but left the WWF, so he was replaced by Jim Brunzell. Beefcake scored the first victory of the night for Warrior's team, using a
sleeper hold to force Davis to submit at the 1:18 mark. Brown evened the odds for the heel team about four minutes later, hitting Brunzell with a
Ghetto Blaster, a type of kick to the back of the head. Not long thereafter, Valentine and Brown were setting Houston up for a double-team move when Houston dodged a running forearm club by Valentine, who instead struck Brown. Brown—playing up his character as an uncooperative loner—was angered and walked out of the match, getting himself counted out. Bass pinned Houston after a
running powerslam, evening the sides at 3-apiece. The Blue Blazer used his speed to daze Valentine, but while attempting to finish the veteran Valentine off with a top-rope move, Honky ran over and pushed Blazer off the ropes; Valentine quickly applied a
figure four leglock to force the submission. Beefcake then got the upper hand over Honky and locked on the sleeper hold, but Honky got to and slipped through the ropes, taking Beefcake with him; both men were ultimately counted out, leaving Warrior as the lone member of his team. Bass and Valentine worked over Warrior for a while, but Warrior dodged a double-clothesline attempt and knocked both men down, quickly pinning both men back-to-back—first Bass, then Valentine—with
double axe handles to win the match and be the sole survivor. The second Survivor Series match was a 10-on-10 variation of tag teams, in which if a wrestler from a
tag team was eliminated, his partner was also eliminated. The match pitted the
Powers of Pain (
The Warlord and
The Barbarian),
The Rockers (
Shawn Michaels and
Marty Jannetty),
The British Bulldogs (
Davey Boy Smith and
Dynamite Kid),
The Hart Foundation (
Bret Hart and
Jim Neidhart), and
The Young Stallions (
Paul Roma and
Jim Powers) against
Demolition (
Ax and
Smash),
The Brain Busters (
Arn Anderson and
Tully Blanchard),
The Bolsheviks (
Nikolai Volkoff and
Boris Zhukov),
The Fabulous Rougeaus (
Jacques Rougeau and
Raymond Rougeau), and
The Conquistadors. Hart pinned Raymond with a
small package, eliminating The Fabulous Rougeaus from the match. Zhukov hit a
reverse diving crossbody on Powers and pinned him to eliminate The Young Stallions, but shortly after, he was pinned by Jannetty with a
sunset flip, thus eliminating The Bolsheviks from the match. Hart hit a
German suplex on Blanchard, but the
referee saw his shoulders down, so he counted the
pinfall, eliminating The Hart Foundation. The Rockers began brawling with Blanchard and his partner Anderson. The Rockers and the Brain Busters were both disqualified due to brawling in the ring and were eliminated. Dynamite hit Smash on the mat and went to the top rope. He tried to hit a
diving headbutt, but Smash got up and
clotheslined him and then pinned him to eliminate the British Bulldogs. Initially, Smash was unable to handle the powerful Barbarian of the Powers of Pain, but Demolition eventually gained the advantage when Ax moved out of the way of a charging Warlord, who injured his shoulder on the steel corner post of the ring. Both Demolition members took turns to work on Warlord's injured shoulder until the Powers of Pain looked ripe to be defeated. However, at this point, Demolition's manager
Mr. Fuji opened the rope, causing his own man Smash to fall from the ring and get counted out, thus eliminating Demolition. Afterward, Ax confronted Fuji, who denied everything, but when Ax shoved him off and turned his back in disgust, a fuming Fuji struck him with his cane from behind. The sufficiently recovered Smash, who had been watching all this, collared the manager and threw him to Ax, who slammed him to the ringside mat, causing Demolition to
turn babyface. After Demolition strode away to cheers from the crowd, The Powers of Pain momentarily resumed the match with the Conquistadors, but then they suddenly ceased and stepped out of the ring and turned
heels when they picked the hated Fuji up off the floor, dusted him down and guided him round to their corner. Moments later, Fuji tripped Conquistador #1 with his cane, allowing the Barbarian to hit the masked man with a diving
headbutt and pin him to eliminate The Conquistadors, making the Powers of Pain the survivors. After the match, Hogan began acting friendly toward Elizabeth, clearly upsetting Savage, whose reaction was known to the crowd and television audience, but not acknowledged by Hogan; pro-heel color commentator
Jesse Ventura also picked up on this and interviewed Savage later about the incident. ==Aftermath==