Starrcade '88

Legacy Review

Starrcade '88

December 26, 1988 from the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia

Commentary: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle with Tony Schiavone and Magnum TA doing hosting duties

This show's tagline is True Gritt, yes with two T's. This is officially the first PPV produced by WCW. Turner's buyout of the overstretched Jim Crockett Promotions was completed just the month before. The new regime was still settling in so this show is still presented under the NWA banner. They were slowly moving in the direction of a more WWF/future WCW style presentation, such as having entrance music for all the wrestlers now. This was also the first Starrcade not to be on Thanksgiving. To give it some space from Survivor Series it was pushed back a whole month to Christmastime.

The ongoing change of eras is most apparent in the ring announcer position. Gone is Tom Miller, the voice of the Greensboro Coliseum who had worked every Starrcade to date. In is The World's Most Dangerous Announcer Gary Michael Capetta, who would be the voice of the early WCW years up to the Monday Night Wars era. Though, it sounds like at this stage he hasn't quite hit puberty yet.

NWA United States Tag Team Championship: "Gamesmaster" Kevin Sullivan & "Dr. Death" Steve Williams def The Fantastics (c) in 15:50- Sullivan and Williams are part of the Varsity Club stable, the NWA's current #2 heel stable behind the Four (well, two and a half right now with Arn and Tully in the WWF) Horsemen. The main concept of the Club was that Williams (Oklahoma), Mike Rotunda (Syracuse) and Rick Steiner (Michigan) were all decorated college athletes, but they were lead by....Kevin Sullivan, the ultimate evil manipulator. Much more on them later. The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) had feuded with The Midnight Express all over territories in the south, and traded the US tag titles a couple of times with them in '88. Sullivan and Fulton start. The Fantastics outspeed the heels. Double monkey flip on Williams. Williams pulls out the strength and gorilla presses Fulton multiple times like a light sack of potatoes. Rogers dodges a Sullivan clothesline and Booker Man goes over the top and out. Rogers flippydos out of a backdrop attempt. Williams catches Rogers with a knee from behind and the Club's power game starts to take over. Rogers manages to get a couple of quick pin attempts and a tag. Fulton gives Sullivan the Flair throw off the top, but then tries to go off the top himself and Sullivan gets his feet up. Williams drops Rogers over the top rope. Rogers goes full face in peril and there's some long chinlock spots as everyone rests up for the finish. Rogers dives over Sullivan to get the hot tag. Stereo sleepers on the heels. Fulton goes for a Thesz Press, but Williams counters it into a Hot Shot and gets the pin and the titles. The heels didn't outright cheat the whole match. Pretty good speed vs power match, but a bit too long for what they were offering. **3/4

The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) def The Original Midnight Express (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 17:46- This was the national wrestling audience's first real exposure to the legend Paul (Heyman) E Dangerously. Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose were the original Express in the early '80s. They reteamed in the AWA while Paul E was working there and started managing them before all three jumped over to Crockett. Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton had become arguably the most successful and easily the most well known version of the Express, with two US tag title and a recent World tag title reign in just the previous year, ironically after Condrey suddenly left Crockett in '87 and left Eaton high and dry without a partner. Since the invaders are always the bad guys, we're in the unusual position of Jim Cornette being a face. The Express backdrop the Originals as soon as they hit the ring. Cornette grabs the mic and wants Paul E's ass. They fight while Capetta goes through the intros. The Originals get whipped into each other in the corner. Commentary is still mocking Cornette even though he's a face in this feud. Habits. Condrey and Lane settle in. Condrey gets thrown out and Cornette gets a racket shot in. Paul E rings the bell, wanting a DQ. Condrey sells the hell out of an inverted atomic drop. Cornette is dancing all over the apron. Racket shot #2 to Rose. Paul E rings the bell again. The Express stay in total control for a solid 10 minutes. Random observation: Lane looks like a pudgier Lex Luger. Well, not pudgier other than almost anyone would look pudgy next to peak Lex Luger. Not that Lane is pudgy. Maybe it's the hair. Anyway. Rose dodges a dive and Eaton crotches himself on the second buckle, finally allowing the Originals to get a breath. The faces regroup but Eaton quickly goes FIP. Paul E gets a phone shot in. Cornette chases him around and through the ring. Eaton dodges a rocket launcher and gets the hot tag. Express on Express donnybrook! Ref Teddy Long (holla) gets wrapped up and tumbles outside. Paul E nails Lane in the external occipital protuberance with the phone and drapes Rose over him. Cornette comes in and give the crowd the one punch KO for Paul E they'd been wanting all match. Long gets back in and counts 2, then sees the phone and shockingly like a responsible official stops the count and asks how the hell did this get in here. While Rose is arguing with him the Express give him the Double Goozle and get the pin! The fight immediately continues, with the heels using the phone and racket to beat the Express down until Eaton gets the racket and chases them off. This was overbooked in all the right ways. ***1/2

The Russian Assassins (w/Paul Jones) def The Junkyard Dog & Ivan Koloff in 6:47- If the Ruskies lose they have to unmask and Jones has to retire. The guys under the masks are The Angel of Death and Jack Victory. JR calls Koloff and JYD "wrestling's odd couple". Um, yeah. Nikita Koloff was originally supposed to be in this match, but he had scaled back to part time for personal reasons so Ivan turned on Jones and reconciled with comrade nephew Nikita to take his place. JYD rolls Assassin 1 up and goes right into the crawling headbutts. Twice Jones pulls an Assassin's foot out to break up a pin. JYD is working in slow motion. Koloff comes in and chokes Assassin 2, then gets a Sickle off the 2nd rope. Assassin 1 makes the save. Koloff gets a sunset flip but the ref is distracted. JYD misses a fall down headbutt. The Assassins go for their Russian Missile finisher but JYD dodges and it fails off the launching pad like an early North Korea test. Hot tag to Koloff. Jones gets on the apron, so Koloff suggests he remove himself with his fist. All four guys are in. In the confusion Jones sticks an international object into one Assassin's mask. He gets in, headbutts Koloff, and gets the pin. About what you'd expect. *1/4

NWA World Television Championship: Rick Steiner def Mike Rotunda (c) (w/Kevin Sullivan) in 17:59- A lot of people forget Rick Steiner was building a damn fine singles career before his brother started wrestling. This was arguably the hottest feud in the NWA going into this show. Steiner and Rotunda were the original members of the Varsity Club under Sullivan. Steiner was playing a sort of Eugene like character. Not full on handicapped, but not the sharpest tool in the shed. Eventually he got tired of the other members of the Club looking down on him, turned on Rotunda to turn himself face, and this is the big blowoff. This was actually Rotunda's second run with the TV title, but it would be forgivable if fans had forgotten that because his first one was back in 1982. He had also been champ for nearly a year, since January. Steiner is still using the Varsity Club music. Ring Gearhead note: both guys are in amateur singlets. Also, they're doing the old "manager is locked in a cage above the ring" bit with Sullivan. Steiner throws Rotunda across the ring with one arm to get out of an arm wringer. Steiner works a headlock. Steinerline! Rotunda wants a time out. Steiner wins another mat wrestling exchange. Normally I love some mat wrestling, but they're going at such a snail like pace. Much slower than they're capable of. In other words, it's a Rotunda match. Rotunda keeps trying to pull Steiner's hair. A Steiner cross body gets 2 and Rotunda steps out again. I get the psychology of the match that Rotunda is trying to psych Steiner out, but there's glaciers that move faster than this. The crowd starts a ACC vs Big East war with "Syracuse sucks" chants. Rotunda uses Steiner's momentum to send Steiner flying outside and he hits hard on the floor. I'd call that a .7 Cactus Jack bump. Rotunda drops him over the guardrail Rock style then works a chinlock with his foot on the rope. Steiner tries to fight back but Rotunda kills him with a clothesline. A desperation Steiner sunset flip gets 2. At the 5 minutes left call, Steiner gets a small package for 2. STEINERLINE! Steve Williams comes to ringside. A Steiner powerslam gets 2. Belly to belly! While Long's counting a sure 3 Williams rings the bell before he gets there. Steiner thinks he's won. Rotunda thinks it's the time limit. Utter confusion. The guys in charge of the cage lower it and let Sullivan out. Tommy Young comes down and confers with Long. While Sullivan is on the apron Long restarts the match. Steiner dodges a charge and Rotunda crashes into Sullivan. Steiner drops on top of him and gets the win! HUGE pop! Steiner runs around the ring celebrating. An absolutely wonderful moment. I don't think all the bells and whistles at the end were really necessary, but it didn't detract from the match either. Once it got going it got pretty decent, but it was forever before they got out of first gear. **1/2

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: Barry Windham (c) (w/JJ Dillon) def Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Oliver Humperdink) by countout in 16:17- Bigelow had just left WWF, and this is one of two very brief stints he would work in NWA/WCW in between New Japan tours, who he had committed to working with first. Bigelow pushes Windham out of a lockup to show his power. Windham isn't used to wrestling a bigger man so he tends to just punch a lot. Bigelow gets him in a fireman's carry position and drops Windham down on his shoulders. Windham takes a powder. Bigelow no sells a side suplex, and no sells some punches. The crowd's going pretty crazy for that. Bigelow press slam. Bigelow does the mounted punches in the corner, and Windham has a great Greg Valentine like delayed fall. Windham goes over the top and out off a dropkick. Some more Windham punches and Bigelow goes tumbling out, hitting his knee on the floor. Either he hit for real and cried out in pain, or they completely forgot about it because it's not worked at all later in the match. Bigelow does a slinghot big splash over the top rope! Windham doesn't kick out, Bigelow just gets up at 2. Dunno about that one. Bigelow goes up top for the biggest of big splashes but Windham gets out of the way and there's no water in the pool. Windham gets a huge diving lariat. Bigelow gets posted outside. Windham locks in the Claw. Windham bodyslams Bigelow! Impressive. He goes up top for an elbow but Bigelow dodges. A Bigelow cross body sends them both tumbling out. Bigelow gets posted again. Windham gets back in before the 10 count, Bigelow doesn't. It's not the worst finish in this spot, as it was the wily Windham using any way he could to beat the bigger monster. This wasn't the best pairing, as Windham had to work completely out of his normal style with the bigger Bigelow. Still, it's watchable. **3/4

Magnum TA is in the back with Rick Steiner. We get this priceless exchange:
Magnum: "Lots of guys are going to be gunning for that title."
Steiner: "Who?"
Magnum: "You know, the other wrestlers."
Steiner: "When?"
Magnum: "Soon."
Steiner: "Really?.....I'll beat 'em."

NWA World Tag Team Championship: "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes & Sting def The Road Warriors (c) (w/Paul Ellering) by DQ in 11:20- The Roadies finally won the tag titles after nearly a year of chasing from the Midnight Express just before Halloween. They then promptly turned heel by turning on both Sting and Dusty over the following few weeks. When they attacked Dusty Animal used a spike off his pads to try to gouge one of Dusty's eyes out, which was one of the incidents that lead to Dusty's departure and jump to WWF in early '89 as it violated the new Turner regime's strict no blood policy. The Roadies attack as soon as their pads are off but the faces fight them off. Capetta still does full in ring intros and we get the full THIS IS STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING before Sting was really anybody. Well, he had already had his famous time limit draw with Flair at the first Clash so he was rapidly becoming somebody. In fact he gets a bigger pop than Dusty. Animal and Sting start off with a basic speed vs power sequence. The faces work Hawk's arm. Hawk powers out and unloads some heavy artillery on Sting until Sting catches him with a (possibly slightly inadvertent) very stiff right hand. Sting no sells being dropped throat first over the top rope. He then goes up top and FLIES with a huge crossbody to the floor on Animal a good 10 feet away! Welcome to the future, kids. We don't have flying cars but we have lots of flying wrestlers. Dusty posts Animal's knee and goes for a figure four, which causes all four guys to run in. Hawk goes for Dusty's wound from the earlier attack. If not for the new no blood policy I guarantee Dusty would be gushing here. Dusty starts no selling and hits a dropkick. The Roadies double team to shut him down. Hawk locks in a sleeper. Dusty jaw jacks his way out and gets the tag to Sting. Stinger Splash on Animal! Sting locks in the Scorpion Death Lock but Hawk makes the save. DONNYBROOK! Sting hits a crossbody off the top but Paul Ellering pulls Tommy Young out just before he counts the 3. Young calls for the DQ. Surprisingly there's no post match continuation. The Roadies just pick up and leave. This feud must not continue. Dusty would soon be fired and WWF bound, Sting is heading toward his first singles title and megastardom, and the Roadies would actually flip back face to feud with the Varsity Club because they were so badass people were cheering for them anyway. This was a fantastic sprint. Stick on about 5 more minutes and a definitive ending and we'd probably be talking about an all time classic. ***3/4

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/JJ Dillon) def "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 30:59- Before the match Tony calls Flair "Mr. Starrcade". He's not wrong. This is the 6th Starrcade and Flair has been the world champion or challenger in the main event for every single one so far. Not even Hogan did that with Wrestlemania (Hogan was knocked out of the WM 4 title tournament in the 2nd round). This is a rematch from Great American Bash '88 where they did the old "excessive bleeding stoppage" finish. Flair can lose the title on a DQ here. Flair gives Luger a WOOOOOOOO right in his face and we're off. Luger whips Flair and gets ready to knock him down with a shoulderblock, but Flair grabs the rope to stop himself and celebrates. He tries it again but this time Luger clotheslines him over the top and out. Flair has a think. Luger puts on a hammerlock and Flair goes to the ropes. Flair then yells at Luger for not breaking quick enough. Mind games. Luger offers a test of strength and Flair uses it to get a shot in. Luger shrugs off some chops and spins Flair into a powerslam, with Flair screaming all the way around. JR gets the plane crash story in. Flair goes into the top turnbuckle shoulder first a couple of times with about a .5 Flair Flop (sadly the only one in this match) on the second one. Luger starts working it. Flair goes to the desperation eye poke to finally get some breathing room. Luger no sells more chops, throws Flair out, follows him and posts his shoulder. Luger gets a couple of near falls off power moves, then tries an elbow drop but Flair dodges and finally starts to get a little momentum. He throws Luger out and gives him a guardrail shot. Flair gets into a shoving match with Young. Dillon reminds him of the DQ stip and calms him down. Some more chops from Flair only fire Luger up. Sleeper! Flair side suplexes out of it. The figure four/small package counter gets 2. Luger nails Flair with a superplex and gets a great near fall that the crowd bit on. LUGER hooks in a figure four. Flair gets to the ropes. While they're in the corner Flair unintentionally intentionally knocks Young down and throws Luger over the top. Luger bounces right back up and hits a crossbody off the top rope. Young is still recovering and by the time he gets there Flair is able to kick out at 2. Flair flip! But he doesn't get all the way over and lands back in the ring. Another powerslam and Luger calls for the Torture Rack. Dillon gets up on the apron. Flair takes advantage of the distraction to waffle Luger's leg with a chair. Everyone on the bus, we're going to school. It must be the Ted Turner years, a Luger "oh shit" is bleeped out. Figure four! Luger hulks up and reverses it. Flair goes back to the knee, but then makes the mistake of going to the top rope. We know how that ends. Luger press slams him but his knee gives out after. Flair tries a running forearm but Luger no sells it and Flair bounces right off. Luger gets Flair up into the Rack but his knee gives out. Flair lands on top of him, gets his feet on the ropes for insurance, and gets the 3! As usual with '80s Flair it's tremendous stuff, but Luger kept up with him every step of the way. They could have easily gone with the title change here and let the chips fall where they may, the time felt ripe for it. But, it's Flair, hard to argue with keeping it on him. It would still be a while before Luger would win a world title, but he would go on to own the US title for most of the next 3 years and, like many others here, had an all world 1989 in terms of match quality. ****1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- It's not what I would call a blowaway show but it's a very solid one. Almost everything is in the average to good range and there's no real turds. The Express on Express feud was tremendous, setting up a couple of years of Cornette vs Dangerously mischief, Steiner's win is an all time great moment, and the last two matches are must see. Despite their financial trouble Crockett and the NWA set themselves up very well for the future during 1988, establishing Sting and Luger as legitimate main event players while still riding the peak years of the greatest there's ever been. All of that would pay huge dividends for the new WCW in '89. This would also be the last traditional Starrcade for a while as WCW would experiment with ideas like the King of Cable tournament and Battlebowl the next several years during this show, and other PPVs like Great American Bash, Superbrawl and Bash at the Beach would start to rival Starrcade in importance.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE- B