Starrcade '90

Legacy Review

Starrcade '90

December 16, 1990 from the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis

Commentary: Jim Ross and Paul E Dangerously

JR opens by shouting out the troops in Operation Desert Shield. WCW wouldn't do nearly as much with that as the WWF famously (infamously?) did. He also sets up one of the main events of the evening: the Pat O'Conner Memorial International Tag Team Tournament. We also get a short tribute to legendary St. Louis promoter and one of the founding fathers of the NWA Sam Muchnick, probably because this was to be the last wrestling show in the soon to be demolished Kiel Auditorium, which was the Madison Square Garden for the Midwest in the territory days. Gary Capetta talks all over the National Anthem! How disrespectful. There's boxing-like covers on the ring posts again, but no ads this time, just "Starrcade". JR also mentions that Ric Flair pulled himself out of the tag title match just an hour before the show and was being replaced by Barry Windham. Interesting....

"Beautiful" Bobby Eaton def "The Z Man" Tom Zenk in 8:45- Stan Lane and Jim Cornette both left WCW after Halloween Havoc, but Eaton decided to stick around and give a singles run a try. Zenk turns on the jets after a slow start and gets springboard crossbodys off the second and top ropes. Eaton quickly kicks out of both. Basic hammerlock exchange. Eaton pops Zenk with a straight right on a corner break. He goes for a monkey flip, but Zenk flips the flip and lands on his feet. Another Eaton punch sends Zenk out onto the ramp. He tries to suplex Zenk back in, but Zenk reverses it and suplexes Eaton onto the ramp! He follows it up with a big dive over the top rope. Back in, Eaton counters a charge with a back elbow and hits a bulldog. He goes up top and hits the Alabama Jam, but that wasn't his finisher yet. Zenk dodges a corner charge and Eaton gets wrapped up between the buckles. Eaton responds by countering a backdrop with a neckbreaker. He goes up top again, but Zenk superkicks him on the way down! Zenk goes up top for his missile dropkick finisher, but Eaton dodges it, wraps him up in a Paul Smackage and wins. Pedestrian start, once they got going it was pretty good back and forth, but it never hit the high gear both guys (especially Eaton) were capable of. **1/2

We have the introductions for the O'Conner Tournament. The trophy is brought out, followed by an Olympics-style "Parade of Nations" with each participating country's flag. To give it even more of an Olympic feel, each team comes out to their national anthem.

First Round: The Steiner Brothers (US) def Colonel DeKlerk and Sgt. Krueger (South Africa) in 2:12- The Steiners are the reigning US tag champs. Neither "South African" wrestler has probably ever even stepped foot in South Africa: DeKlerk is Rocco Rock, and Krueger is future post-Matt Bourne Doink the Clown Ray Apollo. Kreuger gets a quick belly to back suplex on Rick but walks right into a Steinerline. Double Steinerline! A DeKlerk spinning heel kick sends Rick outside. DeKlerk tries a dive but ends up landing on his head outside. Rick laughs at him (probably legitimately) then checks to make sure he's OK. Scott tags in, rolls through a few moves, hits a Frankensteiner, and we're done. Decently fun Steiners squash. *1/2

First Round: Konan and Rey Mysterio Sr (Mexico) def "Gentleman" Chris Adams and Norman Smiley (UK) in 5:29- Rey Rey's dad looks more like a large barbarian than a lucha wrestler. Konnad is in a mask that looks more like Rey Jr.'s and is in his phase as a traditional lucha wrestler, a complete contrast to his Bischoff-era WCW years. Smiley grew up in Florida but he was born in England so he gets on the UK team. Mysterio and Smiley start. The Mexicans go for double teams quickly. The Brits double dropkick them out. An Adams superkick sends Mysterio out. Konnad thinks it's lucha rules and tries to come in but Mysterio has to tag. Smiley hits a perfectplex but Konnad quickly gets out. The luchas try to double team Adams but Smiley dropkicks both of them at once. The Brits hit a nice superkick/bridged German double team on Konnad for 2. Konnad and Smiley have a decent mat wrestling sequence. More lucha double teams. Konnan props Smiley on the ropes, hits him with a reverse suplex, and bridges over him for the pin. After the bell Mysterio hits a plancha on Adams and appears to hurt his leg. This was a sloppy clash of styles, like this was the first time they'd ever been in the ring together. If they'd had time to iron out the bugs this might have been a potential show stealer, there was clearly something there. *3/4

First Round: The Great Muta and Mr. Saito (Japan) def The Royal Family (New Zealand) in 5:41- This is Muta's first return to WCW after his legendary run in '89 during his excursion. At least some of the crowd remembers him and cheers for him. The Royal Family are legit Kiwi Rip Morgan and non-Kiwi Jack Victory. Victory and Muta start with Victory barely keeping up with Muta. Muta dropkicks him out and hits a dive off the top onto the ramp. Morgan and Saito no sell each other. Saito goes for the Scorpion Death Lock (a hold he's credited with inventing) but Victory breaks it up. Victory kicks Saito in the back on a rope run and he goes slightly in peril. Belly to back for 2. Saito dodges a legdrop off the second rope and tags Muta. Handspring elbow. Bridged German, and that gets the 3. Bleh. 1/2*

First Round: Salman Hashimikov and Victor Zangiev (USSR) def Danny "Bull" Johnson and Troy Montour (Canada) in 3:54- The Soviets are announced "in the spirit of glasnost" and try to be the faces. The crowd's not interested, but they don't give a damn about the Canadians either. You could hear a pin drop the entire match. The Ruskies were legit amateur wrestlers but had little experience in the pro (worked) style. Zangiev works the near 300 pound Johnson into a bow and arrow type hold. Montour breaks it up. Zangiev works his way out of a headscissors, then tries a sort of belly to belly suplex, but more an amateur takedown, and drops Johnson on his head. Tags. Montour and Hashimikov have some lockup gamesmanship. Another belly to belly, but a bit better executed, and even though Montour's shoulder is clearly up the ref counts 3. I think a call was made. The Canadians sucked, and though the Russians were clearly talented amateurs, they had no clue how to work. 1/4*

Michael Wallstreet (w/Alexandria York) def Terry Taylor in 6:52- Mike Rotunda's traded in the skipper cap for a suit and become IRS v0.7. Alexandria York is a computer whiz that uses a portable computer (yes, they really did look like that) to formulate match strategery. Tonight, it says Wallstreet should beat Taylor in 8:32 or less, so there's a countdown clock on screen. Taylor jumps Rotunda as he's getting his suit off and goes for quick pins. Rotunda rolls out and checks the computer printout again. Taylor works a headlock. Rotunda tries to use it for a pin. Big clothesline from Taylor for 2. Rotunda works an armbar with hair pulling. JR: "Taylor's had a frustrating career the last couple of years". You could say that *cough*Red Rooster*cough*. Patented Rotunda abdominal stretch with rope leverage. Now matter how many gimmicks Rotunda had, the abdominal stretch was always there like a big comfy rest hold blankey. Taylor dodges a dropkick, rolls through some impact moves, and nails Rotunda with the fivearm. But Rotunda falls near the ropes and gets a foot up on it. He hits a hot shot on Taylor, and drops him with the Stock Market Crash (a Samoan drop) for 3 with 1:39 to spare on the clock. Perfectly acceptable, bordering on good. Now here's a series of ironies: Rotunda would leave for the WWF soon after this, where he'd take on the similar Irwin R Schyster gimmick. After he left, Taylor would turn heel and take Rotunda's place in the soon to be York Foundation stable, and later would have the "Taylor Made Man" gimmick that, visually, was a ripoff of Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Man, who Rotunda would go on to team with as IRS in Money Inc! **3/4

The Skyscrapers def The Big Cat and The Motor City Madman in 1:01- This is Vicious and Spivey's one night only reunion, as Vicious was still a Horseman. 2 on 2 brawl to start. The Scrapers and Cat screw up a double backdrop spot, so they turn the other direction and do it again. Double avalanche on Madman. Sid can't get Madman up for the power bomb (or Madman sandbags it) so Spivey helps get him up and it's done. The Scrapers double teamed the entire match. Since this was a one night only deal I really don't know what the point of it was. It's not like the Scrapers were some legendary team people were begging to see again. 1/4*

Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich (w/Robert Gibson) def The Fabulous Freebirds (w/Little Richard Marley) in 6:13- Gibson's still got an injured knee so Morton is still saddled with Rich. The Freebirds have Confederate flag facepaint. Morton and Garvin start with the basics. Both Freebirds get hiptossed and the faces clear the ring. Hayes blocks a post shot and celebrates, turns around into a punch from Gibson, then gets posted! Morton dodges a kneedrop and the faces hook in stereo figure fours. The Freebirds powder again. Rich flips Marley in and....spanks him like a 5 year old. Hayes gets pounded around some more and the heels hug for HP recovery. Finally Hayes clocks Rich with the straight left punch. He goes for the DDT but Rich backdrops out. Donnybrook! Morton rolls up Garvin, but the ref is getting Rich out and Hayes gives Morton a bulldog. Marley goes to the top rope to dive on Morton's knee, but Gibson hits him with his crutch and he falls onto Garvin. Garvin is pissed. Morton uses the distraction to roll Garvin up and gets the 3 count. Afterward the Freebirds give Marley his walking papers, signing them with a double DDT. The faces save him. This was the first 5-6 minutes of a really good tag match. **1/4

Semifinals: The Steiner Brothers def Konan and Rey Mysterio Sr in 2:51- Rick and Konnad start out with some amateur wrestling. Scott and Konnad do some pro wrestling. Scott gets Konnad up and Rick plants him with the bulldog off the top rope! But there's no cover. They let Konnad go over and tag out. Mysterio tries some mat wrestling but Scott's not interested. He turns Mysterio over into a fisherman's suplex. Rick catches Mysterio coming off the ropes into a semi-pop up powerbomb and pins him. Pretty good for the time they got. **

Semifinals: The Great Muta and Mr. Saito def Salman Hashimikov and Victor Zangiev in 3:08- Muta grounds Zangiev and tries to work him into a hammerlock. Zangiev gets a bridged belly to back suplex for 2. Hashimikov shows sportsmanship by letting Saito out of the Russian corner when he was trapped. He gets a leg takedown and puts Saito into a Boston Crab. Muta kicks him in the back to break it up. Saito puts Zangiev into the Scorpion but can't hold onto it. Hashimikov gives Muta a belly to belly and just about drops him on his head again. Saito kills Zangiev with a clothesline, gives him a bridged Saito suplex, and it's over. Much better. The veteran Japanese walked the Russians through a short and almost acceptable match. *3/4

Texas Lariat Match for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: "The Total Package" Lex Luger def Stan Hansen (c) in 10:13- Hansen upset Luger to end his record long US title reign at Halloween Havoc. Hansen's also the reigning All Japan Triple Crown Champion (slightly mentioned on TV as the "Japanese heavyweight championship"). This is essentially a strap match, except with a rope. It's touch all 4 corners rules. Hansen's got about 10 pounds of chewing tobacco sticking out of his mouth when the match starts. Gag me with a spoon. As soon as the rope's tied on Luger Hansen attacks. They go back and forth for a while and they both roll out of the ring. Luger chokes Hansen with the rope. Hansen responds with a chair shot. Back in Luger hits a big clothesline, does some ground and pound, and takes the first shot at hitting the corners. After 2 Hansen fights back and hits an ugly belly to back suplex. Hansen wraps the rope around Luger's throat to drag him by the neck, but only gets one corner. He re-wraps the rope around Luger's throat then flips him over the ropes to hang him. Hansen gets to 3 corners, but Luger charges up with a clothesline to stop him. They roll out again and Luger uses the rope to post Hansen. He hits Hansen with three legdrops in the ring and goes for the corners again. After 3 Hansen pulls back. Hansen jerks the rope down, sending Luger into the 4th corner for the seeming win, but he squashed the ref on the way down. Hansen takes off his boot and uses it as a weapon. Senior ref Nick Patrick runs in as the replacement. Hansen ties Luger up again and manages to get to all 4 corners. Hansen is announced as the winner. BUT WAIT! The original ref waves it off and declares Luger the winner and new champion! The reverse Dusty Finish. Those ending bells and whistles weren't really needed, but the match itself wasn't too shabby, especially for a strap match. **1/2

Street Fight for the NWA World Tag Team Championship: Doom (c) (w/Teddy Long) and Arn Anderson & Barry Windham go to a no contest in 7:19- This is a rematch of the Halloween Havoc title match that went to a double countout, but Windham is replacing Flair at the last second. Everyone's in their casuals for the street fight. As soon as Doom hits the ring it starts. Simmons slams Windham on the ramp. Arn whips Simmons with his belt, they brawl on the ramp, and Simmons gets the belt and whips Arn with it. Reed hits Windham with his weightlifting belt at the same time Arn gives Simmons a chairshot in the leg. Windham gets posted, Reed hits him with the buckle of his belt, and Windham's bleeding. Windham counters with a suplex on the floor. Arn whips Reed with the lifting belt. Chairshots on the outside, whipping and gouging on the inside. It's mayhem. Before long, everyone's bleeding. Simmons hits Windham with the spinebuster, but Windham rakes his eyes to get out of getting pinned. Simmons goes up top, but Windham hits him with a low blow. Superplex! Simmons kicks out! Reed hits his football tackle off the top rope on Arn. Windham DDTs Reed. Arn and Simmons fight over a chair. Arn gets in the face and Simmons covers, but Arn just kicks out! Reed piledriver on Windham. Windham dumps Reed out, allowing the Horsemen to double team. They set Simmons up for a spike piledriver, but Reed gets back in and clotheslines Windham, and Simmons pops up and clotheslines Arn as he's coming off the rope! Windham small packages Reed, Simmons covers Arn, and Nick Patrick counts them both down! Who wins? The wrestlers keep fighting and brawl all the way up the ramp to the back. No announcement. Later in the show it's announced as a no contest double pin. The Halloween Havoc match was a great wrestling match with a flat finish. This was a really good, brutal, bloody brawl that would have been right at home on a mid-'80s Jim Crockett show with an unsatisfying finish. Despite the lack of resolution Doom would move on to new challengers while the Horsemen would focus even more on Sting. ***3/4

Final: The Steiner Brothers def The Great Muta and Mr. Saito in 10:52- The special guest referee is none other than a (relatively) young TIGER HATTORI. Paul E is mad because Hattori is *too honest* and won't be biased for the Japanese team. Classic. Batten down the hatches, it's the Steiners vs Japan. They always knew they could cut loose in those matches. Scott and Muta start. Quick kicks from Muta, and an enzuguri. Scott rolls him into a single leg crab. More Muta kicks until Rick kills him with a Steinerline. Ricks hits a rare dropkick on Saito, and gives him another stiff Steinerline. Muta goes up top but gets crotched. Funny bit as he recovers on the apron by jiggling his crotch. Handspring elbow on Scott. Scott counters with a belly to belly suplex. Saito hulks up off Rick's punches and suplexes him. Mid ring collision. Rick gets posted while Scott argues with Hattori. Muta whacks Rick with the ring bell. Scott keeps running in and allowing Rick to get double teamed. Typical Steiner hot hotheadedness. Rick ducks a Muta spinning kick, hits a Steinerline, and tags. Scott gets a double underhook suplex for 2 but Muta quickly takes back control. Spike piledriver on Scott. Rick prevents a cover. Scott gets a sneaky tag to Rick. Saito puts a sleeper on Scott, but Rick ambushes him with a sunset flip off the top rope, and that gets the pin! Absolutely fantastic, even without either team hitting most of their best stuff, I still loved it. ****

MAIN EVENT FEUD RECAP- The Black Scorpion started showing up in late summer 1990, taunting Sting that he was someone from his past, a former tag partner, and was out for revenge. At Halloween Havoc he did some cheap magic tricks that were supposed to spook Sting (that did more to turn a potentially good angle into a joke more than anything else). In the build up to this final blowoff Sting wrestled multiple "fake" Scorpions on TV and house shows, only to find out the real one was still waiting. The original idea was the Scorpion would be revealed as his rookie year Powerteam USA partner Dave Sheldon, AKA The Angel of Death. That was nixed when it was realized no one would recognize the connection. Another option was Al Perez, who wrestled Sting as one of the fake Scorpions at Clash of the Champions XII in September, but Perez quit the company soon after that match. Absent any other options, they turned to the tried and true obvious one, even though all the parlor tricks and pseudo supernatural stuff did not fit his style at all. Lesson the first, kids, when building a long term story in wrestling, always know where you're going and how it ends.

Steel Cage Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Sting (c) def The Black Scorpion in 18:31- If the Black Scorpion loses he has to unmask. Cage match master Dick the Bruiser is the special guest ref. The Scorpion's entrance is....something. Multiple fake Scorpions come down the aisle. Then, some kind of spaceship like structure comes down, closes, there's smoke, Ole Anderson's voice plays in one last time saying all the other Scorpions are just "messengers" and there's only one true Scorpion, and the structure opens again with the real Scorpion inside. Cautious lockups to start. Scorpion counters a headlock into a belly to back suplex. He looks like he might drop a knee but goes for an elbow instead and misses. There's a small "Nature Boy" chant, showing the game's already been given away for some people. Sting blocks a cage shot. Hiptoss and clothesline from Sting. More slow caution. Scorpion hits a gut wrench suplex. Snap mare into a modified headscissors. Scorpion tries a leverage pin with his feet on the ropes. Dick the Bruiser says "screw you". Another snap mare into a pin attempt. Lots and lots of punches. The Scorpion is having to work completely generically to keep the mystery, if there is any left. Sting finally turns up the juice and hits a press slam. Scorpion dodges a dive and Sting flies into the cage. More slow, generic Scorpion offense. Sting gets a boot up on a charge and covers for 2. Suplex for 2. Scorpion counters with lots of eye rakes. More cage shots for Sting. Piledriver by Scorpion. Sting comes back and faceplants Scorpion. Stinger Splash! Scorpion Death Lock! Black Scorpion gets to the ropes. Scorpion gets rammed into the cage. Sting gets his mask off. But there's another, gray mask underneath! It's the double mask trick! Rey Mysterio would pull the same one many years later. I'll give it to Scorpion, he's managed to get one step further than any other Scooby Doo villain. Sting presses Scorpion and dart throws him into the cage. Scorpion's backup mask gets ripped and he's bleeding. He also starts to slip more and more into his true mannerisms, further giving the game away. Sting goes up top, hits a tackle, and that gets the pin. All the fake Scorpions run in. Bruiser and Sting fight them off. Now the Horsemen come in. Scorpion had been trying to escape over the cage, but now he gets back in. Arn DDT's Sting on the chair, and the Horsemen hold him down while Scorpion gives him chair shots. The faces try to run in but the cage door's been locked. Finally the Steiners arrive with bolt cutters and the heels retreat. But, Sting grabs Scorpion and.....just.....gets his mask off.....and....

"IT'S ME STING!"

"Aw, son of a bitch."

"IT WAS ME ALL ALONG STING."

Yup, it's Ric Flair. They did about as well as they could considering Flair had to wrestle completely generically. **1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The tag tournament surprisingly turned out to be one of the better one night tournaments. It started blandly, but once they got rid of the riff raff the matches got better as it went on, with the finals a must see. Definitely better than Starrrcade '89's G1 wannabe Ironman Tournament. The street fight was also very good, the non-tournament midcard was loaded with average and nothing offensive, and, again, the Black Scorpion stuff is always worth a laugh.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+