Starrcade '91

Legacy Review

Starrcade '91

December 29, 1991 from the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, VA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone

Once again, we have a non-traditional gimmick Starrcade. This year's experiment is called Battlebowl: The Lethal Lottery. The Lethal Lottery is the first part. 40 wrestler's names are placed in a bowl and drawn at random to form tag teams that will wrestle each other. Phase 2 is Battlebowl, where the winners of the tag matches compete in a 20 man double ring battle royale to crown a Battlebowl champion.

Marcus Alexander Bagwell and Jimmy Jam Garvin def WCW United States Tag Team Champion Tracy Smothers and Michael PS Hayes in 12:45- Just like WWF sold the idea of the first PPV Royal Rumble by starting with Demolition vs Demolition, we have the Fabulous Freebirds on opposite sides here. The Freebirds have turned face and the Pistols were in their ill advised heel run. Bagwell had just joined the company after his first pro run as The Handsome Stranger in the short lived GWF. Bagwell and Smothers start. Lots of Bagwell hits one move, Smothers stalls that kills about 5 minutes. Eventually Smothers asks for Garvin. Commentary thinks he's tricking Garvin in to make him wrestle Hayes, but Smothers seems intent on finishing this by himself and jumps Garvin from behind. Garvin sends him outside a couple of times. After getting an edge on Bagwell Smothers finally tags out, with zero hesitation like it was normal. Well, there goes the storytelling in the first half of the match. Hayes struts and schools Bagwell a bit. Smothers comes back in and walks Bagwell through the basics. Bagwell manages to tag out. Smothers dives and also tags. And both Freebirds are in! Both Garvin and Hayes are amused rather than mad they're facing each other. They have some lockup standoffs and trade armdrags. Hayes gets a roll up for 2. They're having fun out there. They have a strut off and both tag out. Bagwell and Garvin take turns working on Smothers. Bagwell goes to the corner and hits Hayes. Hayes comes in and clocks Bagwell with his vicious left punch. Then he clocks Garvin! It was purely on instinct and he's immediately apologetic. Garvin gets mad, shoves, and they argue. While they do Bagwell gets Smothers in a perfectplex and gets the pin. Slow, basic, lots of stalling in the first half, and just all over the place story wise. 3/4*

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Champion "Ravishing" Rick Rude and WCW World Television Champion "Stunning" Steve Austin (w/Paul E Dangerously) def Van Hammer and Big Josh in 12:56- The two cornerstones of the Dangerous Alliance get drawn together. Either Paul E is really lucky or has paid off the right people. Austin and Hammer start. Mind games clean break from Austin. Hammer blocks a suplex and hits his own. Austin gets a drop toe hold. Hammer mat wrestles out! Didn't think he had that in him. Austin has a snap marepalooza. Rude comes in, hits a clothesline and does the hip swivel. Hammer powers Rude over to tag out. Josh log rolls Rude. Rude gets up and says "You can't hurt these abs!". He no sells Josh punches to the gut. Josh changes tactics and clotheslines for 2. A double noggin knocker sends the heels out. Josh drops Austin on the top rope. Josh tries a roll up but Austin ducks and Rude pops him. Josh goes lumberjack in peril. Rude fist drop off the top for 2. The match bogs down a bit until Josh catches Austin on a leapfrog and slams him. But he doesn't try to tag out and misses an elbow drop. Paul E gets in a double team. Josh gets out and makes the tag. Hammer powerslam. Flying tackle. Rude breaks the pin up. Donnybrook! Austin gets a blind tag to Rude. He comes in, hits the Rude Awakening, and it's over. It teased getting decent but then didn't. The right team certainly won though. *3/4

 

WCW World Tag Team Champion Dustin Rhodes and Richard Morton def Larry Zbyszko and El Gigante (w/Medusa) in 5:54- Zbyszko is not happy to be stuck with Gigante. He gets up on the second rope to talk to him. Zbyszko and Rhodes start, renewing their recent world tag title feud. Zbyszko tries to strategize with Gigante again. A criss cross ends with a Rhodes knee to the gut. Rhodes tags in Morton. Zbyszko tags in Gigante. Morton panics and tags right back out. Rhodes gives it a go. Morton tries to run in and gets slammed. Gigante no sells a Rhodes dropkick. Rhodes tries a drop toe hold with no success. Gigante gets annoyed with Zbyszko's constant coaching. He slams Rhodes and tags out. Zbyszko gets a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Morton breaks up the pin attempt. Rhodes gets a small package for 2. Zbyszko yells at Gigante to put his knee up for a double team. No habla. Dustin comes back. Corner clothesline. Zbyszko counters the bulldog and tags out. More order barking and finally Zbyszko slaps Gigante! Gigante flips Zbyszko in. Rhodes and Morton, who have managed to stay on the same page (almost the old face Morton coming back) hit a double dropkick, and Rhodes gets the pin. Not much to write home about wrestling wise here, but unlike the opener the psychology was tight. *

 

WCW Light Heavyweight Champion Jushin Thunder Liger and Bill Kazmaier def Diamond Dallas Page and Mike Graham in 13:08- This is Liger's North American PPV debut. He upset Pillman for the Light Heavywight title on the Christmas night house show at the Omni, WCW's home arena at the time. I don't think you can get a bigger disparity of wrestling talent on one team than Liger and Kazmaier. DDP was just starting to transition from managing to wrestling and was still learning. Liger flips out of a Graham arm wringer. He goes for a flying headscissors but Graham botches it and lands on his head. He rolls out to legit recover. Liger does some midring flippydo. Graham just stops and watches it before trying a cover. Kazmaier throws Graham across the ring. Huge Kazmaier slam on DDP. DDP tries to throw him out but Kazmaier skins the cat and hits a clothesline for 2. Liger comes back in. Liger vs DDP would have been an awesome match around '97 or '98. DDP gets a Russian leg sweep for 2. Liger counters with a spinning kick. Liger slides under Graham's legs and hits an enzuguri. Graham tries to backdrop him out. Liger lands on the apron, trips Graham, and hits a slingshot splash for 2. Liger's getting really good reactions from a crowd that's never seen him before. Graham tries a leg takedown on Kazmaier. DDP goes for a slam but Kazmaier falls on top of him for 2. Liger puts Graham in the surfboard. Graham responds with a nice double leg takedown into a Boston Crab. Liger rolls out of it and turns it into a cover! He and Graham roll around trading covers a bit. When they get back up Graham offers a respect handshake. A headscissors leads to the bridge/backslide spot. DDP back elbows Kazmaier. He falls down and Kazmaier no sells. Switch back out please, thank you. Liger hits a pele kick on Graham and unleashes rapid fire strong style kicks. Tony: "I've never seen anyone kick that fast in my life before". Liger dodges a corner charge. Graham knees the top turnbuckle and tumbles outside. Liger flying senton over the top rope! This Liger kid, he's good, man. Back in Liger hits a moonsault off the second rope. DDP breaks up the pin. The heels get whipped into each other. Kazmaier press Liger and throws him on DDP (who I don't think was the legal man) for the pin! They got off to a rough start, but after a small adjustment Liger and Graham laid down some damn good stuff. Even Kazmaier existing and green DDP couldn't drag this one down. ***

 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger and Arn Anderson (w/Harley Race) def Terrance Taylor and "The Z Man" Tom Zenk in 10:25- Taylor is less than happy about getting paired with Zenk. Even though he's still a heel he'd been showing frustration with the York Foundation and teasing a face turn. Arn and Zenk start. Arn pops Taylor on the apron and ducks Zenk by rolling out. Taylor retaliates and throws Arn back in. Zenk hits an enzuguri. Luger breaks the pin up. They donnybrook early, with Taylor and Zenk cleaning house. After a reset they work Luger's arm a bit. Luger press slams Taylor. Taylor hits a snap mare and a neck snap. Luger gets a cheap elbow on a rope break. Taylor responds with a sunset flip. Luger fights it back to the corner and tags Arn. Taylor counters a neckbreaker into a backslide for 2. Zenk hits a crossbody off the top rope on Arn and almost flies right over him he gets so much height. Race trips Zenk and Arn plants him with a DDT. Taylor breaks the pin up. Zenk goes Z in peril for a bit. He faceplants Arn but gets cut off from making the tag. Luger gets a powerslam for 2. Zenk gets a knee up on an Arn charge, but Arn nails him in the gut coming off the second rope. Arn tries to come off the second himself and Zenk gets his boots up. Tag! Taylor atomic drops Luger into Arn and rolls Luger up for a long 2. Crossbody for 2. Taylor calls for the fivearm. Arn hits him as he hits the ropes. Luger gives Taylor the attitude adjustment piledriver, and it's over. Rock solid. Arn is Arn, Taylor is Taylor, Zenk was in the middle of the best run of his career, and even Luger looked as motivated as he did his entire '91 world title run. ***1/4

As the next names are drawn Missy Hyatt is caught saying "It's a shoot, huh?". When Parker's name is called Abby attacks him and pounds the hell out of him because if he can't tag with Jack, no one can.

 

WCW World Tag Team Champion Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Todd Champion def Cactus Jack and Buddy Lee Parker in 7:48- Abby tries to come down and the refs stop him. As he's leaving Parker has just made it crawling onto the ramp and Abby attacks him again. While that's happening Jack's been thrown out of the ring by Steamboat off camera. Crazy Jack beats Steamboat down until Steamboat comes back with chops. Jack tries to throw him out. Steamboat skins the cat and backdrops Jack out. TOPE SUICIDA! Back in Steamboat hits a superkick and an enzuguri. He tags Dolph Lundgren in and the match immediately becomes boring. Parker is crawling back down the ramp. Jack throws Champion out and gives him the Cactus Elbow. Bang bang! Parker makes it to the ring. Champion with a powerslam for 2. Jack dodges a legdrop as Parker gets to the corner. Jack and Champion hit heads. Jack falls into his corner, tags Parker, and helps him by flipping him into the ring. Steamboat hits Parker with a powerslam. The crossbody off the top rope finishes it. Fun overbooking with Steamboat and Jack ably carrying the wrestling part of the package. **1/4

 

Sting and Abdullah the Butcher def "Flyin'" Brian Pillman and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton in 5:55- Abby looks thrilled to be teaming with Sting. Abby and Jack had been hired guns employed by Luger to take Sting out before Luger had to defend the title against him. As soon as Abby gets to the ring he attacks Sting. Pillman runs out and saves Sting. Eaton runs out and attacks Pillman, then goes after Sting. Pillman and Abby fight on the floor while Eaton works Sting's knee on the ramp and in the ring. Sting backdrops Eaton back onto the ramp. Flying dive over the top rope! Eaton begs off and eye pokes. Abby hits Sting again! That allows Eaton to take control. JR says Abby stole a pencil from the commentary table. Eaton takes Sting into Sting's own corner and Abby attacks Sting with the pencil. Pillman saves Sting again. Sting flips Eaton over the top from the apron to the floor. Off camera Pillman slams Abby. When things settle down again Pillman refuses to tag Eaton. He's given up on winning, he's just trying to help Sting. Eaton goes across and tags Abby! The ref shuts that down. Sting tries for a tombstone but can't hold Eaton up. Abby's in again. Pillman cuts him off. Jack comes down. They set up for a double team but Jack hits Abby. Sting hits Eaton with a crossbody off the top for the 3. After the match Abby attacks Jack and they fight all the way across the floor to the back. More fun overbooking, building on the previous match and taking advantage of the Lethal Lottery concept. **1/2

 

Big Van Vader and Mr. Hughes def Rick Steiner and The Nightstalker in 5:05- Vader's slowly starting to work more US dates and is close to becoming full time in WCW. The Nightstalker is the artist to be known as Adam Bomb and Wrath. He's still pretty green at this point, but already had a main event run in the AWA (broadcast on ESPN) under his belt because of his size and because late-'80s AWA was, frankly, desperate. Vader left his mask in the dressing room. Rick and Vader start. Hell. Yes. Give me 10 minutes of these two potatoing and tossing each other around and I'll give it all the snowflakes. Vader potatoes Rick a couple of times on his headgear earpiece, hits a short clothesline, and tackles Rick down on a rope run. Rick responds by exploding with a Steinerline out of the corner. Rick hits Vader with a belly to belly suplex! A Steinerline sends Vader over and out. Rick follows with some punches. Both guys really look like they're enjoying this. Vader posts Rick's back. He gets Rick on the apron and teases suplexing him out to the floor, but Rick reverses it and *just* gets Vader over and around for a suplex. Hughes tags in. Rick gives him a big backdrop and a German suplex. Rick clearly doesn't give a damn about tagging Nighstalker in, he's going to take care of this himself. Midring collision and both guys go down. Nightstalker reaches over and tags himself in. Vader blindsides him with a clothesline. Rick hits Hughes with a bulldog off the top rope. But the distraction lets Vader keep pounding Nightstalker. Vader murders him with a splash (and seeing the slo-mo replay, yeah, legit squashes him) and gets the win. Really messy finish. Rick and Vader were as awesome together as you'd expect. *1/2

 

Scott Steiner and Firebreaker Chip def Arachnaman and Johnny B Badd in 11:16- All four guys are faces here (Badd had just turned face about a week prior). Arachanaman is yet another masked gimmick for the underrated Brad Armstrong. The gimmick was short lived as Marvel threatened to sue when they saw it. One look at it can explain why. A Badd/Chip speed sequence ends with Chip hitting a couple of Japanese armdrags. Chip turns to the crowd and Badd channels his former heel self to land some blindside body punches. Chip does a springboard crossbody off the top rope and almost lands on his head. Scott catches a leaping Arachnaman and powerslams him, then Steinerlines him out. Badd gets a hard right on Scott on a rope break. Scott does a double leg pickup and Alabama slams him. Scott throws Badd around with power moves, occasionally tagging Chip in to rest and bore the crowd. Arachanaman dodges a Chip charge. Chip recovers and slides in with a sunset flip for 2. He catches an Arachnaman dropkick and puts on a Boston Crab. They trade cradles for 2. Chip tags Scott on a criss cross. Scott kills Arachnaman with a Steinerline. Arachnaman tries coming off the top but Scott catches him, hits a belly to belly, and gets 3. This never gelled. Scott almost ended up on the DL again with a blown out back from carrying this match. *1/4

 

Ron Simmons and Thomas Rich def WCW United States Tag Team Champion Steve Armstrong and PN News in 12:01- Simmons and Rich argue over who's going to start. Simmons gets a quick press slam on Armstrong then hits an ugly flying tackle. Rich and Armstrong have a decent back and forth. Rich tries to slam News. That's not happening. News throws Rich out of a headlock and a lockup. Both faces end up in. News and Simmons stick to fair play until News punches on a corner break. Avalanche! Simmons counters with a bulldog for 2. News clotheslines and does a crazy ugly crossbody for 2. Rich and Armstrong take turns choking each other with wrist tape. Simmons and Rich keep arguing every time they tag. More solid but unspectacular Armstrong and Rich back and forth. News hits a flying clothesline on Rich for 2. Armstrong hits an avalanche on Rich. He tries another but Rich dodges. News refuses Armstrong's orders to cheat and swap without tagging. Rich gets the tag. Simmons powerslams Armstrong, slams News, and hits Armstrong with the spinebuster to win. Mostly inoffensive. **

As the wrestlers make their entrance for Battlebowl the cameraman falls down and they don't cut away from his camera. Mr. Hughes is clearly trying to stay in character and not laugh as he walks by.

 

Battlebowl- For WCW, they've done a solid job to this point of keeping the night's gimmick matches straight, executing them reasonably well, and keeping some kind of internal logic. That's about to fall to pieces. All 20 tag match winners are in this. The announced rules are a wrestler has to be thrown from ring 1 to ring 2. Once they're in ring 2 it's normal over the top rope battle royale rules. The last guy standing in ring 1 will "meet" the last guy standing in ring 2. They're not clear about it, but it's still battle royale rules then, not a singles match. Sting and Vader meet up at the start to foreshadow their future rivalry. Arn and Steamboat fight on the ramp. Liger wanders around looking for a partner. Vader and Hughes clothesline Kazmaier over the top and onto the ramp, but it doesn't count because it's not into ring 2. Part of the problem with this match is WCW made overly convoluted rules and, for once, tried to stick to them no matter how little sense they made. Vader flips Steamboat over the top and onto the ramp. Steamboat dodges a Vader splash on the ramp. Vader tries to throw Steaboat from ring 1 to ring 2 but Steamboat squeaks out. More ineffectual brawling that seems to go on forever. This is a mess and shit. It's a messy shit. No one likes a messy shit. Rich is finally the first to get sent to ring 2. The crowd wakes up when Sting and Luger find each other. Bagwell goes to ring 2. Hughes throws Chip to ring 2. Liger goes over. Morton walks over! You're supposed to *not* want to go to oh who am I kidding what does it matter. Liger finally has some space to work and is bored so he puts on a flippydo showcase, topped off with a springboard moonsault (lionsault). Morton and Liger eliminate each other. Hughes flies over into ring 2. Rich gets eliminated off camera. Arn and Steamboat were fighting on the outside, but when they get back in it's in ring 2! *throws papers in the air in frustration* Tony's all confused like the rules matter or something. No one knows what to do. All the outside the ring fighting doesn't help any. Sting finds Rude and they start hockey fighting and end up in ring 2. Only Luger and Vader are left in ring 1. Luger clotheslines Vader over to ring 2 and is the "winner" of ring 1. And skipping ahead a bit because eff it.....the final 4 in ring 2 are Sting, Steamboat, Austin and Rude. With 3 camera angles still on screen for some reason. Sting whips Rude into Austin. He and Rude reverse and reverse and reverse whips and finally Sting uses it to Stinger Splash Austin! The Dangerous Alliance go for a double team, but Sting ducks and Rude eliminates Austin! Rude throws Steamboat out but he skins the cat and headscissors Rude to pull him out. Rude responds by dragging Steamboat to the floor to eliminate him. Sting "wins" ring 2. Rude comes in and gives him a Rude Awakening. Luger comes over and pecks away at the corpse. They end up on the ramp again. Race tries a cheap shot but Sting slams him. Luger pushes Sting off the ramp into the barricade. Sting blocks a rail shot, gives Luger a few and starts to come back. He props Luger up in the corner. Race comes in again and Sting suplexes him. Luger dodges the Stinger splash. He throws Sting over and celebrates, but Sting hung onto the ropes and landed on the apron. Sting clotheslines Luger over and wins Battlebowl! I'm very tempted to DUD this thing, but there was some effort being made from a wrestling standpoint, and they did use it to set up some future feuds (most notably Sting/Luger and Rude/Steamboat, but also gave us the first Vader/Sting tease) so I'll be generous. *

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- There's some interesting things going on long term booking wise in the tag matches, if not a lot of great wrestling, and that part managed to play out moderately well. Battlebowl is the usual WCW gimmick match clusterfuck. Fortunately, this is the last major show run by Jim Herd. Kip Frey would take over as temporary steward in January (and oversee two of the best shows in company history, Superbrawl II and Wrestle War '92) before Bill Watts was hired and brought a whole new slew of company damaging ideas with him.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+