Starrcade '92

Legacy Review

Starrcade '92

December 28, 1992 from The Omni is Atlanta

 

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura

 

Another year, another gimmick Starrcade. This year has a couple of different things going on. First is the return of the Lethal Lottery and Battlebowl, which fortunately does not make up the whole show this year. Several guys in the Lethal Lottery will be pulling double or even triple duty during the show. Second is the finals of the King of Cable tournament, more or less WCW's one off version of King of the Ring, an 8 man tournament that had been held on weekly TV. Mixed in with this are a few world title matches.

 

The show open has a really cool montage of the title screens of all the previous Starrcades. Next year is the 10th anniversary, but this is the 10th show so they're celebrating early. The announcer calls it "the 10th annual Starrcade '92". Ummmmm, they didn't all happen in '92. The opening video also still advertises Rick Rude for the WCW world title match, but Eric Bischoff tells us from a direct ripoff of the WWF Update set (I mean direct, apart from WCW action in the screens it looks exactly the same) that Rude is out with an injury and Steve Williams is in.

Before we get going, Bill Watts is in the ring with Ted Turner buddy and the second greatest hitter of all time (after Ted Williams) Hank Aaron to present Sting with a ring for winning Battlebowl '91 and says that the winner of every Battlebowl from now on will also win a ring.

Lethal Lottery Match: Van Hammer and "Dangerous" Dan Spivey def Johnny B Badd and Cactus Jack in 6:51- The draw for this match happened at the last Clash so Jack and Badd got a warmup match on weekly TV and didn't work together very well (in storyline). Jack and Hammer start. Jack gets a corner double leg takedown and tries a quick rope leverage pin. He holds Hammer for a double team, but Badd shakes it off like a pitcher rolling through a signs and slaps on a headlock instead. Badd hits a couple of Japanese armdrags. And a hurricanrana! That gets a 2 count. Spivey hits a big boot and big clothesline. Badd shrugs off another double team setup. Spivey knees Badd in the back from the apron on a rope run. Hammer doesn't look pleased about that but goes with it. Spivey hits a Rock Bottom slam and works Badd's back. Hammer's already used up his whole moveset. Badd/Spivey midring collision. Jack works a hot tag sequence. He looks to tag out, but Badd's on the floor recovering. Hammer hits a flying tackle. Badd tries to break the pin up but ends up dropping an elbow on Jack. Jack gets up and jaws at him. Badd says screw it and pops him with a right hand, and Hammer rolls him up for the pin. Meh. It's missing the usual big Foley bumps. *1/4

 

Lethal Lottery Match: Big Van Vader and "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes def Kensuke Sasaki and The Barbarian in 6:56- Vader and Barbarian open. They're both heels so we have a Code of Dishonor handshake. Power guy standoffs. Short clothesline no sells. Vader no sells a slam. Shoulderblock standoff. Vader pops Barbarian with some potatoes in the corner. There's a miscommunication where Barbarian looks like he dodges a big boot Vader didn't expect him to dodge, then Barbarian hesitates forever before hitting a clothesline. Vader and Rhodes hit a Hart Attack! The ref delays counting getting Vader out of the ring and Barbarian kicks out. Barbarian gets a Saito suplex for 2. Rhodes has bells on his trunks. Is he trying to bring back the Ding Dongs or something? Sasaki comes off the second rope but Rhodes hits him in midair with a dropkick. Vader squashes Sasaki off the second rope. Vader powerslam for 2. Sasaki suplexes Vader! Rhodes with a flying clothesline on Barbarian. Sasaki breaks the pin up. Rhodes and Sasaki have a chopfest as Sasaki gets back on the apron. Barbarian charges, but Rhodes dodges it and he runs into Sasaki, and Rhodes rolls him up to win. As the ref is raising their hands Vader murders Rhodes with a blindside clothesline because he doesn't need him anymore. Freaking awesome. **1/4

 

Lethal Lottery Match: The Great Muta and Barry Windham def "Flyin'" Brian Pillman and 2 Cold Scorpio in 6:59- Windham and Pillman are challenging for the tag titles later in the show, but the Lethal Lottery sticks them on opposite sides here. Scorpio, one of the first wrestlers to use the 450 splash, debuted in WCW in November, his first run for a major company in the US. Windham and Scorpio commence proceedings. Very fast start. Scorpio hits deep armdrags and rolls through a backbreaker attempt. Pillman and Muta have a great speed sequence. Windham and Pillman hook it up with no hesitation. Chopfest. Both guys are enjoying it. Muta hits Pillman with a spinning back kick. Windham hits a flying lariat and a legdrop for 2. Muta and Windham do a double dropkick! JR drops the fact that Muta is the current IWGP Heavyweight Champion while Scorpio hits him with a rope assisted legdrop. Another Muta spinning back kick sends Scorpio to the ramp. Scorpio gets Muta down and does a slingshot 360, but he over rotates and knees Muta hard right in the gut. Windham breaks the pin up. Donnybrook! Windham hits a DDT. The Mutasault completely misses. Muta recovers to get a sit down pin on Scorpio. Really good match before the botches at the end. I would have loved another 10 minutes of this. **3/4

 

Lethal Lottery Match: "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Sting def Jushin Thunder Liger and Erik Watts in 9:08- Man, Liger has been absolutely screwed like no one else ever when it comes to the Lethal Lottery draw for partners. Bill Kazmaier last year, Erik Watts this year. Erik is Bill Watts' mostly talentless son that had no business being on TV for a major promotion, a fact obvious to everyone but Bill Watts. Liger and Sting start! Oh hell yeah. The crowd is pumped for it. Liger cartwheels out of a monkey flip attempt. Sting dodges a dropkick. Williams and Liger give us some sweet AJPW vs NJPW interpromotional action. JR even mentions they work for different companies in Japan. Watts hits armdrags on Williams. Williams responds with a big clothesline. Williams for the most part goes easy on Watts and lets him get offense in where most guys like Watts wouldn't because he's buddies with Papa Watts. Watts ducks a couple of clotheslines and hits a crossbody for 2. Hard Williams chops. Watts gets a sneaky tag to Liger and he ambushes Williams with rapid fire kicks. Williams blocks a monkey flip and kills Liger with a clothesline. Sting puts Liger up in a Canadian backbreaker and runs him face first upside down into the corner! Liger gets a sunset flip but Sting backs up into the ropes. Sting and Williams take control on Liger. Liger dodges the Stinger Splash but Sting still tags first. Williams locks on a single leg crab. Liger ducks under a clothesline and hooks on a sleeper. Williams suplexes out of it. Finally Liger counters a backdrop attempt and tags out. Slugfest. Watts hits a atrocious dropkick that almost knees Williams in the face. He goes to hook in the STF but Williams gets to the ropes. Williams catches Watts on a crossbody attempt, drops him over the top rope, and gets the pin. Watts is awful, but the other three are awesome enough to make up for it. Plus, Williams walking Watts through the match helped a ton. **1/2

 

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Masahiro Chono (c) def The Great Muta in 12:49- This is their second meeting for the title, following a successful Chono defense on a New Japan show. Muta goes to lock up but Chono has other ideas and pops him with a right. Headlock/headscissors spot. Chono hits a modified enzuguri and Muta powders. Muta rolls out of a test of strength. Chono counters with a suplex. Muta floats over into a full nelson, then an abdominal stretch. Chono reverses it. The crowd is definitely pro-Muta. Muta hiptosses out and hooks in an armbar. They do some gamesmanship with throwing each other out of the ring but none of it goes anywhere. Chono goes up top. Muta follows and hits a superplex! Both guys recover. Big backdrop. Muta hooks in a single leg crab, then switches it into the Mutalock. They literally just lie there not moving for a solid minute or two before Muta breaks the hold. Chono gets to the ropes, pops up and goes right back on offense like nothing happened. A Muta spinning back kick sends Chono out. Handspring elbow! Chono rolls out of the way of a Mutasault. Muta lands on his feet but jams his knee. He gets a desperation small package for 2. Both guys try for dropkicks! Chono hits a Saito suplex. He goes for a second one, but Muta spins over and turns it into a cover for 2! Chono counters a dropkick and hooks in the STF. Muta has to submit. Not completely awful, but definitely not up to normal New Japan standards. Rumor is Watts asked them to hold back and not overshadow the WCW matches on the show. Muta would finally win the Big Gold Belt in a title for title match with his IWGP Heavyweight title also on the line at the joint WCW/New Japan Tokyo Dome show January 4th. **

Rude comes out and says his doctor screwed him. Rumor is he was scheduled to finally win his first world title on this show while still US champ. JR mentions that a #1 contender's tournament for the US title had already been scheduled to start on weekly TV (likely in anticipation of Rude vacating the US title after winning the world title), and if needed the finals would be for the vacant title instead. Rude's injury kept him out of action until the spring so he was stripped, and Dustin Rhodes won the tournament for his first singles title. Rude's consolation prize would be a long run with the "WCW International Title" version of the Big Gold Belt in '93-'94.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Ron Simmons (c) def "Dr. Death" Steve Williams by DQ in 15:12- Williams offers a handshake. Simmons hesitates but eventually takes it, and it's legit. Simmons cranks away on a headlock. Shoulderblock standoff. Simmons wants some football, so they both get down into 3 point stances and have at it. The crowd loves it. They go down again, but this time Simmons leapfrogs and hits a clothesline. Williams escalates things with hair pulls. Simmons eventually has enough and we have a slugfest. Simmons tries a tackle off the top rope but Williams dodges and splats him. He gives Simmons a knee shot on the apron and twists his knee around the rope. Single leg crab. Williams spends a good chunk of the match working the knee with some small hope spots from Simmons. Williams goes down to the 3 point stance again and clips Simmons in the knee. Again. On the third one Simmons counters with a clothesline. Spinebuster. Simmons stopped selling the knee. He goes down and hits low football tackles of his own. On the third one of those Williams dodges and Simmons falls outside, on his feet, with no selling at all of the knee. Slugfest on the floor. Simmons is posted but holds Williams back from getting in and both guys are counted out. Williams keeps fighting after the bell and hits Simmons from the top rope. The ref reverses the decision to a Simmons win by DQ. Dumb on top of dumb. If given proper planning time and a definitive finish these guys could have had a decent match, but this ain't it. *1/2

 

NWA and WCW Unified World Tag Team Championship: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Shane Douglas (c) def Barry Windham and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman in 20:02- Windham attacked the champs backstage with a chair a couple of weeks ago so there's a little blood feud going on here. Steamboat works the match in Enraged Dragon mode so that's always good. Douglas and Pillman open. Pillman hits a .9 Flair chop and a hiptoss. He tries a crucifix but slips down into a roll up attempt. Douglas punches out. Really great extended high octane sequence there. Pillman blocks a roll up attempt but gets dropkicked out by Douglas. The faces hit multiple double teams on Windham with the ref just letting it happen before he powders too (Windham, not the ref). Windham's hot, tags in, and wants Steamboat. Steamboat chops him down. Windham suplexes out of a Douglas chinlock. Steamboat clotheslines Windham over the top and out and follows it up with a slam on the floor. Douglas slams Windham on the ramp and Steamboat throws him over the top and back in. Windham jaw jacks out of another chinlock and tags out. Pillman whips Douglas into the heel corner and Windham back elbows him. Douglas responds by dropkicking Pillman off the apron, and he flies all the way into the guardrail! As Pillman gets back in Douglas goes up top, but Pillman dropkicks him off all the way down to the floor! Windham follows with a clothesline. Douglas goes in peril. Windham taunts Steamboat in so Pillman can cheap shot Douglas. Douglas fights back but Pillman prevents a tag and Windham throws him out again. While Pillman has the ref tied up Steamboat takes advantage and whacks Windham with a chair! Pillman still cuts the tag off. The heels gets several near falls as Douglas wears down. Finally Douglas gets a punch on Windham while in good position, leans back, and gets the tag! Windham kills the hot tag sequence dead quickly with a powerslam on Steamboat. Windham also does the Triple H sitting on his knees sucking wind recovering sell. Pillman suckers Douglas in and throws Steamboat over the top and out again. Windham posts him. But Steamboat recovers and climbs the ropes midring, springboards off the top and hits Pillman with a chop. Pillman with a tiltawhirl flying headcissors for 2! Steamboat dodges a Windham punch off the top rope. Superkick! Face plant! Tags on both sides. Donnybrook! Steamboat crossbodys Windham over the top and onto the ramp. Douglas catches a running Pillman with a belly to belly suplex and that gets the 3! Really good match, and refreshing to see a tag match outside the usual Watts formula during his era. ***3/4

 

King of Cable Final: Sting def Big Van Vader (w/Harley Race) in 16:50- Serious big fight feel here with the crowd as hot as it's been all night. No one gives a damn about the King of Cable, but they give a damn about these guys. Cautious start. Vader pushes Sting out of a lockup and wipes face paint off his hand on his tights. No sells of Sting punches. Sting tries a charge and that doesn't end well. For him. Vader presses Sting and drops him on the top rope. Twice! Sting rolls out. He comes back in to potato shots. Sting ducks a clothesline and hits a rolling kick, followed up with a dropkick that hits Vader more like an enzuguri to his face. Sting German suplexes Vader! Cactus Clothesline! Vader's mask came off as they went out. Now he's mad. Sting comes back in, sets up, AND PLANCHAS BOTH VADER AND RACE! Now Vader's really mad. Potato shots in the corner. Sting dodges an avalanche and hits a deep armdrag. He goes for the Stinger Splash but Vader gets a boot up. Sting counters with big boots of his own. Sting with a DDT! He picks Vader up and sets him on the top rope! GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY F'N SUPERPLEX! That gets a 2 count. Sting hooks the Scorpion Death Lock on. Vader grabs a rope and rolls out. Sting sets up the Stinger Splash on the floor....but Vader dodges and Sting eats guardrail! He barely beats the count back in. Vader hits a short clothesline. Avalanche! More stiff punches. Big splash! But Vader's own momentum rolled him out of the cover. Vader butterflys Sting's arms while twisting his neck. Clothesline while both guys are on their knees for 2. Sting blocks another short clothesline into a backslide for 2! Sting tries a sunset flip, and anticipates Vader countering with a sit down squash and rolls out of the way of it! Vader pops him again. More pounding in the corner. Vader props Sting up on the top rope. Sting fights out of a superplex attempt and both guys are down. Vader is up first and pounds away again. Sting asks for more. He's trying get Vader to punch himself out. He starts hulking up and punches back. Sting deadlifts Vader into a Samoan Drop! Damn. Just, damn. Sting hits a big splash from the top rope! Vader kicks out! Race distracts Sting and Vader pops him from behind. Big splash off the second rope! Again Vader's momentum kills the pin attempt. Vader goes up top, but as he's coming off Sting catches him, powerslams him, and gets the pin! What a freaking match. They're now tied up 1-1 in PPV matches. I think a rubber match is in order. ****3/4

 

Battlebowl- The Battlebowl battle royale is only one ring this year, so we don't have to deal with the convoluted rules that made the first one such a mess. Vader's got his mask back on. He jumps Sting on the entrance ramp! They fight there while everyone else starts in the ring. Off camera Sting escapes and gets into the ring. Vader DIVES OVER THE TOP ROPE ONTO HIM! "I'm not finished with you!" All we need is Vader flipping over an ambulance with Sting in it to make this complete. Muta lays chops on Williams in the corner. Former tag champs Windham and Rhodes go at it. Vader and Sting finally get separated. Hammer tries to work with Vader and Vader completely ignores him. There's a pecking order son, and you aren't even in it yet. As is typical for a WCW battle royale they're taking forever to have any eliminations. Rhodes bionic elbows Vader. Windham and Rhodes fight onto the ramp. Rhodes hits a bulldog on the ramp! Williams dumps Hammer out for the first elimination. See? Pecking order. Williams Saito suplexes Vader. Sting throws Spivey over onto the ramp. That's good enough. Spivey's gone. Vader tries to get Muta over but Sting hits him in the back with a Stinger Splash. Vader with the Cactus Clothesline on Sting! Both he and Sting are gone. The crowd doesn't like that. Rhodes busts Windham open. Windham counters with a DDT. He dumps both Rhodes and Williams out. It's down to Windham and Muta. The crowd is firmly behind Muta. Windham with a suplex and he tries to get Muta out but Muta hangs on. Superplex! Muta's thrown out, but he skins the cat. A couple of Muta dropkicks send Windham over and out! Muta wins it! Decentish match, fun choice for a winner. **1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Another mostly disappointing mostly gimmick Starrcade. Sting/Vader is absolute must see, and the tag title match is worth a look. The rest is completionist only. As the calendar turned to 1993 Bill Watts would be ousted and Eric Bischoff would talk himself into the top spot, though through most of '93 he would be heavily overseen by Ole Anderson and Dusty Rhodes and wouldn't really get full control until '94. Oh yeah, and a guy named Ric Flair was also on his way back.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

 

BONUS MATCH REVIEW: (12/30/92 from Baltimore, MD) WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Big Van Vader (w/Harley Race) def Ron Simmons (c)- This comes to us from the wonderful Hidden Gems section of the WWE Network. Tony Schiavone is on solo commentary for this one, and there's only one ringside camera filming it. Tony mentions Vader's IWGP title reigns. Both guys play to the crowd before locking up. Vader wants a test of strength. Simmons hesitates, and when they start locking up Vader suddenly pulls out. Vader: "He's got shit on his hands!". Vader turns another lockup into a short clothesline. Slugfest in the corner. Vader goes for an avalanche. Simmons cuts him off with a clothesline. Another clothesline sends Vader over and out and almost on top of the only cameraman. Simmons follows and slams Vader on the floor. Vader takes a while to recover. Race grabs the house mic and tries to psych Vader up by shouting "NO PAIN!". When Vader gets back in Simmons stays on the attack. Vader tries coming off the second rope but Simmons powerslams him! Another slam for a 2 count. Simmons butterflys Vader's arms while Race is still shouting "no pain" on the mic. Vader gets a boot up in the corner and hits an Earthquake splash. Big elbow drop. Another butt splash gets 2. Simmons ducks a clothesline and hits a spinebuster for 2. Powerslam! Race gets on the apron, and by the time Simmons covers Vader has a foot on the rope. Vader dodges a football tackle and Simmons flies out. Vader tries to suplex him back in but Simmons slips out and hits a back suplex for a long 2. Vader catches Simmons on a rope run, hits a shoulderbreaker, and gets the pin! Bit of an abrupt finish, but Vader has regained the world title! It's a pretty typical house show match, only memorable for the title change. **1/2