Starrcade '95

Legacy Review

Starrcade '95: World Cup of Wrestling

Small personal note before we get going, I attended the '23 Royal Rumble at the Alamodome this past weekend and it was an amazing show top to bottom. Just wish the so-called "Superstore" had been better stocked and had a wider variety, though seeing the Axxess-like memorabilia museum was really cool. It really feels like WWE has turned a creative corner with Triple H calling the shots now and this Wrestlemania season may really be something special.

 

December 27, 1995 from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

After a more normal show in '94 we're back to a gimmick Starrcade this year, but this was one of the best ideas for one: WCW and partner New Japan Pro-Wrestling going toe to toe in a best of 7 series for the one off "World Cup of Wrestling". It's a great concept, but the show was also badly promoted in the US outside the WCW World title matches at the end and almost no time was spent on weekly TV building up who the New Japan wrestlers are. Remember, it's still (mostly) pre-internet, the ultra hardcore fans who would go out of their way to get literal videotapes of shows from Japan would know who the Japanese wrestlers are but that's a very small percentage of the base fandom. It's also puzzling that reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Keiji Mutoh was left out as his Great Muta persona was one of the few New Japan wrestlers familiar to most American fans. Dusty Rhodes is making his PPV debut in commentary, forming a three man booth with Tony and Heenan that will last well into the start of the NWO invasion. The group brings a lot of hilarity, but lots of times at the expense of actually calling the matches. And one last personal note, this is the first time I've watched this show since watching for the first time (and reviewing) the Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome shows of this era, so I'm much more familiar with the New Japan wrestlers and have really been looking forward to getting into this one.

WCW vs NJPW: Jushin Thunder Liger (w/Sonny Oono) def Chris Benoit in 10:29- Liger is probably the most recognizable Japanese wrestler in the US after Muta from his early '90s WCW appearances, including his genre defining match with Brian Pillman at Superbrawl II in '92 that showcased the Japanese junior heavyweight high flying technical style that was unheard of to mainstream US audiences at the time. He's also a few months back from the ankle injury that put him on the shelf almost a full year. Benoit and Liger were very familiar opponents from Japan so this is a great pairing and a definite hot start for the show. Benoit easily wins the opening lockups. They do an extended speed/counter run with Liger getting a couple of armdrags and dropkicking Benoit to the floor. Baseball slide. Liger cannonball off the apron! Back in they reset with a test of strength. Liger bridges up, leaps and headscissors Benoit out of the knucklelock. Benoit tiltawhirl backbreaker for 2. He tries a powerbomb but Liger flips over into an armdrag. More speed and Liger hits a snap belly to belly suplex. Benoit goes to the floor again. Liger loads up a dive but Benoit moves and Liger handsprings off the ropes instead. We get our first Dustyism of the night, saying Liger was "tipsy toed". Back in Benoit hits a snap suplex and back suplex. Clothesline. He puts Liger in a Liontamer style Boston crab. Chops and Benoit German suplex for 2. Liger hooks on a surfboard, then transitions into a camel clutch. Benoit electric chair slams out. He tries another back suplex but Liger flips over on him. Benoit hooks up for a tombstone. Liger reverses, and flapjacks Benoit straight down. They go up top and Benoit hits a superplex. Liger dodges the headbutt off the top rope. Rolling kick in the corner from Liger. Ligerbomb for 2. Brain buster for 2. They hit the ropes again and Benoit hits a big clothesline, followed by two rolling Germans. Benoit plants Liger with a powerbomb. He goes up and hits the headbutt off the top! Kevin Sullivan is out to ringside. I don't remember the details but Benoit's Four Horsemen teammate Pillman did something to piss Sullivan off not long ago, and Pillman's not scheduled tonight so he's taking it out on Benoit. Liger takes advantage of the distraction, hits a rough hurricanrana that they struggled to get over on, and gets the pin. Good stuff for sure, but also only about 75% of what they were capable of. The distraction finish didn't help either. New Japan takes the early 1-0 lead. ***1/2

Mean Gene is in the back with Eddie Guerrero, which I only mention because it is so weird to see Eddie as a white meat babyface.

 

WCW vs NJPW: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Koji Kanemoto (w/Sonny Oono) def "Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright in 11:44- Kanemoto is in his second of what would be 5 career reigns with the junior title, and this is in the peak of his epic longtime rivalry with Liger that would see them face each other in the Tokyo Dome almost every single year for years. In fact, Liger would take the title from Kanemoto in the '96 January 4 Dome show just a week after this. Wright participated in the '95 Best of the Super Juniors tournament so he had familiarity with the New Japan style. Lockup and counterwrestling stalemates to start. Kanemoto spins into a drop toe hold and works Wright's leg a bit. Wright gets up with an enzuguri and lays in some European uppercuts. They trade arm wringers and Wright does some World of Sport counters. Armdrag and flying headscissors from Wright. He crossbodys Kanemoto against the ropes and they both go to the floor. A baseball slide sends Kanemoto into the barricade. Wright plancha! Kanemoto is frustrated and takes his time on the floor getting his head back in the game. Back in Wright cranks a chinlock that's almost a full sleeper. Kanemoto backs him into the corner and hits chops. Spinning heel kick. He lays Wright on the top rope and lays in some more chops and a dropkick. Wright gets on the apron and Kanemoto dropkicks him off. Kanemoto plancha! That was way better than Wright's. Wright reverses a floor whip and Kanemoto goes into the guardrail. Some more floor stalling follows. Wright tries to suplex Kanemoto off the apron. Kanemoto flips out and hooks up for a tiger suplex. Wright tries to block it. Kanemoto eventually gets him over, but Wright falls with a foot on the middle rope to break up the pin. Kanemoto moonsault! He doesn't go for a cover, which everyone in commentary agrees is a mistake. Might be the only thing all three agreed on the whole time they worked together. Wright floats over in the corner and hits a German suplex for 2. Heel kick from Wright. Running corner elbow. Setup powerslam. Wright springboard splash. Kanemoto gets a foot on the rope. Wright goes for a missile dropkick but Kanemoto also dropkicks him in midair and both guys are down. Wright springboard crossbody for 2. Kanemoto hits a back elbow and spin kick. Setup slam and corkscrew senton for 2. Kanemoto comes off the top but Wright dropkicks him in midair. Wright missile dropkick. Superplex. Wright tries to float over in the corner again but Kanemoto catches him and snake eyes him. A jackknife cover gets the pin! Once again Wright shows that with the right partner he could be carried to a good match. New Japan takes a big 2-0 lead. ***1/4

 

WCW vs NJPW: "The Total Package" Lex Luger (w/Jimmy Hart) def Masahiro Chono (w/Sonny Oono) in 6:41- In context of the best of 7 series this is pretty much a must win for WCW. These two have priors, with Luger successfully defending the WCW World title (globe and stars edition) against Chono in the second WCW/New Japan Supershow in '92, which was also the first ever Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show. Chono won the revived NWA World title later that year when WCW got the Big Gold Belt back, but that was his only singles title win so far. Even though Chono was the king of the G1 Climax in this period (3 tournament wins already and he'd get up to 5) he had struggled in major singles matches outside the tournament. Case in point, he still had a goose egg in singles matches in 1/4 Dome shows and would lose again the next week at the '96 show. They stare down to start. Luger kicks Chono into a headlock and hits a shoulderblock. Gorilla press slam. Chono hits a couple of running forearms and a Yakuza kick. Luger goes to the floor and confers with Hart. Back in Luger goes back on the attack. Chono blocks and hits a suplex. He hooks on a sleeper, then turns it into a reverse DDT. The STF is hooked in! Luger gets to the ropes. A bit more back and forth follows and Chono hits a reverse atomic drop. He wanders around a bit lost for a moment, then hits another Yakuza kick. Tony keeps calling them "mafia kicks", which sends both Heenan and Dusty into fits of laughter because it makes no sense to them and no one tries to explain Chono's Yakuza gimmick. Chono tries coming off the top but flies into a Luger back elbow. Torture Rack! Chono submits and it's over. This never really came together. Luger gets WCW on the board and it's 2-1. *1/2

 

WCW vs NJPW: WCW World Television Champion Johnny B Badd (w/Kimberly) def Masa Saito (w/Sonny Oono) by DQ in 5:52- This is an interesting (putting it politely) pairing for Badd, who had grown a ton in the ring during the past year and was wrestling a very athletic, high flying style while Saito was a very old school grounded New Japan heavyweight, lurching toward retirement and probably hanging on too long already. Oono takes issue with Kimberly being out there and Kimberly gives it right back to him. Cautious start. Saito gets a takedown and puts on a cobra clutch, then goes into heel 101 hair pulling. A chop exchange turns into an all out stiff chopfest. Saito hits a throat punch. Oono gets involved in a match for the first time and chokes Badd with his flagpole. Guess they figured this one needed it since Saito was, putting it mildly, limited in what he could do. Saito suplex from the man that invented it. Lariato. More choking from Oono. Saito Russian leg sweep. Mongolian chop. Badd punches back and hits a kneelift. Double ax handle off the top. Sunset flip off the top for 2. More Badd punches and a suplex. Oono gets on the apron. Saito attacks from behind and in the course of events Badd goes over the top rope down to the floor, taking Oono with him. The ref calls for the dumb over the top rope rule DQ. After the bell the fight continues with Badd completely missing a somersault plancha. Really, could Saito not job clean to a reigning WCW champion? Weak sauce. The Cup is tied up 2-2. 1/4* solely for the stiff chop exchange near the start of the match

 

WCW vs NJPW: Shinjiro Otani (w/Sonny Oono) def Eddie Guerrero in 13:43- Otani was a few years behind the Liger/Kanemoto generation but was on a similar track in the junior division and would end up becoming almost as big a legend as, well, Kanemoto at least. No one in the junior division has ever been on Liger's level. He's also the more natural heel of the three which fit this match perfectly. Guerrero is essentially making his WCW PPV debut (he was in the World War 3 battle royale but so were 59 other guys). After cutting his teeth in his home Mexico he worked in New Japan for several years both as himself and as a version of Black Tiger, and also had an ECW run under his belt that included a TV title win. Guerrero plays to the crowd a bit before another cautious start. Otani hooks on an armbar and goes right into the heel work, hair pulling and face raking Guerrero. He tries a leg takedown but Guerrero hits an enzuguri. Otani gets a single leg crab followed by more good back and forth mat position jockeying. Guerrero hurricanranas Otani to the floor. Back in Guerrero hits a dropkick. Slingshot senton. Boston crab into a single leg from Guerrero. He powerbombs Otani and stacks him up for 2. Huge Guerrero brain buster! He covers but Otani has a foot on the rope. Corner clothesline. Otani flips over the corner to dodge a charge and hits a springboard dropkick. Those springboard moves will quickly become one of Otani's signatures. Guerrero rolls out. Otani with a springboard crossbody down to the floor! Back in Otani hits a dropkick and stomps on Guerrero a bit. This would probably be the spot in the match where he'd do his signature boot scrapes but he wasn't doing that quite yet. Guerrero hits a Saito suplex. Otani German suplex for 2. Springboard spinning heel kick! That one looks awesome. Otani goes up top. Guerrero pops up, joins him, and hurricanranas him off the top! Slow cover for 2. Guerrero lifts Otani into a Razor's Edge position and powerbombs him again! Almost a Last Ride powerbomb. Standing switches with Otani getting a takedown into an ankle lock. Guerrero grabs a rope. Otani misses a dive and goes through the ropes to the floor. Guerrero runs him into the guardrail and slams him on the floor. Guerrero springboard reverse crossbody to the floor! That might have been intended to be a springboard moonsault but it looks like Guerrero switched at the last second. Otani suplexes Guerrero back in the ring. Springboard dropkick to the back of Guerrero's head! He hooks up for his dragon suplex finisher. Guerrero back elbows out. Otani whips Guerrero and tries a pop up powerbomb. Guerrero turns it into a hurricanrana! Otani rolls through it into a cradle! Reversal! Another reversal! Otani stays on top and gets the pin! Hell of a match. I think both these kids are going to be OK. New Japan goes back up 3-2. ****1/4

 

WCW vs NJPW: WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage def Hiroyoshi Tenzan (w/Sonny Oono) in 6:55- Another interesting pairing here. Tenzan was about a year back from excursion and was still working his way up the ranks, but as Tony points out he and Chono had just had an IWGP tag title run. He's being billed as misspelled "Tensan" here. Savage's left arm is still all taped up with what was I think a legit injury he was working through. Rough lockup with Tenzan attacking out of a corner break. Clothesline for 2. Chops in the corner and a corner boot choke. Tenzan no sells a buckle shot and hits headbutts as it's all Tenzan so far. Spinning heel kick. Mongolian chops. Savage rolls out. Tenzan follows and posts him, then drops him on the guardrail. Tenzan Samoan drop back in. Headbutt off the top for 2. Moonsault! Savage dodges! Clothesline to Tenzan's back. Savage tries to suplex Tenzan but drops him on the top rope. I'm not sure if that was deliberate or not. The elbow off the top hits and it's over with Savage hitting three moves the whole match. There was some chemistry here, but the lack of time and bad layout with Tenzan on offense almost the whole match just to lose didn't help any. Shockingly (/sarcasm), it's tied up 3-3 going into the last match. *

 

WCW vs NJPW: Sting def WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Kensuke Sasaki (w/Sonny Oono) in 6:52- Sasaki had actually been working in WCW regularly for a bit, having upset Sting for the US title during a WCW two show swing in Japan in November. The physical World Cup is out for this match to be presented after. It's the most generic giant trophy with no inscription on it at all that you could find. Saski jumps Sting as he's getting in the ring. He runs Sting into the corners. Sting hits a back elbow and chops. Early Stinger Splash! Sasaki gets a misdirection faceplant. Clotheslines. Sting ducks the third, hits a dropkick, and clotheslines Sasaki 360 to the floor. Back in there's a series of suplex counters and Sasaki hits a powerslam. Northern lights brain buster! That's usually Sasaki's finisher but he's not making an effort to cover. Instead he plays to the crowd, then hooks on his dragon hold submission hold. After Sting gets out Sasaki hits the arm flip slam for 2. He puts Sting in a Scorpion Death Lock! Sting fights and powers out of it. Sasaki dragon screw leg whip! Sting hits an enzuguri. Sasaki tries a running powerslam. Sting escapes, hits a clothesline and a faceplant. Sting Scorpion! He drags Sasaki away from the ropes and Sasaki has to submit! Decentish. **1/4

After the bell the other WCW wrestlers that were in the Cup come out to celebrate, and Okerlund hosts a small trophy presentation.

 

Triangle Match: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair def Sting and "The Total Package" Lex Luger by countout in 28:03- Now for the other part of tonight's festivities. The winner of this match gets a world title match with Savage immediately after. Flair must have paid someone some serious money to be the only one that didn't wrestle a match during the World Cup earlier. Sting and Luger are still doing their "one guy is a face and one guy is a heel but we're still best friends forever no matter what anyone else says" shtick. Luger told Jimmy Hart to stay in the back for this match because he wanted to go it alone. As I've mentioned before these triple threat/triangle/3 way matches were still a new thing to mainstream wrestling at the time and they were still trying to figure out how best to make it work. Tonight has a new format: they're going to do the coin flip again (in theory) but the "odd man out" will start on the apron, wrestlers can tag in and out with only two being legal at any given time, and the first guy to get a fall is the winner. It's not perfect, but it does add some new strategic wrinkles. Do you park it on the apron to rest at the risk of the match ending without you in it, or do you go all out avoiding tagging out to try to get the win? Luger gets on the apron with as far as we can tell no coin flip in the ring, so Sting and Flair start. We get a "WOOOOOOO"/Sting yell tradeoff. Lockup and Flair chops. Sting press slam and clothesline for 2. He tries for an early Scorpion but Flair grabs a rope before it's on and slides out. Back in Flair spins into a hammerlock. Tony calls out the fact there was no visible coin toss in the ring and says Luger must have volunteered to be on the apron first. Heenan of all people covers by saying it must have happened in the back before the match. Flair continues the slow picking apart of Sting. More chops and Flair struts a bit. Sting mock struts back. He hits a hip toss, dropkick and another press slam. Mounted punches and a Sting face plant. Flair rolls out again. Sting follows, gets whipped into the rail, but then pops out and runs Flair over with a very Vader like tackle. More Sting no selling and Flair begs off. Flair dodges a dropkick. Kneedrop and Flair struts in Luger's direction. Dusty goes on an absolutely insane rant about what "playing possum" means and how do you play possum anyway do you climb a tree and shout "I'm a possum"? He and Heenan it sounds legit start arguing about it and Tony has to rein them both back in. Flair tosses Sting over the top almost onto the steps and mocks Luger some more. Kneedrop back in for 2. More strutting as Flair is in super cocky mode. Suplex. Sting pops up! He sets Flair up top. Flair eye pokes to get away. Another Sting press slam and he sets Flair up top again. Superplex! Sting covers. Luger comes in to break it up! Sting sees him coming and he stops! Sting: "What are you doing?". Flair hits Sting from behind. Luger tags Sting to come into the match. Luger is all kinds of fired up and Flair begs off. He rolls out. Luger chases, picks him up on the aisle and carries him back to the ring. Flair gets a cheap shot in the corner. He tries a shoulderblock but just bounces off Luger. Luger press slam. Tony: "Flair's been up there all night!". Mounted punches. Flair Flop! Luger covers for 2. Eye poke from Flair and he clips Luger's knee! Time to go to school. Sting inadvertently distracts the ref and Flair whacks Luger's knee with a chair. More knee work and mocking of Sting from Flair. Sting gets the ref's attention again so Flair gives Luger a low blow. Figure four! Luger hulks up and reverses. Suplex from Luger for 2. He slams Flair off the top then absorbs more blows from Flair. Flair wants Sting and Luger to go at it. He tags out to Sting. Sting comes in to an underwhelming crowd response considering the story they've been telling. Luger and Sting are reluctant to go. They shake hands as the crowd gets restless. Finally they lock up with clean corner breaks that get boos. Luger gets the first real shots in. Sting blocks a buckle shot and hits one. Clotheslines. Luger backs off. Sting gets a boot up in the corner and hits a high knee. Luger pops out of the corner with a clothesline. He drops Sting on the top rope. Sting goes to the floor. Luger tries coming off the apron but Sting catches him with a gut shot. Crossbody off the top back in for 2. Sting tries a Vader bomb but Luger gets his knees up. He drops a bunch of elbows and covers Sting for 2. Sting catches a kick and kicks back. He tries for the Scorpion but Luger grabs a rope before it's fully on. Low blow from Luger! Inverted atomic drop. Sting flash small package for 2. Sunset flip for 2. He counters a Luger backdrop and hits a faceplant. Stinger Splash! He goes for another one but Luger dodges. Torture Rack! The ref gets knocked down! Flair comes in and clips Luger's knee again! Luger falls out of the ring. Flair tosses Sting out on top of Luger! Then he gets the ref up and tells him to count. The ref does. Sting is up at 9, but Luger grabs him to keep him from getting back in and they're both counted out! Flair wins! Pretty solid match. It was best when Flair was in. The finish is one of those typical WCW ones that they think is being super brilliant when it's really only moderately inspired. Kind of the wrestling equivalent of watching a Christopher Nolan movie. **3/4

After the match Jimmy Hart runs out and it looks like he's mad at Flair for costing Luger. Sting walks away from Luger without a word.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (w/Jimmy Hart) def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) in 8:41- Hart stays out to manage Flair so I guess there's no issue there after all. Commentary doesn't do anything to try to explain or even speculate about it. Buffer still has to do the full Buffer even though both these guys have already wrestled tonight. Savage quickly blocks a hip toss and gets a backslide for 2. Corner shot trade off. Paul Orndorff comes out in a neck brace. The Horsemen, or more specifically that loose canon Brian Pillman, gave him a piledriver on concrete not long ago. Flair hits an inverted atomic drop. Savage fights off a figure four. Flair Flip! He falls to the floor. Savage comes off the top but Flair catches him with a gut punch. Security gets Orndorff out. Thanks for coming I guess. Flair posts Savage's bad arm and lays Savage out in the aisle. Hart gets a wimpy kick in. Back in Flair works a hammerlock on Savage's hurt arm and spends the next part of the match picking the arm apart. Kneedrop on the arm. Savage tries to get a desperation cover with tights holding but Flair squeaks out. Flair hooks on a sleeper. Savage counters out. Backdrop and clotheslines from Savage for 2. Hart gets on the apron. Savage tries coming off the top but again Flair catches him. Flair has Hart's megaphone. He tries to hit Savage with it but Savage blocks it. Savage gets the megaphone and nails Flair with it! He covers but the ref is still distracted by Hart. Flair's busted open and gushing. Savage hits the elbow off the top! The ref is STILL dancing over there with Hart. Pillman and Benoit are out. Savage fights them both off. Arn Anderson is out. He nails Savage from behind with knucks! The bloody mess Flair covers, and the ref finally stops hugging Hart to count the pin. Flair wins the title back! Officially WCW says this is #12, so adding his two WWF Title wins it's 14. Really it's more than that but I'm not getting into that right now. The Horsemen ride on top again. Pillman whips Savage with the belt as the rest of the Horsemen celebrate. The match was eh, probably about the best they could do under the circumstances of wrestling multiple matches and time constraints. They were setting up some good psychology around Savage's hurt arm, but it degenerated into Hart hugging the ref for two solid minutes while the Horsemen interfered. I also think this is a case of WCW badly misreading the room. The Horsemen reunion was great, the new makeup of the Horsemen is great. But, the crowd really, really, really wants to cheer the Horsemen. They should be faces, not heels. Case in point tonight, as all the interference to win got a very tepid response, not a ton of heat. A clean Flair win would probably have blown the roof off the place, even against Savage. *3/4

 

There were some more interesting happenings after the show went off air. Sasaki defended the US title in a dark match against the One Man Gang. OMG pinned Sasaki to win the title, but due to shenanigans the refs restarted the match and Sasaki ended up winning. However, WCW didn't recognize the restart and OMG kept the win and the belt and was now the official US champ. When the match was aired in part on weekly TV the next week it only showed OMG getting the pin.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A show of WCW vs NJPW matches was a brilliant idea, and in a rarity for WCW actually executed fairly well. The junior matches definitely delivered. The heavyweight matches less so, but the overall presentation was still a success in my eyes. I'm a huge NJPW fan so I am biased. I wish they'd done more shows like this. The final portion with the world title was OK but not great. It might have turned out better with a more even allocation of time for the two matches and no double duty for everyone. It also helped tremendously to have no Hogan or Giant involved. At this point Dusty was more a disruptive force on commentary than a help, messing up the good rapport Tony and Heenan had built up. They'd get better once they ironed out the kinks. And so WCW closes out what had been at times a tortuously bad 1995 with back to back solid shows and some new solid ground under their feet thanks to Nitro giving them some more focus. That would continue into the first part of '96, a year that would end up changing wrestling forever.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-