Starrcade '96

Legacy Review

Starrcade '96

December 29, 1996 from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

Title Unification: J-Crown Champion Ultimo Dragon (w/Sonny Oono) def WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko in 18:30- This is also called a "Nine Belt Match" by WCW, meaning the J-Crown's 8 plus their Cruiserweight title. Mike Tenay joins the booth for this one. The crowd is really behind Malenko. It's partially the US vs Japan thing, but crowds have been warming up to him for a while despite him being a heel. Another example of how simply being a badass wrestler will get you over no matter what some people might think. Cautious start and a good mat exchange. Dragon hooks up a legbar and Malenko gets to the ropes. Both guys flip out of arm wringers and they have another mat stalemate. Dragon gets a snap mare and hits some kicks to Malenko's back, the first strikes of the match. Malenko responds with a Saito suplex. He snap mares into a headscissors. Dragon snap suplex for 2. Rapid fire kicks from Dragon into a half crab, then an STF. Speed run, leaps and dodges, and Dragon maneuvers into hitting a buckle shot and chops. He tries a floatover in the opposite corner but Malenko pushes him out to the floor. Dragon dodges a baseball slide and slams Malenko on the floor. Dragon teases a dive, flips over, then hits a short tope suicida. Tenay mentions that Jushin Liger is challenging the winner of this match in "early January" in the Tokyo Dome. That'd be the '97 January 4th Dome show. More on that after the match. Back in Malenko hits a suplex, then a sunset flip for 2. Dragon neckbreaker for 2. He hooks on a surfboard, then switches over to an abdominal stretch/cobra twist. After Malenko gets free Dragon continues with the short kicks to Malenko's back. He tries a sleeper but Malenko fights it off and hits a back suplex. Big Malenko German suplex for 2. He snaps around Dragon into a legbar. Dragon tries to get to the ropes but Malenko pulls him back in. After a long fight Dragon manages to get to the ropes. Malenko hits a kneebreaker, dropkicks the knee, then lifts Dragon into a kind of Alabama slam that he twists around to put the legbar back on. Another rope break. Malenko dodges a handsrping elbow. Dragon gets a boot up in the corner but runs into a snap Malenko powerslam that gets a big pop. Dragon ducks a clothesline and hits a spinning heel kick. Powerbomb for a long 2. Tombstone reversal and Malenko PLANTS him with it. Dragon kicks out! The crowd is really into this and bit on that one. Malenko goes for the Texas cloverleaf but Dragon fights it off. Double underhook powerbomb with a jackknife cover from Malenko for another long 2. Malenko hits a crossbody against the ropes and tumbles to the floor. Dragon has a hard time getting over but eventually joins him. Malenko throws him back in. Dragon heel kicks Malenko off the apron. Asai moonsault! He goes up top. Malenko joins him. Dragon fights him off. Malenko dodges a moonsault. Dragon hit his knee on the way down. Malenko gets the cloverleaf on! Oono gets on the apron to break it up. Dragon small package for a long 2. Clothesline and brain buster from Malenko for 2. Crazy counter run, both guys counter out of dragon suplexes, Malenko tries a wheelbarrow, Dragon gets out of it, and Dragon hits a tiger suplex! That gets the pin! Dragon adds the WCW Cruiserweight belt to the J-Crown. Sort of. Once again the cruiserweights deliver in the opener, a regular occurrence this year as the division has come into its own. ****1/2

The week after this Dragon would lose the J-Crown to Liger at the Toyko Dome, but the WCW Cruiserweight title was not defended as part of the J-Crown with the other titles on that show. Dragon would continue as the WCW Cruiserweight champion after that loss, but Malenko would win it back before January was done. The J-Crown would exchange hands a couple more times in New Japan but wouldn't make it out of the year '97 due to WWF asking for their Light Heavyweight belt back to restart the division (due I'm sure to WCW's success with the cruiserweights), causing the rest of the Crown to fall apart and the belts return to their respective companies. That's an idea we need to have done again.

 

Tournament Final for the Inaugural WCW Women's Championship: Akira Hokuto (w/Sonny Oono & Kensuke Sasaki) def Madusa in 7:06- Yes, WCW is creating a women's championship despite having no women on the full time roster other than Madusa. Everyone else in the 8 woman tournament for the title was from Japan. Maybe I was distracted by note taking but I'm pretty sure I didn't even see a belt for this match. There would be one eventually. Sasaki is with Hokuto because they were married in real life, a rare case of Japanese wrestlers letting their private lives show in public. It's a cultural thing. For some reason Lee Marshall joins commentary for this. Hokuto jumps Madusa before the bell and tosses her around by the hair. Madusa responds with her own hair pull. Oono trips Madusa. Hokuto hangs Madusa while on the ropes to choke her. Madusa handstands Hokuto back to the mat. More Hokuto chokes follow. She puts on a Scorpion into an STF. Hokuto bites Madusa's foot! Dusty says she's "A bitin' and a teethin'". Medusa hits her shitty slingblades and a slam for 1. Hokuto goozles out of the cover. Yet more chokes. This isn't even heel 101, this is like heel junior high. Hokuto hits a northern lights suplex into a cross armbreaker. Madusa hits an AWFUL DDT. That was messed up on both ends by both of them. Hokuto German with a bridge for 2. Madusa does a "tornado" DDT if you can call it that. She came off the second rope but landed her feet on the mat before hitting it. Powerbomb for 2. Madusa goes for another one. She loses her balance and Hokuto falls on top of her and I'm pretty sure that's not what they were going for. German from Madusa for 2. Hokuto hits a superplex for 2. Hey, they pulled that one off right at least. Madusa dropkicks Hokuto off the ropes to the floor. While everyone's looking at her Oono comes from behind and whacks Madusa with her own US flag flagpole. Hokuto hits a missile dropkick, then breaks out her hubby's finisher, the northern lights bomb, to get the win and the title. Rather than actually try to build a women's division (which they should have done first, cart before the horse) WCW pretty much gave up on it in short order. Hokuto took the belt with her to Japan in June and that was the end of it. Sloppy mess of a match. 1/2*

Roddy Piper joins Mean Gene to talk about his main event match tonight with Hogan. Piper nonsensically rants about Hogan's size, leaving home when he was 13, Jurassic Park, bagpipes and skirts, and other unrelated things. Before he leaves Okerlund asks about the surgically repaired hip. Piper says nothing and hops away on one leg. "Back to you guys for more action". Guess that answered that.

 

Jushin Thunder Liger def Rey Mysterio Jr in 14:16- Oh. Hell. Yes. The only reason this match was booked was for these two to have a dream match and tear it up, which to me is as good a reason as any. Liger was still recovering from having a benign brain tumor removed earlier in the year. Tenay is in the booth again for this one. Code of Honor handshake to start since both guys are faces, but Liger definitely works as a heel during the match. Liger easily shoves Mysterio out of the opening lockup. Mysterio slowly works Liger down with a leg takedown. Both guys exchange surfboards and stalemate. Speed run and the much larger Liger (rare thing for him) runs Mysterio over. Dropkick and delayed suplex. Liger RUNS Mysterio hard into the corner chest first. Mysterio gets his faceplant backdrop in. Liger powerbomb. He lifts for another one but Mysterio counters with a hurricanrana. He goes to dump Liger to the floor with a flying headscissors but they have a little trouble with the execution. Mysterio does the 619 spin dive tease but Liger was already getting out of town. Mysterio catches Liger on the apron. Liger blocks an apron suplex and suplexes Mysterio down to the floor. Powerbomb on the floor! He sets Mysterio up top. Mysterio pushes him off. Liger dodges a dive and Mysterio splats on the mat. Tiltawhirl backbreaker from Liger and he puts on the full surfboard. Mysterio maneuvers around into hitting a German suplex. Standing moonsault for 2. DDT and springboard moonsault for another 2. After a springboard missile dropkick Mysterio puts on a camel clutch. Another springboard attempt, but this time Liger dropkicks him in midair! Huge release German from Liger for 2. Dragon screw leg whip. Dusty has a fit at the name of the hold. Liger rolling corner kick. Mysterio gets a monkey flip with a spinning heel kick follow up. He flips over the top, gets Liger down to the floor, hits the swinging rope kick, and then one ups Ultimo Dragon with an Asai moonsault from the *top* rope! Back in Mysterio hits a springboard guillotine legdrop. Cover and Liger gets a foot on the rope. Liger dodges a springboard senton. He hits a headbutt off the top rope for 2. Mysterio goes up top but Liger knocks him to the floor. Mysterio tries a springboard hurricanrana but Liger blocks it (kinda badly, looks like a botch but it isn't) and hits a midring rolling kick. Ligerbomb! That gets the pin. It's good, but Liger was clearly still shaking off the ring rust and was a little off here. Pretty much their floor match. It'd be the same the next week in the Dome when Liger defeated Ultimo Dragon for the J-Crown, good but not quite the usual Liger level. ***1/2

 

No DQ: Jeff Jarrett def Chris Benoit (w/Woman) in 13:48- There's a couple of different things going on here. One is Benoit has stolen Woman from Kevin Sullivan, both on screen and in real life, and his feud with Sullivan and the Dungeon of Doom was far from over. On the other side, Jarrett was invited into the Four Horsemen by the injured Ric Flair, but it's mid-'90s Jarrett and no one else wanted him in, so this match is intended to work out some of the issues within the Horsemen. To add to the whole "no one really cares about Jarrett" thing, the crowd is pretty firmly behind Benoit even though they're in Jarrett's hometown and Benoit is clearly supposed to be the heel here. Lockup stalemate and Benoit shoves Jarrett right on his keister, then Benoit mimes kicking dirt onto him. Chris, you're supposed to make the crowd hate you, this is doing the opposite. Headlock/headscissors exchange. Benoit slaps! Then hides behind the ref. Back elbow and chops from Benoit. Drop toe hold and he slaps the back of Jarrett's head, then pushes Jarrett's face into the mat with his boot. Jarrett finally loses it. He gets his own drop toe hold and walks over Benoit, then struts. Standing switches and Benoit hits a back elbow. He kicks Jarrett down in the corner. Jarrett tackles Benoit and they do a roll around ground and pound down to the floor. Benoit uses Woman as a distraction and hits Jarrett from behind. Back in he slingshots Jarrett into the corner. Big corner chop. Jarrett fights off a superplex. He chokes Benoit in front of Woman. Woman pulls Benoit out of harm's way and Jarrett crashes on a dive. Clothesline from Benoit for 2. He tosses Jarrett to the floor and they exchange some fairly weak guardrail shots. Benoit back suplex back in for 2. He hooks on a sleeper, but when Jarrett goes to the mat turns it into a regular chinlock and tries to get some rope leverage. After arm drops Jarrett fights back up and back suplexes out. Small package from Jarrett for 2. He comes off the second rope but Benoit gets a boot up. More Benoit chops. Jarrett hits jabs and a dropkick for 2. Snap belly to belly suplex from Jarrett. Benoit teases suplexing Benoit to the floor but Jarrett blocks it and drops Benoit on the top rope. He goes for the figure four. Woman gets on the apron and gouges his eyes out. No DQ. Arn Anderson makes his way out. He walks right by Benoit and gets in Jarrett's corner. The match goes to the floor again. The Dungeon of Doom comes out and tries to get Woman but she fights them off with some Greco Roman Groinal Kicks. While that's going on Arn DDTs Jarrett on the floor! Also while that's going on Kevin Sullivan gets in the ring whacks Benoit with a chair. Arn rolls Jarrett back in for Benoit to pin, but Benoit is out too. It looks like a double pin, but apparently Jarrett had a shoulder up and is declared the winner. Arn is pissed and blames Benoit. The overbooking was a bit much but they were going pretty nicely before that. ***1/4

Mean Gene tries to get a word from someone involved in the match but they all walk right past him. But never mind that shit, here comes Mongo, and he's always willing to talk. He's mad at Benoit for screwing up too. Debra kills 5 minutes of PPV time and says absolutely nothing of note.

We get a short video package on Sting and the questions swirling about where his loyalties truly lie.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Outsiders (c) (w/Syxx) def The Faces of Fear (w/Jimmy Hart) in 11:55- All but confirmed NWO ref Nick Patrick is working this match so we all have a good idea how it's going to go before it even starts. Meng and Hall start. They trade some arm work until Meng ends it by decapitating Hall with a stiff clothesline. Tony: "His head flew to Murfreesboro". He shoves Hall into the corner and lays in some chops. Hall gets a boot up and hits the bulldog off the second rope. That just makes Meng mad. Tag to Barbarian. Hall spits on him and quickly tags out to Nash. Nash hits his corner elbows and knees. Barbarian responds with a back elbow and chops. He gets annoyed with Patrick and Nash hits him from behind. Meng comes in and the FOF go a'clubberin' on Nash. Nash tries a double noggin knocker but should know better than that. The FOF floor him with a double headbutt. Barbarian side suplex for 2. Nash dodges an elbow off the second rope and hits snake eyes. Hall gets a couple of shots in from the apron. Meng drags Hall into the FOF corner and they pound on him. Hall fights his way out. Meng goes tit for tat and whacks Hall from the apron. Barbarian hits a clothesline but is ridiculously slow to cover, and then of course Patrick slow counts it. Hall tries to fight it but Meng hits a piledriver. Another slow cover and slow count. The FOF aren't doing themselves any favors here, which commentary rightly points out. Powerbomb from Barbarian. They keep Hall isolated to work him over. Inverted atomic drop/big boot double team. Barbarian locks on a Nerve Pinch of Double Fistedness +1. Nash takes a shot from the apron and Hall clotheslines Barbarian. Both guys are down. Syxx takes Jimmy Hart's megaphone and chases him to the back for no apparent reason. OK then. Barbarian goes back to the nerve pinch. Hall isn't moving but Patrick stalls on checking to see if he can continue. Eventually Hall fights back up and tags out to Nash. Slugfest. Nash big boot. DONNYBROOK! While Hall and Meng fight on the floor Nash plants Barbarian with the jackknife powerbomb and gets a clean pin. It started promising but got bogged down working all the heel Nick Patrick stuff in. Good to see a rare clean finish in an NWO though. **1/2

Hogan provides a response to Piper from the NWO interview room and is about 17% more coherent.

 

Tournament Final for the Vacant WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Eddie Guerrero def Diamond Dallas Page in 15:20- After months of feuding it's a remarkable coincidence that these two end up in the final for the vacant US title. Amazing how these things work out. The title was vacated due to a Ric Flair injury. The Giant has been walking around with the belt because he's the Giant and no one will tell him otherwise. No one sees a belt for this match so commentary assumes Giant still has it. Lockup stalemate and some mat feeling out to start. DDP hits a chop on a corner break. That fires Guerrero up. He pushes DDP into the opposite corner and gives him a chop in return. A Guerrero fakeout dropkick sends DDP to the floor. DDP gets run into the guardrail. He eye pokes Guerrero and gives him a stair shot. Guerrero snap mares DDP from the apron over the top and back out. Slingshot senton from Guerrero for 2. He does a bit of arm work on DDP to let things settle in. Hair pull tradeoff. Guerrero dodges a charge and DDP is on the floor again. Guerrero plancha! He goes for mounted punches back in. DDP drops him on the top turnbuckle. DDP hits his forward drop piledriver. While he works Guerrero over slowly Tony tries to make sense of the whole Battlebowl ring saga, bless him. That's a losing fight. DDP hits a suplex for 2. He hooks on an abdominal stretch and plays the rope leverage game with the ref. Guerrero gets a sunset flip, dodges a counter, and gets a small package for 2. DDP hits a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Someone hits the rewind button on the match and DDP goes back to the abdominal stretch. This time the ref catches him. DDP tries to argue and gets backed off. Guerrero tries for his own abdominal stretch but we've already hit the match quota for that. He works around into a rollup for 2. Clothesline from DDP. Corner dodge and DDP's shoulder gets posted. Big leg takedown from Guerrero. He floors DDP with a huge European uppercut. Suplex for 2. Back suplex. Guerrero goes up top to, strangely, a huge chorus of boos. The crowd's kinda pro DDP but generally really flat for this match. He goes for the frog splash but DDP dodges. Barely. Arrogant cover from DDP for 2. Powerslam for 2. Gutwrench gutbuster. DDP goes up top but gets crotched. Guerrero hops up for a hurricanrana. DDP pushes him off but Guerrero flips through it. DDP comes off and Guerrero catches him in an inverted atomic drop then small packages him for a long 2. Backslide for 2. DDP goes for the Diamond Cutter but Guerrero counters into another backslide for 2. DDP hits a huge blue thunder like powerbomb for 2. He tries to set up for the Cutter, but Guerrero bounces off the corner and they collide. The Outsiders and Syxx make their way out. They'd been aiding DDP during the tournament but recently DDP's made it clear he wants nothing to do with the NWO. Hall plants DDP with the Razor's Edge. Guerrero takes advantage of the situation presented, hits the frog splash, and gets the pin for his first WCW title! After the bell Guerrero tries to fight the NWO guys off but the numbers are too much. Turns out there was a belt at ringside (a brand new one per Tony) that Syxx steals. Guess that's continuing. Another match tonight that started promisingly but couldn't maintain momentum. **3/4

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger def The Giant in 13:23- For the record Giant does *not* have a US title belt with him. Long staredown before the lockup as the crowd is pretty damn jazzed for this one. Long back and forth leverage fight lockup. Giant shoves Luger away. Luger lays in punches to try to wobble Giant while Giant shoves him away for space. Finally Giant says enough of this and nails Luger with a clothesline. Big elbow drop. He kicks Luger out to the floor, then suplexes him back in. Giant goes into slow beatdown mode with a lot of work on Luger's back. Luger counters a backdrop. He tries a slam but of course it fails. Luger dodges an avalanche and Giant gets caught on the ropes. Luger takes the open shots. Giant gets a boot up on a charge. He tries a dropkick but Luger dodges and Giant crashes. Luger hits a neckbreaker! That'll get Giant down. Cover for 2. The ref gets squashed on the kickout. Nick Patrick sneaks out, trying to stay out of Luger's sight. Luger gets the slam! He gets Giant up in the Torture Rack! Patrick sneaks behind and kicks his leg out! Anyone doubting his allegiance anymore? Sting is coming in through the crowd. Syxx is in the ring and roundhouse kicks Luger. He and Patrick try to help Giant get up. Sting gets in the ring. He puts his bat down in the middle of the ring, whispers something in Luger's ear, whispers something in Giant's ear, and leaves. Luger goes for the bat but Giant steps on it. Luger low blows! He works Giant over with the bat! Cover and the original ref counts 3! HUGE pop for the win! Commentary says this is the NWO's first loss of any kind. Afterward Giant stays in the ring sad faced that no one else came to help him. Not too shabby. Giant was learning and could still move then, and Luger looked motivated and channeled as much of his peak 1989 self as he was capable of. **3/4

 

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper def WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan (w/Ted DiBiase) in 15:27- Here we go. WCW is billing this as the Match of the Decade. The big hook is Piper is the guy Hogan was never able to beat. There's a lot of technicalities there but sure. Hogan and Piper was WWF's hot feud that the first Wrestlemania was built around in 1985, but it's been over a decade since they faced each other. As hard as WCW was pushing this I think the fans were seeing through most of it and were less enthused than they would be if Hogan was facing someone more relevant to today. Piper is all business walking to the ring, half disrobed before he even gets in. Hogan hops out to stall before the bell even rings. Lockup and in the corner Hogan tells the ref to "watch him on the break, I don't trust him", then Hogan slaps Piper. After the second one of those Piper punches back. Punch flurry and Hogan tumbles to the floor. After some more stalling Hogan gets a kick and eye rake to get the edge. He flips the script on his deadly back rakes and chest rakes Piper instead. Piper ducks a corner clothesline and hits his own sort of clothesline. Casual Piper eye poke. Another clothesline and Hogan rolls out again. Back in Piper cranks a headlock and will not let go for anything. Hogan back suplexes Piper and he still holds onto the headlock. A shoulderblock knocks Piper through the ropes. Hogan back rake! His ultimate heel move. Back in Piper ducks a clothesline and hits his own. A dropkick to the back send Hogan back out. Piper gets his belt from his kilt and whips Hogan with it around and in the ring, then chokes him with it. DiBiase grabs Piper's leg and Piper goes after him. Hogan attacks from behind and knocks Piper around the ringside area. Back in Hogan kicks the hip surgery scar that he pointed out at the contract signing the last PPV. He hooks on an abdominal stretch. Not sure if that's supposed to hurt where the scar is, but it certainly gets it on camera nicely. Piper hiptosses out. There's a horribly ugly moment as they both flop down to the mat super slowly. Piper tries some ground and pound but he's looking as blown up as a grenaded NASCAR engine. He gets a small package for 2. Slugfest. Piper manages a suplex (Hogan had to set up half of it for him) for 2. Hogan dodges a kneedrop. He goes for the big legdrop but Piper dodges. Piper hops around on the bad leg to show it's fine. Giant is out. He sets up Piper for a choke slam. While that's going on some dumbass hops the rail and gets in the ring. Hogan takes care of him real quick and security manhandles him out. Piper bites Giant's nose to get out of the chokeslam and Giant tumbles to the floor. Piper hooks the sleeper on Hogan! Hogan goes out and it's over! Good pop for the win but not a great one. Less than what Luger got. The match was as good as it possibly could have been. It's a sad state of affairs when mid-late '90s Hogan is the clearly superior worker in the ring. *1/4

The Outsiders hit the ring after the bell. Piper fights them off and escapes. Hogan gets the belt and brags about still being champion. Commentary spent the whole match skirting over the "non-title match" issue, this is the first time it's really made clear on TV. Giant stares everyone down from a distance and leaves. Hogan chases him down, brings him back, and they argue as the show closes. For the first time since their formation there are issues in the NWO.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Put a good main event on this show and it'd be stretching borderline greatness. As it is it's a pretty good show with another great cruiserweight opener, some good undercard matches and no turds outside the women's match (acceptable in 1996), and the main event is a famous spectacle that really should be viewed at least once by everyone.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B