Starrcade '97

Legacy Review

Starrcade '97

December 28, 1997 from the MCI Center in Washington, DC

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes and Mike Tenay

This was supposed to the big one. WCW built up this year's Starrcade as the biggest show in company history, in large part on the back of the Sting/Hogan match that had been slowly building for over a year and was being presented by WCW as nothing less than the biggest match in the history of professional wrestling. All the hype and then some. It would turn out to be a hugely important show in the company's history, but not the way they wanted.

We open up with commentary discussing the debate between WCW and the NWO on the referee to be assigned the world title match. WCW Commissioner JJ Dillon just this afternoon has ruled that the ref will be randomly drawn from a pot containing the names of all active WCW officials. We then cut to the crowd and see that every wrestler that wasn't booked for a match tonight is serving as a seat filler, and not all at ringside either. They're all over the arena. Not sure if that's something I'd brag about or not. Do they count for official attendance or just the mythical "turnstile count"? After that is MOAR CONTROVERSY. The NWO have put out a press release....hold on, I have to stop there. The anti-establishment ultimate rebels the NWO put out a PRESS RELEASE? Anyway, the press release was an announcement that Kevin Nash is not at the arena tonight and won't be having his scheduled match with the Giant, which was promoted as the #2 match after Hogan/Sting. The reality is that Nash no-showed the event due to what he later deemed a legitimate health scare. I'll leave it up to the reader to determine how much truth they think there is in that or not.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Eddie Guerrero (c) def Dean Malenko in 14:57- Thanks to his feud with Rey Mysterio (not booked tonight) Guerrero has become one of the top heels in the company, at least in terms of crowd reaction. This is kind of a title homecoming for Malenko, his first shot in a while at the title he more than anyone else did the early groundwork to make legit. Guerrero tries to hide behind ref Lil' Naitch after the bell then jumps Malenko when he has an opening. He gets a waistlock takedown. Malenko fights free on the mat then lays in some ground and pound before a reset. Back and forth slugging. Malenko hits a leg lariat for 2. Delayed suplex. Standing switches lead to Guerrero grabbing a knucklelock and climbing the ropes. He goes for a springboard hurricanrana but Malenko counters into a powerbomb for 2. Guerrero gets on his knees and it all kind of fired up....until Malenko lunges for him and he crawls right out of the ring on his knees. After some aisle stalling Guerrero sneaks back in and clips Malenko's knee. Malenko blocks a suplex and drops Guerrero on the top rope. Clothesline for 2. Malenko hooks on a headscissors. Guerrero gets to the ropes. After a face first backdrop Guerrero wants a time out. He kisses Malenko's boot! Malenko responds with a basement dropkick in the mush. What else would Guerrero expect from Malenko? Guerrero powders again. Back in we get a cautious knucklelock and test of strength that Malenko easily wins. He blocks a Guerrero tornado DDT attempt and hits a back suplex for 2. Another blocked suplex. Guerrero lands on the apron and snaps Malenko's back over the top rope. After that he starts picking Malenko's knee apart. Powerbomb from Guerrero for 2. Malenko blocks a hurricanrana into a German suplex for 2. He spins Guerrero around into a backbreaker. They do a series of corner counters and a top rope fight. Another blocked hurricanrana. They both come off the top and I think Malenko was going for the super gutbuster but something didn't go right and they both just kind of flop back down. Malenko recovers to roll up a magistral cradle but Guerrero's all in the ropes. Powerbomb. Malenko sets up for the Cloverleaf. Guerrero kicks the bad knee. He goes for a dropkick to the knee but Malenko dodges and Guerrero slides to the floor. He goes up top, and a missile dropkick to the knee hits! Guerrero climbs up the other side! Frog splash! That gets the pin! It's fine, but not nearly at the level you would expect from these too. That most definitely set the tone for the rest of the night. **1/2

The NWO's music hits and Scott Hall makes his way out, wearing one of the new tag belts. Even after finally losing the tag titles to the Steiners, Hall and Nash still claimed to be the real champs and made the Steiners tote around the old belts while they kept the new ones. The problems with that are 1. it's been going on for a couple of months now and b. WCW had already done like 4 or 5 "stolen belt" angles in the last year plus. Hey yo! Hall does the survey, which was still pretty new at the time. After that he says Nash isn't here, and if you have a problem with that "you can meet him down there". Someone in the crowd hilariously shouts "Down where?". And then it gets funnier when Hall tries to answer and has nothing. He wants a ref out here and tells the Giant "you win". Gee, way to put up a fight. Giant come out sans ref. He takes the mic and says he's both understanding of Nash' refusal to lose to him (probably shooting there) and that he's a patient man. Hall, less patient, punches Giant. Giant no sells it all and gives him a headbutt. Press slam. He goes for the chokeslam but changes his mind and jackknifes Hall instead to send a message to Nash. The whole thing with Hall's usual ridiculous overselling. I guess having Hall face Giant in a match as Nash's replacement made too much sense.

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage, Scott Norton and Vincent (w/Elizabeth) def WCW World Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers and Ray Traylor (w/Ted DiBiase) in 12:12- Konnan was originally supposed to be on the NWO team in this match but he also no-showed. Did he and Nash have lunch at the same taco stand? Savage comes out after everyone else as his replacement. Also the "biggest show in wrestling history" couldn't have a tag title match? Lots of jawing after the bell before Savage and Scott start. Man, what an incredible singles match that could have been around '91 or '92. After a rough lockup Savage tries to provoke Scott. Speed run with Scott running Savage over and calling him "boy". Slap exchange. Norton knees Scott in the back from the apron and the NWO gang up on him. Norton hits a Samoan drop and backbreaker. Savage double ax handle off the top rope to the back. Scott says that's enough and gives Savage a double underhook powerbomb. Press slam and we're DONNYBROOKING OUTTA NOWHERE. The faces clear the ring. Scott moves Elizabeth out of the way to try to move things along. Reset with Norton and Rick tagging in. Rick hits a powerslam and Steinerline. Traylor gets caught in the NWO corner. He catches Vincent leaping and gives him a spinebuster. Scott belly to belly suplex as Vincent gets tossed around like the jobber he is. The faces work quick tags on him until he dodges a Traylor splash and tags out. Norton with a clothesline. Vincent and Traylor collide midring and Traylor gets a tag to Rick. He goes on the wild man hot tag run. Steiner avalanche DDT on Vincent. Norton breaks the pin up. Scott hits Vincent with a top rope Frankensteiner! This time Savage breaks the pin up. DiBiase is distracting the ref for some reason. Norton drops an electric chair, Savage hits the top rope elbow and it's over. I was half expecting DiBiase to turn back heel his ref distracting was so bad, but nope. It was just plain bad. The whole match was a fustercluck. 3/4*

Mean Gene is out with tonight's Hotline shill. Once again it's essentially "there's people backstage you might not expect". Man, they're really out of ideas for that. Plus, Bret Hart's already been announced to guest ref the Zbyszko/Bischoff match so he wouldn't count. JJ Dillon comes out and announces the winning referee for the main event is none other than recently evil ref but got his soul back and reformed Nick Patrick. Wow, I'm shocked.

 

Bill Goldberg def Steve "Mongo" McMichael in 6:34- These two former football players have been feuding for a while. I would say stars but that only counts for one of them. Goldberg's NFL career was as one of those guys that if you got his Topps or Pro Set card in a pack you'd say "Who?" and consider throwing it away. Again, this is way before WCW decided to strap a rocket ship to Goldberg (still having his first name is a dead giveaway), he's more or less just an up and coming guy at this point. Goldberg is supposedly the heel here but Mongo acts very heelish too. They meet in the aisle and the fight is on. Goldberg literally carries Mongo to the ring. He then grabs a table and sets it up on the floor in a corner. When Goldberg gets in the bell rings to officially start. Mongo immediately takes control, hitting a side suplex. Goldberg takes off with a flying tackle that might have grazed Mongo and covers for 2. They go back to the floor with some weak brawling. Back in Mongo tries coming off the top but Goldberg catches him with a punch to the gut. Goldberg does a halfway decent rolling leg takedown into a legbar. Midring collision but only Mongo goes down. Goldberg gentle spear for 2. He goes out and rearranges the furniture, setting the table up next to the apron. He lifts Mongo and tries to drop him down on the table. Mongo fights free, wanders around the floor for a bit, then gets on the apron that the table is next to. Punch from Goldberg and Mongo goes through the table. That got almost no reaction. Mongo, being Mongo, still tries to go on offense as soon as he gets back in the ring. He goes for the Mongo Spike (tombstone) but can't hold Goldberg up. One Jackhammer later it's over. It's green as hell Goldberg working his longest TV match to date and Mongo, it's about as bad as you'd expect. DUD

The next match is scheduled to be Chris Benoit finally getting his hands on Raven after weeks of Raven ducking him. Raven comes out first to no music and assumes promo position in the ring. He says the contract he signed with WCW basically lets him do whatever he wants to do because he's not a conformist or something. He's starting to sound like a South Park goth kid. Well, not starting to. He pulls himself out of the match and substitutes Saturn in his place. Because sure, why would you want to have a long awaited feud blowoff on "the biggest show in wrestling history"? That'd make way too much sense. The theme so far tonight is definitely "card subject to change".

 

Raven's Rules: Saturn (w/Raven) def Chris Benoit in 11:06- Benoit takes Raven's mic after his entrance and does the usual Benoit butchering of his promo. Saturn tries to jump but Benoit was ready for him. Benoit hits some chops. Saturn makes a couple of attempts at a sleeper but Benoit quickly gets out both times. Saturn does get a drop toe hold, but Benoit is quickly up with more chops. He takes a moment to spit on Raven. Saturn grabs Benoit by the neck and flips him over with a suplex. They do some back and forth slugging, lose their place, and Benoit gives Saturn a dragon screw. Billy Kidman comes out of the crowd to distract Benoit. Saturn was supposed to do a Cactus Clothesline, but neither guy makes it over and they both settle for sliding out instead. Saturn takes a guardrail shot. Sick Boy attacks Benoit. Kidman hits a running shooting star press off the apron. Raven stands over Benoit before the Flock get him back in the ring. Saturn gives him a legdrop in the ropes. Hangman's neckbreaker for 2. Setup slam. Saturn hits a springboard moonsault! Limited as Saturn was, you could count on him for one crazy ass spot every match. He hurts himself on the landing so much Tony thinks Benoit countered it somehow. WCW doesn't do in match replays so I rewound to confirm that Benoit did not in fact do any kind of counter. Saturn covers but Benoit gets a foot on the ropes. He continues pounding on Benoit. Benoit gets a flash roll up for 2. Saturn clothesline for 2. Brain buster for 2. Benoit sunset flip for 2. Clothesline and both guys are down. Saturn is up first and back in control. He hits a Michinoku Driver, then gets up and mocks Benoit's throat slash gesture to the crowd. Saturn goes up top. Benoit joins him and after a fight pushes Saturn to the floor. Saturn dodges a baseball slide. Benoit ducks a clothesline on the floor and puts on the crossface! The whole Flock jumps him to break it up. Raven's Rules, no DQ. Saturn does a horrible asai moonsault that Benoit dodges and Saturn crashes into the Flock. Clothesline from Benoit back in. Snap suplex. The real throat slash. Benoit hits the headbutt off the top rope all the way across the ring! All the Flock goons run in. Benoit fights them all off. He gets nose to nose with Raven. Hammer hits Benoit from behind and Raven plants him with a DDT. Saturn puts the Rings of Saturn on but it's academic. Benoit's out and the ref calls it. The match had some moments and intensity, Benoit was one of the few guys out there tonight trying his ass off to make the special show actually special, but he could only do so much. Especially with that finish. **1/2

 

Buff Bagwell def "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 17:03- The rest of tonight's matches are all WCW vs NWO, and Tony calls it a "turning point". So, like almost every other PPV the last year and a half? Rough lockup shenanigans at the start. Luger spits and Bagwell sells it! Luger blocks and hits a hiptoss. Press slam. He 360 clotheslines Bagwell to the floor. Bagwell walks up the aisle and calls for Vincent. Vincent answers the summons. Back in Bagwell gets some shots in and tosses Luger out. Luger wins the exchange on the floor. After they get back in Vincent hops on the apron for no reason. After a few Luger shots on Bagwell he gets up again. This time Luger decks him. Bagwell uses the opening for an eye poke. Both guys take turns choking Luger. Extremely dull extended Bagwell offense follows. At one point the crowd starts chanting for or about something that has nothing to do with what's happening in the ring. Luger gets a boot up in the corner and hits a clothesline. Bagwell's quickly back on him with a chinlock. Arm drop, Luger comeback, cut off. Luger gets a roll up for 2. Bagwell clothesline for 2. And back to the chinlock. Another Luger comeback is cut off in the most basic, predictable way possible. I'm calling almost every move in my head before they happen. Now Bagwell hooks on a sleeper. Variety? More arm drops. Luger hulks up with a back suplex. He gets his knees up on a Bagwell splash attempt. Backdrop from Luger. Clotheslines. Inverted atomic drops. Vincent hops up and gets knocked down again. Running forearm. Suplex. Now Vincent goes to the top rope. Luger tosses him into Bagwell. Vincent gets 360 clotheslined out. Luger beats Bagwell down in the corner and the ref tells him to stop. While Luger's turned around Bagwell knees him in the back and the ref goes down. Luger powerslam. Torture Rack! No ref. Savage runs in and attacks. Luger press slams him and puts him in the Rack! Now Norton runs in. He hits Luger with what looks like a collar. Then he drapes Bagwell over Luger, gets the ref, and he slow counts a pin for Bagwell. Ugh. Mass heel interference finishes two straight matches. In this case though, the whole match was total shit. This should have been a glaring indicator that Buff was not, in fact, the stuff. 1/4*

For those of you keeping track that's 5 straight heel wins in the big blowoff "biggest ever" show.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Diamond Dallas Page def Curt Hennig (c) in 11:09- Huge DDP chant at the start. This crowd is desperate for something to cheer for. I guess taped ribs are a normal part of DDP's ring gear now. He does a quick roll up right after the bell to make Hennig think. After some arm shots he tries to twist Hennig into an early Diamond Cutter! Hennig quickly gets the hell out of town. Back in Hennig goes to the old eye poke and starts kicking away at DDP's permanently hurt ribs. Chops from Hennig. DDP counters a chinlock into a hammerlock, then after some rope running grabs a headlock. More Hennig chops. DDP goes back to the headlock. They slug it out and Hennig does an almost classic flip over the ropes to the floor off a punch. Hennig snaps DDP over the top rope and attacks the ribs again. DDP gets run into the steps. Hennig walks on DDP's back. DDP fights back but Hennig gets a boot up in the corner for 2. Chinlock with rope leverage that goes on for a while. Eventually DDP jawbreakers out with a big Hennig sell. Slugfest. Another Hennig flip over the ropes to the floor. DDP plancha! Hennig takes his usual crotch shot on the ring post. At this point I don't know if he has any feeling left down there at all as many times as he's taken that. Another Cutter attempt is rope blocked and Hennig tries a leverage cover for 2. DDP roll up for 2. Small package for 2. Hennig clothesline for 2. He hooks up for the Perfectplex. DDP counters out with an armbar slam. Simultaneous punches and both guys go down. Coming off the ropes DDP spins around Hennig. Diamond Cutter! DDP gets the pin and wins the title! Pretty big pop for something finally going "right" tonight. It's also about damn time DDP got something to reflect the fact he was the hottest babyface in the company for much of the year, even more than Sting at points. The match was eh. They didn't gel too well and Hennig was still struggling physically. *3/4

 

Larry Zbyszko def Eric Bischoff (w/Scott Hall) by DQ in 11:30- This is part of the ongoing beef that Zbyszko had started having the past few months with the NWO in general, and Mr. Hall in particular. The stipulations for tonight's match are that if Zbyszko wins he gets a match with Hall at Souled Out. If Bischoff wins, the NWO finally after a year and a half of trying and teasing get full control of Nitro. For those not familiar Zbyszko was a legitimate Hall of Famer. He made his name back in the WWWF by feuding with his trainer Bruno Sammartino, and had his greatest success in the AWA where he was a two time world champion. He also held tag and secondary titles in both Jim Crockett and WCW in previous years. After retiring as a full time wrestler in the early '90s he's been working weekly TV commentary for WCW. On the other side, this is Bischoff's first ever recorded match. It'll be far from his last. Oh yeah, and the special guest referee is the recently signed and recently Montreal Screwjobbed Bret Hart. He comes out first to almost no fanfare. Kind of an omen for his whole WCW run really. Bischoff's in his karate gear with feet and hands covered. I don't know the technical terms, I'm not familiar with that world. Lots of caution at the start. Bischoff manages to land a couple of glancing punches and does the full heel overcelebration. He decides to hop out and have a conference with Hall. When he gets back in Zbyszko hits some open hand slaps and gets admonished by Bret after Bischoff complains. Sleeper from Zbyszko! Bret says it's a choke and forces a break. Zbyszko puts Bischoff in a headscissors. Again Bret says it's a choke. Zbyszko is not happy and neither is commentary. Slam from Zbyszko and he puts Bischoff in a standing reverse figure four. Bischoff gets to the ropes. Zbyszko kicks his knee and Bischoff falls to the floor. Zbyszko gently pushes him into the post. Then into the steps. More arguing with Bret follows. They're teasing the "Bret is on the NWO's side" thing so frakking hard that it's clearly obvious that he's NOT with the NWO. Tony only confirms that by saying Bret must be with the NWO. Which means there's zero logical sense for Bret to be riding Zbyszko so hard. Zbyszko goes to punch Bischoff in the corner but Bret pulls his fist back. Bischoff takes the opening to get a shot in, and spends the next two solid minutes nonstop swinging at Zbyszko. Zbyszko covers up and weathers the storm, clearly intending to let Bischoff punch himself out. It works. Suplex from Zbyszko. Swinging neckbreaker. He puts Bischoff in the tree of woe. Hall gets on the apron and takes a shot. While Bret's yelling at Zbyszko again Hall loads up Bischoff's footgear with a steel plate. Bischoff lands the KO kick, and the steel plate flies out and away likely into the crowd. I don't think that was supposed to happen. He clearly hit Zbyszko with his shin anyway, not the loaded foot. Instead of covering Bischoff celebrates. Bret stands around for a bit, then randomly punches Bischoff out. Maybe he was supposed to find the steel plate but it did fly into the crowd and they couldn't get it back? Bret then takes Hall out and puts him in the Sharpshooter while Zbyszko chokes Bischoff with his belt. After they've had enough Bret raises Zbyszko's hand. The bell never rang to end the match by the way so we have to guess as to what the official decision is. A complete clusterfuck on every possible level. MINUS FIVE STARS

 

Before getting to the main event, a little perspective on Hogan's '97 title reign. Hogan's been World champion for all but 6 days (Luger's Nitro win) this year. What has WCW gotten out of that? This is only the fourth time the World title has been defended on PPV all year, out of 12 PPVs. Two were way back in January and February (Souled Out and Superbrawl), and the last was at Road Wild in August when Hogan won the title back from Luger. So this is just the second World title match on PPV in the last 10 months, and the first where Hogan was defending. And you thought the part time champion runs of Brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns were bad in terms of sparse defenses. Well they were, but this was worse.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Sting def Hollywood Hogan (c) in 13:20- Hogan comes out first. Sting's entrance starts with a laser projection show and the usual kid reading out a story. After that Sting's music abruptly stops and restarts, and rather than coming down through the rafters or making some other special entrance Sting just walks out like normal. Staredown before the bell. They do have the big match feel atmosphere going, I'll give them that. The bell rings and Hogan shoves. Bandana toss! Slap from Sting. Hogan goes into full stall mode. Off the lockup corner break Hogan tries a cheap shot but Sting was ready for him. Huge "Hogan sucks" chant. Hogan wants a knucklelock. He uses that opening to get a shot in and proceeds with the usual heel Hogan beatdown for the next few minutes. After a slam Sting dodges elbow drops and dropkicks Hogan out of the ring. More stalling. Back in Hogan cranks a headlock. Speed run, Sting hits more dropkicks and Hogan goes to the floor again. Now Sting cranks a headlock for a long while. More speed and Hogan hits a clothesline. Suplex. Sting pops up! Crotch chop! All the rage in wrestling nowadays. He pounds Hogan down in the corner until Hogan gets an eye poke for space. Sting gets tossed out. Hogan hits Sting with his own bat. Sting's shoulder gets posted. Whip reverse and Hogan goes into the guardrail. Hogan dodges a Stinger Splash and Sting crashes into the guardrail. Inverted atomic drop from Hogan back in. Big boot. Legdrop. Cover. Hogan gets a pin. Let me stress, Hogan got a pin. Clean as a sheet. Cleanest pin he's gotten since turning heel. He might have reached back and grabbed Sting's tights, that's it. Apparently Nick Patrick was supposed to have a relapse of evil here and fast count, but he didn't, the count was normal. Bret Hart is out and stopping the timekeeper from ringing the bell. He takes a mic and says "This won't happen again". Bret punches Patrick out! Wonder if he was picturing Hebner. Hogan gets rolled back in the ring. Stinger Splash! Norton and Bagwell both run in and get taken out. Another Stinger Splash! Scorpion Death Lock! Hogan submits! The ring immediately fills with WCW wrestlers as Sting celebrates winning the title. Or so we think. This is a textbook example of the horrible things that can happen when you overthink what should be obvious. In this case the obvious was Sting wins decisively. I'd even advocate this was a rare instance where a world title squash match wouldn't have been a bad way to go. Sometimes doing the obvious thing isn't wrong, and in this case it definitely should have been done without question. Instead, we get more questions. DUD

We're not done, folks. You didn't think this win would stand did you? This is WCW you silly person. Due to all the controversy a rematch was scheduled for the next night on Nitro. The exact same shit happened, right down to Nick Patrick fucking up when he was supposed to fast count. Rumor is Hogan paid Patrick off legit to not count fast and make both Sting and Bret look bad. If that's true, I still blame WCW for allowing an atmosphere where something like that could happen. Inmates running the asylum. After the second attempt on Nitro failed the title was held up FOR TWO MONTHS before they had a rerematch at Superbrawl. By that point no one cared anymore, Sting's momentum was shot. You know, I think Eric Bischoff took more inspiration from his early days in AWA than we generally think he did. This is exactly the kind of ass backward total clusterfuck (I've used that word a lot tonight, but for good reason) booking they did with their world title. Look where that got them.

 

I have some extended thoughts on all this if you'll indulge me for a moment. Bischoff's mantra was always "controversy creates cash". That is true, to a degree. But, endless controversy with no end in sight or attempts at real resolutions eventually creates only apathy and disillusionment. Let's take the other side as an example. Over the next couple of years WWF would most definitely adopt the controversy driven model themselves. However, they still made sure to give Austin a big unquestioned win every few months or so, take a few weeks to let people breathe and reset the pieces on the board, then continue with slightly new players and/or emphasis. Ebbs and flows. Rises and falls. One of WCW's biggest mistakes that led to their downfall was constantly throwing new controversy on the wall with no thought of trying to tie up or clean up the last controversy. After a while, it all becomes nothing more than one giant shit stain.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Judging in a vacuum this is merely a bad wrestling show. But, judging it against the expectations WCW had for it and what it could, and should, have been, it's nothing less than one of the greatest disasters in the history of professional wrestling. There will be many more steps taken on WCW's road to eventual oblivion, but the first concrete step was taken right here. Rather than being the Year of Sting as it should have been, 1998 WCW was dominated by two things: the NWO civil war and split into multiple factions, and the rise of Goldberg. Buckle up kids, the turbulence is only starting to hit.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: F