WrestleMania 2

Legacy Review

WrestleMania 2

April 7, 1986

 

The first Wrestlemania was a huge success for the WWF, so there was little thought needed to running it back the next year. With a twist. Vince and co saw Jim Crockett Promotions successfully run Starrcade '85 in two arenas simultaneously, so naturally Vince said "Screw that, I can do THREE!". And here we are. One show, three different venues. Unlike Starrcade's switching arenas each match, WM 2 would flow naturally with the time zones, starting on the east coast for the first portion, then moving to the midwest, and finally the west coast, an even four matches at each location. TVs were set up in all three arenas so the live crowds could watch the closed circuit broadcast of the portions not in their arena. And thanks to a large part of the first WM's success being celebrity involvement, that's double, triple and quadruple downed on this year. There's some famous non-wrestling personality around every single corner the entire show, including for better or worse (mostly the latter) a seat in commentary at all three venues.

 

VENUE ONE

From the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY

 

Commentary: Vince McMahon and guest celebrity Susan St. James

 

St. James was an actress mostly known for supporting roles across film and TV, but she had recently hit it bigger as one of the stars of the CBS sitcom Kate & Allie. But, the real reason she's here is she's the wife of NBC exec Dick Ebersol, who'd been working closely with Vince the past year to bring Saturday Night's Main Event to life, which had become a huge success for both WWF and NBC. Vince does his first ever "Welcome to Wrestlemania!" in the ring at the start of the show. We then quickly get the next celebrity, as none other than Ray Charles sings America the Beautiful to start the show. With some mic issues. I'm a bit surprised they aren't doing this portion in MSG, but I guess they didn't want to only do a third of a show there. This would be the Nassau Coliseum's only dalliance with WM, but they would much later get one of the best Summerslams ever, 2002, as well as some assorted B PPVs. After Charles is done we cut to Mean Gene in Chicago to show the remote links are working. We then cut to a pretaped Roddy Piper promo, where he promises to quit wrestling, tiddlywinks and dating girls if he loses tonight.

 

"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff and The Magnificent Muraco (w/Mr. Fuji) double countout in 4:10- Orndorff's face turn after getting abandoned by his teammates at WM 1 won't last much longer. It's clearly done nothing for his card placement. During the first part of the match we get audio only promos from both guys. Really weird. Glad they didn't keep that idea. Standoff lockups because both guys are power guys, then they trade slams. Muraco hits a couple of shots on a corner break. Orndorff reverses a corner whip, then hits a backdrop, armdrag and drop toe hold into an ARMBAR. Muraco literally walks up the corner to try to armdrag out but Orndorff hangs on and reverses it. Muraco tries to whip out but again Orndorff hangs on and keeps the arm wringer on. St. James says something about using "ancient Chinese techniques". Er, if she's talking about Fuji, he's Japanese. Fuji is not a Chinese name. Finally Muraco lifts Orndorff up into a Samoan drop to get out. St. James would probably call it a Tongan drop. They trade shots in the corner with Orndorff getting the edge again with some elbow shots. They grab at each other and slowwwwwwwwwwwwly tumble over the top rope down to the floor. Slugfest down there. The bell rings as both guys are counted out. Lame lame lame. There's a loud, and justified, "bullshit" chant from the crowd for that. 1/2*

 

There's a lot of confusion in the ring from Fink as to announcing the result of that match. Finally he does the double countout announcement after the next match has started setting up and during a pretaped Mr. T promo. Very unusual production gaffes from WWF, and they didn't even have to do with the multiple arena setup. 

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) (w/Elizabeth) def George "The Animal" Steele in 5:10- Savage, making his WM debut, defeated Tito Santana for the IC title in February using the old "foreign object hit while being back suplexed" trick, kicking off what would be a year plus reign. The story here is Steele is obsessed with Elizabeth. While a picture in picture Savage promo is playing live Savage in the ring tosses what looks like a bunch of flowers intended for Elizabeth. Lots of posturing after the bell. Steele charges and Savage bails to the floor. When he gets back in he seems to be looking for an opening. Crazy Steele comes at him again and again Savage hops to the floor. The third time Savage goes out Steele finally chases. He gets a hold of Savage and bites his leg! Well, his boot. No way even Steele's teeth are getting through that boot. Savage tries to ambush Steele as Steele gets back in but Steele lifts him up in a choke and tosses him across the ring. Then of course coconut brained Steele decides to mack on Elizabeth, allowing Savage to attack him from behind. Savage goes up top and goes for a crossbody that Steele seems to have no idea what to do with. Savage recovers after that ugly landing and covers. Steele's kickout sends him back out to the floor. After some more Steele shots he tosses Savage out again. Savage crawls under the ring, comes out the other side and attacks Steele from behind again! When Savage goes for a clothesline Steele bites his arm! Come on ref. "I wonder if he's had his shots". OK, St. James got one good line in. I wonder the same thing every time I see the Bushwhackers lick some poor innocent kid that might not have lived to see adulthood. Savage goes back out, gets another bouquet of flowers, and hits Steele in the face with them! Steele fires back and stuffs the stems in Savage's face. Steele with flowers, can't help but think we're getting into Gumby flower arranging territory. My fellow Monty Python fans know what I'm taking about. After a corner whip Steele now gets distracted by his usual turnbuckle eating. He gives Savage a bunch of foam in the face. Between the foam and the flower remnants this ring is absolutely filthy. Savage leads another chase around the ring. Steele stops to bother Elizabeth again. Savage double ax handle off the top to the floor! Back in Savage hits a setup slam and goes up top. Elbow drop, good night, thank God that's over. Oh hell, it isn't! Steele freaking kicked out of the Savage elbow drop. Why? He did not need that much protection. Steele grabs Savage by the schnoz and tosses him into the corner. Savage does the corner double leg takedown, get your feet on the ropes sneaky leverage pin and it's over. There was no reason to not have this end with the elbow drop, Steele did not need that protection. Not exactly a showcase for Savage in his first WM match. It'll get better. Not immediately though, as these two would continue to feud through the summer, including more matches on SNME. *

 

While the ring is cleaned we cut again to Mean Gene in Chicago, who's with Bill Fralic and Big John Studd to hype up the battle royale later. Again Fink does his match result announcement while that promo's going on. They're struggling with that tonight. 

 

Jake "The Snake" Roberts def George Wells in 3:15- Roberts was the latest acquisition from the sinking ship that was Mid-South (now named UWF in a misguided attempt to go national), and more would soon be on the way. He came into WWF as a heel, which was in line with most of his territory work, but would soon be forced to turn face simply because crowds loved him. But the real question is, who the smeg is George Wells? Well, he's a former football player that got drafted in the NFL but ended up playing his whole professional career in the CFL before turning to wrestling. After bouncing around the territories for almost a decade he signed with WWF as a low carder/jobber in '84 and honestly should be feeling really, really lucky he's getting a WM payday. Roberts deposits his as yet unnamed python in a bag in his corner, hops in, and walks right over to slap Wells to kick it off. Wells slaps back and hits a backdrop. Roberts connects with a shot and tosses Wells to the floor. Back in Roberts does a leapfrog, thinks he's smart, but turns around into a flying tackle. Wells whips Roberts across the corners and whips out a flying headscissors. Roberts wants a time out. Slam from Wells. Kneelift with a great sell from Roberts. Powerslam from Wells for 2. Roberts goes to the ol' eye rake to turn things around. He catches Wells with a kneelift coming back into the ring. DDT! That's it. Roberts' DDT is perhaps the most protected finisher in wrestling history, no one ever kicked out if it. After the bell Roberts gets the snake out of the bag, introducing the world to Damien. He wraps it all around Wells and tries to make it look like the snake is choking Wells. Wells actually foams at the mouth to sell it. 3/4*

 

We do our first "live" cutaway to LA (pretaped I'm sure) where Jesse Ventura is with Hogan for a quick promo. After that we get our first cavalcade of main event celebrities. Joan Rivers is the guest ring announcer, the judges for the next match are NBA star Darryl Dawkins (who Rivers has to coach how to wave to the crowd), Cab Calloway and bloody G Gordon Liddy, who gets booed out of the arena in left wing New York. The timekeeper is.....Herb. Don't ask. Just, don't.

 

Boxing Match: Mr. T (w/Joe Frazier and The Haiti Kid) def "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (w/Bob Orton and Lou Duva) by DQ in 10:15- This is of course a follow up to the WM 1 main event. On the last SNME T returned to WWF to challenge Bob Orton to a boxing match. After T won Piper and Orton attacked him to fully set this up. This is scheduled for 10 rounds. Piper jaws at T all through instructions. As usual with these crappy worked boxing matches I'm going to breeze through this. Round 1 T has some success with body shots so Piper ties up a lot. He gets an official warning for swinging a punch during a break. They get into rougher and rougher tie ups as the round comes to a close. The seconds have to separate them after the bell. Between rounds Piper's guys smear Piper down with something. T and the ref catch it at the start of round 2 and the ref wipes it off Piper. More wild punch swinging from both guys follow. T gets caught in the corner and Piper pummels him. Down goes T! He's up at 7. When the fight resumes the crowd chants for heel Piper. I don't think this is going the way they wanted. T drops down again at the round 2 bell, but it looks to be more from exhaustion than a punch from Piper. Piper hits him in the back of the head after the bell! Orton tosses a bucket of water toward T between rounds. Round 3 this time T gets Piper caught in the corner and lays into him. Piper drops down in the corner. Both guys look legit gassed as this is really wearing out its welcome. A straight left puts Piper down and he falls out of the ring! Orton sponges him down while T collapses in the corner, looking totally spent. They both kill time until the round ends. This time T goes over and jaws at Piper between rounds. Piper tosses his stool at T! As round 4 starts they lay into each other with unguarded haymakers. Finally Piper pushes the ref down and slams T, drawing the DQ. Mercy killing. Piper would take some time off after this, and when he came back he would have his big face turn. T wouldn't wrestle another match for WWF but he would make a few more appearances as a guest ref and muscle figure. He would wrestle one more match, nearly 10 years later in '94 for WCW. DUD

 

Not an auspicious start for the show. Nothing remotely good match wise, and as expected St. James was pretty useless on commentary. Let's see if a venue change can turn things around. 

 

VENUE TWO

From the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, IL

 

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon, Gene Okerlund and guest celebrity Cathy Lee Crosby

 

Chicago's Rosemont Horizon (later Allstate Arena) would go on to host WMs 13 and 22 as well as several Survivor Series, a few NXT Takeovers and a boatload of B PPVs, most notably the legendary Money in the Bank '11. This segment's guest commentator Crosby is an even lower level actress than St. James, and had no marital ties to anyone important as far as I know. She was most known for hosting the series That's Incredible! that had just ended its run. It looks like they're using the same smaller local ring for this portion like at The Wrestling Classic from this arena. And for the first time at a big WWF show, there's actually mats on the floor around the ring. Red, no less.

 

WWF Women's Championship: The Fabulous Moolah (c) def Velvet McIntyre in 1:25- Without Cyndi Lauper no one cares about this title anymore. Just the truth and the reality of women's wrestling then. Moolah won the title back in what's generally called WWF's original screwjob before the Montreal Screwjob. Champion Wendi Richter and Vince were having contract disagreements, so a plan was concocted to get the title off of her whether she wanted to or not. In November she was put in a match against "The Spider", who was Moolah in a mask. During the match Moolah legitimately pinned Richter's shoulders down and the ref, in on the plan, fast counted three to give Moolah back the title. An infuriated Richter walked out of the company immediately after, never to be seen again. McIntyre is wrestling barefoot. Is she secretly a Von Erich? Moolah uses the ref as cover to ambush at the bell and hits a bunch of hair snap mares. They do some very sloppy back and forth stuff and McIntyre hits a couple of one foot dropkicks. Really foot, not boot. Slam from McIntyre and she goes to the second rope. Moolah dodges a big splash, lays on top of McIntyre, and after the local ref takes forever to think about it gets the pin to retain. There was supposedly a wardrobe malfunction suffered by McIntyre that cut this match short, but I didn't see it though she was visibly fighting her top a lot. McIntyre also had a very obvious foot on the rope the whole count. Honestly it's for the best it ended where it did as it was pretty freaking awful. There wouldn't be another women's title match at a WM until WM 10. DUD

 

Flag Match: Corporal Kirchner def Nikolai Volkoff (w/Freddie Blassie) in 2:05- This isn't a capture the flag match, it's called a "flag match" because the winner "gets to raise his country's flag". OK, they were probably going to do that anyway. Volkoff gets nuclear heat in Chicago. Sadly I can't see a Chicago crowd being so openly pro-American today. He cuts his Soviet national anthem singing short because there's so much trash being thrown in the ring during it. Volkoff goes right on offense after the bell and tosses Kirchner out. Post shot for Kirchner and Volkoff bites him. Crosby asks "Is that fair?". Another post shot that Kirchner does a very delayed sell of. Back in Kirchner comes back with right hands. He back elbows the ref trying to force a corner break. Blassie tosses his cane to Volkoff. Kirchner intercepts it like Jay Cutler threw it, nails Volkoff, and gets a very quick pin. So far the move to Chicago hasn't helped the show any. It might even be worse. DUD

 

Next up is one of the most heavily advertised matches for the whole show, a battle royale featuring both WWF wrestlers and NFL players. It's billed as "WWF vs NFL", but in reality it's every man for himself like any battle royale. The rosters for this match are:

 

WWF- King Tonga (Haku/Meng), the Hart Foundation (both Anvil and Bret making their WM debut), Bruno Sammartino, the Iron Sheik, Andre the Giant, Big John Studd, Pedro Morales, Tony Atlas, Ted Arcidi, Hillbilly Jim, Dan Spivey and the Killer Bees (B Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell)

NFL- Harvey Martin (former DE, Dallas Cowboys), Bill Fralic (G, Atlanta Falcons), Jimbo Covert (T, hometown Chicago Bears), Ernie Holmes (former DT, Pittsburgh Steelers), Russ Francis (TE, San Francisco 49ers), and the signature entry William "The Refrigerator" Perry also from the hometown Bears, who were coming off their dominant 15-1 Super Bowl winning season

 

Mean Gene takes over as ring announcer for this match, which is billed as the Chicago portion of the main event even though it's not the last match. Time for more celebrities. The guest time keeper is the "Where's the beef?" lady. If you lived in this time like I did you know. Guest referees are Bears legend Dick Butkus and Cowboys Hall of Famer Ed "Too Tall" Jones.

 

20 Man WWF/NFL Battle Royale- Everyone gets individual entrances. Fralic looks like a legit wrestler. And funnily enough, 49ers TE Russ Francis *was* a legit wrestler, fully trained and worked in the NWA Hawaii territory during offseasons early in his career, where he won their tag titles a couple of times with his brother. The Harts are in primary blue with black gear. Early days. The Fridge and still babyface Andre are the last two in. There's no bell, someone says "go" and we're off. Another guest celebrity, Ernie Ladd, has joined Monsoon at commentary in Okerlund's place. Covert saves his teammate Fridge when he's in trouble early. Fralic makes a nice move, coming from behind and dumping both Covert and Tonga for the first eliminations. He celebrates like a natural heel. Sammartino dumps Holmes out. WM 1 opponents Andre and Studd find each other. The Harts dump Brunzell out. It's hard to tell if Brunzell's teammate Blair was trying to help the Harts or save his teammate. Fridge gets a big elimination, lifting Atlas up like he was nothing and dumping him over the top rope. Studd unloads on Fridge, getting the hate of the Chicago crowd. Morales and Martin get eliminated together. The Harts are doing a good job of staying together. One one side a bunch of wrestlers get dumped with Sheik the last one standing out of the group. Studd gets Fralic over and out. Sammartino goes nuts on Studd. Studd manages to dump Sammartino out. Francis takes some crazy bumps off Andre shots before Studd attacks Andre again. The Harts double hiptoss Fridge. Fridge pops back up and tackles them both! Both Harts go over the top but land on the apron. Now Fridge and Studd have a big midring showdown. Big tackle from Fridge. He goes for another. Studd back elbows him and hiptosses him out. Fridge offers a handshake from the floor. He pulls Studd out! Fell victim to one of the classic blunders. We're down to the final four- the Harts, Andre and Francis. They actually somewhat team up against the last remaining NFL player. The Harts double dropkick Andre and he gets tied up in the ropes like he liked to do. The Harts toss Francis out. Down to the Harts and Andre. I don't like the Harts' chances. They hit a slingshot shoulder tackle and try to lift Andre up. No joy. Bret gets whipped into Andre's massive boot. Double noggin knocker. Big boot on Anvil, who does a CRAZY sell halfway across the ring and flops himself over the top and out! Hell of a ricochet off that boot. Meanwhile, behind Andre Bret is going up top. Doesn't seem like a smart move. Nope, Andre easily lifts him up and drops him down onto Anvil. Andre wins the eight billionth battle royale of his career. I'm exaggerating slightly. Perfectly solid battle royal. The NFL guys did just fine. Sadly that was easily the best thing on the whole show so far. **

 

We cut back to New York with Vince and St. James with Piper. Piper rants about the NFL guys cheating, then clarifies that he only said he's quit....everything....if T knocked him out and he didn't. 

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The British Bulldogs (w/Capt. Lou Albano and Ozzy Osbourne) def The Dream Team (c) (w/Johnny Valiant) in 13:03- The Bulldogs, like Bret and Anvil in the last match, were brought into WWF when WWF bought out Stampede Wrestling. The so called "Dream Team" of Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake had been champions since August, when they defeated the WWF departing US Express (Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda). Monsoon gets his dream wish as there's two refs working this match. Though only one of them is a WWF ref, the other is one of the local refs that worked The Wrestling Classic and looked completely out of his depth. Thankfully he stays on the outside the whole match and doesn't really do anything. I guess Osbourne is with the Bulldogs since they're all British. In fact they're all north of England guys, both Bulldogs from the Greater Manchester area and Osbourne originally from the Birmingham area. DBS and Valentine start. DBS tosses Valentine out of the first lockup. They trade some strikes that have little effect on either guy. Valentine gets a double leg takedown but misses an elbow drop. DBS comes back up with an arm wringer. Hiptoss from Valentine but again DBS dodges the follow up move. Dynamite tags in and hilariously gives Valentine a little assist with his usual flop. Dynamite hits the ropes at 100 MPH and just RUNS OVER Valentine with a shoulderblock. Snap suplex. Valentine and DBS suplex fight with DBS hitting his delayed suplex for 2. Valentine begs off in the corner and slides out for a think. Back in Valentine gives DBS some forearms. Diving headbutt to the gut from Valentine and Beefcake tags in for the first time. Beefcake works an arm wringer. DBS uses it to lift him up into a press slam! Dynamite tags in and hits a clothesline, then a chop. He's moving way too damn fast for this small ring, it can barely contain him. Small package on Beefcake for 2. DBS hits a perfectplex on Beefcake for 2. Not executed perfectly. DBS works a front facelock. Beefcake manages to back up and blind tag out. Valentine goes up top and ambushes DBS with an ax handle to the back of the head. Suplex from Valentine for 2. Now it's DBS's turn to sneak a backhand tag and Dynamite blindsides Valentine. Another assisted Valentine flop and Dynamite covers for 2. Double shoulderblock from the Bulldogs for 2. Beefcake comes in without a tag, allowing Valentine to come back. Dynamite hits a sunset flip for a long 2. Backbreaker from Dynamite and Beefcake saves the pin. Again Valentine comes back with forearms. He hits Dynamite with a front drop piledriver! That was nasty looking. But Dynamite kicks out. Valentine tries for a leverage pin and gets crotched on Dynamite's feet. He goes up top but Dynamite slams him back down. Valentine motions for Beefcake to come in but DBS cuts him off as things break down. The Bulldogs go for a double team press slam splash on Valentine but Valentine gets the hell out of town. The Bulldogs follow and roll him back in, which allows Valentine to ambush Dynamite coming back in. But he makes the mistake of pounding Dynamite into his own corner, allowing him to tag out to DBS. DBS running powerslam! Valentine kicks out! Another suplex from DBS for 2. Valentine reverses a corner whip and DBS goes shoulder first into the post. Valentine sees the target and goes right for it. So does Beefcake. Valentine coaching him well. Quick tags from the heels as DBS goes In Peril. Shoulderbreaker from Valentine. He pulls DBS up at 2! Oh boy, I do not like that strategery. Dynamite goes up the ropes in his corner. DBS pushes Valentine into the corner and he hits heads with Dynamite! DBS covers and gets the pin to win the titles! Freaking brilliant finish, Dynamite sacrificing himself to get the win. Not just easily the best match tonight, but the best one at a WM period so far. ***1/2

 

Everyone on the face has some things to say during the postmatch interview, except Dynamite who looks legit concussed and completely out of it on the floor. So ends the Chicago portion, which started horribly but recovered nicely in the second half. Let's see if LA can keep the momentum going.

 

VENUE THREE

From the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, CA

 

Commentary: Jesse Ventura, Lord Alfred Hayes and guest celebrity Elvira

 

The LA Sports Arena would later be the "backup" venue for WM 7 when the planned LA Coliseum location had to be scrapped. Elvira I think needs no introduction, even in this day and age. And she is 100% in character Elvira. Hoo boy, that's a lot of visible empty seats in LA. Maybe it's typical LA late arrivers. Though they did miss the rest of the show. 

 

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat def Hercules Hernandez in 7:34- Herc had just signed with WWF in November and would soon drop "Hernandez" from his name. Herc jumps Steamboat with a running knee right before the bell and starts wailing away on him. Commentary is audibly hustling into position, even they were caught off guard. Steamboat does a couple of slide unders and hits a chop. DEEP armdrags into some Steamboat arm work. Another speed run and Steamboat does a couple more dodges, then hits a back kick. Another deep armdrag and Steamboat works on the arm some more. Herc fires back with an uppercut. More speed and Steamboat hits a back elbow. Suplex from Steamboat, impressive considering the size difference. Herc grabs a handful of hair to give Steamboat a buckle shot, then MURDERS him with a clothesline. Knees to Steamboat's head. He gives Steamboat a wicked looking hot shot. Steamboat fires back with backhand shots. He tries a slam but Herc falls on top of him for 2. Herc continues to lay in the high impact stuff. Arrogant cover for 2. You're not taking Steamboat down that easily. Big chops from Steamboat. Herc dodges one and hits another big clothesline for 2. Press slam from Herc. Another one. Herc goes up top. That's out of his wheelhouse. He tries a splash but Steamboat gets his knees up. Now Steamboat goes up top. Crossbody! That gets the pin! Rock solid match. Steamboat did his thing and Herc actually kept up with him, looking as good as he would his entire WWF run. **3/4

 

"Adorable" Adrian Adonis (w/Jimmy Hart) def Uncle Elmer in 3:01- A makeup wearing crossdresser against a hillbilly. The jokes write themselves. Elmer is the largest member of Hillbilly Jim's very extended family. Adonis has so much makeup on he looks like he got a sunburn in LA. Maybe he did. Adonis fairy struts out of the ring during Elmer's entrance to try to get away, but as soon as he gets back in Elmer jumps him. Corner whip and Adonis goes upside down into the corner. He could be surprisingly athletic when he wanted to be. Elmer swings a punch and falls down. Yeesh. Adonis continues to bump like a maniac, flopping out of the ring off punches multiple times. Since I've been keeping track of these things, no mats on the floor in LA tonight. Elmer starts to tear Adonis' mu-mu off. Another punch and Adonis does another crazy flip, going upside down and tying himself in the ropes. He finally finds an opening to get some shots in. The mu-mu is completely off. Thankfully he's got his regular wrestling trunks on underneath. Elvira says "Put the dress back on!" Hah! A corner avalanche from Elmer squashes Adonis. Adonis dodges a legdrop. He hits a fistdrop off the top rope, and it's over. Elvira: "Never trust a man that wears pink legwarmers". Truer words were never spoken. The match was bad, but could have been much worse thanks to Adonis' maniacal bumping. 1/4*

 

Terry & Hoss Funk (w/Jimmy Hart) def Tito Santana & The Junkyard Dog in 11:42- "Hoss" is Dory Funk Jr.. Why the name change I have no idea. Terry's already at 100% wild Terry Funk during intros, shoving the ring announcer around. After the faces' entrance Terry tosses a chair int the ring. Even Hoss looks like he's trying to calm his brother down. Hoss starts with JYD. Terry literally flops himself over the ropes trying to stop JYD reversing a corner whip, then JYD whips Hoss into him. JYD slams both Funks. Santana gives Terry a forearm and the Funks go to the floor to jaw at the fans and rethink things. When things settle back in both sides tag. Santana against Terry is a singles match I'd love to see in this era. It's a shame Santana's two IC title reigns came just before WWF really exploded nationally, he deserved much more exposure in his peak than he really got. Terry gets Santana against the ropes and lays into him with chops. Off a whip Terry almost flies himself over the top rope to the floor, then Santana gives him a 360 clothesline to finish it off. Now JYD will give it a go against Terry. They both load up for punches with JYD hitting first. He pounds away with buckle shots on Terry. Headbutt from JYD and Hoss saves the pin. Toss from JYD and again Terry flies over the top to the floor. After more tags Hoss lays into Santana with uppercuts to turn things around. Speed run and Santana hits the flying forearm. Terry runs in and tackles Santana to break the pin up. Santana/Hoss criss cross. Terry gives Santana a knee in the back from the apron during that. Santana gets tossed out and Hart gets a couple of stomps in on him. JYD runs Hart off and helps Santana gets back in the ring. Suplex from Terry for a long 2. Another suplex attempt. Santana fights it off and hits his own. Midring collision, but Terry falls into his corner and tags Hoss. Double underhook suplex from Hoss for 2. More uppercuts. Double clothesline and Terry hits a legdrop for 2. Santana dodges another one. Terry puts him back down with a headbutt. Santana dodges around and gets a tag to JYD! Double noggin knocker on the Funks. Clothesline on Terry. Terry gets his wrist tape off and tries to choke JYD with it. JYD gets free and backdrops Terry out to the floor! I've lost count how many times Terry's gone over the top to the floor in this match. JYD slams Terry on a ringside table! Hart distracts JYD and takes a shot. Small package from JYD. Hoss breaks it up. DONNYBROOK! Santana puts a figure four on Hoss but ref Dave Hebner makes him break it up since neither are legal. In the confusion Terry's gotten Hart's megaphone. He nails JYD with it, JYD slowly goes down like a redwood tree, and Terry covers him for the pin. Terry Funk almost singlehandedly made this match a blast to watch. Total and complete maniac in the best ways possible. Sadly this would be Terry's next to last match this WWF run. He'd mostly work in All Japan the following couple of years, as well as start dabbling in acting, before hopping to WCW for his legendary '89 run there. ***

 

Pause for the steel cage setup for the main event. To my memory this is the debut of the famous blue bar cage that WWF will use for nearly 15 years before reverting back to the classic chain link cages. The reason given for it is it's been reinforced for Bundy's weight, a regular cage couldn't hold him. Not a lot to say leading into this year's main event. It's Hogan defending against a big seemingly unbeatable monster, a formula that would be followed off and on for many years and perfected at next year's WM. All that was done to set this up was Bundy attacking and injuring Hogan's ribs with multiple avalanches and big splashes on the SNME before this show. Hogan, naturally, says he's 100% coming into this match but there's considerable doubt he really is and he's wrestling against doctor's orders.

 

One last run of celebrities before we get underway. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda is the guest ring announcer.  Guest timekeeper is Ricky Schroder, who gets a ton of boos. Guest referee is Robert Conrad, but D Hebner is still out there to be the "proper" ref.

 

Steel Cage Match for the WWF Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) def King Kong Bundy (w/Bobby Heenan) in 11:00- Usual WWF escape only rules here. As usual Hogan shakes the hell out of the cage to make sure it's secure, then climbs to the top to do the shirt tear. His ribs are taped up, another indication he's not 100%. Lockup and we're immediately slugging it out. Hogan gets the early edge off that. Big boot. He chokes Bundy with his own singlet strap. Anything goes. Bundy blocks a cage shot but Hogan stays on him. Corner clothesline. Running elbow. Bundy, as big guys are wont to do, refuses to go down. More blocked cage shots and Bundy gets his first shots into Hogan's hurt ribs. He slams Hogan. Bundy goes for the door. Hogan scrambles over and grabs his foot. Bundy rams Hogan back first into the cage and goes for the door again. Hogan grabs him around the waist to stop him. Bundy rips all the tape off Hogan's ribs and chokes him with it. Then he ties Hogan to the ropes with the tape. Smart. Hogan gets free and just stops Bundy going out the door again. Punches from Hogan and he hits a running corner elbow. Bundy takes his first cage shot. While down he covers up his face, clearly blading. And yup, when he gets back up he's bleeding. Very unusual for WWF at the time, but the cage calls for it. Another cage shots for Bundy. Hogan climbs, but only to choke Bundy on the top rope. He tries to slam Bundy, but the ribs give out/the girth is too much and Bundy falls on him. Bundy crawls for the door. Hogan gets his tape and chokes Bundy with it. Bundy goes to the ol' eye rake to get free. Avalanche! Big splash! Bundy goes for the door. Hogan pops up! He grabs Bundy's foot again. Bundy attacks the ribs again, but Hogan's starting to Hulk Up. Another avalanche has no effect! Hogan reverses a corner whip and hits a powerslam! Legdrop! Hogan struts a bit, then starts to climb. Bundy gets up and stops Hogan. Hogan fights him off! Heenan on the outside is trying to grab at Hogan. Meanwhile, Bundy goes for the door. Hogan wins the race, dropping to the floor to easily win and retain. After the bell Heenan tries to lock himself in the cage to keep Hogan away from him, but Hogan fights his way in, gives Heenan a cage shot, then atomic drops him back out the door. Honestly, I don't hate this match. It's fine. For all his later limitations and issues, '80s Hogan usually had a solid floor as far as match quality goes. The problem is this would have been a passable SNME main event, not a WM main event. **1/4

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The most experimental of all WMs as they were still figuring out the format. Unfortunately almost all the experiments failed. There's a handful of pretty good matches in here, but nothing truly memorable or WM worthy. The technical side of juggling multiple arenas came off without a major hitch at least, but thankfully it's one experiment they'd never try again.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D

 

v2.0 published 5/18/26

Chi-Town Rumble

Legacy Review

Chi-Town Rumble

February 20, 1989 from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago

Commentary: Jim Ross and Magnum TA

The new Turner regime is experimenting with new PPVs to start what would turn out to be an all-world 1989, headlined by the first match of the legendary Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat trilogy. Surprisingly, there was no counter punch from Titan Towers for this show.

The show open has some of the worst music I've ever heard for a wrestling show. Or, ever. The Turner boys are still figuring out how they want to do the presentation. Things open up at a snail's pace with JR and TA listing all the matches, then a long, generic video package of mostly Starrcade '88 footage. Guess they hadn't bought the Crockett tape library yet.

Michael PS Hayes def Russian Assassin I (w/Paul Jones) in 15:48- Assassin I is the Angel of Death. Badstreet USA is still awesome entrance music. This is in a short period where Hayes and fellow Freebird Terry Gordy were both working singles (Jimmy Garvin was out with an injury). Assassin tries a leapfrog. Hayes stops, waits for him to land, and nails him with a punch. Hayes poses on the 2nd rope, senses Assassin coming, and turns around and hits him with a diving punch. Twice. Assassin tries an eye rake but Hayes no sells the following punches and gives us the Freebird strut. A Hayes sunset flip gets 2  Assassin gets a couple of knees to the gut, then kinda nudges Hayes with a .3 Russian Sickle for a 2 count. Long chinlock spot. Hayes powers out and gets a crossbody for 2. A slightly better .5 Sickle puts Hayes right back in Chinlock City. It's like Suplex City, but with chinlocks. Things move slow there. The crowd is pretty dead. Hayes tries for a bulldog but Assassin counters out of it. Hayes dodges a corner charge and Assassin posts his shoulder. Assassin tries for a backdrop, but Hayes counters it into a DDT for the pin. This should have been a 5 minute squash but it went three times as long. Hayes had a pretty big singles push coming so he was trying. *3/4

Steamboat muddles his way through a promo. Never his strong suit. Little baby Richie wants the mic to show dad how to do it.

Before we go any further, I should take a minute and lay out what's going on in this period with the Four Horsemen, because it's a little convoluted. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard left for the WWF in mid '88. With only Flair, Barry Windham and JJ Dillon left, the group was called just the Horsemen. The powers that be toyed with the idea of adding new guys to the group (Butch Reed and Windham's jobber brother Kendall being options), but when the calendar turned to '89 another wrench was thrown in: JJ Dillon was leaving to take a backstage job in WWF. WCW wrote him out by having Flair turn on him after losing the tag match where Ricky Steamboat was reintroduced into the company. To fill the managerial gap WCW turned to another old Horsemen "associate", Hiro Matsuda. The group was renamed the Yamazaki Corporation to play into thoughts that were prevalent in the late '80s that Japan's economy, booming from their dominance of the electronics and computer industries and starting to challenge the US in car manufacturing, would soon overtake the US as the world's #1 economy.

Sting def "Hacksaw" Butch Reed (w/Hiro Matsuda) in 20:07- A jobber entrance for Sting?! Oh, looks like the intros happened during Steamboat's promo. Sting ducks a punch and hits an atomic drop with a super sell from Reed. They go power vs speed for a bit. JR says Reed used to be a steer wrestler. Yeah, but did he ever wrestle a bear? Sting does a nice Destino like flip to switch from a blocked hip toss to an armdrag. He then shows some strength by holding onto a headlock while Reed tries to push him off into the ropes. Another nice Sting counter, a blocked hip toss into a backslide for 2. Reed gets some punches in but Sting dodges a corner charge. Reed uses Sting's momentum off the ropes to send him outside. A ringside cameraman gets caught on hard camera gesturing to fans in the crowd to boo. Reed works through punches and chokes. Matusda-san gets a choke in. Reed goes to the heel 101 playbook to keep Sting in a chinlock. Sting twists Reed into the turnbuckles to get out. He tries a Vader Bomb (he's too small!) but Reed gets his knees up and we're right back in the restholds. Sting jaw jacks out, ducks under a couple of clothesline attempts and hits one of his own. The crowd loves him. Sting gets a sunset flip. Reed grabs the top rope to keep from going over but for some reason ref (and future Reed manager) Teddy Long kicks him off. Reed drops down and covers Sting's shoulders with his knees, but tries to grab the rope for leverage and Long catches him. Sting rolls him over to complete the sunset flip and gets the pin. Another rung on the ladder of Sting's rise to the top. Reed was not the kind of guy to carry a match, but he could be a decent complimentary piece to a good worker. Another match that went twice as long as it needed to be. **1/4

Promo with Paul E Dangerously and the Original Midnights. Wait, that's not the Originals. That's Randy Rose and....Jack Victory? Dennis Condry pulled another one of his famous disappearing acts before this show, necessitating a last second substitution. Paul E plays it off as strategery.

Loser Leaves NWA Match: The Midnight Express & Jim Cornette def The Original Midnight Express & Paul E Dangerously in 15:51- Just to clarify, only the loser of the fall has to leave, not the whole team. Loopholes are fun. And convenient. Paul E's warm up "punches" are amazing. Cornette wants to start and he wants Paul E, but Lane and Rose end up starting. Rose gets the Flair throw off the top. The faces TRIPLE team Victory. Yes, Cornette even gets a shot in. Eaton gives Rose a series of stiff right hands, then another triple team sequence and another Cornette shot. The heels work Eaton into their corner and Paul E goes for a shot, but hits Rose instead. Rose is miffed. Rose throws Eaton off the apron and into the guardrail. Paul E tags in, gets a bunch of kicks in on Eaton, but Eaton no sells it all (realistic) and Paul E skedaddles for a tag. Cornette tags in and tries to get at Paul E, but Rose ambushes him from behind. Once Cornette is safely down Paul E tags in again. The managers work a proper match and do a pretty nice job of it. While Paul E plays to the crowd Cornette nails him from behind. The heels work Cornette over more until Eaton intervenes, allowing Cornette to tag out. Paul E distracts Lane and Victory gets him with a knee in the back. Lane is face in peril. After a bit Lane dodges a corner charge and gets the hot tag to Eaton. Beautiful missile dropkick from Eaton. Eaton physically forces Victory to tag Paul E in. Cornette is back in. Cornette hits a .4 clothesline and covers but Rose makes the save. Cornette tags out. DONNYBROOK! Rose misses a dive off the top. Lane covers but Victory breaks it up. The heels have a midring collision. The Express get Rose up and hit him with a double flapjack, and that gets the 3! Randy Rose is out of the NWA. Not as good as their Starrcade match, but considering the last second substitution it went about as well as it could have. Cornette and Paul E played their roles perfectly, and would continue to feud off and on the next few years. ***1/4

Bob Caudle is in the back with Flair, who shows Steamboat how to cut a promo. Whether you like it or don't like it, learn to love it, because it's the best thing going today! WOOOOOOOOO!

NWA World Television Championship: Mike Rotunda def Rick Steiner (c) (w/Scott Steiner) in 16:21- This is Scott's NWA/WCW debut. Steiner beat Rotunda for the title at Starrcade in the (supposed) culmination of probably the hottest feud in the company at that time. The same heat is not there for this rematch. Rotunda gets straight to the stalling, but overall it's not as bad as usual and a much quicker start than the Starrcade match. Lots of amateur takedowns showing off both guys' backgrounds. Rotunda takes advantage of a rope break to get the first punch in. He ducks to the outside to avoid a Steinerline, but a minute later gets clobbered with one and get his foot up on the rope to break the pin. Rotunda offers an insincere handshake. Abdominal stretch! Scott tries to tell Teddy Long that there's a 141 2/3% chance Rotunda is using the rope. Long breaks it up and Steiner reverses into a pin but they're under the ropes. Rotunda gets another rope break cheap shot. He goes for a reverse crossbody off the 2nd rope (and damn near botches it by landing on his feet) but Steiner reverses it for 2. They go outside. Steiner gets posted and starts bleeding. What happened to the no blood rule? Steiner recovers and gets a powerslam for 2. Kevin Sullivan has slithered out to ringside. He grabs a mic and tells Steiner "That's a nice dog you have in the dressing room." Steiner walks out and is clearly worried. I would be too. Knowing Sullivan he could either be sacrificing that dog to The Great Mowjal or eating it. Or both. Rotunda grabs the distracted Steiner and Saito suplexes him for 2. Steiner gets his head back in the game and hooks in a sleeper. Rotunda is going out but he's laying on top of Steiner and Steiner's shoulders are down. Long counts the 3 as Steiner pins himself! Weak ending. Sullivan's run out was completely pointless in the end. Steiner's singles push was cut short but he's moving into teaming up with his brother and I think that turned out OK. Rotunda winning the belt back would just be a transition as Sting would beat him for his first title a month later. This match didn't have the heat or great moment of Steiner winning that Starrcade did, but thanks to a faster pace and less stalling turned out as the better match. ***

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: Lex Luger def Barry Windham (c) (w/Hiro Matsuda) in 10:43- Luger shoves Windham during instructions. Luger locks in an early sleeper but Windham suplexes out. Luger no sells it. Press slam! Luger does a unique whip, holding on while Windham tries to reverse it and still sending Windham into the corner. Luger tries a dive of the top but crashes and burns and slides all the way outside. Windham goes to work with the glove and busts Luger open above his right eye. They go out again and Luger eats barricade. Windham charges but Luger ducks out and Windham punches the ring post. Ow. Both guys take time to recover. Luger's bleeding above his eye. Windham's wrist is bleeding and barely functional. Windham manages to stay in control but hurts himself as much as Luger when he tries to punch. He hooks on the Claw, but after a minute his wrist gives out on that too. Tommy Young tries to check it but Windham refuses. Windham manages to hoist Luger up and superplexes him for a close 2 count. Windham gives Luger a bridged suplex and they do the finish where all four shoulders are down but Luger gets one up at 2 and Windham is pinned. Luger wins the title! Windham snaps and gives Luger a piledriver, indicating the feud must continue, but Windham was actually on his way out to the WWF (for a run that was cut short due to real life scandal and he'd be back in WCW within a year). It would have been nice if the wrist injury had played more directly into the finish, and the finish was a little redundant after the Rotunda/Steiner match having a similar one, but it was still very well done. ***1/2

NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Road Warriors (c) (w/Paul Ellering) def The Varsity Club in 8:27- The Road Warriors are kinda popular in their native Chicago. We've got three guys perfect for a stiff hoss match....and Kevin Sullivan. Sullivan and Animal start. Animal no sells a clothesline then kills Sullivan with one of his own. Sullivan tries to go off the top but Animal catches and powerslams him. Animal and Williams have a good shoulderblock standoff. Animal gets a powerslam. Williams takes a quick powder. When he gets back in he gives Hawk a press slam. Hawk answers back with a stiff clothesline. While Sullivan has the ref distracted the Roadies double clothesline Williams. Not a normal double clothesline. One from front and one from behind. Sensational. That gets a long 2 count. After another ref distraction Animal is thrown over the top and out, and Sullivan follows with a chair shot to the arm that had been hurt during the build. The heels work the wounded arm for a while and use toe and leg holds to keep Animal face in peril. They're keeping the pace up very well. Williams almost slips coming off the ropes. Double clothesline. Hot tag to Hawk! DONNYBROOK! Animal gets Sullivan in Doomsday Device position. Williams comes from behind and chop blocks Animal down. Hawk says eff it and clotheslines Sullivan off the top rope anyway, and gets the pin! There was a lot of promise here. I wish time had been cut off the first two matches and given to this one. **3/4

MAIN EVENT FEUD RECAP- Ricky Steamboat came back to the NWA at the start of '89 and in his first match back got a pinfall win over Ric Flair in a tag match at the original NWA studio. An enraged Flair laid down the challenge right after. The feud was soon framed as the limo riding, jet flying, expensive suit wearing, women dripping off arms Nature Boy vs family man Steamboat. In the last standoff before the big match Flair told Steamboat "Why don't you go back home and help the missus with the dishes?". Steamboat attacked and ripped Flair's expensive suit off, and Flair beat Steamboat up in his tightie whities.

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/Hiro Matsuda) in 23:18- Flair's got all the women with him tonight. He gets a pretty decent ovation. Chicago. And, Flair. This is the feud that would lead to an organic face turn for him at the end of it. Chicago being Chicago, there's audible "Steamboat sucks" chants at several points in the match. Steamboat goes for a quick cover 10 seconds in. Flair takes a step back. Flair drops down for a trip attempt. Steamboat stops and wraps him in a headlock. Flair tries to flip out, Steamboat turns it into a roll up for 2. Flair takes a breather. Here come the chops! They go to them regularly throughout the match and they never get old. After a huge backdrop Flair begs off. More stiff chops. They stand and stare for a few seconds before locking up again, a subtle but very effective tension builder. Steamboat slides between Flair's legs and hits a dropkick. Flair's chops are absolute cannon blasts. Steamboat's aren't far behind. If this was HD you'd be able to really see both guy's chests welling up. Steamboat tries another flash pin and Flair takes another short walk. Flair wins a shoulderblock exchange to get some momentum, but on a run Steamboat gives him a two handed chop and Flair does a Flair Flop through the ropes and out! Steamboat teases coming off the top but backs off. Flair cautiously tries to lock up then backs of and screams at Steamboat for being a coward. Mind games. We get a run of several high octane flying moves from Steamboat. That's the 1989 equivalent of Ricochet or Ospreay. Flair nails Steamboat with a back elbow. Steamboat comes back with chops. The last one sends Flair over the top and out again. Flair takes his time at the apron getting back in, suckering Steamboat in. He grabs Steamboat's feet, drags him under the ropes, and gives him a guardrail shot and more chops. Flair starts working through his usuals, including the knee drop for 2 and a double underhook suplex that only gets 1. Another stiff chop exchange. Flair Flip! He lands on his feet, runs across the apron to the other side, hops up to the top rope, AND ACTUALLY GETS OFF! Crossbody! Steamboat reverses it and locks his fingers but it only gets 2! The crowd is going crazy. Flair with an inverted atomic drop. Figure four! Flair plays the rope leverage game. Steamboat is in it for a long while. Tommy Young finally catches Flair using the ropes but Flair isn't worried, he's got Steamboat where he wants him. He thinks. Steamboat tries to come back with chops. Flair chops and punches back. Flair ducks a clothesline and on the rebound goes for a jumping crossbody, but it's close to the ropes and both guys tumble over the top and out! Steamboat gets posted. Flair suplexes him back in for a long 2 count. Flair tries for pins with his feet on the ropes but Steamboat won't stay down. While Flair argues with the crowd Steamboat rolls him up for 2. Flair dodges a Steamboat dive off the 2nd rope. They do the bridge up spot, but instead of a backslide Steamboat hits a double underhook suplex and Flair JUST gets a foot on the rope at 2. Steamboat goes up top and hits the flying chop. He goes up top again and nails the crossbody! But Young was in the way! Ref bump! No one is there to count! Flair grabs the tights and rolls Steamboat up, but there's still no ref. Flair throws him over the top but Steamboat half skins the cat to get on the apron, goes up top again, and misses! Flair goes for the figure four again, but Steamboat rolls him into a Paul Smackage! Teddy Long is in the ring and counts the 3! Steamboat wins the title! Absolute perfection. This was quite possibly the best wrestling match ever to that point, until Flair and Steamboat get in the ring together again. ****** (yes, that's 6)

Bob Caudle is in the locker room as the faces bury Steamboat in champagne. Steamboat promises Flair an immediate rematch.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The magic NWA year of 1989 is off to a good start. The undercard has nothing awful and a few pretty good matches, and it's topped off by one of the most legendary matches ever.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-

Survivor Series '87

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '87

November 26, 1987 from the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, OH

 

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura

 

After the massive success of Wrestlemania 3 WWF decided to make another attempt to expand their PPV calendar. The proliferation of PPV availability from cable companies the past couple of years also helped. Unlike their last attempt in late '85 with The Wrestling Classic and the cancelled "WrestleVision" series this one will stick, becoming the second of what would be the traditional Big Four WWF/E PPVs, though in short order Survivor Series will be overshadowed by the next two that would come after it. While this show will again be centered around the Hulk Hogan/Andre the Giant feud and their first official encounter since WM 3, there will be a very unique card structure. Rather than normal matches, every match on the card will be large elimination tag team matches, dubbed Survivor Series matches, with each one working its way down to a sole "survivor" or "survivors". Not a new match type, but one that had never been done on this scale before.

 

This is also when WWF decided to play hardball with their scheduling. It was known that Jim Crockett would be offering Starrcade on PPV for the first time rather than just closed circuit TV, so to try to pinch their potential audience Vince McMahon and co decided to also schedule Survivor Series on Thanksgiving night. In an even more hardball move, WWF actively threatened cable companies that if they chose to offer Starrcade instead of Survivor Series, WWF would not let them offer Wrestlemania 4. I know it's hard to believe nowadays, but back then cable companies only had one PPV channel. The threat of being shut out of the potential biggest PPV payday of the year was enough to get most cable outlets to toe the line and choose WWF over JCP. This would be the beginning of a scheduling tit for tat that would go on for the next couple of years, even after the Turner buyout of JCP. It's not at all unlike the constant "counterprogramming" games played by WWE and AEW since the start of TKO WWE.

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan & Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake (w/Elizabeth) def WWF Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man, "King" Harley Race, Hercules, "Outlaw" Ron Bass & "Dangerous" Danny Davis (w/Jimmy Hart and Bobby Heenan) in 23:28- Savage had his big face turn over the summer while feuding with Honky over the IC title, pretty much just killing time until his planned push to the top next year. Duggan/Race was another ongoing feud as Duggan had recently taken Race's "King" crown for a time. Beefcake and Hercules start. After some back and forth Beefcake gets an early sleeper on. Herc manages to reach over and tag out. Davis and Bass both run in and get hiptossed. Beefcake flips Davis in as he was the one tagged. The face team easily work the overmatched Davis over. Davis manages to get a knee up on Steamboat and tags out to Race. Steamboat catches Race with a high chop off the second rope. He and Race slug it out, then Steamboat does TWO skin the cats back in. Third try Race is the one that goes over the top and out. Race comes back in and hits a belly to belly suplex for a long 2. Steamboat crawls under Race and tags out to Duggan. He 360 clotheslines Race out to the floor. Duggan follows and they brawl on the floor while commentary says they better watch the count. Foreshadowing successful as both guys are counted out and are both eliminated. Both teams have to separate them. Continue in the ring with Roberts and Bass. Savage tags in and gives Bass a running knee in the back. He runs over and hits Honky with an elbow, giving Bass an opening to hit a clothesline. Honky then tags in with Savage safely down. Savage quickly fights back, but they end up in the heel corner. Bass hits a couple of elbows for 2. Big running elbow from Savage. He was going 100 MPH. Blind tag to Beefcake. He hits a high knee on Bass and gets a pin to eliminate him! Herc comes in and pounds away on Beefcake. Honky works on Beefcake's arm as Savage tries to contain himself. The heels keep Beefcake trapped while continuing to pick the arm apart. Beefcake ducks a badly thought out Honky punch and hits an atomic drop. But Beefcake also makes a possible mistake not tagging out, instead going on offense against Honky. Davis hits Beefcake from the apron. Honky hits a short Shake, Rattle and Roll (just the Roll), but it's enough to get a pin and eliminate Beefcake. Back to even 3 on 3. Savage TEARS for Honky but gets caught from behind by Herc. Davis being in allows Savage to try a comeback but he quickly tags back out. Savage runs Honky over with an elbow and quickly tags out to Roberts. Roberts gets Honky in DDT position but Honky squirts free. Knee up in the corner from Honky to turn things around on Roberts. Herc hits Roberts style jabs on Roberts for 2. Now the heels have Roberts isolated and in peril. Davis actually hits some decent shots, but that only fires Roberts up. Short clothesline! Davis gets planted with the DDT, and he's gone. Herc runs right in with a flying clothesline on Roberts. Elbow drops for 2. Honky taunts Savage in so the heels can double team and choke Roberts. Snap mare/fistdrop combo from Honky for 2. Roberts fights out of a chinlock and gives Honky a kneelift. Herc quickly tags in to cut the tag off. Herc also keeps Roberts grounded with a chinlock as the match starts to drag a bit. Roberts jawbreakers Herc to get free and finally gets a tag to Steamboat. Chops for everyone and Steamboat takes a moment to do a hilarious impression of Honky's awful dancing. High chop off the top rope on Herc. He sets Herc up, then tags Savage. Savage elbow! Herc is gone. Honky is all alone against three faces. Savage pounds him across the ring. Honky dodges and Savage crashes into the corner. He pounds away on Savage's back. Savage gets another huge head of steam and hits another running elbow. Steamboat tags in. Ventura wonders if Honky can tag Jimmy Hart. Might not do much worse. Honky's giving it a go, trying a sunset flip on Roberts but Roberts easily counters it. The faces are taking their time to take out their frustrations on Honky. Probably a good idea, it's going to be a long while yet before anyone finally pries that IC title off him, and the guy that will finally do it isn't even on the roster yet. Savage hits the double ax handle off the top rope and atomic drops Honky out to the floor. Honky says screw it, that's enough and walks out, willingly taking a countout loss. 100% in character and exactly how kept the IC title so long. Overall good match to initially get the Survivor Series concept over. SURVIVORS: Savage, Steamboat and Roberts. ***

 

The Fabulous Moolah, Rockin' Robin, Velvet McIntyre & The Jumping Bomb Angels def WWF Women's Champion Sensational Sherri, Dawn Marie, Donna Christanello & The Glamour Girls (w/Jimmy Hart) in 20:17- You had no idea WWF had this many women on the roster back then, did you? Not that I blame you. Sherri came over from the AWA in the summer and immediately defeated a face turned Moolah for the women's title. The Dawn Marie in this match is not the same Dawn Marie from the Divas era. The Bomb Angels also signed with WWF from All Japan Women's in the summer and were an immediate sensation, bringing highly athletic joshi puroresu to the American masses decades before it would become more mainstream. The Glamour Girls are announced as the women's tag team champions. Yes, that was a short lived thing at the time. Modern WWE doesn't want you to remember that. They don't have belts either. Sherri loses patience and grabs McIntyre by the hair to start. McIntyre fires back with a crossbody for 2. Moolah tags in and works her foe over. McIntyre works Christanello over, goes up and gives her a victory roll, and Christanello is out. Kai comes in and takes a flying headscissors from McIntyre. Robin gets caught in the heel corner and worked over. She comes back with a clothesline on Marie, hits a crossbody and pins her. Yamazuki comes in and starts up the joshi awesomeness with Martin, doing a nice bridge up out of a pin and getting a cradle for 2. Another rolling cradle for 2. Tateno comes in and hits a couple of high knees. Crossbody for 2. Yamazuki does a lucha style armdrag off the top rope. Sherri tags in and takes a back elbow. Double underhook suplex from Yamazuki for 2. Ventura is now a Bomb Angels fan and isn't afraid to say it. Robin tags in and gets in trouble again. She and Martin take forever trying to pull off a monkey flip spot. Sherri suplex on Robin and Robin's out for the first face elimination. Yamazuki comes in and pummels Sherri with dropkicks. Martin does a full hair pull toss on Yamazuki. McIntyre, who's also looked very good in this match, hits a crossbody for 2. Moolah tags in again to a spattering of boos. She was a heel so long the crowd still isn't sure of her. Martin back elbow on Moolah for 2. Tateno tags in, gets caught in the heel corner but slams Kai off the second rope. Kai dodges a dropkick and hits a flying double ax handle. Kai makes the mistake of trying to take on all the faces at once, giving Moolah an opening to work her over. The Girls sneaky double clothesline Moolah and she's eliminated. Yamazaki puts Martin down and the Angels team up to work her over. McIntyre puts Martin in a Boston crab, then a bow and arrow. She hits a dropkick, but Martin falls into the heel corner and Sherri tags in. Sherri does a double underhook move that drops McIntyre on her head. Kai proper hits Yamazaki with a double underhook suplex. Yamazaki's bridge out of the pin is so good it fools the timekeeper, who rings the bell but the ref waves it off. McIntyre giant swing on Sherri! She gets a victory roll on Sherri and pins her! The champ is out. Yamazaki sunset flip off the second rope on Martin for 2. Martin blocks a slam but Yamazaki tags out. Tateno gets Martin over for a suplex for 2. Kai tags in and tries a ground and pound but gets hooked in a Tateno body scissors. Another McIntyre cradle on Kai for 2. She tries for another victory roll, but Kai's seen it too many times tonight. She counters with a slingshot off the ropes and gets a pin. It's down to the two tag teams, the Girls vs the Angels and all four run in. The Angles whip the Girls into each other. Stereo slams. Martin is slingshot onto Kai! Kai slams Tateno and goes up top. The splash is dodged! Yamazuki crossbody off the top and she pins Kai! Martin faceplants Yamazuki in the mat, then puts her up in a fireman's carry and drops her for 2. The Angels hit a slam/top rope kneedrop combo. Double backdrop. Hart gets dropkicked off the apron to a HUGE pop. Diving clothesline off the top rope from Tateno and Martin is pinned! Good stuff for women's wrestling of the era, with the Bomb Angels looking miles ahead of everyone else. Everyone was working hard, clearly taking advantage of a rare spotlight on a major show. Doing the Jimmy Hart spot right at the end was smart too, it got them a much bigger reaction for the win after the crowd was pretty dead most of the match, not untypical for a women's match of the era. SURVIVORS: The Jumping Bomb Angels. **1/2

 

WWF Tag Team Champions Strike Force, The British Bulldogs, The Killer Bees, The Rougeau Brothers & The Young Stallions def The Hart Foundation, The Dream Team, The Islanders, The Bolsheviks & Demolition (w/every manager on the WWF payroll) in 37:14- That's right, TEN teams in one match. The Strike Force team of Rick Martel and Tito Santana defeated the Harts for the tag titles on weekly TV just a month before this show. Demolition are making their PPV debut here and were poised to become the dominant team in the tag division for the next few years. This is team elimination, so when one member of a team is eliminated so is his partner. The visual as this match starts is insane, with barely a square inch of ring apron not being taken up by someone waiting to be tagged in. Guys have to move and make space when someone hits the ropes so they don't get knocked over. Champ Martel starts out with Volkoff. Martel gets a quick roll up for 2. Volkoff gets Martel down and lifts him up in a one hand choke. Zhukov tags in and misses an elbow drop. Dropkick from Martel. Santana tags in as both sides are sticking with partners so far. Flying forearm! Pin and the Bolsheviks are gone! Ax runs right in and starts pounding on Santana. Now we start getting into rapid fire tags as a lot of guys get their feet wet in this match. Haku and Dynamite have a nice stiff chop off. More quick tags on both sides, too much to keep up with in a written format and still have it readable. It's good stuff though. Ax ducks Jacques trying a springboard crossbody, Jacques splats on the mat, Ax covers, and gets a pin to eliminate the Rougeaus. Again Dynamite and the other Islander, Tama, have some fun stiffing each other. Anvil lifts Powers on his shoulder and Haku comes off the top rope to drop him, but Powers manages to kick out. Valentine gives Roma a shoulderbreaker and suplex but Roma kicks out both times. Gutwrench suplex/legdrop combo from Bravo on Roma for 2. Smash survives a Dynamite clothesline and the Demos get Dynamite trapped on the heel team apron and pound away on him. The ref gets tossed aside, and that earns Demolition a DQ to eliminate them. Getting them out of the match without them taking a pin, I said there were big plans in store for them. We then Bret and Dynamite in the ring together, hell yes. Bret hits a piledriver for 2. Dynamite dodges and Bret posts his shoulder. Tama has an easy time with Powers. Things go a bit worse when Martel tags in. Martel gets the Boston crab on, but in the heel corner and Tama tags out. Anvil absolutely wallops Martel from the blind side, but Martel still kicks out of the pin. Santana hits the flying forearm on Anvil. Bret JUST breaks the pin up. He hit Santana hard enough from behind Anvil covers and gets a pin. A bit of revenge for the Harts as the champs Strike Force are out. It's back even at 3 on 3. Again Powers gets easily knocked around by the heels for an extended period but won't die. Even commentary is amazed he keeps kicking out. Finally he gets a tag to his partner Roma, who also quickly goes in peril. The Young Stallions are not representing themselves well tonight. Finally we get Dynamite and Bret together again for a short period. Haku goes in peril on the heel side, until (of course) Powers gets in again. Now we get Davey Boy and Bret together for a bit. Davey Boy hits a press slam for 2. Haku takes the Davey Boy powerslam but kicks out. Dynamite hits a diving headbutt on Haku but hurts himself. Haku superkick! He pins Dynamite and the Bulldogs are out. Roma actually gets some offense on Haku. For a bit. Powers tries a monkey flip on Bravo but it's blocked into an inverted atomic drop. Once again Powers is in peril for a long time. He even gets caught in a tree of woe in the heel corner, which causes the remaining face teams to run in to try to save him. Bravo hits his signature side suplex on Powers, but doesn't cover. Instead he tags Valentine in to go for the figure four. Powers fights free and tags. Roma sunset flip off the top, and he pins Valentine! The Dream Team is eliminated and it's now even again, 2 teams left for each side. Blair small packages Anvil for 2. Brunzell high knee for 2. Anvil shows his power by literally dragging Brunzell across the ring to tag. Bret outsmarts Roma (not hard) to get the heels back on top again. Roma dodges a Haku dropkick and tags out. Brunzell gets a couple of nearfalls on Haku before Haku tags out to Bret. This match has gone so long the ref's shirt has become untucked. Roma hits a fistdrop off the second rope on Bret for 2. Bret back suplex on Roma for 2. Double headbutt from the Islanders on Roma for 2. Anvil powerslam for 2. Roma rolls under Bret and tags out to Brunzell. Brunzell/Bret midring collision. Tama tries to dropkick Bret onto Brunzell, but Brunzell rolls through it to cover Bret and gets a pin! The Harts are out and the Islanders are the last heel team left. Brunzell celebrates too early and the Islanders are all over him. Tama puts on the Nerve Pinch of Single Handedness +1. Shoulderbreaker from Haku for 2. Haku then puts on the Nerve Pinch of Double Handedness +2. Could probably use the Tongan Death Grip here but that ancient art hadn't been rediscovered yet. Brunzell gets a sunset flip on Haku for 2. I think the ref's exhausted, that count was very slow. Suplex from Haku for 2. Brunzell counters a backdrop and tags out to Powers. Backdrop on Haku. Powerslam from Roma. Tama breaks the pin up, allowing the Islanders to double team. Roma dodges in the corner and tags Blair in. Haku quickly gets him in trouble too. The Islanders are doing a hell of a job hanging in by themselves. Big diving back elbow from Tama. Blair dodges an elbow drop and tags out. A double noggin knocker actually works on the Islanders. Brunzell hits his dropkick but Haku breaks the pin up. Finally, DONNYBROOK! Blair gets his mask on, sunset flips Tama, and gets the pin to win the match even though he wasn't the legal man! Damn good stuff with nonstop action all over, but maybe it went on a tick longer than it really needed to. SURVIVORS: The Killer Bees and The Young Stallions ***3/4

 

With this unusual card structure we get intermission here before the main event. A show like this doesn't need an intermission, but all shows had intermissions then so here we are. As the Jem'Hadar would say, it is the order of things. We get a long video package of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (who signed with WWF after Mid-South/UWF finally went belly up in the spring) bragging about his money and lifestyle while also showing clips from weekly TV of him humiliating various plants by challenging them to try to "earn" some money then screwing them over. Kicking the basketball away from the kid trying to get to 15 dribbles is my favorite. A clip from the summer of DiBiase buying out a public pool manager to kick the crowd of kids out for a day is also good. Everybody's got a price. After that commentary breaks down what we've seen already for a while. Ventura is still gushing about the Jumping Bomb Angels, comparing them to Dynamite Kid, Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat.

 

Quick notes going into the main event- Heenan and Andre are still arguing that Andre pinned Hogan early in the WM 3 match and is the "uncrowned champion". This is also Andre's first match since then after taking some time off due to his declining health and to help promote The Princess Bride's release (Andre dropped the "I'm here for your SOUUUUUUUUUL" line during the prematch promo). Muraco has turned face since we last saw him on PPV. Orndorff turned back face after returning from an arm injury in June. Bigelow signed with WWF in the spring after becoming a star in New Japan and is a rare face with a manager (Humperdink). Rude is making his first WWF PPV appearance after jumping over from JCP in the spring while still holding half of the NWA World tag titles. 

 

Andre the Giant, "The Natural" Butch Reed, King Kong Bundy, One Man Gang & "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan and Slick) def WWF Champion Hulk Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow, "The Rock" Don Muraco, Ken Patera & "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff (w/Oliver Humperdink) in 24:07- Rude's wearing his crazy traffic sign tights tonight. I'm not at all a fan of the tassels on Hogan's bandana. It makes him look like a cheap lamp. This is the last PPV for the somewhat underrated pre-Winged Eagle WWF Title belt. When we get to WM 4 the Winged Eagle will have been introduced. Muraco and Rude start with some quick slugging. Orndorff comes in with an elbow off the top rope. Hogan tags in as Rude stays in trouble. Clothesline and triple elbow drop. Hogan sets Rude up for a Bigelow diving headbutt. Press slam from Bigelow. Finally Patera comes in and genius as he is knocks Rude right back into his corner to tag. The faces then get Reed in trouble as it's still all one sided so far. Former foes Orndorff and Hogan team up for a double clothesline on Reed. Hogan drops the legdrop and Reed is the first one out. The faces celebrate one elimination way to much, and behind them Andre strides into the ring. Hogan turns around and sees him. For some reason ref Joey Marella says Hogan tagged out to Patera. The big collision has to wait. Andre, probably rightly, says Patera isn't worth his time and tags out to Bundy. Patera lays into him as it's once again all Hogan's team. OMG gets a knee up on Orndorff to finally give the heel team some momentum. Rude then kills it by taking an Orndorff clothesline and the not yet boogie woogie elbow for 2. As Ventura points out, Rude's had a bad night so far. Patera manages to take OMG down with a crossbody for 2. OMG gets Patera caught in the heel corner. OMG and Patera both go for clotheslines at the same time. OMG clearly wins that, almost legit squishing Patera and getting a pin for the first face team elimination. Hogan comes in and corner clotheslines OMG. Hogan/Bigelow double big boot on him. Big Bigelow/OMG collision. Both sides tag out. Orndorff suplexes and boogie woogie elbows Rude as Ventura says again Rude's had a terrible night. Orndorff calls for the piledriver. Bundy comes in and hits Orndorff from behind. Rude rolls Orndorff up with a handful of tights and pins him to somewhat redeem his night. Orndorff is out. The faces quickly get Rude back down and take turns hitting moves on him. Powerslam from Muraco and Rude is eliminated. Muraco dodges a Bundy kneedrop, sees the target and starts working on Bundy's leg. The about twelfth eye rake from the heels this match turns that around. Muraco tries to slam OMG but that goes terribly and Muraco barely kicks out from getting pinned. OMG hits the 747 and Muraco is gone. Bigelow gets a sunset flip (!) on OMG but OMG butt splashes him to counter. Clothesline from Bundy that Bigelow does a near 360 sell of. Bigelow by default is the only guy left on the face team that can go in peril for a while, because it's not going to be Hogan. After a few minutes of that Andre finally tags in for his first real action of the night. Bigelow rolls past him and tags Hogan! Hogan unloads on Andre as the crowd explodes. They choke each other and slug it out. Buckle shots for Andre. Bundy trips Hogan and drags him out to the floor. Hogan fights Bundy off, then slams OMG on the floor! Bundy stops Hogan from getting back in. Hogan slams Bundy on the floor! But, they kept Hogan out just long enough and he's been counted out! Hogan is gone. Hogan, as usual, is a big baby about it and the refs have to threaten him with giving the match automatically to Andre's team if he doesn't leave. It's down to just Bigelow against all the beef on the heel side- Andre, Bundy and OMG. Ventura says Bigelow should walk like Honky Tonk Man did. Bigelow puts Bundy down with a clothesline and drops an elbow for 2. Diving headbutt for 2. Standing dropkick! Bigelow could move, man. He looks pretty gassed though. Bigelow dodges an avalanche. Slingshot splash! Bigelow pins Bundy! One tree down. Two larger ones to go. OMG works Bigelow over and hits a short clothesline for 2. Bigelow is run into Andre's boot. OMG goes up top. Bigelow dodges! He drapes an arm over and pins OMG! Down to just Bigelow and Andre. Bigelow tries to dodge around Andre, but then does a wild charge in the corner that Andre easily dodges. Kind of suplex thingy from Andre, and that gets the pin to finish it off. Bigelow did his best but it was just too much. Another good match that worked the early Survivor Series formula well, though who they left for the final stretch didn't do it any favors match quality wise. Not that this match was overflowing with great workers to start with. SOLE SURVIVOR: Andre the Giant ***1/4

 

As soon as the bell rings Hogan charges back in and nails Andre with the title belt! What a sore freaking loser, man. Then he does his full end of show celebration like he actually won something tonight. I'm 100% with disgusted Ventura on this one. Ventura: "Only in CLEVELAND would they cheer for the loser!". This was the beginning of the build for the big Hogan/Andre title rematch, which will be on a live The Main Event (Saturday Night's Main Event on a Friday) on NBC in February. That will be the kickoff of the disputed title angle that leads to the WWF Title tournament that takes place at WM 4.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The first Survivor Series comes off very well. Nothing mind blowing or really long term important happens other than the aforementioned early build for the Hogan/Andre rematch, but all the matches are some level of good and are well worth a watch.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B

 

V2.0 posted 7/20/26 

Starrcade '88

Legacy Review

Starrcade '88

December 26, 1988 from the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia

Commentary: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle with Tony Schiavone and Magnum TA doing hosting duties

This show's tagline is True Gritt, yes with two T's. This is officially the first PPV produced by WCW. Turner's buyout of the overstretched Jim Crockett Promotions was completed just the month before. The new regime was still settling in so this show is still presented under the NWA banner. They were slowly moving in the direction of a more WWF/future WCW style presentation, such as having entrance music for all the wrestlers now. This was also the first Starrcade not to be on Thanksgiving. To give it some space from Survivor Series it was pushed back a whole month to Christmastime.

The ongoing change of eras is most apparent in the ring announcer position. Gone is Tom Miller, the voice of the Greensboro Coliseum who had worked every Starrcade to date. In is The World's Most Dangerous Announcer Gary Michael Capetta, who would be the voice of the early WCW years up to the Monday Night Wars era. Though, it sounds like at this stage he hasn't quite hit puberty yet.

NWA United States Tag Team Championship: "Gamesmaster" Kevin Sullivan & "Dr. Death" Steve Williams def The Fantastics (c) in 15:50- Sullivan and Williams are part of the Varsity Club stable, the NWA's current #2 heel stable behind the Four (well, two and a half right now with Arn and Tully in the WWF) Horsemen. The main concept of the Club was that Williams (Oklahoma), Mike Rotunda (Syracuse) and Rick Steiner (Michigan) were all decorated college athletes, but they were lead by....Kevin Sullivan, the ultimate evil manipulator. Much more on them later. The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) had feuded with The Midnight Express all over territories in the south, and traded the US tag titles a couple of times with them in '88. Sullivan and Fulton start. The Fantastics outspeed the heels. Double monkey flip on Williams. Williams pulls out the strength and gorilla presses Fulton multiple times like a light sack of potatoes. Rogers dodges a Sullivan clothesline and Booker Man goes over the top and out. Rogers flippydos out of a backdrop attempt. Williams catches Rogers with a knee from behind and the Club's power game starts to take over. Rogers manages to get a couple of quick pin attempts and a tag. Fulton gives Sullivan the Flair throw off the top, but then tries to go off the top himself and Sullivan gets his feet up. Williams drops Rogers over the top rope. Rogers goes full face in peril and there's some long chinlock spots as everyone rests up for the finish. Rogers dives over Sullivan to get the hot tag. Stereo sleepers on the heels. Fulton goes for a Thesz Press, but Williams counters it into a Hot Shot and gets the pin and the titles. The heels didn't outright cheat the whole match. Pretty good speed vs power match, but a bit too long for what they were offering. **3/4

The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) def The Original Midnight Express (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 17:46- This was the national wrestling audience's first real exposure to the legend Paul (Heyman) E Dangerously. Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose were the original Express in the early '80s. They reteamed in the AWA while Paul E was working there and started managing them before all three jumped over to Crockett. Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton had become arguably the most successful and easily the most well known version of the Express, with two US tag title and a recent World tag title reign in just the previous year, ironically after Condrey suddenly left Crockett in '87 and left Eaton high and dry without a partner. Since the invaders are always the bad guys, we're in the unusual position of Jim Cornette being a face. The Express backdrop the Originals as soon as they hit the ring. Cornette grabs the mic and wants Paul E's ass. They fight while Capetta goes through the intros. The Originals get whipped into each other in the corner. Commentary is still mocking Cornette even though he's a face in this feud. Habits. Condrey and Lane settle in. Condrey gets thrown out and Cornette gets a racket shot in. Paul E rings the bell, wanting a DQ. Condrey sells the hell out of an inverted atomic drop. Cornette is dancing all over the apron. Racket shot #2 to Rose. Paul E rings the bell again. The Express stay in total control for a solid 10 minutes. Random observation: Lane looks like a pudgier Lex Luger. Well, not pudgier other than almost anyone would look pudgy next to peak Lex Luger. Not that Lane is pudgy. Maybe it's the hair. Anyway. Rose dodges a dive and Eaton crotches himself on the second buckle, finally allowing the Originals to get a breath. The faces regroup but Eaton quickly goes FIP. Paul E gets a phone shot in. Cornette chases him around and through the ring. Eaton dodges a rocket launcher and gets the hot tag. Express on Express donnybrook! Ref Teddy Long (holla) gets wrapped up and tumbles outside. Paul E nails Lane in the external occipital protuberance with the phone and drapes Rose over him. Cornette comes in and give the crowd the one punch KO for Paul E they'd been wanting all match. Long gets back in and counts 2, then sees the phone and shockingly like a responsible official stops the count and asks how the hell did this get in here. While Rose is arguing with him the Express give him the Double Goozle and get the pin! The fight immediately continues, with the heels using the phone and racket to beat the Express down until Eaton gets the racket and chases them off. This was overbooked in all the right ways. ***1/2

The Russian Assassins (w/Paul Jones) def The Junkyard Dog & Ivan Koloff in 6:47- If the Ruskies lose they have to unmask and Jones has to retire. The guys under the masks are The Angel of Death and Jack Victory. JR calls Koloff and JYD "wrestling's odd couple". Um, yeah. Nikita Koloff was originally supposed to be in this match, but he had scaled back to part time for personal reasons so Ivan turned on Jones and reconciled with comrade nephew Nikita to take his place. JYD rolls Assassin 1 up and goes right into the crawling headbutts. Twice Jones pulls an Assassin's foot out to break up a pin. JYD is working in slow motion. Koloff comes in and chokes Assassin 2, then gets a Sickle off the 2nd rope. Assassin 1 makes the save. Koloff gets a sunset flip but the ref is distracted. JYD misses a fall down headbutt. The Assassins go for their Russian Missile finisher but JYD dodges and it fails off the launching pad like an early North Korea test. Hot tag to Koloff. Jones gets on the apron, so Koloff suggests he remove himself with his fist. All four guys are in. In the confusion Jones sticks an international object into one Assassin's mask. He gets in, headbutts Koloff, and gets the pin. About what you'd expect. *1/4

NWA World Television Championship: Rick Steiner def Mike Rotunda (c) (w/Kevin Sullivan) in 17:59- A lot of people forget Rick Steiner was building a damn fine singles career before his brother started wrestling. This was arguably the hottest feud in the NWA going into this show. Steiner and Rotunda were the original members of the Varsity Club under Sullivan. Steiner was playing a sort of Eugene like character. Not full on handicapped, but not the sharpest tool in the shed. Eventually he got tired of the other members of the Club looking down on him, turned on Rotunda to turn himself face, and this is the big blowoff. This was actually Rotunda's second run with the TV title, but it would be forgivable if fans had forgotten that because his first one was back in 1982. He had also been champ for nearly a year, since January. Steiner is still using the Varsity Club music. Ring Gearhead note: both guys are in amateur singlets. Also, they're doing the old "manager is locked in a cage above the ring" bit with Sullivan. Steiner throws Rotunda across the ring with one arm to get out of an arm wringer. Steiner works a headlock. Steinerline! Rotunda wants a time out. Steiner wins another mat wrestling exchange. Normally I love some mat wrestling, but they're going at such a snail like pace. Much slower than they're capable of. In other words, it's a Rotunda match. Rotunda keeps trying to pull Steiner's hair. A Steiner cross body gets 2 and Rotunda steps out again. I get the psychology of the match that Rotunda is trying to psych Steiner out, but there's glaciers that move faster than this. The crowd starts a ACC vs Big East war with "Syracuse sucks" chants. Rotunda uses Steiner's momentum to send Steiner flying outside and he hits hard on the floor. I'd call that a .7 Cactus Jack bump. Rotunda drops him over the guardrail Rock style then works a chinlock with his foot on the rope. Steiner tries to fight back but Rotunda kills him with a clothesline. A desperation Steiner sunset flip gets 2. At the 5 minutes left call, Steiner gets a small package for 2. STEINERLINE! Steve Williams comes to ringside. A Steiner powerslam gets 2. Belly to belly! While Long's counting a sure 3 Williams rings the bell before he gets there. Steiner thinks he's won. Rotunda thinks it's the time limit. Utter confusion. The guys in charge of the cage lower it and let Sullivan out. Tommy Young comes down and confers with Long. While Sullivan is on the apron Long restarts the match. Steiner dodges a charge and Rotunda crashes into Sullivan. Steiner drops on top of him and gets the win! HUGE pop! Steiner runs around the ring celebrating. An absolutely wonderful moment. I don't think all the bells and whistles at the end were really necessary, but it didn't detract from the match either. Once it got going it got pretty decent, but it was forever before they got out of first gear. **1/2

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: Barry Windham (c) (w/JJ Dillon) def Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Oliver Humperdink) by countout in 16:17- Bigelow had just left WWF, and this is one of two very brief stints he would work in NWA/WCW in between New Japan tours, who he had committed to working with first. Bigelow pushes Windham out of a lockup to show his power. Windham isn't used to wrestling a bigger man so he tends to just punch a lot. Bigelow gets him in a fireman's carry position and drops Windham down on his shoulders. Windham takes a powder. Bigelow no sells a side suplex, and no sells some punches. The crowd's going pretty crazy for that. Bigelow press slam. Bigelow does the mounted punches in the corner, and Windham has a great Greg Valentine like delayed fall. Windham goes over the top and out off a dropkick. Some more Windham punches and Bigelow goes tumbling out, hitting his knee on the floor. Either he hit for real and cried out in pain, or they completely forgot about it because it's not worked at all later in the match. Bigelow does a slinghot big splash over the top rope! Windham doesn't kick out, Bigelow just gets up at 2. Dunno about that one. Bigelow goes up top for the biggest of big splashes but Windham gets out of the way and there's no water in the pool. Windham gets a huge diving lariat. Bigelow gets posted outside. Windham locks in the Claw. Windham bodyslams Bigelow! Impressive. He goes up top for an elbow but Bigelow dodges. A Bigelow cross body sends them both tumbling out. Bigelow gets posted again. Windham gets back in before the 10 count, Bigelow doesn't. It's not the worst finish in this spot, as it was the wily Windham using any way he could to beat the bigger monster. This wasn't the best pairing, as Windham had to work completely out of his normal style with the bigger Bigelow. Still, it's watchable. **3/4

Magnum TA is in the back with Rick Steiner. We get this priceless exchange:
Magnum: "Lots of guys are going to be gunning for that title."
Steiner: "Who?"
Magnum: "You know, the other wrestlers."
Steiner: "When?"
Magnum: "Soon."
Steiner: "Really?.....I'll beat 'em."

NWA World Tag Team Championship: "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes & Sting def The Road Warriors (c) (w/Paul Ellering) by DQ in 11:20- The Roadies finally won the tag titles after nearly a year of chasing from the Midnight Express just before Halloween. They then promptly turned heel by turning on both Sting and Dusty over the following few weeks. When they attacked Dusty Animal used a spike off his pads to try to gouge one of Dusty's eyes out, which was one of the incidents that lead to Dusty's departure and jump to WWF in early '89 as it violated the new Turner regime's strict no blood policy. The Roadies attack as soon as their pads are off but the faces fight them off. Capetta still does full in ring intros and we get the full THIS IS STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING before Sting was really anybody. Well, he had already had his famous time limit draw with Flair at the first Clash so he was rapidly becoming somebody. In fact he gets a bigger pop than Dusty. Animal and Sting start off with a basic speed vs power sequence. The faces work Hawk's arm. Hawk powers out and unloads some heavy artillery on Sting until Sting catches him with a (possibly slightly inadvertent) very stiff right hand. Sting no sells being dropped throat first over the top rope. He then goes up top and FLIES with a huge crossbody to the floor on Animal a good 10 feet away! Welcome to the future, kids. We don't have flying cars but we have lots of flying wrestlers. Dusty posts Animal's knee and goes for a figure four, which causes all four guys to run in. Hawk goes for Dusty's wound from the earlier attack. If not for the new no blood policy I guarantee Dusty would be gushing here. Dusty starts no selling and hits a dropkick. The Roadies double team to shut him down. Hawk locks in a sleeper. Dusty jaw jacks his way out and gets the tag to Sting. Stinger Splash on Animal! Sting locks in the Scorpion Death Lock but Hawk makes the save. DONNYBROOK! Sting hits a crossbody off the top but Paul Ellering pulls Tommy Young out just before he counts the 3. Young calls for the DQ. Surprisingly there's no post match continuation. The Roadies just pick up and leave. This feud must not continue. Dusty would soon be fired and WWF bound, Sting is heading toward his first singles title and megastardom, and the Roadies would actually flip back face to feud with the Varsity Club because they were so badass people were cheering for them anyway. This was a fantastic sprint. Stick on about 5 more minutes and a definitive ending and we'd probably be talking about an all time classic. ***3/4

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/JJ Dillon) def "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 30:59- Before the match Tony calls Flair "Mr. Starrcade". He's not wrong. This is the 6th Starrcade and Flair has been the world champion or challenger in the main event for every single one so far. Not even Hogan did that with Wrestlemania (Hogan was knocked out of the WM 4 title tournament in the 2nd round). This is a rematch from Great American Bash '88 where they did the old "excessive bleeding stoppage" finish. Flair can lose the title on a DQ here. Flair gives Luger a WOOOOOOOO right in his face and we're off. Luger whips Flair and gets ready to knock him down with a shoulderblock, but Flair grabs the rope to stop himself and celebrates. He tries it again but this time Luger clotheslines him over the top and out. Flair has a think. Luger puts on a hammerlock and Flair goes to the ropes. Flair then yells at Luger for not breaking quick enough. Mind games. Luger offers a test of strength and Flair uses it to get a shot in. Luger shrugs off some chops and spins Flair into a powerslam, with Flair screaming all the way around. JR gets the plane crash story in. Flair goes into the top turnbuckle shoulder first a couple of times with about a .5 Flair Flop (sadly the only one in this match) on the second one. Luger starts working it. Flair goes to the desperation eye poke to finally get some breathing room. Luger no sells more chops, throws Flair out, follows him and posts his shoulder. Luger gets a couple of near falls off power moves, then tries an elbow drop but Flair dodges and finally starts to get a little momentum. He throws Luger out and gives him a guardrail shot. Flair gets into a shoving match with Young. Dillon reminds him of the DQ stip and calms him down. Some more chops from Flair only fire Luger up. Sleeper! Flair side suplexes out of it. The figure four/small package counter gets 2. Luger nails Flair with a superplex and gets a great near fall that the crowd bit on. LUGER hooks in a figure four. Flair gets to the ropes. While they're in the corner Flair unintentionally intentionally knocks Young down and throws Luger over the top. Luger bounces right back up and hits a crossbody off the top rope. Young is still recovering and by the time he gets there Flair is able to kick out at 2. Flair flip! But he doesn't get all the way over and lands back in the ring. Another powerslam and Luger calls for the Torture Rack. Dillon gets up on the apron. Flair takes advantage of the distraction to waffle Luger's leg with a chair. Everyone on the bus, we're going to school. It must be the Ted Turner years, a Luger "oh shit" is bleeped out. Figure four! Luger hulks up and reverses it. Flair goes back to the knee, but then makes the mistake of going to the top rope. We know how that ends. Luger press slams him but his knee gives out after. Flair tries a running forearm but Luger no sells it and Flair bounces right off. Luger gets Flair up into the Rack but his knee gives out. Flair lands on top of him, gets his feet on the ropes for insurance, and gets the 3! As usual with '80s Flair it's tremendous stuff, but Luger kept up with him every step of the way. They could have easily gone with the title change here and let the chips fall where they may, the time felt ripe for it. But, it's Flair, hard to argue with keeping it on him. It would still be a while before Luger would win a world title, but he would go on to own the US title for most of the next 3 years and, like many others here, had an all world 1989 in terms of match quality. ****1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- It's not what I would call a blowaway show but it's a very solid one. Almost everything is in the average to good range and there's no real turds. The Express on Express feud was tremendous, setting up a couple of years of Cornette vs Dangerously mischief, Steiner's win is an all time great moment, and the last two matches are must see. Despite their financial trouble Crockett and the NWA set themselves up very well for the future during 1988, establishing Sting and Luger as legitimate main event players while still riding the peak years of the greatest there's ever been. All of that would pay huge dividends for the new WCW in '89. This would also be the last traditional Starrcade for a while as WCW would experiment with ideas like the King of Cable tournament and Battlebowl the next several years during this show, and other PPVs like Great American Bash, Superbrawl and Bash at the Beach would start to rival Starrcade in importance.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE- B