Dark Pegasus Video Review: Starrcade - The Essential Collection (Disc One)

Posted by J.D. Dunn on 01.06.2009

Hogan takes on Roddy Piper. Nash ends Goldberg's streak. Austin squashes Dustin Rhodes. Oh, and Jesse namedrops Rush Limbaugh... repeatedly.

Starrcade: The Essential Collection (Disc One)
by J.D. Dunn

Check out Nedeff's review of the original NWA release on VHS. Arguably, more hits per match, but it only covers the first five years.

Crockett Promotions: Crockett Promotions was an entertainment company originally, but at heart they were wrestling fans.

Thanksgiving Tradition: Thanksgiving used to be *the* day for wrestling because families were at home.

Easter Egg Alert!: Highlight "Thanksgiving Tradition" and press "LEFT" three times. You'll see Dusty Rhodes hyping the first Starrcade.

Starrcade is Born: Dusty Rhodes and Barry Windham had the idea of doing a super show that would be the equivalent of wrestling's Superbowl. At that point, Crockett was running three shows per night and selling out all of them. The NWA put their weight behind it by approving a rematch between Harley Race and Ric Flair as the main event.

Dog Collar: Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine came up with the idea of doing a match so brutal that people would have to come back to see it over and over again. Valentine says that Roddy wasn't usually stiff, but he was that night.

A Flare for the Gold: Flair was granted a rematch for the NWA Title, offering the show one of the top drawing feuds in wrestling at that point. The transition to the Flair era made the event legendary.

Easter Egg Alert!: Highlight "A Flare for the Gold" and press "RIGHT" three times. You'll see Ric Flair visiting the wall of fame in the Charlotte Coliseum. I'm sure he feels good seeing his signature next to NSync's.

Starrcade's Success: The show was so successful that they sold tickets to the following year's show and did $100,000 advance business. In 1985, they moved to a simulcast in Atlanta and Greensboro (and an unofficial show in Kansas City).

"I Quit": Tully Blanchard and Magnum T.A. were having a very "intense" feud. Arn Anderson calls it the most violent and gory match he'd ever seen.

The Scaffold: They were all set to have the big showdown between Ric Flair and Magnum T.A., but T.A. rammed a telephone poll. Road Warrior Animal calls that moment one of the saddest moments in wrestling. Business went south after that, but JCP did their best to make the fans happy with a huge scaffold match between the Road Warriors and Midnight Express. The iconic image is Jim Cornette falling off the scaffold and blowing out his knee.

Moving Out: Chicago was a big wrestling town, so Crockett decided it was safe to run a show there.

Competition: Vince decided to play hardball by running the Survivor Series and threatening to take WrestleMania away from companies that didn't side with him. That was a big dagger in JCP's heart. They moved Starrcade to December the following year and eventually sold out to Ted Turner.

The Beginning of WCW: With the buyout came better production values. There was more sizzle to the product.

Ric Flair is Starrcade: Flair was always the champion, so he carried the banner of Starrcade for years. Everyone says he gave it his all when it came to the big shows.

Reaching for New Concepts: WCW was throwing everything against the wall to see what stuck. Jim Ross loved the concept on paper, but it didn't deliver. They later tried Battlebowl, but that was hit or miss – usually miss. They brought in New Japan guys, who were great wrestlers, but no one knew who they were.

Bischoff Revitalizes Starrcade: Bischoff says he didn't see Starrcade as the biggest PPV because December PPVs rarely sold well. He probably learned that from Verne Gagne. Bischoff aggressively signed guys like Hogan, Hall, Nash, Chris Jericho and Eddy Guerrero. None of this really has anything to do with Starrcade, necessarily, but he revitalized WCW in general.

Goldberg's Impact: Goldberg, in case you hadn't heard, had a big undefeated streak. Arn Anderson and Jim Ross differ on whether it was a good thing or not. Jim Ross says it was slaying the Golden Goose. Arn says the streak was starting to hurt Goldberg.

The Legacy of Starrcade: Ross says Starrcade was similar to WrestleMania, but WCW wasn't able to make it work. Magnum T.A. thinks it was watered down by the 12-PPV schedule. David Crockett is proud of their legacy, though.

Matches:

Battle of the ICONS: Hollywood Hogan (w/Elizabeth, Ted Dibiase & Vincent) vs. Roddy Piper (12.29.96).
Lots of mindgames to start with Hogan slapping Piper around. Piper fires back, and Hogan runs to the aisle to stall. Hogan eventually does get back in and opens up his manly offense by scratching Piper with his kitty claws. Piper comes back with an eyepoke. Piper tries to ground things with a headlock, but Hogan tosses him to the floor. More scratching from Hogan. The sad thing is that they opened the show with Dean Malenko vs. Ultimo Dragon. Piper actually has the balls to hit an enzuigiri! Piper grabs a belt and starts whipping Hogan with it. Then, he chokes him. Referee Randy Anderson allows it for a bit before confiscating the belt. Dibiase interferes from the outside, and Piper goes after him like an idiot, allowing Hogan to jump him from behind. More brawling as Hogan tosses Piper into the crowd. Back in, Hogan grabs an abdominal stretch to rest for a while. Yeah, he was working too hard anyway. Piper comes back again but misses a kneedrop. Hogan's legdrop misses, so Piper starts kicking him in the leg. The Giant (The Big Show) runs down and tries to chokeslam Piper, but he has to wait for security to drag an interfering fan out of the ring, so Piper bites his way out of it. Everyone is confused, so Piper just puts Hogan out with a sleeper at 15:37. Piper fends off the rest of the nWo as the Giant makes faces at everyone. The title wasn't on the line here, which is one of those "oh, by the way…" things that pissed off WCW fans to the point where they started tuning out a year later. This match got by almost entirely on nostalgia. They couldn't wrestle; the brawling was weak, and they didn't book a particularly good match either. *

Iron Man Tournament: Sting vs. The Great Muta (w/Gary Hart – 12.13.89).
Muta goes to a half-nelson, but it's quickly reversed by Sting. Nice counter as Muta backs Sting into the corner and hits a flipping mule kick. Sting goes for the Scorpion Deathlock, but Muta makes the ropes and rolls to the floor. Muta uses his residual mist to amplify a thumb to the eyes. CATTLE MUTILATION! Sting rolls it over and pummels Muta in the face. They chop it out. The moonsault misses, but Muta lands on his feet and hits a jumping spin kick. He goes up again, but Sting dropkicks him and crotches him. That sets up a superplex at 8:41. Sting hands Muta another loss and picks up 20 points. Not as good as their Great American Bash match, but after watching a few times, it's growing on me. ***

Unified Tag Team Titles: Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs. Barry Windham & Brian Pillman (12.28.92).
Barry Windham attacked the babyfaces with a chair to set this up. Simple enough. Jesse complains that Shane Douglas is using a closed fist. Pillman doesn't have much luck early, and the faces blitz Barry Windham with doubleteams to clear the ring. Barry tags in, so Steamboat DEMANDS to be tagged in. Ah naw, hell naw, y'all went up and done it! Steamboat knocks the piss out of Windham and even gets in a cheapshot on Pillman. Barry plays heel-in-peril before catching Douglas with a jawbreaker. Pillman tags in and smacks Shane around. "I'm gonna whip my dick out and piss in this hellhole!" Oh, that came later. Douglas dropkicks him off the apron and into a Pillman Bump on the railing. Yikes! Douglas goes up but gets distracted by Windham, and for once, the guy on the buckle doesn't look like an idiot because of good timing. Pillman sneaks up and dropkicks Douglas all the way to the floor. It's a bumping contest! Barry and Brian take over on Douglas, and Shane plays face-in-peril quite nicely. Great moment as Barry puts the boots to Douglas on the outside, so Ricky grabs a chair and WAFFLES Barry with it. Shane… nearly… makes the… tag, but Pillman catches him. Ricky protests to the ref, allowing some doubleteaming from the heels. Boooo! Finally, Shane just falls backwards into a tag after getting punched in the jaw. Ricky UNLOADS on the heels, leading to a donnybrook. Then, Ricky gets caught in the wrong corner. Pillman and Windham cheat like bastards, tossing Ricky over the top and posting him (both of which are illegal). Steamboat hulks up and gets in Barry's face about the whole "hitting with the chair thing." Pfft. He can't let *anything* go. Steamboat falls back into the tag, and IT'S BREAKIN' LOOSE! Steamer takes Windham over the top to the ramp with a flying crossbody, and that allows Douglas to hit Pillman with the belly-to-belly suplex for the win at 20:00. Tremendous effort by all involved, even if the crowd was half dead by the start of the match. Pillman and Douglas looked like they were trying to outdo each other with big bumps, and a pissed-off Dragon is always a good thing. Even Barry Windham, who appeared to be so disillusioned that he'd stopped trying at this point, started to get into it. ****

WCW World Title, No DQ: Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash (12.27.98).
Ah yes. This match. A lot of people blame this match for the fall of WCW. Both guys are babyfaces coming into this, although Goldberg seems to have the bigger following. Granted, the pre-lockup poll isn't exactly scientific. Nash grabs a headlock, but Goldberg suplexes him. Nash tries his boot to the throat in the corner, but Goldberg just overpowers him and shoves him down. I'm sensing a theme. Nash drags Goldberg down, and for a moment I had a surreal moment where I thought Nash was going for a gogoplata. Turns out it's just a cross armlock, which is almost as laughable for Nash. You know, TNA should have Nash do an MMA gimmick. He could just lounge around on the mat and call it "submission style." Goldie gets the spear, but Nash goes low. Nash beats on Goldberg for a while before Goldberg comes back with a series of kicks. He signals for the end, but Disco Inferno runs down and gets on the apron. Goldberg drags him in and spears him. Now, Bam Bam Bigelow runs down because he was feuding with Goldberg. Goldberg tosses him. Now, Scott Hall runs in with a cattle prod. DON'T TAZE ME, BRO! Goldberg goes down via taser, and Nash gets the win, the title, and the honor of ruining Goldberg's streak at 11:18. Not exactly the epic end they were probably hoping for. I don't blame this match for the fall of WCW, but at the same time, when you have run-ins by Disco Inferno and Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event, it's kind of an indication that you don't have your finger on the pulse of wrestling fans. **

Battlebowl (12.29.91).
Oy. Sometimes things are just overly complicated. The 20 survivors of the Lethal Lottery are involved in a two-ring battle royal. When you get tossed from one ring, you start a new battle royal in the second one. When you get tossed out of that one, you're done. Once we get down to the last two guys, they have an over-the-top match. Your survivors are Vader, Marcus Bagwell, Jimmy Garvin, Dustin Rhodes, Bill Kazmaier, Jushin Lyger, Steve Austin, Richard Morton, Todd Champion, Abdullah the Butcher, Firebreaker Chip, Thomas Rich, Ron Simmons, Ricky Steamboat, Mr. Hughes, Scott Steiner, Rick Rude, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson & Sting. Steamboat and Arn take it to the ramp, but Rude saves Arn from a beating. Vader clubs Steamboat over the top to the ramp but misses a splash. That just pisses Vader off, so he press slams Ricky from the ring to the ramp. Thomas Rich and Bagwell get tossed to the second ring. Hughes tosses Chip over. Lyger winds up in the second ring, and Ricky Morton follows him for reasons beyond comprehension. Oh yeah, it's Ricky Morton. Lyger hits some high spots before he and Morton tumble to the floor. Yadda, yadda, yadda. The final four in ring number one are Sting, Vader, Rude and Luger. Sting and Rude slug it out to pop the crowd, and both guys fall into the second ring. That leaves Luger and Vader. Luger clotheslines Vader over the top to the next ring. Great bump by Vader. The final four in ring two are Steamboat, Austin, Rude and Sting with Luger waiting it out. Rude and Austin team up against Steamboat, but their doubleteam backfires, sending Austin to the floor. Oops. Steamboat goes over but skins the cat and headscissors Rude to the floor. Rude doesn't take it well and yanks Steamboat out, robbing us of the potentially awesome Sting versus Steamboat match. Rude gives Sting the Rude Awakening to soften him up for Luger. Sting takes a beating before finally getting good and pissed and making his big comeback. Even Race takes a beating from the Stinger. The Stinger splash misses, though, and Sting nearly falls to the floor. Luger tosses him, but Sting grabs onto the ropes and crawls back in. Sting goes nuts and slugs Luger silly, finally eliminating him at 25:07. This was an exceptionally long-winded way to set up Sting versus Luger at Superbrawl. It's something that could probably work if you had guys like Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson planning things out, but this just felt like it was thrown together at random. **1/4

U.S. Title, 2/3 Falls: Dustin Rhodes vs. Steve Austin (w/Col. Parker – 12.27.93).
First Fall: Dustin lost the title to Rick Rude under chicanerous circumstances and then beat Rude to regain the title. Rude had the last laugh, though, because he won the WCW Title… or the WCW International House of Pancakes Title, whichever. This is a very Stunning Steve match. He gets his ass kicked and then cheats like a bastard to come back. Dusting looks like a righteous ass-kicker, tossing Steve out into the audience. Austin used to take some hellacious bumps before the neck injury. The finish sees Col. Parker hop up on the apron, so Dustin has the bright idea of tossing Austin into the Colonel. Unfortunately, while Austin knocks Parker off the apron, he does so by tumbling over the top. That's a DQ at 13:27.

Second Fall: Dustin tosses Austin into the post during the rest period. The lights flicker as we start the second fall. Man, Dustin must have taken a page out of Magnum T.A.'s book because he's on the warpath. It bites him in the ass, though, as he mounts Austin to pummel Austin's cut and Austin simply scoops him up and puts his feet on the ropes for the pin, the second straight fall and the title at 16:16. Bizarre result, especially with the *heel* going over two straight. Usually, that's reserved for the babyface after a long feud where the heel has been ducking him for months. The match is nothing special, but you could see something resembling good chemistry developing. **1/4

The 411: It's no substitute for a box set, but it's nice to have some of these matches in good condition for once. More to come.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]