WCW Starrcade 92'

RATING LEVELS:

Curt Hennig – A “GOAT” show, as Perfect as possible

Watch It – A consistently good show worth watching in its entirety

Watch It…With Remote in Hand – 3 or more above-average ratings

High Risk Maneuver – Mostly filler, inessential, but 1-2 good matches

Dudleyville – Zero redeeming qualities, chore to watch

STARRCADE 92’ - December 1992

Atlanta, GA

CHAMPIONSHIP BACKGROUNDS: Heading into tonight’s show, Ron Simmons is the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, while Masahiro Chono holds the NWA World Championship. The WCW/NWA Unified Tag Team Champions are Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas, who defeated Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes weeks earlier at Clash of the Champions XXI. Rick Rude is the recognized United States Champion.

COMMENTATORS: Jim Ross and Jesse “The Body” Ventura

The show begins with some rather disappointing news – US Champion, Rick Rude, set to challenge Ron Simmons for the WCW World Championship, is injured and will not compete tonight. In his place will be “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. While not a terrible replacement by any means, I was looking forward to Rude vs. Simmons as Rude had a mostly-phenomenal 92’ and I was eager to see what he could pull out of Simmons after such a disappointing title match at Halloween Havoc.

From here, we get some preliminary segments/promos hyping the focus of tonight’s show – BattleBowl. For those unfamiliar with the concept, Bill Watts is in the ring to explain things. BattleBowl is a yearly one-night quasi-tournament that begins with a “lethal lottery” in which heels and faces are randomly paired to compete in a series of tag team matches. If you win your tag team match, you are entered into an every-man-for-himself battle royal to crown the BattleBowl Champion (Sting won the inaugural event one year prior).

Our first match of the evening is a Lethal Lottery tag bout, with the deranged, evil Cactus Jack teaming up with the babyface “Badd Man” Johnny B. Badd to take on Van Hammer and “Dangerous” Dan Spivey. This one’s a pretty basic match that suffers from no two combatants having any chemistry at all. Van Hammer is more sound of a worker than I remember, but that’s not saying much as I remember him being awful. One noteworthy moment of this pedestrian match is a botched Frankensteiner by Badd that looks like it could’ve ended Hammer’s career. That move didn't, but fan disinterest did do the trick within a 7 months of this show. (2/5)

Next up was Vader and Dustin Rhodes vs. Kensuke Sasaki and The Barbarian. With three of WCW’s best in-ring workers in the mix, one wouldn’t be out of line expecting a more interesting match. Unfortunately, the finish here is basically a repeat of the one in the previous contest, further making this match a bit too unremarkable to be anything more than average. (2.5/5)

Our third Lethal Lottery bout pits Barry Windham and The Great Muta vs. 2 Cold Scorpio and Flyin’ Brian Pillman. All four men do some good work here, though there is at least one sloppy spot from 2 Cold, the least experienced worker of the bunch. The ending is poorly executed and, in terms of psychology, Windham and Pillman disappoint by not really doing anything during the match to play on the fact that they are partners forced to compete against eachother. For brief moments, this match seemed like it was going to be great, but never got anywhere above just solid. (2.5/5)

The fourth (and final) Lethal Lottery contest pairs Sting and “Dr. Death” Steve Williams vs. Erik Watts and Jushin “Thunder” Liger. As per usual, Williams works a slow, deliberate pace for the most part, but the clash of styles with Liger leads to some interesting spots, including a very nicely sold lariat. With Liger “wrestling from underneath” for most of the match, you also get a rare look at Sting working in an almost heelish fashion, dominating his opponent with power moves and quick tags. Furthering benefitting the match is the fact that the lanky, eternally awkward Watts is excluded from most of the proceedings, though he does find a way to embarrass himself in his limited ring time with an awful looking “dropkick” that some have called the worst ever delivered. (2.5/5)

Masahiro Chono vs. The Great Muta (pulling double duty this evening) for the NWA Heavyweight Championship is next. From the start, you can see that these two want to deliver a classic, with Chono showing more in the opening 5 minutes here than he did for the entirety of his bout with Rick Rude at Halloween Havoc. The crowd is not necessarily enthralled with this contest, potentially due to the fact that, in the US, while Chono and Muta had great in-ring reputations, neither was necessarily popular enough to connect with the audience in a match against another foreign talent. Compare this dynamic with Liger/Pillman or Muta/Sting and you can see why those matches drew louder, more spirited responses. The action is great throughout, but the ending is simply too abrupt for the bout to leave the type of lasting impression one would’ve wanted in a major title match. (3/5)

Before our next match can get underway, Rick Rude arrives and cuts a very passionate promo about how WCW’s higher-ups are conspiring against him in their attempts to strip him of the US Title and take away his number one contendership for the WCW World Title. Rude’s complaints actually draw some cheers from the response, further giving credence to the rumor that, prior to the injury, Rude was headed for a face turn and feud with Vader.

“Dr. Death” Steve Williams (also pulling double duty) challenges Ron Simmons for the WCW World Championship next. I liked how this match played on both guys’ legitimate football background, something that was certainly not lost on pigskin aficionado Jim Ross. The best moments are the most physical ones, but there are also a few points where miscues lead to hiccups in the action. Simmons sells a battered leg nicely, giving the match an actual story (unlike what we got between him and The Barbarian in October). Unfortunately, as solid as this match is, the ending is an unnecessary mess that did no favors to the Champ. (3/5)

The NWA/WCW Tag Team Titles are defended next, with the champs, Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas taking on Flyin’ Brian and Barry Windham. On a night where we saw so many underwhelming tag bouts, this one really stands out as special. Some fans consider this Douglas’ best WCW match, though, at the point of this review, I hadn’t seen enough of his work to determine if that is hyperbole or not. What I can say is that his face-in-peril work in this match is definitely remarkable, selling Windham and Pillman’s offense like he’s being knocked into next year. When the faces get hot, the crowd comes alive, and the finishing sequence is one that is believable and well executed. Overall, this is one that will please any tag team wrestling fan. (4/5)

The show gets even better with our next match - Sting vs. Vader in the King of Cable tournament finals. This match is essential viewing if you are a fan of either man or are at least curious about why Sting and Vader were so highly regarded as workers at the time. Their last major PPV match, at the Great American Bash, saw Vader take the WCW World Championship, so there is plenty of heat between these two already even without the rather cheap-looking King of Cable trophy on the line. This bout is almost flawless and captivating from start to the finish, arguably the best bout these two ever had. While I’ve read criticisms that say the match would’ve been better with a more definitive finish or just a few more minutes of time, I like how this match (and the previous contest) really showed that all it takes is 3 seconds to win or lose and that neither man could truly dominate the other. Highly, highly recommended. (5/5)

Main event time - BattleBowl, the 8-man battle royal is next and our entrants include Sting, Vader, Van Hammer, Dan Spivey, Barry Windham, the Great Muta, Dustin Rhodes, and Steve Williams. In case you weren’t counting, this is match #3 for many of these guys. Pretty typical battle royal brawling from everybody, with Sting and Vader and Rhodes and Windham continuing their rivalries by focusing on eachother. The closing moment gets a sizeable reaction, but the booking is a bit puzzling when you consider that the winner is basically out of the company within a few months and WCW could’ve capitalized on having one of their own young stars take home the prize. (3.5/5)

While the average match score was a slightly higher-than-average 3.11-out-of-5, what you really have here is an uneventful, rather forgettable show that is held up by one all-time classic (Sting vs. Vader), a World Tag Team titles match that delivers the goods from beginning to end, and a sprinkling of decent-to-good action featuring some once-in-a-lifetime pairings. For that reason, I award it…

FINAL RATING - Watch It…With Remote in Hand