WCW Starrcade 1994

By 1994 – after a return to form in ’93 promoting Starrcade as its flagship event – WCW had once again demoted its longest running series to filler status. Having blown their Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair dream match load in Hogan’s WCW debut back in July – and already drying up all of the opportunities for rematches to the point that Hulk had put Flair ‘into retirement’ at the previous pay per view – the buildup going into Starrcade mainly focused on Hogan battling the evil Dungeon of Doom, specifically former best friend/member ‘The Butcher’ – best known for their WWF relationship, where he wrestled as Brutus Beefcake.

As a kid, WCW didn’t exist to me until Hulk Hogan signed with them in the summer of ’94, and I started tentatively tuning in – though mostly only whenever the Hulkster was on – as the dream match with Flair was a good lure, and he was one of the few stars they had I was familiar with. My local video stores stocked very little WCW – mostly sticking to more popular WWF shows – and I wasn’t familiar with them other than occasionally coming across Saturday Night while channel surfing, and realizing it wasn’t WWF programming. Going into Starrcade, I wasn’t intrigued by any of the matches (the Dungeon of Doom storyline didn’t even do much to captivate the imagination of a nine year old), but very interested in the news that Randy Savage would make an appearance – promising to either ‘shake Hogan’s hand, or slap his face.’ Savage jumping ship is what effectively legitimized WCW as an alternative to the WWF for me, and was a crucial signing for them in what would become the Monday Night Wars.

From Nashville, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan.

WWF Survivor Series 1995

Survivor Series 1995 is one I never actually saw live, but I did hear live – sitting in front of our ten-inch kitchen TV, listening in to all the pay per view action – back in the days when that was still something you could do. You’d think three hours of listening to McMahon, Ross, and Perfect prattle on by medium meant primarily for visual enjoyment would be tedious – but as a ten year old mark – I was in heaven. Occasionally, the picture would even descramble, and I’d get a five second glimpse of the action – while my mother worried it was getting too close to bedtime on a school night. Listening in was plenty exciting – but it was the results of the main event that truly left me near hysterics. 

From Landover, Maryland; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Mr. Perfect – making his return to the WWF.

WCW Starrcade 1993

For 1993, WCW – after spending the last couple of years turning their traditional flagship show into a platform for Dusty Rhodes’ BattleBowl gimmick – decided a return to form was needed for the 10^th Anniversary show. As in the old days, they booked Starrcade as the capital blowoff event of the year – focusing on building feuds, and a major main event.

From Charlotte, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura

WCW Starrcade 1991

1991 was an interesting year for Starrcade. WCW had recently disassociated itself with the NWA for 1991 – as well as lost its biggest star, Ric Flair – though the two are somewhat unrelated. Traditionally, Starrcade was considered NWA/WCW’s ‘WrestleMania’ – their flagship blowoff show – but for 1991 they decided to run a concept show. Devised by Dusty Rhodes, wrestlers names were entered into a lottery (the ‘Lethal Lottery!’), and drawn at random (though actually rigged) to set up ten tag matches throughout the night. The winners of the matches would then advance into a two ring battle royal (BattleBowl!), the winner of which… wins. And that’s it. No blowoff matches, no undercard – just the Lethal Lottery and BattleBowl for the biggest show of the year.

In reality, after the break from the NWA, WCW initially sought to shift the flagship banner away from Starrcade – associated so closely with the NWA days – to SuperBrawl. They would waver on that decision many times in subsequent years – in ’93 using Starrcade as the flagship for its 10^th Anniversary – until finally settling back on it in ’96, by which time they were in fierce competition with the WWF, and no one but wrestling geeks gave a shit about their history with the NWA anymore.

From Norfolk, Virginia; Your Hosts are Jim Ross, and Tony Schiavone – along with Eric Bischoff, Magnum TA, and Missy Hyatt doing the drawings.

WWF Survivor Series 1994

For 1994, the WWF – perhaps noting that the return to the standard series format in ’93 did nothing to effect the commercial response to the show – decided to mix things up again, taking the familiar elimination match format, and the well received changes made in ’91 and especially ’92 – and creating a hybrid, with two cogent main events, as well as several elimination matches to both settle, and advance angles.

As a nine year old kid – just under a year into my blissful markdom, and completely unaware of anything going on backstage, let alone buyrates and format changes – I was beyond pumped for this one. My grandparents had agreed to order the show, and while I was into all the angles (yep – all – even Doink/Lawler… I was that much of a mark), nothing compared to my enthusiasm for Bret Hart defending the WWF Title against the deranged Bob Backlund.

From San Antonio, Texas; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Gorilla Monsoon – in his last appearance calling a WWF pay per view event.

WWF Survivor Series 1993

This is one that took place just before I officially became a fan, when I would check Superstars out once in a while (I still wasn’t allowed to stay up for RAW!), but hadn’t gotten ‘sucked in yet.’ I would by early January – with the Hart Brothers angle – which begins with this show.

This year, after taking a much welcome and well received break from the elimination match format in 1992 – but doing poorly commercially – the WWF brought the old standard back in dominant form for 1993. The return to form didn’t help them in terms of receipts, as the show did even lower number than ‘92 (the lowest buyrate in Survivor Series history, to that point), though realistically, the low numbers both years didn’t have as much to do with match format as a general slump in popularity for professional wrestling, post-Golden Era, and pre-Attitude Era.

From Boston, Massachusetts – Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan, along with Gorilla Monsoon and Jim Ross on Radio WWF!

WWF Survivor Series 1992

Survivor Series 1992 saw the WWF reboot the entire concept. This year, instead of adding a standard match to the elimination festivities – they ran a standard card, with only a token elimination match – instead deciding to give fans more satisfying conclusions to ongoing feuds.

From Richfield, Ohio; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan – because where better to reboot Survivor Series than the same arena the entire concept started out to begin with?

WWF This Tuesday in Texas (December 1991)

As a companion piece to the 1991 Survivor Series, take a look back at the first effort by the WWF to expand the pay per view market to a monthly format – as after using the Survivor Series to set up a number of angles, they promised blowoffs ‘This Tuesday in Texas’ – and the card literally took place the following Tuesday, from, well, Texas – as an experiment to see if their audience was prepared to purchase a half length, budget priced pay per view shortly after buying a major one. It was an idea not unlike their later In Your House series, in the mid-90s, however, This Tuesday in Texas failed to perform at the box office, and the idea was scrapped in favor of a return to the standard pay per view schedule.

From San Antonio, Texas; Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.

WWF Survivor Series 1991

When the Survivor Series rolled around in 1991 the WWF and its fans alike knew a change was needed. The format of booking elimination matches only had become stale – and while they tried to tinker with it during a few of the previous editions – this time, the fans needed something more than a ‘Grand Finale Match of Survival,’ or showdowns that were sure to end in double countouts, to get them invested in the show. The WWF delivered – for the first time promoting a singles match on the show – with Hulk Hogan defending his WWF Title against The Undertaker, in what was being dubbed his ‘gravest challenge.’

From Detroit, Michigan; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.

WWF Survivor Series 1990

For 1990 – with business down across the board throughout the year under WWF Champion Ultimate Warrior – the WWF continued to tweak their Survivor Series formula. The matches remained four-on-four contests, though they starting booking them at a more nimble pace – leaving room at the end of the night for a ‘Grand Finale Match of Survival’ – as all the winners of the night came back out for one final Survivor Series match to determine the Ultimate Survivor for the evening. Aside from that, unlike previous years, this time they had no definitive main event to sell the show (outside of the promised ‘Ultimate Match’), and the feuds going in weren’t their most stirring stuff, resulting in fan interest for this show ending up at almost non-existent.

From Hartford, Connecticut; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper.

WWF Survivor Series 1989

For 1989, the WWF decided to tweak their strategy for Survivor Series – realizing that they had a winning formula to drive feuds and build angles on pay per view – but that the five-on-five format was starting to work against them. As was best exemplified in the Andre the Giant/Jim Duggan & Jake Roberts team match from the year before – they could put together interesting psychological battles – but often much of the concept was lost on the audience by having to sit through overlong bouts, not getting to the meat of the match until over twenty minutes in. It served them better instead to pair four against four, providing them the elbow room to run five matches instead of the usual four – and allowing them to book their action in a more succinct manner.

From Chicago, Illinois; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura.

WWF Survivor Series 1988

For the second Survivor Series, the WWF continued their ‘Teams of Five Strive to Survive’ gambit, only this time without any major, box office busting feud heading into the show to carry it – as they had the year before, with Hogan v Andre. Instead, they took some perfunctory feuds, and instead decided to develop new angles during the show – trying to develop a ‘can’t miss’ atmosphere for their pay per view events. Unfortunately, the card itself was relatively lackluster on paper, and they drew 8,000 people fewer to the same arena that the event emanated from the year before.  

I first saw this one on VHS, a good six years after the fact, in my endless quest to see every WWF and WCW tape I could get my nine year old hands on. My local video store didn’t carry it, but a trip to one of the next towns over led me to finding it tucked away in the corner of their grocery stores video department – along with a bunch of other early WWF-stuff I had never seen. I was never a tantrum throwing type, so it took some significant work (see: begging) to convince my parents why this tape featuring Hulk Hogan teaming up with the Macho Man was worth renting, and then having to drive twenty minutes in each direction to return it the next day. Luckily, I have the best parents.

From Richfield, Ohio; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura.

NWA (JCP) Starrcade 1983

With Starrcade, the NWA made the first real attempt at producing a wrestling event for a pay per view market. It was still a primitive version of pay per view, as it couldn’t be ordered in your home, but rather, on closed circuit, and shown in arenas and theaters around the country – or in this case, within the NWA’s territory. It was an outstanding success – drawing well within their market – and cementing Ric Flair’s place as a superstar in the wrestling business once, and for all.

Taking place on Thanksgiving, 1983 – it predated my birth, though I have seen a few of the matches since – mostly from a ‘Best of Starrcade’ set WCW issued in the late 90s, which featured the Dog Collar Match, and the main event.

From Greensboro, North Carolina; Your hosts are Gordon Solie and Bob Caudle, along with Tony Schiavone, doing interviews from the locker rooms, which come off as a brilliant representation of the time – as they’re less formal promos, and more groups of heels or faces gathered around couches in their respective locker rooms, shooting the shit, with Tony checking in with them for thoughts regarding their upcoming or just contested matches. The whole thing would be at home as a lost scene from Boogie Nights.

WWF King of the Ring 1998

By the Summer of 1998, the Attitude Era was in full swing, with Steve Austin enjoying his newly won world title, and the WWF finally winning a few battles in the Monday Night Wars against the inordinately dominate WCW.

I, too, was starting to fall back in love with the WWF, after our falling out following the Montreal Screwjob – and this was one of the first shows in a long time I remember being very excited to see. Wrestling was red-hot again that summer – hotter than I could ever remember it before, with Diamond Dallas Page, nWo, DX, and, especially, ‘Austin 3:16’ t-shirts so prevalent, you couldn’t walk down the hallway of my middle school without spying one – and from the perspective of a thirteen year old, semi-smartened up mark, the WWF was the hottest ticket in town.

From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Your hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WWF King of the Ring 1996

For 1996 the WWF decided to revamp the King of the Ring format – still holding a full sixteen-man single elimination tournament – but this time, only putting the semi finals and finals on pay per view – that way allowing them the air time to book a more well rounded card.  The idea left me numb, as after the 1995 show, I was a bit turned off by the whole gimmick, and the field going into the pay per view (Steve Austin, Marc Mero, Jake Roberts, Vader) wasn’t exactly enough to lure me back in.

I did have some interest in seeing The Undertaker finally square off with Mankind after months of build up, as well as the blowoff to the Shawn Michaels/Davey Boy Smith feud – as Shawn was my favorite Superstar with Bret Hart away for the year. Even so, my interest in this show as a graduating 5^th grader was tepid – though it would turn out to be quite a historically significant one for the WWF.

From Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Owen Hart – who spends the night proving that had he not tragically died in 1999, he would have had a brilliant career as a color commentator once he retired from in-ring competition.

WWF King of the Ring 1995

I first saw this show live, on pay per view – and was very pumped up for it as a ten year old mark. While the main event didn’t particularly intrigue me, the concept of the King of the Ring did, as I loved the first two shows – renting them from my local video store repeatedly – and was excited for the 1995 edition. Around the schoolyard I was sure Shawn Michaels would take the whole thing easily, and was excited to see Bret Hart finally get his revenge on Jerry Lawler.

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix (Michael Hayes).

WWF The Wrestling Classic (November 1985)

The Wrestling Classic was the WWF’s second foray, after WrestleMania I, into the pay per view market – putting on a one night, sixteen-man single elimination tournament. Though, really, the show was about capitalizing on the super-hot feud between Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper – who would be meeting for the WWF Title – as the tournament itself was meaningless, with the winner not receiving a title of any sort, or even a token title shot. They do give away an actual Rolls Royce to a fan as part of a sweepstakes during the show, which you’d think would be the obvious prize for the tournament, but no. That would make too much sense, and stuff.

I wasn’t even one years old when this show took place, but did see it on VHS about ten years ago - and not since. I don’t remember being particularly impressed with it at the time – but let’s take a look.

From Chicago, Illinois – Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura, along with Vince McMahon, Lord Alfred Hayes, and some poor, ill-fated blonde who run down the brackets and offer 'analysis' - which consists mostly of gross sexual harassment from Hayes, Mad Men-style, right in front of the owner of the company, no less.

WCW World War 3 - 1995

World War 3 was – other than a confusing name for a show, as all subsequent versions would also be called ‘3,’ as opposed to ‘4’ or ‘5’ – the latest addition in the ever expanding pay per view battle between the WWF and WCW during 1995, that had both companies going to a monthly format by the years end.

The concept came about when The Giant won the WCW World Title from Hulk Hogan in an overbooking nightmare at Halloween Havoc, but was stripped of it, so WCW decided to hold a battle royal to declare a new champion. All good so far – that one’s been done hundreds of times in wrestling history. Then, they decided not twenty, not thirty, not forty, not even fifty, but sixty men would compete. Okay, sounds cool. More intrigue. Oh, and it would take place in three rings simultaneously. Actually, still sounds good – to ten-year-old-Ben that was making it EXTREME!! and I was definitely into the idea. Unfortunately, the execution is where it fell a little short of the concept – but we’ll get to that later.

From Norfolk, Virginia – Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan for the main portion, joined later on by Eric Bischoff and Dusty Rhodes, and Chris Cruise and Larry Zbyszko to help call the battle royal – all from an arena that’s set up with the atmosphere of an auto show, with three rings on the floor space.

WWF King of the Ring 1993

The 1993 King of the Ring was actually a major show for the WWF, as they added a fifth pay per view to their yearly roster, as well as made a drastic change of direction – with what would effectively be Hulk Hogan’s last WWF appearance until his second run, post WCW merger.

As a kid, I absolutely loved this show – a one night tournament to showcase Bret Hart, plus Hulk Hogan! – and must have rented it from our local video store a dozen times on VHS. I always enjoyed renting VHS to the DVDs that are available today – they felt more substantial, and the box always had that great plasticy smell you’d get whiffs of while pouring over the cover art.

From Dayton, Ohio – Your hosts are Jim Ross, Bobby Heenan, and Randy Savage.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1996

This comes from a period where WCW started getting this right. They had a red-hot angle, with the nWo, solid undercard players with their cruiserweight division, and deep bench, and were quickly building into not only the more interesting of the big two promotions, but possibly the only major promotion – as Vince McMahon was getting pushed closer and closer to bankruptcy. Five years later, they would cease to exist all together, but if you would have told any wrestling fan that on the night of this show – they’d be right to call you crazy.

From Las Vegas, Nevada – Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes – with Mike Tenay popping in for some matches.

WWF In Your House - No Way Out (of Texas) (February 1998)

At the ’98 Royal Rumble, Shawn Michaels had taken a (legitimate) career ending back injury in a match with the Undertaker. However, this time, no one was going to buy the ‘surrendered title’ bit, and he would have to go out there and put Steve Austin over properly. That wouldn’t come until next month, however, and this show was more or less filler to sell WrestleMania, without so much as a real title match booked.

 
My interest in the show in the time was so little that I don’t even remember it. I was firmly ‘off’ of the WWF after Montreal, and watching the brilliance that was WCW – though that was really only an exercise in punishing myself.

From Houston, Texas – Your hosts are Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler, who announce right off the bat that Shawn Michaels is injured, and won’t be competing in the advertised main event tonight. Which is nice of them to let you know. You know, after they’ve securely stashed your pay per view dollars.

WWF In Your House - Degeneration X (December 1997)

This show marks – aside from when I gave up on following the product regularly altogether in 2001 – my absolute low point as a fan. The WWF had just given Bret Hart the boot with the infamous ‘Montreal Screwjob’ at Survivor Series the month before, and though I only had a very limited knowledge of what went on backstage (AOL chatrooms and an e-mail subscription to a dirtsheet. Good times) even the WWF wasn’t hiding that they had screwed my favorite wrestler out of the world title, and rewarded his nemesis with his own, themed pay per view.

At this point, I was only watching RAW during Nitro’s commercial breaks, and it would take them a while to win me back over. Much can – an has – been said about the Montreal Screwjob, but from a personal standpoint I’d add that to a twelve year old wrestling fan, it didn’t seem like ‘Attitude’ or make me want to watch the next show – it seemed like stabbing the back of one of the only guys who always stuck with their promotion while everyone else was busy jumping ship, and only made me want to tune in to WCW to see what Bret would do there. I might have stuck with them, too, had they not botched his run so badly, and the WWF not shot into the stratosphere during 1998.

From Springfield, Massachusetts – Your hosts are Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler.

WWF In Your House - Badd Blood (October 1997)

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WWF In Your House - Mind Games (September 1996)

I saw this one on pay per view at a wrestling buddies (to be clear, a buddy who I watched wrestling with) uncle’s house, who also let us order WrestleMania that year. While I don’t remember much of the show other than worrying whether or not Shawn Michaels (our de facto hero, while Bret Hart was away from the WWF) could defeat the monstrous Mankind, it was a really fun night, and my friends uncle even got us McDonalds at some point during the show – and when you’re eleven, that pretty much makes it the best day ever.

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Mr. Perfect – who is actually a third person, not Vince’s ego.

WWF In Your House - Season's Beatings (December 1995)

This one is pretty much only remembered for the main event, which is pretty much remembered for Bret Hart pulling a horror movie gory bladejob, and causing Hershey Pennsylvania’s chocolate rivers to run crimson. Oooh, hope you’re having pizza!

From Hershey, Pennsylvania – Your hosts are Vince McMahon, and Jerry Lawler.

WWF In Your House - Good Friends, Better Enemies (April 1996)

This is one I have never seen – live, or otherwise – but have always heard fantastic things about the main event since the next day at school, when everyone (well, not everyone – but the four or five other kids who were into wrestling) were raving about it. Over sixteen years later, we finally find out if it was truly worth the wait to see!

Formatting note - you’ll notice that there is now a nifty new index on the top of each page, organizing every review by organization, and then breaking them down by year, so that you can locate whatever you are looking for, and read in order if you wish to do so. There is also a search bar in the upper left corner of each page – good for searching a particular show, wrestler, match, or just how many times I’ve used the word ‘fuck.’ This should clear up any future organizational issues, as many of these shows will be posted out of order.

From Omaha, Nebraska, your hosts are Vince McMahon, and Jerry Lawler.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1991

Filling in a bit of a gap, with one of the missing Halloween Havoc rants, though we’re well past Halloween at this point. Hey, it’s hard to find shows from twenty years ago, especially when company that produced them went out of business – give a guy a break! Or a blowjob. But… not at the same time.

This was during a very down period for WCW, shortly after Ric Flair left the company (with their title belt in tow, for fun), and showed up in the WWF.

From Chattanooga, Tennessee your hosts are Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone, with Eric Bischoff on various interview duties. Hey, you gotta start somewhere.

WWF In Your House - Final Four (February 1997)

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WWF In Your House - It's Time (December 1996)

This was one I never saw back in the day, and my interest in the build-up was mainly in whether or not Bret Hart would be able to recapture the WWF Title from Sid. Outside of that, the period between Survivor Series and WrestleMania – aside from a few bright spots – was, even through the eyes of an eleven year old super mark, some of the worst stuff they have ever produced. And if the kid who even bought into the fucking Karate Fighters tournament (a fucking tournament with action figures, and I bought into it) they were holding around this time is starting to lose interest, you know it’s time to change things up – which you’d think is where the tagline for this show comes from, but no. That’s actually a mark on the state of disarray the WWF was in at the time, as they had penciled Vader into winning the WWF Title by this point, even going as far as to title the December pay per view with his catchphrase. They ended up going with Sid instead, and teased a Shawn Michaels heel turn – two decisions which went over like taking a dump on the pastor’s head in church. 

WCW was killing them in the ratings with the red-hot nWo angle – with no end in sight – and problems on top of the card (Shawn Michaels’ ‘knee injury,’ Sid being booked to multiple world title reigns, bait-and-switches, world title vacancies, the worst WrestleMania of all time, Sid’s presence in general) weren’t helping anyone. If Ray Liotta were narrating this section of WWE history, ‘these are the bad times.’ Also, then Pesci would put a bullet in Sid’s head, and everyone would have pasta.  

From West Palm Beach, Florida, your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler.

WWF In Your House - Buried Alive (October 1996)

I was quite pumped for this one, as a kid. It was one of the few pay per views I got to order during 1996, and despite the fact that neither Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart (my two favorite grapplers) were scheduled to perform, eleven-year old Ben was pretty excited for this one, as the Undertaker/Mankind storyline intrigued me, and to that point I had only seen them battle via highlight packages or brief interactions on TV to set up pay per views I wasn’t allowed to order. I can still remember walking the two blocks home from the school bus the Friday before the show, imagining what the WWF had in store for us that Sunday, and excited to make some predictions of my own with my action figures as soon as I got home.

From Indianapolis, Indiana, your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross – doing his ‘evil’ JR gimmick. Which is basically code for ‘telling it like it is, but hitting a little too close to home for Vince until they scrapped the whole thing.’

WWF In Your House - International Incident (July 1996)

From Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler.

WWF In Your House - Beware of Dog (May 1996)

Well, speaking of storms. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Basically, the WWF was holding a pay per view, but a biblical storm knocked out power to the arena – and pay per view feed – after the second match, leaving everyone in the building watching the guys restructure the show as a house show in the dark, and everyone at home with no signal. They rescheduled the show a couple of days later in a town a couple of hours away, and aired the matches that they managed to shoot before the power outage on pay per view – then ran the rest of the card for all the buyers who were, understandably, outraged. It was quite a clusterfuck, and I’m pretty sure if Vince McMahon could have fired God over it – he probably would have. In fact, that pretty much explains his feud ten years later, with none other than this pay per views headliner, and the big man himself. McMahon would have his revenge on not only God, but on the man who headlined this crappy show – all at once. And they say he doesn’t hold a grudge…

From Florence, SC (night one), and North Charleston, SC (night two), your hosts are Vince McMahon, and Jerry Lawler (night one), and Jim Ross, and Mr. Perfect (night two).