WCW Starrcade 1996

1996 was a return to form for Starrcade, as WCW promoted the card back to flagship status, after spending most of the 90s either running concepts shows, or promoting it as just another event in their ever expanding lineup.

With the nWo storyline in full swing, I had become a somewhat devoted WCW fan by the end of 1996 – Nitro getting about a 50% share with RAW in the channel surfing battle. The WWF was, unquestionably, still my main source of wrestling programming – but even a loyal eleven year old mark superfan would be hard pressed to turn a blind eye at what was going on over on TNT.

From Nashville, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes – along with Mike Tenay (he knows Cruiserweights!) and Lee Marshall (he knows Women!) for a couple of matches.


Opening WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Dean Malenko v Ultimo Dragon: This is technically billed as a unification match with Dragon's J-Crown, but not really, as the titles never actually unified. It should be noted that one of Dragon's eight titles (that make up the J-Crown) is the WWF Light Heavyweight Title, in the days before they had a proper division, and licensed out their name for use in Japan and Mexico. Malenko shoots for the leg immediately - trying to take away Dragon's high flying ability – but Dragon counters him on the mat. Dragon gets sick of countering him, and starts firing off kicks, so Malenko drops him with a side suplex. He tries to keep him on the mat with a chinlock, but no means no Malenko, and Dragon starts kicking again. Brilliantly executed snap suplex gets two, and Dragon with an STF. Both guys spill to the floor to give Dragon an excuse to hit a tope, and inside he tries the snap suplex again - but Malenko reverses. Malenko sunset flips for two, but he gets caught in a neckbreaker, and Dragon locks on a bow-and-arrow. Abdominal stretch follows, but Malenko finds the side suplex again - showing us why he's known as the 'Man of a Thousand Holds.' German suplex gets two, and Malenko goes to a leglock. Dragon finds the ropes (and love!), so Malenko gives him a kneebreaker, and then dropkicks the knee (just to be a dick), before tying him up in the leglock again. Malenko with a powerslam out of a criss cross, but Dragon catches him with a spinheel, and powerbombs him for two. Tombstone, but Malenko reverses into a visually impressive version of his own - for two. Texas Cloverleaf, but Dragon bails to the ropes, so Malenko gives him his own powerbomb for two. They botch a bodypress to the outside, but recalibrate, and Dragon hits a springboard moonsault onto the floor. Inside, Dragon misses a flying moonsault, and Malenko slaps on the Cloverleaf - but gets cradled for two. Malenko with a well executed brainbuster for two, and they jockey for position until Dragon hits a Tiger suplex for the win at 18:30. Turned into quite a spotfest towards the end, though abandoning all the psychology that they spent the first ten minutes building up (Malenko's work on the leg, Dragon’s on the neck) in doing so. Well executed stuff done to a good pace, that could have used either five minutes trimmed off of it, or an ending that drew from everything they put us through in the first half. ** ¾

WCW Women's Title Match: Madusa v Akira Hokuto: This was the finals of a tournament for the vacant title. Hokuto jumps her before the bell, and whips her across the ring a couple of times with hairpull slams. She spends the next few minutes choking, before busting out a gorgeous Northern Lights suplex for two. Madusa comes back with a loose tornado DDT, but gets German suplexed for her troubles. They try the tornado DDT again (this time hitting it), and a powerbomb gets Madusa two. German suplex gets two, so she goes up top, but Hokuto catches him with a crisp superplex. She heads up, and a missile dropkick sets up a brainbuster for the pin at 7:06, deflating the crowd. Odd result, considering they kick started the entire division around Madusa's defection from the WWF. A couple of nice spots from Hokuto, but she spent the bulk of the match with a chokehold (it was like a nightmare Undertaker flashback from ’91), and Madusa working loose, and blowing stuff isn’t just bad innuendo. ¼*

Rey Misterio, Jr v Jushin Liger: Liger overpowers him to start, so Rey starts shooting at the leg, and tries a bow-and-arrow, but gets reversed. Liger with a hanging vertical suplex, and he continues to overpower Rey - whipping him from post to post. Vicious powerbomb, but Rey catches him with a rana, and a headscissors puts Liger on the floor. Rey tries to suplex him back in, but gets reversed, and planted on the floor. Another powerbomb out there, but Misterio beats the count, trying a missile dropkick, but he finds the mat. Liger with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, and he locks a surfboard. Suplex, but Rey counters with a German, and hits a standing moonsault for two. DDT, and a springboard moonsault gets two. Springboard dropkick, and he goes to a camel clutch. That doesn't work, so he tries another springboard, but runs into a vicious dropkick on the way down. Liger with a release German suplex for two, and he locks a half crab - but it's in the ropes. He targets the knee, but Rey throws a spinheel kick, and dumps him. Springboard moonsault follows, and inside with a springboard legdrop for two. Another try misses, and Liger hits a flying headbutt for two. Ligerbomb (a sitout powerbomb) finishes up at 14:16. Match had more springs than a high end mattress, but I had to check to double check if it was playing at the correct speed, because everything was done at half pace. Well ahead of the North American standard at the time, but doesn't hold up well today. ** ¼

No Disqualification Match: Chris Benoit v Jeff Jarrett: This was part of Jarrett's endless quest to join the Horsemen. They do a long 'everything you do, I'll reverse or immediately mirror' sequence – designed to illustrate to the crowd that these two are evenly matched - but who were they kidding with that one? It finally breaks down into a schoolyard slugfest, spilling to the floor, and that woman Benoit kills (helpfully named 'Woman' to avoid confusion with the kid he killed) helps distract Jarrett. Inside, Benoit with a slingshot, but Jarrett shoves him off during a superplex attempt. Outside again, Benoit drops him on the rail a couple of times, and hits a side suplex back in the ring. Long sleeper, until Jarrett side suplexes out, and cradles Benoit for two. Dropkick gets two, and an overhead suplex puts Benoit on the outside. Kevin Sullivan (Benoit's main nemesis in life) pops out of the crowd, and breaks one of those wooden chairs that were so popular during the 90s over his head, and Jarrett gets the pin at 13:48. Big style clash here, as both guys are solid workers (one was a really great worker), but they spent most of the match meandering around, and it didn’t go anywhere - coming off as disjointed. ¼*

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: The Outsiders v The Faces of Fear: Scott Hall and Meng start off, and Meng manhandles him (no shit!), but misses a blind charge, and Hall hits the 2^nd rope flying bulldog. It's Meng, though - so head shots don't really work (that's actually why he never made it as an actor, and went into wrestling in the first place), and he unloads. Barbarian continues the assault, so Hall bails to Kevin Nash, and Barbarian drops him with a sidewalk slam for two. That's kind of Nash's trademark, however, and that gets Barbarian snake eyed. Hall in, but the Faces gang up on him, and Barbarian hits the big boot for two. Meng with a well executed piledriver for two, and they cut the ring in half. Four way brawl breaks out, and Barbarian gets powerbombed by Nash for the pin at 11:52. Dull match, as The Outsiders were probably the two hottest guys in the entire promotion (if not all of North American wrestling) at the time, and no one bought the Faces of Fear as challengers - napping through their heat segment. ¼*

WCW United States Title Match: Diamond Dallas Page v Eddie Guerrero: This is also a tournament final, as champion Ric Flair had to vacate the title due to injury. Page tries to overpower him to start, but Eddie dodges him, dropkicking him to the outside. Inside, Guerrero with a slingshot senton for two, and he goes to an armbar. Ten punch count, but Page interrupts him with a stungun. Piledriver, and a suplex get two, so Page goes into a long rope-assisted abdominal stretch. Blind charge misses (maybe he nodded off watching this match?), and Eddie drops him with a European uppercut. Suplex gets two, and a side suplex sets up the Frog Splash - but Page moves. Page powerslam gets two, but he gets crotched on the top rope, and Eddie cradles him for two. Backslide gets two. Slugfest, and Page kills him with a tilt-a-whirl powerbomb for two. Double knockout draws out the nWo, and Scott Hall lays Page out with the Edge (the angle here was that the nWo had offered Page a spot in the gang, he said no, and so they kill him for having the balls to turn them down - which is what it took to finally get DDP over), and that's enough to allow Eddie a Frog Splash for the US Title at 15:20. It turned into a nice, spotty little match at the end, but the first half could be used to cure insomnia. *

The Giant v Lex Luger: The Giant had recently jumped to the nWo, and Luger wants revenge. For America. No, wait - wrong promotion. For WCW. They do a long battle over the initial tie-up, but come to a stalemate – establishing that both are strong. Luger tries a more direct approach: punching him in the head. That works, but he runs into a clothesline, and Giant nearly breaks the ring in half with an elbowdrop. Suplex, and Giant works the back - though he can't seem to decide if he wants to work the upper or lower back. Backdrop, but Luger nails him, and tries a slam - only to get toppled. Well, that can't have been good for the lower back. So, of course, Giant then targets the upper region again. Blind charge misses, and Luger starts throwing clotheslines. Visually impressive neckbreaker gets two, and Luger slams him. Torture Rack, but referee Nick Patrick (doing an angle where the nWo has paid him off) blatantly kicks Luger in the leg to break it up. Luger kills him, and grabs another Rack, so fellow nWo-er Syxx breaks it up. That draws in Sting to clean house, and he whispers something to both men before leaving his bat in the middle of the ring, and disappearing into the crowd. Luger gets hold of the bat first, and it's over at 13:23. The Sting bit was early stages of the crow angle (he was dressed in full crow regalia), as WCW had doubted Sting's allegiance in the war against the nWo - impugning his honor - and so he went all emo on their asses, abandoning his surfer look for being mute, long black hair, hanging out in the rafters of arenas, and... actual crows... leaving everyone to wonder what side he was on. Match didn't really go anywhere beyond 'punch-kick,' and then the standard overbooked finish – but the crowd loved it. ¼*

Main Event: Hollywood Hogan v Roddy Piper: Hogan is the WCW World Champion at this point, though this isn't for the title. Not that they bothered telling the fans - which becomes important later. This was a great angle, as Hogan and the nWo were running wild over WCW, and after creaming Randy Savage at Halloween Havoc, suddenly Roddy Piper showed up - saying without saying ('it looks like Godzilla, but due to international copyright laws - it's not') that he was coming from the WWF to teach them some manners. Hogan bails immediately at the bell to strategize with the nWo, though you'd think he'd have a game plan already, coming in for a match announced a good month in before this. Piper unloads on him with fists of fury once he gets in, so Hogan takes a walk again. Tie-up again, but this time Hogan goes to the eyes (kinda surprised he didn't do that the first time, really), but misses a cross corner clothesline, and bails again. Piper with a bracing side-headlock, but Hogan manages to escape (from a headlock?! No wonder he's champion!), only to get dropkicked back to the floor. Piper gets sick of playing the waiting game (hey, at that age, it's plain risky), and follows, whipping Hogan with his belt. nWo manager Ted DiBiase gets involved, however, and Hogan hammers away. Inside, Hogan works Piper's hip (there was an angle going into this where the nWo attacked Piper's hip, which he had broken in a motorcycle accident), but Piper cradles him for two. Slugfest, and Piper suplexes him for two when DiBiase puts him in the ropes. Piper misses a kneedrop, allowing Hogan to try the Big Legdrop, but Piper moves - showing us the hip was fine all along! That cues The Giant to chokeslam Piper, but Roddy fights him off, and gets Hogan in the Sleeper for the victory at 15:27. Everyone celebrates the end of the evil empire, but we find out the next night on Nitro that it was a non-title match all along. Not much of a match - for the title, or not - as it was almost all punch-kick, but both guys are absolute masters at working a crowd – and that they did with ease. ¼*

BUExperience: Certainly the type of show that had a great live atmosphere – as WCW had really hit gold with the nWo angle – but not so much one that holds up sixteen years later. Had this been the climax of the nWo angle, with Piper dethroning Hogan (which it shouldn’t have been), it would be historically significant – but it isn’t, so it’s not. It’s really only historically significant as the Starrcade where WCW finally put the crown back on the show, once and for all (or, once and for until 2001), and the first of the nWo era. *