WCW Starrcade 1992

Starrcade 1992 continued the abatement of Starrcade – no longer the promotions flagship show – and, for the second year in a row, ran the Lethal Lottery/BattleBowl concept. This year, under the guidance of the often misguided Bill Watts, WCW wisely added some blowoff matches to the show along with the tournament – hoping to add the intrigue that was missing from the inaugural BattleBowl.

From Atlanta, Georgia; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura. Before things get started, head booker Bill Watts and baseball legend Hank Aaron present Sting with a Super Bowl-style ring for winning BattleBowl a full year before. That’s actually right in line, given Watts’ reputation of stinginess.


Opening Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match: Johnny B. Badd and Cactus Jack v Van Hammer and Dan Spivey: Jack and Hammer (RAM JAM!) start, with Cactus going to work in the corner, so Van slaps him in the face. Cross corner clothesline and a legdrop get two, so Cactus passes to Johnny. Badd gets hiptossed, but manages to catch Hammer with a nasty rana - dropping him right on his neck. Cheap shot from Spivey turns the tide, and Dan hits a uranage. He works the back of Badd (giving him a bad back), and Hammer slams him (hammering the bad back) as they cut the ring in half. Double knockout allows Badd to tag Jack, and he quickly bulldogs Spivey for two, but gets dumped to the floor when trying to follow up. Cactus gets into an argument with Badd, however, and Johnny nails him with a closed fist to allow Hammer the pin at 6:51. Energetic, but nothing notable unless you’re really into wordplay. ½*

Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match: Vader and Dustin Rhodes v The Barbarian and Kensuke Sasaki: Vader and Barbarian start, and work a power-stalemate. Barbarian wins with a scoop slam (face paint > mask), but Vader quickly returns the favor, and they get into another stalemate. Vader goes ballistic on him in the corner, but runs into a series of clotheslines, so he levels Barbarian with a short-arm. Tag to Rhodes, and they hit a bearhug/clothesline combo for two, but Barbarian quickly overpowers him with a side suplex. Rhodes responds with one of his own, so Barbarian tags out. Sasaki with a 2^nd rope bodypress, but Rhodes dropkicks him on the way down, and tags Vader to kill him proper. He hits his own 2^nd rope bodyblock, and a powerslam for two. Big boot, but Sasaki reverses a suplex, and both guys tag out. Rhodes with fists of fury, and a diving clothesline for two. Sasaki tries to help out, but Barbarian gets into a miscommunication with him, and Dustin schoolboys him for the pin at 6:56. Guess they put all their efforts into arranging the teams, and ran out of time when it came to booking finishes. Some nice power stuff, but these four didn't mesh well. ¾*

Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match: Brian Pillman and 2 Cold Scorpio v Barry Windham and The Great Muta: Windham and Pillman are teaming up to challenge for the tag titles later, so of course we get this 'random' pairing first. Scorpio and Windham start, and Barry quickly suplexes him, but runs into a dropkick, and Scorpio takes him to the mat with an armbar. Tag to Muta, but he backs Scorpio into the corner with threats of kicks, so he happily passes to Pillman. Dropkick, but Muta fires back with one of his own, and takes him to the canvas with a side-headlock. Tag to Windham, and he and Brian trade off on the mat. They get into a chopfest pretty quickly - going to a stalemate - so Barry passes back to Muta for a spinkick. Brian gets the hell out of there, and Scorpio hits a diving forearm, but a splash crashes into the knees. Windham helps him cut the ring in half, but Scorpio manages a slingshot somersault splash on Muta, and a four-way brawl breaks out. Muta finishes with a flying moonsault - which misses by a foot - at 6:59. Decent, but never really got going. Muta looked fantastic here (with the exclusion of the finish), working fast, crisp offense. *

Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match: Sting and Steve Williams v Jushin Liger and Erik Watts: Watts is head booker Bill's son, and paired with his polar-opposite, in terms of wrestling ability. Sting and Liger start, and Liger keeps him on his toes by threatening to unload some lightning kicks. They work a few stalemates off of criss crosses, and Sting brings in Williams to slam him around. Suplex, but Liger dodges, and tags Watts. Williams slaughters him, but gets caught with a bodypress for two. Liger with the lightning kicks in the corner, but Williams charges out with a lariat - near tearing his head off. Sting comes in to powerbomb him into the turnbuckles for two, and he works with Williams to cut the ring in half. Stinger Splash misses, but Liger's still too dazed to make the tag (or, more likely, he knows Watts will just fuck it up) - allowing Sting a half-crab. Hanging vertical suplex gets two, but Williams gets bulldogged, and Watts tags. He's a house of arson - hitting what many people consider the worst dropkick ever thrown (he mistimed it when Williams was coming out of the ropes - I've seen worse) - but Williams makes the ropes when he tries to finish with the STF. Criss cross, and Williams catches him with a stungun for the pin at 9:08. Good teamwork from Sting and Williams throughout, and Liger sold well for them. * ¼

NWA World Title Match: Mashiro Chono v The Great Muta: Hey, Muta! Remember him from ten minutes ago? They trade a couple of swift shots to the jaw to jar each other, and Chono takes him to the mat with a headscissors. Muta counters into an anklelock, but the champ fires off an enzuigiri to break. They fight over a wristlock, and Chono throws a shoulderblock to put Muta on the floor. Back in, Muta challenges him to a test-of-strength, so Chono counters with an overhead suplex, and they trade abdominal stretches. The 'reversing of holds' bit keeps going for a while, until Chono dumps him again, then goes to an armbar. To the top, but Muta rushes to catch him with a superplex, and backdrops him. Half-crab, but Chono manages a suplex - only to walk into a spinkick. He bails to regroup, and Muta catches him with a handspring elbow coming back in, but misses the flying moonsault. He hurts his knee of the way down, however, and Chono takes a few token shots at it. Neat spot, as they both go for a dropkick at the same time, and end up with a mouthful of mat. Chono with a side suplex, and the STF finishes at 12:49. Watts had a thing for getting the STF over as the most feared hold in wrestling, though purposely booking a bad match (both men were explicitly told not to put in their best efforts, for fear that they would steal the show from the WCW talent if they did) isn't the best way to do that. Slow, dull match, that kept feeling like it was building to something more, but just never did. DUD

WCW World Title Match: Ron Simmons v Steve Williams: This was built as Simmons/Rick Rude, but a legitimate injury changed plans at the very last minute. Williams offers a handshake at the bell - which Simmons is openly skeptical of - but he actually presses the champs hand, and backs off. Guess you gotta keep 'em guessing. Couple of false tie-ups, and Simmons grabs a standing side-headlock. The two former football players have a tackle-showdown - ending with Simmons clotheslining him - as Jim Ross jizzes his pants. Long sequence where Simmons wants to work an armbar, but Williams keeps escaping (via ropes, eyes, hair), with Ron going back to it over and over. Hey, I can appreciate that sort of psychology - but if he's being that pissy, pick another hold, and move on. It's not like his finisher involves the arm in any way anyway. Williams keeps giving him trouble, so Simmons tries a flying bodypress - but eats canvas. Williams takes the opportunity to bash his knee into the ring apron, and hooks a poorly executed half-crab that doesn't look even remotely painful. He switches it up into a leglock that looks like he's stretching Simmons' hammies with, before finally just giving up, and starting to kick at it. Backbreaker gets two, and he aims the 3-Point Stance at the knee. Second one hits, but a third runs into a lariat, and Simmons hits a sloppy spinebuster. Three 3-Point Stances of his own, but he also misses the third, and they end up on the floor for a slugfest - both getting counted out at 15:22. Williams jumps him afterwards, so the referee decides to change his decision to Simmons winning by disqualification. Man, if bad behavior after the bell gets you docked, Jake Roberts must have a negative win-loss record. No wonder they told the Japanese to take it easy. I like both guys, and you'd think they could work a good power match together, but this ended up slow, with a bad ending to boot. It didn't help that all their attempts at psychology (arm, leg) were shrugged off, and didn't factor into the ending at all. ¼*

NWA & WCW World Tag Team Title Match: Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas v Barry Windham and Brian Pillman: Douglas starts with Pillman, and they both try to outpace the other. Pillman takes control with a knife edge chop, but gets 'caught' with a dropkick - though it missed by a good few inches. Windham runs in to make the save, but Steamboat sees him coming, and the champs clean house. The dust settles on Steamboat/Windham, and a big slugfest goes the Dragon's way. Suplex, and he hooks a front-facelock. Tag to Douglas for a flying axehandle, as the champions cut the ring in half. Windham has enough, and tries to take a walk, so Steamboat slams him on the concrete, and Douglas follows up with another slam on the ramp way before they drag him back in. Swinging neckbreaker gets two, but Windham counters a Douglas-chinlock with a chincrusher, and he makes the tag. Pillman with a faceslam, and he drives Shane into the wrong part of town for some abuse. Douglas fires back with a dropkick (better this time), but Pillman responds with one of his own - knocking him clear off the top rope, and down to the exposed concrete in a fantastic bump. They drag him back in to avoid the countout, and take turns unloading on Douglas - cutting the ring in half. Douglas won't go quietly, though - matching Pillman's chops slice-for-slice - so Windham walks in and dumps him to the concrete again. Steamboat finally snaps, and heads over to make the save - steel chair in tow (part of the angle that set this up involved Pillman and Windham attacking the champs with chairs). That almost allows Shane the tag, but Pillman stops him with inches to go, and brings him back to the dark side with (dark)side suplex for a series of two counts. They continue to cut the ring in half, as Steamboat itches to get in (the other part of the angle involved Pillman giving the champs crabs). Windham with a suplex, but Douglas reverses, and finally gets the tag. Steamboat is a house of arson, but walks into a fluke powerslam from Windham, and Pillman tosses him to the floor for a trip to the ringpost. Inside, they start cutting the ring in half on Steamboat, but Windham misses a flying tomahawk chop, and Steamboat superkicks him. Faceslam, and both guys tag - triggering a four-way brawl, and Douglas catches Pillman with a belly-to-belly suplex to retain at 20:02. Good, long old-school tag team wrestling match - with Douglas taking a proper shit kicking, and Pillman and Windham pulling out near every trick in the book during the heat segment, all while Steamboat gets increasingly enraged on the ring apron. Nice twist on the formula ending, too, with a second, shorter heat segment on 'house of fire' stage Steamboat, before the real finish. ***

King of Cable Tournament Final Match: Vader v Sting: This was the finals of a tournament WCW ran on TV leading up to Starrcade - and while having a tournament final on pay per view is a logically solid idea - holding a tournament to decide the 'King of Cable,' and putting the final on pay per view, isn't. Vader shoves him around, so Sting starts jabbing away - but it doesn't even faze the big man. Sting charges, and gets slammed. Repeat. Ah, but his strategy was to get Vader into the corner (which works) and Stinger Splash him (which doesn't). Vader press slams him across the ropes, and the referee bitches him out about it, so he responds by doing it again. Short-clothesline, so Sting throws a desperate somersault bodyblock to avoid another, and a beautiful German suplex hits. Clothesline puts Vader on the floor, and Sting follows right out with a plancha. That gets the big man's attention, and he goes ballistic on Sting in the corner with body shots. Irish whip, but Sting hangs on to the ropes to stop the momentum, and DDT's Vader. He forces Vader up for a superplex, and hooks the Scorpion Deathlock - but Vader's in the ropes. He bails to regroup with manager Harley Race, but Sting follows out again - this time with a splash against the rail - but Vader dodges, and heads back in to take his countout. Sting just makes it in, but that serves to piss Vader off - and if there's one thing you don't wanna do, it's eat beans in a curry based sauce before a big date. Not really related, but worth mentioning anyway. Love is hard. So is the short-clothesline Vader levels Sting with, and the avalanche he follows it up with. Splash gets two, but Sting sees another short-clothesline attempt coming, and counters into a backslide for two. Sunset flip, but Vader counters with a buttsplash, so Sting dodges. Vader's madder now (he’s like Jon Hamm and John Slattery combined mad), and starts kicking him around the ring like a dog. Not that I advocate kicking dogs like that. Just Sting. By Vader. Sting tries a desperation side suplex, but Vader shrugs him off, and keeps unloading forearms. Sting, on instinct alone at this point, tries to punch back, so Vader takes him upstairs for a retaliatory superplex. Sting manages to shove him off, but can't capitalize, and Vader fires off more forearms. Sting still puts up his dukes - completely disoriented - and he gets a fluke Samoan drop with his last bit of strength - but Vader's in the ropes. Flying splash gets two, so Harley Race gets in his face, and Vader chokeslams him. 2^nd rope splash leaves a Sting-shaped neon stain on the mat, but Vader isn't pleased - and tries another off of the top - but Sting catches him on the way down with a powerslam, and hooks the leg for the pin at 16:50. There's a reason people still cite the 'Sting/Vader' formula - over their rivalry, these two mastered the David and Goliath style as well as anyone other than David and Goliath themselves could ever hope. Hell of a match, with Vader in full monster-mode, and tons of hard hitting stuff, until Sting - unable to get the advantage after repeated efforts - defeated Vader when the big man didn't learn from his earlier mistake of repeating offense. Sting less 'beat' Vader than survived him. *** ¾

Main Event: BattleBowl: Thankfully, only one ring this year - as opposed to the contrived two ring scenario from the first one the year before. The battle royal field: Dan Spivey, Van Hammer, Dustin Rhodes, The Great Muta, Barry Windham, Steve Williams, Sting, and Vader. Yep, after that war, they trot Sting and Vader right back out. Not that most of these other guys aren't already on their third match of the night, too, but Sting and Vader literally just went through the curtain, and definitely had the most brutal match on the card. Vader doesn't even let Sting get down the aisle before jumping him, as everybody slugs it out. Standard battle royal punch-kick stuff, with no one particularly going out of their way - most of them pretty gassed from the excessive multiple bookings. Sting and Vader eventually eliminate each other, and leave Rhodes, Windham, Williams, and Muta. They pair off (Muta/Williams, Rhodes/Windham), and stay with their partners until Williams backs off Muta to try to help Windham toss Rhodes - only to go out with him. Barry with a suplex, a side suplex, and a superplex (it's like a buffet), but Muta skins-the-cat on an elimination attempt, and dropkicks Windham out at 14:01. Whatever - no one cares about BattleBowl. Waaayyy too long, but it was technically the main event - they had to give 'em something. ¼*

BUExperience: As per WCW tradition, after a bad year, the head was chopped off of the booking team – in this case ending the horrible (both for fans and workers alike) reign of Bill Watts the next month. These endless series of changes often made WCW hard to follow – as the direction of the promotion would often wildly veer – and longtime WCW standby Jim Ross lobbied for the position in hopes of stabilizing things. He was denied, and instead his subordinate Eric Bischoff was promoted (though Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson still retained a lot of power over the actual booking), provoking Ross to quit, and jump to the WWF.

While Bischoff’s tenure was not immediately successful, he would work to put WCW back on a competitive path against the WWF, and would be the man leading the charge when WCW overtook the competition for the first time in the mid-90s. Shows like this are a strong example of WCW’s problems in the early-90s – with goofy concepts, and poor production values (a hallmark of Watts’ tenure, as he slashed costs across the board) prevalent throughout the show – along with a roster so thin they had several guys pulling triple duty, to the point where it was almost aggravating to see them come through the curtain again. Sting/Vader is great, and the tag title match is a lot of fun – but not near enough to save this show. DUD