NWA (JCP) Starrcade 1987 (Version II)

Original Airdate: November 26, 1987

From Chicago, Illinois; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone

Opening Six-Man Tag Team Match: Sting, Jimmy Garvin, and Michael Hayes v Eddie Gilbert, Larry Zbyszko, and Rick Steiner: Really ugly, depressing look to this show, with all dark colors, and low lighting. Sting attacks Rick with a dropkick to the floor, and follows him out with a plancha, then missile dropkicks him on the way back in. That's enough to trigger a brawl, and Sting's team cleans house. The dust settles back on Sting and Steiner, and Sting works the arm to control. The future Freebirds take turns tossing Rick around, until he tags out to Zbyszko. Criss cross goes Garvin's way with several shoulderblocks, and he passes to Hayes - Michael backelbowing Zbyszko down. Tag to Gilbert, but he gets knocked around by the face team. He manages to bodyslam Sting, but Steiner walks right into an armdrag after tagging, and Sting hangs on with an armbar. Tag to Garvin with a sunset flip for two, but he gets trapped in the heel corner, and worked over. They cut the ring in half on Garvin, but he manages to escape an abdominal stretch from Zbyszko, and tag to Sting. Stinger comes in hot, but walks into a triple-team, and gets tossed out to the floor by Gilbert. Back in, Eddie vertical suplexes him for two, but Sting reverses another one from Zbyszko, and whips him into the corner. Tag to Hayes, and he's a discothèque of fire! Brawl breaks out in short order, and time expires at 15:02. Competent, but not particularly exciting, and certainly not a good choice for an opener. Who books a time limit draw to open a show, anyway? * (Original rating: ½*)

UWF Title Match: Steve Williams v Barry Windham: Big criss cross to start, which Steve wins with a hiptoss and follows with a press-slam, but showboats with some extra presses, and pays for it when Barry escapes and rolls him up for two. They trade waistlocks, and Windham manages to armdrag him over into a wristlock, but they spill to the floor in the hold. Back in, Barry muscles through a gutwrench suplex, but gets caught in a side-headlock. He uses a side suplex to try and break, but Steve hangs onto it anyway, and shifts into a chinlock on the mat. That was pretty badass. Windham manages to shake him off, and wins another criss cross by headbutting Williams in the balls when the champ tries a leapfrog. Well, that's what you get for trying to leapfrog a dude who's 6'6". That causes tempers to flare in what has been a clean face/face match to this point, and Steve uses the hair to escape a headlock. Windham throws a bodypress, but Williams ducks, and the challengers crashes into the ropes hard, falling out of the ring off it. He beats the count in, but Williams is ready with an oklahoma roll to retain at 6:51. Thinking that headbutt to the groin was a botch because it totally threw off the pace of the match, and the ending kind of came out of nowhere after that, once Williams had used up a bunch of their allotted time recovering. * (Original rating: ½*)

Skywalkers Scaffold Match: The Midnight Express v The Rock 'n' Roll Express: This is, of course, the far less famous Skywalkers match. If you've seen one of these you've seen 'em all, basically. Anyway, Big Bubba Rogers jumps Ricky Morton on the floor before he can climb the scaffold, giving the Midnight's a two-on-one advantage on Robert Gibson up there. Bubba himself tries to climb up to make it a three-on-one advantage, but Morton uses Jim Cornette's tennis racket to stop it, and he joins the party on the scaffold. The Midnight's continue to destroy them, and Gibson bleeds, but Morton manages to use the racket to turn the tide. I mean, as much as the tide can be turned when you're crawling around on a catwalk, trying not to die. Anyway, the finish comes when Morton manages to knock Stan Lane off the monkey bars, and they literally spank Bobby Eaton until his falls off too at 9:00. You know, a standard tag match between these two teams would have been perfectly welcome. I mean, if you're going to book a scaffold match, at least book guys who can't work, and need the gimmick to hide their weaknesses. ¼* (Original rating: *)

NWA Television Title v UWF Television Title Unification Match: Nikita Koloff v Terry Taylor: Lots of posturing to start, followed by a feeling out process. Koloff takes control with an armbar on the mat, but Taylor gets uppity, so Nikita backdrops him for two. Terry bails to the floor to let Eddie Gilbert nurse his arm, but Koloff gets sick of waiting, and drags him back in for a hammerlock. Terry escapes and unloads in the corner, but misses an elbowdrop to aggravate the arm again, and Koloff goes back to the armbar. We're, like, ten minutes into this, and it's been mostly armbarring. And this isn't even a time limit draw! Terry escapes with a headbutt, but Koloff no-sells him in the corner, and chokes him down. Russian Sickle, but Terry ducks, and Nikita hits the turnbuckles. Taylor capitalizes by dumping him to the floor for a shot into the rail, and the bops his head into the post. Nikita is showing incredible restraint for a 1980s NWA show by not blading here. Taylor works the arm as they go back in, and a pair of kneedrops to the shoulder get two. Sunset flip, but Koloff blocks. Vertical suplex, but Koloff reverses. He shoves Taylor into the corner for a ten-punch, but Terry manages a spinebuster to escape, for two. He argues the count with the referee (Earl Hebner, just months before jumping to the WWF and making history with the twin referees angle), and Nikita schoolboys him for two. Taylor stomps him down and tries a piledriver, but Koloff backdrops to block, so Gilbert takes a cheap shot to the knee. Terry locks a figure four to capitalize, but gets caught using the ropes for leverage, and the referee forces a break. Gilbert attacks again, but he ends up colliding with Taylor, and Koloff Sickle's him to unify the belts at 18:56. This wasn't bad wrestling, it was just really dull and one sided. ¾* (Original rating: ½*)

NWA World Tag Team Title Match: Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard v The Road Warriors: Arn starts with Hawk, and tries suckering him into the corner, but gets slammed off the top rope for his troubles. Anderson tries a headlock, but Hawk simply powers out, and drops a leg across the champions arm. Tag to Tully, but Hawk easily overpowers him. Blanchard bails, but Animal is ready on the floor - press-slamming him back in for Hawk to dropkick for two. Tag to Animal, and he catches a flying bodypress from Tully in a powerslam for two. Tag back to Arn, as the Horsemen scramble to figure out a strategy against these two powerhouses. Arn tries some chops, but runs into a clothesline while trying to sucker Animal into the corner. Hawk grabs a bearhug, so Tully runs in with a cheap shot to try and slow the Warriors down, but Hawk clotheslines both champions down with ease. Love how indestructible the Road Warriors were in those days. Neat spot sees Hawk press-slam Tully INTO bearhug from Animal, and Animal throws a sloppy dropkick. Tag to Anderson, but a piledriver attempt gets him backdropped, and Animal press-slams him. Tags to Hawk and Blanchard, and Hawk tries his own press-slam, but Arn clips his knee while he does so, and Blanchard immediately pounces. They cut the ring in half while working on Hawk's leg, and Arn drops him with a DDT for two. They keep working the leg in tenacious fashion as Hawk fights them tooth and nail to block holds, but Tully manages to get a figure four on. Arn with a snapmare for two, but Hawk fights him off, and makes the tag. Animal is a barn of fire to ignite a brawl, and the referee gets bumped (quite brutally) in the process. The Warriors deliver a Doomsday Device on Anderson anyway, and another referee counts three at 13:24 - only to have the decision quickly reversed by the initial referee, disqualifying the Warriors for sending Anderson over the top rope in the chaos. Not surprisingly, the crowd shits all over that one, and you can't really blame them. ** ¼ (Original rating: * ¾)

NWA United States Title Cage Match: Lex Luger v Dusty Rhodes: If Rhodes loses, he cannot wrestle for ninety days. Come on, Lex! Lex tries tossing him into the cage right away, but Dusty blocks, and unloads his patented overhead elbowsmash. Luger responds by flexing, which doesn't exactly seem like a particularly sound strategy. Rhodes unloads with jabs, and an atomic drop, but Lex manages to grab a standing side-headlock. Dusty tries for a sleeper, but Luger gets into the ropes before he can lock it on, so Rhodes works an armbar instead. That goes on for a while, until Lex manages to escape, and toss Dusty into the cage to trigger his obligatory bladejob for the night. God, no wonder Rhodes' forehead was so scarred up by the time he retired. I can barely think of one non-WWF match I've seen with him where he doesn't blade. Actually, scratch 'barely' - I can't think of one. Lex with a backbreaker to setup the Torture Rack, but he can barely hoist Dusty up, and has to abandon it by dropping him into the cage instead. Yeah, and I've seen him put fucking Big Show in it, and when Lex was ten years older, no less. He works an armbar, but Rhodes starts dancing, and the American Dream slugs the champion down. A sloppy DDT follows for two, and it's sleeper time. Dusty gets it on this time, so JJ Dillon thinks fast by throwing a chair into the cage. Lex goes for it, but Dusty is ready with a DDT onto the chair before Luger can pick it up for the pin at 16:24. Really boring match that never seemed to get off the ground. ¼* (Original rating: ¼*)

Main Event: NWA World Title Cage Match: Ron Garvin v Ric Flair: The idea of Flair dropping the belt so he can regain it at the biggest show of the year is solid, but did it really have to be forty two year old Ron Garvin? They chop it out to start, and Ron sends him flying across the ring with a hiptoss. Cross corner whip sets up a backdrop, and Flair is begging off. Garvin ignores him and grabs an armbar, then unloads a ten-punch count on his challenger in the corner. Another cross corner whip sets up another backdrop, as Ron looks to be out of ideas only two minutes in. Maybe that's why he belongs in the midcard? You think? Garvin Stomp, but Flair fires a low blow to take control, and he snapmares Garvin over to setup a kneedrop for two. Into the corner, Ric unloads with the chops, and a kneebreaker sets up the Figure Four. I should note that Flair is one of the few wrestlers who actually PROPERLY uses the ropes for leverage, as most guys kinda just touch them to give the illusion of leverage, while Flair actually lifts himself up while applying the hold. Ron won't submit, so Ric lets off, and punishes the knee to wear the champion down some more. Ram into the cage gets blocked, however, and Garvin reverses him into it, then gives him another ride for good measure. Cheese grater busts the challenger open, and Garvin bites at the cut. Ric tries climbing out to escape the assault, but Garvin follows him to the top rope, and rams his face into the rim of the cage to knock him back down. Ric tries climbing again, but this time gets slammed down, and Garvin slaps on his own version of the figure four. Flair gets the ropes, but Garvin stays on the knee after breaking, and unloads some chops in the corner. Ric responds in kind, and they trade shots into the cage. Ron with a flying bodypress for two, and a backslide is worth two. They fight to the top rope again, and Garvin fires off a headbutt to crotch the challenger on the top. That sets up a flying sunset flip for two, and a knockout punch gets two. Guess it wasn't really a 'knockout,' then. Thesz-press, but Flair counters with a stungun into the cage to win back the title at 17:38. The match was fine from a workrate standpoint, but this was certainly the first year where the main event was a total throwaway. Even the fans were loudly cheering the heel Flair's win at the end because Garvin was such a joke in this role. ** (Original rating: **)

BUExperience: While certainly the most modern style Starrcade to that point, it was also the least interesting from a creative standpoint. A really boring show that was a full ninety minutes shorter than the 1986 version, yet somehow managed to feel twice as long.

DUD