Starrcade 1993

WCW Starrcade
December 27, 1993
Charlotte, NC
Independence Arena

The current WCW & NWA Champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Big Van Vader (3/17/1993)
WCW International World Champion: Rick Rude (9/19/1993)
WCW U.S. Champion: Dustin Rhodes (8/30/1993)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Nasty Boys (10/24/1993)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (9/19/1993)

They start the show with a video package featuring famous Ric Flair clips set to a piano song until it turns EVIL with Vader interrupting with clips of him stiffing people in the corner and breaking people’s backs!

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura.

Vader came early to the arena to work out. Pfft, he drives a Pontiac Booneville. Sorry, that is just not what a world champion would drive. As for Flair, he hung out with Mean Gene at this house as he said goodbye to his family. They try to give this a Rocky IV-type feel when Rocky fights Drago – the Russian who punches REALLY hard! He might not come back alive! Speaking of hard, it’s hard to imagine little Reid here would grow up and be such a cool guy with his bowl cut. It’s also hard to imagine looking at David here, that he could possibly get any women with the words “fitness model” included on her resume. Woo!

• Pretty Wonderful (w/The Assassin) vs. Too Cold Scorpio & Marcus Alexander Bagwell (w/Teddy Long)
  

Pretty Wonderful storm the ring to start, but Scorpio and Bagwell put them out on the floor. Scorpio and Bagwell control with armbars until Bagwell tries for a sleeper hold on Orndorff. Uh oh, Roma draws Scorpio in and lowers the boom off the top to break the hold. Roma hits a pair of backbreakers and connects with a jumping elbow drop for two. Orndorff tags and delivers a back suplex for two. Back to Roma, double-arm suplex gets two. Roma tries a FLYING SPLASH, but Bagwell moves and hot tags Scorpio. He looks to put Orndorff away, as the Assassin gets up the apron, loads up his mask with some international object, and headbutts Scorpio during a headscissors. Orndorff covers for 1-2-3. (11:46) Nick Patrick, your daddy is SUCH a cheater. Pretty much your standard tag match. *½

• The Shockmaster vs. King Kong (w/Awesome Kong)

Noooooooo. Shockmaster is double-teamed to begin the match, but Kong runs into a boot and takes a slam for the 1-2-3. (1:34) Oh that lovable oaf Uncle Fred. Everybody loves an idiot in wrestling. At least for a little while. CRAP

• WCW World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) vs. Ricky Steamboat
  

Neat start as Regal uses his foot to go behind Steamboat’s knee to ground him to the mat during a tie-up. The director apparently would rather look at Sir William instead of Regal doing something to Steamboat’s arm that would dictate the next several minutes of the match. Regal applies a wristlock and Steamboat escapes by flipping Regal around. They fight over a hiptoss, leading to a double heel trip and a rollup from Steamboat for two. Steamboat gets the hiptoss for another two. Criss-cross ensues and Regal falls back into another rollup for two. Regal goes from the arm to the leg now as he twists the ankle, but Steamboat enziguris him away. Steamboat hits the Flying Judo Chop for 1-2-NO! Steamboat works an armbar and then goes to a flip-over hammerlock. Regal bridges out of a headscissors and delivers some European forearms with three minutes left in the time-limit. Steamboat chops back and they go to the floor where Sir Williams baits Steamboat around into a Regal dropkick. Back in, Steamboat armdrags Regal around and reverses a butterfly suplex into one of his own for 1-2-NO! One minute left! Back to the floor they go where Regal and Sir William receive a DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER! In the ring, Steamboat whiffs on the FLYING BODYPRESS! Ahh, there’s only ten seconds left. Steamboats hits a bridging German suplex, but the time-limit has expired. (15:00) Actually it was more like 13:10 in real time, but WCW time is always a little fast. There was some nice wrestling in this one as you would expect. Nothing that blow me away though. **¾

• Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne vs. Shanghai Pierce & Tex Slazenger
  

Sad to see Cactus going from main-eventing a PPV to wrestling the Godwinns in the mid-card in all of two months. But hey, that’s WCW during the Bischoff era. Payne and Pierce start the match. Slams abound! Jack and Slazenger tag in and all I can think of is Naked Mideon and Commissioner Foley hijinks. They brawl a little bit and then Jack drops an armbreaker DDT. Payne misses a splash in the corner and Pierce gets a tag. Pier-six brawl erupts and the Texicans get dumped. To follow that up, Payne whips Cactus into the ropes and backdrops Cactus over the top onto Slazenger. Meanwhile, Pierce gets caught coming off the top onto Payne to set up the PAYNE KILLER. Slazenger breaks it up, but Payne comes back with a double-clothesline and hot tags Cactus. Some heel miscommunication leads to a Cactus DOUBLE-ARM DDT on Pierce for 1-2-3. (7:50) Just a match to establish the new Cactus/Payne team. **

NASCAR driver Kyle Petty makes an appearance and compares his dad Richard Petty to Flair. Two guys who didn’t know when to retire.

• WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Dustin Rhodes vs. Steve Austin (w/Col. Robert Parker) – 2/3 Falls

THE MEGATEXANS EXPLODE! Austin gets caught in a headscissors to start and a Bionic Elbow puts him on the floor. Back in, Dustin applies a headlock. They fight over a backslide, which Rhodes wins as Austin takes another walk out to the floor. Back in again, Austin trips up Rhodes and drops an elbow across the throat on the apron. Rhodes reverses a whip that sends Austin over the guardrail and clear into the third row! Nice! They head back in the ring where Dustin grabs another headlock. Austin cheapshots Rhodes in the corner to escape and face slams him for two. They slug it out and Austin hits a back elbow for two. Rhodes gets thrown out, but comes back in with a sunset flip for two. Rhodes turns his back on Austin when he goes after Parker and pays for it with a blow to the back of the head. Austin hits a back suplex for two. Double-KO follows. Austin misses the flying elbow and that cues Dustin’s comeback. Uh oh, not the Flip Flop Fly! Rhodes hits the Lariat for 1-2-NO! Parker’s up on the apron, so Rhodes throws Austin into Parker which inadvertently sends Austin flying over the top rope in the process. That’s a DQ, sir! (13:28 Austin – 1 Rhodes – 0) Rhodes is PISSED! Instead of just chillin’ for the 30-second rest period, he heads to the floor and posts Austin to draw some blood. After the 30 seconds are up, the lights go dim and we have to watch the match by spotlights. Could be incompetence, and could be because of some blood. Even though it’s PPV. Rhodes is in total control with a suplex and a ten-count corner punch rallies up the crowd. Out of nowhere though, Austin trips him up out of the corner and desperately pulls the tights for the 1-2-3. Austin finally wins the US title! (16:18 Austin – 2 Rhodes – 0) Both guys were deemed as the future of WCW throughout the ’90s. Funny, because they’ll both be gone in 18 months. Rhodes would never win another championship in WCW regardless of the fact that his daddy is still booking, and Austin would be fired via FedEx regardless of the fact that he was one of the most over heels in WCW for the last several years. *½

• WCW International World Champion Rick Rude vs. The Boss
  

This was supposed to be Rick Rude vs. Davey Boy Smith, but WCW received word that Davey Boy Smith had beat up a guy in a Calgary bar to the point of brain damage. You can’t have one of your biggest babyfaces doing that. Plus, he had been no-showing some dates, so WCW made an example out of him by giving him his release. Yeah, they killed two birds with one stone there. Anyways, the (Big) Boss (Man) comes in and makes a surprise debut when Rude got on the mic a couple weeks back on Saturday Night and said that he had beaten everybody in WCW. Apparently he forgot about *this* guy. Rude talked junk about Bossman’s mama in the WWF back in ’90, and the feud was never blown off due to Rude leaving the company. Now they have a chance, but they’re not going to bring all that nonsense back up. Oh no, not WCW. On that night, the Boss pinned Rude in a non-title match and now the Boss gets his title shot. Lots of talking to start. Boss hawks up a NASTY loogie and spits it at Rude. I mean, you could weigh that thing in POUNDS, people. Gross. Boss gives Rude a huge backdrop and a big boot. Rude gets stuck in a tree of woe on the apron, allowing the Boss to get in some free shots to the ribs. Back in the ring, Boss grabs a bearhug. Hey, that’s Rude’s move! Rude bites out, but gets caught coming off the top. Rude avoids a Bossman straddle and sunset flips back in for 1-2-3. (9:08) If this was the kind of match they were looking for in ’90-’91, then I would’ve been really disappointed. When somebody talks about my mama, I just want to brawl like a crazy lunatic. Tables, chairs and barbed-wire bats! Yeah! It’s all necessary! ½*

• WCW World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys (w/Missy Hyatt) vs. Sting & Road Warrior Hawk
  

Missy is wearing a peek-a-boo dress tonight and carries a whip to ringside. By the end of the night, she’ll be fired. Hahaha. Yes. So much stalling and “working the crowd” to begin things. Finally, Sting and Knobbs square off. He clears the ring so that Hawk can press Sting out on top of the Nasties. Now we get Sags and Hawk. SummerSlam 1991, this is not. Hawk double-clotheslines the champs and hits Sags with an enziguri. Sting and Hawk go to work on Knobbs’ arm. That is until Hawk misses a charge in the corner and runs into the ringpost. Missy gets in a HUGE slap on Hawk. Back in, Knobbs applies a Fujiwara armbar, followed by a code red armbar by Sags. Hawk clotheslines out with his bad arm and collapses to the mat. False tag to Sting, Hawk boots the Nasties away and actually gets the tag to Sting. He goes DROPKICK CRAZY and covers Knobbs after a clothesline, but Sags elbow drops Knobbs by accident for the break. He caught Sting a little bit too there. The Nasties take their belts and try to go home, but they’re brought back to the ring. Sting tries a flying splash on Knobbs, but it hits knees. Knobbs looked like he was going to miss something off the middle rope, but Sting didn’t move in time and gets nailed anyway. Ouch. Sting gets sent over the top rope, in plain sight of the referee, and everybody acts like it didn’t happen. Missy uses her whip on Sting, which wakes him up, so Sags drops him with a clothesline. Back in, Knobbs delivers a suplex for two. The Nasties trade off on ab stretches. Sags hits the Pumphandle Slam and hurts his back as he tags in Knobbs to sit down on a chinlock. Hawk finally breaks it up with a stomp. Back to the ab stretch. Knobbs hits one splash off the middle rope, which was obviously not supposed to happen. He tries again and Sting gets the boot up to block. Hawk gets decked off the apron as the Nasties splash Sting in the corner. Knobbs wants the NASTY ELBOW DROP, but Hawk clotheslines out to the rampway and crotches Sags. Hot tag to Hawk, shoulderblocks abound. Sags and Hawk go to the floor as Sting hits the Stinger Splash inside the ring. Missy’s up on the apron. She gets a kiss from Sting. DOOMSDAY DEVICE to Knobbs! Sting covers as Missy hops in the ring and tries to pull Sting off of Knobbs for the DQ – popping out of her top in the process. Don’t be alarmed or interested, you can’t see anything. (28:50) Everyone is confused. This is one of the worst tag team title matches I’ve ever seen on PPV. There were multiple screwed-up spots, a dreadfully boring middle, and a horrible finish where nobody walks away looking good. Especially not Missy, but that’s a given. By the way, who keeps thinking that 30-minute long Nasty Boys matches are a GOOD thing? They are just not the kind of tag team who can do a solid 30 minutes. You get them in, you let them do their thing, and get them out. Otherwise, everybody suffers. I mean, who is Missy banging so that she can be out in front of a camera for that long? CRAP

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion Big Van Vader (w/Harley Race) vs. Ric Flair
  

If Flair loses, he vows to retire. Oh, but the ‘Flair for the Gold’ segments will still go on. Vader tells Jesse to get comfortable, because he’s going to hurt Flair slowly. Naturally, some HUGE love from the crowd going out to Flair during this match. You can see Flair is holding back the tears as he waits for Buffer to say his name. Such a mark! For Flair fans, the “big match feel” is at its peak. Vader shoves off the tie-ups to start. Flair runs around the ring to screw with Vader’s head. Vader grabs a knucklelock and headbutts Flair down. Flair tries to turn it around in the corner with some chops, but Vader is not impressed and shoves Flair away. Flair takes a breather and comes back in only to get stuck in the corner, which is where you don’t want to be with Vader. He beats him down in the corner and press slams Flair in the middle of the ring. Flair heads to the floor and Vader follows him out to drop him throat-first on the guardrail. Vader misses an avalanche up against the guardrail and Flair starts chopping. From there, Flair sends Vader into the ringpost. Just when Flair gets an opportunity to gain the advantage over Vader, Harley Race nails Flair from behind. Vader gives Flair a pair of suplexes. Vader pounds away some more in the corner. Flair tries to chop back, but Vader standing powerslams him instead for two. Vader comes off the middle rope with a clothesline and then tries a splash, but nobody’s home. Flair connects with THREE flying fist drops to put Vader down. He hits the Rolling Knee Drop, but Vader’s back up with a clothesline. Vader follows up with a superplex and then drops an elbow between the legs. Flair sells it like DEATH. Vader connects with a Vaderbomb and tosses Flair out to Harley Race for some stomping. Back in again, Flair chops away like a madman. Vader slows him down with an avalanche. Vader brings Flair out of the corner and Flair starts firing back. He punches Vader down to his knees and then all the way down until he falls flat on his back. Flair posts the leg and while Race is arguing with the ref, Flair beats Vader’s knee with a chair! Flair continues to pound away on Vader’s face. Harley Race continues to bark at the ref, so Flair grabs the chair again and hits Vader in the head. Back in they go, Flair keeps on pounding and actually resorts to biting the champ! Flair drops down on the knee and tries for the FIGURE-FOUR, but Vader kicks him off. He tries a Pump Splash, but Flair moves and applies the FIGURE-FOUR! He’s got Vader in the middle of the ring. Harley Race is going insane on the apron. He’s begging Vader to get the ropes, and he does. Flair runs into a boot in the corner and takes another elbow drop in between the legs. Vader heads up top for the MOONSAULT, but Flair moves again. Flair covers, but Vader presses him off as Harley Race comes off the top with a Diving Headbutt. Not the Benoit kind, he just falls down and lands on you with his head. Ref Randy Anderson shoves Race out of the ring. Flair hits a running forearm and chops some more, but then comes off the ropes into another Vaderbomb. Vader turns away to regroup, but Flair grabs a leg and trips Vader up. He gets enough of a rollup for the 1-2-3! (21:08) And the Independence Arena no longer has a roof. At the time, this was really satisfying to finally see SOMEBODY beat Vader for the belt. The match delivered in spades by telling a great story and it kept you in total suspense the entire time. They finally gave the WCW fans what they wanted and that was another Flair title run. It proved to be the right direction to go as we get set for Hogan to enter WCW in about six months and change all of that. ****½

Ricky Steamboat, Sting and Flair’s family all meet him backstage to celebrate, even though Ric can barely speak due to the brutal beating he just received.

Final Thoughts: Starrcade 1993 is obviously a one match show and in this day and age of the streaming video on the internet, there’s really no reason to buy/rent/download this show. Everything outside of Flair/Vader was either poorly performed rematches or matches that range anywhere from decent to downright awful. Thumbs down for Starrcade 1993.