I was in the mood for some Starrcade so I hit the Peacock swiftly last night. The one that grabbed my attention was this one, the 1995 Starrcade. I remember watching this in scramblevision with friends when it happened live, and Flair coming out of that triangle match against Sting/Luger then beating Savage for the belt was the most shocked I ever was watching wrestling. I don't think I ever properly sat down and watched this in living color unscrambled, perhaps I had it going on the Network back in the day while writing some fan fiction but at that point it was background noise at best. Watching this last night I really enjoyed this whole show, a lot. The best of 7 of WCW vs Japan was a sweet concept, Benoit vs Liger was sweet, and I like how they booked it for Savage, Luger, and Sting to compete in the best of 7, but Flair is the fresh man doesn't compete in the best of 7 and outlasts Sting and Luger then wins the strap from Savage. 

This whole show just had a really nice vibe, then when you think about the era here coming just a couple months after the cheesefest of Halloween Havoc 95, this was one of those shows that didn't have Hogan and just felt like pure WCW. I remember with this one and with Survivor Series 95 taking place around this time, and then the bloody Bret vs Bulldog match, it was like pro wrestling was actually really sweet around this time(especially if you knew about what was happening in ECW), where as you had several months before and after this little period where it wasn't. 

They should have did the World Cup Of Wrestling best of 7 again, you could have did Mexico vs Japan just cruiserweights how bad ass would that have been in 96 or 97? Also Canada vs USA around 98 when Bret was there.

Nov 25, 2022 1:21:23 GMT Neo Zeed said:

with Survivor Series 95 taking place around this time, and then the bloody Bret vs Bulldog match, it was like pro wrestling was actually really sweet around this time

Darn right! Love this era! WWF was on fire and WCW had finally regained its mojo after that dismal mid 94-mid 95 stretch.

Have to admit I had zero interest in Starrcade 95 though. The WCW vs. New Japan Best of 7 Series the show was built around did nothing for me at the time. I wasn't familiar with most of the NJPW guys and they were barely on tv iirc. Instead the whole storyline revolved around stupid Sonny "Instant Channel Change" Onoo. All those WCW guys getting double booked also annoyed me. And the show inexplicably aired on a Wednesday night! Throw in unfamiliarity with the NJPW guys and the weird Wednesday night choice and it was no surprise decades later when I discovered this show was a buyrate bomb. 

BUT Flair won his belt back so all was right with the world in the end.

Nov 25, 2022 1:46:19 GMT Baker said:

Nov 25, 2022 1:21:23 GMT Neo Zeed said:

with Survivor Series 95 taking place around this time, and then the bloody Bret vs Bulldog match, it was like pro wrestling was actually really sweet around this time

Darn right! Love this era! WWF was on fire and WCW had finally regained its mojo after that dismal mid 94-mid 95 stretch.

Have to admit I had zero interest in Starrcade 95 though. The WCW vs. New Japan Best of 7 Series the show was built around did nothing for me at the time. I wasn't familiar with most of the NJPW guys and they were barely on tv iirc. Instead the whole storyline revolved around stupid Sonny "Instant Channel Change" Onoo. All those WCW guys getting double booked also annoyed me. And the show inexplicably aired on a Wednesday night! Throw in unfamiliarity with the NJPW guys and the weird Wednesday night choice and it was no surprise decades later when I discovered this show was a buyrate bomb. 

BUT Flair won his belt back so all was right with the world in the end.

I'm with you on these NJPW guys, I never cared for any of these dudes, ditto for Alex Wright and Johnny B Badd from team WCW. They jobbed Eddie out to give Japan a clean victory one of their only ones, had Kevin Sullivan do a run in to distract Benoit to cost him the match against Liger, possible payolla from Sonny Ono involved. I'm wondering if the PW rebooking squad can put together a better World Cup with some better wrestlers from Japan. The matches weren't stellar or anything but I just really enjoyed the format of the best of 7 here and the whole tone and feel of the show and the way it was booked with Flair coming out at the end. Just a rare show for this time if I remember correctly they were getting ready to build up to that big goofy cage match to end Hulkamania in early 1996, and were just coming off of one of the GOAT wrestlecrap shows Havoc 95. 

Just watching the show out of context the other night it did seem like WCW had some weird storylines going on with Sting and Luger. I don't remember Luger with Jimmy Hart. There was no Hogan anywhere near the show and the Dungeon Of Doom seemed MIA other than Sullivan costing Benoit his match against Liger. They didn't really mention Hogan much at all either, I think they said he was suspended from WCW TV at the moment. They were talking about the new breed of WCW a lot during the show putting over Benoit and Eddie. 

Hogan got suspended in the lead up for interfering in Savage/Giant on Nitro two weeks out. IIRC this was really sloppy because Flair/Sting/Luger was already on the table, with Sting looking to avenge what happened at Halloween Havoc 1995 and Luger using Jimmy Hart to insert himself into the match to become WCW Champion.

WCW did an awful job of promoting NJPW/WCW. The focus of the show was on Hogan who got wasn't even on the PPV despite getting screwed at consecutive PPVs (both figuratively and literally). I don't think you really need to do all that much to promote that build. You just bring a few NJPW guys come in beat the likes of Hugh Morrus, Mr. JL, Sgt. Craig Pittman, Super Ninja Warrior etc. and lay their shit in. I would have mixed it up more as well with some tag team and six man style matches. You essentially turn Starrcade into a Tokyo Dome show and build from there.

I didn't realise the show was on Wednesday. That's odd but I guess it was the holidays so it wouldn't have been too crazy. I just imagine myself sitting in front of my brand new Windows 1995 slowly waiting for the results to appear and being in raptures that the Nature Boy with a tear in his eye was champion again. For how long? Who knows, but at least we were spared the MegaPowers exploding...for the second time 6 years later!

This PPV did inspire me to book an LWO vs. Onoo Syndicate storyline for WCW 1998, but I completely blew off NJPW and used it as an excuse to book Hayabusa in WCW. I think you just have to bite the bullet and it makes sense with Onoo standing up for his friend Eric Bischoff and offering the services of the best style of Pro Wrestling in the world puroresu. A few weeks there you get matches like Kaz Hayashi vs. Shiima Nabunaga & Kendo Kashin/Jushin Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto/Shinjiro Otani before Eddie announces as per JJ Dillon he has a rematch against Otani next week. Otani wins in a come from behind victory and Eddie declares to Mean Gene that this is far from over. On Thunder JJ Dillon promotes a series of matches, all with different combinations with two of those matches to take place at Starrcade. Both Otani and LWO try to recruit Kidman, but Kidman rejects both after being caught up in the Flock as he prepares to defend against...Dean Malenko? The LWO go over, but Billy drops the Cruiserweight Title at the Tokyo Dome setting up a Three Way for Souled Out.

Then somewhere in there Hayabusa gets involved and then we bump the WWF out of the picture and bring in Michinoku Pro.

Nov 25, 2022 11:59:05 GMT Neo Zeed said:

1. I'm wondering if the PW rebooking squad can put together a better World Cup with some better wrestlers from Japan.

2. Just a rare show for this time if I remember correctly they were getting ready to build up to that big goofy cage match to end Hulkamania in early 1996, and were just coming off of one of the GOAT wrestlecrap shows Havoc 95.

3. Just watching the show out of context the other night it did seem like WCW had some weird storylines going on with Sting and Luger. I don't remember Luger with Jimmy Hart.

1. Muta! For decades I actually thought Muta was on this show. He was the most well known NJPW guy to US audiences. Well, him or Liger, but I missed Liger's first run entirely. The build to this was actually my introduction to Liger. My friends The Three Brothers popped when they found out "Thushin" Liger was returning. But it wasn't so much the talent as the way they were(n't) booked. Aside from Sasaki the NJPW guys were barely on tv. Think they worked one weekend of tv tapings and that was it. Should have had them on more attacking the WCW guys and being jerks to build heat for the big Best of 7 showdown. I couldn't stand Alex Wright & Johnny B. Badd either.

2. This bit got me thinking about the WCW PPVs I was most hyped for. Only 3 I ever ordered were Fall Brawl 95 featuring War Games, World War III 95 featuring its namesake, and Uncensored 96 featuring the Doomsday Cage. Moral of the Story: Gimmick matches=Baker dimes. Was also pretty hyped for Great American Bash 96 and Bash At The Beach 96 but after getting burned with Uncensored (and the other two tbh) I vowed never to pay for another WCW event so we watched them on tape a day or two after they aired. Oh, and we watched BATB on Scramblevision as well to hear JEFF JARRETT show up as the Third Man. Before that I was hyped for Great American Bash 89 (Flair/Funk), Starrcade 90 (Sting/Black Scorpion), and Halloween Havoc 93 (Vader/Cactus), but had no way of watching them.

3. Luger was doing a heel-leaning tweener gimmick where he was still Sting's friend but would always cheat behind his back and be a jerk to the other babyfaces. I didn't like this storyline because it went on forever without going anywhere but a lot of fans praise it nowadays for being something different while also putting Luger over as a natural at playing the disingenuous prick.

The 3 way is so interesting looking back, you had the 3 all time legends Flair, Sting, Luger this should have been so much bigger of a deal, also they didn’t know how to do 3 way match this could have been epic, instead we had the tag element which made it Sting vs Flair for a long time, then Sting vs Luger then Flair takes it with the count out. Then we get a pretty cold Flair vs Savage match, but what a great title win and a great proud moment for the new Horsemen to end the show. Also interesting that Savage vs Flair happened for WWF title at Mania and WCW title at Starrcade.

I got hooked into this era through this show and jumped in and watched some Nitros and some of Superbrawl 96. What an interesting little period, so many crazy awesome matchups week in and week out, I never realized Savage vs Benoit had such a decent match. I guess I really wasn’t watching much WCW during this period I was a WWF kid.

Super interesting watching the Brian Pillman stuff play out. There was an interesting tag match on Nitro that I never see mentioned, it was Pillman and Arn vs Sullivan and Hugh Morris, Pillman is just a major pain in the ass no selling everything until him and Sullivan get into what they tried to make look like a real scrap. Very intriguing what they were going with Pillman, the whole deal fascinates me, especially him having his own 1-900 number and the whole way he popped up in ECW, epic… epic of the cinema.

Damn the Road Warriors fell so flat but man it was nice to see them in that tag division, they could have been booked so much better, pair them up with Hogan or Sting for something big, I always felt like LOD should have always been a major deal like main event caliber stuff. They fell flat instantly here but I got to admit I thought they looked pretty cool in blue.

I made it up to the Booty Man. Jesus Christ. I felt awful for Flair and Arn in that six man match on Nitro.

Nov 28, 2022 2:50:14 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I made it up to the Booty Man. 

Sorry to hear that. You have my sympathy.

Nov 28, 2022 2:48:11 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I got hooked into this era through this show and jumped in and watched some Nitros and some of Superbrawl 96. What an interesting little period, so many crazy awesome matchups week in and week out, I never realized Savage vs Benoit had such a decent match. I guess I really wasn’t watching much WCW during this period I was a WWF kid.

Super interesting watching the Brian Pillman stuff play out. There was an interesting tag match on Nitro that I never see mentioned, it was Pillman and Arn vs Sullivan and Hugh Morris, Pillman is just a major pain in the ass no selling everything until him and Sullivan get into what they tried to make look like a real scrap. Very intriguing what they were going with Pillman, the whole deal fascinates me, especially him having his own 1-900 number and the whole way he popped up in ECW, epic… epic of the cinema.

Damn the Road Warriors fell so flat but man it was nice to see them in that tag division, they could have been booked so much better, pair them up with Hogan or Sting for something big, I always felt like LOD should have always been a major deal like main event caliber stuff. They fell flat instantly here but I got to admit I thought they looked pretty cool in blue.

I could talk about this period for eons. Of course I was more of a WWF guy, but I was really into WCW at the time as well. I even remember that Savage/Benoit match! Some of the best stuff came on the B & C Shows. Fun matches from this period include Konnan/Psicosis from the Clash, the Norton/Ice Train hossfest(s) which lead to Fire & Ice, and Flair/Wright from Worldwide. Oh, and Arn pins Hogan!!!

Of course there was also the Wrestlecrap. Some of it was good fun. Most of it was awful. Wasn't this also the period where the high heeled shoe attack became THE go to main event finish? 

You kids and your Pillman. I didn't get it. Never drew a dime, brother. 

Ed Leslie looked like he was loaded on crack in that 6 man, it is really bizarre stuff that they would think any of this was a good idea. That has to be one of the biggest train wreck matches ever. A low point for all pro wrestling of the 90’s

Nov 28, 2022 3:07:27 GMT Baker said:

Nov 28, 2022 2:48:11 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I got hooked into this era through this show and jumped in and watched some Nitros and some of Superbrawl 96. What an interesting little period, so many crazy awesome matchups week in and week out, I never realized Savage vs Benoit had such a decent match. I guess I really wasn’t watching much WCW during this period I was a WWF kid.

Super interesting watching the Brian Pillman stuff play out. There was an interesting tag match on Nitro that I never see mentioned, it was Pillman and Arn vs Sullivan and Hugh Morris, Pillman is just a major pain in the ass no selling everything until him and Sullivan get into what they tried to make look like a real scrap. Very intriguing what they were going with Pillman, the whole deal fascinates me, especially him having his own 1-900 number and the whole way he popped up in ECW, epic… epic of the cinema.

Damn the Road Warriors fell so flat but man it was nice to see them in that tag division, they could have been booked so much better, pair them up with Hogan or Sting for something big, I always felt like LOD should have always been a major deal like main event caliber stuff. They fell flat instantly here but I got to admit I thought they looked pretty cool in blue.

I could talk about this period for eons. Of course I was more of a WWF guy, but I was really into WCW at the time as well. I even remember that Savage/Benoit match! Some of the best stuff came on the B & C Shows. Fun matches from this period include Konnan/Psicosis from the Clash, the Norton/Ice Train hossfest(s) which lead to Fire & Ice, and Flair/Wright from Worldwide. Oh, and Arn pins Hogan!!!

Of course there was also the Wrestlecrap. Some of it was good fun. Most of it was awful. Wasn't this also the period where the high heeled shoe attack became THE go to main event finish? 

You kids and your Pillman. I didn't get it. Never drew a dime, brother. 

God I would love to have Saturday Night and Worldwide from this period I bet those are good.

Also Neo Zeed you gotta go back a little bit and watch every Mr. Wonderful segment you can find.

Sting seems so wasted in this run of shows from Starrcade 95 to Uncensored 96 I'm watching. I actually like some of what they were doing with Luger's heel character but don't feel like Sting needed to be so heavily involved in all of it.

Then when you look at Starrcade 95, how big of a missed opportunity was that to put Sting over big time, having just wrestled and won the match to win the World Cup for WCW, then immediately wrestle the 3 way with Luger/Flair, had he won that we would have had him in a 3rd match in a row against Savage, which would have been like some next level Bret Hart shit have him pull that out and come out with the strap would have been like a signature Starrcade moment for the Stinger, all of those 3 matches probably running over an hour total.

How awesome is that they brought back Zeus though

He had painted on eyebrows?

Zeus fucking rules. This had to have been like a few months after Friday came out? Damn

Arn cutting promos on "Big brother booty" epic

The build up to Uncensored 96 is the greatest build up to any pay per view in the history of humanity on Earth.

Nov 28, 2022 14:33:45 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Sting seems so wasted in this run of shows from Starrcade 95 to Uncensored 96 I'm watching. 

Sting was wasted in 94 and most of 93 as well. WCW booked him so bad for so long it's a minor miracle he managed to stay over for so long. It's easy to say he got the shaft after Hogan came in, and once upon a time I probably made that statement myself, but the truth is WCW booked him like crap even before Hogan bumped him down to the #2 babyface and then Savage came in to bump him down to #3.

Nov 28, 2022 15:14:00 GMT Neo Zeed said:

He had painted on eyebrows?

lol he really does. 

Nov 28, 2022 15:17:53 GMT Neo Zeed said:

The build up to Uncensored 96 is the greatest build up to any pay per view in the history of humanity on Earth.

It really isn't that far off. Only the Flair/Steamboat Final Countdown video and Who Is The Third Man hype compare when it comes to WCW pay per views. If just the idea of the DOOMSDAY CAGE OF ULTIMATE DOOM wasn't enough, this segment certainly was. I know they had my dimes after this. With The Giant already there and Loch Ness coming in a month earlier I suddenly thought they were growing this endless supply of giants down at that Power Plant of theirs. You know my friends and I popped for ZEUS, and The Solution was just about the biggest dude any of us had ever seen. Our working theory was The Warlord got even bigger.

Just checked what was over on Raw- Bret vs. Tatanka. Nope. Don't remember that one. Nitro had my eyeballs during the main events that night. Shame Uncensored turned out the way it did after all that hype. Literally the worst PPV I ever saw.

I was real excited for Starrcade '95 with the New Japan guys coming in and having the 3 pillars of WCW compete in a triangle match (hence the awkward tag rules.) I liked the Sting/Luger storyline since it built off of past history where they feuded in 1989 and 1991. Last time WCW purists saw Luger he was attacking Sting's leg and getting mercenaries to do his dirty work for him to get rid of Sting so it made sense to me. Flair winning at the end made sense at the time since I don't think WCW wanted their first shot in the Monday Night Wars in Lex losing to guys like Savage and Hogan in prolonged feuds. I was also a big fan of the Flair/Savage stuff from 1995/96 so I was fine with the outcome.

At this time Sting's "Franchise" label was really getting established as he was a working man's US Champion while #1 guy Hogan was taking prolonged breaks. They tested the waters on Nitro with that face vs face match then WCW nudged the narrative a little further as WCW magazine named Sting wrestler of the year over Hogan who was champ most of the year. They also showed Sting doing numerous charity events and also doing ride alongs when WCW introduced it's NASCAR team (remember that?) I guess Sting was a much more tolerable proto-John Cena at this time as he was the true blue company man.

Clearly the Alliance Against Hulkamania needed more guys.

Mr. Wonderful, The Son Of Andre, Big Ron Studd, The Shark, The Homocidal Sheik, Randy Hogan...

Welcome back Shootist

Nov 29, 2022 10:45:34 GMT Big Pete said:

Clearly the Alliance Against Hulkamania needed more guys.

Mr. Wonderful, The Son Of Andre, Big Ron Studd, The Shark, The Homocidal Sheik, Randy Hogan...

Going to take this post seriously.

NO to The Shark, Sheik, and Randy Hogan.

YES to Big Ron Studd. Unironically great idea. Of course the Son of Big John would want to end Hulkamania! Plus he fits into my 1996 mental image of WCW having this secret stash of endless giants they could just keep trotting out. Plus plus it sets up a future Giant title defense on Nitro because of course The Son of Andre would have issues with the Son of Big John! It writes itself. Genuinely brilliant idea and now I'm kicking myself for never having thought of it.

NO to the Son of Andre. This deserves an explanation. At the time I'm sure I wondered why no Giant & Nessie in the match? Surely you'd want your tallest and heaviest man in there if you're trying to end Hulkamania? But now I realize doing so would have two drawbacks...

1. It makes Hogan's inevitable victory too unrealistic. I mean two guys beating eight (including Flair, Lex, Zeus, and The Solution) is already unrealistic, but two guys beating all (or even most) of them plus The Giant & Nessie just takes it way too far into the realms of fantasy land.

2. Giant/Nessie was the best match on the show (see the Match Review thread for more details) and it did wonders for The Giant. He really came across as the biggest badass in the land. Taking that away only to stick him in what was always going to be a cluster would be counterproductive, even downright stupid.

NO with a catch to Mr. Wonderful. Mr. Wonderful should be involved. Great idea! But you've got him on the wrong side. Orndorff would temporarily put aside his age old issues with Hogan to focus on a more immediate issue- Flair, Arn, and the Horsemen who injured him back in December. Have him return here in the (hopefully less awful) Booty Man spot to screw over Flair and Friends. Next night Orndorff can cut a promo on running Pillman out of town. The Loose Cannon wanted no part of Mr. Wonderful so he tucked his tail and ran rather than face Orndorff's wrath. And now he's going to take out the rest of the Horsemen one by one. You'll have to wait until I get back to that "Rebooking The Champions" thread for the rest of the story...

Who was Randy Hogan? Was that the Hogan superfan lookalike guy in the crowd all the time? I read in the Observer writeup for this show that the guy actually moved from Detroit to Atlanta after Hogan signed with WCW. Holy shit why have we not gotten a documentary about this dude yet. I'm curious to know what his day to day routine was like, get up and wash his Hogan gear, maintain his Hogan shrine in his bedroom, practice his poses, like I feel like you could make a TV series out of the dude.

In the Observer they said that WCW was so happy with the World Cup and they made plans to do another one in 1996, but it never happened(I guess because of NWO, or maybe they just forgot).

Dec 8, 2022 11:34:09 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Who was Randy Hogan? Was that the Hogan superfan lookalike guy in the crowd all the time? I read in the Observer writeup for this show that the guy actually moved from Detroit to Atlanta after Hogan signed with WCW. Holy shit why have we not gotten a documentary about this dude yet. I'm curious to know what his day to day routine was like, get up and wash his Hogan gear, maintain his Hogan shrine in his bedroom, practice his poses, like I feel like you could make a TV series out of the dude.

So WCW would often hire job guys and give them sirnames of famous WWF guys just to mess with them.

Disgruntled unemployed Randy seeking revenge against the guy who stole his living, it's a tale as old as time.

Oh fuck

That is solid fucking gold

WCW Starrcade 96

WCW vs UFC World Cup 96

Match one: The Giant d. "The Giant Killer" Mark Hall via chokeslam at :26(WCW leads World Cup 1-0)

Match two: Macho Man Randy Savage vs The Predator Don Frye ends in a no contest, both end up brawling around the arena to the backstage area into the parking lot, then across the street into the bar, with cut ins throughout the rest of the show(WCW leads World Cup 1-0-1)

Match three: Meng vs Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge ends in a no contest after both competitors incapacitate several referees and a camera man that got in the way of their brawl, massive pull apart melee that ends up out near the commentary table where Goodridge body slams a security official through the commentary booth, injuring Tony Shiavonne(stretcher job) on accident. UFC commentator Bruce Beck has to fill in for Shiavonne for the rest of the show. During the delay of them stretchering Shiavonne out of the arena and getting another commentary table set up we get cut ins of Savage vs Frye brawl, both of them eye gouge each other and fish hook each other's mouths a lot in this brawl is what I'm seeing.

Madness has broken out and WCW has lost control of the renegade no-rules UFC fighters, Bobby Heenan is the one to point out that these UFC guys don't fight in a ring, they fight in a cage for a reason, this could get totally out of control tonight this whole World Cup could go out the window. 

(WCW leads World Cup 1-0-2, with 2 no contests this turns the remaining World Cup into essentially a best of 5, with WCW having a 1-0 head start, UFC will need to win 3 of the last 5 matches to win, while WCW needs 2 more victories in the remaining matches to clinch it)

Match four: Lex Luger vs Tank Abbott ends in a double count out at 4:47, lots of taunting between these two before the match in biggest contrast of body and lifestyles, the perfect bodybuilder physique athlete against the fat beer belly bar room brawler. Luger ends up fighting off members of Tank's entourage on the floor before getting blindsided by Tank. The two brawled on the floor until getting counted out, eventually Luger backed Tank and his entourage away with a steel chair to stand tall in the ring. WCW still leads World Cup series 1-0-3

Match five: Mark "The Hammer" Coleman d. Scott Norton via neck crank submission in :52 squash, evening up UFC to 1-1-3 in the World Cup Series setting Coleman(who's undefeated 2 time UFC tournament champ at this point, thought to be unbeatable) up for WCW contract and big push in 97.

Match six: Ken Shamrock d. Chris Benoit via submission at 16:51 in the MOTN to put UFC up 2-1-3 in the World Cup Series, WCW is in major trouble of losing World Cup at this point

Match seven: Sting(still surfer dude) d. Kimo via Scorpion Deathlock at 2:17 in HUGE victory ties the World Cup Series 2-2-3 , whole psychology throughout the cup is that UFC brawlers overtake WCW guys outside the ring on the floor. Kimo does that to Sting a bit in a fast furious intense 137 second match but Sting uses the strategy of getting the match back inside the ring where he's able to make a comeback for the clean submission victory. WCW stands tall in the end, but UFC doesn't lose