WCW Starrcade 1990

[DCMaximo 0]

WCW STARRCADE 1990

 

Your hosts are Jim Ross and Paul E. Dangerously

 

“BEAUTIFUL” BOBBY EATON vs “Z-MAN” TOM ZENK

The Starrcade Stats list Bobby’s hometown as “The Dark Side (formerly Huntsville, Alabama)”. Z-Man takes an early advantage with a pair of crossbodies and proceeds to work over Eaton’s arm. Eaton makes the comeback with a clumsy looking shoulderblock, but Zenk regains control after landing on his feet following a monkey flip. Zenk suplexes Eaton out of the ring and flies over the top rope with a crossbody to the ramp, which looked pretty cool. Eaton takes the advantage with a bulldog, followed by the Alabama Jam, but doesn’t cover. Another top rope move is met by a Zenk superkick. Zenk misses a top rope dropkick, which allows an Eaton small package for 3. Good fast paced little match, which put Eaton over as a singles competitor, but also allowed Zenk to retain some credibility (for the time being at least) **1/2

 

Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament: Round One

 

SOUTH AFRICA (COLONEL DEKLERK & SGT. KREUGER) vs USA (STEINER BROTHERS)

Kreuger is Matt Borne before his proper WCW stint as wrestling lumberjack Big Josh and DeKlerk is the late Ted Petty, better known as “Flyboy” Rocco Rock. DeKlerk dishes out the early offence on Rick, with a leg lariat and hits a tope suicida, where Rick sadly fails to catch him, letting him drop to the floor. Tag to Scott leads to a tilt-a-whirl slam and the Frankensteiner for 3. Far too short, as will be the case with a lot of the matches on the tape, but it was pretty good while it lasted. *3/4

 

GREAT BRITAIN (CHRIS ADAMS & NORMAN SMILEY) vs MEXICO (KONNAN & REY MISTERIO)

The Starrcade Stats show Norman as hailing from the West Indies, which doesn’t speak well for the national pride of the British team. Misterio looks totally badass and not what I imagined Rey Jr’s uncle to look like. Really good fast-paced match, with no resting at all. Adams clears the ring with his trademark superkick, but the Mexican’s comeback with a nice doubleteam, where Misterio dropkicks Norman into a Konnan backslide for 2. The Brits show their own doubleteam skills with another Adams superkick into a Smiley German suplex on Konnan. Konnan finishes Smiley with a nice reverse suplex from the top. Excellent match, especially for the timeframe, and easily the best of the first round matches ***

 

NEW ZEALAND (JACKO VICTORY & RIP MORGAN) vs JAPAN (GREAT MUTA & MR. SAITO)

Dangerously tells us that he thought Muta was going to be the Black Scorpion, which in retrospect would have been a pretty cool choice. Victory and Muta start off with a pretty nice sequence, which culminates with a Muta top rope shoulderblock onto the ramp. Saito slows the pace with some matwork on both New Zealanders. Muta hits some of his usual beautiful offence (powerdrive elbow, handspring elbow). The end comes when Morgan misses a clothesline on Saito and hits Victory into a Muta German suplex for 3. Not great, but not terrible, but still too short to be any good *

 

CANADA (BULL JOHNSON & TROY MONTAUR) vs RUSSIA (VICTOR ZANGIEV & SALMON HASIMIKOV)

Canada, home of some of the greats in modern wrestling, get the most laughable team of the tournament, consisting of a fat Native American and a what looks like an early prototype of Blackjack Bradshaw. The Russians also look pretty odd and quite gruesomely hairy. Zangiev starts with Johnson and stretches the shit out of him. Johnson tries his own matwork, but Zangiev makes him look pretty silly and downs him with a sweet belly to belly. Montaur tries his luck against Hasimikov, but gets suplexed an armbar for 3. The high spot of the contest comes when Johnson tries to scare the Russians away with a laughable “war dance”, in spite of the total asskicking that has just been administered. The Russians looked really good, but they were working with morons here ½*

 

TERRY TAYLOR vs MICHAEL WALLSTREET

This is Wallstreet during the infamous “York Foundation” angle, which, if nothing else, proved that Terri Runnels is no natural beauty. A clock appears, timing down from 8:32, which is how long the computer claims Wallstreet will need to beat Taylor. Taylor is all over Wallstreet to start, with a pair of dropkicks and a massive flying clothesline, before Wallstreet comes back to work over the arm of Taylor. A Taylor comeback is cut short by a Wallstreet backbreaker. Taylor’s second comeback is more successful, as he hits the FiveArm, but it knocks Wallstreet close enough to the ropes for him to force a break on the pin. Wallstreet fires back with a StunGun and the Stock Market Crash (Samoan Drop) for 3 with 1:40 to spare. Much, much better than IRS vs the Red Rooster should have been **3/4

 

MOTORCITY MADMAN & BIG CAT vs SKYSCRAPERS (SID VICIOUS & DANNY SPIVEY)

The Madman looks like a really fat DDP. Total squash as the Skyscrapers hit a pair of clotheslines in the corner and double powerbomb the Madman out of WCW. Really short, as it should have been and it was kinda fun to watch so ¾* is what it gets.

 

TOMMY RICH & RICKY MORTON vs THE FABULOUS FREEBIRDS

Rich and Morton are accompanied by Robert Gibson, who is on crutches due to a Freebirds attack. Rich and Morton would later become stablemates in the York Foundation. Morton and Rich take the advantage and secure stereo figure four leglocks on the Birds, which is an attempt at getting vengeance for the leg injury caused to Gibson. Kind of a disorganised mess with nothing of any real note to talk about, and Ricky doesn’t even get to be face in peril. Match ends (thankfully) when the Birds manager, Little Richard Marley, attempts to break Ricky’s leg from the top rope, but gets knocked off by Gibson onto Jimmy Garvin. This prevents Garvin from giving Rich the DDT and leaves him prone to a Morton roll-up for 3. The Freebirds assault Marley after the match, giving them a string of future managers including Diamond Dallas Page and Big Daddy Dink (Sir Oliver Humperdink). Rich and Morton make the save, as all good faces should, but in doing so leave Gibson on his own for the Freebirds to assault. HAHA! Match was dreadful, dreadful, fucking dreadful DUD.

 

Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament: Round Two

 

STEINER BROTHERS vs KONNAN & REY MISTERIO

Handshake to start, and Rick and Konnan do a nice mat wrestling sequence to start. The Steiners hit a double team top rope bulldog on Konnan, leading to an abrupt end, where Rick catches Misterio on a rana attempt for a powerbomb for the victory. Given some time (i.e., more than two minutes) this could have been great, but as it was, it was far too short *1/4

 

VICTOR ZANGIEV & SALMON HASIMIKOV vs MR. SAITO AND THE GREAT MUTA

Again, far too short, but at least the Russians got some offence in, as both Zangiev and Hasimikov are able to demonstrate their beautiful suplex variations. Saito picks up the win over Zangiev following a suplex *1/2

 

STAN HANSEN (champion) vs LEX LUGER (Texas Lariat Match for the WCW US Championship)

A Texas Lariat match seems to be identical to any other bullrope/ chain match, but the announcers play it up as Hansen’s speciality. The two men brawl back and forth, until Luger takes the advantage by choking Hansen. Hansen takes the advantage with a chairshot. Nice touch, where Luger regains the advantage, but tries to pin Hansen, proving that Stan has the advantage in his speciality match. Hansen hits a clumsy back suplex on Luger and touches 3 turnbuckles, before Luger cuts him off with a clothesline. Lex dominates Hansen and hits four turnbuckles, but knocks out referee Randy Anderson while hitting the fourth. This allows Hansen to hit Luger with his boot and hit all four turnbuckles in front of replacement ref Nick Patrick. However, the power of the Dusty finish comes in, as Anderson wakes up and reveals that, in fact, he DID see Luger hit all four turnbuckles, which gives Luger his US title back. Rather a dull brawl, with a cheap finish, that went on far too long, especially compared with the other matches on the card *1/2

 

DOOM (champions) vs BARRY WINDHAM/ ARN ANDERSON (Streetfight for the WCW Tag Team championship)

Now THIS is how to do a brawl. Barry is replacing Ric Flair here, which is OK because Windham is better suited to the brawling style of Doom. Both teams dish out a vicious ass-whipping here, with some brutal looking belt shots by Arn Anderson on Ron Simmons. AA savages Simmons’ legs on the ramp with a chair, before levelling Butch Reed with a sick chairshot. Doom fight back with some badass offence of their own, with Simmons slamming Windham on the ramp before taking Anderson down with a huge spinebuster. The only thing that brings this match down is yet another cop out finish, this time a double pin, with Windham catching Reed in a small package while Simmons pins AA following a clothesline. Both teams fight to the back. In spite of the dumb ending, this match was awesome, especially in contrast to the rather flaccid brawl that preceded it, and it still holds up well today ***1/2

 

MR SAITO & THE GREAT MUTA vs THE STEINER BROTHERS (Pat O’Connor Memorial Tournament Final)

This match can essentially be split into two parts- the good part (whenever Muta is in the ring) and the bad (whenever Saito is in the ring). Why a man so clearly out of shape as Saito was booked in three matches here is beyond belief. Muta and Scott start with a nice sequence, which is followed by the lamer Rick and Saito sequence, where the only move Saito does is punch, punch, punch. Rick end up receiving the heat section, being rammed into the ringpost by Saito, then getting hit with the ring bell by Muta. Saito chokes Rick, and the evil Japanese double team Rick behind the ref’s back. Rick tags Scott after a Steinerline, but then Scott too ends up in peril, receiving a vicious looking spike piledriver. Scott makes the blind tag to Rick, who pins Saito with a top rope sunset flip. Disappointing end to the tournament, especially as Mr. Saito was clearly knackered at this point. The Scott/ Muta sequences carried it though, but the result was never in doubt *3/4

 

STING (champion) vs THE BLACK SCORPION (Cage Match for the WCW World Heavyweight championship)

Dick the Bruiser is the guest referee, prompting Paul E to make very appropriate Popeye jokes. Four different Scorpions come to the ring, before a mysterious spaceship lowers to the ramp, before opening up to reveal the REAL Black Scorpion. The mask doesn’t fit the Scorpion very well however, as flashes of silvery blond hair pop out from the edges. Sting blocks an attempt to ram him into the cage and takes the advantage, only for the Black Scorpion to stall and take over with a cheap shot. Scorpion uses a very methodical offence, mainly because he has to hide his usual style from the fans. He doesn’t do a great job- a funny spot occurs when the Scorpion uses the ropes for leverage during a chinlock, Bruiser takes them down, Scorpion puts them up, Bruiser puts them down. This repeats at least eight times. Sting comes back with a gorilla press, but flies into the cage on a missed crossbody. Bruiser is a terrible ref, counting really slowly and generally being out of position. Scorpion piledriver gets 2. A Stinger Splash reveals more of the Scorpion’s style, as it prompts the Black Scorpion to do a Flair Flop. Of course, the fact that some fans are chanting “Nature Boy” shows that no one was fooled. Black Scorpion gets to the ropes on a Scorpion Deathlock and when Sting pulls off the mask, another mask is being worn underneath. The Scorpion goes up top, but gets crotched. A top rope crossbody gets 3 for Sting. Suddenly the other Scorpions attack Sting and Bruiser, getting unmasked to reveal Sgt. DeKlerk, among others. As Sting grabs the Scorpion, Windham and Anderson come back to the ring, and kick his ass with some vicious chairshots. The Steiners, alongside the other faces make the save, allowing Sting to unmask the Scorpion as….Ric Flair, to the surprise of no one. Not as good as Sting/ Flair normally is, but considering the bullshit storyline around it, they did the best they could **1/2

 

HIGHEST RATING: ***1/2 (Doom vs Barry Windham and Arn Anderson)

 

LOWEST RATING: DUD (Freebirds vs Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton)

 

AVERAGE RATING: 1.73 stars (24.25/14)

 

In spite of the poor average star rating for the event, I reckon this show is certainly worth searching for. Not only do you get a couple of excellent matches (Doom/Horsemen, Mexico/UK, Taylor/Wallstreet), but you get the end of one of the most infamous angles ever, the start of Sid’s dominant career as a monster, and the opportunity to see some wrestling styles not normally associated with early 90’s WCW. No match, bar the US title match, is long enough to outstay it’s welcome and the end result is a fun little wrestling show.

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

Scott Kieth is writing reviews on this board now?

[Guest The Real Nosferatu]

Scott Kieth is writing reviews on this board now?

I'd have to agree, that is WAY too Scott Keith'ish. Especially when you describe how good something is and never actually say why or what it was that was so good.

 

And whats wrong w/ Rotundo/Taylor? Both were pretty good, solid workers, and shitting on them because of one gimmick is totally retarded.

[DCMaximo 0]

Points duly noted and taken on board. In my defence, I will say..

 

1. Sorry, I never liked Rotunda as a worker- he always seemed to boring to me. I should have put that his good match was a shock to me, instead of ripping on Taylor, who I actually liked as a worker. Although if the WWF had been booking this match, as Rooster vs IRS, it would have sucked, because of the way those characters were booked (Rooster as an unsure rookie). This is what I meant to imply and I'm sorry this wasn't clear enough.

 

2. As this is only my third attempt at doing this, I'm still trying to find my own style. Because Keith is the net recapper I've read most, it's his style that I'm using as a guideline. As time goes on, and I get more practise, my own style will hopefully come through.

 

Thanks for the feedback, because in the end it will make me better at this. At least there was less play by play this time