Starrcade 1995 Review

Wednesday, December 27th, 1995
Nashville Municipal Auditorium
Nashville, Tennessee

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Well, my main gripe is that I had no idea what the matches were tonight and they kick off the show running through them really quickly as part of the short intro. We're then welcomed by Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan. 

Chris Benoit vs. Jushin Liger

We get some good wrestling, which is shocking, I know. The crowd is behind Benoit because of this being the World Cup. Liger shows off some of his submission mastery by putting on about 3 holds in the matter of a minute. This was the obvious choice for the opener and it is paying dividends because Benoit really hasn't been featured a ton on Nitro lately. He hits a superplex and that gets a nice pop from the crowd. Benoit misses with the diving headbutt and Liger hits a sitdown powerbomb for a 2 count. Benoit comes back with some German suplexes and then a traditional powerbomb. He hits the diving headbutt this time and out comes Kevin Sullivan with Jimmy Hart pulling him back. It distracts Benoit and Liger sort of hits a hurricanrana into a pin and picks up the victory. A rare botch by Liger. This was a solid match and made the whole World Cup thing feel important. 

Match Rating: ***1/2

Eddie Guerrero is with Mean Gene and he struggles getting out his words on how he felt about Kevin Sullivan interfering. This is a great example of how far Eddie came in his time from WCW to headliner in WWE. 

Koji Kanemoto vs. Alex Wright

Kanemoto is not someone I am familiar with other than the one time I watched this show years ago. The crowd chants "USA" despite neither man being from there. Wrestling fans at their finest. Wright hits a dive over the top rope and to the floor. Kanemoto kind of no sells it and yells at a fan instead. This one has kind of felt like a bunch of moves here so far. Kanemoto then hits a dive of his own. Kanemoto hits a moonsault and decides not to pin Wright and the announcers are baffled. Wright hits a German suplex into a bridge and gets a 2 count. Kanemoto comes off the top rope and Wright hits him with a dropkick. He then climbs up top and hits a big missile dropkick. Wright hits a superplex and gets a 2 count. Kanemoto then sneaks in a pinfall and picks up the victory to go up 2-0. This was not a bad match, but I didn't really get the story they were trying to tell. 

Match Rating: **1/2

Mean Gene hypes up the hotline before talking to Sonny Ono. He talks about wanting to go up 5-0, which Mean Gene corrects him and says they would stop at 4-0. Sonny then says that maybe he'll buy WCW and Iowa because everything in America is for sale. 

Masahiro Chono vs. Lex Luger

It really is crazy to me how over Luger is in WCW coming off an absolutely awful first half of 1995 in WWF. Chono hits a big boot and finall slows down Luger. For the record, Luger is the first of the 3 competitors to represent WCW that is actually from America. Chono slaps on the STF and this match has really slowed down quickly after a solid start. Dusty makes fun of Tony for knowing the names of moves. Chono goes off the top rope and Luger hits him with a back elbow. He throws him up in the Torture Rack and that's all. He celebrates with Jimmy and they insist the crowd is cheering him because of the World Cup. I don't think that's the case here. This was pretty meh.

Match Rating: *

Mean Gene is now with Sting. Sting is so cheesy, but there really is something about his honesty that is enjoyable. 

Johnny B. Badd vs. Masa Saito

Ono gets on the mic and says that Kimberly is everything that is wrong with America and then she gets on the mic and this is all bad. Saito is 53 years old here. After some stalling, they begin to start slapping chests. I'm not sure I've ever seen Badd do that. The crowd is absolutely dead for this one as Saito is slowly just working on Badd. Badd makes a comeback and hits a sunset flip off the top rope for a 2 count. Badd grabs Ono on the apron and Saito attacks him and we get kind of a botched finish with Saito struggling to get Badd over the top. He eventually does and we get a DQ finish to tie everything up at 2-2. Badd dropkicks Saito out of the ring and this was all not very good. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Jimmy Hart and Luger are with Mean Gene. This is what WCW is all about according to Luger. He calls Savage a pathetic, one-armed champion. This is a really long interview for some reason. 

Shinjiro Ootani vs. Eddie Guerrero 

Please explain to me why Ric Flair doesn't have a match against NJPW and why Sting's match is right before the triangle match? I always felt like WCW was stupid about things like that. Our first bit of action ends with Guerrero hitting a hurricanrana. Guerrero slaps on the Boston crab and Dusty plays the role of Gorilla Monsoon saying that he isn't doing it correctly. Eddie hits a couple of high impact moves with a powerbomb and brainbuster. Ootani comes back with a springboard missile dropkick and then a dive to the floor. We're kind of getting some slower action than I thought and then they are hitting some high impact moves. Eddie hits a top rope hurricanrana and a sit down powerbomb for a 2 count. Eddie hits a springboard reverse crossbody to Ootani on the floor. Guerrero hits a hurricanrana into a pin and we get a few counters into pins and Ootani gets the better of it for the victory. This was a solid match that felt like it could have been better had they worked a little bit better pace. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

Savage has a backstage interview with Mean Gene and we get a very early 90s style interview here from him in a great way. This was a fun moment. 

Tenzan vs. Randy Savage

I still think it's so weird that they booked a triangle match where the winner faces Savage and then made these guys be part of the World Cup. Why not have some of your other wrestlers take those spots? The crowd is pretty quiet for a Savage match, which tells you how this World Cup is going. Tenzan mostly dominates and it's pretty plotting. HE hits a top rope headbutt, but it's not enough. Dusty Rhodes trying to tell Savage how to do a suplex is fun. Savage goes up top and hits the elbow drop for the win. He ties it up for WCW, leaving it up to Sting. Who could have seen that coming? 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Flair cuts a promo and I'm starting to feel like this is WrestleMania VIII all over again. Flair's hair during this era is such a crime. 

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Sting

The crowd is definitely a little more invested in Sting here tonight. Does anyone actually care who wins the World Cup though? Sasaki puts Sting into the Scorpion Death Lock and Tony is just amazed. It doesn't take long for Sting to make his comeback and he slaps him in the Scorpion Death Lock. Sasaki lasts for a few, but he eventually has to tap. This was nothing. 

Match Rating: *

Gene is now in the ring with all of the WCW competitors who participated and talks about how historic this night is. I promise you it isn't. Again, we get "U-S-A" chants even though Wright, Guerrero and Benoit aren't from there. Gene wants this to become an annual event. Don't worry, it won't be. 

Triangle Match
Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair vs. Sting

All three of these guys are entertaining in their own way, but so far I haven't been captivated. I should note that in this variation of the three person match, one competitor stands on the apron and has to be tagged in. So this is a lot less chaotic than what we are accustomed to these days. We finally get our first tease of the Luger/Sting friendship, but they let it go. It really is amazing that Vince dumped so much money on the Lex Express and it failed miserably and all he had to do was jump back over to WCW in a surprise move and he's over big time. Flair finally makes it Luger vs. Sting and we get a slow build. They eventually get going and Sting gets Luger down and calling for timeout. This match is starting to feel like it's been going on forever at this point. This just isn't really a compelling match for whatever reason. Luger gets Sting up in the Torture Rack and Sting's leg hits the referee. This allows Flair to interfere and knock both men out of the ring. Sting tries to get back in before the 10 count, but Luger grabs his arm and both men are counted out. Flair advances to take on Savage. This was like watching paint dry way too often considering who was involved. 

Match Rating: **

WCW Championship Match
Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage

We're getting some more mediocre action here and then out comes...Paul Orndorff in a neck brace? Why is he anywhere near a main event in 1995? Savage gets Flair outside, but Flair hits Savage in the midsection on the way down from his top rope double ax handle. I really wanted to like this show, but it's actually worse than I remember. This is just so dead. I'm not sure which is worse. WCW having a hot TV product and better roster, but then mostly not delivering on pay per view or WWF having a terrible roster and having occupational gimmicks? Jimmy Hart distracts the ref and throws the megaphone to Flair. Savage takes it away and hits Flair with it. Jimmy still has the ref distracted. Flair is bleeding and Savage hits the top rope elbow drop. Out comes Pillman, but Savage throws him off the top rope. Out comes Arn Anderson and he hits Savage with the brass knuckles. Flair is your new champion and that wakes the crowd up. I mean that was a lot of shenanigans for such a short match. WCW just never executed those as well for whatever reason. Pillman takes the title belt and whips Savage with it while Flair celebrates. 

Match Rating: **

Like I said, I really wanted to like this show. It just didn't click. The World Cup was pointless and the main events didn't deliver what you would expect from these guys. It wasn't terrible and the Liger match was solid, but that just isn't enough to make you ever need to see this. 

Overall Rating: 46%