This Week In WWE Vintage Collection History: Starrcading Like It's 1992
By Aaron Wood Dec 18, 2011 - 3:24 PM
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COLLECTION #186 We
cold opened with something of a recap package/hype video. It went
into THOROUGH detal about the vents of Starrcade 1991 and how the
Battle Bowl/Lethal Lottery worked and how Sting won. We seemed to
jump as the voiceover changed. However, the syntax was spot on
enough to suggest this was the next sentence meant to be heard.
Anyway, this new voice introduced the "10th annual Starrcade
1992". So yeah, you can complain that WWE said Survivor Series
had it's 25th anniversary this year with show 25, but at least they
didn't claim to have been doing "Survivor Series 2011"
since 1987...
Gene
welcomed us to the show as he went over the Battle Bowl concept,
where random tag teams were drawn in the Lethal Lottery, sending it
to the opening Lethal Lottery tag match which pitted Cactus Jack &
Johnny B. Badd against Danny Spivey and Van Hammer.
After
the break, we went right to our next match, which saw Dustin Rhodes &
Big Van Vader faced Kensuke Sasaki and The Barbarian. There is video
for this match, but the audio is all sorts of f**ked up. So I'm just
gonna write it out. We picked things up early with Barbarian and
Vader in the ring, but Rhodes soon came in as the rivals teamed up to
hit Barbarian with a Hart Attack. Dustin & Barbar trade back
suplexes before Sasaki tags in. He goes all Road Warrior on us,
essentially not selling Rhodes' offence and working stiff. Well, he
was teaming with Hawk in Japan as "Power Warrior" at the
time. Vader tags in and splashes him before hitting some stiff stuff
of his own.
Sasaki
tried a clothesline, but Vader no sold and hit a big boot. However,
Sasaki countered a suplex and hit one of his own. Tags to both
sides, as Dustin his a running knee lift and dropkick. Rhodes went
for a pin that Sasaki broke up. As Dustin had it out with Sasaki,
Barbarian charged, but Rhodes moved. Barbarian took out Sasaki and
Dustin rolled him up for the three count to advance. To show thanks
after the match, Vader clotheslined Rhodes hard, with Harley Race
dropping a knee on Dustin as well. You know, because he could.
After
the match, Mean Gene lined up the next match of the four tag matches.
It was Barry Windham & The Great Muta vs. Brian Pillman and 2
Cold Scorpio. What made this match interesting was that Pillman &
Windham were set to challenge for the NWA Tag Titles on this very
show against Shane Douglas & Ricky Steamboat. But who would end
up with a third match to wrestle that night by advancing to the
Battle Bowl?
Our
final wacky tag match saw thee previous year's winner, Sting, along
with Dr. Death Steve Williams taking on Jushin Thunder Liger &
Erik Watts. You may have heard of this match. Or at least seen the
gif.
Back
in the studio, Gene set up the main event for this week as the 8 men
who had won their tag matches earlier would now enter the Battle Bowl
Battle Royal. Would Sting outlast everyone once again and claim a
second Battle Bowl ring?
Back
with Gene, he noted that this was Muta's third match of the night, as
he had his tag match, the Battle Bowl match as well as facing
Masahiro Chono for the NWA World Title. While he was unsuccessful
there, the Battle Bowl win left his night on an up note. While Gene
didn't make any such thematic note at the beginning of the show, he
said that next week, we'd continue to look at at some of the most
memorable events to have taken place in December. Which I'd assume
is code for "More Starrcade".
Epilogue Cactus
Jack & Johnny B. Badd faced each other at a Clash Of The
Champions a couple of weeks later, with Foley winning. Foley would
then turn babyface soon after, engaging in a feud with Paul Orndorff
and then Wonderful's somewhat running buddy, Vader, leading to the
infamous "Lost In Cleveland" angle after being injured by
Vader.
"Dangerous"
Danny Spivey admitted to using steroids and took a few years off
before eventing coming back to the business in the WWE as Waylon
Mercy.
As
1993 came in, Heavy Metal Van Hammer took part in a US Title
tournament, one that Vintage Collection has previously covered, where
he lost to Tony Atlas in the first round, which set them off on a
feud. He would remain with the company until May 1993 when he lost
to Sid Vicious at the first Slamboree PPV.
Indeed,
that US Title tournament would be won by Dustin Rhodes, which was the
thing that led to the long-running feud with Ravishing Rick Rude over
the title (since Rude had had to vacate it in the first place), which
has also been covered by Vintage Collection.
I
don't know if it's the actual case, but on the surface, being forced
to team with Erik Watts and his shitty dropkicks must have sent
Jushin "Thunder" Liger over the friggin' edge, as he left
WCW almost immediately after this show, not returning to the US until
Nitro's inception in 1995.
As
it goes, as noted on occasion by Mean Gene in the show, some people
involved in the Lethal Lottery actually already had matches set for
this show. Indeed, as noted, Brian Pillman & Barry Windham were
set to face the NWA Tag Champions Shane Douglas & Ricky
Steamboat. They ended up on the losing end of it and the challenging
team split when Windham decided to go on as a singles wrestler for
the NWA title. However, Pillman decided to continue on and got
himself a new partner. Stunning Steve Austin. And the rest, as they
say, is history.
As
for Windham, he would end up victorious, winning the NWA Title at
Superbrawl 3. As it goes, he won the title from The Great Muta. As
noted by Okerlund, Muta faced Chono on this show for the NWA World
Title and lost. However, at the WCW/New Japan Supershow on January
4th, they faced again, this time in a unification bout as Muta put
his IWGP Title on the line. Muta ended up winning that one, becoming
one of only 2 men to hold both the IWGP & NWA World Titles.
Anyway, Windham won it from him. Upon winning, the newly returned
Ric Flair (i.e. that night) tired to present the belt to Windham,
only for Barry to walk away. Flair & Arn Anderson tried to
recruit Windham for The Four Horsemen once again, but he declined,
taking on the "Lone Wolf" moniker and feuding with the
pair.
Dr.
Death ended up with another match on the show. Rick Rude was set to
face Ron Simmons for the WCW World Title, but due to Rude's
aforementioned injury, Williams was put in the spot. However, the
match ended with a Williams DQ. He then left WCW shortly thereafter,
returning to Japan for another run.
Sting
& Vader not only had another match at Starrcade that night, but
it was actually against each other! They faced off in the finals of
a tournament called "King Of Cable". Vader would bounce
back quickly however, as Vader beat Ron Simmons for the WCW Title
(part of Bill Watts being shunted from his position as Executive Vice
President, with Watts having lost his job almost immediately after
Starrcade). After beating Sting to retain the title, Vader would
lose the title to Sting in March while on a UK tour, although he won
it back before they headed back to the States.
