Archive for category Take 5 Review

WCW: Starrcade 1993: 10th anniversary
December 27, 1993 from the Independence Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Attendance – 8,200)

The Take 5 Review examines the 5 things you should take away from watching WCW’s Starrcade 1993!
Take 5 Review:

1. Ric Flair – Ric Flair vowed to retire if he did not defeat WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vader and WCW did a great job with the build up to the match. The PPV starts with Ric Flair saying goodbye to his family at his home in Charlotte, continues as Mean Gean Okerlund interviews Flair in the limo on the way to the areana, and finishes with Flair beating Vader in a decent match. WCW was lucky to have Flair at this time because without him, this card sucks.
2. Surpise/Terrible Finishes –
     a. Surprise – The best/surprise finish on this card was Steve Austin winning the first 2 falls over Dustin Rhodes, just because it is very rarely that a 2/3 falls match does not go to the final fall.
     b. Terrible – The dreaded WCW Time-limit draw ended Steamboat/Regal. Rick Rude beat The Boss with a sunset flip. Missy Hyatt ran into the ring to end the Nasty Boys/Sting & Hawk match, as Sting and Hawk stood in the ring with their hands on their hips and after there was a blown top rope “spot” with Knobbs and Sting. The ending of the Flair match looked odd as Flair stood up after getting run over by Vader, grabbed one of Vader’s legs and then just jumped on top of him. All of these were weak and disappointing (especially the Flair/Vader match)
3. Tony Schiavone stinks – Tony Schiavone is a terrible announcer who has many moments of awkard silence. In the Flair match, Schiavone talked about all of Flair’s past Starrcade success and then says, “He (Flair) has been in all of them (Starrcades)…except a couple.” Moron! Except the last two when he was in the WWE.
4. WWF’s Influence – At this point the WCW was signing away a lot of the WWF’s wrestlers and it can be seen big time in this event. Five out of the Eight matches involved wrestlers who were recently in the WWF. Rick Steamboat was wearing his stupid “Dragon” outfit that was designed in the WWF. Hawk was wearing his WWF ring gear and the crowd was chanting L-O-D, which was not a name that the WCW could legally use.
5. WCW Rules Ruin Matches – Disqualification if you throw your opponent over the top rope??? It is a stupid rule, but it was only sometimes enforced which made it seem stupider. Announcing the time of the match during the action was always annoying. Instead of folding steal chairs, WCW had non-folding plastic chairs which looked terrible as a weapon.

• Dark match: Terry Taylor defeated The Equalizer
  o Taylor pinned Equalizer.
• Pretty Wonderful (Paul Orndorff and Paul Roma) (w/The Assassin) defeated Marcus Bagwell and Too Cold Scorpio (11:45)
  o Orndorff pinned Scorpio after The Assassin put a weapon in his mask and headbutted Scorpio.
  (4/10) – This was a decent match but also had a stupid ending with The Assassin putting something in his mask and using a headbutt to knock out Scorpio. C’mon “The loaded Mask”…Please!
• The Shockmaster defeated King Kong (1:34)
  o Shockmaster pinned Kong.
  (1/10) – The only reason this match did not receive a Zero was because it was under 2 minutes. The best part of this match was that King Kong’s partner, Awesome Kong, had HIS name announced and was suppose to wrestle but I guess no one told him. Jesse Venture saying, “But it says King on his tights” is priceless!
• WCW World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) fought Ricky Steamboat to a time-limit draw (15:00)
  o Regal retained the title.
  (5/10) – This is a classic Regal, slowing paced match. Steamboat wearing that ridiclouse “Dragon” outfit is good for a chuckle.
• Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne defeated Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce (7:48)
  o Jack pinned Slazenger.
  (5/10) – Tex and Shanghai would go on to become the Godwins in the WWE. Typical brawlers match, fists of fury. I never got/liked Maxx Payne.
• Rick Rude defeated The Boss to retain the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (9:08)
  o Rude pinned Boss.
  o Boss replaced Davey Boy Smith, who left WCW just weeks before Starrcade.
  (4/10) – I would love to know why Davey Boy Smith left before his match with Rude. The Boss AKA Big Bossman was an average replacement. Rude wins with a sunset flip, which I think might have been the first time in wrestling history that someone won with that move.
• Steve Austin defeated Dustin Rhodes in a Two out of three falls match to win the WCW United States Championship (15:00)
  o Rhodes was disqualifed (13:32)
  o Austin pinned Rhodes (15:00)
  (7/10) – Above Average match as Rhodes was in really good shape and Austin was starting his singles rise. It was very cool to see a 2 out of 3 falls match end after only 2 falls.
• Sting and Road Warrior Hawk defeated WCW World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) (w/Missy Hyatt) by disqualification (29:11)
  o The Nasty Boys were disqualified after Hyatt interfered, Nasty Boys retained the title.
  (4/10) – This match seemed odd from the beginning. Where was Animal?? Hawk and Sting barely acknowledge each other. There were a couple of blown spots in this match including, Knobbs jumping of the top rope and expecting a laid out Sting to bring up his knees but Sting never does and Knobbs kind of flounders to the mat. The ending is terrible, but Missy Hyatt looked great in Pink fishnet!!!
• Ric Flair defeated Vader to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (21:11)
  o Flair pinned Vader with a roll-up.
  (7/10) – This match did a great job of making Vader look like a dominate force while letting Flair sneak away with a victory. Harley Race interfered WAY too much. Flair using the plastic chair looked stupid, and Flair’s rollup for the victory looked like Vader did not want to go with the finish. How come Flair never stays in the ring to celebrate??