I never realized this about Starrcade 96

[wolvdog316]

I just watched this PPV again, and holy fuck, were Hogan and Bischoff two pieces of dog shit. I never realized it as much back then as I was so young and it was exciting. But watching it again made me go Wow lol these guys just don't give a fuck about anybody else but themselves.

For instance, US title finals. Eddie vs DDP. The storyline going in was DDP refusing to join the nWo. Even had Hall and Nash help DDP advance to the finals. Fine, it was a good storyline. But then end of the match came. Instead of letting these two have a great match, and further the storyline on Nitro, you have Hall cost DDP the match and Eddie wins. Then Hall, Nash and Syxx proceed to beat up Eddie, where Xpac would challenge for the US title in the future. Plenty of ways to execute that storyline. No reason to kill Eddie's biggest title win at the moment.

Then came the HUGE main event. Piper vs Hogan. Hyped since Halloween Havoc. Title wasn't on the line. Want to know why I despise Hogan and Bischoff sometimes? This shit. Why would your so called biggest match of the industry not be a title a shot? Would WM end with a non title match? Oh yeah WM 8, Hogan and Sid..... Which bombed...hrmmm.

So Piper wins, after a a run in by Show, which led to Piper slapping the sleeper on. So the PPV ends with Piper celebrating in the ring right? Of course not.

Hogan stays in the ring, asks for his belt and the nWo music hit. Hogan then proceeds to stand in the middle of the ring and pose for a couple minutes. He just lost, and the PPV just ends with Hogan posing in the ring. If you turned on the tv at the last minute of the PPV you would NEVER know Piper actually won the match. So instead of letting Piper have his moment, Hogan has to celebrate a loss? Unbelievable. I don't think in my lifetime have I seen the loser be the LAST guy on a major PPV and celebrate his loss.

So the question is, Was The Monday Night Wars REALLY, that good, or was I just young, and would buy anything.

Hrmmm

Time to review some WWE ppv next

 

[neildittmar]

WCW definitely centered a TON around Hogan/Bischoff/nWo even in areas where it didn't make a whole lot of sense in hindsight. You have to understand though, the nWo was the hottest thing in wrestling at the time and was responsible for making the product cool with folks who never watched beforehand and even non-fans that had become completely disenfranchised. They were the stars of the show and if the casual or non-fan was buying, they wanted to see the nWo and lots of it.

However, the Monday Night War WAS that good despite all the face time Hogan got, if for no other reason than it forced both shows to raise their game to a level not seen consistently since. This is why I'm pulling for TNA so bad as of late. Not because I want the WWE to go under... quite the opposite actually. Competition in any business is good and this has been undeniably proven in regards to pro-wrestling (or sports entertainment).

I mean, just look at what we've been served on a weekly basis over the last several years particularly. Much of it makes a losing Hogan posedown look downright entertaining by comparison.

 

[Jetspete]

One thing you learn through watching old wrestling events is that they are not always as fan pleasing as you once thought, especially viewed through a different spectrum. But i have to vehemently disagree with your take on hogan/piper. At the time, Piper was out of shape coming off i believe hip surgery. He had not been a major worker for about 4 1/2 years (save a ridiculous backlot brawl with Golddust at that years Wrestlemania). For him to walk right in and get a title match wouldve been absurd.

But also remember that, at the time Hogan was an unstoppable force and a hated heel. WCW needed an event where he got his a*s whipped, and what better person to do that than an all time fan-favorite. For him to lose the belt to Piper wouldve completely derailed the wcw-nwo storyline. So the fans got to see Hogan get beat by an icon, and also have the stage set for the year long feud of hogan and sting.

As for your other criticism, i would have to go back and look at the ddp match. i do remember the cruiserweight matches being of high quality, but that could be selective memory.

 

[gamingpalooza]

One thing that you need to understand is that if it was not for the nWo, WCW would of been in deep shit. Hogan was a heel. Hogan was the first heel that was widely accepted and liked by wrestling fans. The Hollywood gimmick was all about Hogan being larger and more valuable then the whole industry, so he made him self the center of attention because it was a part of his Hollywood gimmick. Back then, WCW fans loved nWo... if you watched any WCW Nitro in 1997, as soon as the nWo music hits, there was a huge pop. At the same time, the WCW fans enjoyed throwing trash at the end of main events during nWo matches too. You also have to take in consideration that Roddy Piper had a short term deal with WCW during that time and it would make no sense to put the title on the line against so one that is only going to leave WCW shortly afterwards.

 

[Genius_Deadman]

i agree with the original post. no way should this have been the main event if it wasn't for the title. the only way you can pull a match off at their biggest PPV in a non title match is in a Hogan vs. Rock type match where the 2 personalities are larger than life.

i also agree with the match ending, but not the way explained. if it was gonna end in a manner where the nWo looks mighty, i woulda had someone interfere on Hogan's behalf and have Hogan pin Piper in a non-clean finish. that way, Piper has credibility and Hogan still wins at the big PPV.

it didn't matter if Piper was out of shape or not, that's not where they were going w/ these angles of Piper & Warrior and others. they wanted to bring "ultimate challenges" that Hogan didn't face or didn't come out victorious in the WWF, these guys were coming in a "i saw what you did and you need to be stopped, so i'll save them" kind of way. it should've been for the title, Hogan should've won by interference, and it would've all ended peachy i'm sure

 

[ncwriter2908]

That is enough said NWO were heels and it seems like enough people hated Bishoff and Hogan at that time so they did there job well. Hollywood Hogan was a self centered gimmick he was better than everyone else and made movies..lol The point is they were a heel. I think WCW to some degree did it on purpose to get the fans to hate the NWO who were so over. It was already hard to not think of the NWO and those guys as cool. They were meant to be heels though and it was funny to see a group come in an claim they are killing WCW and the majority of the fans base ends up siding with the NWO..lol At that time all WCW had was DDP and Sting as there shining stars

 

[gully side adidja]

I will keep this short.

How the fuck do you have your champion(hogan) and main rival (piper) fight on a ppv, the biggest in the company, in a NON TITLE MATCH, whatever type of outcome to the match wouldn't mean shit, he does not get the title so what is the point? starrcade has always been a shit ppv, and hogan and company contribute to that.

 

[KBP51883]

The undercard for all of WCW's matches were awesome and the main events piss poor. Where as WWF/WWE were the opposite with the main events living up to the billing. So the Monday Night Wars were awesome but also filled with piles of turd too !!

 

[Dre Guevara]

well, wolvdog316, I can only sum it up by quoting a line from Jay-Z in regards 2 what Hogan did....

"the sun don't shine if son don't shine"

& I have 2 agree with y'all & say that it did'nt make sense 4 that match 2 be non title, Hogan could've easily put the belt on Piper, then win it back @ the next PPV with help from the nWo

 

[Jetspete]

so basically you want an icon that hasnt wrestled in four and a half years, is out of shape to win a title match over the number one draw in the industry? the fact that it was a non-title match made sense, because as a previous poster said Piper was not a wcw guy and had not earned his title shot. Look at wcw during hogans run as champ (96 - 12/97). quite often hogan either didnt even wrestle at ppvs, or if he did the title was not even at stake. it is unoriginal to say a main event match has to be a title match.

I do agree that they couldve made it a title match and just have nWo intefere, but i liked what they did more than that alternative. Piper beat hogan in december, hogan beat piper in february, setting up an ultimate rubber match at halloween havoc.

 

[wolvdog316]

I never said I wanted Piper to win the title over Hogan. I'm saying IF your bring in Piper, and IF you claim Starrcade is your Wrestlemania, and IF you put Piper against Hogan, and IF you let Piper win, give him SOMETHING. Otherwise it's a useless win. Or, let Hogan win. It wouldn't have been bad to see Hogan grab the win, HHH won as a heel at WM.

But it's decisions like this that killed WCW. Not to mention, a year later, the biggest, most anticipated match in the history of WCW, maybe since Hogan-Andre, ends in complete bullshit and Sting gets destroyed a couple months later. Hogan involved again. The finger point of doom. Every one of those instances made Hogan look better, when he lost every one of them. Piper and Sting came out looking worse as did Nash. Hence, why a year later, in 98 nWo was dying, nobody cared about Hogan and nobody paid to see Sting.

It reminded me of the Jan 4th Impact. AJ and Angle put on a fucking clinic....that DOES NOT end the show. An ear whisper and the nWo ends the show. Same thing.

I remember watching an Nitro where nWo took over. My god it was boring. Watched it again about a month ago. Just really horrible and overkill. Only time I can remember Hogan actually making his opponent look better, was his match with Goldberg. That was great, and propelled Goldberg even bigger

Hogans loss to Warrior was bullshit cause he had to kick at a 3.1

 

[jayteeERA]

Even though Hogan was champion I thought it was great that Hogan title wasn't on the line. Eventually at Superbrawl Piper had a rematch with Hogan with the title on the line. So Piper earned his title shot. I started watching wrestling around Starrcade 96. To me Hogan was a heel & was afraid to put his title on the line. Next year later Hogan was hardly defending his title which why Starrcade 96 made sense.

I don't think that was a start for wcw downfall. To me it was 1999. Thats when everything was crashing down. You all let wwe sike you all up to think a WHC should be defending his belt at every PPV. Well WCW and WWE was 2 different companies. WWE lets their WHC defends a their title in a tag match. Now that is stupid.

Overall Starrcade 96 was a good event that got me into wrestling. All the matches was good. Even though Hall cost DDP to win the u.s. title. I would have love to see a Hall vs DDP fued. But you have to realize Hall was a tag champion he was busy. Which led to DDP vs Savage feud.

 

[wolvdog316]

Who said a fucking thing about WWE siking anybody up? No. I expect, as a fan, that "the biggest match in the history of this business" as Tony called it, would have SOME kind of impact. Wrestlemania has only ended without a title match once. It involved Hogan, and it was crap. One of the reasons Starrcade never had the appeal of Wrestlemania, among others