The Lariat Reviews Starrcade '87 Chi Town Heat

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The Lariat Reviews Starrcade ‘87

Hello Old School wrestling fans. The Lariat is here to give you a thorough review of one of my personal favorites as far as PPV’s are concerned. Starrcade was the NWA/WCW answer to Wrestlemania. It was the event that storylines built to. And Starrcade ’87 had an extra incentive to it. It was the process of unification with the NWA and Jim Crockett Promotions and the Universal Wrestling Federation ran by Cowboy Bill Watts. Why is this significant? In this deal, stars like Dr. Death Steve Williams, Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert, Terry Taylor, and commentator Jim Ross came over from the UWF. And some wrestler named Sting came along, too. You might know him. Anyway, the merger took place due to Watts simply not having the money to keep afloat and pay the major names he had in his promotion. The next best thing was to partner up with Jim Crockett Promotions and simply unify some of the belts and even keep some of the belts afloat for the time being. The only major titles from the UWF that came over in the merger were the UWF Heavyweight Title held by Steve Williams and the UWF Television Champion Terry Taylor. Both titles were up for grabs in this PPV, along with some excellent matches that feature a who’s who in wrestling names. Let’s get right to it with our first match.

Six Man Tag Team Match
Eddie “Hotstuff” Gilbert, Rick Steiner, and Larry Zbysyko v/s Michael ‘PS’ Hayes, ‘Gorgeous’ Jimmy Garvin, and Sting.


Unlike KB, I’ll minimize the play by play of the matches and just give you a synopsis of why the match is taking place, the highlights, and some background on the players during this time. We’ll start with the heel tandum. Eddie Gilbert and Rick Steiner were UWF mainstays and they were also in a group with Sting. Of course, Gilbert was a heel and did heelish things. So did Steiner. Sting didn’t want to take part in that anymore, and was promptly kicked out of the group. So the challenge was laid out. Sting needed to find two partners and Gilbert and Steiner would find one. The Gilbert/Steiner team found the Living Legend Larry Zbysyko, managed by Babydoll… who is best known for associating with Tully Blanchard and Dusty Rhodes during her time in the NWA. Sting found two guys to team up with him. A Freebird and a future Freebird. Michael P.S. Hayes and Jimmy Garvin with Precious. And that’s how the opening match came about.


The match is a 15 minute time limit. I smell draw here. Anyway it’s amazing how much the crowd is into this match. Despite the PPV being opposed by Survivor Series, the NWA still drew a nice crowd in the arena. The PPV buys on the other hand… not so good. It ended up being an Achilles’ heel for Jim Crockett Promotions. Sting is way over with the crowd and is just now coming into his own here in the NWA. He’s a little under a year away from his breakout match with Ric Flair at the Clash of Champions at this point. Garvin and Hayes are over, too. Gilbert and Zbysyko know their roles as heels. They’re really good. Rick Steiner was somewhat young here, but aggressive and built like a brick shithouse. Man he was cut. The match starts out early with Steiner Lines from Rick onto Sting. Steiner gets the upper hand until Sting gets his comeback in and goes for some offense. He ends up doing a plancha outside to the concrete floor onto Steiner. Bold spot. Eventually, the faces clean house and get the heels out of the ring to gather themselves. As far as the chemistry in the match, it wasn’t up to par with the rest of the card. You can tell this was a short notice kind of match and when you have that, it can be sloppy. Which is what this match was. It ends in a draw and in a rather good spot. The countdown starts at 3. The cover’s made by Sting, 2-1…and the bell rings. The referee stops short of the count to end the match. It’s a little thing, but it’s a great thing, too. It doesn’t have any controversy and didn’t make the match look sloppier than it was. A good starter match for the night with some fresh faces with nothing else to do.

My grade: C+. It was good for what it was. Filler.

UWF Heavyweight Title match
Barry Windham vs.(c) Dr. Death Steve Williams


This match had all the makings of a barn burner between two powerhouse wrestlers who finished with power moves. It didn’t turn out that way. The story here is Windham and Williams are good friends. No rivalry. Just an opportunity for Windham to win major gold. Windham is also the NWA Western States Heritage Title holder in this match. It’s my favorite belt. So eclectic. Moving along… the match was a chess match for the first few minutes. Lots of power and strength being used. Then there’s a blown spot. An attempted leap frog goes wrong for Dr. Death and Windham’s head catches Williams right in the nuts. I mean it was a bad lick, too. Williams is down for a good three or four minutes before being able to compose himself. The fans were rowdy and rightfully so. Eventually, Williams does get up, Windham does a cross body spot onto the floor, acts hurt, rolls in, and Williams gets him in the Oklahoma Roll for the quick pin. It was obviously a rushed finish as Dr. Death was really in a lot of pain. But it killed the momentum brought on by the first match. Hopefully the rest of the card can save it.

My grade: D+. The blown spot could not be helped, but it is what it is.

The next match is the Skywalkers match!
Rock n’ Roll Express v/s the Midnight Express


A book could be written about the history of these two teams. This is one of the many times the Rock ‘n Roll tried to shut up the Midnight’s and Jim Cornette for good. 1986’s Starrcade came up with the first Skywalkers match with the Road Warriors and Eaton and Condrey’s version of ME. The Midnight’s lost that one. Would they lose this one, too? Not if Big Bubba Rogers has anything to say about it.


Before the match started, Big Bubba hit the Bubba slam on Ricky Morton of the RnR and gave the Midnight’s the advantage in a 2-on-1 on top of the scaffold. The object of the match is simple. The team that falls loses. It’s about a 20-25 foot drop, too. And Cornette blew his knee out doing a falling spot in the first Skywalker match. The match was about like 86 only the Road Warriors were replaced by the RnR. Still entertaining. There was blood, powder, the racket being used, and in the end, the RnR knock Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane off the scaffold for the win. Near the end, Bubba goes to the top, only to be bag tagged by Ricky Morton as the RnR escaped. Good match for what it was.

My grade: C. I’m a little partial to the scaffold matches and RnR and the Midnights put on a great show.

Unification match for the NWA and UWF Television Titles
Nikita Koloff (NWA TV champ) vs. Terry Taylor (UWF TV champ)


The buildup for this match is simple. Taylor’s the heel and claims to be the real TV champion, and even attacked Koloff and confiscated the NWA TV belt for a period of time before it came back to the Russian Nightmare. Hence is why we have the Unification match. It was a great back and forth match between the two. Taylor is a dynamic ring technician, whereas Koloff was just a man going 100 MPH on every spot. Great job. Taylor worked the leg of Koloff by hitting it with a chair, even putting the figure four on Koloff, but it would be to no avail, as Taylor went for the Five Arm finisher, hit Eddie Gilbert, who was at ringside with Taylor. Koloff then hits the Russian Sickle and it’s over. Koloff is the undisputed TV champion. Overall solid match.

My grade: B-. Could have been better, but an overall well worked match by the two.

NWA World Tag Team Title match
The Road Warriors vs. The Brainbusters… or Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard.


Everyone knows about my affection for the tag team of Anderson and Blanchard. They were a good team and knew great tag wrestling. The Road Warriors were as over as anyone in the building on that night due to their being from Chicago, IL…where the PPV is being held. The generic NWA theme music is awful. Especially the Road Warriors theme. Can’t use Iron Man if you don’t pay for it. Sucked. But that was all that sucked about the match.

Pure dominance from the Legion of Doom for a good 10 minutes. Arn and Tully have too much pride and try to power Hawk and Animal with disastrous results. Man, Hawk and Animal were beasts. Arn and Tully eventually wounded Hawk’s leg and were able to subdue him for a while with a figure four by Tully and working the leg by Arn. Vintage Horsemen. Working a part of the body for 10-15 minutes. An old schooler’s wet dream. Eventually, Hawk gets the hot tag to Animal, who cleans house on Arn. Tully tries to interfere, but is stopped by a fast healing Hawk, who is now running after his knee was worked on for 10 minutes. Oh well. Anyway, we see a finish where Hawk and Animal hit the Doomsday Device on Anderson, winning the match…or did they? Nope. See, Arn was thrown over the top rope about 5 minutes before, knocking referee Tommy Young out to the floor. But he did see Arn go over the top rope, which means that it’s a DQ. Yep, in 1987, over the top rope was a Disqualification. But the Legion of Doom said fuck that and took the belts anyway. They were not champions though.

My grade: B. I love tag team wrestling and it did the job for a World Tag title defense.

The NWA United States Heavyweight Title Steel Cage Match
The American Dream Dusty Rhodes vs. The Total Package Lex Luger


Luger is the young US champ here, going against the veteran Rhodes. The stipulation is that if Dusty loses, he doesn’t wrestle for 90 days, yet JR and Tony Schiavone manage to make it seem like a career threatening match. It’s not really. But we get the drama that was attempted. Dusty and Luger were two complete opposites. Luger was the looks, attitude, and youth. Rhodes was gritty, aggressive, and a little aged in this match.

The match was sort of dominated by Luger, but it was mostly slowdown moves on Rhodes in order to weaken him for the Torture Rack. Another element to the match is that Johnny Weaver, a veteran of the old NWA days had the key to the cage’s lock at ringside in order to keep the Horsemen out of the cage. JJ Dillon was outside with Luger and that would play a huge role in the finish. For some reason, they call the sleeper hold the “Weaver Lock”. I know Johnny Weaver used the hold as his finisher, but there’s no difference in the Sleeper Hold and the Weaver Lock. To me anyway. Well, after a back and forth, Dillon kills Weaver with a chair to the back and gets the key. But JJ drops the key and ends up throwing the chair he used over the cage into the ring for Luger to use. Bad idea. As Luger went to pick it up, Dusty DDT’s Luger on the chair and Rhodes gets the 1-2-3 and the United States title. It was a good match that was made better by Dusty carrying Luger near the end. Best match of the night so far.


My grade: B. It gets a B due to some slower pacing and Luger’s greenish wrestling showing a little bit in most places. But he’s young. He’d get somewhat better in the future. Not much better though.

And NOW. You have the final match of the night.


THE NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title Steel Cage Match
Ric Flair vs Ronnie Garvin (c).

The Lariat will now give you a synopsis as to why the (c) is next to Garvin’s name and not Flair’s. Well, two things happened. One was tragic, the other…not so much. Magnum TA was nearly killed in a car accident and ended his wrestling career. Before his accident, this was to be the culmination of TA winning the NWA Worlds Title from Flair. Instead, the NWA decided to compete with the WWF/E’s Survivor Series by having Flair win the title off of someone. But who? Buddy Landell declined to do it. For some stupid reason. He promptly left the company and that left Ronnie Garvin to step up and take the mantle for a short time.

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Garvin beat Flair in Detroit, MI inside a Steel Cage to win the World Title. It was Flair’s first title loss since losing to Rhodes at the Great American Bash in 1986. Garvin was in his early 40’s and was on his last legs in the NWA. What a way to have you last hoorrah.


To say this match was brutal would be doing that word an injustice. It was a good 45 minutes of punishment by both of these two. Flair chopped Garvin, Garvin chopped Flair. And kept on chopping Flair. In Flair’s biography, he details how he nearly died from a Staph infection from rubbing so much Neosporin on his chest after taking such brutal open hand smacks from Garvin. He said his chest never had time to heal due to him working less than two days later and once again, getting chopped. Flair was a tough SOB. So was Garvin. The finish was when Flair grabbed Garvin and Hot Shotted him into the cage, dazing the Hands of Stone enough for a pin and Flair’s 6th title reign. Another wrestling term came out of this… ‘Go-away heat’. That’s what Garvin had. They all wanted to see Garvin chase Flair, but didn’t want to see him win it. By the time the match was over with Flair and Garvin, the crowd popped loud for Flair’s win. That’s called ‘Go-away’ heat. And once again, Flair was champion.

My grade: A. A brutal match that showed a lot of grit and guts and ended the way it should have. With Flair winning his belt back.

Well, that’s my review. Hope you enjoyed it.