klunderbunker
Welcome to My (And Not Sly's) House
Starrcade 1990
Date: December 16, 1990
Location: Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 7,200
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul E. Dangerously
This is a very different kind of show. It's half tournament/half regular show so it's more like an old King of the Ring than anything else. The main event is the blowoff for Sting vs. Black Scorpion in a cage. The tournament aspect is the Pat O'Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament which is an international tag tournament. Let's get to it.
The opening video has a space theme. The show is called Collision Course so that makes sense.
The Gulf War is going on here so there's a big deal made of the Star Spangled Banner.
Z-Man vs. Bobby Eaton
Eaton still has the Midnight Express music and from the dark side location. We get what are called Starrcade Stats which are little bios with stats and mini bios, such as this is Eaton's first singles match on PPV. Cool little addition. Allegedly Z-Man is on a 35 match winning streak. Ric Flair is going to be out of the tag title match due to an accident in a limousine so Barry Windham is replacing him in the street fight vs. Doom.
Z-Man speeds things up a bit and gets a top rope cross body for two. The same move gets the same result. According to Dangerously, the Midnights broke up due to Bobby's partner dating Yoko Ono. Z-Man takes him down with an armbar but Eaton gets in a right hand to take over. Z escapes a monkey flip and takes over again. Very fast paced stuff and pretty entertaining so far.
Eaton throws on an armbar to slow things down which is smart from his perspective. Z-Man hits the apron in front of the ramp and suplexes Bobby to the floor. There's a big dive and Bobby is in trouble. Ross: You're a psychoceramic. Paul: Huh? Ross: A crackpot. Z-Man runs into an elbow and Eaton hits a bulldog.
Alabama Jam hits but something resembling a Bronco Buster to a standing Z-Man (no idea what he was going for) misses and they speed things up again. Swinging neckbreaker breaks Z's momentum and Eaton goes up. He jumps into something resembling a superkick but Zenk's leg wasn't extended all the way (not his fault. He just didn't have room). Missile dropkick misses for Z-Man and Eaton rolls him up for the pin.
Rating: B-. Pretty fun match as Z-Man was incredibly fast and was what we would call a Cruiserweight today. Eaton was his usual good self with nothing to complain about really. Good match overall and a solid way to open the show. The fans were into it too so I have zero complaints here.
Dick the Bruiser (if you want to see a tough looking dude that could fight, look up some of his stuff) is refereeing the main event tonight and says he'll be fair.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Quarterfinals: Sgt. Krueger/Colonel DeKlerk vs. Steiner Brothers
The Steiners are the American team and the others are from South Africa. DeKlerk is more famous as Rocco Rock of Public Enemy and is skinny here. Krueger may or may not be Matt Borne, who is more famous as the original Doink and Big Josh about a year after this. I get conflicting reports about him but they do look alike so we'll say it is. This is the 1 vs. 8 seed match.
The Steiners are the US Tag Champions. Krueger vs. Rick to start with Rick destroying him with a Steiner Line to a huge pop. Off to DeKlerk so Rick hits them both with Steiner Lines to take them down. Rock gets a spinwheel kick to send Rick to the floor then hits a big old slingshot dive which Rick half catches. Looked awesome though. Off to Scott who cleans house. Tilt-a-whirl to DeKlerk and the Frankensteiner ends this in maybe two minutes. Scott was AWESOME at this point and would have been world champion in a heartbeat if he asked for it.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Quarterfinals: Norman Smiley/Chris Adams vs. Rey Mysterio/Konnan
Where do I even start here? This is Great Britain vs. Mexico. Smiley only 25 here and is well trained as a technician. His problem is that he's far more famous for his comedy but here he's just a black dude from England. Adams was a pretty big deal in WCCW and is famous for two things in America. First of all he's the first major person to use a superkick as his finisher. Second, he trained a couple of guys you may have heard of. One was either already in WCW or was on his way and is named Scott Hall. The other would debut in May. His name is Steve Austin.
Konnan I'm sure you know of but here he's in a mask and is RIPPED. It's easy to see how he became such a big star looking like this. This isn't the famous Mysterio (spelled Mysteric for no apparent reason) but rather his uncle. There's a little trivia for you: Rey (the famous one) became Rey Mysterio Jr. after his uncle, not his father. Smiley vs. Mysterio to start but Konnan comes in for some cheating.
That doesn't work in the slightest and Team England cleans the ring in just a few seconds. Mysterio vs. Adams now and there's the superkick which looks great. It sends Mysterio to the floor so it's off to Smiley vs. Konnan. It's weird to see Konnan moving like a luchador. He gets caught in a fisherman's suplex and the English take over on Konnan. Smiley breaks up a double team move and Rey is sent to the floor.
The Brit gets a German on the Mexican for two. Adams drops a fist into the ribs and it's off to Smiley again. They haven't stopped in this entire thing yet. Adams vs. Konnan at this point. Blind tag brings in Norman but it backfires with Konnan taking over. He calls for a pescado which doesn't happen. Smiley gets sat on the top rope and Konnan hits a reverse suplex off the top for the pin. The ending seemed a bit quick as everyone seemed confused that it was the finish.
Rating: B. Fun match here with them going all over the place. The crowd was bored out of their minds but for 1990 this was insane stuff. All four guys were working hard out there though which is really all you can ask for. Konnan would become a mega star in Mexico and it's easy to see why based on this. Good match but the ending was rather strange.
Mysterio hits a dive post match and might be injured.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Quarterfinals: Royal Family vs. Mr. Saito/Great Muta
The Royal Family is the New Zealand team and is Rip Morgan (former flag bearer for the Sheepherders (Bushwhackers)) and Jacko Victory (Jack Victory, most famous for being Steve Corino's too close for comfort buddy in ECW's dying days). The Japanese guys I'm sure you've heard of. Paul thought Muta was the Black Scorpion but is surprised that he's not.
The announcers point out that Victory was born in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. That would be the location for the first season of Jersey Shore. That makes Heyman burying the place so much funnier. I know the guy is called a visionary but this is remarkable. Muta destroys Victory for a bit so a double tag brings in Saito and Morgan. Victory comes in and hammers away so Saito grabs the arm to push him down.
Morgan and Muta come back in again and Muta realizes that this guy is just a lackey for better wrestlers so he goes insane on him, kicking the tar out of him. Back to Saito who sets for a Sharpshooter but Victory breaks it up. The crowd doesn't care of course but it's technically heels vs. heels here. Morgan misses a legdrop and Muta comes in to fire the crowd up with the handspring elbow. Everything breaks down and Morgan accidently clotheslines Victory into a German suplex by Muta for the pin.
Rating: C. So yeah, no one cared about anyone in this but Muta. At least WCW got that and pushed Muta's team here. They're keeping these matches relatively short as this was the longest of the first round at about five and a half minutes. Fine little match but the lack of an actual face team was a bit awkward.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Quarterfinals: Bull Johnson/Troy Montour vs. Victor Zangiev/Salmon Hasimikov
Canada vs. Soviet Union here. I have no idea who the Canadians are and I think they're jobbers. The Stats page says they're not favored. I've only heard of Hasimikov who won the IWGP Title for about a month and a half in 1989 before losing it to Riki Choshu. Other than that, these guys are all unknowns. Both Russians are REALLY heavy. Zangiev can beat Albert for back hair.
Something tells me this isn't going to go well for the Canadians. Yep as the Russians take them to the mat with ease. The Canadians look like they're in cowboy gear. Something that was supposed to be a belly to belly results in Johnson landing on his face. Double tag brings in Salmon and Troy. Suplex gets two and Troy apparently submits to a neck crank. REALLY awkward match.
Rating: F+. The Russians were kind of impressive but they were never heard of after this show. Not much of a match at all as the Canadians were fat jobbers and that's about it. No point to this other than to show what the Russians could do. The Canadians have zero other matches that I can find anywhere so what does that tell you?
Sting says the Scorpion is done tonight.
Terry Taylor vs. Michael Wallstreet
Wallstreet is IRS or would be in just a few months. Here he's the computer dude so the (not plugged in and pre-laptop) computer says it'll take 8:32 for him to win. We get a clock so I guess the computer is allowed to officially make time limits. Well sure why not. According to some standard, this the the #8 (Taylor) vs. #7 (Wallstreet) wrestlers in the world.
Wallstreet is in the York Foundation and has Alexandra York (Terri Runnels) with him. Taylor jumps him to start and Wallstreet hits the floor to chill. Back inside and Terry keeps hammering away at him. York keeps typing away as Wallstreet takes over. Pretty basic match here without much to talk about. Ross talks about Taylor being frustrated in the previous years, hinting at the Red Rooster years.
Wallstreet puts on an abdominal stretch and Taylor is in trouble. Ross and Heyman argue about various stuff to fill in the time. There's 3:24 to go on the clock as Wallstreet misses a dropkick. Taylor gets going and drops a knee for two. Bridging belly to back gets the same. Five Arm hits but Wallstreet gets his foot on the rope. They run the ropes a bit but Taylor gets caught in a stun gun so that a Samoan Drop can end it with 1:39 to go in the clock.
Rating: C-. Eh not bad here but the clock was a nice little addition. The match ending with about a minute forty to go was a nice touch as it would have been expected to probably go down to the wire. Not a bad match but nothing you couldn't see on Worldwide or some other C show back then (seriously, WCW had like 5 TV shows for a long time).
Skyscrapers vs. Big Cat/Motor City Madman
The Madman is just a guy and Big Cat is Mr. Hughes. At the last Clash Cat had run his mouth to Sid so Sid is hooking up with Dan Spivey one last time to more or less kill him. Total and complete domination with a double powerbomb ending the Madman in maybe 70 seconds. The fans LOVED the Skyscrapers who were just big strong guys that beat people up. Think a taller and less competent version of the APA.
The Skyscrapers don't want to talk to Paul.
Tommy Rich/Ricky Morton vs. Freebirds
Rich is subbing for Gibson here who has a knee injury. He comes out on crutches anyway though. The Birds are the rock band here so they have a roadie called Little Richard Marley with them. The fans think the Freebirds suck. Morton vs. Garvin to start us off. The Birds injured Robert so there's your reason for the match existing. Morton and Rich clean house to start and it's off to Hayes now.
He has some more luck here but walks into an atomic drop. Out to the floor again and Gibson gets a shot in. Hayes misses a knee drop and it's figure four time. Rich comes in to make it a double. We go to the floor again as this has been one sided so far. Garvin wants Rich so here's the former world champion. Little Richard gets beaten up for the second time in like 4 minutes and now Hayes gets beaten up some more.
Totally one sided match so far. Oh and the Birds have the Confederate flag on their faces for no apparent reason. Garvin makes a blind tag so the Birds can finally get something going. Hayes has a good left hand. DDT is countered and it's double tag time. Things break down and Little Richard tries to break the leg of Morton. Gibson makes the save so Garvin chokes Hayes, allowing Morton to roll up Hayes for the pin.
Rating: D+. Meh just a TV match that wasn't serious in the slightest. No real point to it other than to keep this angle going. Also it gives more of a breather before the tag tournament continues. Morton was the only one in here worth anything and that was pretty obvious but they tried I guess.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Semi-Finals: Steiner Brothers vs. Konnan/Rey Mysterio
Konnan takes Rick to the mat so Scott comes in to destroy some people. Steiner Bulldog hits and Konnan is dead. Off to Rey who has a bit better luck. Rick comes in as there's little flow to this at all. And then Rick counters a rana into a powerbomb. This was barely two and a half minutes and was really bad while it lasted.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Semi-Finals: Mr. Saito/Great Muts vs. Salmon Hashimikov/Victor Zangiev
This could be interesting. Muta vs. Victor to start us off. Good night the crowd went totally silent when the bell rang. Zangiev gets a suplex for two and it's off to Saito. The Russians fight like MMA guys which means nothing at this point and wouldn't for years. Salmon comes in and the Russian puts a Boston on the Japanese. Saito vs. Victor at the moment and Saito tries the Sharpshooter which goes on for all of two seconds. Salmon half kills Muta with a suplex and Saito makes the save. Saito Suplex ends Victor. Short and again not much at all but FAR better than the previous one.
Steiners vs. Japan in the finals.
Doom is ready for the Horsemen. Better that they don't talk that much.
US Title: Lex Luger vs. Stan Hansen
Hansen had ended Luger's year and a half plus reign so this is the rematch. It's the bullrop style where you have to touch every corner. Hansen takes over quickly but Luger fights back with his power and strikes. This is one of those really physical matches that has a gimmick because it wasn't going to go well otherwise. Hansen goes to the floor and Luger chokes away.
Hansen cracks him with a chair and back inside we go. Luger fires off a headbutt and a clothesline puts Stan down. The fans are way into this. Luger goes for the corners and is at two but Hansen rams him into the third to break the momentum. Hansen goes for some corners and that gets broken up rather quickly also. We get the required hanging spot in these kind of matches. Lex gets posted and Hansen hammers away even more. Luger makes a last second save after three buckles.
Lex gets choked some more as the fans are kind of into this. They go outside again and Lex uses the rope to his advantage. Stan goes into the post and Luger is all fired up. Back inside and Lex tries to hogtie him. That fails so he drops three legs instead. He had a thing for doing the same move three times in a row for some reason. Stan is down so Lex gets three buckles but knocks the referee out by mistake on the fourth. He hits the buckle on the way though so the fans pop. Hansen hits him with a boot and starts his trip around the ring. A second referee comes out and watches Stan get all four to retain.
Rating: C. I know these tend to be bad but when you have the guys brawl the entire time like they did here, it's nowhere near as bad. Not a great match or anything but considering how bad these things usually are, this was really pretty good. Hansen would be in Japan full time soon where he's a huge deal as compared to nothing great here.
Post match the other referee wakes and says Luger won first so Lex is new champion. Well ok then.
Tag Titles: Doom vs. Arn Anderson/Barry Windham
This is a street fight. Windham is replacing Flair who was injured. Doom is Ron Simmons and Butch Reed and are in the ending of the longest WCW tag title reign ever. Everyone is in street clothes and this is a big feud so I'd expect a BIG brawl. Anderson takes his own belt off and whips Simmons on the ramp which doesn't go well for him. Ron is like oh no you didn't and beats Anderson down with ease.
Barry and Butch (what names) go to the floor as Anderson pops Ron in the knee with a chair. Windham is busted open so Reed puts a belt buckle into it. Suplex puts Reed down as Arn hammers on Reed now. Everyone but Reed is in the ring now. Anderson punches Ron and then Barry NAILS Ron with the belt. That looked great. HARD chair shot takes Reed down outside.
This has been a big old stiff brawl the entire time and it's worked great up to this point. Windham vs. Simmons in the ring at the moment. Reed gets a shot into the back and there's the spinebuster (SICK one too) from Simmons for two. Reed gets all fired up and beats Windham down like he stole something. Simmons gorilla presses Anderson as Barry crotched Reed. Superplex hits for two. Simmons is busted and goes up for a big top rope tackle. Anderson stops Simmons from bringing in a chair. Simmons blocks the shot so it hits Anderson for a very close two.
Piledriver takes Reed down for a bit and gets two also. Everyone is busted open. They're starting to slow down due to pure exhaustion. Anderson goes up but Reed shoves Windham down and Simmons kills Arn with a clothesline. Windham rolls up Reed as Simmons covers Arn and it's a double pin. They keep fighting as we wait for a ruling. Up the ramp they go as Ross isn't sure who the winners are.
Rating: A-. GREAT fight here as both teams just beat each other up for a good while out there. No idea why they went with that ending but the booking situation was in total turmoil at this point so it's understandable. Ole Anderson got fired before the night was over if that explains anything. Doom would retain the titles due to the no contest/draw. Find a copy of this as other than the ending it's totally awesome.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Finals: Mr. Saito/Great Muta vs. Steiner Brothers
Tiger Hatori is guest referee. The fans are totally behind the Steiners of course. Heyman goes on a big pro-Japan rant for some reason. Scott vs. Muta to start and Muta kicks him hard. Scott takes him to the mat with relative ease as we're told of the bit of history these two have (Scott beat him, which hardly ever happened to Muta.) Heyman gets in a great line with I don't trust this referee. He's too honest. How can you trust a man that won't cheat for his own country?
Rick comes in and barks a lot. Muta kicks him a lot so Steiner takes him down with a Steiner Line. Off to Saito and Rick beats the tar out of him. Muta gets crotched as the Steiners are dominating. They're mostly fresh so they have a huge cardio lead at this point. Big USA chant comes up and we're officially told Doom keeps the tag titles. Back to Scott and Muta hits the handspring elbow.
Muta takes too much time coming into the corner and gets caught in a spinning belly to belly for two. Heyman goes on a rant about Hatori being a former adviser to Saito and Ross gets in the insider line of all he ever told him was stay out of McDonald's. This is in reference to Saito (and Ken Patera) throwing a rock through the window of a McDonald's after being refused service (I think the place had just closed but I'm not sure). They then got in a fight with the cops and both of them went to prison for a few years.
Back off to Rick who hammers on Saito but gets caught in the Saito Suplex to put Rick down for a bit. Double tackle puts both guys down. Rick is sent to the floor and when Scott tries to make the save, Saito sends Rick into the post. Muta adds a bell shot and Scott can't get it through his thick head to GO TO HIS CORNER as the Japanese team destroys Rick.
Saito chokes away and Hatori for some reason yells in English to break it up. Rick gets beaten on for a bit until he nails a Steiner Line to bring in Scott. Tiger Driver gets two on Muta. Another Saito Suplex hits on Scott though and there's a spike piledriver but Rick saves. The Steiners make a blind tag and Saito puts a sleeper on Scott. Rick, the legal man, comes off the top with a sunset flip to give the Steiners the tournament. Nice pop for that.
Rating: C. Not bad here but both teams were rather tired out there. The Steiners were great at this point and would get the world tag titles back in February. Either way, not a bad match here but one night tournaments rarely work and this wasn't much different, namely due to a lot of the teams not being known.
The Steiners are presented with the trophy and the Pat O'Connor's family is recognized.
The cage is constructed.
Dick the Bruiser is the referee here.
NWA World Title: Sting vs. Black Scorpion
Bruiser looks like Popeye but the monster version of him. Title vs. mask here. So.....the Black Scorpion. How do I go about explaining the Black Scorpion? This definitely falls under the banner of you kind of had to be there. After Sting beat Flair for the title back in the summer, Flair disappeared. A few months later a guy in black appeared and implied he was a former friend of Sting who was coming for him and the title. He would perform magic and disappear and all that jazz. The story kept getting messed up because they didn't know who to ultimately be Scorpion. This went on for months and this is the final showdown.
In short, the angle was pretty awful as it went on for too long and wasn't that well received due to the magic being stupid and all that jazz. The potential list of guys portraying him ranged from Al Perez, Angel of Death (no one of significant note), Barry Windham, Ultimate Warrior (Tulsa and California had been mentioned and Sting had teamed with Warrior in both places. It was ignored that Warrior was WWF Champion when the angle started), Ole Anderson to Ric Flair. Sid got involved for awhile too and it was just a big mess. This is the big main event though and the final blowoff.
Here's the Scorpion....and a second Scorpion.....there's a third.....make it four. The first is thicker, the second is kind of tall and skinny, the third is short and the fourth is in a singlet top instead of long black sleeves. And now a spacecraft (JR's term) lowers down onto the ramp. I was a kid when I saw this live and on tape so I thought it was awesome. Now though it's just....weird. Ole Anderson's distorted voice (he sounds like a combination of Yoda and the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin) says that this is the REAL Black Scorpion and the pod goes up to reveal the masked man underneath it.
Here's Sting after like five minutes of intros for the Scorpion. Now we get to the interesting point of the match: who is the Scorpion? He's somewhat shorter than Sting and is white. Other than that, we have nothing at all to go on. Now anyone that is anything more than a casual fan of wrestling will be able to tell after about two minutes due to various things he does, but for the most part he tries to be as generic as possible. In short, this makes for a very boring match.
Here's a hint: 20 seconds into the match, the fans chant Nature Boy. That and the white hair that pops out from under the mask. Heyman offers the theory that the hints from the Scorpion have been lies and everyone with a brain says DUH. Now the fans chant WOO. The problem here is that Scorpion is trying to wrestle using the default moveset that you would get on WWF War Zone for the N64.
Headscissors goes on which is apparently either European or Japanese according to JR. Scorpion uses a Flair trademark of putting his feet on the ropes for a chinlock and the secret is pretty much done now. We've got about 15 minutes to go though so there's nothing left as far as mystery goes. A cameraman is sitting on the corner of the cage. There's something cool about that.
Flair fires off some left hands and his signature right. Brief comeback by Sting is cut off by Scorpion who chokes away. Sting gets a suplex for a very slow two. He fires off some right hands but a thumb to the eye stops that. Sting goes into the cage and apparently the Scorpion has fans. Multiple more cage shots make this total Scorpion domination at this point.
Piledriver gets another delayed count. Bruiser really likes to check the shoulders. Sting fights back again and rams him into the....rope. Sting goes into the cage again and let's look at some little kids. Stinger Splash hits and there's a Flair Flop. Scorpion Deathlock goes on but Flair makes the ropes. There goes the mask but he has another mask on underneath. They both go up top and down goes Sting. Scorpion gets crotched on the top and Flair is rammed in again. He blades through a mask. Now that's just darn impressive. Sting gets all fired up and after a beating, a top rope cross body ends this.
Rating: D+. It's Sting vs. Flair but not really. Flair couldn't be himself and the generic wrestling made that really hard to pull off. This was supposed to be about drama but considering everyone in the arena and therefore the TV audience knew in about 20 seconds, the whole match was pretty worthless.
Post match the other Scorpions attack but Brusier and Sting fight them off. Arn Anderson comes out with a chair as the real Scorpion escapes. Anderson hits a DDT on the chair as we're desperately out of time. Flair is back in now as the Horsemen hold Sting down so Flair can wear him out with the chair. Here come Morton and Z-Man but they get beaten down also. The Steiners come out with some boltcutters (big Luger chant for most of this beatdown) as Sting gets up and goes for the mask. It's Flair and zero people in the arena are shocked.
Overall Rating: B-. Pretty good for the most part but the main event is rather terrible. The tournament is ok and you get some decent stuff out of it as well. Overall it's pretty good and would be the last decent Starrcade (personal opinions depending for years to come. It's certainly different and I think it's worth seeing, but not everyone is going to like this for sure. Definitely see the street fight. The other 13 matches are optional. Yes, 13 others.
Date: December 16, 1990
Location: Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 7,200
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul E. Dangerously
This is a very different kind of show. It's half tournament/half regular show so it's more like an old King of the Ring than anything else. The main event is the blowoff for Sting vs. Black Scorpion in a cage. The tournament aspect is the Pat O'Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament which is an international tag tournament. Let's get to it.
The opening video has a space theme. The show is called Collision Course so that makes sense.
The Gulf War is going on here so there's a big deal made of the Star Spangled Banner.
Z-Man vs. Bobby Eaton
Eaton still has the Midnight Express music and from the dark side location. We get what are called Starrcade Stats which are little bios with stats and mini bios, such as this is Eaton's first singles match on PPV. Cool little addition. Allegedly Z-Man is on a 35 match winning streak. Ric Flair is going to be out of the tag title match due to an accident in a limousine so Barry Windham is replacing him in the street fight vs. Doom.
Z-Man speeds things up a bit and gets a top rope cross body for two. The same move gets the same result. According to Dangerously, the Midnights broke up due to Bobby's partner dating Yoko Ono. Z-Man takes him down with an armbar but Eaton gets in a right hand to take over. Z escapes a monkey flip and takes over again. Very fast paced stuff and pretty entertaining so far.
Eaton throws on an armbar to slow things down which is smart from his perspective. Z-Man hits the apron in front of the ramp and suplexes Bobby to the floor. There's a big dive and Bobby is in trouble. Ross: You're a psychoceramic. Paul: Huh? Ross: A crackpot. Z-Man runs into an elbow and Eaton hits a bulldog.
Alabama Jam hits but something resembling a Bronco Buster to a standing Z-Man (no idea what he was going for) misses and they speed things up again. Swinging neckbreaker breaks Z's momentum and Eaton goes up. He jumps into something resembling a superkick but Zenk's leg wasn't extended all the way (not his fault. He just didn't have room). Missile dropkick misses for Z-Man and Eaton rolls him up for the pin.
Rating: B-. Pretty fun match as Z-Man was incredibly fast and was what we would call a Cruiserweight today. Eaton was his usual good self with nothing to complain about really. Good match overall and a solid way to open the show. The fans were into it too so I have zero complaints here.
Dick the Bruiser (if you want to see a tough looking dude that could fight, look up some of his stuff) is refereeing the main event tonight and says he'll be fair.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Quarterfinals: Sgt. Krueger/Colonel DeKlerk vs. Steiner Brothers
The Steiners are the American team and the others are from South Africa. DeKlerk is more famous as Rocco Rock of Public Enemy and is skinny here. Krueger may or may not be Matt Borne, who is more famous as the original Doink and Big Josh about a year after this. I get conflicting reports about him but they do look alike so we'll say it is. This is the 1 vs. 8 seed match.
The Steiners are the US Tag Champions. Krueger vs. Rick to start with Rick destroying him with a Steiner Line to a huge pop. Off to DeKlerk so Rick hits them both with Steiner Lines to take them down. Rock gets a spinwheel kick to send Rick to the floor then hits a big old slingshot dive which Rick half catches. Looked awesome though. Off to Scott who cleans house. Tilt-a-whirl to DeKlerk and the Frankensteiner ends this in maybe two minutes. Scott was AWESOME at this point and would have been world champion in a heartbeat if he asked for it.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Quarterfinals: Norman Smiley/Chris Adams vs. Rey Mysterio/Konnan
Where do I even start here? This is Great Britain vs. Mexico. Smiley only 25 here and is well trained as a technician. His problem is that he's far more famous for his comedy but here he's just a black dude from England. Adams was a pretty big deal in WCCW and is famous for two things in America. First of all he's the first major person to use a superkick as his finisher. Second, he trained a couple of guys you may have heard of. One was either already in WCW or was on his way and is named Scott Hall. The other would debut in May. His name is Steve Austin.
Konnan I'm sure you know of but here he's in a mask and is RIPPED. It's easy to see how he became such a big star looking like this. This isn't the famous Mysterio (spelled Mysteric for no apparent reason) but rather his uncle. There's a little trivia for you: Rey (the famous one) became Rey Mysterio Jr. after his uncle, not his father. Smiley vs. Mysterio to start but Konnan comes in for some cheating.
That doesn't work in the slightest and Team England cleans the ring in just a few seconds. Mysterio vs. Adams now and there's the superkick which looks great. It sends Mysterio to the floor so it's off to Smiley vs. Konnan. It's weird to see Konnan moving like a luchador. He gets caught in a fisherman's suplex and the English take over on Konnan. Smiley breaks up a double team move and Rey is sent to the floor.
The Brit gets a German on the Mexican for two. Adams drops a fist into the ribs and it's off to Smiley again. They haven't stopped in this entire thing yet. Adams vs. Konnan at this point. Blind tag brings in Norman but it backfires with Konnan taking over. He calls for a pescado which doesn't happen. Smiley gets sat on the top rope and Konnan hits a reverse suplex off the top for the pin. The ending seemed a bit quick as everyone seemed confused that it was the finish.
Rating: B. Fun match here with them going all over the place. The crowd was bored out of their minds but for 1990 this was insane stuff. All four guys were working hard out there though which is really all you can ask for. Konnan would become a mega star in Mexico and it's easy to see why based on this. Good match but the ending was rather strange.
Mysterio hits a dive post match and might be injured.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Quarterfinals: Royal Family vs. Mr. Saito/Great Muta
The Royal Family is the New Zealand team and is Rip Morgan (former flag bearer for the Sheepherders (Bushwhackers)) and Jacko Victory (Jack Victory, most famous for being Steve Corino's too close for comfort buddy in ECW's dying days). The Japanese guys I'm sure you've heard of. Paul thought Muta was the Black Scorpion but is surprised that he's not.
The announcers point out that Victory was born in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. That would be the location for the first season of Jersey Shore. That makes Heyman burying the place so much funnier. I know the guy is called a visionary but this is remarkable. Muta destroys Victory for a bit so a double tag brings in Saito and Morgan. Victory comes in and hammers away so Saito grabs the arm to push him down.
Morgan and Muta come back in again and Muta realizes that this guy is just a lackey for better wrestlers so he goes insane on him, kicking the tar out of him. Back to Saito who sets for a Sharpshooter but Victory breaks it up. The crowd doesn't care of course but it's technically heels vs. heels here. Morgan misses a legdrop and Muta comes in to fire the crowd up with the handspring elbow. Everything breaks down and Morgan accidently clotheslines Victory into a German suplex by Muta for the pin.
Rating: C. So yeah, no one cared about anyone in this but Muta. At least WCW got that and pushed Muta's team here. They're keeping these matches relatively short as this was the longest of the first round at about five and a half minutes. Fine little match but the lack of an actual face team was a bit awkward.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Quarterfinals: Bull Johnson/Troy Montour vs. Victor Zangiev/Salmon Hasimikov
Canada vs. Soviet Union here. I have no idea who the Canadians are and I think they're jobbers. The Stats page says they're not favored. I've only heard of Hasimikov who won the IWGP Title for about a month and a half in 1989 before losing it to Riki Choshu. Other than that, these guys are all unknowns. Both Russians are REALLY heavy. Zangiev can beat Albert for back hair.
Something tells me this isn't going to go well for the Canadians. Yep as the Russians take them to the mat with ease. The Canadians look like they're in cowboy gear. Something that was supposed to be a belly to belly results in Johnson landing on his face. Double tag brings in Salmon and Troy. Suplex gets two and Troy apparently submits to a neck crank. REALLY awkward match.
Rating: F+. The Russians were kind of impressive but they were never heard of after this show. Not much of a match at all as the Canadians were fat jobbers and that's about it. No point to this other than to show what the Russians could do. The Canadians have zero other matches that I can find anywhere so what does that tell you?
Sting says the Scorpion is done tonight.
Terry Taylor vs. Michael Wallstreet
Wallstreet is IRS or would be in just a few months. Here he's the computer dude so the (not plugged in and pre-laptop) computer says it'll take 8:32 for him to win. We get a clock so I guess the computer is allowed to officially make time limits. Well sure why not. According to some standard, this the the #8 (Taylor) vs. #7 (Wallstreet) wrestlers in the world.
Wallstreet is in the York Foundation and has Alexandra York (Terri Runnels) with him. Taylor jumps him to start and Wallstreet hits the floor to chill. Back inside and Terry keeps hammering away at him. York keeps typing away as Wallstreet takes over. Pretty basic match here without much to talk about. Ross talks about Taylor being frustrated in the previous years, hinting at the Red Rooster years.
Wallstreet puts on an abdominal stretch and Taylor is in trouble. Ross and Heyman argue about various stuff to fill in the time. There's 3:24 to go on the clock as Wallstreet misses a dropkick. Taylor gets going and drops a knee for two. Bridging belly to back gets the same. Five Arm hits but Wallstreet gets his foot on the rope. They run the ropes a bit but Taylor gets caught in a stun gun so that a Samoan Drop can end it with 1:39 to go in the clock.
Rating: C-. Eh not bad here but the clock was a nice little addition. The match ending with about a minute forty to go was a nice touch as it would have been expected to probably go down to the wire. Not a bad match but nothing you couldn't see on Worldwide or some other C show back then (seriously, WCW had like 5 TV shows for a long time).
Skyscrapers vs. Big Cat/Motor City Madman
The Madman is just a guy and Big Cat is Mr. Hughes. At the last Clash Cat had run his mouth to Sid so Sid is hooking up with Dan Spivey one last time to more or less kill him. Total and complete domination with a double powerbomb ending the Madman in maybe 70 seconds. The fans LOVED the Skyscrapers who were just big strong guys that beat people up. Think a taller and less competent version of the APA.
The Skyscrapers don't want to talk to Paul.
Tommy Rich/Ricky Morton vs. Freebirds
Rich is subbing for Gibson here who has a knee injury. He comes out on crutches anyway though. The Birds are the rock band here so they have a roadie called Little Richard Marley with them. The fans think the Freebirds suck. Morton vs. Garvin to start us off. The Birds injured Robert so there's your reason for the match existing. Morton and Rich clean house to start and it's off to Hayes now.
He has some more luck here but walks into an atomic drop. Out to the floor again and Gibson gets a shot in. Hayes misses a knee drop and it's figure four time. Rich comes in to make it a double. We go to the floor again as this has been one sided so far. Garvin wants Rich so here's the former world champion. Little Richard gets beaten up for the second time in like 4 minutes and now Hayes gets beaten up some more.
Totally one sided match so far. Oh and the Birds have the Confederate flag on their faces for no apparent reason. Garvin makes a blind tag so the Birds can finally get something going. Hayes has a good left hand. DDT is countered and it's double tag time. Things break down and Little Richard tries to break the leg of Morton. Gibson makes the save so Garvin chokes Hayes, allowing Morton to roll up Hayes for the pin.
Rating: D+. Meh just a TV match that wasn't serious in the slightest. No real point to it other than to keep this angle going. Also it gives more of a breather before the tag tournament continues. Morton was the only one in here worth anything and that was pretty obvious but they tried I guess.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Semi-Finals: Steiner Brothers vs. Konnan/Rey Mysterio
Konnan takes Rick to the mat so Scott comes in to destroy some people. Steiner Bulldog hits and Konnan is dead. Off to Rey who has a bit better luck. Rick comes in as there's little flow to this at all. And then Rick counters a rana into a powerbomb. This was barely two and a half minutes and was really bad while it lasted.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Semi-Finals: Mr. Saito/Great Muts vs. Salmon Hashimikov/Victor Zangiev
This could be interesting. Muta vs. Victor to start us off. Good night the crowd went totally silent when the bell rang. Zangiev gets a suplex for two and it's off to Saito. The Russians fight like MMA guys which means nothing at this point and wouldn't for years. Salmon comes in and the Russian puts a Boston on the Japanese. Saito vs. Victor at the moment and Saito tries the Sharpshooter which goes on for all of two seconds. Salmon half kills Muta with a suplex and Saito makes the save. Saito Suplex ends Victor. Short and again not much at all but FAR better than the previous one.
Steiners vs. Japan in the finals.
Doom is ready for the Horsemen. Better that they don't talk that much.
US Title: Lex Luger vs. Stan Hansen
Hansen had ended Luger's year and a half plus reign so this is the rematch. It's the bullrop style where you have to touch every corner. Hansen takes over quickly but Luger fights back with his power and strikes. This is one of those really physical matches that has a gimmick because it wasn't going to go well otherwise. Hansen goes to the floor and Luger chokes away.
Hansen cracks him with a chair and back inside we go. Luger fires off a headbutt and a clothesline puts Stan down. The fans are way into this. Luger goes for the corners and is at two but Hansen rams him into the third to break the momentum. Hansen goes for some corners and that gets broken up rather quickly also. We get the required hanging spot in these kind of matches. Lex gets posted and Hansen hammers away even more. Luger makes a last second save after three buckles.
Lex gets choked some more as the fans are kind of into this. They go outside again and Lex uses the rope to his advantage. Stan goes into the post and Luger is all fired up. Back inside and Lex tries to hogtie him. That fails so he drops three legs instead. He had a thing for doing the same move three times in a row for some reason. Stan is down so Lex gets three buckles but knocks the referee out by mistake on the fourth. He hits the buckle on the way though so the fans pop. Hansen hits him with a boot and starts his trip around the ring. A second referee comes out and watches Stan get all four to retain.
Rating: C. I know these tend to be bad but when you have the guys brawl the entire time like they did here, it's nowhere near as bad. Not a great match or anything but considering how bad these things usually are, this was really pretty good. Hansen would be in Japan full time soon where he's a huge deal as compared to nothing great here.
Post match the other referee wakes and says Luger won first so Lex is new champion. Well ok then.
Tag Titles: Doom vs. Arn Anderson/Barry Windham
This is a street fight. Windham is replacing Flair who was injured. Doom is Ron Simmons and Butch Reed and are in the ending of the longest WCW tag title reign ever. Everyone is in street clothes and this is a big feud so I'd expect a BIG brawl. Anderson takes his own belt off and whips Simmons on the ramp which doesn't go well for him. Ron is like oh no you didn't and beats Anderson down with ease.
Barry and Butch (what names) go to the floor as Anderson pops Ron in the knee with a chair. Windham is busted open so Reed puts a belt buckle into it. Suplex puts Reed down as Arn hammers on Reed now. Everyone but Reed is in the ring now. Anderson punches Ron and then Barry NAILS Ron with the belt. That looked great. HARD chair shot takes Reed down outside.
This has been a big old stiff brawl the entire time and it's worked great up to this point. Windham vs. Simmons in the ring at the moment. Reed gets a shot into the back and there's the spinebuster (SICK one too) from Simmons for two. Reed gets all fired up and beats Windham down like he stole something. Simmons gorilla presses Anderson as Barry crotched Reed. Superplex hits for two. Simmons is busted and goes up for a big top rope tackle. Anderson stops Simmons from bringing in a chair. Simmons blocks the shot so it hits Anderson for a very close two.
Piledriver takes Reed down for a bit and gets two also. Everyone is busted open. They're starting to slow down due to pure exhaustion. Anderson goes up but Reed shoves Windham down and Simmons kills Arn with a clothesline. Windham rolls up Reed as Simmons covers Arn and it's a double pin. They keep fighting as we wait for a ruling. Up the ramp they go as Ross isn't sure who the winners are.
Rating: A-. GREAT fight here as both teams just beat each other up for a good while out there. No idea why they went with that ending but the booking situation was in total turmoil at this point so it's understandable. Ole Anderson got fired before the night was over if that explains anything. Doom would retain the titles due to the no contest/draw. Find a copy of this as other than the ending it's totally awesome.
Pat O'Connor Tag Tournament Finals: Mr. Saito/Great Muta vs. Steiner Brothers
Tiger Hatori is guest referee. The fans are totally behind the Steiners of course. Heyman goes on a big pro-Japan rant for some reason. Scott vs. Muta to start and Muta kicks him hard. Scott takes him to the mat with relative ease as we're told of the bit of history these two have (Scott beat him, which hardly ever happened to Muta.) Heyman gets in a great line with I don't trust this referee. He's too honest. How can you trust a man that won't cheat for his own country?
Rick comes in and barks a lot. Muta kicks him a lot so Steiner takes him down with a Steiner Line. Off to Saito and Rick beats the tar out of him. Muta gets crotched as the Steiners are dominating. They're mostly fresh so they have a huge cardio lead at this point. Big USA chant comes up and we're officially told Doom keeps the tag titles. Back to Scott and Muta hits the handspring elbow.
Muta takes too much time coming into the corner and gets caught in a spinning belly to belly for two. Heyman goes on a rant about Hatori being a former adviser to Saito and Ross gets in the insider line of all he ever told him was stay out of McDonald's. This is in reference to Saito (and Ken Patera) throwing a rock through the window of a McDonald's after being refused service (I think the place had just closed but I'm not sure). They then got in a fight with the cops and both of them went to prison for a few years.
Back off to Rick who hammers on Saito but gets caught in the Saito Suplex to put Rick down for a bit. Double tackle puts both guys down. Rick is sent to the floor and when Scott tries to make the save, Saito sends Rick into the post. Muta adds a bell shot and Scott can't get it through his thick head to GO TO HIS CORNER as the Japanese team destroys Rick.
Saito chokes away and Hatori for some reason yells in English to break it up. Rick gets beaten on for a bit until he nails a Steiner Line to bring in Scott. Tiger Driver gets two on Muta. Another Saito Suplex hits on Scott though and there's a spike piledriver but Rick saves. The Steiners make a blind tag and Saito puts a sleeper on Scott. Rick, the legal man, comes off the top with a sunset flip to give the Steiners the tournament. Nice pop for that.
Rating: C. Not bad here but both teams were rather tired out there. The Steiners were great at this point and would get the world tag titles back in February. Either way, not a bad match here but one night tournaments rarely work and this wasn't much different, namely due to a lot of the teams not being known.
The Steiners are presented with the trophy and the Pat O'Connor's family is recognized.
The cage is constructed.
Dick the Bruiser is the referee here.
NWA World Title: Sting vs. Black Scorpion
Bruiser looks like Popeye but the monster version of him. Title vs. mask here. So.....the Black Scorpion. How do I go about explaining the Black Scorpion? This definitely falls under the banner of you kind of had to be there. After Sting beat Flair for the title back in the summer, Flair disappeared. A few months later a guy in black appeared and implied he was a former friend of Sting who was coming for him and the title. He would perform magic and disappear and all that jazz. The story kept getting messed up because they didn't know who to ultimately be Scorpion. This went on for months and this is the final showdown.
In short, the angle was pretty awful as it went on for too long and wasn't that well received due to the magic being stupid and all that jazz. The potential list of guys portraying him ranged from Al Perez, Angel of Death (no one of significant note), Barry Windham, Ultimate Warrior (Tulsa and California had been mentioned and Sting had teamed with Warrior in both places. It was ignored that Warrior was WWF Champion when the angle started), Ole Anderson to Ric Flair. Sid got involved for awhile too and it was just a big mess. This is the big main event though and the final blowoff.
Here's the Scorpion....and a second Scorpion.....there's a third.....make it four. The first is thicker, the second is kind of tall and skinny, the third is short and the fourth is in a singlet top instead of long black sleeves. And now a spacecraft (JR's term) lowers down onto the ramp. I was a kid when I saw this live and on tape so I thought it was awesome. Now though it's just....weird. Ole Anderson's distorted voice (he sounds like a combination of Yoda and the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin) says that this is the REAL Black Scorpion and the pod goes up to reveal the masked man underneath it.
Here's Sting after like five minutes of intros for the Scorpion. Now we get to the interesting point of the match: who is the Scorpion? He's somewhat shorter than Sting and is white. Other than that, we have nothing at all to go on. Now anyone that is anything more than a casual fan of wrestling will be able to tell after about two minutes due to various things he does, but for the most part he tries to be as generic as possible. In short, this makes for a very boring match.
Here's a hint: 20 seconds into the match, the fans chant Nature Boy. That and the white hair that pops out from under the mask. Heyman offers the theory that the hints from the Scorpion have been lies and everyone with a brain says DUH. Now the fans chant WOO. The problem here is that Scorpion is trying to wrestle using the default moveset that you would get on WWF War Zone for the N64.
Headscissors goes on which is apparently either European or Japanese according to JR. Scorpion uses a Flair trademark of putting his feet on the ropes for a chinlock and the secret is pretty much done now. We've got about 15 minutes to go though so there's nothing left as far as mystery goes. A cameraman is sitting on the corner of the cage. There's something cool about that.
Flair fires off some left hands and his signature right. Brief comeback by Sting is cut off by Scorpion who chokes away. Sting gets a suplex for a very slow two. He fires off some right hands but a thumb to the eye stops that. Sting goes into the cage and apparently the Scorpion has fans. Multiple more cage shots make this total Scorpion domination at this point.
Piledriver gets another delayed count. Bruiser really likes to check the shoulders. Sting fights back again and rams him into the....rope. Sting goes into the cage again and let's look at some little kids. Stinger Splash hits and there's a Flair Flop. Scorpion Deathlock goes on but Flair makes the ropes. There goes the mask but he has another mask on underneath. They both go up top and down goes Sting. Scorpion gets crotched on the top and Flair is rammed in again. He blades through a mask. Now that's just darn impressive. Sting gets all fired up and after a beating, a top rope cross body ends this.
Rating: D+. It's Sting vs. Flair but not really. Flair couldn't be himself and the generic wrestling made that really hard to pull off. This was supposed to be about drama but considering everyone in the arena and therefore the TV audience knew in about 20 seconds, the whole match was pretty worthless.
Post match the other Scorpions attack but Brusier and Sting fight them off. Arn Anderson comes out with a chair as the real Scorpion escapes. Anderson hits a DDT on the chair as we're desperately out of time. Flair is back in now as the Horsemen hold Sting down so Flair can wear him out with the chair. Here come Morton and Z-Man but they get beaten down also. The Steiners come out with some boltcutters (big Luger chant for most of this beatdown) as Sting gets up and goes for the mask. It's Flair and zero people in the arena are shocked.
Overall Rating: B-. Pretty good for the most part but the main event is rather terrible. The tournament is ok and you get some decent stuff out of it as well. Overall it's pretty good and would be the last decent Starrcade (personal opinions depending for years to come. It's certainly different and I think it's worth seeing, but not everyone is going to like this for sure. Definitely see the street fight. The other 13 matches are optional. Yes, 13 others.