Starrcade 1997: Booking A Dream Card

[ilapierre]

Toward the end of 1997, WCW had the greatest single roster in all of wrestling history. There were the established mega stars from WWE like Hogan, Savage, Piper, Hall, Nash, Hitman and Henning. There were WCW-created mega stars like Flair, Sting, Goldberg, DDP, Luger, Giant (Big Show), Steiners and Harlem Heat. Up-and-coming future stars like Benoit, Eddie, Mysterio Jr. and Jericho. There were legends participating from beyond the ring like Dibiase, Liz, Rhodes, Rude and Zbysko. New Japan was allowing legends Chono and Muta to wrestle with WCW. Well known guys like Dennis Rodman and Kevin Greene participated occasionally. And legends like Warrior and Davey Boy were signed within the year. It's easy to look back and say what should have been done differently to maximize such a roster. But, still, what if Bischoff or the booking team of the day had the hindsight we all have now? What if they had every single one of these guys listed above available to them for WCW's pinnacle PPV?

So I decided, just for fun, to create this thread. I ask all of you to fantasy book the best possible 3 hour Starrcade 1997. How would you have booked 'WCW's Wrestlemania' to maximize the amazing talent on the payroll? What would you do differently feud wise leading up to the event to make WCW a stronger product moving forward in 1998?

I would have booked 11 official matches for Starrcade. The concept for the PPV would be WCW vs NWO. If WCW didn't beat the NWO, then the company name World Championship Wrestling would cease to exist. Whoever had the best record at the end of the night, Bischoff's team or J.J. Dillon's, would now be in control of the company for a full year until the next Starrcade.

- Dark Match NWO B Team vs WCW Cruiserweights/Raven's Flock/Low carders

(I realize some of these guys might not have been in the mix in December 97. But, for fun, I've included those who almost could have been).

Scott Norton, Brian Adams, Horace Hogan, Vincent, Fake Sting, Ray Traylor
vs
Raven, Billy Kidman, Juvi, Ultimo Dragon, Chavo Jr, Perry Saturn


1 Ladder Match: Buff Bagwell & Konnan vs Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio Jr. Winner: WCW 1-0

2 Cruiserweight Title Match: Syxx Pac vs Chris Jericho Winner: NWO 1-1

3 New Japan vs 4 Horsemen:
Masahiro Chono, Great Muta, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Hiro Saito
vs
Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson, Mongo McMichael Winner WCW 2-1

4 Bret Hart vs Ric Flair (This could have been a match where the NWO would claim that one of the two is secretly working with NWO. Bret, having been screwed a month by Nash and Hall's best buds earlier in WWE, could come in claiming no allegiance to the NWO. He, and the fans, would believe Flair was turning his back on WCW after all these years (Flair being the heel going in). Flair, however, would claim Hitman was a liar. Playing on their WWF heat from years earlier. In a double turn, Hitman, with a Montreal-like screwjob finish via Nick Patrick , would win with the finger four leg lock and turn NWO. This would give Hitman a meaningful feud yet still keep him out of the packed title picture for a few months. NWO 2-2

5 6 Man Tag: Scott Steiner (turned heel earlier), Curt Henning and Rick Rude
vs
Rick Steiner (with Dibiase) & Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray with Sherri)
Winner: NWO 2-3

6 The Giant vs Mystery Opponent
Warrior would make surprise return in a squash match. Winner: WCW 3-3

7 Mixed Tag Falls Count Anywhere Match: Randy Savage & Liz vs DDP & Kymberly Winner: NWO 3-4

8 No Holds Barred Street Brawl Match: Dennis Rodman vs Roddy Piper Winner: WCW 4-4

9 Outsiders vs Goldberg & Lex Luger Winner WCW 5-4

10 Eric Bischoff vs Larry Zbysko First Blood Match Winner (due to a Dusty Rhodes heel turn) NWO 5-5

11 Hollywood Hogan vs Sting WCW 6-5
This match would decide who would be in control of WCW going forward. I would have the match play out just as it did in 1997 (except this time with Nick Patrick making an authentic fast count). Also, instead of Hitman interfering, I would have WCW commish J.J. Dillon show up and order the match to continue with a new ref (causing a huge uproar between him and Bischoff). I'd also let the restarted match continue for a bit longer than the original (with more outside NWO interference and WCW guys running in to save the day). Sting would win by submission with Bischoff and Hogan claiming the next night that Hogan never quit (setting up a rematch for Souled Out).

 

[relentless1]

k well, first off, a lot of these guys weren't in WCW at the time and Goldberg certainly wasn't ready for that spot yet. Anyway I think Starrcade 97 should have been like this:

Cruiserweight Title:Ultimo Dragon vs Dean Malenko

WCW ( Giant, Mongo, Benoit ) vs nWo ( Savage, Konnan, Norton )

TV Title: Steve Regal vs Goldberg

Eddie Guerrerro vs Rey Mysterio Jr

US Title: Curt Hennig vs DDP

Buff Bagwell vs Lex Luger

WCW Tag Team Titles: The Outsiders vs The Steiner Bros

Control of Nitro: Eric Bischoff vs Larry Zybyzko

WCW World Title: Hollywood Hogan vs Sting

 

[Stingersplash89]

I don't mind the set up you have there , but would you really not change how the main event went down to a huge degree ? I would completely switch it up. Sting getting dominated pretty much from bell to bell was possibly the most baffling thing I've ever seen in 20 years of watching wrestling.

The man had just decimated the entire nwo on a weekly basis for the better part of last year which included Hogan running for his life at every turn. Yet when we get to the big showdown, Hulk's throwing Sting around like a chump for 90% of the match.

Even as a 7 year old mark I thought that was just ridiculous. Should have been a 10 minute squash match with nWo barred from ringside and Hogan doing the job 1-2-3 clean in the middle to a Scorpion Deathdrop or tapping out to the Scorpion Deathlock.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Well, you would have to have Brett Hart making a lot more appearances before SC 97 to have a high level match vs Flair. Also, Flair had a broken ankle, they waited as long as they could before cancelling his expected US Title win and feud ending win vs NWO Henning in the No DQ Cage Match (Flair broke his ankle doing an off the top rope outside the ring flying axe handle on Henning at WW 3 PPV. He didn't wrestle afterwards but continued making regular promo appearances on Nitro until the week before Starrcade when he was booked in the Nitro Main Event, basically just to get punked by the NWO at the start of the match, setting up the "injury" angle with DDP taking his place).

Also, Dennis Rodman is almost a year away from appearing in WCW at this point. If we are randomly adding people who weren't in the company for this "Fantasy Booking" then why not add Shawn Michaels, have Brett Hart as the guest ref for Sting-Hogan, tease a "Screw Job" finish, but Brett refuses to go along, and have Bischoff bring out HBK in a ref shirt to replace Hart, then do the "Screw Job" to save the title for Hogan ? That would have been a "fantasy finish" of epic proportions.

Also, you have no US Title Match on your card...and you have Rick Rude, who was retired and unable to wrestle due to injury, suddenly getting healed and wrestling again ??

Maybe it's just me, I don't mind these "what if" threads but I prefer if they are kept somewhat real in relation to what was happening in the fed at the time.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

I would just make a few tweaks to the existing card. I'd book 8 matches, 4 main events filled with star power and storyline angles and 4 undercard matches with the best possible wrestling match-ups at the time. This would create a major event with drawing power, star power and 5-star wrestling.

The main events:
8. Hollywood Hogan 'C' vs Sting - WCW World Heavyweight Championship

7. Kevin Nash vs The Giant

Bret Hart Debut/Promo with fake WWF World Championship - Claims to be real champion - sets up a feud with Ric Flair

6. Randy Savage, Scott Hall & Buff Bagwell vs The Steiner Brothers & Lex Luger - Six Man Tag Team Match

5. Larry Zbyszko vs Eric Bischoff - If Bischoff wins, he gets control of Nitro

The undercard:
4. Curt Hennig 'C' vs Diamond Dallas Page - WCW United States Championship

3. Raven w/ The Flock vs Chris Benoit

2. Chris Jericho 'C' vs Dean Malenko - WCW Cruiserweight Championship

1. Rey Misterio Jr vs Ultimo Dragon

 

[SinCityBlitz]

11 Hollywood Hogan vs Sting WCW 6-5
This match would decide who would be in control of WCW going forward. I would have the match play out just as it did in 1997 (except this time with Nick Patrick making an authentic fast count). Also, instead of Hitman interfering, I would have WCW commish J.J. Dillon show up and order the match to continue with a new ref (causing a huge uproar between him and Bischoff). I'd also let the restarted match continue for a bit longer than the original (with more outside NWO interference and WCW guys running in to save the day). Sting would win by submission with Bischoff and Hogan claiming the next night that Hogan never quit (setting up a rematch for Souled Out).

That is the reason it would fail again. They had eighteen months of build up, Sting has to go over CLEAN. No bullcrap finishes. Starrcade was WCW's Wrestlemania. They tried to appease Hogan and the match was forgettable. They ruined what should have been Sting's big moment.


You know why Andre vs Hogan was so successful? Not because of bullcrap finishes but because they built the hell out of it(just like Sting vs Hogan) and Andre jobbed clean. If it ended any other way no one would ever talk about how epic it was.

 

[justtxyank]

Toward the end of 1997, WCW had the greatest single roster in all of wrestling history.

They did, and I get the desire to rebook Starrcade 97. It's one of the most "rebooked" shows of all time and for good reason. However, most rebooks of the show have a total disregard for reality and yours is no different. It's not that the matches you booked are all terrible, they just are pure fantasy and were impossible to actually pull off.

1) Ladder Match: Makes zero sense as Rey and Eddie were mortal enemies at this time.

2) Cruiserweight Title Match: Syxx had a broken neck and couldn't wrestle

3) NJPW vs IV Horsemen: This match makes no booking sense at all. First of all, Arn Anderson was retired and couldn't take a bump at all. Dean Malenko was not a member of the Horsemen.

4) Bret Hart vs Ric Flair: Everyone who rebooks Starrcade 97 puts Hart on the card in some way. Everyone who rips WCW says this is an example of not using Hart well. Hart didn't debut until December 15th on Nitro. How in the world would you book him into a feud with a main eventer in two weeks without it being hot shotted? Not to mention that Flair was injured and couldn't work the card anyway which is why DDP got the title from Hennig.

5) Rick Rude was retired. The rest could work I guess, but is weirdly booked.

6) The Giant was one of the biggest faces in the world at this point after his face turn against the nWo and his feud with Nash. He was not a member of the nWo anymore and feeding him to the Warrior in a squash would have been terrible.

7) I actually don't have a problem with this match. It would have been terrible when the women wrestled, but so what.

8) Don't have a problem with this match either, except that Rodman would not have been available as it was during the NBA season. He probably had a game that night!

9) Match makes no sense. Goldberg had barely debuted in WCW, Nash was in the middle of an enormous program with the Giant...the preplanned Nash vs Giant match was way more interesting than this.

10) Don't have a problem with the match, but Dusty's heel turn is just plain dumb. It made no sense in real life, makes no sense now and most people forget he ever joined the nWo.

11) Eh, is what it is.

Sorry, but you actually managed to write down a "dream card" that was worse than the actual card.

Also, Dennis Rodman is almost a year away from appearing in WCW at this point.

Other than this, the rest of your post made great points. Dennis Rodman debuted with WCW in early 1997, playing a role in the outcome of the nWo vs WCW match at Uncensored and tagging with Hogan at Bash at the Beach 1997. So that wasn't really totally out of line in terms of Rodman being part of the nWo, however, Starrcade took place in December when the NBA season had started. Rodman wasn't going to wrestle during the NBA season.

 

[justtxyank]

That is the reason it would fail again. They had eighteen months of build up, Sting has to go over CLEAN. No bullcrap finishes. Starrcade was WCW's Wrestlemania. They tried to appease Hogan and the match was forgettable. They ruined what should have been Sting's big moment.


You know why Andre vs Hogan was so successful? Not because of bullcrap finishes but because they built the hell out of it(just like Sting vs Hogan) and Andre jobbed clean. If it ended any other way no one would ever talk about how epic it was.

Starrcade being WCW's Wrestlemania is a myth. It started getting built that way, but WCW execs favored Halloween Havoc and Superbrawl, not to mention Fall Brawl Wargames. Starrcade was the oldest event, dating back to 1983, but it was rarely the best show of the year for the company and it rarely had the biggest matches.

But I agree with you. Not having Sting go over clean was a disaster. The build was perfect. Hogan needed to be afraid of Sting and Sting needed to take him out decisively.

 

[Cub McCallister]

This could of been a great pay per view had the main event not been a total cluster fuck they could of out the wwf in the grave, this was stings time to shine and my card would be a little different such as:

1) Eddie Guerrero (C) Vs Dean Malenko
Wcw Cruiserweight Title Match. Same as before these matches were always 5 star classics.

2) Goldberg Vs Saturn
Singles Match. I didn't care for McMichael tbh and I would of had him pay Saturn to go after Goldberg with Goldberg going over in the process.

3) Booker T (C) Vs Randy Savage
WcW Tv Title Match. I understand booker won the title after the event well I would have him win it before hand and Savage comes out and challenges him for the gold only to lose and then after show booker respect.

4) Lex Lugar Vs Buff Bagwell
SinglesMatch. Same as before.

5) Chris Benoit Vs Raven
Ravens Rules Match. Raven goes over with outside help and he fights Benoit instead of Saturn.

6) Scott Hall & Syxx (C) Vs The Steiner Brothers
Wcw Tag Titles Match. Have the Steiners go over and end the nwo dominance with Syxx subbing in for Nash who no showed the event.

7) Eric Bischoff Vs Larry Zbyszko
Singles Match. Same as before

8) Curt Hennig (C) Vs DDP
Wcw United States Title Match. Same as before

9) Hollywood Hogan (C) Vs Sting
Wcw World Title Match. Same as before but this time sting goes over cleanly and have bret hart as the special guest referee from the beginning with no screw job and have confetti and fireworks for stings celebration.

 

[ilapierre]

Yes I agree with most of your posts that it was impossible to pull off some of the matches I suggested. Rick Rude hadn't wrestled in years because of a career ending neck injury and hadn't yet committed to a comeback. Ric Flair was hurt leading up to the event. Different feuds were taking place. Giant was WCW at the time. Scott hadn't turned on Rick. Goldberg wasn't built up big yet and Warrior was 9 months away. The whole point of this exercise was to put together a dream card with the best of what WCW had to work with in 97-98. I know that is a hard thing for some of you posters to do as you like to stick to how things were booked the months leading up to Starrcade. I implicitly stated how would you have booked things leading up to the event to create the dream ppv. And also, if everyone in the company was available to them (Warrior could have been brought in as he was a free agent). The poster who suggested bringing Michaels into the mix might as well have suggesting bringing in Lou Thez lol..

Stingersplash 89 makes a great point that Hogan should have been decimated by Sting in a squash match. That would have worked far better than the screwy Nick Patrick/Bret Hart ending. As for Starrcade not being WCW's Wrestlemania, I don't buy that. Look at all the Starrcades of the late 80s. Look to Flair vs Vader in 93. Sting Hogan 97. Nash Goldberg 98. Starrcade was WCW's big PPV. It might not have been the plan but that's how it worked out.

Flairfan2003: Rodman wasn't a year away in 1997. He had joined the NWO in February (10 months earlier) and made appearances in the summers of 97, 98 and 99. He couldn't be brought in during basketball season. But, again, it was more of a dream booking thread. Not a 100 percent realistic booking thread. As for the Hitman not wrestling a high profile match, why not? He essentially left WWE champ. He easily could have been put into a straight forward legends match with Flair.

 

[ilapierre]

They did, and I get the desire to rebook Starrcade 97. It's one of the most "rebooked" shows of all time and for good reason. However, most rebooks of the show have a total disregard for reality and yours is no different. It's not that the matches you booked are all terrible, they just are pure fantasy and were impossible to actually pull off.

1) Ladder Match: Makes zero sense as Rey and Eddie were mortal enemies at this time.

2) Cruiserweight Title Match: Syxx had a broken neck and couldn't wrestle

3) NJPW vs IV Horsemen: This match makes no booking sense at all. First of all, Arn Anderson was retired and couldn't take a bump at all. Dean Malenko was not a member of the Horsemen.

4) Bret Hart vs Ric Flair: Everyone who rebooks Starrcade 97 puts Hart on the card in some way. Everyone who rips WCW says this is an example of not using Hart well. Hart didn't debut until December 15th on Nitro. How in the world would you book him into a feud with a main eventer in two weeks without it being hot shotted? Not to mention that Flair was injured and couldn't work the card anyway which is why DDP got the title from Hennig.

5) Rick Rude was retired. The rest could work I guess, but is weirdly booked.

6) The Giant was one of the biggest faces in the world at this point after his face turn against the nWo and his feud with Nash. He was not a member of the nWo anymore and feeding him to the Warrior in a squash would have been terrible.

7) I actually don't have a problem with this match. It would have been terrible when the women wrestled, but so what.

8) Don't have a problem with this match either, except that Rodman would not have been available as it was during the NBA season. He probably had a game that night!

9) Match makes no sense. Goldberg had barely debuted in WCW, Nash was in the middle of an enormous program with the Giant...the preplanned Nash vs Giant match was way more interesting than this.

10) Don't have a problem with the match, but Dusty's heel turn is just plain dumb. It made no sense in real life, makes no sense now and most people forget he ever joined the nWo.

11) Eh, is what it is.

Sorry, but you actually managed to write down a "dream card" that was worse than the actual card.




Other than this, the rest of your post made great points. Dennis Rodman debuted with WCW in early 1997, playing a role in the outcome of the nWo vs WCW match at Uncensored and tagging with Hogan at Bash at the Beach 1997. So that wasn't really totally out of line in terms of Rodman being part of the nWo, however, Starrcade took place in December when the NBA season had started. Rodman wasn't going to wrestle during the NBA season.

Fair enough. My objective was to find a way to give the 50 best guys connected with the company between 97-98 a moment on the card. Sure, the matches I chose could have been better. I just wanted to fit all those guys into a 3 hour show with a WCW vs NWO theme. I fit all those guys into about 11 matches. Perhaps I'll try this again and make my card more realistic without the WCW vs NWO theme. Just best possible matches based on what was happening (and could have realistically happened) in the company at the time (minus injuries).

1 Dean Malenko vs Ultimo Dragon vs Chris Jericho (Cruiserweight Title)
2 Harlem Heat Lex Luger vs Scott Norton, Konnan and Buff Bagwell
3 Rey Mysterio Jr vs Eddie Guerrero (TV Title)
4 New Japan vs Four Horsemen (healthy Flair, Benoit Mongo Bret -Anderson replacement turns on Flair)
5 Streak Match Goldberg vs Raven's Flock
6 Randy Savage & Liz vs DDP & Kymberly
7 Curt Henning vs Roddy Piper (US Title)
8 Giant Steiners vs Outsiders (healthy Syxx Pac) Tag Titles
9 Ric Flair vs Bret Hart
10 Bischoff vs Zbysko (for control of WCW)
11 Hogan vs Sting. Sting squashes Hogan and all interference and wins title cleanly.