your starrcade 1997

[relentless1]

I personally think (along with many others) that starrcade 97 was the beginning of the end for wcw, but one thing that i think hasnt been touched on is that the card for starrcade 1997 wasnt even that good to begin with, so id like to hear your suggestions on how youd change it....

Hollywood Hogan vs Sting- Sting HAS TO GO OVER CLEAN no matter what, the whole point of the nWo story leads here, to this moment so there is no question it should be sting winning clean with the scorpion with bret hart, ddp, the giant, lex luger, ric flair, the stiener bros, harlem heat and roddy piper cutting off the nWo from interfering.

The Outsiders vs the Steiener Bros- for the Tag Titles and again, another match that must be lost by the nWo and i think it should be Nash that gets pinned due to botched help from Eric Bischoff, slowly setting up the rift that would become the wolfpac.

Macho Man w/ Eric Bischoff vs Mystery Opponent w/ JJ Dillon- this would be the match for control of Nitro, Bret Hart would end up being the mystery opponent (the original opponent would be DDP but he would have been beaten up on the last Nitro setting up bret harts return to the ring) Bret obviously wins here.

Curt Henning vs Ric Flair- this would be a US title cage match, Flair wins via submission.

Buff Bagwell and Scott Norton vs Lex Luger and The Giant- Giant and Luger win.

Konnan vs Rey Mysterio- Konnan wins with help from Vincent, making it seem as though the nWo has momentum for the night....

I think the clean wins combined with Bret Hart actually having a match would have made this one of the best that WCW ever produced IMO

 

[J.J.]

I liked the PPV. What I didn't like was that following night on Nitro the world title match turned into a cliffhanger and went off-air with Hogan receiving a Stinger Splash. This PPV was every bit important to WCW as WM14 was for WWE. They gave the Sting/Hogan feud ample time to build up. The success of this PPV is what caused WCW fans to see Thunder on Thursday's and Nitro from 8-11. So no that was not the beginning of the end for WCW. Only thing I would have changed was Steiners over Norton/Savage

 

[kizarny]

The only problem with this is that Bret Hart had a 60-day no compete cause in his wwf contract, so unfortunately he legally could not compete at starrcade. hence his terrible use in the main event.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Had WCW used Bret there is no way Vince would have tried to enforce it in court... as any judge would say Hart would throw it out when Bret showed them the documentary footage.

I would argue that Bret v Hennig would have been a better match however...

 

[Nada]

SC97 should have been the ending of the first chapter, the nWo running wild on WCW chapter, and the beggining of a collapse within nWo that would see that faction end in 4-5 months with members fighting each other.

Alot of people forget but Sting was bigger than even Austin and Hogan in 1997, however that lousy match and the way it came across meant that Sting lost his wheels and deflated. They could have built the company around him, instead he was pushed to the wayside.

Bret could and should have made a bigger impact, he was the hottest wrestler at the time.

Starrcade 97 and Wrestlemania 18 prove that star power, while it does help buyrate, does not always mean great shows or even good shows. WWE had the absolute best roster of any wrestling promotion in 2001-2003, yet those years were horrible to watch. You know you are stacked when Taker vs Flair and Austin vs Hall are mere aftertoughts

The worst thing about SC97 is that they lost Sting and Bret, both characters came out far worse after it than when they came to it. Both lost steam, hype and interest dropped like a rock, all due to 1 match, bad booking.

 

[ilapierre]

I too feel the finish to main event of Starrcade 97 should have gone down differently.
Starrcade 97 was definitely the most anticipated WCW show ever and the obvious
climax to the year and a half NWO-WCW storyline. Obviously the plan was not to kill the NWO or weaken it as it was on its own threatening WWE's existence. The event can be seen as the beginning of the end for WCW only because the NWO-Sting storyline was at its peak. Anything else had to be downhill no matter what. WCW was trying to prolong this peak and maintain the momentum. So they had Hogan lose to Sting after Hogan clearly pinned Sting. They believed this was the best way to keep building. I agree that Sting should have won cleanly over Hogan but I believe that the Sting-NWO storyline could have continued for months the way it did holding on to momentum with Savage and Hogan fighting over control of the NWO. I do agree with the OP that the NWO should have lost the majority of matches on that night but that said feuds should continue with the NWO getting the majority of the victories at Souled Out. I thought the Savage vs Luger match was just fine and that perhaps Hitman could have faced off with a guy like Henning to start off his WCW career. Hitman could still work his way up to Savage.
JJ Dillon or the NWO should have been in control of WCW, not Bret Hart. This would obviously set up further NWO vs Horsemen feuding. I liked how WCW made it so we weren't quite clear if Hitman was WCW or NWO.

Despite the fact the show didn't end like a typical Wrestlemania, with predictable clear cut pinfalls by faces over heels, Starrcade 97 is still one of my favourite WCW PPVs and will always be considered one of the best. It doesn't matter who won what or how the ending went down, Starrcade 97 is one of the best WCW ever produced and definitely the most anticipated. Yet it could have been better.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Eddy Guerrerro vs. Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio - Cruiserweight Championship
All 3 were in a programme together for months leading up to Starrcade, so it would've only been right to have all 3 in the match instead of just Dean & Eddy

Scott Norton, Buff Bagwell & Konnan vs. Steiner Brothers & Ray Traylor
Only changes made to this match is I would've replaced Randy Savage with Buff. Randy shouldn't be in such a low profile match like this and Vincent shouldn't have been in any WCW matchm period. So I replaced Konnan with him.

Bill Goldberg vs. Steve McMichael
Wouldn't have changed this. Goldberg was just starting to get noticed, so he should've been on the card and Steve was a good mid-card choice for him to face since they match up in weight & height and they're both former football players.

Saturn vs. Chris Benoit
Wouldn't have changed this either. I think it was better that they didn't rush the Raven vs. Benoit feud instead of having them face off right away at Starrcade.

Randy Savage vs. Lex Luger
Luger & Savage were facing guys below their level on the PPV which they shouldn't have, so WCW should've just put these two together here especially since they ended up facing each other on PPV one month later.

DDP vs. Curt Hennig - US Championship
I know Curt was originally supposed to face Flair in a cage match but I'm happy they changed it to this. A 3rd match between Flair & Hennig would've been just meh and it was DDP's time to shine.

Giant vs. Scott Hall
Since Nash couldn't show up, they should've just replaced Nash with Hall for the match. It was pretty disappointing that they couldn't have just solved that problem with this simple & easy solution.

Larry Zybsko vs. Eric Bischoff - For Control of Nitro
Wouldn't have changed this.

Bret Hart - Ric Flair confrontation
Give them both something to do at Starrcade instead of having a match and this is where they could setup their match for Souled Out.

Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan - WCW World Championship
Only changes that should be made about this is there's no Bret Hart involved and Sting goes over cleanly without that whole stupid "screwjob" finish not only because it was botched but because it made no sense. Nick Patrick left the nWo and got WCW's trust back, so why would he jeopardise that especially if he wasn't gonna go onto rejoin the nWo?

 

[GrandSword]

The Main Event so what I was told fell a part due to a couple of main reasons.

1/ Hogan's creative control and his ego. He was aparently booked to be dominated but, instead he was the one doing the dominaing for almost the entirity of the match. He ddin't want to look bad even though he had worked 18months to get the story to where it was that night.

2/ Sting was stoned to the eyeballs. Now as a Sting mark, I was devatsated when I heard this, but he was battling demons at this point of his career and wasn't really in any real shape to wrestle that night. Sting even made reference to it in a promo he did with Jeff Hardy two weeks ago on Impact Wrestling.

The normal count by Patrick.. maybe he forgot it was meant to be a quick count in order to bring Bret into the match.

In any respect, Starrcade 97 is still one of the highest bought ppv's of all time, and although it may have been a critcial bomb, it was a box office hit, due to the genius build WCW did for it.

 

[lowandmighty]

I would've had Eddie Guerrero vs chris benoit to open the show and it would've been built up as a split between them with Eddie winning
then juventude guererra vs rey mysterio cruiserwight title. rey winning
Wrath vs the Giant Giant wins
Of course Outsiders vs the steiners Outsiders lose but the ref doesn't see so they end up cheating to win
Didn't see the television championship much back then from memory but I would've had steven regal vs perry saturn. Regal winning
DDP vs Curt hennig for the us title, hennig taking it out.

As for the main even it should still be Hogan vs Sting but I would not have ended it the same way. Bret Hart wouldn't have been there. Hogan would win the same way he did with the pinfall but the count actually would've been a fast one thus setting up the stage for wcw guys to run in and protest but nothing could be done about it and the nwo high tails it out of there to end the show with gold in hand.
People probably would hate me for wanting it to end that way but everyone has to understand this was the first ppv match between Hogan and sting in a feud that had a massive build up if Hogan actually won instead of getting a pin that somehow didn't count it could've set up another match that could've been no rules etc etc at the next ppv there sting could win cleanly and pretty much end the nwo which went way too long and Hogan could've retired and saved himself from a lifetime of more injuries and wcw would have a legit next guy - sting who obviously would turn heel and allow someone else to be the good guy.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Flair was supposed to meet Henning in the cage match and likely would have won the US Title, essentially the rubber matchbetween them. It was changed because Flair broke his ankle during the Nov WWIII PPV when he did the flying axe handle move off the top rope on Henning outside the ring (that's why he didnt participate in the PPV ending Battle Royal that night). Props for finishing his match with Henning on a broken ankle.

WCW counted on Flair being healthy enough to compete, when it was clear he wouldnt be they rushed the angle where he challenges Henning on Nitro, but the match lasts less than a minute until a full on NWO-WCW battle engages, lead by DDP. Flair never could have competed so any any revisions on SC 97 matches couldnt include him.

That said, I travelled from Pgh to DC just to see this event. I definately thought the main event was a dud. Sting had not wrestled in year and looked unusually slow. Hogan at one point appears to have him cleanly pinned but doesnt get the count. The ending was OK with Brett Hart showing once and for all he was NOT NWO, but why didnt the NWO guys come out to help Hogan - every time he put the title on the line in the past they were there in some capacity backing him up, now on the biggest show of the year they are no where to be found ? Bad booking, the NWO should have interferred to save Hogan, WCW guys should have come down to even the odds, Sting should have gone over clean, with Hart making the final count, establishing a clear anti NWO presence that would oppose the top heel faction in the coming year. That also would have set up nicely for Hogan-Sting II and eventually Hoagn-Hart, which never happened.

 

[thebarber]

Bret Hart was under contract to WCW at Starrcade 1997, he could have wrestled if he was booked. He DID NOT have a 60 day no compete clause as he left WWE immediately after the screwjob and signed with WCW in the following days. Hart was kept from wrestlnig as they wanted to draw a large buy rate for Souled Out,l and as Hogan was not booked for it, keeping Hart for the main event was done intentionally for the purpose of buyrates, as Starrcade was already a guaranteed ratings winner.
The card itself was solid, regardless of Nick Patricks massive blunder, Hart being involved the way he was is probably the only way they could have used him as there was not enough time to build a feud for him leading into the card. Starrcade was the peak of WCW's best days, it in no way, shape or form had anything to do with their downward spiral. Inept booking, blowing millions on non wrestlnig talent and having talent have the power to say and do whatever they wanted to the detriment of WCW WAS THE BEGINNING AND THE ULTIMATELY THE END OF WCW.

 

[ShinobiMusashi]

I never was a big fan of the way the WCW used Bret Hart.

I would have Hogan defeat Sting clean at Starrcade to help give Bret a bigger push in the picture.
Bret would have been the one to finally take the strap from the NWO by submitting Hogan at Superbrawl. Bret turns on Sting/WCW at Uncesored/Spring Stampede to join the NWO(while still champion). Sting submits Bret for title with the sharpshooter at Slamboree. Sting finally defeats Hogan defending the title from him sometime during the summer between Leno, and Rodman.

Not sure how I would work Goldberg into it though. I know by summer of 98 fans were pretty much demanding him getting the belt.

 

[lil bitch Kid]

Haven't we figured it out yet? Where Hogan goes, and logic should be involved, it surely will not. 1997, December, was one of the first and most glaring examples. WCW built Sting up for how long? Only to have Hogan, I am certain, exercise his control in his contract, to try and re-enact the screwjob with Hart and Nick Patrick. The problem is that Patrick botched it, Hart looked stupid and we got the stupidity. Now, what should have happened after the epic build would have been Sting over clean with the WCW guys keeping the NWO from interfering, much like when Sting beat Flair at the GAB and the lockeroom kep the Horsemen at bay. At that point, they should have kept the NWO off TV show weeks and brought them back fresher.

Hart was able to compete since, well, he was on the show. If there was a no compete, he wouldn't have been on camera.

Now, you fast forward to Bound for Glory and see Hogan changing the plan for Roode after he is built up to win. The guy was good for business as a guy in the ring, but is terrible for it as a politician.