WWE: Starrcade: The Essential Collection - DVD Review - December 26, 2009

The Essential Starrcade. The history of Starrcade is one big deal in wrestling history. Before there was WrestleMania, there was Starrcade. The Essential Starrcade features a documentary and also includes the top 25 fan voted Starrcade matches in history. I liked that the documentary focused more on the early days of Starrcade than instead of toward the end. Unfortunately, the show became just another show in later years. When Starrcade began, it was what the NWA built toward and had huge matches which sold out buildings. The concept of Starrcade was Dusty Rhodes and Barry Windham who came up with it. There are a lot of people interviewed for this including Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Harley Race, David Crockett, Arn Anderson, Magnum TA, Road Warrior Animal, Jim Ross, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, and more. A lot of focus goes to the first Starrcade in 1983 with Flair vs. Race. I love that they showed a lot of archive footage including announcements about the event. Talk turns to how they simulcast the event as well for people that couldn’t get into the building. Flair and Race isn’t the only great match from that show as Piper vs. Valentine in the dog collar match gets a segment including reflections from Piper and Valentine. The event grew and then was held from two different buildings with Greensboro and Atlanta. Oh, and I need to mention how great it was to have some of the interviews and new footage taking place from the Greensboro Coliseum. It added a cool retro feel to the documentary. Atlanta and Greensboro would have matches and then would get to watch the action from the other venue. The Night Of The Skywalkers is covered including interviews with Jim Cornette and Animal. Cornette said that he still has pain from that fall from the scaffold. Magnum TA is discussed with his accident before Starrcade 1986 which would have likely seen his rise to world champion over Ric Flair. Everyone really puts over how Magnum was being groomed to be a huge star in this business before his career ending accident. I often do wonder what would have happened with Magnum had his career kept going and how different that history might be. The controversy over Starrcade and Survivor Series in 1987 is touched upon. Starrcade had always run on Thanksgiving night but WWF decided to use it for Survivor Series. WWF told cable companies that if they wanted to carry WrestleMania, the big money getter of the year, that it would be in their best interest to pick Survivor Series over Starrcade. David Crockett talks a little about that on the documentary. One thing that isn’t really discussed about that Starrcade 87 event in Chicago is yes, it was a hot bed for NWA action, but they really hurt their drawing power there after The Road Warriors were not booked to win the tag team titles in their hometown. Fans were wanting that title change and didn’t get it. From there, it goes into the Ted Turner era of WCW and how Starrcade became mostly a gimmick event. Dusty Rhodes really criticizes WCW at this point for how they really had no clue how to book wrestling even though they had great business executives. They just didn’t know anything about wrestling. I didn’t hate the Battlebowl concept like so many people did. I thought the first one was fun but the rest were just kind of ehh. Starrcade was brought back in the mid 90’s and Bischoff is given credit for that. The 1995 one was not touched upon which included the US vs. Japan series although they do talk about the mistake of booking so many unknown Japanese stars on the 1992 event. No mention of the huge build to either the Piper/Hogan match from 1996 or the Sting/Hogan match in 1997. Both were huge matches for Starrcade although the finish of the 1997 match really started the fall of WCW in my opinion. They do cover the 1998 Starrcade match with Goldberg’s streak ending to Kevin Nash. Mixed opinions on this one. Jim Ross said that he thought it was a mistake while Arn Anderson said that it was long overdue but also pointed out how hot Goldberg was at the time. Anderson’s feelings were just that the longer that the streak kept going that it was actually hurting Goldberg. From there, the event isn’t even discussed from 1999 to 2000. Yeah, not much to discuss there. The only memorable thing from that is the ladder match in 2000. It was nice to see Starrcade get a nice tribute documentary and get treated like it should. It’s a shame that the event got lost in the shuffle in later years but it was huge in the beginning.

Now to the matches. Fans were asked to vote on their favorite Starrcade matches and here are the results. I’ve also added my thoughts on the matches too.
#25 Piper vs, Hogan – Starrcade 1996. This was the first match between the two in many years and WCW built up to it huge. What bugs me the most is that this match was in Nashville. I would go to my first show two months later.
#24 Sting vs. The Great Muta – Starrcade 1989. This match took place during the Iron Man Tournament and is a very solid match.
#23 Steamboat and Douglas vs. Windham and Pillman – Starrcade 1992. I actually watched this match not long ago on WWE Classics On Demand. This was a great match!! I had forgotten how good that it was.
#22 Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash – Starrcade 1998. This match had to likely get voted just for history’s sake. This match is still one of the more talked about title changes due to the creative decision behind doing it. Nash ended Goldberg’s winning streak that night with help from Scott Hall and a taser to win the WCW world title.
#21 BattleBowl Battle Royal – Starrcade 1991. This was the first BattleBowl event that WCW did. The basic idea was that there would be tag team matches with the winners moving on to the battle royal. The teams had names drawn randomly where you might have enemies teaming together. I liked the concept of it but it got way too predictable toward the later BattleBowl events cause the realism of that many enemies teaming together was just lame. The first one though was something I really enjoyed. The battle royal came down to Sting and Luger in the end with Sting winning the first BattleBowl. Solid battle royal and the ending with Sting and Luger was a lot of fun.
#20 Steve Austin vs. Dustin Rhodes – 2 out of 3 falls match – Starrcade 1993. They had a really fun series of matches in the early 90’s in WCW.
#19 Anderson and Blanchard vs. The Road Warriors – Starrcade 1987. This is the night that the NWA ruined their drawing power forever in Chicago. This match had been built up huge with everyone and their mother expecting The Road Warriors to win the tag team titles that night in their home town. The title change didn’t take place and there was a ripoff DQ finish that really angered the fans. The NWA never drew attendance as well in Chicago after that.
#18 Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. – Starrcade 1996. Yeah, you can’t go wrong with two of the best high flyers ever going at it. I LOVED watching Liger matches in the 90’s and was always so excited when he’d have a WCW run. His style was so different from anything that I had seen in wrestling when he showed up in WCW in the early 90’s. Then, you have Rey who was incredible at the time of this match and you’ve got a classic.
#17 Night Of The Skywalkers II – Midnight Express vs. The Rock N’ Roll Express – Starrcade 1987. Definitely a solid match here. I think that more people talk about the first Skywalkers match more than this one but this deserves plenty of attention as well.
#16 Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger – Starrcade 1988. I remember this being a very fun match and I was sure that Luger was going to win the NWA title that night. WRONG. This was one of their series of matches from 1988 where Luger would get so close but couldn’t win the belt. That pretty much sums up the Flair/Luger feud. They did the finish at the Bash earlier that year in 1988 where Luger had Flair in the rack and had the title won but the ref stopped the match due to Luger bleeding from the forehead. That is a finish that most fans will remember from that time. #15 Eddie Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Ootani – Starrcade 1995. This goes back to the US vs. Japan event which had a lot of good matches.
#14 Dusty Rhodes / Sting vs. Road Warriors – Starrcade 1988. I have good memories of this match but it has been a while since I have seen it. World tag team championship battle.
#13 King of Cable Tournament Final - Sting vs. Big Van Vader – Starrcade 1992.
The Sting vs. Vader feud was one of the best feuds of the early 90's. Can't really go wrong with any of their matches.
#12 Brisco Brothers vs. Steamboat/Youngblood – Starrcade 1983. Match off of the original event and these two teams always had good matches against one another.
#11 Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair – Starrcade 1985. Classic. That is really all I can add.
#10 Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko – Starrcade 1997. This was in the midst of Eddie having some incredible PPV matches in 1997. Cruiserweight title on the line.
#9 Iron Man Tournament - Road Warriors vs. The Steiner Brothers – Starrcade 1989. I believe that this was the first meeting between these two teams. I remember being so excited that these teams going to face off in this tournament.
#8 3 Count vs. Jamie Knoble & Evan Karagias vs. Jung Dragons – Starrcade 2000. Ahh, one of the few highlights of the last months of WCW. This match is often forgotten cause of the bad era of WCW that it was in. Very fun match. What does it say that it is the only thing that I remember off of that show.
#7 Sting vs. Ric Flair – Iron Man Tournament – Starrcade 1989. Like the Road Warriors and Steiners, this match between Sting and Flair was an epic encounter in the tournament. It ended up being the deciding match in who won the tournament as well.
#6 Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper – Dog Collar Match – Starrcade 1983. This bloody match is one of the most talked about matches of both of these guys careers.
#5 Road Warriors vs. The Midnight Express – Scaffold Match – Starrcade 1986.
Just like the last match, this is also one of the most talked about matches of each of these teams careers. The sight of the scaffold was amazing. Jim Cornette's night? Yeah, not so good.
#4 Sting vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan – Starrcade 1997. This match had such an incredible build to it. Everyone was excited for this match that had been built up for over a year. This was Sting's return to the ring. The delivery on the match though went badly based on the very badly booked finish. The fast three count that wasn't actually fast. I point at this match as the turning point in the Monday Night Wars with the momentum going to the WWF.
#3 Ric Flair vs. Harley Race – Starrcade 1983. A Flare For The Gold. Incredible night in the history of Ric Flair in the steel cage.
#2 Magnum T.A. vs. Tully Blanchard - I Quit Match - Starrcade 1985.
Just a bloody brawl. How about just saying that?
#1 Ric Flair vs. Vader – WCW title and Flair’s career on the line in Charlotte – Starrcade 1993. One of my favorite matches ever. It absolutely deserved to ranked number one among the fans. If you are unfamiliar with this, Vader had just been built up as this absolute monster. Such a indestructible force!! Flair seemed to have no chance. The result would have Flair unleashing a big time pound attack on Vader which was a lot of fun to watch as the crowd in Charlotte went crazy.

This is a fun DVD set and you’ll really enjoy it. Documentary is a fun look back and there are a lot of great matches on this set. Big thumbs up from me.