Starrcade 1997

Starrcade
1997
Date: December 28,
1997
Location: MCI Center, Washington, D.C.
Attendance:
17,500
Commentators: Eric Bischoff, Dusty Rhodes, Mike Tenay

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

Tonight
is WCW’s night. After a year and a half of being dominated by the
NWO, tonight is the night that WCW stands up and says this is our
company and you’re not taking us over. WCW has its warrior in Sting
and there is no way that Hogan can stop him. Hogan has been running
scared of Sting for months and tonight he’s out of places to hide.
This is WCW’s night. Let’s get to it.

The
opening video is rather awesome with Sting standing in the shadows as
rain falls. He jumps off a wall and lands on a picture of Hogan.
Sting picks up the bat and walks off, all while pictures of Hogan are
superimposed over the screen. That’s a great visual.

There
will be a drawing on who gets to be the referee for the main event.

Several
WCW wrestlers are in the crowd, including Harlem Heat and the TV
Champion Disco Inferno.

Apparently
Kevin Nash isn’t here tonight. This was another big problem with the
NWO: they didn’t like to lose. The original plan for Nash was to
face the Giant and lose. Nash, not wanting to be pinned on PPV,
decided to screw the fans out of one of the biggest matches on the
show and not appear. He eventually appeared in the match at the next
PPV where he was allowed to win.

In
other words, he acted unprofessionally and screwed over the people
and got his way anyway. These are the kind of things that would
catch up to them in the long run. Officially Nash claimed that he
had chest pains, but he’s had a tendency to have those many times
over the years when he was about to lose a major match. Also
considering his story has changed multiple times over the years,
something tells me he wasn’t being honest. Imagine that coming from
a wrestler.

This
is the culmination of a rather awesome three way feud between
Malenko, Guerrero and Rey Mysterio which led to some excellent
matches between the three of them. Eddie is defending here. They
head to the mat to start where Eddie is good but Dean is great.
Malenko takes over on the champion and fires off some right hands to
the head to send Eddie back. A leg lariat gets two for Malenko and
they trade control of a German suplex until Dean counters a rana into
a HARD powerbomb for two.

Another
powerbomb gets two for Dean and a snap powerslam gets the same.
Eddie begs for mercy and runs to the floor for a breather. Back in
and Guerrero hits a chop block on Dean’s knee to give the champion
control. Dean knees his way out of a suplex and drops Guerrero
stomach first over the top rope to slow him down again. A
clothesline gets another two count on Eddie and it’s off to a
chinlock. Make that a headscissors as the match slows down a lot.

Back
up and Eddie backs off again before kissing Dean’s feet and begging
for mercy. Dean wins a test of strength by taking Eddie’s hands to
the mat so he can stomp on them. A dropkick to the face puts
Guerrero down again before Dean counters a tornado DDT and drops
Guerrero face first on the top turnbuckle for two. Eddie gets
suplexed out to the apron but lands on his feet, allowing him to snap
Dean’s neck on the ropes. The champion takes over with a slingshot
ax handle onto Dean’s leg to put Malenko in trouble.

Guerrero
wraps Dean’s knee around the post and dropkicks the steps into said
knee in a nice show of aggression. Back in again and Guerrero cranks
on the leg for a bit before hitting a bit powerbomb for two. Dean
counters a hurricanrana attempt into a nice wheelbarrow suplex for
two. A backbreaker puts Eddie down again but it hurts Dean’s knee in
the process. Eddie takes him up top but gets shoved off the top as
he tries a rana. Dean tries the Texas Cloverleaf (submission hold)
but Eddie kicks the knee out to escape. Guerrero hits a missile
dropkick into the knee to set up a Frog Splash to retain the title.

Rating:
C+. Decent opener here but way
below what you would expect from these two. The matches leading up
to this one had been excellent but this came off as somewhat flat.
It’s certainly not a bad match or anything, but given the
expectations from the buildup, this was pretty disappointing.

Here’s
Scott Hall with something to say. As is his custom, Hall asks the
fans if they’re here to see the NWO or WCW. In this case it’s WCW
but Hall would rather talk about the main event. He actually has a
reason to as he gets a title shot at the winner at Uncensored. As
for Nash, he isn’t here tonight so Giant is the winner. Giant comes
out and says that he’s a patient man and one day Nash will be back.
Hall goes after Giant but gets laid out with Kevin Nash’s powerbomb.
Why they didn’t just have Hall replace Nash in a match here is beyond
me.

The
Steiners and Traylor had been going to war with the NWO for months so
these three are just a random grouping of members for them to fight.
There’s no Konnan in sight during the entrances so we’re going to
start with a handicap match. Norton is a big strong guy who used to
be world armwrestling champion. Vincent used to work for the WWF as
Ted DiBiase’s bodyguard. The Steiners’ manager tonight? Ted
DiBiase.

Since
there’s no Konnan, here’s former world champion Randy Savage to take
his place. Savage nearly gets in a fight with the WCW wrestlers in
the audience on the way to the ring. For the sake of clarity in this
match, Scott will only be used in reference to Scott Steiner. Savage
starts with Scott with Randy being shoved back into the corner. A
shoulder block puts Savage down but Norton hits Scott in the back to
let Savage take over. Off to Vincent who is there to distract the
referee while Savage chokes Scott.

Norton
comes in for a power vs. power match with Scott, followed by a
backbreaker to work on Scott’s back. Savage adds a double ax to the
spine, only to have Scott come back with a double underhook powerbomb
and a gorilla press slam. Everything breaks down and the NWO is
cleared out. Back in and it’s Rick vs. Norton now which is a battle
of the tough guys. Rick hits a quick suplex and a Steiner Line
followed by a powerslam for two. Traylor, a former member of the
NWO, comes in to pound away on Norton as well.

Vincent
comes back in and walks into a spinebuster and a belly to back drop.
Back to Scott for that wicked spinning belly to belly for no cover.
Traylor comes in again as we have the rare heel in peril sequence.
Rick puts on a chinlock while rubbing Vincent’s head for no apparent
reason. Traylor comes back in but misses a splash, allowing for the
tag off to Norton. After a big clothesline, it’s back to Vincent
instead of Savage for no apparent reason.

To
the shock of no one, Vincent is no match for Traylor and it’s hot tag
to Rick. He cleans house and the Steiners hit their top rope DDT on
Vincent, only to have Norton make the save. Scott hits the
Frankensteiner off the top but this time Savage makes the save. Now
it’s Savage in danger of being caught in the top rope Frankensteiner
but Norton shoves Scott off the top, allowing Randy to drop the big
elbow for the pin.

Rating:
D+. Not a bad match or anything
here, but why in the world would have have the NWO D team and Savage
win this match? The Steiners are the world tag team champions and
they’re losing in the second match on the biggest show of the year?
This night is supposed to be all about WCW, not about the NWO winning
a meaningless match that they don’t need.

Nick
Patrick is officially announced as the referee for the main event.
The problem with this is that Patrick is a former member of the NWO
with a very sketchy record. Keep in mind that we’re wasting time on
the biggest show of the year for this. Also, I wonder what the
announcers are going to spend the next hour and a half talking about.

Steve
“Mongo” McMichael is a former Horseman and NFL player, but he’s
absolutely terrible in the ring. Goldberg is still undefeated at
this point and would become a much bigger deal after this show is
over. This is happening because Goldberg stole McMichael’s Super
Bowl ring and they’ve attacked each other a few times since. The
brawl is on in the aisle to start but Mongo’s offense isn’t having
much effect. Goldberg literally picks him up and carries Mongo into
the ring like a rag doll.

Goldberg
picks up a table at ringside as the bell rings and the actual match
begins. Mongo suplexes him down for two but a big shoulder tackle
takes Steve down for two. We head to the floor where the table is
leaning against the post. They fight around the ring with Mongo
taking over before heading back inside, only to have Goldberg punch
Mongo as Steve dives off the top. Goldberg hooks a quick leg lock
and is toying with Mongo at this point.

The
spear (the setup for Goldberg’s finisher) hits for two and Goldberg
loads up the table on the floor. He tries to slam Mongo over the top
and through the table but the referee breaks it up. A dropkick of
all things puts Mongo down and out to the floor and we have to be
getting close to done. Mongo gets back up onto the apron, only to be
punched through the table. Back in and the Jackhammer (suplex but
instead Goldberg turns it over into a powerslam) ends Mongo.

Rating:
D. This was terrible but
Goldberg’s day was coming. It was clear that Mongo just wasn’t any
good as a wrestler and thankfully in 1998 he would be pushed WAY down
the card and rarely ever have a big match again. The match itself
was slow and plodding, but Goldberg would be pushed to the moon very
quickly after this.

Raven,
a loner who has a collection of misfits called his Flock, comes out
for his match against Chris Benoit but says he won’t wrestle tonight.
Instead his top man Saturn does, which has been a recurring theme
for Raven. To be fair to him and WCW though, Raven had a legit
appendicitis and wasn’t medically cleared to wrestle. On the other
hand, WCW knew this in advance and didn’t bother to announce that
Raven couldn’t wrestle, thereby ripping off the fans with something
they easily could have fixed. Anyway Benoit is a very tough wrestler
with an excellent amateur skill set. Saturn can do a bit of
everything.

Before
the match, Benoit talks about seeing things for what they are in an
attempt to speak like Raven. This doesn’t go well at all, but once
they had their match it would be a classic. Apparently this is under
Raven’s Rules, meaning anything goes. Saturn tries to jump Benoit
but gets chopped down for his efforts. More chops hit Saturn’s chest
in the corner and a jawbreaker gets Benoit out of a sleeper attempt.
Benoit stomps away in the corner and invites Raven to get in the
ring. Saturn catches Benoit’s arm during a chop attempt and hits a
quick suplex to take over.

Chris
comes right back with a dropkick to the knee but has to knock Raven
to the floor instead of go after Saturn. Benoit whips Saturn into
the barricade but Raven’s men Kidman and Sick Boy interfere to give
Saturn control. Back in and Saturn puts on a chinlock before hitting
a moonsault, only to injure himself in the process. A few knees to
Benoit’s ribs put him down again but Benoit’s foot is in the ropes.
Off to reverse chinlock by Saturn to stay on the ribs but he lets it
go for no apparent reason.

A
kind of brainbuster gets two on Benoit and it’s off to another
chinlock. Benoit fights up and hooks a sunset flip for two before
clotheslining Saturn down. Both guys are dazed now but it’s Benoit
taking over as they get back up. Saturn grabs a quick falcon arrow
(sitout slam) to put Benoit down, only to have Chris knock him off
the top rope and to the floor.

Benoit
takes it to the floor and puts on his Crippler Crossface (arm trap
hold with a facelock) but the Flock makes the save. Benoit fights
them and throws Saturn back in for the flying headbutt, only to have
the Flock come in again. They’re quickly dispatched, but Raven
himself comes in with the DDT to lay Benoit out. Saturn puts on his
Rings of Saturn double armbar but Benoit is out cold, ending the
match.

Rating:
C+. This was getting good at
the end but the decision here makes little sense. Benoit had been
running through the Flock, so why have him lose to Saturn right
before he’s supposed to face Raven? Benoit can’t beat the second in
command so we’re supposed to want to see him fight the boss? That
doesn’t make sense.

By
the way: this is an eight match card and the heels are now 4/4.

Buff
is of course Marcus Bagwell and now part of the NWO. This is I think
the fourth match between these two in about a month with Bagwell
cheating to win before. Bagwell of course stalls before the match
begins because that’s what people with little talent do to draw heat.
They lock up and go into the corner with no one being able to get an
advantage. Buff starts pounding away in the corner but Lex comes
back with right hands of his own. A press slam puts Bagwell down and
a clothesline puts him on the floor.

Bagwell
is ticked off and wants Vincent out here to help him. Apparently the
power of a worthless man obsessed with his own career like Vincent is
enough to inspire Bagwell as he pounds away on Lex. It doesn’t last
long though as Luger pounds him down onto the floor and sends him
into the barricade before nailing Vincent. The distraction lets
Bagwell get in more of his array of right hands and forearms before
stomping away in the corner. Bagwell pounds on Luger’s back and says
hi to his mom Judy (future World Tag Team Champion. Please, don’t
ask).

Luger
gets in a back elbow but can’t follow up at all. Then again he took
some forearms to the back so how good could be be right now? Bagwell
puts on a chinlock for a bit before clotheslining Luger down for two.
Back to the chinlock as this match is already going long. Luger
tries to come back but a knee to the ribs puts him right back down.
Now it’s a sleeper because this match hasn’t had enough rest holds.
Lex finally fights up and suplexes him down so let’s lay around even
more.

Luger
pounds away and hits some clotheslines and atomic drops. Now Luger
has to beat up Vincent before suplexing Bagwell down. Vincent is
thrown off the top and clotheslined to the floor and Luger stomps
away in the corner. The referee calls him off, allowing Bagwell to
hit him in the back and into the referee. Luger puts Buff in the
Torture Rack but there’s no referee to see Randy Savage make the
save. Savage gets racked but here’s Scott Norton to hit Luger in the
head with a chain and put Bagwell on top for the pin.

Rating:
D. In case you’re keeping
track, we’re about an hour and forty minutes into this show and the
heels are still undefeated. I’m assuming the idea here was to make
Bagwell look like he can beat a big name, but having him need three
other guys and a weapon to do so isn’t going to accomplish that goal.
This was really boring too and could have had five minutes cut out
from it.

Hennig
is defending and had been feuding with Flair for months, but Flair is
hurt so Page is subbing for him. Curt is also NWO of course.
Apparently Page stole the physical belt last night on Saturday
Night….and then gave it back before the match tonight. That sounds
like an idea they had and then dropped. Page has bad ribs which he
had for months on end. Hennig gets elbowed in the face a lot and
knocked out to the floor for a breather.

Back
in and Hennig wisely goes after the bad ribs before putting on a
chinlock. Thankfully it doesn’t last long as Page counters into
the much more interesting headlock. Curt fights up and is put right
back into the hold as the match continues to go slowly. Back up and
they head to the floor where Hennig snaps Page’s throat across the
top rope to take over. Page also goes ribs first into the steps as
Hennig is thinking with his attack here. They go back into the ring
where Curt pounds on the ribs even more.

Page
tries to fight back but charges into a boot in the corner and a
clothesline takes him down. Off to a chinlock which must be left
over from the Bagwell match. The fans start chanting boring as this
hold drags on for over a minute. Page finally fights up and hits a
jawbreaker to escape before punching Hennig out to the floor. A dive
over the top puts Hennig down again and Page throws him into the
crowd to continue the beating.

They
head back inside where Hennig gets to do his reverse crotch against
the post spot. The Diamond Cutter is blocked by a grab of the ropes
though and Hennig gets two. A rollup gets two for Page but Hennig
clotheslines him down for two. Hennig loads up his Hennigplex but
Page counters into a Diamond Cutter. He totally botched the move
though and it looks like an armbar. They both get back up and Page
hits the Diamond Cutter out of nowhere for the US Title and the first
win by a good guy of the night.

Rating:
C-. This wasn’t great and the
botched ending hurt it a bit. Still though, it’s nice to see the
fans have something to cheer for, even though it took them nearly two
hours to get there. To say the Diamond Cutter was a popular move is
the understatement of the year, as the fans went nuts when he hit it.
This was a pretty dull match until the Cutter hit.

Bret
Hart comes out to be guest referee. There’s no pyro, there’s no big
entrance, there’s nothing but generic music and Bret casually walking
to the ring. The theory is that he’s in the NWO but that’s never
been confirmed yet.

This
should have been Hall vs. Larry, as those two had been talking trash
to each other for months. However, Larry only gets Hall if he beats
Eric here tonight. If Eric wins, the NWO controls Nitro. Larry is
in good shape here considering he’s 46 and hasn’t wrestled regularly
in about five years. Bret checks them for weapons and we’re ready to
go. Bischoff has the body of a 15 year old girl. He is however a
black belt in karate so you can expect a lot of striking.

Bischoff
hits a quick shot to Larry’s head and immediately celebrates. More
strikes follow and Eric heads out to the floor for consultation with
Hall. Back in and Larry hits some shots of his own and Eric is
scared. Larry goes after him again and Eric hits a spin kick to the
side of the head that knocks Larry down. That’s enough for Zbyszko
and he charges at Eric and takes him down to the mat. Bret
admonishes him for pulling Eric’s hair, so Larry puts on a sleeper
and a headscissors, both of which are broken up for being chokes.

Off
to a standing figure four but Eric quickly makes a rope. The damage
is done though and Larry goes after the leg. Makes sense against a
karate guy. Bret keeps Larry away from Eric and the announcers
PANIC. Imagine that: a referee following the rules. Eric is sent
into the steps and takes a brief walk around the ring. Back in and
Bret blocks a right hand from Larry, allowing Eric to get in a kick
to the head. Biscoff fires more kicks with Larry on the ropes,
although Bret is fine with them.

Eric
is starting to kick himself out though as the kicks are getting
weaker and weaker each time. Now he fires rights and lefts in the
corner as Larry is just covering up. Eric can barely move now and
Larry shakes everything off. A suplex puts Bischoff down and Larry
ties him in the Tree of Woe. Hall pulls something out of his pocket
and loads it into Eric’s shoe, WITH BRET LOOKING RIGHT AT THEM. I
mean, he knows what’s going on so why not LOOK THE OTHER WAY???

Anyway,
Eric kicks him in the head with the loaded foot and the piece of
metal goes flying. Bret isn’t supposed to see it, despite watching
it fly through the air. Eric celebrates, so Bret hits both Bischoff
and Hall before putting Hall in the Sharpshooter, which is Bret’s
version of the Scorpion Deathlock. Larry chokes Eric for a bit and
is declared the winner, presumably by DQ.

Rating:
F. This was in the second to
last spot on the biggest show of the year and featured the boss of
the company who has no skill whatsoever in the ring. Larry did fine
all things considered, but to waste this spot on this match and to
waste BRET HART’s in ring debut on this match is absolutely
ridiculous in every sense of the word.

And
yet, it’s only going to get worse.

Before
we get to the main event, I need to set the stage a bit more. This
match is 18 months in the making at minimum. Hogan has been the
biggest villain in the company the entire time and has been behind a
ton of attacks, crooked endings, and every other possible evil thing
you can do as a wrestler. He has basically held the world title
hostage for the entire time and has gone completely against WCW.
Tonight should be his punishment for those crimes. This match should
be Hogan being taken to the gallows and executed for everything he’s
done for the last year and a half.

So
how does Hogan come out after running scared of Sting for a year and
a half? He struts to the ring, playing the belt like a guitar. He
looks like he’s about to face Sick Boy instead of Sting for the world
title. Hogan should have had people literally dragging him to the
ring as he was trying everything he could to get out of the match.
Have him offering money to the security, have him trying to run, have
him doing ANYTHING but walking out with that big grin on his face.

After
a year of repelling from the rafters, coming through the crowd, and
at one point ziplining to the ring Sting…..calmly walks out. Oh
wait there’s some lightning and a voiceover that we’ve heard before
so it’s cool right? They stare each other down and as the bell
rings, Hogan shoves him away. Sting slaps him so Hogan walks around
the ring and is loudly booed as you would expect. Sting is pushed to
the corner but comes out with a right hand and it’s pretty much all
downhill from there.

We’re
about two minutes into the match now and that’s literally all that’s
happened. Hogan kicks him in the ribs and a single right hand sends
Sting flying across the ring. Sting is pounded in the corner as
Hogan gives a shout out to his son, Nasty Nick. A shot to the throat
has Sting in trouble as the crowd is stunned. There’s a slam but
Hogan misses three straight elbows. A dropkick puts Hogan on the
floor and Sting just stands there looking down at Hollywood.

Back
in and the fans are chanting boring. Hogan grabs a headlock before
running Sting over like he’s not even there. Two more dropkicks send
Hogan to the floor and again just stands there. Back inside again
and Sting puts on a headlock to take Hogan down. We’re six minutes
into this and the entire sequence of action has been punches,
headlocks, a shoulder block and dropkicks. Goldberg and McMichael
went less than six minutes and had a full match while Hogan and Sting
have fit about a minute’s worth of action in the same amount of time.

Hogan
shoves him off and lays Sting out with a clothesline. As in Sting is
down on the mat for about 10 seconds off a clothesline. A suplex
puts Sting down but he’s on his feet before Hogan is. That’s more
like it. He does the crotch chop sign to Hogan and pounds Hogan into
the corner….so Hogan calmly rakes the eyes to take over again.
Hogan is toying with Sting so far and he does even more toying by
throwing Sting to the floor. Sting is thrown into the timekeeper’s
area and Hogan hits him in the neck with Sting’s trademark baseball
bat.

Sting
is choked with a t-shirt up against the railing, but he comes back by
whipping Hogan into the barricade. As usual though, Sting misses the
Stinger Splash into the steel and Hogan takes over seconds later.
Sting is crotched on the barricade and dropped with a single right
hand. I’ve seen Hogan have more trouble dropping jobbers. Back in
and Hogan hits an atomic drop before choking away. We’re over ten
minutes into this now and Hogan hasn’t been in significant trouble at
all.

And
now, it’s going to get even worse.

Hogan
hits the big boot and the legdrop for the pin in a little over eleven
minutes. Now, the announcers start talking about a fast count, but
the count was about as fast as you would expect it to be, albeit
maybe a hair faster. It’s far from what you would call a fast count
when you’re talking about a crooked referee though. I’ve heard
stories over the years about Hogan actually paying the referee to
count at a normal speed to count properly instead of doing it fast,
and if that’s the case then he did a decent job at it. The count was
close enough that you could buy it either way, but it looked good
enough.

On
top of that, the far bigger problem with the fast count theory is
that it doesn’t hold up when you look at the aftermath. The idea
behind a fast count is that the guy would have been able to kick out
had it been at normal speed. Sting NEVER MOVED. He doesn’t push
off, he doesn’t sit up after the count, he doesn’t kick his legs.
Sting is still laying on the mat a good ten seconds after the three
count. Even with the fast count, Sting looks like he’s out cold so
the count doesn’t even make a difference.

On
top of THAT, Bret Hart is seen walking in front of the camera as
Hogan is going down for the cover. Not a few seconds after the
cover, not as Hogan is celebrating, but as Hogan is getting on top of
Sting. That would mean that he came into the arena probably before
Hogan even hit the big boot. Why was he out there? He’s there early
enough to grab the timekeeper’s hand before he can strike the bell,
which makes even less sense.

Back
to the “action” as Bret grabs the mic and mumbles that “he’s
not going to let it happen again.” He complains about the count
being fast and decks Nick Patrick (who has the most amazing overblown
fall ever, throwing his arms in the air and falling over like a
tree). Hogan tries to leave (as Sting is just now getting up) but
Bret throws him back in the ring.

Bret
calls for the bell, Sting goes NUTS and hits a quick Stinger Splash.
He tries for another but Hogan holds the ropes, pretty much stopping
Sting’s momentum cold. The NWO runs in but Sting fights them off and
hits another splash on Hogan. The Scorpion Deathlock goes on and
Hogan gives up, allowing Bret to call for the bell and give Sting the
title.

WCW
comes out to celebrate, Sting shouts something in what sounds like
Spanish (the last word was mamacita. A quick Google search says
Sting said something like “revenge is sweet baby”) into the
camera, end of show.

Rating:
W. As in where in the world do
I even start. First and foremost, the match absolutely sucked in
case you couldn’t tell. Hogan was destroying Sting for over ten
minutes and then pinned him clean(ish) in the middle of the ring.
It’s completely against everything that the match was supposed to be
and was horribly boring on top of that. This made Sting look like a
complete joke and did little for anyone else besides Hogan.

Now
for the second ending, which has even more holes in it. First and
foremost, there’s one huge problem with what Bret did: what if you
didn’t watch WWF? Simple question: what if you had no idea that this
was a reference to what happened at Survivor Series a few weeks ago
because you don’t watch that company’s programming? What was Bret
not allowing to happen again? Granted you can only be confused by
that if you understood what Bret said, which was mumbled pretty
badly.

Second,
Bret was hired as guest referee for one match, but he now has the
authority to referee any match he wants all night long. The fans
live weren’t told that, so they either had to put it together in
about a minute and a half, or they were completely oblivious to what
was going on. The whole idea was a stretch to put it mildly and it
was made even worse by how badly it was executed.

Finally…..just
why? I mean, aside from Hogan, who could have possibly thought this
was a good idea? The answer I’ve heard from either Hogan or Bischoff
in one of their books is that Sting had some substance abuse issues
and was in no condition to be champion at this point. The problem
with that theory is that Sting just wrestled a coherent enough match.
He was pretty much a shell of his former self, but he was able to
throw dropkicks, punches, the Stinger Splash and the Scorpion
Deathlock. That’s really all he needed in this match, but apparently
he wasn’t capable of doing those things, at least according to Hogan
or Bischoff.

All
in all, this match is the biggest disaster that I can ever remember
for a major match. It was booked completely backwards, it did
nothing that it was supposed to do, the ending was screwed up, and
the fans were likely confused by at least one thing at the time.
Sting may indeed have had a drug problem at the time, but if he’s
even remotely capable of wrestling a passable match (which he clearly
was), you give the fans this moment and worry about the rest later.
It’s been over 15 years since this happened and I’m still amazed by
how badly they screwed this up.

Overall
Rating: F. That’s the only way
to describe this show: a failure. WCW completely failed at what they
were trying to do here and the show is a disaster. The best match is
just slightly above average and that’s likely being generous. No
good guy wins until nearly two hours into the show and the main
reason to watch the show (which A LOT of people did) was completely
fouled up.

This
is everything that you can possibly do wrong on a major show rolled
into one and multiplied several times over. There’s nothing truly
good here and the aftershocks of this show crippled WCW for good.
This was supposed to be the night that WCW was supposed to come back
from everything that had gone wrong for them and take back their
company. At the end of the day, they got back the US Title and
that’s it. They already had Nitro and yeah they got back the world
title. For now. That’s the other reason this show is so awful: at
the end of the day, none of this mattered for reasons we’ll get to soon.

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