Mike Reviews WCW Starrcade 1998

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We’re going to finish our journey into 1998 WCW today by reviewing Starrcade 1998. By reviewing this I think I have now officially reviewed every pay per view WCW had in 1998. Some of them were good (Souled Out, Great American Bash), some of them were okay (Spring Stampede, Halloween Havoc) and some were absolutely dog awful (Road Wild, World War 3)

Let’s see what category Starrcade 1998 falls into.

And no, I probably won’t be doing this with 1999, because most of WCW’s 1999 offerings were pretty plop, although SuperBrawl IX is so offensively wretched that it might make a good Stinker Review subject.

You can view the card for Starrcade 1998 by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1691&page=3

Starrcade 1998 is emanating from Washington, DC on the 27th of December 1998

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

The opening video package focuses on Goldberg beating people up before we head into the regular firework show.

As it’s a WCW pay per view, we then get the commentary team yakking for a bit. The main storyline aspect to it is that Eric Bischoff has banned The Horsemen from the show, meaning that Ric Flair will have no backup later on.

Now, if they just moved onto the first match after that brief excerpt it would be fine, as waiting 3-4 minutes for a match is acceptable, but then we get a TV shopping network ad and then some hotline shilling from Mean Gene Okerlund, which means we have to wait even longer. Hey WCW, get a match in the ring!!

Opening Match
WCW World Cruiserweight Title Triangle Match
Champ: Kidman Vs Rey Mysterio Jr. Vs Juventud Guerrera w/ Eddy Guerrero

The story here is that Rey is a member of the lWo with Juventud and Eddy, but he’s a reluctant member who doesn’t want to be there, whilst Juventud is not only very much on board with it all but he is so far up Eddy’s backside that his nose is browner than a muddy field. This is one fall wins it, as opposed to ECW where these matches are elimination based. Rey and Kidman work together for a bit, until a miscommunication leads to them going at it, much to Juventud’s amusement, but that leads to the two other wrestlers focusing on him again in a funny bit. The wrestling here really is great, with all three competitors being “on” and the bout featuring some really exciting action.

In a nice touch, lots of the match features the three wrestlers going at it, as opposed to the usual formula in matches like this where two go at it in the ring whilst another is outside selling. As a result, there are many moments where we get high flying lucha inspired sequences where one wrestler will be thrown into a move by another, even without one of the other wrestlers intending for such a thing to happen, such as Kidman sleeping on Rey and that leading into a back breaker from Juventud, or Kidman going for an Electric Chair Drop on Rey, only for Juventud to come flying in with a rana onto Rey before Kidman can complete the move.

There are some truly incredible spots at certain points, such as Rey giving Juventud a rana off the apron down to the floor, with Juventud’s ankle smashing into the metal railings at ringside in a gnarly landing. Thankfully Juventud is walking around following that, so I don’t think he broke anything. There are some really good near falls, where one wrestler seemingly has it won only for another to break it up and keep the match going. The crowd pops big for some of the high spots, although they will sometimes go a bit quiet in the bits between the spots and big moves, which is sometimes something that can happen in these kind of matches as the focus becomes the spots with the connecting tissue often being overlooked. The spots are exciting and good enough to make up for that somewhat though.

We of course get a parade of dives as the bout goes on, with one of the highlights being Rey busting out an incredible Asai Moonsault onto his two opponents outside the ring. That was one of those high flying moves where it felt like the wrestler delivering it almost hung in the air before coming back down. It was delivered beautifully. Not to be outdone, Kidman ups the ante further by delivering a Shooting Star Press onto both opponents outside the ring at one stage, although Kidman only just manages to clear the apron as he jumped up too much and didn’t jump forward enough. Thankfully no one is hurt and it ends up looking okay. Eddy Guerrero joins us and rolls Juventud on top during a Sunset Flip, but Rey dropkicks Juventud in the face in an effort to break up the pin, and the momentum leads to Kidman cradling Juventud for the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KIDMAN
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was an excellent opener, with three of the best Cruiserweights in WCW cutting loose and having a great match together. I loved how the majority of the match was all three of them going at it too, which was a nice break from the usual formula in one of these matches where two fight whilst the other sells. This was three wrestlers having a match at the same time and all interacting with one another, and they built in the spots so that all three could be included at all times, which I really appreciated

Eddy isn’t happy with that and berates his two stablemates, whilst Juventud is distraught in a funny bit. This leads to Eddy challenging Kidman to come back out for an impromptu Title match, which Kidman agrees to and we’ve got another match on our hands. Eddy was fantastic on the mic during that segment, especially when he wasn’t expecting Kidman to call his bluff.

Match Two
WCW World Cruiserweight Title
Champ: Kidman Vs Eddy Guerrero

Eddy is having to wrestle this in his street clothes, but he makes a good start by taking the bout to Kidman and aggressively working the Champion over. Kidman sells all of that really well and Eddy looks really good on offence. Juventud and Rey have stuck around at ringside, with Juventud cheer leading for his boss and helping out whenever he can, continuing to be incredibly entertaining in this role. Juventud has even starting wearing Eddy’s leather jacket, just going the extra mile to be the overzealous lackey hero worshipping his boss. Heenan gets a great line in by saying that this looks like two construction workers fighting on their lunch break due to both wrestlers wearing denim here.

Rey essentially becomes Kidman’s corner-person as a way to offset Juventud, which prevents Juventud from cheating on a few occasions. Eddy takes the majority of the match here, which makes total sense as he’s fresher than Kidman and also more experienced. Rey and Juventud are closer to being contemporaries to Kidman, whilst Eddy is an almost literal Final Boss when it comes to the Cruiserweight Division, so of course Eddy would have the better of things in a scenario like this. Kidman looks resilient and gutsy for hanging in there with the veteran, whilst Eddy looks like a dangerous top level guy.

Kidman makes a brief flurry at one stage, which leads to Eddy taking off one of his shoes and clocking Kidman with it whilst the ref is distracted for two. Eddy throws the shoe out of the ring following that and then gets a Brain Buster before heading up to the top rope (with only one shoe?! Is he mad? Is he madder than Jack McMad of the McMad clan?!) for the Frogsplash. However, Kidman puts a stop to that and brings Eddy back into the ring with a Superplex for a near fall, as Kidman continues to show guts here. Eddy tries to use the ropes illegally in a hold at one stage, but Rey uses Eddy’s own shoe to bonk Eddy’s hands and break the hold. It’s like rain on your wedding day!

Eddy makes the cardinal mistake of trying to Powerbomb Kidman at one stage, and that goes about as well as you’d expect for him, leading to Kidman making the comeback. Eddy manages to block a rana from the top rope and then goes for the top rope Brain Buster, but Kidman fights Eddy off and preps for the Shooting Star Press. Juventud puts a stop to that whilst an unnamed lWo member distracts the ref, but Rey gets involved and takes out Juventud, leading to Eddy getting crotched on the top rope in the process. With Eddy down and Kidman still on the top rope recovering from Juventud’s interference, Kidman recovers and delivers the Shooting Star Press for the win.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KIDMAN
RATING: ***1/2

Heenan does the big hype job for Kidman after the match by putting over his efforts, and this was indeed a great piece of business when it came to making Kidman look like a deserving Champion. It didn’t hurt the lWo guys either, as Kidman was presented as a resilient Champion who was able to find ways to retain his belt against three strong opponents, so it put him over rather than putting them down for not being able to dethrone him.

We get a video package to hype up the Main Event later on. Although it’s just clips of them put against dramatic sounding music without really delving into the storyline or anything like that, which leaves it feeling like superfluous fluff rather than good hype for the biggest match of the year (which arguably is what the Main Event of Starrcade should be being that it’s essentially WCW’s version of WrestleMania).

Match Three
Nor-Man Smi-Lay Vs Prince Iaukea

This is a very strange match to just throw on the biggest show of the year with little build. Smiley was just starting to get over by doing his wacky wiggle dance, whilst Iaukea was so not over that he was practically under. I’m thinking that Smiley is ostensibly the Heel in this one, although it’s very hard to care about Iaukea one way or the other. I actually preferred his Artist gimmick, just because it gave him some semblance of flavour. That being said, I wonder how far away we are from having Prince Iaukea show up during a Roman Reigns match when the rest of The Bloodline have been taken out and things look bleakest for the Tribal Chief? Hey, I wouldn’t begrudge Prince getting a slice of that pie!

The match has barely started and fans are already chanting “boring”, which seems incredibly mean and pessimistic on their part. I mean, yeah, it’s highly likely that this match WILL be boring, but at least give them a chance to actually be boring before you chant that at them! The commentary team immediately switches off and spends most of this match hyping up the bigger matches on the card, which makes this match feel incredibly unimportant. I get throwing a prelim match with goobers on as background noise whilst the commentary team gets other storylines over on a episode of WCW Pro or something, but this is a pay per view that people have actually paid money to see, so you should give them pay per view quality matches, not matches you’d see in the first hour of a three hour Nitro.

Iaukea gets a bit of a babyface shine on Smiley to start, including coming off the apron with a body attack at one stage. Smiley goes to the eyes back inside, which is at least a clear Heel move, and then works Iaukea over with strikes and holds. Smiley actually gets a Double Wristlock/Kimura applied at one stage, which would probably be an instant submission in an MMA fight when you get it in that cleanly, but this was before MMA was as mainstream as it is today, so Iaukea doesn’t tap and Smiley kind of just lets him out so the heat segment can continue. The only moments in the match that get any reaction are Smiley teasing his wacky dance.

Iaukea makes the occasional comeback attempt, but Smiley is always able to cut him off and goes back to working Iaukea over with his combination of strikes and submission holds. Smiley would probably get a lot more over these days doing all of this submission stuff, as it reminds me a bit of the stuff folks like Bryan Danielson and Zack Sabre Jr do, but WCW and WWF fans in the winter of 1998 weren’t going to care about stuff like this. Iaukea eventually manages to catch Smiley with a Northern Lights Suplex OUTTA NOWHERE, which was his finisher at the time, but Smiley easily kicks out at two and then goes back to putting Iaukea in punishing submission holds.

Some of these holds from Smiley genuinely look great, although the crowd either doesn’t understand what they’re seeing, or they do and they just don’t care. Either way, unless Smiley is teasing some dancing the crowd spends the majority of this one sitting on their hands and occasionally catcalling the poor wrestlers as they try and make the crowd care about the wrestling they are doing. Iaukea does finally mount a bit of a comeback, doing a good job of fighting off Smiley’s crossface finishing hold. Smiley does finally manage to hook it in though and that’s enough for the submission win for Smiley.

WINNER: NORMAN SMILEY
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was bordering on a squash win for Smiley and felt like a TV match they put on pay per view, complete with the announce team mostly focusing on stuff that was still to come as opposed to the actual wrestling going on, although they did start focusing on the action in the ring a bit more as the bout progressed. Smiley’s wrestling was actually quite good, especially his submission holds, and the character stuff he got to do worked well also, but this was the wrong match for this show, as the live crowd couldn’t have possibly cared any less about it. Iaukea wasn’t really much more than a tackle dummy for Smiley either really. If they’d given Smiley a more over opponent and given the two a storyline reason of some kind to actually wrestle one another, then this might have stood a chance of being good, but unfortunately they stuck Smiley in there with a lower card guy with generic offence who wasn’t over and the match died on arrival

ScottHall joins us in an Outsider’s shirt, looking sober after doing a drunk gimmick for most of the autumn. Hall was kind of a man without an island at the time, as he’d been a member of nWo Hollywood but had been kicked out for punching Eric Bischoff, so now he’s on his own. The crowd seems happy to see him, and he cuts a decent promo covering how it’s been a bad year for him but he’s going to have a better one in 1999. I think 1999 and 1998 were roughly on par for Hall in how messed up he was during them, but I appreciate his optimism at least.

We get clips of Bam Bam Bigelow beating up Scott Hall on Nitro, leading a Triangle match getting booked between Nash, Bammer and Goldberg on Nitro. Honestly, that would have been a better Starrcade Main Event and Bigelow could have eaten a pin so that Nash or Goldberg wouldn’t have had to job.

Match Four
Ernest “The Cat” Miller w/ Sonny Onoo Vs Perry Saturn

Cat helped Onoo pin Saturn at the previous pay per view in a tag match, so Saturn is now looking for revenge. This wasn’t an especially good feud, but at least there’s a storyline reason for these two to wrestle so that it’s not just two random fellers having a match at the biggest show of the year. It doesn’t take that much effort to make sure that every match on your pay per view at least has some kind of reason for existing, even if it’s just one wrestler trying to avenge a prior defeat like Saturn is here. Cat offends the crowd to start with by insulting them on the mic. Cat did have some charisma and was an effective mid-card babyface by the time WCW ended, but his in-ring ability just never matched up to his other abilities.

Cat gives Saturn a chance to leave before the match starts, which is just gentlemanly on his part when you think about it, but Saturn shamefully attacks The Cat and then unloads with the 10 punch in the corner. I had no idea that Perry Saturn was so bereft of manners, it really is a dark day for the professional wrestling industry! Cat is actually quite entertaining here as he stooges around and begs off after realising he might have bitten off a bit more than he can chew on this occasion. That always struck me as something they should do more with Cat actually. He had a bit of feud with Scott Norton where Norton kept killing him and it was fun stuff, but it was rare for Cat to find himself outmatched like that, which you’d think would happen more with the idea being that he actually wasn’t as tough as he liked to think he was.

Cat eventually manages to catch Saturn with a kick, but he keeps being too cocky and taunting, which allows Saturn avenues to keep fighting back. Saturn has looked quite good in this match, with his offence being on point, although the match itself hasn’t had a lot of crowd reaction. Saturn ends up missing an Axe Handle from the top rope and that allows Cat to catch Saturn with another kick for a two count. Cat basically did kicks and nothing else during this period of his career, like he was Eric Bischoff in the WCW Revenge game. Cat brings Onoo in for an attack on Saturn, but Onoo ends up catching his own man by mistake and that leads to Saturn getting the Spicolli Driver for the three count.

WINNER: PERRY SATURN
RATING: **

Thoughts: I don’t think this match had many fans back in the day, but I didn’t mind it. Cat was a pretty limited wrestler, but he had a character that worked for him and he had some genuine charisma, so I usually found him watchable. It helped that Saturn took the lion’s share of this match due to them telling the story of Cat being outmatched and unable to get out of his own way when any fortune befell him, so Saturn did most of the work and looked great for the most part. They probably could have done more with Saturn than they did, but he ended up in a middling feud with Chris Jericho following this and his momentum slowed considerably

Mean Gene Okerlund is in the aisle and brings Ric Flair out for some promo time. Flair is, not surprisingly, jazzed to be at Starrcade 1998. Gene asks Flair why he agreed to let Eric Bischoff ban The Horsemen from the venue tonight. Flair says that he doesn’t care who is here or isn’t, because Bischoff is getting his butt kicked regardless. Flair goes into lurid detail talking about all the pain he’s going to inflict on Bischoff tonight, whilst the crowd WOOOOO’s along with him. This was a fantastic promo from Flair, and if they’d put this on the go-home Nitro then they would have got ALL THE BUYS!!!

We get a video package recapping all of the horrible things that Eric Bischoff has done as the Heel Authority Figure in WCW, with the idea being that Ric Flair is going to finally give Bischoff the beating that all of the WCW fans have wanted to see him get tonight. Which I’m sure is going to happen right? I mean, what are they going do, have Bischoff win so they can pop a rating by running it back on Nitro? How likely is THAT?!?!

Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell harass Konnan backstage, with Lex Luger coming in to break it up. Steiner interestingly stated that he didn’t want to attack Luger, which was laying the foundation for Luger going Heel in the new year.

Match Five
nWo Hollywood Vs WCW
Brian Adams and Scott “Flash” Norton w/ Wrestling Superstar Vincent Vs Fit Finlay and Jerry Flynn

I think everyone in this match is a Heel, and there was no storyline reason for the match, so why it’s fourth down from the top of the bill on the biggest event of the year is beyond me. Adams and Norton do at least get to enter to the real nWo theme as opposed to B Team theme that lower ranking guys usually had to enter to. This is another match that you’d expect to see early on during a Nitro or on Thunder, not on a pay per view like this. Couldn’t they have done something like tease a crazy brawl between the nWo guys and Meng/Barbarian for a month until delivering it here? It’s not like that’d be a great match or anything, but it would have potential to be a fun Mean Guy match and if you had the brawl interrupted a few times on TV with a promise of it finally happening here then you might have had a match that the crowd could care about, instead of a thrown together one like this.

Finlay and Flynn are both legit tough guys, but WCW never really succeeded in promoting either of them like that, so the fans don’t really get into the idea of these four throwing down, even though the action for the most part is hard hitting and reasonably enjoyable if you like that style of wrestling. Some of the slaps and kicks echo throughout the arena, but the crowd doesn’t really care. There isn’t really a heat segment as such here, with both teams taking it in turns to control things. If anything, the closest we get to a heat segment is Finlay working over Adams for a period of time, which is brought to an end when Adams hits his trademark worst Piledriver in wrestling.

Norton is someone who I don’t mind that much, with my only real complaint being that he didn’t sell enough in his matches, which could sometimes make them a bit dull and make Norton’s opponents look overly weak. I’ve never really had any issue with his work besides that though, as I’ve always thought he was a very believable big slugger of a wrestler, with his impressive power moves and stiff strikes making him perfect for Japan. Norton was actually the IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the time of this show, although I think he lost it on the 4th of January Tokyo Dome Show not too soon after this. The crowd continues not to care about this one, but the actual fighting (I’ll use the word fighting instead of wrestling because this feels like four rugged dudes fighting it out in there) is decent. Eventually things breakdown and that leads to Norton getting a Powerbomb on Flynn for three.

WINNERS: ADAMS & NORTON
RATING: **

Thoughts: This actually wasn’t a bad match in my opinion, but I’m partial to big lads slugging one another in matches like this so your own mileage may vary. The crowd couldn’t have cared less about this though and it was ludicrous to put a match like this on Starrcade, but as an actual match it was fine

Mean Gene Okerlund is in the aisle way and brings out Eric Bischoff for some promo time. Bischoff joins us, looking like he could be played by Aiden Gillan, and wishes The Clinton’s a Happy Holidays for cheap heat. Bischoff says that the only reason that Ric Flair is wrestling him tonight despite having a heart attack is because Flair needs the money. History tells us that Bischoff was probably telling the truth there. This was a pretty rubbish promo from Bischoff actually, as you usually expect better from him on the stick.

We get clips from Nitro, where Chris Jericho beats up someone who looks like Konnan as a way to hype up his match tonight.

Match Six
nWo Wolfpac Vs WCW
WCW World Television Title
Champ: The K-Dawg Konnan Vs Lionheart Chris Jericho w/ Ralphus

Jericho was doing the old “steal the belt” angle here after losing the Title to Konnan, whilst Ralphus was a layover from Jericho’s days of mocking Goldberg and he would remain in WCW until 2000 as a comedy figure. Jericho cuts a good promo pre-match, saying that he’s the greatest TV Champ of all-time and encouraging Konnan to pull his pants up. Konnan was letting his pants hang low of course, as was the style at the time. Konnan responds with some of his own mic work and the crowd is into the catchiest of his phrases.

This is quite a fun match in the early going, with both men working at a decent pace and doing some nice stuff. Konnan gets a lot of stick sometimes and is treated like an all-time rubbish wrestler by some, but I’ve just never seen that. He wasn’t the most technically proficient wrestler or anything like that, but he had good energy and he was a solid middle of the card guy. He reminds me a lot of Road Dogg Jesse James in that regard. The role he was in here was pretty much perfect for him.

Konnan gets a bit of a shine in the early going but ends up flying into the railings outside the ring and that allows Jericho to cut him off and work him over for a bit. Jericho makes sure to goad the crowd at points in order to keep them invested in the match, and Konnan does a decent job selling. Eventually Jericho allows his customary arrogance to cost him though, as he waits too long to do a move off the top and ends up landing on the raised feet of Konnan, allowing Konnan to get a comeback and a pinning hold for two.

We head into the ending stretch following that, with Jericho trying to dive out onto Konnan but Konnan is able to move and send Jericho crashing onto the ring steps, which gets him a two count back inside. The referee gets momentarily stunned and that leads to Jericho clocking Konnan with the Title belt for two in a good near fall, which gets one of the better reactions from the crowd. Konnan is able to catch Jericho with a face buster following that and then locks in his Tequila Sunrise submission hold for the win.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KONNAN
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: Solid enough action there, although the crowd was a little bit quiet at points and it took away from the atmosphere sometimes. These two were good pals in real life I think, so there was always a good chance that they’d have an entertaining match together

Lee Marshall is interviewing The Giant at the internet area, which leads to Giant getting angry when he thinks that Marshall is suggesting that DDP can survive the Choke Slam later on.

Match Seven
nWo Hollywood Vs Horsemen
President of WCW “Eazy E” Eric Bischoff Vs The Nature Boy Ric Flair

This was the payoff to a long running storyline. Bischoff and Flair had been in legal wrangling’s since the spring of 1998 when Flair had tried to book off an episode of Thunder so that he could go and watch his son wrestle, but Bischoff either didn’t know about it or did know about it and didn’t care because he was booking everything on a napkin at the time because he was starting to lose the Monday Night War and it was leading him to gradually losing his mind. Bischoff said that Flair was in breach of contract for not attending the event and all heck broke loose. Eventually Flair agreed to return and that led to months of angles and promo segments until this match was finally booked, with the big tasteless angle to top everything else being Flair teasing that he had a heart attack on an episode of Nitro.

Flair wastes no time rushing down to the ring because he’s that desperate to put a beating on old Sleazy E, and he does just that in the early going as he chops, kicks, punches and chokes away on Bischoff. Bischoff, to his credit, takes the beating well, especially as he wasn’t anything but a very occasional in-ring performer. Bischoff does a big sell job of his knee, which of course leads to Flair attacking it, but referee Charles Robinson tries to break it up so he can check the knee, and that gives Bischoff a window to kick Flair and then throw him face first into the railings at ringside, leading to Flair coming up bleeding. Yeah, I’m not sure this match really needed Bischoff actually working heat on Flair in any capacity, especially under his own power. If you want to have a Heel clock Flair and Bischoff work a bit of heat off that then fine, but Bischoff shouldn’t be getting anything on Flair off his own back.

Flair soon pulls a Taylor and shakes it off though, as he clocks Bischoff right in the Gold Club numerous times before unloading with chops and then delivering the Shattered Dreams to really put the hurting on Bischoff’s nether regions. The ref takes a bump during all of that though, which leaves the door open for Curt Hennig to interfere and help Bischoff win by passing him some brass knuckles. And thus, on the biggest show of the year, Eric Bischoff gets to pin Ric Flair, because WCW. Flair would at very least win the rematch, but shooting angles on pay per view in order to pay them off on TV was why WCW was on the way down to begin as their main focus was on hot-shotting stuff for Nitro in the vague hopes of catching up to the WWF, rather than focusing on building to pay per views and then delivering a satisfactory payoff to that build, which was how a wrestling company actually made it’s money in 1998.

WINNER: ERIC BISCHOFF
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was actually reasonably decent, although I don’t think it really needed the Bischoff heat segment. If Bischoff absolutely HAD to get heat on Flair, then send Hennig out there sooner and have him drag Flair out of the ring and bloody him up whilst Bischoff distracts the ref before throwing Flair back in so that Bischoff can work him over for a little bit. Flair was pretty great here though and carried Bischoff to a watchable outing

We get a video package showing The Giant running in a Choke Slamming DDP so that Bret Hart could pick up a win on Nitro. I’m not sure why no one ran down to rescue DDP during that beat down, but it’s WCW so I’m not especially surprised.

Semi-Main
nWo Hollywood Vs WCW
The Giant Vs Diamond Dallas Page

Giant was on his way out of WCW and was going to the WWF, so they had him do some high profile jobs on the way out, with this one to DDP and one to Goldberg on Nitro. The backstory was that Giant cost DDP a match with Bret Hart, so now DDP is out for revenge. The story of the match itself is a simple one but it’s well told. Giant is really big and that’s going to make it very difficult for DDP to hit the Diamond Cutter, but if DDP can find a way to do it then he can win. DDP hits and runs on Giant start, even finding a metal bin at one stage to block a Giant punch, but Giant shrugs it off and then sends DDP into the ring post for the cut off.

DDP sells well whilst getting worked over, whilst Giant does a decent job on offence, although Giant does start getting quite tired after a certain point due to him being so big at the time. Giant kind of let himself go a bit before heading to the WWF, possibly because he was so unhappy in WCW and he’d kind of lost motivation. Obviously as an athlete you owe it to yourself to stay in the best shape possible, but I buy WCW being such a miserable place to be that you’d just punch the clock and do the bare minimum after a certain stage. There’s a very nice little sequence at one stage where DDP tries to snap off a desperation Diamond Cutter, but Giant blocks it and then sends DDP off into the ropes for a Powerslam. That was very smoothly executed from both participants and it got a pop from the crowd.

DDP manages to fight out of a bear hug at one stage and that gives us all the rarely seen Aloha-Giant, with the big man eventually managing to avoid getting pinned the same way Raiden and E.E. managed to avoid drowning. Giant follows up with the mother of all back breakers, which DDP sells expertly of course. DDP manages to snap off a floating DDT for a delayed pin, but Giant presses him off onto the referee, which allows Bret Hart to run down with a chair. DDP is able to dodge the chair shot though and Giant takes it instead, leading to DDP heading up top with a pair of flying clotheslines. However, when DDP goes for a third one he gets Goozled on the way down. Giant tries to Choke Slam DDP from the top rope following that, but DDP manages to turn it into the Diamond Cutter and that’s enough for the three count.

WINNER: DDP
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: This was solid stuff, with DDP knowing just how to structure a match like this and Giant carrying his end of things well. It was nice to see a WCW guy get a satisfying clean win over an nWo guy as well, especially with an impressive wacky counter like that

Bret fumes outside the ring following that whilst DDP leaves before Giant can get any revenge.

We get the same Nash Vs Goldberg video from earlier.

Main Event
WCW Vs nWo Wolfpac
WCW World Title
Champ: Da Man Goldberg Vs Big Sexy Kevin Nash

Bill Goldberg had taken the wrestling business by storm, having a meteoric rise up the card in WCW based around an impressive winning streak gimmick. Every week he ploughed through another opponent, with the crowd loving him even more with each Spear and Jackhammer. Eventually he won the WCW Title from Hollywood Hogan in the summer of 98, at which point he strangely got pushed into the background whilst Hogan feuded with DDP and Ultimate Warrior. In autumn it looked like WCW finally had a hot feud for him, as Bam Bam Bigelow jumped from ECW and fans were into the idea of seeing the two go at it. It made perfect sense as the Main Event of Starrcade, with Bammer winning the 60 man World War III Battle Royal being an excellent way to establish him as an immediate Heel threat.

However, WCW instead had Kevin Nash win the bout in order to earn himself a Title match. This had very little to do with Kevin Nash having a hand in the booking at this time though, I’m sure. Nash Vs Goldberg was still a big singles match that they hadn’t done before at least, and it would be another good name for Goldy to have a tick against in his win column. Common sense dictated that Goldberg would defeat Nash in a tough contest in order to make him look good, whilst also keeping Nash strong by having the big man give Goldberg all he could handle before finally succumbing. However, this was WCW, where common sense went to die.

The action isn’t bad here to be honest, with both men having moments of control as they look to be going for a Hogan/Warrior Face Vs Face vibe, where both wrestlers look like they are on the others level without making the other look weak at the same time. In a funny moment Nash actually does some MMA styled counters at one stage. I buy that Kevin Nash is a tough dude who could batter you in a street fight, but I doubt that he would have the technical acumen required to beat someone in sporting contest like an MMA fight. Him punching guys and doing power moves; I buy. Him doing cross arm breakers and double legs; I don’t.

Still, it’s a fun match for the most part, and they had a decent one at Spring Stampede 99 from memory too. Eventually they start going to the overbooking, with The Disco Inferno and Bam Bam Bigelow all running in at various moments. Disco tries to help Nash as he wanted to join The Wolfpac at the time, and that goes about as well for him as you’d expect. However, Scott Hall ends up being the difference maker as he zaps Goldberg with a stun gun (the item, not the move) and that allows Nash to drop Goldy with a Jack Knife to end the streak and basically relegate WCW to second place to the WWF forevermore.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: KEVIN NASH
RATING: ***

#LOLnWoWins!!!

Thoughts: Terrible booking aside, as a match this was actually a fun power match when they were both slugging each other and throwing each other around. The overbooking at the end got a little bit silly, but I guess they wanted to try and at least protect Goldberg to a certain degree if he was going to be doing the job. Goldberg actually did a decent job hanging in a longer match than normal and Nash took plenty of bumps to make him look good

In Conclusion

There were enough good matches on Starrcade 1998 that it isn’t a thumbs down, but it’s not an especially big thumbs up either due to all of the filler and questionable booking decisions. Why WCW couldn’t build up storylines for every match on the undercard of the biggest pay per view of the year is beyond me. Every match doesn’t need to have a super heated backstory or anything, but just throwing guys like Smiley, Iaukea, Adams and Flynn to die out there in matches that nobody could possibly care about with no storyline reason for them taking place was just plain negligent on WCW’s part.

If you wanted Smiley and Iaukea to wrestle one another at Starrcade for instance, then how about you have Iaukea throw Smiley out of the World War III battle royal in November and have Smiley complain about it for a month until a match is made for Starrcade? Don’t get me wrong, that match isn’t going to sell one extra ticket or pay per view buy, but at least it now has a reason to exist and the match itself might actually have some shred of crowd interest when the two are out there wrestling.

You shouldn’t be putting that match on Starrcade to begin with of course, because it’s not even a pay per view quality bout, let alone a Starrcade quality one, but if you’re going to book it then at least try to give us SOME reason to care about it. I’m not having a go at the two wrestlers themselves here, as they didn’t book this and they were just making the best of a difficult situation, but that match being on Starrcade is one of the best examples I can give for WCW just not having the remotest clue how to put a big event like this together during this Era.

The WWF had a much weaker roster overall compared to WCW around this time, but they made much better use of it and did a more effective job of getting the mid-card guys over. WCW had a fantastic roster of really talented wrestlers, and yet here we are at the biggest show of the year and we’ve got Prince Iaukea, Brian Adams and Jerry Flynn getting booked whilst the likes of Raven, Kanyon, Buff Bagwell, Scott Steiner, Psicosis, La Parka, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Wrath, Disco Inferno and Bam Bam Bigelow all don’t have a match. Heck, Scott Hall and Lex Luger didn’t even have matches and they were legitimate big name stars for WCW at the time. To have THAT stacked of a roster and put on THIS card is mind boggling, especially when Starrcade 1998 was supposed to be the big crescendo upon which to close the year.

And then we’ve got some of those booking decisions as well, namely the Bischoff and World Title matches. Bischoff beating Flair is one thing, and you can do that and make it work, especially if the payoff is Flair then getting his revenge. However, having Flair lose at the biggest show of the year in order to set up him getting his revenge on free TV is just a microcosm of why the money making days of WCW were over and done with. Pay per views are where you should be ending the big programs and feuds, not extending them so that you can pop a rating the next week. Bischoff sneaking a crappy win at the November pay per view and then Flair coming back to win some kind of stipulation match at Starrcade 1998 is absolutely fine, and would probably have drawn some money. Flair losing at Starrcade and then winning on Nitro might have been great for a boost in television ratings, but it makes you zero extra dollars, and making money IS THE WHOLE POINT to running a wrestling company.

As for Goldberg and Nash, at some point Goldberg was going to have to lose, but this was way too soon and Nash just wasn’t the guy that should have been doing it. Nothing especially against Nash, as he was very over during this time frame, but WCW could have used that first Goldberg loss to really make someone, and blowing it on Nash here was the wrong call. Nash was already made and already one of the top stars in the company, he didn’t need to end the streak. Scott Steiner was on the cusp of being a genuine Main Eventer and could have used it more, ditto for guys like Booker T and Benoit. Getting that big win over Goldberg could have shot any of those guys to superstardom, and instead that chance was thrown away. A minority of fans at the arenas might have been booing Goldberg (wrestling fans thinking it’s cool to be contrarian? Whatever next?!) but he was still a huge star and there was still mileage in him being undefeated, and they blew it here.

The two Cruiserweight matches and the Main Event were strong ways to bookend the show, and I found most of the actual wrestling in the under card to be decent for the most part, so I think I’d give Starrcade 1998 at worst a thumbs in the middle, and possibly even a mild thumbs up. I wouldn’t really recommend you going out of your way to watch anything on it past the first two matches, but those first two matches are great and definitely worth checking out. I can’t recommend the show as a whole though.

Not a recommended show