Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – NWA Starrcade 1989

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

Take a drink, because this week we’re reviewing NWA/WCW Starrcade 1989. I believe by this point the company that was Jim Crockett Promotions was now going under the name World Championship Wrestling after Ted Turner purchased it in 1988, but Cage Match still lists the show as being NWA Starrcade, so that’s the name I’ve gone with.

1989 represented one of the first occasions of trying to “theme” Starrcade. Attempts to do this often fell flat, as fans wanted Starrcade to be a WrestleMania-like big event where all of the important feuds and issues of the year were settled in a satisfying fashion. The big buy rates for 1996-97, and the more-than-satisfactory one for 1998, when Starrcade was actually treated like that, would seem to bear this theory out.

However, in 1989 WCW instead decided to do two round robin “Iron Man” tournaments, with one for the singles stars and one for the tag teams. Ric Flair, Great Muta, Lex Luger and Sting will be battling it out in the singles Iron Man tournament, whilst DOOM, The Steiner Brothers, The Samoans and The Road Warriors will battle in the tag tournament.

Scott Keith famously noted in his original review that the true iron men on the night were the fans that managed to sit through the whole event without leaving. The “inmates” on Cage Match have the show at a pretty unimpressive 5.28 out of 10 as of my most recent checking, but that doesn’t mean Starrcade will be without any redeemable qualities.

Scott himself notably came around on the show when he did a re-review in October 2023, so maybe there’s hope for the show yet? Let’s see if Starrcade 1989 is unfairly maligned or justifiably slated. You can view the full card for the event by clicking below.

NWA Starrcade 1989 Card

Starrcade 1989 is emanating from the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta, Georgia on the 13th of December 1989

Calling the action is Jim Ross, with Jim Cornette handling the colour commentary for the tag team matches whilst Terry Funk does the commentary for the singles matches. Strangely they decided to leave The Midnight Express out of this tournament, when they would have likely assured three good matches at the very least

So the way the Iron Man tournaments work is that every wrestler/team battles each other, getting points depending on the results in the matches. The wrestler/team who has the most points at the end of the night is declared the winner.

The points system is as follows; 20 points for a pinfall or submission victory, 15 for a count out victory, 10 for a disqualification victory, 5 for a time-limit draw and 0 for a loss. Each match has a 15 Minute Time Limit. I’m not sure why a count out is worth more points than a DQ, but I’m going to go with “booking convenience” and leave it at that. Apparently there was a plan to award the wrestler who could get through an entire match with an egg sandwich safely tucked in their armpit 7 points, but they ended up scrapping that one.

Jim Cornette is of course the one they trust to explain the way the scoring system works, as he can speak quickly enough to get it all done within a reasonable time whilst still ensuring that it all still makes sense for the viewer at home.

All of the teams in the tag team tournament are presented on the stage, like they’re prizes on a gameshow or something. The Steiner Bros get possibly the loudest reaction, which makes sense as they were the World Tag Team Champs at the time of this show.

Opening Match
Iron Man Tag Team Tournament Match #1
The Tag Team Combination of DOOM (DOOM #1 & DOOM #2) w/ Nitron and Woman Vs The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner)

Nitron would eventually go on to play Sabretooth in X-Men, as well as wrestling as Big Sky in the 1990s. Woman had originally been Robin Green, a fan who had a crush on Rick Steiner. That didn’t end well though, so she brought DOOM in to get revenge. DOOM had defeated The Steiners back at Halloween Havoc 1989, so this opening tournament bout gives the brothers from Michigan a chance to avenge that defeat. The Steiners were clearly using some kind of licensed music for this one, which of course gets dubbed out on the YouTube version of the show available on the WCW channel. For those not familiar with DOOM, they were a masked team made up of Butch Reed and Ron Simmons. They would lose the masks in 1990 and would start going under their regular names, at which point they climbed the ranks and became one of the best teams in WCW.

I’ve seen DOOM and The Steiners battle each other a few times, and it’s usually enjoyable due to all four being huge muscular beasts who can just fling each other around with reckless abandon. That is displayed early on when Rick easily lifts DOOM #2 up for a powerslam like he’s a giant picking up a paper cup. The Steiners get the better of things in the early going, shining on DOOM with a mixture of suplexes, slams and strikes. Eventually though Scott misses a clothesline attempt on a DOOM member, which sends him tumbling out to the floor where Nitro and the other member of DOOM putting a whupping on him. This leads to the heat segment on Scott, with DOOM using their usual array of strikes and power moves to keep him trapped in the opposition corner. Nitron even gets some further cheap shots in when the referee isn’t looking, just to make it worse for young Scotty.

Scott’s selling and bumping is good in the heat, with him doing a good job of desperately reaching for the tag whenever an opportunity presents itself. Simmons fires off his trademark Spinebuster at one stage in the bout, which gives DOOM a two count and leads to the crowd “ooing” both at the brutality of the move and the resilience of Scott to kick out. Scott eventually manages to fight his way out of a DOOM Piledriver attempt and tags in Rick, who runs wild with punches and clotheslines. Things get a bit awkward briefly as it looks like either Rick, DOOM or both aren’t sure where they should be for a certain spot. However, Rick soon wakes up the crowd by heading outside and flattening Nitron with a Steinerline. All four wrestlers fight outside the ring following that, with Rick managing to beat the count in order to win by count out.

12 Minutes

WINNERS BY COUNT OUT: THE STEINER BROTHERS (15 POINTS)
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: The ending was a bit messy, but aside from that I thought this was the usual good match between these two teams. DOOM definitely benefitted from losing their masks in 1990, as it made them feel like a more credible team. That being said, you could tell that these two tandems already had some decent chemistry together and they’d only highlight that more with some cracking matches in 1990

Next on WCW’s version of the Generation Game, we get the presentation of the competitors in the singles tournament. Sadly not revealed is the speedboat that a lucky member of the audience will be able to take home with them should they correctly guess the price of Norman The Lunatic’s ZX Spectrum game collection.

Match Two
Iron Man Singles Tournament Match #1
“The Total Package” Lex Luger Vs The Man Called Sting

Luger was a Heel at the time after turning earlier in 1989, and he was also the United States Champion. Luger and Sting were the two wrestlers that WCW was seemingly banking the future on at the time, although both would eventually struggle to fill the shoes of Ric Flair when their respective chances presented themselves. Luger and Sting had been friends when both were on the babyface side, but that friendship has since been punctured now that Luger has returned to the side of evil. They decide to go with the House Show Special to start, with Luger getting annoyed at Sting being cheered and teasing walking out, leading to Sting dragging Luger back in.

Sting works Luger over with punches and clotheslines back inside the ring, with Luger bumping all over the place in entertaining fashion whilst the crowd loudly enjoys the action. Luger keeps trying to find ways to fight back, but Sting always has an answer to it and keeps him on the backfoot, with Luger begging off at one stage like a good cowardly southern Heel. Luger was incredibly entertaining as a cocky coward during this time period, with his bumping and feeding in particular being excellent. Sadly Luger’s mobility would go off a cliff towards the end of the 1990s, making his later Heel runs in WCW in 1999-2001 quite dull, but here he’s a tremendous bumping Heel and it’s the best part of this match in my opinion.

Despite dominating the match, Sting isn’t able to put Luger away. Sting’s work looks good for the most part, with him delivering a very nice dropkick at one stage and actually coming off the top quite a lot. You can see why WCW wanted to build around these two, as they were high level athletes at the time. Luger eventually manages to catch Sting with an Inverted Atomic Drop and works some heat, showing off some good cocky charisma whilst doing so. Sting sells well whilst getting worked over, and it’s a decent heat segment as a result. The crowd remains engaged with the action, especially whenever it looks like Sting might fight back.

Sting eventually manages to slip out of the Human Torture Wrack and starts firing up, which leads to the crowd going nuts for him as he fires back at Luger with punches. Luger’s bumping and selling continues to be good. Sadly there’s a bit in the closing stages where Luger is slumped on the ropes and both wrestlers seem to forget what they are supposed to do, leading to Sting awkwardly having to drag Luger into the middle of the ring for a suplex. The finish also goes a bit skewwhiff, as it looks like the two are supposed to tumble from the apron back into the ring, where Luger can then use the ropes to secure the three count. However, the execution is very sloppy and the finish ends up looking pretty rough, which flattens the crowd out after they’d been so invested in the match.

12 Minutes

WINNER: LEX LUGER (20 POINTS)
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: The finish was a bit of a mess and took the match down a bit in my opinion, but aside from that it was a decent outing. Luger was an excellent Heel and Sting was a good Face, which led to the crowd getting into the contest. Give this a better closing stretch and I think it could have easily worked its way into the ***+ range

Third Match
Iron Man Tag Team Tournament Match #2
The Tag Team Combination of DOOM (DOOM #1 & DOOM #2) [0 Points] w/ Nitron and Woman Vs The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) w/ Paul Ellering

The Roadies had entered 1989 as Heels after trying to drive a spike into Dusty Rhodes’ eye in 1988. However, the fans still thought they were really cool and WCW eventually realised that they were swimming uphill in trying to keep them as Heels. So as a result of this, WCW turned The Road Warriors back Face in early 1989 for a feud with The Varsity Club and they would stay with that alignment until leaving for the WWF in 1990. Woman has changed her outfit for this match of course, and I don’t think we’d expect anything less. The Road Warriors normally did better when they were in there with smaller teams who could bump around for them as it just suited their style better. Despite that, there is something to be said for seeing The Roadies mix it up with a team that can rival them in size and power like DOOM can. It’s certainly a very striking visual to see these two tandems weighing each other up.

DOOM are decent bumpers for wrestlers their size at least, so they can get knocked around in the early stages when it’s required, meaning that this one has some decent energy and isn’t just two heavy hitters slowly slugging it out. Hawk eventually misses a charge into the corner, which allows DOOM to cut him off and work some heat. Hawk’s selling actually isn’t bad whilst he’s getting worked over, which isn’t something he and Animal always get credit for. Things slow down a bit when DOOM work Hawk over with some rest holds, but the crowd stays with him so the match has a decent atmosphere at least. Eventually Hawk manages to shift his weight when one of DOOM tries a bodyslam and that leads to Animal getting the hot tag. Animal runs wild on one member of DOOM, leading to the other two wrestlers getting into the ring. Hawk comes off the top rope with a clothesline onto a DOOM member and Animal gets the pin for three.

9 Minutes

WINNERS: THE ROAD WARRIORS (20 POINTS)
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: The heat segment was a bit dull, but the match itself was okay overall. They lose some points with me personally because the other DOOM member could have easily broken up the winning pin, but he wasn’t supposed to and Hawk wasn’t around to stop him, so he just had to stand around and look like goober. Grumbles with the finish and heat segment aside though, this was a watchable match where DOOM made good use of their bumping ability to keep the tempo up outside of the brief detour to rest hold valley. The crowd stayed with the match during the heat at least, so it didn’t fail, it just wasn’t for me

DOOM are basically out of the running after two matches, with the idea being that they’ve been the victims of the draw by being forced to wrestle two bouts that were so close together.

Fourth Match
Iron Man Singles Tournament Match #2
“The Pearl of the Orient” The Great Muta w/ Gary Hart Vs “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair w/ Arn Anderson and Ole Anderson

Muta had become an instant sensation upon debuting in WCW, with his face paint, mist spitting and amazing Moonsault finish connecting with fans across the land. Muta had been able to claim the TV Title from Sting earlier in the year and was getting popular enough that he could have conceivably turned babyface. However, Gary Hart had allegedly got in Muta’s ear to convince him not to do it, so Muta ended up remaining on the Heel side of the divide. Muta and Flair had crossed paths more than once in 1989, with Muta and Terry Funk battling Flair and Sting back at Halloween Havoc 1989. Flair was a babyface at the time and the World Champion, although he would eventually turn evil again in 1990 for a feud with Sting over said World Title.

Jim Ross makes a good point on commentary that Flair is known for working longer matches, so the 15 Minute Time Limit works against him a bit here. However, the match between Muta and Flair ends up being worked at a breakneck pace, with Flair quickly going to the Figure Four. This brings down Buzz Sawyer and Dragon Master of Hart’s J-Tex Corporation, leading to them battling with The Andersons and causing Flair to release the hold. Muta recovers and goes for a Moonsault on Flair, but Flair gets his knees up and then follows with an Inside Cradle for the flash three count.

2 Minutes

WINNER: RIC FLAIR (20 POINTS)
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: Too short to really rate, but it was entertaining whilst it lasted. Muta losing so quickly was a bit of a head scratcher, but they protected him a bit by presenting it as Flair catching him OUTTA NOWHERE rather than squashing him

Fifth Match
Iron Man Tag Team Tournament Match #3
The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) [20 Points] w/ Paul Ellering Vs The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) [15 Points]

This was a big match between the two top babyface teams in the company that they could have possibly been promoted all by itself without the tournament and likely sold some pay per view view buys. The fans seem torn on who to cheer for here, whilst both teams work a firm yet fair contest. Hawk turns Rick inside out with a clothesline early on, with Rick later taking Animal off his feet with a Steiner-line in order to show that both teams are capable of taking the fight to the other. Hawk gets a terrifyingly easy looking Gorilla Press Slam onto Scott at one stage, with him lifting the gigantic muscular Scott without even flinching. The match is mostly a tug of war, with neither side really controlling things for long periods of time and the momentum ebbing and flowing between the two tandems.

This is probably the smartest way of doing it, as it limits the possibility of one team getting booed for beating on the other one too much. Scott nearly ends Hawk with a belly to belly suplex off the second rope at one stage, as Hawk barely gets over and almost lands on the top of his head. That was BRUTAL and could have seriously hurt a regular person. Luckily for Hawk he was about 91% muscle at this stage in his career so he shrugs it off and the bout continues. Scott gets clobbered a bit following that, but things break down before it goes on for too long, leading to all four wrestlers going at it inside the ring. The finish sees Animal pinning Scott whilst also having his own shoulders down, leading to Scott raising his shoulder at the last moment to pick up the three count.

7 Minutes

WINNERS: THE STEINER BROTHERS (35 POINTS)
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was okay, but a bit disappointing considering it was such a dream match back in the day. Obviously there’s only so much you can do with 7 Minutes, but they packed in what they could. The match had a bit of an odd atmosphere, as the fans didn’t really want to boo either team and you felt like they weren’t really enjoying seeing the two tandems battle each other like this. That can happen sometimes in a Face Vs Face battle like this one. I felt the finish was a good way of giving the crowd a pin-fall finish without making The Road Warriors look weak in losing

Sixth Match
Iron Man Singles Tournament Match #3
“The Pearl of the Orient” The Great Muta [0 Points] w/ Gary Hart Vs The Man Called Sting [0 Points]

This was a renewal of a big feud that saw the two trade the TV Title earlier in the year. These two had good chemistry as opponents, and that is on display here when they do some nice quick paced exchanges in the early going. Sting gets the better of things to start, with Muta bailing to the floor and then going to the eyes for the cut off. Muta actually busts out the Cattle Mutilation during the heat segment, as I ponder if a young Bryan Danielson was watching this event and decided to use that hold himself when he started his own wrestling career. Sting shows off his athletic ability again by nicely rolling out of the hold, and makes a brief comeback that ends with him putting Muta in a chin lock. The pace soon picks up again though, with Muta missing a Moonsault. Muta tries something else from the top rope, but Sting gets an impressive dropkick to stop him and then brings him down with a Superplex for the three count.

9 Minutes

WINNER: STING (20 POINTS)
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: These two always tended to work well together, and that was mostly the case here. Sting making a brief comeback only to immediately slow things down with a chin lock was a bit jarring, especially when the match had just started picking up again. Aside from that though, this battle was entertaining and the closing stretch had the crowd invested. That loss takes Muta out of the running essentially, but he at least got to do a bit more in this one first before getting pinned once again.

Seventh Match
Iron Man Tag Team Tournament Match #4
The Tag Team Combination of DOOM (DOOM #1 & DOOM #2) [0 Points] w/ Nitron and Woman Vs The Wild Samoans (Fatu & Samoan Savage) w/ Sir Oliver Humperdink

Fatu would go on to become Rikishi in WWE. Samoan Savage wrestled as Tonga Kid in the WWF. Originally Fatu was teaming with Samu but he went AWOL, as he was wants to do sometimes, so Savage got subbed in. This would happen to poor Fatu again in the WWF in the 1990s, with Samu just disappearing one week, leading to The Barbarian getting drafted in as Fatu’s new partner. The Samoans are filling in for The Skyscrapers here, as Sid Vicious has suffered a punctured lung and thus can’t compete. Woman has changed her attire once again for this one, as we see that Norman The Lunatic is walking around ringside dressed as Father Christmas. This is one of those matches that sounds like it should be an entertaining meat match based on the competitors, so lets see if that proves to be the case.

Fatu quickly opens with a big Running Powerslam onto a member of DOOM, which leads to them trading headbutts until both of them collapse and have to tag out. The crowd doesn’t seem to care too much about the action going on in the ring, seeing as both teams are Heels and don’t really have any prior history with each other. Neither side really takes on the Face role here, with them both just slugging it out whilst the crowd watches on. DOOM does manage to isolate Samoan Savage at one side and work him over, with their offence looking good and Savage taking some nice bumps for it. It does kind of look like they’re trying to build up to a Fatu hot tag, but the crowd isn’t really going along with it.

Fatu does eventually get tagged in, which leads to all four wrestlers going at it in side the ring. Fatu and a DOOM member collide, leading to the member of DOOM lying on the mat whilst Fatu is propped up by the ropes. Humperdink shoves Fatu so that he lands on the member of DOOM and that’s enough for the three count. WCW actually did a similar finish back at Wrestle War 1989 when Michael Hayes pinned Lex Luger to win the United States Title. It was an okay finish that gave DOOM an out for losing and suited the Heel Vs Heel nature of the bout.

9 Minutes

WINNER: THE WILD SAMOANS (20 POINTS)
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: The crowd didn’t really care for this one but I thought it was okay. If this had been an actual feud with a team that the fans wanted to get behind, then this would have had much better heat and would likely have been a really fun “slobberknocker” between two heavy hitting tandems. As it was, it was a watchable scuffle in front of a dead crowd

Eighth Match
Iron Man Singles Tournament Match #4
“The Total Package” Lex Luger [20 Points] Vs “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair [20 Points]

This is another renewal of a long running feud, although this time Luger is in the Heel role and Flair is in the Face role, when it was normally the other way round. Indeed, these two battled in the Main Event of Starrcade 1988, with Flair getting the win thanks to using the ropes for leverage. Luger has taken a nod from Woman and changed his attire for this one, going for purple trunks after wearing green ones at the start of the night. Despite the Face/Heel roles being flipped, Luger and Flair still have good chemistry as opponents. Luger cowering from Ric Flair after their previous matches had featured Luger flinging Flair around whilst Flair begged off is certainly a change of pace. Luger even flees at one stage to try and escape Flair’s knife-edge chops, with Flair chasing him down to deliver more of them.

Luger is once again great in the Heel role, just as he was in the Sting match earlier, selling Flair’s offence with aplomb and also finding time to yell at the fans when the opportunity allows as well. Luger eventually has to gouge Flair’s eyes in order to get himself a window of offence, but Flair just goes to series of roll-up’s in reply, as Luger just can’t get any momentum going here. Luger ends up dropping Flair throat first across the top rope, and that seems to finally be enough to give Luger the cut off. Luger works some heat on Flair, which Flair of course sells really well. Flair has gone on record that he never liked being a babyface because he thought he wasn’t any good at it, but performances like this certainly dispel that notion, as he’s fantastic as a gutsy babyface fighting from underneath against the bullying Luger. Eventually Flair is able to dodge a Luger elbow drop and makes the comeback, locking in the Figure Four Leg Lock. Luger manages to wait out the clock though and the bout ends in a draw.

17 Minutes

TIME LIMIT DRAW (EACH WRESTLER GETS FIVE POINTS)
RATING: ***1/2

Thoughts: Lovely Stuff!! Not my words, folks, but the words of Shakin’ Stevens. This was some entertaining bone-bending, with the alternate universe version of the Face/Heel alignment working well and the wrestling itself being to a high standard. Luger looked totally capable of taking Flair’s mantle here, but that just didn’t work out for him for a variety of reasons, some which were down to him, some which were down to WCW, and some which were down to circumstance.

Ninth Match
Iron Man Tag Team Tournament Match #5
The Wild Samoans (Fatu & Samoan Savage) [20 Points] w/ Sir Oliver Humperdink Vs The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) [35 Points]

Fatu would famously battle The Steiner Brothers at WrestleMania IX alongside Samu. That was notably a great match, so hopefully Fatu has similar chemistry against The Steiners when paired up with Samoan Savage. They’ve been weird with the music tonight, as sometimes folks will enter with entrance themes, other times they’ll just walk out to nothing, and sometimes there’ll be an uncomfortable silence before the music finally kicks in. It just gives the overall vibe of a company that doesn’t really know what it’s doing, which is something NWA/WCW could often be accused of. The Steiners pick some kids out of the crowd to be their managers for this one, with Cornette getting a good line in on commentary saying that the kids probably have a higher reading level than Rick Steiner does. I hear if you ask Rick Steiner what the toppings are on a Margherita pizza his reply will just be “meat” followed by some incomprehensible barking.

Rick knocks Savage down so violently in the early stages that Savage actually loses some of his hair, which pretty much sets the tone for how hard-hitting this one is going to be I guess. The Samoans actually do a lot of stalling and playing to the crowd here, which slows things down a bit but does the job of riling up the fans at least, so this one has some decent atmosphere. The Samoans even get into an argument at one stage when Savage accidentally clocks Fatu, but then they hug just to annoy the audience even further. This hasn’t been the match I was hoping it would be thus far, but I can’t deny that it’s worked for the crowd for the most part, as they’ve been reacting in the way the wrestlers have intended. Scott eventually gets dragged to the floor and thrown into one of the metal railings, which gives us our heat segment.

The Samoans stick to basic Heel techniques of biting and eye gouges during the heat, with Scott selling it well. As has happened a few times tonight, the crowd goes a bit quiet during the heat segment, which might be a consequence of doing so many tag matches in one evening, as there’s only so many ways you can do “Heel team works over a Face to set up the hot tag” before you start re-treading familiar ground. Singles matches tend to give you a few more avenues to mix up the formula so you can keep it feeling fresher. Scott gets trapped in a couple of bearhugs, as his selling continues to be good, and he does manage to get a backslide but the referee misses it because he’s arguing with Rick. Scott eventually manages to snap off a Frankensteiner OUTTA NOWHERE on Fatu, but Samoan stops the tag, so Rick stupidly comes in and attacks everyone without a tag, thus getting his team disqualified when they were less than a minute away from a draw that would have put them on 40 points and in the driving seat to win the whole shebang.

14 Minutes

WINNERS BY DQ: THE WILD SAMOANS (30 POINTS)
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: This one felt like it had a higher gear it could have kicked into, but instead they focused on The Samoans doing standard Heel shtick whilst Scott sold in the heat. The finish felt really weak as well, and the commentary team seems to suggest that the DQ came because Scott back body dropped a Samoan over the top rope at one stage and not because Rick came into the ring. Scott didn’t intentionally throw him over the top rope though, surely that would just fall under the “momentum” rule that excuses clotheslines and the like that send an opponent over the top to the floor? This is why the over the top rope DQ rule was so dumb because, to me, clotheslining someone near the ropes to send them tumbling over the top to the floor feels far more “intentional” than low bridging them or back dropping them out in the way Scott did here

Tenth Match
Iron Man Singles Tournament Match #5
“The Pearl of the Orient” The Great Muta [0 Points] w/ Gary Hart Vs Lex Luger [25 Points]

Muta is just fighting for pride at this point. Luger has changed his gear again, going for red trunks this time. Luger looks totally dishevelled on the way to the ring, limping following his previous two battles in order to get across how gruelling a night this has been for him thus far. That’s a very nice touch. Muta is showing accumulated wear and tear as well with his cracked face paint. Luger’s knee goes out very early on a leapfrog, which leads to Muta working over the appendage as the focus of the bout. Luger sells that in his usual way of yelling really loudly, but he also has the injured limb affect his performance throughout the contest, doing a good sell job overall. Muta’s offence looks good overall, with him focusing on kicks and holds to really work the injured leg over.

The crowd doesn’t seem to really know how to feel about this one, as both wrestlers are Heels. Luger being on the backfoot due to his leg could be a way for the crowd to feel sympathy for him or it could be a way to give the crowd a chance to enjoy watching a hated villain receive a battering. As it turns out, the crowd doesn’t really seem to see it as either, so they spend most of the match sitting on their hands. Granted, it’s not the most exciting match to watch, but it’s a well-worked one that makes sense and has some decent work from both of the participants. Muta’s modified Indian Deathlock does get a reaction from the crowd at least, just because it looks so cool and he delivers it with such panache. Luger eventually manages to catch Muta with a clothesline and tries to make a bit of a comeback with some punches and a slam. However, Luger’s leg goes out on the Torture Wrack and Muta seemingly decides that he’s had enough of this mother-loving tournament on this Monday-to-Friday pay-per-view and spits mist in Luger’s face for the blatant DQ.

11 Minutes

WINNER: LEX LUGER BY DQ (35 POINTS)
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: I thought this was an okay match to be honest, with the crowd starting to get a bit more invested towards the end. The finish was weak sauce, but I guess they needed Luger to be on 35 Points for the closing contest to have the permutations they wanted, so DQ had to be the finish. I just felt like they could have got there in a better way, as Muta didn’t really need to spit the mist has Luger’s leg had just gone out on his finisher and he was seemingly ripe for the picking. A better finish might have been Luger and Muta brawling out on the floor, with Muta finally having enough and hitting him with a chair or something. In that case you at least have the feeling of it being a wild fight that finally got out of control. The way they did it here didn’t feel like it made much sense. Luger’s selling of the leg was really good here, and it closes what I thought was an impressive night from him

Eleventh Match
Iron Man Tag Team Tournament Match #6
The Wild Samoans (Fatu & Samoan Savage) [30 Points] w/ Sir Oliver Humperdink Vs The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) [20 Points] w/ Paul Ellering

The Samoans win the tournament with any kind of victory. A draw sees them tie The Steiners and leads to a playoff. A DQ win for The Road Warriors gives them 30 points, meaning The Steiners win the tournament, while a count-out win puts The Roadies on 35 and creates a playoff with The Steiners. A pinfall or submission victory gives The Road Warriors 40 points and the tournament outright. Animal quickly no sells a Fatu Piledriver early on, showing that they mean business in this one. The Road Warriors sell Piledrivers less than New Japan junior heavyweights. They’d be immortal gods down in Mexico no-selling a Piledriver like that as that is the most MDK of moves south of the border. The Roadies mostly dominate this one, with The Samoans not really being able to do much against them. There seems to be some timing issues between the two sides as well, as Fatu and Animal kind of collide for the cut off in a way that looks really sloppy. The crowd gets behind Animal whilst he’s being worked over at least, and Hawk’s hot tag gets a good reaction, as he runs wild on the Heels and things break down. Hawk gets a top rope clothesline on Savage during the melee and that leads to the three count.

5 Minutes

WINNERS: THE ROAD WARRIORS (40 POINTS)
THE ROAD WARRIOS WIN THE IRON TEAM SERIES
RATING: *

Thoughts: This was pretty rough, with both teams seemingly being on different pages and it leading to a sloppy bout. The crowd was into The Road Warriors at least, so they were happy with the finish

The Steiner Brothers are good sports and congratulate The Road Warriors on their tournament win.

Main Event
Iron Man Singles Tournament Match #6
“The Nature Boy” Ric Flair [25 Points] Vs The Man Called Sting [20 Points]

Sting needs a pinfall or submission to reach 40 points and win the tournament outright. A count-out gives him 35, tying Luger and leading to a playoff, while a DQ win gives him 30 and allows Luger to win the tournament. If Flair wins by DQ, he’ll reach 35 and wrestle Luger for the tournament, while any other Flair victory gives him 40/45 and the overall win. A draw leaves Flair on 30 and allows Luger to win. Seeing as he has a penchant for it anyway, Flair gleefully reverts to the de-facto Heel role here, even though he and Sting had been watching one another’s backs for the second half of 1989. I’m sure it didn’t take much to convince Flair to work it that way. It would have probably have been about as difficult as trying to convince him to walk around a hotel lobby in just his robe.

Sting controls things in the early going, which frustrates Flair, and both men quickly go to their usual formula with one another and it’s good as always. Flair eventually takes the fight outside, which has Funk decrying his actions on commentary. Hey, maybe Funk was right about Flair all along during their violent 1989 feud? Flair suplexes Sting back into the ring for two and then lets his Heel personality start to peak out when he yells at the ref over his count. Flair works Sting over in deliberate fashion but Sting eventually starts Stingering up and stalks Flair around ringside.

Sting tries a sunset flip back inside, but Flair punches him to block that and then tries to finish Sting off once and for all by suplexing him off the apron to the floor. Sting is able to block that however and suplexes Flair back into the ring and then makes his comeback, with Flair even begging off for old time’s sake. Sting gets the Stinger Splash and goes to the Scorpion Deathlock, but Flair is able to get his body under the ropes to cause the break. Flair tries the Figure Four after that, but this time it’s Sting who is able to grab the ropes to break the hold. Flair targets Sting’s leg with the usual precision offence, but Sting manages to catch him with a backslide for two. Flair goes back to the leg and tries the Figure Four again, but Sting is able to counter that into a small package and that’s enough for the three count and the victory.

15 Minutes

WINNER: STING (40 POINTS)
STING WINS THE IRON MAN SERIES
RATING: ***1/2

Thoughts: Once again, Lovely Stuff!! These two could probably have a good match in their sleep if they wanted to.

The Andersons come down to the ring following the result, seemingly to lay a whupping on Sting, but Flair prevents that and instead offers a handshake. Arn Anderson raises Sting’s hand and flashes the four fingers, which would lead to Sting joining The Horsemen. I’m sure that didn’t end in tears for him…

The Road Warriors give their victory speech and we’re out of here.

Is It Really A Stinker?

No, I wouldn’t say that Starrcade 1989 is a Stinker. I found the format a bit of a slog at points, as seemingly did the live crowd at The Omni, but the wrestling throughout the night was generally solid to good. Ric Flair in 1989 could normally be relied upon to give you a good match, and that was the case here as he had fun bouts with both Luger and Sting. However, it wasn’t just a one man show in the Iron Man Tournament, as Luger and Sting also put in good performances, whilst Muta looked okay when he wasn’t being kneecapped by the booking.

Luger in particular really impressed me on this show, as he both looked the part and wrestled the part over the course of the evening, showing off some really impressive character work. Watching this show, the overriding thought I think you would get from it was that Lex Luger was going to be a gigantic star and possibly the top Heel in the company. That did somewhat come to pass in 1991 when Luger won the World Title, but sadly for him it was during a period where Flair had left for the WWF and a significant portion of the fanbase was more interested in chanting for Flair to return than they were to engage with the new top Heel. It also didn’t help that Luger seemingly mentally checked out during the middle of his reign and didn’t come close to recreating the dynamism of what we got to see on this event.

I found that I enjoyed the singles tournament a lot more than the tag tournament, mainly because I felt the competitors in the singles tournament found better ways to keep their matches feeling fresh and interesting throughout the night. Even though Muta only getting 2 Minutes with Flair was disappointing, it was a neat little twist that kept you on your toes as a viewer. The tag tournament didn’t really have anything like that and essentially came down to six formula tag team matches, which started to get a bit samey after a certain point.

Considering how good the NWA/WCW roster was at the time, they probably could have put on a more enjoyable show if they had eschewed the tournament format and gone for something else. It’s not like a tournament show couldn’t work, but doing it on Starrcade just made what was supposed to be the biggest show of the year feel like any other event, which was a problem WCW would battle with on a few occasions as it entered the 1990s.

That all being said, Starrcade doesn’t fall into the Stinker category for me. It was very much “just a show” for me with a couple of good matches keeping things interesting. It’s by no means awful, but I didn’t find it especially thrilling either. I’d probably go thumbs in the middle for it, or thumbs in the middle leaning slightly up if I was feeling generous.

Final Score – Odourless
(Scores done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)