WCW StarrCade 1997

Everyday, I get asked 'DF1 ...' 'I SAID MY NAME IS TNOEoHJDJE!!!!!!!' 'Okay, TNOEoHJDJE, what PPV do you think turned the tide for WCW ? Which PPV did you think buried the WWF ?' And I say 'Well StarrCade 97 of course !'. After this review you will find out why. Now on with it ...

- Live from the MCI Center in Washington DC. I believe this was the first StarrCade NOT held in Nashville since 93, and IIRC each StarrCade since has been held in Washington. Tony the Terrific One, Bobby the Stain and MEAN Mike Tenay are our hosts for the evening festivities.

- WCW Cruiserweight Champion Edna Guerrera vs. challenger The Man of 1000 Losses Dean Malenko: Wrestling Rule # 76417641, ALWAYS start the PPV with the match the crowd could care less about ! This law is proven to be true here folks. Eitherway, after a BORING match, Edna wins and retians his belt. -***

- The Medium Size mang Scott Hall gives an interview on how BIG SEXAY is not able to fight the Gaint tonight at the PPV. Ahhhhhh, SURVEY TIME !! I miss it BRAHS. The Gaint comes down and the two have a mini-fight.

- WCW Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers and Ray Traylor vs. Macho Man Randy Savage (for the injured Konnan), Vincent and Scott Flash Norton (with Miss Liz): Now instead giving the fans a Gaint/Hall match, we get this AWESOME 6-man tag !! Don't you just ADORE WCW logic ? I LOVE YOU EZE !!!! Konnan was injured (a recurring theme over the next 3 hours), so who (nN) to take his place ?? MACH' !!!! And yes, this was WCW biggest PPV ever, and quite possibly the most hyped PPV of the 90's, and YES, the nWo Head of Secirity, Vincent/Vince/Shane/Curly Bill/Mike Jones/Soul Train Jones/ Mr. Jones/Virgil wrestles in it !!! Anyhoo, the match goes as this; Vincent gets pounded by all 3 WCWers. Norton tries his best to take out Rick and Scott, but Rick hits the top rope Steiner-Line, Vincent breaks the count but gets a top rope Frankensteiner from the getting-better-than-ever Scott Steiner. But Macho breaks the count and hits the big elbow as Team nWo gets the win. ***3/4 This was a pure entertaining match that had me breathless from top to bottom.

- Mean Gene interviews one of my heroes J.J. Dillon. Why is he one of my heroes, well according to Fat Foley's book, Dillon is the guy that prevented Foley from entering the WWF before 96. Thank goodness !! I didn't want to see Foley ruin the CLASSIC Undertaker-Undertaker fight at SummerSlam94 ! Eitherway, JJ says he has chosen a referee for tonight's big main event.

- Bill GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLDBERG vs. Steve Mongo McMichael (without Pepe and the QUEEEEEEEEN of WCW, Debra): Oh boy. This was when Goldberg wasn't huge, but he was on his way. This also was during Mongo's PRIME. So definetly, this was going to be a true classic. The two proceed to have a nice HARDcore brawl around the ring, then OUT OF NOWHERE ... THE SPEEEEEEEEEEEEAR!!!!! Goldberg sets up a table and drives Mongo thru it. And now there is the Jackhammer and that is a 1, 2, 3, kid. ****

- Krispin Wah vs. Perry Satellite (for the injured Revan - but with the whole Flock, except Revan): The story was that Krispin was scheduled to face Revan on an edition of Monday Nitor Live on TNT!, but Revan kept sending his minions (like Kidman and Riggs and Lodi) in his place. When it came time for the two to fight, Revan was injured so Satellite took his place.

Typical match from these two. The only good thing about this match is that the Flock keeps interfering in this match-up and us, the fans, get to see Van Hammer do his stuff. Revan hits the DDT on Benoit and Satellite gives Benoit the Rings of Satellite. * all for Van Hammer, Lodi and Riggs.

- The Total Package Lex Luger vs. Buff Bagwell (with nWo Head of Security Vincent): As I am writing this, these two will fight tomorrow night at Slamboree 200, and I'm sure this will be another classic between the two. The feud between these two is as complicated as day. Weeks prior to the event, Buff Bagwell has had several consecutive victories over Luger and our man T-PAC wants revenge for those loses. And also, Buff was nWo at the time, so Lex hated nWoites. This is total domination from the former NFL SUPERSTAR, until Macho Man and Liz inrefer on behalf of their nWo brother. Scott Norton also came down and it took all those men to get Buff the pinfall. ****

- WCW United States Champion Curt Hennig vs. challenger Diamond Dallas Page (for the injured Rick Flab): This was originally scheduled to be Flab vs. Hennig in a Cage. This goes back to the infamous Arn Anderson retirement speech and the subsequent 'My Spot' Arn parody. Curt's betrayal to Flair and the Hossman forced Flab to disband the Hossmen. The two feuded for a while and a Cage Match was set up to settle the feud. Also the Cage was used as an irony; the feud began in a Cage, and it will end in a Cage (see, I can make those intelligent comments too!). Prior to the show Flab was injured, so DDP took his place.

This match takes place while DDP's ribs are taped up for a very short time. Curt keeps on stomping ont them anyways (to quote Jar Jar 'How wude!'). The match goes both ways until DDP hits the Diamond Cutter and wins the U.S. title for the first time. This was a *** and a pretty exciting match for these two.

- Larry Zbyyskokolaekorekle vs. EZE (with Scott Hall) for the Control of WCW Monday Nitro Live on TNT! (if Eric wins) or for the right to face Scott Hall at Souled Out (if Larry wins) with Bret Hart as the referee: Aaaah, here we have the wrestling debut of your hero and miune, Eric Bischoff. Oh yeah, this is the WCW PPV debut for Bret Hart. Woo-hoo ! Big deal. Eric impresses the world with his MARTIAL ARTS SKILLZ~! as Larry counters them with his OUTSTANDING 100 hour marathon armbar ! Sadly, Bret keeps on breaking the hold at 100 seconds. The end is near when Hall loads up EZE's boot with something and EZE knocks Larry completely out ! Hall tries to interfere, but Bret decks him and EZE !!!!!!! Hall is put in the Sharpshooter !!!!! Bret disqualified Hall for attempting to interfere in the match as Larry Zbyskokoweihergfkoas wins !!! ***** a TRUE WRESTLING classic folks !

- WCW World Champion Hollywood Hogan vs. challenger Sting: After over a 18 months of build-up, actually, this match has been building up ever since 1994 when Hulk entered the WCW, and now this historic match was about to take place for the first time ever (just ignore their November 95 fight on Nitro which went head-to-head with Shawn/Owen)!!!!!

Sting walks to ringside instead of coming down from the rafters. The match begins with Hulk dominating (the way it should ALWAYS be, unless he faces WARRIOR or Hacksaw). We see Hulk use the power the weightbelt on the Stinger/ Oh boy, Sting is going down !! Then, the BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG BOOT followed by the MIGHTY LEGDROP !!! 123 !!!!! Wait that was a FAST COUNT from Nick Patrick !!!!! Bret Hart comes into the ring to tell everybody that it WAS a fast-count and the match continues with Bret as referee. Sting connects with 2 Stinger splashes as the nWo fills the ring, but Bret and Sting fight them off and Sting goes for the Scorpion Deathlock. Hulk taps out and thus ends one of the most intense World Title match I have seen in years ! *****

The ULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLTIMATE Line:

When you talk about your BIG matches, you talk about StarrCade 97, and this was one of the most hyped PPV of all-time and WCW sure did deliver the goods ! This was WCW's chance to absolutely bury the WWF and HE SUCEEDED !! But it was Aztec Jeff Jarrett, NWA Jeff Jarrett and Southern Justice Jeff Jarrett that took away the ratings from WCW. This was a turning point in wrestling history. This was one of the few PPVs that lived up to the hype. Congrats WCW !! I give it a big THUMBS UP with my tongue stuck out !!

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!