Starrcade (1997)
Starrcade | |||
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MCI Center[1] | |||
Attendance | 17,500[2] | ||
Tagline(s) | Hogan's a colorful guy... but his nightmare's black 'n white. Paybacks Are Hell! | ||
Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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Starrcade chronology | |||
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The 1997 Starrcade was the 15th annual
The matches revolved around the ongoing storyline between WCW and the New World Order (nWo) organization. The main event was between Hollywood Hogan and Sting for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, with Hogan representing the nWo and Sting representing WCW. The match culminated a year-long buildup of their feud.[4] The match ended in controversy over the referee's pinfall count, and their feud continued after the event surrounding this. Other matches included Larry Zbyszko and Eric Bischoff for the control of WCW Monday Nitro, and Curt Hennig and Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship.[1]
Starrcade became the highest-grossing pay-per-view in WCW history. Despite its success, the main event was seen by critics and journalists as the beginning of WCW's downfall due to setting a tone for backstage dissension and what would retrospectively be seen as poor creative decisions going forward.[5][6]
Storylines
The event consisted of matches resulting from scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters to build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[7]
Since its formation in July 1996, the New World Order (nWo) organization had been a dominant force. Hollywood Hogan, the leader of the nWo, had been the WCW World Heavyweight Champion for most of the preceding year.[8][9] Most of the WCW programming in 1997 revolved around Sting, whose character changed into a mysterious avenger. He watched from the rafters of arenas, and did not speak his thoughts.[4] Sting soon showed his opposition to the nWo, and challenged Hogan to a match for the title at Starrcade. In reality, Hogan and Eric Bischoff, the executive vice president of WCW, disagreed over the outcome of the match. This resulted in a planned ending that had Sting lose because of a fast pinfall count by the referee. Bret Hart would restart the match, and Sting would win.[10]
Late in 1997, Bret Hart was a top star in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a competitor of WCW. Hart was the WWF Champion, and had decided to leave the WWF and join WCW. As Hart was the champion, WWF owner Vince McMahon devised the Montreal Screwjob, secretly changing the planned outcome of a title match. This resulted in Hart losing the title in controversial manner.[11] After Hart made his debut with WCW, he was assigned as the guest referee for a match between Bischoff and Larry Zbyszko at Starrcade. The outcome of the match between Hogan and Sting at Starrcade was inspired by the Montreal Screwjob.[10]
The match between Hogan and Sting was made official with a pre-taped "live press conference" at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. This aired on October 28, 1997, on TNT during a commercial break for the premiere of Hogan's new cable movie, Assault on Devil's Island. The promotion was a success, drawing a 4.2 cable rating (at the same time on the USA Network, the WWF ran a Survivor Series Flashback show, which drew a 2.8 rating), with fans tuning in to finally see the Sting/Hogan bout signed. During the press conference, Hogan and Sting had a brief stare-down as Sting signed the contract without ever taking his eyes off the champion. On the November 10th episode of Nitro, the New World Order beat down Sting, with Hogan delivering several leg drops as the show came to a close. Sting then disappeared for a month, with the nWo beating down the likes of the Giant, Diamond Dallas Page, the Steiner Brothers, and Larry Zbyszko, and looking stronger than ever.
On the November 24, 1997 episode of Monday Nitro, commentator Larry Zbyszko stormed to the ring following an nWo paid advertisement, only to have propaganda fall from the ceiling showing the nWo's Eric Bischoff posing over him at Halloween Havoc. Bischoff, after repeatedly insulting Zbysko, finally agreed to a match, later scheduled for Starrcade. On the December 1 episode of Nitro, Bischoff claimed he never signed a contract, and wouldn't wrestle unless control of Monday Nitro was on the line, which WCW Commissioner JJ Dillon agreed to later in the show.
On the December 1 episode of Nitro, Diamond Dallas Page challenged the nWo's Curt Hennig for the US Title. Page hit Hennig with a Diamond Cutter but Rick Rude interrupted the pinfall attempt. This was Page's second DQ victory over Hennig. The nWo then beat down Page to end the show, with Page sustaining two "Diamond Cutters" from Hulk Hogan. On the December 8 episode of Nitro, Ric Flair, on behalf of Page, challenged Hennig to a steel cage match at Starrcade.
Postponed match
On the December 8 episode of Nitro, the nWo's Kevin Nash (in a pre-recorded statement) declared himself the "one, true giant", belittled The Giant's chokeslam as useless and challenged Giant to a match at Starrcade. Moments later, Giant came to the ring and told Gene Okerlund he'd see Nash at Starrcade and was bringing the chokeslam with him. Nash no-showed the event, and the match would be subsequently postponed and later rescheduled for Souled Out the following month.
Event
Role: | Name: |
---|---|
Commentator | Tony Schiavone[12] |
Dusty Rhodes[12] | |
Mike Tenay[12] | |
Interviewer | Gene Okerlund[12] |
Referees | Randy Anderson |
Scott Dickinson | |
Mickie Jay | |
Nick Patrick[12] | |
Charles Robinson | |
Billy Silverman | |
Ring announcers | Michael Buffer |
David Penzer |
The first match was between Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Malenko had the advantage from the start of the match. Guerrero fought back briefly by attacking Malenko's left leg, but Malenko regained the advantage. This continued until Guerrero countered a suplex, and targeted the knee with the use of the ringpost and ringsteps. Guerrero performed a missile dropkick and a frog splash to the knee, and pinned Malenko to win the match, and retain the title.
Scott Hall afterwards came out and stated that that Nash, who was not in attendance, could not wrestle The Giant at the event. The Giant afterwards came out and stated that while understood why Nash was absent, he would wait for another opportunity to wrestle Nash and, following a verbal confrontation, gave Hall a power bomb.
The second match was between the team of
The third match was between
The fourth match was scheduled to be between Raven and Chris Benoit. Raven chose not to compete, however, and for Saturn to replace him. Saturn was a member of The Flock, a group led by Raven. The match started with Benoit having the advantage. As they fought out the ring, The Flock came out of the audience, and attacked Benoit. Saturn then dominated Benoit, and targeted his neck. As Saturn climbed the turnbuckles, Benoit pushed him to the outside. Benoit applied the Crippler Crossface on Saturn, but The Flock attacked him. Raven performed an Evenflow DDT on Benoit, and Saturn applied the Rings of Saturn. Benoit had passed out from the DDT, and Saturn won the match.
The fifth match was between
The sixth match was between
The seventh match was between
The
Aftermath
The feud between Hollywood Hogan and Sting continued after Starrcade. The outcome of the main event at Starrcade did not occur as planned, with the referee not making the pinfall count fast enough as scripted. Many former WCW wrestlers who were at Starrcade believe that Hogan through Eric Bischoff instructed the referee Nick Patrick to make a regular three count to protect himself and to make Sting and the debuting Bret Hart look weak. The following night, a controversial rematch took place in which Patrick again counted a 1-2-3 pinfall in Hogan's favor, but saw Sting again defeat Hogan and maintain the championship after referee Randy Anderson restarted the match. To address this, the following WCW programming surrounded the controversy. Replays of the count were shown, and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was vacated.[10] A rematch was made, and Sting regained the title in a match at SuperBrawl VIII.[13][14] In 1998, Bill Goldberg was given a push to main event status. Goldberg debuted in 1997, and started an undefeated streak. WCW continued to build the character of Goldberg with the continuation of his undefeated streak since his debut in 1997. On July 6, the undefeated Goldberg defeated Hollywood Hogan to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and remained the champion until the next Starrcade.[15]
Starrcade drew a buy rate of 1.9, the best WCW ever achieved. In 1998, WCW expanded with the creation of another television show,
Reception
In 2017, Kevin Pantoja of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 2.0 [Very Bad], stating, "It was WCW’s biggest show ever and they bombed. Hard. The only match worth seeing is Malenko/Guerrero and you can see better versions of it elsewhere. There are a whopping THREE matches [that] get negative stars, including the main event being an all-time screw up. They gave Luger/Bagwell the most time of any match, which is a travesty. Savage was a last minute replacement. Hall had no match. Vincent, Traylor, Zbyszko, Bischoff and Mongo were booked, while Rey Mysterio, Harlem Heat and several others sat in the crowd."[18]
Results
No. | Results | ||||
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3 | Goldberg defeated Steve McMichael | Singles match | 5:59 | ||
4 | Saturn (with Raven) defeated Chris Benoit by submission | Raven's Rules match | 10:50 | ||
5 | Buff Bagwell defeated Lex Luger | Singles match | 16:36 | ||
6 | Diamond Dallas Page defeated Curt Hennig (c) | Singles match for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship | 10:52 | ||
7 | Larry Zbyszko defeated Eric Bischoff (with Scott Hall) by disqualification | Singles match with Bret Hart as Special Guest Referee | 11:12 | ||
8 | Sting defeated Hollywood Hogan (c) by submission | Singles match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship | 12:53 | ||
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References
- ^ )
- ^ a b "Starrcade 1997". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
- ^ "WCW Live Events - September, 1997". www.wcwwrestling.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
- ^ a b Powers, Kevin (December 29, 2011). "A brief history of WCW Starrcade". WWE.com. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ Hoops, Brian (January 7, 2008). "SPECIALIST - Nostalgia: Starrcade '97: Eddie vs. Dean, Sting vs. Hogan, Mongo vs. Goldberg". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^ Wonsover, Michael (November 24, 2017). "The legacy of Starrcade and the disaster of Sting vs. Hulk Hogan in 1997". ESPN. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
- Discovery Communications. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
- ^ "History of the WCW World Championship: Hulk Hogan". World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2008-03-27. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ "World Championship: Hulk Hogan". World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2008-01-07. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ ISBN 1-4165-2729-X.
- ^ Meltzer, Dave (1997-11-17). "Montreal Screwjob". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Archived from the original on 2007-06-01. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
- ^ a b c d e f Furious, Arnold (2007-01-19). "The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Starrcade '97". 411mania. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
- ^ "History of the WCW World Championship: Sting". World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ Milner, John; Urena, Steve (2004-11-04). "Sting". SLAM! Sports. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "History of the WCW World Championship: Goldberg". World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ISBN 1-4165-2729-X.
- ^ Milner, John; Kamchen, Richard (2004-10-13). ""Stone Cold" Steve Austin". SLAM! Sports. Archived from the original on August 4, 2012. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Kevin's Random Reviews: WCW Starrcade 1997". 411Mania. 2017-10-24. Retrieved 2021-09-20.