NWA/WCW Starrcade 1987
November 26, 1987
Chicago, IL
The NWA was in trouble at this point, mostly because of Jim Crockett’s heavy spending. The NWA looked to compete with Vince McMahon’s WWF and to do that, decided to finally get on Pay-Per-View. This was the first PPV for the NWA, and there were three huge issues that would eventually deem Starrcade ’87 to be a failure.
Issue #1: They abandoned Greensboro. Ric Flair wrote in his book about how Southern fans, especially in Greensboro, felt betrayed as Starrcade had been held in Greensboro every year. Crocket wanted the NWA to seem “big time”, which is why he wanted to hold the show in a big city like Chicago. Unfortunately, as Flair pointed out, the NWA came off as bush league as they weren’t even in the main arena.
Issue #2: Crockett wanted Flair to win the title at Starrcade. There were no top babyfaces that wanted to win the title from Flair and be that lame duck champion, leading to midcarder Ronnie Garvin getting the victory. While Flair was easily the biggest name that hadn’t graced a WWF ring in North American professional wrestling, Garvin was still a no body.
Issue #3: Vince McMahon pretty much squashed Starrcade before it even happened. At first, Vince decided to create Survivor Series and run it opposite of Starrcade. Obviously, Crockett didn’t want to do that, so he pushed the show up to the afternoon, thinking if fans watched both shows, they’d come to the conclusion the NWA show was better. Good plan, but Vince wasn’t having that either. McMahon told the cable companies if they aired Starrcade, not only would they not be allowed to air Survivor Series, they wouldn’t be allowed to air next year’s Wrestlemania. Cable companies obviously didn’t want to take that risk…Wrestlemania III was a huge money maker…which resulted in only five companies carrying Starrcade. Starrcade was dead in the water.
Did Crockett at least put on a good show? Well, let’s see.
The Card
Sting and the Fabulous Freebirds vs. Rick Steiner, Eddie Gilbert and Larry Zbyszko
At least the crowd is really into this. It’s odd seeing Sting as a midcard act, although it wouldn’t be long until he was on top.
It’s amazing what kind of shape Steiner is in in 1987.
Sting already steals the show with some great high flying stuff. Crowd is super hot for Sting.
It makes sense that Chicago would be hot for the Freebirds too.
The announcer makes it a point to tell us that 7 minutes have expired so far. Unfortunately, that means it’s likely we’re getting a time limit draw.
I know hindsight is 20/20, but watching this I would have guessed that Sting would become a huge star. Easily.
Sigh. This is definitely going toward a time limit draw.
Time Limit Draw in 15:00. Referee pulls up before the bell even rings. Really disappointing finish to the first match here. It seemed like Sting going over Larry Zbyszko made the most sense. Otherwise, the match was fun and the crowd was really into it.
Missy Hyatt nearly forgets her line.
UWF World Championship
Steve Williams © vs. Barry Windham
The UWF had invaded the NWA not too long ago, but this was at the tail end of that.
We get some mat wrestling after a fast start and the fans quickly turn against the match. Seems kind of unfair.
In one of the funniest spots I’ve seen in a while, Dr. Death tries a leapfrog and Windham doesn’t go low enough and heasbutts Williams in the groin. I sense that wasn’t intentional.
This whole “good sportsmanship” deal with Windham really isn’t helping. Bad booking there.
Windham goes flying out of the ring and slams into a ringside table. First exciting spot in the match.
Steve Williams retains by pin in 6:50. Dr. Death gets a cradle for the win. I’m guessing Williams got hurt? Nonetheless, match sucked, and the fans let them know. I have read that the UWF title wasn’t long for the world after this one.
Skywalkers Match
The Rock’N’Roll Express vs. The Midnight Express
A young Big Bubba Rogers and Jim Cornette are on the side of the Midnight Express.
A Skywalkers match is a Scaffold match. Usually, these are awful.
Big Bubba beats the crap out of Ricky Morton right away, and the Midnight Express have a two on one against Robert Gibson up top.
Morton comes back and takes out Bubba with Cornette’s tennis racket, then evens the odds up top. Smart way to get the crowd into this.
This isn’t that bad, but there’s only so much that can be done up on top of a scaffold. There’s just a lot of punching and choking and beating down on one another with the racket.
Stan Lane takes the first bump from under the scaffold. That had to be horrible for his knees.
The Rock’N’Roll Express win in 10:23. Eaton goes flying down afterwards. I mean, it was what it was, but it was good for a Scaffold match. Doesn’t seem like the best way to use the Rock’N’Roll Express though. Crowd was into it, so there’s that. Big Bubba goes up there and faces off with Ricky Morton. Morton takes a shot then runs away. Just an unnecessarily dangerous gimmick match.
For some reason, Jimmy Garvin basically hypes up the rest of the card in his promo. A Steve Williams promo follows and it’s not good.
UWF TV Title vs. NWA TV Title
Terry Taylor (UWF TV Champion) vs. Nikita Koloff (NWA TV Champion)
More from that UWF vs. NWA feud. Odd that this took place after the UWF World Title match.
Eddie Gilbert is at ringside for Taylor.
First five minutes focuses on how intimidating and strong Nikita is. That’s fine, but it’s not that exciting.
Watching Taylor here, my impression is that he’s a homeless man’s Flair. Although that’s really Buddy Landell’s role.
Nikita misses the Sickle and suddenly Taylor is in control. The Sickle is a running clothesline I believe, and Koloff slammed into the corner.
Taylor basically uses every heel move in the book to keep the advantage. Even a Figure Four with Gilbert’s assistance! See, he is the homeless man’s Flair.
Koloff unifies the titles in 18:58. Koloff gets his hands on Gilbert, and Taylor accidentally knocks him off the apron. Koloff nails the Sickle and wins. Match was a bit too long as we didn’t need Koloff to dominate the first 10 minutes. Match definitely picked up when Taylor took control. Not bad overall, but Starrcade really needs a show stealer at this point.
NWA World Tag Team Championship
Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard© vs. The Road Warriors
Hawk and Animal are the hometown team here, and the crowd is hot for them.
The Road Warriors are dominating early on and it’s pretty awesome.
Blanchard comes off the top and Animal catches him perfectly with a slam. Wow.
The Horsemen finally get control when Hawk tries to press Blanchard but Anderson chop blocks him. There’s a similar story here as the last match, only this one is better.
Blanchard really beats down on Hawk’s knee as the Horsemen have found the hole in the Road Warrior armor.
Referee Tommy Young goes flying out of the ring, which was a sick bump.
Doomsday Device! The Road Warriors seemingly win the title as Earl Hebner makes the three count…but…
Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard retain by DQ in 13:27. Turns out Tommy Young saw Hawk toss Arn Anderson over the top rope (which was worthy of a DQ back then), and the Dusty Finish rears its ugly head. The Road Warriors winning the tag belts in their hometown on the biggest show of the year must have made way too much sense eh? Still, we had a good match here, which is something that was desperately needed.
Starrcade ’87 really needs to be carried by its main events.
We get a Nikita Koloff interview that I think is in Russian. Although I hear the words great wrestler. Man that was terrible.
Steel Cage Match: NWA United States Championship vs. Career
Lex Luger© vs. Dusty Rhodes
Luger was a member of the Horsemen here, although that wouldn’t last much longer.
Eh, it’s not really a career threatening match, if he loses Dusty couldn’t wrestle for 90 days. That doesn’t seem that bad and I don’t know why it’s being hyped like Dusty’s career would be over. Strange.
This has started off really slow, highlighted by Luger hilariously missing an elbow drop.
Dusty gets busted open (and obviously blades) after one shot into the cage.
Ugliest dropkick ever from Dusty.
Ugly DDT at the 15 minute mark.
Dusty Rhodes wins the title in 16:28. Luger goes to pick up a chair thrown into the ring by J.J. Dillion, only he stands there for a second so Dusty can DDT him on it. Luger was pretty awful at this point obviously. Half of this match was in an armbar. The blood was unearned and the cage was barely used. I don’t even know why Dillon knocked out the key keeper since he threw the chair over the cage anyway. This was pretty bad, but the crowd popped huge for Dusty.
Steel Cage Match: NWA World Championship
Ronnie Garvin© vs. Ric Flair
Garvin gets booed out of the building during his intro. He looks weird with the big gold belt.
There’s a huge Garvin sucks chant as well. Just like it made sense for Chicago to love the Freebirds, Chicago loves Ric Flair.
Gotta give Flair credit, he’s basically letting Garvin beat the crap out of him.
Two really cool near-falls near the end here, with Flair cheating to win (but Tommy Young catching him) and Garvin nearly stealing it with a roll-up.
Ric Flair wins the title in 17:38. Flair slams Garvin into the post of the cage and gets the pin. Really underwhelming finish. The fans pop huge for Flair. Really, Garvin never had a chance here. Match was decent but nothing special and it wasn’t the amazing main event Starrcade ’87 needed.
Crockett sold not too long after this. He just didn’t have the funds to compete where Ted Turner did. Many stars on this show left for the WWF over the course of the next year (Terry Taylor, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Big Bubba and Garvin come to mind immediately) as the NWA played 2nd fiddle for a while. Starrcade ’87 never had a chance from the beginning, but the card itself didn’t help either. There’s no excuse for an average show with weak finishes, especially when everything is on the line.
Final Grade: C
