WCW Starrcade 1997: 25 years later. The start of the end for WCW.

[The Natural]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iwlMdLZVaYE&pp=ygUOc3Rpbmcgd2N3IDE5OTc%3D

Nick Patrick on Starrcade 1997. Added 17 hours ago.

[SirSmUgly]

I can't believe that I listened to three hours of Conrad talking to Bischoff (hearing the phrase "chat me up" might trigger me Manchurian Candidate-style after hearing this show), but I'll be charitable. Let's say Nash is a hypochondriac who has a hyper-acute awareness of his family history. I can be a hypochondriac sometimes, so I can easily empathize with that. I'll put aside my disbelief that Nash has ever done a heavy leg workout and go with it.

You don't have Konnan or Raven for understandable reasons. I will say that Saturn/Benoit was the logical next match since they didn't run that on a Nitro before getting to the PPV. But, I mean, Raven's been sick for awhile, so it sure seems like Saturn was the original plan or the well-planned back-up plan. 

Maybe Bret's still healing from hitting a Mortal Kombat uppercut on Vinnie Jr. 

I still am baffled that they were even in a situation where Ray Traylor was on this card in a six-man tag. That "Traylor fights back against the nWo after being kicked out" angle was ice cold. No need for that on this show. 

This is a show with no Flair, no Rey, no Harlem Heat or FoF, no Jericho, no Savage, no Hall (in a match). I know you can't get all of those guys on the show, but for the biggest card on the show, all of them being off the show is totally inexcusable. Bischoff arguing that he was worried about killing talent by overexposing them is nonsense. This isn't some random Nitro where you can say, oh, let's leave Savage off this one. It's STARRCADE. Bisch almost ruined sushi for me with his dumbass analogy about getting sick of stuff that you love. This man said the card was booked perfectly for what it was supposed to achieve. Deluded. 

That man sat here and basically strongly implied that Vincent needed to be on this card but Savage didn't (originally) because of concerns about overexposure. This man better get the fuck outta here. 

(I conversely was fine with Mongo/Goldberg, which wasn't good, but which was interesting enough and had a table break and which actually did have a bit of heat, but also I'm at the point in my fandom where I give leeway to big dudes being a little awkward.)

 

OK, let's see. If I'm booking a card based on what's been popping on Nitro for the past year-plus, the original card I think I'd book would be this. 

No change to these matches:

Eddy Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko

Mongo McMichael vs. Goldberg

Buff Bagwell vs. Lex Luger (can't be helped)

Kevin Nash vs. The Giant

Sting vs. Hulk Hogan

Matches I think Bisch should have promoted instead of what he had originally, and assuming that Bret and Raven can be counted out in advance:

Scott Hall vs. Larry Zbyszko

Ric Flair vs. Curt Hennig in a cage

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage (U.S. Championship match)

 

I think you can leave Saturn/Benoit off the show if you're running short on time, but it was fine on this show - except in this case, you should probably just promote Saturn/Benoit in advance instead of promoting Raven when you know he's sick. Bret Hart doesn't need to be out there guest reffing or reliving the Screwjob ending; hold him back and hype his eventual debut. 

Bischoff doesn't need to be on this card, but he's delusional and thinks that he had such heat that he had to be here in this role. 

This still puts the Giant in a not-great place, but heck, have him chokeslam Norton, Vincent, and Bischoff, and Bisch can pay off all that heat he has with a beating, but without being in a match. That's a better card, and you can't convince me otherwise. 

There's still no Rey, no Jericho, etc., but at least this card pays off a bunch of stuff that started in the past 9-12 months (or longer). And hey, there's no Vincent, no Norton (I like him well enough, but he shouldn't be on this show), no Traylor, etc. 

Tweak the match layout for Sting/Hogan and you've got a winner. WCW needed to actually dominate a PPV against the nWo for once, and this was the PPV where that should've been the payoff. 

[BloodyChamp]

I forgot about Konan, who I obviously will not judge here now that I’ve been reminded that he also didn’t wrestle. Everybody else though...naw. Raven was pouting a crying like always and Nash actually slipped up in a recent interview. He didn’t say he was faking but he said he ate a whole pan full of weed brownies. We almost had the chance to say so much for the whole weed has never killed anybody thing I guess.

I can’t wait to hear the Nick Patrick video. Thanks for posting it. I’ll have to catch it later. I bet I listen to the whole thing and still feel mad though. Nobody ever straight blames Hogan. They talk Hogan and they include Hogan and they just dance around him. The 1 exception is Eric Bischoff coming clean in the post here a while back but I’ve still only heard the clip. The whole interview might be the same old crap. 

Edited June 17, 2023 by BloodyChamp

[BloodyChamp]

I just listened. Patrick is dancing around the obvious still like everybody always does. Granted he was asked more about the count that concerned him and his job more than the overall plan and screwjob. And there was also 8:25 that I don’t know if I believe. I believe Eric Bischoff said that to Patrick, but I’m not sure that Sting said that to Eric Bischoff to start with. I bet it was just more damage control. Meanwhile if Sting did say that, well, he wouldn’t have said that if he didn’t give a shit like they keep saying he didn’t.

[BloodyChamp]

Hogan saying Sting was out of shape reminds me of this. NSFW and probably belongs in a sleaze thread lol!

https://youtu.be/VEHM_CpZDZY