DVDVR WWE Network Viewing Club - WCW Starrcade 87

[Brisco]

Think I will do this in the style of Sydney Brown from almost a decade ago (can't believe its been that long).

 

The Good

The Opening 6-man: I loved what these guys were able to accomplish even with the screwy finish. Hayes was complete and total Michael Hayes strutting around and generally having a good time. Sting looks green here but the crowd was already into him. The crowd ate up the near fall Hayes has on Zbyszko close to the end. I love moments like that. I think they had a great match going but the last two minutes ruined it especially the rest hold in the last 30 seconds to a minute which seemed to throw off the timing. Wrong finish aside they put on an entertaining 15 minute match.

 

Brainbuster vs Road Warriors: Not much to add to what has been said about this one. The match is better served being viewed in a vacuum otherwise you will be pissed at the screwing of the Road Warriors.

 

Garvin/Flair: Loved this match and I love the hotshot into the cage. This match is a forgotten gem in both men's careers.

 

Eh

Scaffold Match: While I do not believe this is an all time great match, it is the best scaffold match I have ever seen. As a kid the leg scissors/tennis racket combo was exciting and a lot more fun than the 1986 match. As an adult I still enjoy it for what it is though I wish one of these matches would have one of the faces thrown off first to add drama to the match.

 

Taylor/Koloff: Slow but good wrestling with a nice Russian Sickle finish. I would expect this type of long, slow wrestling match would be the standard fare at a NWA house show but wish they brought more to the party for the big unification bout.

 

Luger/Rhodes: The match was slow and not sure the right man went over, but I liked the ending.

 

 

Sucked Balls

Williams/Windham: This should have been so much more. There are better ways to get where they were going. While the match was never going to be a 40 minute classic, 10 could have been taken away from the TV title match and put here to give the match more to build on.

 

Overall: As a kid I thought this was a good card and as an adult it does hold up as a fun 3 hours. If the booking would have had a more "give the fans what they want" mentality this could be more than a card that flies under the radar. This card would get a recommendation from me provided you can deal with BS booking.

[cwoy2j]

Long-term the Warriors/Horsemen finish worked b/c it tied into the Warriors heel turn. I remember they did an interview justifying their turn by saying they were tired of being screwed by the officials and taking matters into their own hands so that's why they beat the piss out of Bobby Eaton before the bell when they won the belts.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I saw this show on closed circuit at the Philly Civic Center and that entire place was booing Garvin and cheering Flair, and when Flair won the roof came off the place.

[The Iron Yuppie]

Having recently gone down a YouTube rabbit hole of Kevin Sullivan stuff, it's interesting how closely the Dr. Death turn on Barry Windham resembles Sullivan turning heel in Georgia Championship Wrestling not too much earlier than this show ('81, maybe). Same deal with Sullivan and Steve Keirn having a good, clean match until Keirn is coming through the ropes, Sullivan sucker-punches him and justifies his actions in a post-match promo with Gordon Solie. 

 

The opening match is really fun, though an odd ending for the biggest show of the year. Interesting to see a promotion treat new additions from an acquired fed book the newbies like they're worth a damn; wish the Invasion would have done more (or more appropriately, some) of that. 

 

RnR and the Midnights is way better than any scaffold match has the right to be. 

 

Flair-Garvin is just awesome. Flair is such an amazingly hateable chicken-shit heel. His cowering while having his face rubbed into the cage, screaming when in the Figure 4, getting thrown off the top rope while he and Garvin are dueling up there. Even the way Flair wins is so fluky and cowardly, it's just perfect. This seems like it could have been a real star-making performance for Garvin. 

[cwoy2j]

Having recently gone down a YouTube rabbit hole of Kevin Sullivan stuff, it's interesting how closely the Dr. Death turn on Barry Windham resembles Sullivan turning heel in Georgia Championship Wrestling not too much earlier than this show ('81, maybe). Same deal with Sullivan and Steve Keirn having a good, clean match until Keirn is coming through the ropes, Sullivan sucker-punches him and justifies his actions in a post-match promo with Gordon Solie. 

 

The opening match is really fun, though an odd ending for the biggest show of the year. Interesting to see a promotion treat new additions from an acquired fed book the newbies like they're worth a damn; wish the Invasion would have done more (or more appropriately, some) of that. 

 

RnR and the Midnights is way better than any scaffold match has the right to be. 

 

Flair-Garvin is just awesome. Flair is such an amazingly hateable chicken-shit heel. His cowering while having his face rubbed into the cage, screaming when in the Figure 4, getting thrown off the top rope while he and Garvin are dueling up there. Even the way Flair wins is so fluky and cowardly, it's just perfect. This seems like it could have been a real star-making performance for Garvin. 

 

Even so, he won cleanly. I find it funny that Flair used to cheat his ass off a ton but most of his pre-1995 or so title wins were pretty clean.

[Curt McGirt]

Flair said in his book that he was rubbing Neosporin into his chest for a month after the Garvin match. Now THAT is stiff.