Starcade '88 Review

So as a little reprieve from the Clash set, which i'll be watching more of tonight, i'm tossing this bitch out there, because 1.) It's motherfucking awesome and 2.) Why not stop off at the pay per views along the way... eh? So anyways, let's get to the poundage.

MATCH #1: US Tag Team Championship: The Fantastics v. Steve Williams & Kevin Sullivan

Half of this rules, half of it sucks. The Fantastics were as good a team as there ever was and had they not waltzed into the same division that the Rock N Roll Express, The Midnight Express, Tully & Arn and The Road Warriors inhabited, then I think anyone could make a feasible argument for being one of, if not THE best tag team of this period. Much like Matt Hardy works within a strict formula but manages to still rule, The Fantastics sorta do that in a tag team in the 80s sorta way. These guys usually get the shit pounded out of them for like 15 mintues, tease great comebacks, maybe let someone work a limb here or there, then fly to a great flash-type finish.

The problem with the formula is that when it's with a great team, it's great to watch. When the other team ain't on the same page with ya, it can be pretty bland stuff, and that's kind of what we get here. The first part is pretty great and like most Fantastics matches, everyone sort of picks a role and goes with it. Sullivan plays the cheating, sinister and easily frustrated heel to start things off while Williams is the unbeatable ass kicker. The military press spot where he slams Fulton flat out through the damn mat after TOSSING HIM IN THE AIR a few times is pretty sweet.

From there it's more Fantastic flop fest sort of stuff, which always works. But then something goes wrong here because Williams and Sullivan don't look like they're much into behaving here. The offense really weakens up on their end for whatever reason and the match frequently breaks down in odd places. That leads up to a weird finishing sequence where Fulton basically just gets sling shotted into the ropes and then pinned, which REALLY doesn't work given the kind of match they were going for. This kid was basicaly nuked the entire match and all it takes is him running chest first into the ropes a bit awkwardly to do the trick?

As I said, this match has it's VERY bright spots, but gets real weird at points and prevents it from really going from a decent opener to a good one. **1/4

MATCH #2: The Midnight Express (w/ Jim Cornette) v. The Original Midnight Express (w/ Paul E. Dangerously)

This is just filled with awesome hate. Seriously, this match is an absolute gas, ESPECIALLY if you're a MXE maniac like I am. Basically, all you need to know is that Condrey and Eaton were partners in the NWA. Condrey left for the AWA and Stan Lane replaced him in the Cornette stable. Randy Ross was Condrey's original partner and they first used the MXE name. So anyways, business blew in the AWA so the Originals came sauntering over to the NWA under the guidance of Paul E Dangerously and began feuding with the modern Midnight Express.

Cornette and Dangerously hate each other and they spend the entire match goading each other and creating mayhem for their opponents, like to the point where it's almost distracting. NO ONE plays the goading manager like Cornette. NO ONE plays the offended and aggitated heel manager like Dangerously. Cornette cheating by hitting both Condrey and Ross with the rackett and Dangerously being so pissed off and ringing the bell... I could watch it all day.

Oh yeah there's a match goign on too, and it's pretty much old school greatness. Eaton and Lane are really athletic and fun to watch while Condrey and Ross are just great characters. It mixes so well too, as Condrey and Ross play OUTSTANDING chicken shit heels and use eye rakes, time out cheap shots and goofy bumps to really ham it up out there. Their reactions to everything Lane and Eaton do is just what makes this perhaps the most fun match on the card.

There's no way in fuck they could've done a clean ending for this, as it's one of those matches that would have been HURT by one. Of course Cornette interferes and of course Dangerously uses his Zak Morris phone... it's a damn shame this feud never got blown off appropriately, but still, this still feels somewhat satisfying. ***1/2

MATCH #3: Ivan Koloff & The Junkyard Dog v. The Russian Asassins (w/ Paul Jones)

This is kinda filler stuff and isn't much more than just being a formulaic Russian Asassins match where they get beat up, Jones stooges it up and then they stick something in the mask and win. Granted Koloff and JYD make it fun with their cartoony stuff that is altogether enjoyable, but if you've seen one Russian Asassins match, you've seen all of em. *1/2

MATCH #4: World Television Championship: Mike Rotundo v. Rick Steiner

Here's another insanely good, basic wrestling match. If i've said it once, I feel like i've said it a million times; Wrestling is best when it reflects real life. The best feuds are the ones that people can relate with and here's an example of that.

Steiner has been hanging out with the heelish Varsity Club for a while now. Rotundo and Williams are sorta those guys you know in high school that dump milk on people's heads and stuff nerds like you in lockers. Steiner's the mildly retarded jock of the group, whose really a good guy, but just not really capable of thinking on his own. Eventually though, the good side in Steiner comes out as he gets sick of being picked on by Rotundo and company, and turns on the faction, thus setting this batch of fun-ness up.

Rotundo is the antithesis of Steiner, the guy whose sleek looking and a heck of a smart wrestler. Steiner is just the dumb animal and is the clear #3 in the faction so the loveable underdog thing is on times 400 for this. There's no way you won't love Steiner and hate Rotundo. The odds however, are at least a little more even, since manager Kevin Sullivan will be suspended above the ring in a cage. Awesome.

The early part of this just plays to that whole dominant champ v. dumb but plucky challenger thing. Rotundo basically out does Steiner in every way imaginable. Steiner isn't able to get anything going and anytime Steiner begins to fight back, Rotundo outsmarts him and rubs it in everyone else's face. Steiner's comebacks aren't really progressive nor are they all that frequent, and this just helps paint the picture that much better.

Rotundo uses the little stuff but eventually decides it's time to go home and begins throwing the big boms: His belly to bellys and lariats. However, Steiner keeps on kicking out, because, as we found out before the match, he wants to win for mommy. Imagine crazy Perry Saturn meets Eugene meets Kurt Angle. That's basically where Steiner's at.

Since Kevin Sullivan can't interfere, it's up to one of the other Varsity Club members to help Rotundo steal a victory, so Steve Williams decides to trot down to ringside. While he's on his way down to the ringside area, Steiner's actually sorta beginning to mount something resembling offense, so it's evident Rotundo's beginning to tire. Steiner hits his belly to belly, which is his finisher, and Williams rings the bell at 2, confusing Steiner (which isn't hard to do). Steiner thinks he's won the match as Williams leaves for the back.

Sullivan is being lowered onto the floor and gets up on the ring apron to create some more confusion. While he's doing that, Rotundo pearl harbors him and goes for an irish whip. Steiner reverses it though and sends Rotundo clattering into Sullivan and they knock heads long enough to daze Rotundo enough to be pinned and that's exactly what happends. Holy crap, the crowd explodes as stupid Steiner runs around the ring with the belt screaming "I beat you!" as Rotundo looks totally shocked and beside himself.

Mike Rotundo was awesome as TV champ all through 1988, but it's the match where he loses the title that takes the taco as the best one. Steiner's great as the loveable babyface. This is a great formula and toss it in there with an angle that EVERYONE who ever went to high school saw in real life and you've got a lot of fun. All you have to do is go out there and not stink the joint and like most Rotundo stuff, this is worked so smart that it's impossible not to love it. This is super awesome. ***1/2

MATCH #5: United States Championship: Barry Windham v. Bam Bam Bigelow

I guess the hits just keep on comin'.

Here's another match that got a pretty 'big match' build leading up to it. Windham had been flat out dominant as US Champ throughout '88 and if you were to ask most of us who know what we're talking about, would say was probably the back bone of the promotion that year, as he wrestled everyone and their mother and dragged something good out of them to boot.

Bigelow really got a decent little push in the WWF from 87-88 but sort of leveled off midway through the year. Bigelow saw the writing on the wall and left for greener pastures. So here he shows up with lots of credbility (giving Andre a run for his money at Survivor Series a year earlier for example) so why not toss him in the ring with Windham? Ah, I love the times where people didn't give a crap if a guy got a title shot right off the bat......

Anyways, the early part of this is insanely good. NOTHING Windham can toss at Bigelow even phases the monster babyface. He drops Bigelow on his head, it doesn't do anything, hits the lariat, Bigelow laughs, etc. In fact the best part of the early going is when Bam Bam eats a back drop driver, no sells it and hits a standing drop kick on Windham, who rolls to JJ Dillon's arms screaming 'crap!'

Bigelow completely dominates the early exchanges, and Windham does his best to flop around and look clueless. Windham eventually fights out of a chin lock and looks to be getting somewhere when he flings Bigelow to the outside. Bigelow twists his knee up a bit and you'd tink this will help Barry but it doesn't do much for him as Bam Bam starts hitting him with head butts and a sling shot big splash, which was unheard of then.

Bigelow though, gets so dominant, that he starts getting over confident and makes some horrible decisions. After the sling shot, he doesn't go for the cover and instead goes for the flying headbutt, but misses it by a mile. Here's the big transition point in the match.

Windham has been let back in and he hulks up and actually gets a pop despite being the heel. He picks Bigelow up and gives him a smirk and a pat on the chin before taking his f-ing head off with a lariat. A back drop driver later and it looks like Windham might be getting somewhere. A drop kick of his own (nice revenge spot) sends Bigelow to the outside and Windham began to knock his head off the post.

Windham singnals for the claw and slaps it on. Bigelow's head though is one of his biggest weapons and it isn't likely to have the effect on Bigelow that it would have on others. Windham is so emotional here with rage screaming "that belt is fucking miiiiiiine!" to the crowd. Windham rules. Windham does what he said he'd do before the match and body slams Bigelow.

Then HE gets stupid and misses the flying elbow off the top. Bigelow makes a sensational babyface comeback that gets cut a shade too short. Bam Bam is looking for a lariat, but Windham thinks body block and the two roll over the top rope to the floor. Bigelow hits a fun atomic drop but when he charges at Windham, Barry side steps him and he smacks into the ring post. Barry realises the ref's counting and sneaks into the ring and Bigelow gets counted out.

If you're going to make a match between two dominant guys, they need to both dominate. Bigelow makes Windham his woman in the early going, putting on a nice exhibition of how good he is. Windham returns the ass-rape-age and shows how good he can be. They hit a stalemate and Windham gets the win, but not in a way where he looks much better, if better at all.

I'm not wild about the finish, because it IS a little out of nowhere, but it makes sense considering the way they were going with things and for Bam Bam to be SLIGHTLY more out of it at this point in the match, makes it ok with me. BECAUSE of the ending feeling weird though, I probably wouldn't go as high for this as I did the other two big matches on the card, but it's still pretty great. ***1/4

Match #6: World Tag Team Championship: The Road Warriors v. Dusty Rhodes & Sting

If there was something that's really lacking in today's wrestling world, i'd have to say it's babyfaces having friends. The one thing I loved about the Orton-Cena segment the other night was the intervention of Cody Rhodes, who like Cena, has a bone to pick with the heel for a common reason. This is basically a big time feud between Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors rooted in 'violence for the sake of violence'. Sting's Dusty's wing man here, which is great because Sting's actually the guy whose going to benefit the most here. Talk about a great way to benefit many.

The hate level is super high here, with both teams going right at it before the bell. By some miracle of god, the bell doesn't ring, and we get through introductions before going back to these four murdering each other.

As a tag team match, this sorta sucks, but it's not about tags and rules, it's about everyone beating everyone up. Hawk and Animal are the best bullies, face or heel, that the wrestling world's probably ever seen, or at least here in North America and all their stuff is about hurting people. TONS of stiff forearms, chops, punches, kicks and slams are heaped onto the babyfaces showing that the Road Warriors ain't out here to win a match, they're here to hurt someone.

Dusty only has revenge on the mind and is looking to use his usual stuff long enough to allow him to seriously injure someone. He has chair shots, and most importantly six million thumbs to the eye. However, this match IS for the tag titles and like any good guy team would be, they want those belts. Each and everytime they get away from brawling, they get overwhelmed. Sting and Rhodes CAN trade bombs, but don't seem to anxious to do it, which is a little puzzling.

This match DOES suffer a bit from the fact that by this point, it was practically impossible to hate the Road Warriors as they're just so bad ass that you can't not really like em. They try their hardest but when your largely heel offense gets pops from the crowd, it's hard to combat. Sting keeps things fun with some great high spots to keep them in the match and Dusty goes for frequent revenge spots and it at least keeps the face reactions on Dusty and Sting enough to not be overly offensive.

The ending is ok enough, but considering how this feud was built, this probably should have been it for the program. That's neither here nor there though, as the ending makes enough sense in the context of things, but not enough to really feel any sense of this thing being done yet. Again, this is pretty good stuff for the most part, but is too darn inconsistent for me to call good. **1/4

MATCH #7: World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair v. Lex Luger

The NWA and WCW were always known for their not so subtle booking and a large part of the reason for that was that everything led up to the big main event match at Starcade that was supposed to always be the be all, end all of the year's storylines.

Throughout the years, this had mixed success. They hit the jackpot in '83, '84 and '85, did ok with it in '86 but more or less flopped with the Garvin-Flair main event in '87. This however, was nearly 9 months in the making. Lex Luger joined the Four Horseman organization and was summarily kicked out in favor of Barry Windham. Luger made Flair and his belt the target and impressed enough to earn himself a shot at the belt at the Great American Bash in June/July. Luger lost the match due to 'excessive bleeding' and essentially the Maryland Athletic Comission screwing him over. Luger spent the remainder of the year chomping at the bit to get back at Flair and finally things have come to this. Luger gets a fair one on one shot at the title against Flair. If Flair gets DQ'd, he loses the title.

Smarks seem to crave 'strategy stories' and because of that, there's zero reason they should loathe this match in any way shape or fun because it's REALLY all about strategy. Before the match, Ross and Coddle are clammoring over Flair's strategy and how Luger will elect to wrestle the match.

Things start off basically with Flair just waiting for Luger to make a mistake. He doesn't have much success early on with, well, anything.. and his best hope is to try and survive the Luger onslaught and hope that Luger's abundance of desire will cause him to make a mistake. Sure enough, Luger destroys Flair early in the match, out bombing Flair and shockingly out wrestling him. Eventually Luger misses an elbow and Flair's ready to go to work.

Flair takes things to the outside, where he doesn't have to strike with Luger and pretty much evens up the odds. He double stomps Lex in the ring, but sure enough, as soon as Flair begins striking, Luger no sells it and begins peppering Flair with slams and drops. It looks like any strategy Flair has is pretty much out the window, because Lex surely won't make the mistake again. Or will he?

After pulvarizing the champion for another five to ten minutes, Luger gets frustrated because despite throwing every nuke in his arsenal save for the torture rack, he can't keep Flair's shoulders pinned to the mat. Flair agitates with some stupid chops and Lex bullies him into the corner and begins man-bitching him. Referee Tommy Young steps in to try and break up the party, but Luger shoves him aside. Who cares right?

Well, Flair doesn't get the advantage there, it's JJ Dillon being smart and distracting the referee while he recovers that dramatically and decisively turns the tide of the match. Flair does what he does best and cheats, raking the eyes and then dumps Luger over the top rope (which would be a DQ.. horay for the stip being followed) while the official is distracted. Flair is desperate so he grabs a chair and cracks Luger across the leg with the chair.

Flair zeroes in on the leg of Luger and essentially negates any power or speed advantage he'd have had. Flair double stomps the knee, drops knees on the leg, sits out on it..Basically every basic Flair move set thing is uncorked here, but with Ross and Coddle doing such a good job of selling the devistation of it, and Luger surprisingly selling like a champ, it really bumps the intensity of it all up a few notches.

After surviving and nearly reversing a few Figure Four attempts, Luger's desire to win takes hold and he hulks up and begins laying into Flair with a flurry of offense. Luger's leg can't take much more and Flair's beyond dead at this point, so Luger goes for the kill shot and slaps on the Torture Rack. His leg though, which has been torn to shreds, can't hold Flair and he crumples under the weight. Flair falls on top of him and uses the ropes for some leverage and Luger's dream is dead as a doornail.

This is a really, really fantastic match. Luger looks like a monster, Flair a survivor like you'd expect, but they just take those roles to the next level with some ridiculously sensational performances. This is probably Luger's best match. He gets over his desire to win by uncorking things like cross body blocks and his willingness to not be afraid to wrestle Flair's match. He evolkes sympath with one of the best sell jobs of a leg ever. When he's juiced, the selling is less prominent, but it comes back here and there and it's not in a way that makes you think Luger forgot to do it and suddenly remembered it again. Flair, when in control, looks like a freaking killer. Flair thinks his way through a lot of the match, but it's really luck and an ability to survive that gets him through it. It's not just the typical Flair selling his balls off for someone and finding a way to win. It's Flair thinking, failing, executing, surviving and ultimately getting a little lucky.

Some weren't totally into the idea of Luger losing here, but I think it's a-ok. Luger wasn't ready for that spot, but DOES make you re-consider with his performance in this match, if only for a little while. This ultimately helped him more though, as Luger, for as many shortcomings as he might have had, set himself up for an utterly sensational 1989.

You get everything in this match. Some fun counter wrestling which makes smarky ROHbots swoon, brawling, crowd heat, emotion, etc. Most of all, it's a sensational conclusion to a story that was nearly a year in the making, which is ultimately what a Starcade or Wrestlemania main event should be all about. It's a shame that fans don't have the patience for long, extended feuds like this anymore, because this is what that type of build can be. This is probably my MOTY for '88 and one that every wrestling fan should watch. ****1/2

OVERALL: I'm not a guy who spews stars but this show is one of those exceptions. EVERYTHING on this card was built just so damn well and all the matches delivered on some level. There are four matches on this card that had they been on any other card, probably would have been the match of the night, even during this time period in the NWA, which despite some shoddy booking on the part of Dusty Rhodes, had so much great talent in the prime of their careers that there was just no way in hell they could've sucked. If I were to give the show some criticism though, it would be that not all the major match ups really concluded everything. Not that they HAVE to, but considering the way they built three of the four big matches on the card, you kind of hoped they would have. Even the stuff that's NOT as good (US Tag Title Match, JYD/Ivan-Russians) is at BASE entertaining and fun viewing. This gets a major league reccomendation for me, and to this point was easily the best show the NWA put on top to bottom. 1) I'm not saying the worst all together but as I said before it was an okay show which makes it more of how a fan in takes it in their opinion. When the show is great their can be no arguement (or at least it shouldn't be). But with a show like it was it was more of how the fan looks at it as a whole it's either okay or could have been better. As for Shelton saying he is in my opinion the best pure athlete on Raw doesn't take away from the other guys at all I respect that they ll bust their a**. I just feel Shelton deserves a push at least at the mid-card scene espcially as Jeff is low on contenders. I think Shelton's passion for the buisness is to do bigger things than slip away. He must want to take it to the next level. Everyone wants to one day be the guy to hold the top spot in the company down the line. If you look at when did Shelton ever not take advantage of an oppurtunitiy, with the push from Triple H he had a great IC title run afterward. The HBK match could have been a good tag team run but I guess the creative team scraped the idea before it really got started. Give Shelton the medium ball and the guy can make it happen no on the mic but he can get the ring stuff done. I feel the same goes for Charlie Haas highly under-rated. A