wrestling / Video Reviews
Leighty’s Retro Review: WCW Starrcade ’94: Triple Threat
Image Credit: WCW
Loading...-Written: 6.17.26
-Run Time: 2:44:57
-As I mentioned last week, my family suffered a loss as my father-in-law passed away. This is always a weird thing to post, but it’s for my mother-in-law (she doesn’t know). My father-in-law spent most of the spring and all summer between a hospital and a rehab facility. The insurance only covered so many days and now my mother-in-law is left with a $3000 bill. My wife started a go fund me page to try to alleviate some of the financial burden. I know times are tough for everyone, but I got the okay to include the link. I have also been sharing it on my X account. Thank you to anyone that has donated, can donate or anyone that shares.
-Fun fact as I actually started to review this show on the last day the library was available on Peacock, but I paused to check something and when I came back everything I had typed was lost. I was so annoyed, I gave up and didn’t make another effort to finish. I got the first two matches done before it disappeared. So for those two matches, it will be a second look.
-Announce Team: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan
-Dec. 27, 1994
-Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN
-Attendance: 8200
-PPV Buys: 130,000
-Evad Sullivan is dressed as Santa Claus and is handing out presents to kids in the crowd.
-Aaron Tippen sings The National Anthem and is rocking a Lightning Jersey. It’s fine as the Predators weren’t a thing yet. Oh, and hey Pred fans, just want to remind you that my Pens beat your Preds for the Stanley Cup.
-Tony, Bobby, and Gene hype the Main Event and bring up that Randy Savage recently made his debut on Saturday Night and told Gene he would be here tonight to either slap Hogan in the face or shake his hand.
-We kill more time before the first match as we see the press conference where Bill Apter presented Hulk Hogan with the PWI Wrestler of the Year Award. Heenan ripping up the magazine before getting to the press conference is pretty funny.
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan (c) vs. Big Van Vader (w/ Harley Race)
-Took about 14 minutes, but we have our first match. They start brawling in aisle before the bell and Duggan sends Vader head first into the security railing. He then heads into the ring and starts beating up Harley Race. Harley takes a bump over the corner to the floor. Harley loved getting beat up in his manager years. They start brawling again on the floor as we still don’t have an opening bell. Vader gets sent into the railing again and Duggan plays to the crowd. I still haven’t heard a bell but it seems the match is going so I will check for the match time when it’s over. Duggan pounds Vader in the corner and hits a clothesline. Another one sends Vader over the top to the floor and he catches his knee on the apron on the way down. Duggan is fired up and motivated here! Back in they each duck a clothesline and Duggan gets a cross-body for two. Duggan slams Vader to pop the crowd and drops an elbow for two. Duggan continues to throw bombs and hits another clothesline to drop Vader. He drops a first for a two count. Duggan hooks a reverse chinlock as he is dominating this one. Vader goes to the eyes to break and starts boxing Duggan’s ears. Duggan responds and beats Vader back into the corner. Vader claps the ears to stop that comeback. Race talks some trash, so Duggan takes a swing at him, but misses. Duggan continues to fire off right hands and hits a nasty clothesline to the face. He drops another elbow for a one count as Vader got his foot on the rope. Duggan goes LUCHA as he comes off the second rope with a back elbow, but misses. Vader lands a clothesline and Duggan spills off the apron and hits the railing. He rolls back into the ring and Vader just casually drops an elbow. Vader throws jabs to the ribs and kidney area. Slam followed by a Vader Bomb! Vader actually pushes Duggan’s foot so that it lands on the bottom rope so no count. Vader heads up again, but Duggan is up and lands a low blow. He throws some right hands, but Vader knocks him back down. Now Harley gets his payback as he chokes Duggan on the bottom rope. Heenan is right there to note that Duggan hit Harley first. Fair! Duggan shakes it off though and goes back slugging it out. Vader claps the ears again. Vader heads all the way up and the moonsault misses (nearly always misses that move and for good reason). Both men to their feet as the crowd chants USA. Vader with a splash in the corner. He goes for another, but Duggan rushes out and hits a diving clothesline. Both men down again as this is a fantastic HOSS FIGHT or a Big E special as it were. Duggan continues to just throw bombs at every chance. He lands a double axe and hits the running clothesline, but Race rakes the eyes to stop the pin. Vader up to the middle rope, but Duggan catches him on the way down with a powerslam. Awesome! No count though as Race has the ref. Duggan pulls Patrick away and the crowd freaks out as Vader is up. Duggan ducks a clothesline and goes for the clothesline again. Vader sidesteps and Duggan crashes into Race, who is holding the 2X4. Vader hits an inverted powerbomb for the pin and Championship at 12:06.
Winner and New WCW United States Heavyweight Champion: Big Van Vader via pin at 12:06
-This was a WAR and it was awesome. Nothing fancy as it was just two big dudes punching each other repeatedly until one was left standing. Best Duggan match I have ever seen (though I never saw anything before his WWF debut). Check this one out as it’s a forgotten classic. ****
-Gene interviews the Three Faces of Fear backstage. Each one is involved in one Three Main Events for the night and threaten their opponents: Hogan, Sting, and Mr. T
Jean Paul Levesque vs. Alex Wright
-This is kind of wild as this is Jean Paul’s WCW PPV debut and 30 years later he is running the WWF. I mean, so back in time and try explaining that to Heenan or Schiavone. Actually, Jean Paul would probably think you were crazy as well. Jean Paul backs Wright into the corner and taunts him with a bow. Lockup and Jean gets an arm-drag and another bow. Another lockup and Paul gets wrist control. Wright kips up and flips out of it. He hits a dropkick and takes Paul down with a head scissors. Hearing Heenan say Levesque is tripping me out for some reason. Levesque with a side headlock and back into wrist control. Wright kips up and lands an up kick to break. He gets an arm-drag into an armbar. Heenan notes Jean Paul has been hanging out with Regal and they may have an alliance. I wonder if Regal will give him any good advice? Head scissors by Wright and the crowd is starting to get annoyed/bored. We get the dreaded camera pan of the crowd, which usually happens when a match doesn’t have much happening. Paul with a drop toehold, but Wright back to the head scissors. Paul escapes with a head stand and lands a right hand to wake up the crowd. He stomps away on Wright and we have action now. He fires off forearms in the corner and stomps a mud hole. Huh! LUCHA JPL as he hits a spinning heel kick. Snap suplex gets a two count. JPL avoids a charge and Wright spills to the floor. Baseball slide as Heenan goes on a rant about JPL not being American and not understanding he needs to get Wright back in the ring. Weird! JPL with a boot to the face and stands back to let Wright crawl back to the apron. Mistake as Wright gets a shoulder in and goes for a sunset flip. JPL blocks with a right hand. Powerslam gets two. I just can’t get over how weird it is seeing HHH wrestle in a WCW branded ring. Heenan: “This Levesque is going to be a Superstar.” That’s why he’s The Brain! Wright elbows out of a reverse chinlock, but gets caught with a dropkick. Let at young HHH flying all over the ring. Heenan then goes on a rant about country music and how it’s always about a dog and someone being left. He’s not wrong! My wife will hate that joke. Slam from JPL and heads up top, but misses a flying elbow. He’s no Macho Man. Wait, probably a bad reference considering the rumors. Wright starts his comeback as he fires off right hands. Euro uppercut and another. He lands a leaping back elbow and more uppercuts. Hip-toss gets a two count. Backdrop, but JPL lands a knee to the gut. They collide and both men are down. Wright sent to the corner, but back flips off the top and gets a roll-up for the pin at 14:03.
Winner: Alex Wright via pin at 14:03
-Boring at times as they would probably even admit they weren’t ready for a 15 minute PPV match at this point. Technically fine, but just kind of dull. **
-Tony and Bobby hype the next Clash of The Champions in January. We will get there soon enough!
WCW World Television Championship: Johnny B. Badd (c) vs. Arn Anderson (w/ Colonel Parker and Meng)
-This was supposed to be Honky Tonk Man and they play his music, but cut it off and Arn is out to have the match. Heenan thinks Honky is stuck in traffic and Tony thinks he wanted no part of Badd after hitting him with a guitar. The truth is Eric Bischoff fired him and that ended the short HTM run in WCW. Heenan makes a joke about Nashville needing to be bombed instead of Hiroshima. That even had Tony questioning what he was saying. Arn gets a shoulder tackle to start and mocks Badd’s dancing. Lockup and Arn pulls Badd down by the hair. Another go and Arn pulls Badd down by the hair again. Arn with a hammerlock, but Badd counters and gets his own hammerlock on the mat. Arn gets to the ropes to force a break. They continue the feeling out process as the crowd is just waiting for them to get rolling. Arn works the arm and gets a top wrist lock. Badd bridges up and takes Arn down into an armbar. Arn complains to the ref about a hair pull. I know this is a late replacement, but they are sure taking their sweet time getting into this one. Arn sets Badd on the top rope in the corner and slaps him in the face. That finally gets things moving as Badd gets a Mexican arm-drag and a dropkick, that sends Arn to the floor. Too much action though, so Arn rolls to the floor and calls a time-out. Arn gets cute and tries to punch with Badd and that goes badly. He gets back to his wheelhouse as he catches Badd with a spinebuster. Arn chokes Badd on the ropes and Parker talks trash. Abdominal stretch from Arn because that will certainly pick up the pace. At least Arn makes sure to cheat to win by using the top rope for leverage. Sadly, only a few kids get ticked off by the blatant cheating. Arn blocks a sunset flip and gets a two count. Another two count. They work off a knuckle lock and Arn has had enough of that and drops an elbow for a two count. Reverse chinlock but Badd escapes rather easily. He gets caught with a sleeper though. Badd escapes and puts Arn in a sleeper. Arn escapes with a jawbreaker and it gets no reaction. Badd off the ropes with a head scissors. Backdrop from Badd followed by a knee-lift. He heads up top and gets a sunset flip for two. Monkey Flip, but Arn blocks and tries a pin with his feet on the ropes, but the ref catches him. Arn thinks he has won and Badd rolls him up for the pin at 11:21.
Winner and Still WCW World Television Champion: Johnny B. Badd via pin at 11:21
-Just a lot of BLAH here. Levesque and Wright outworked them on this show. *
-Back to the PWI Awards from the previous night where The Nasty Boys were named Tag Team of the Year.
-I had to look up the winners for the rest of the awards: Rookie of the Year: 911, Inspirational Wrestler of the Year: Bret Hart, Most Improved: Diesel, Comeback of the Year: Hulk Hogan, Manager of the Year: Jimmy Hart, Feud of the Year: Bret vs. Owen, Most Popular: Sting, Most Hated: Bob Backlund, Match of The Year: Shawn/Razor Mania X, Tag Team of the Year: Nasty Boys, Wrestler of the Year: Hulk Hogan (Bret, Razor, Flair were 2nd-4th).
Harlem Heat (c) (w/ Sister Sherri) vs. The Nasty Boys
-Weird to not have the Tag Champs on the show. Oh wait, Harlem Heat won the Tag Titles earlier in the month from Stars and Stripes, but that won’t air on TV until Jan of 95, so we have to pretend they aren’t the tag Champions. They stare each other down and then just start trading punches. Two end up on the floor and Sags gets a slam on Booker in the ring for a two count. The Heat bail to the floor to regroup with Sherri and Booker makes sure the fans know they are rednecks. We get nearly two minutes of stalling before so I get to laugh as Heenan makes a joke. “What do you call a woman with 2 million dollars? Divorced.” We get going with Booker and Sags and Booker drops an elbow for two. He buries a knee to the gut, but gets caught with a World’s Strongest Slam. Double shoulder tackle from The Nasty Boys. All four men back in the ring. Knobbs with a splash to Stevie Ray in one corner and then one to Booker in the other corner. All four men brawl on the floor as a few people in the front row start chanting “kill.” Matches like this annoy me at times because either run it as a straight tag or just let them do a brawl all over the building. Mixing the two doesn’t seem to work out as well, and with The Nasty Boys, I am always in favor of just letting them brawl all over the building. We settle back to a normal tag match for a second time with Knobbs and Stevie. They get kind of wonky on a corner whip spot, but recover and just repeat it with Knobbs coming out of the corner with a clothesline. He drives Stevie face first into the mat and gets a two count. The Nastys work the arm of Stevie as I guess we are building sympathy for The Heat? Booker gets the tag and immediately gets dropped. Single arm DDT by Knobbs gets a two count. Going through all these shows since 89, I have come to find they loved giving The Nasty Boys a lot of time on PPV. I mean, good for them showing some wrestling skill, but The Nasty Boys working the arm and trading holds isn’t the most exciting thing. Stevie finally gets things moving as he suckers Sags to getting dumped on the floor and then hits a superkick. He tries to drop Sags across the railing, but can’t get him up and it just looks kind of sad. They do some weak brawling out there and Sags should have been counted out at this point, but I assume Booker kept breaking the count, so we will go with that. Back to the ring and Booker hits a Harlem Sidekick. Stevie in with a clothesline and Sags stays on his feet and Stevie is the one that falls down. Ow! Stevie uses a NERVE HOLD. Just what we needed. I hate seeing a nerve hold in a match. Thankfully, it doesn’t last long as Stevie tags back out to Booker. Reverse chinlock which is better than a nerve hold, but it’s still just being used to kill time. Sags escapes with a jawbreaker, but Stevie is there for the tag and drops a leg. Oh joy, now a bear-hug! These teams don’t need 17 minutes! At least, not in this kind of a match. Sags goes to the eyes to break, but Booker is back in and hey, another bear-hug. This definitely isn’t my jam! Heat double team in the corner and then Stevie with a front face lock. Heenan says you need a stung-gun to stop the Nasty Boys. Like someone would ever use a stun-gun at Starrcade. Sags gets a boot up to block a charge in the corner and hits a clothesline that has Booker doing a 360 and that wakes up the crowd. Double DDT from Sage for another pop. Tag is made to Knobbs and he runs wild with punches. Back elbow to Booker and a clothesline to Stevie. Everyone in the ring for more brawling. Booker and Sags hit the floor. Stevie holds Knobbs for Sherri, who gets spray out of her purse and she accidentally sprays Stevie. That looked silly. Sags drops an elbow from the top and goes for the cover, but Sherri dives off the top. She hits Booker by mistake and the ref has had enough so calls for the bell at 17:49.
Winners: The Nasty Boys via DQ at 17:49
-Nearly 18 minutes and rest holds all over the place for that finish? As always, any match involving The Nasty Boys would be better with weapons and brawling unless they are in there with The Steiners. 1/2*
-Back to the night before where Sting is presented with The PWI Award for Most Popular Wrestler.
-Gene is with Sting who says wrestling is his life blood and he will walk out tonight as a loser or giant killer.
Kevin Sullivan vs. Mr. T
-This is one of our Three Main Events! Yep! Mr. T is still wearing his ref gear which gives Bobby a chance to make jokes. T side steps and shoves Sullivan into the corner. Sullivan charges and T gets a backdrop. Santa Claus (Dave Sullivan) heads down to the ring and hands out t-shirts to the kids in the crowd. T works Sullivan over in the corner and you can hear Sullivan yelling instructions. Makes sense! They end up on the floor and Sullivan lands a right hand. He removes the ref’s shirt and lands a right hand to the side of the head. T fights from his knees as he throws rights. A cameraman gets knocked over and T falls on top of him. We get the unique shot of looking up towards Sullivan’s inner thighs and bulge. Great! Sullivan goes to the eyes. This crowd is DEAD! Tony is surprised the ref has not stopped this one. Would be nice! Jimmy Hart is out and gives his megaphone to Santa. Jimmy takes the ref and Dave decks Kevin with his sack (holding the megaphone) and T covers for the pin at 3:50.
Winner: Mr. T via pin at 3:50
-Short, but pretty brutal. DUD
-Sullivan puts over the celebrity and then gets his heat back by beating the piss out of Santa Dave. PILEDRIVER TO SANTA! He whips Dave in the face with his belt as the crowd chants for Hogan. Not time for the Main Event yet. Kind of a dick move for both Hogan and Sting to just let Dave get destroyed like that.
-Gene is backstage with Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart. Hogan says he was hoping The Butcher would comes to his sense and call this one off. He then shoots with us as he notes the world knows how Macho feels about him. Jimmy asks Gene to hop on Hogan’s bandwagon. Pretty sure he did that over a decade earlier in Minneapolis. Jimmy says he will stay by Hogan’s side with every breath in his body. Now, I’m sad as Jimmy lived up to that and stayed by Hogan’s side until he took his last breath. We all need a friend like Jimmy.
Sting vs. Avalanche (w/ Kevin Sullivan)
-Main Event #2! This could have drawn some money if Tenta was a free agent only a few years earlier. Sting is great against monsters. Sting shows great fire early as he shoves Avalanche back into the corner. Avalanche puts Sting in the corner and starts clubbing way with forearms. He misses a splash in the corner and Sting starts firing off kicks to the knee and lower leg. Avalanche shakes it off and we go again. Test of Strength and Avalanche breaks Sting down to his knees. The crowd rallies Sting and he fights to his feet, but ‘Lanche puts him back down. He drives a shoulder into the corner and gives us a flex! Sting fights back with more kicks, but lets Avalanche back into a corner to get a break. Sting lands a jab, but makes the mistake of going for a slam. That fails and Avalanche gets a slam of his own. He drops an elbow for a two count. Next he drops a leg and then SQUASHES Sting in the corner with his backside. He runs Sting back first into the top buckle and then stands on Sting’s chest. Effective! Heenan: “You can do all the bench presses you want, but can’t build up your Adam’s Apple.” True! Sting with a brief flurry and Avalanche bails to the floor. He complains of a low kick, but the ref’s not buying it. Back in Avalanche gets a side headlock. This one is very deliberate. Sting goes back to throwing kicks at the leg, but gets dropped with a clothesline. Double bicep pose by Avalanche! Powerslam gets two! Sting has rubber legs as he gets tossed around the ring. Heenan wants to know the last time we saw Sting treated like this. Vader. The answer is Vader! Bear-hug because sure! Avalanche runs Sting into the corner, but Sting jumps on his back with a sleeper. Avalanche runs Sting back first into the corner twice to break. The hold. Sting is determined and jumps off the middle ropes to hook the sleeper again. Sting gets dumb and tries a slam and Avalanche falls back for a two count. Avalanche goes to a choke, which makes sense because that’s what Colorado did this year in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Am I right? High Five? Another slam and we get tremors, but Avalanche takes time to pose and doesn’t realize Sting is on his feet. Clothesline followed by a chop off the top rope. Standing dropkick, but Avalanche is still on his feet. The ref gets caught in the corner and SQUASHED as Sting hits a Stinger Splash. Slam to a pop and Scorpion follow, but we have no ref. Sullivan is in and Sting beats him up and then tosses him onto Avalanche. He catches Sullivan and runs him into Sting in the corner. That’s unique! Butt Splash to Sting, but before another one, Hogan is out with a chair and a new ref calls for the bell at 15:26. Hogan brought the crowd to their feet.
Winner: Sting via DQ at 15:26
-I guess since Sullivan got involved, but the legal ref was out cold, so whatever. This was very slow and I was hoping for more. Maybe hoping for too much as Avalanche did not look good here. *
-Back to the PWI Awards where Jimmy Hart won Manager of the Year.
-Recap of The Hogan/Butcher (Brutus) feud!
WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. The Butcher (w/ Kevin Sullivan and Avalanche)
-With this match, Hogan became the first man (kind of) to Main Event WrestleMania and Starrcade. Depends on if you want to count Flair for being in one of two Main Events at Mania VIII. Hogan with a shoulder tackle but Butcher pulls him to the floor. He runs Hogan into the railing and rakes the eyes. He rakes the back and uses a microphone cord to choke. Heenan: “choke him.” More back rakes as this is like Hulk Hogan vs. Hollywood Hogan. Jimmy Hart stops Butcher from using a chair and that lets Hogan regain the advantage. He grabs a chair and decks Butcher which should be a DQ. Another chair shot and again, should be a DQ. Hogan uses the chair to choke as Heenan brings up the facial injury The Butcher had a few years earlier. Tony says we have never seen Hogan like this. Give him 18 months! Back in the ring Butcher chokes Hogan on the ropes as Patrick starts a five count. Why? You just let Hogan use a chair. I think Patrick is favoring Hogan in this Starrcade Main Event. Butcher with a slam and comes off the ropes, but misses a fist drop or whatever. Hogan starts firing away with right hands and the crowd is with him. Butcher begs off, so Hogan bites him on the forehead and goes to his own rakes of the back. Clothesline from Hogan and he uses the boot to step on Butcher’s face. Running clothesline in the corner followed by chops. Hogan shows his MMA skills as he does some “karate.” That was kind of a silly moment for a supposed blood feud. Hogan sets way too early on a backdrop and even Heenan has to call it out. Butcher lands a kick and goes back to choking. Hey, look a nerve hold. Yes, even in a Hogan Match, I hate seeing a nerve hold. Tony notes Hogan would never swing at a ref. Maybe, but he chucked one down the aisle in front of 33 million people on network TV once. Hogan finally breaks the massage hold, but runs into a double thrust to the throat. He sends Hogan chest first into the corner and catches him on the way back out with The Sleeper. Two years later, Piper beats Hogan with the same hold at Starrcade. Heenan goes on an epic rant against Hogan and starts singing Happy Trails. Butcher is done and releases because he thinks Hogan is out. We see Hogan is playing possum and he kicks out and we get a Hulk Up! Hogan points and hits the three punches. Here’s Sullivan and Avalanche as Butcher eats a big boot. Hogan fights all of them off and drops a leg for the pin at 12:06.
Winner and Still WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Hulk Hogan via pin at 12:06
-Well, it was better than the last match because they were moving at a faster pace. We got a finish as well, which was nice. Not good, but better than a lot of things on this show. *3/4
-Randy Savage is out and teases joining The Faces of Fear, but ends up helping Hogan and Heenan is pissed! Heenan: “Savage, now hit Hogan with the belt and take the chair and waffle him.” Funny! Hogan and Savage shake hands and celebrate before heading to the back.
-Gene is backstage in Hogan’s dressing room. The Nasty Boys, Alex Wright, Dave Sullivan, Marc Mero, and Brad Armstrong are there. Hogan isn’t taking any joy in winning that match. Vader barges in and tells Hogan to look into his eyes and listen to what he has to say. He says Hogan is afraid for the first time in his life and career. I remember this happening and being so excited. I always wanted to see Hogan vs. Vader and they kept them apart for six months, but this had to happen. Now this is a threat compared to what we just saw from Butcher. Vader notes he is the number one contender and wants to know what is left for him to do. This was like Clubber calling out Rocky. Hogan shoves him and wrestlers and officials have to separate the two of them. Vader charges back in and I am pumped for this match now. This two minutes is better than the entire Butcher/Hogan build. Gene: “Throw his ass in jail.” Nick says that Vader’s demands are legitimate and notes what Vader did tonight was out of line.
-Bobby and Tony close the show as we finish off 1994. See you for 1995! Thanks for reading!
-If you enjoy these Retro Reviews, give my book covering 1996 WCW/WWF PPVs a look. It is on sale at Amazon in Kindle and paperback form. Click below!
Leighty’s Retro Wrestling PPV Reviews: 1996 WWF and WCW
