By Brian Hoops, PWTorch Specialist

PWTorch.com Nostalgia Review
WCW Starrcade 1992: BattleBowl/The Lethal Lottery
By: Brian Hoops PWTorch.com Special Contributor

This week's look back at nostalgia takes us back 15 years to WCW’s 10th anniversary of Starrcade. Starrcade 1992 took place at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia on December 28 on the unusual mid-week date of Wednesday. The live attendance was 8,000 and the buy rate was .50, down from the 1991 Starrcade which drew 1.00 and also lower than the previous PPV held in October, Halloween Havoc; which drew a .90 buy rate. This was the last PPV promoted by then Executive Vice President of WCW, Bill Watts. The show was promoted around the concept of non-predetermined tag teams fighting for the opportunity to go to the Battle Bowl main event; which was essentially a over the top rope battle royal. In 1991, all the matches focused on this theme, however in 1992 this would be the main event of the show. There would be four other championship matches on the card as well.

Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura are the broadcast team.

In the dark match, Brad Armstrong pinned Shanghai Pierce after a Russian legsweep in 7:30.

First match in the Lethal Lottery, one of the preliminary bouts to reach Battle Bowl; Van Hammer and Dan Spivey defeated Cactus Jack and Johnny B. Badd when Badd accidentally hit Cactus with an elbow and then punched Jack with his left hook, allowing Hammer to pin Cactus Jack in 6:51. Match was decent and would set up a Cactus Jack vs. Johnny B. Badd feud.

In the second match of the Lethal Lottery, Big Van Vader and Dustin Rhodes defeated the Barbarian and Kensuke Saskai after Rhodes rolled up the Barbarian from behind for the pinfall victory in 6:56. After the match, Vader laid out Dustin Rhodes with several power moves. This was the best part of the match.

In the third match of the Lethal Lottery, The Great Muta and Barry Windham defeated Too Cold Scorpio and Brian Pillman when Muta pinned Scorpio after a DDT and a moonsault in 6:59. Match was really good when Pillman and Scorpio were in the match against Muta. Later in the evening Pillman and Windham would tag together in a match for the unified tag team titles. Average to above average match.

Final match of the Lethal Lottery saw Sting tag with Steve Williams against Jushin Liger and Erik Watts. Williams worked most of the match and Williams pinned Watts in 9:08 after a stun gun on the top rope. Average match.

Up next is a match for the NWA World Heavyweight Title. The NWA Champion, Masa Chono, who defended the title against Rick Rude at the WCW Halloween Havoc PPV in October; defeated the Great Muta by submission to the STF in 12:49 to retain the title. Lots of mat wrestling and long holds early as Chono controlled the pace of the match. Muta was busted hardway from the nose midway through the bout. Match action picked up as Muta took control near the end, however Chono applied the STF out of nowhere. Average match but decent action near the end.

Rick Rude was advertised in the next match to take on Ron Simmons for the WCW World Heavyweight Title. Rude was the U.S. Champion at the time and was in line to win the belt from Simmons. However, Rude had suffered a neck injury and would not be able to compete in the match and was eventually forced to vacate the U.S. Heavyweight title he held in January due to the length of time he was out of action. Steve Williams would replace Rude in this match against Simmons. This match was not very good. Williams was much better as a tag team wrestler and Simmons was simply not at a point in his career where he was ready to carry the company on his back as the world champion. This was dream match up for Jim Ross to setup as both guys had great amateur football backgrounds to build up, especially since Williams went to Oklahoma. Finish was lame as both Simmons and Williams were counted out of the ring and disqualified, then after Williams attacked Simmons after the bell, they awarded the match to Simmons. Match went 15:12.

Next match is for the unified NWA and WCW World Tag Team titles. The champions, Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas won the titles on November 18, 1992 at the Clash of Champions after Barry Windham turned on Dustin Rhodes. Barry Windham teamed with Brian Pillman for this match as Pillman was in the early stages of a heel run. The match was decent, but not spectacular. I never thought Douglas and Steamboat had great chemistry together and neither did Pillman and Windham together. Finish came when Steamboat and Windham were fighting outside the ring and Douglas hit Pillman with the belly to belly suplex for the win in 20:02. From a booking standpoint, I think Windham should have done the job as this match was the blow off to the Windham vs. Steamboat/Douglas feud and Windham would move on to win the NWA World Title at Superbrawl while Pillman should have been protected as he continued his feud with Steamboat/Douglas with Steve Austin as his partner.

One of Bill Watt's biggest assets was his ability to book good/great TV and he was doing an excellent job of TV production in 1992. One of his better ideas, was to create a TV tournament that was called the "King of Cable" and was held over several weeks of TV on the Saturday night program. The final two participants in the tournament were Sting and Big Van Vader and they were in the semi-final main event of the evening. Vader beat Sting at the GAB in July of 1992 and this was the eagerly awaited rematch for fans of Sting and Big Van Vader. Vader and Sting had the #3 feud of the year in 1992 as voted in the PW Torch.com year end awards and Sting was voted #1 babyface while Vader was voted #3 heel in 1992. This match didn't disappoint as it was easily the best match on the card with solid back and forth action. Both guys hit big power moves for several near falls and Ross was awesome on his play by play. Finish came when Vader went to the top rope to splash Sting for the third consecutive time, but Sting powerslammed Vader off the top rope for the pinfall in 16:50. A great match that is a must see.

Final match on the card is the battle royal called Battle Bowl. The participants are Dan Spivey, Van Hammer, Steve Williams, Big Van Vader, Sting, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, and The Great Muta. Vader attacked Sting on his way to the ring. For many of these guys, it was their third match of the night. Final two in the match were Barry Windham and the Great Muta. Windham tried to throw Muta over the top, but Muta held on and dropped kicked Windham over the top rope to win Battle Bowl in 14:01. A decent match as far as battle royals go.

Summary: This was an average PPV that I felt lacked strong undercard matches and a great main event. There was only one match that stood out, the Sting vs. Vader match which was great; with other matches rated as average with the world title below average. There were no interviews given either prior to or after the matches other than Sting accepting the King of Cable trophy, which also lessened the importance of the matches themselves. The Sting-Vader match is a must see match, the rest can be skipped.

Next week we go back 10 years to review WCW Starrcade 1997, the most important PPV in WCW history.

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. You can reach me at bhoops@iw.net.

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