-From Jacksonville, FL
-Hosts are JR & Paul E.
-Match 1: The Fabulous Freebirds (w/Little Richard Marley) VS The Southern Boys
-This was supposed to be a six man tag with Bobby Eaton with the Freebirds and El Gigante with the Southern Boys. Gigante is nowhere to be found, and Hayes implies it's because of them. The ref decides that since the Freebirds are claiming responsibility for Gigante's absence, then Eaton is out of the match too, and has to go to the back.
Freebirds double-team Smothers, but are caught with a cross body from the top by Armstrong. Smothers slams both 'Birds, and hits a double clothesline out of a three-point stance. Hayes knocks Smothers off the apron and into the guardrail. Smothers gets a sunset flip on Garvin for two, but ends up taking a clothesline. Smothers throws Garvin off the top. Match breaks down. Armstrong back drops Garvin over the top, onto the runway, then follows up with a dive over the ropes onto Garvin. Marley trips up Smothers, who stumbles into a DDT from Hayes for the pin. OK, if short, opener.
-Tony Schiavone brings out the World Heavyweight Champion Sting. Sting is hyped to go face-to-face with the Black Scorpion on the Danger Zone. The voice of the Scorpion promises more black magic tonight.
-Match 2: Buddy Landell VS Flyin' Brian
-No home field advantage for Landell. Landell jumps Pillman at the bell. Landell pounds on Pillman, but keeps getting caught in pinning positions. Pillman takes Landell outside, and hits a flying clothesline onto the runway. Pillman tries for a piledriver on the runway, but Landell backdrops his way out of it. Landell sends Pillman into the guardrail, but accidentally clotheslines the ring post. Pillman hits a springboard cross body to the outside. Back in the ring, Landell locks in an abdominal stretch, and uses the ropes for leverage. Pillman fights out, but gets caught in mid-air, and Landell hits a back breaker. Pillman fights out of a superplex, and hits a cross body from the top, and gets the pin. Shockingly good match, as these two had good chemistry. I haven't seen anything out of Landell that would have indicated he was capable of having a good match with Pillman.
-Match 3: The Big Cat (Curtis Hughes) VS Brad Armstrong
-Cat's pre-match promo indicates he's gunning for Luger, so I don't like Armstrong's chances here. If they were going to call Armstrong "The Candyman", they should have at least sprung for the rights to "The Candyman Can" from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Hughes looks like a smaller Warren Sapp at this point. Cat catches Armstrong in mid-air, and hits an impressive series of three back breakers. Cat dominates the match, and finishes when via ref stoppage when he has Armstrong in the torture rack. Decent squash.
-Dick the Bruiser is going to be a special guest referee at Starrcade. He guarantees there will be a winner, but no mention of the match he will be reffing is made.
-Match 4: Brian Lee VS The Z-Man
-This is Lee's WCW debut. Lee takes a big bump off a hip toss. Zenk doesn't realize that Lee is selling in the corner, so he does a springboard into a flying cross body onto... nothing. That is the funniest thing I've seen in quite a long time. Thankfully, someone has uploaded this whole show onto youtube, and this part is on this video at 6:55:
I seriously cannot stop laughing at that. Lee controls with less-than-impressive offense. JR mentions that Dick the Bruiser will be reffing the finals of the Pat O'Connor Memorial tag team tournament. Zenk avoids a charge, and hits a missile dropkick for the pin. Match sucked, but that botch was AMAZING.
-Tony is with Alexandra York (Terri Runnels) and Mike Rotunda, who is now Michael Wallstreet. Rotunda says he's legally changed his name to Michael Wallstreet after receiving a large inheritance. York & Wallstreet's computer system is infallible, and he will use it to win.
-Match 5: Star Blazer VS Michael Wallstreet (w/Alexandra York)
-Crowd seems to fall asleep. The sarcastic cheer Wallstreet gets for tossing Star Blazer through the ropes is tremendous. Wallstreet locks in an abdominal stretch, and uses the ropes. Blazer gets some jobber offense as the crowd grows restless. Wallstreet fucks up a rolling Boston Crab, so he just picks up Blazer and finishes with the Wallstreet Crash (Samoan Drop). Well that was terrible.
-Gordon Solie presents the top 10 rankings:
TAG TEAMS:
World Champions: Doom
1. Steiner Brothers (U.S. Tag Team Champions)
2. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson
3. Nasty Boys
4. Fabulous Freebirds
5. Ricky Morton & Tommy Rich
6. Southern Boys
7. Master Blasters
8. Tim Horner & Brad Armstrong
9. Big Cat & Motor City Madman
10. Norman the Lunatic & The Juicer
WTF is "The Juicer"?
SINGLES:
World Champion: Sting
1. Stan Hansen (U.S. Champion)
2. Sid Vicious
3. Lex Luger
4. Ric Flair
5. Arn Anderson (TV champion)
6. Terry Taylor
7. Flyin' Brian
8. Michael Wallstreet
9. Z-Man
10. Bobby Eaton
Quite a drop off after AA.
-Short video preview for the tag team tournament at Starrcade..
-Match 6 to determine the African representative in the Pat O'Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament: Sgt. Krueger & Col. Declerk VS Kalua & The Beast
-I have no idea who any of these people are. Declerk tries to keep the crowd into it with some high flying. It doesn't work. Beast gets a decent reaction with a flying clothesline on Krueger. Declerk keeps acting like he's going to do something impressive off the top, but ends up dropping axe handles on the Beast. Beast catches Declerk with a power slam, and Declerk very clearly tells Beast to cover him. Match breaks down, and as Beast has Declerk in his arms, Krueger dropkicks Declerk's back, putting him on top for the pin. Declerk looked good, but I have no idea why this was on the show.
-Video recaps the Luger/Hansen feud, and previews Luger/Madman. Paul E. looks like he jizzed his pants when Madman shoved some goober at a bar.
-Tony is with Lex. Big Cat interrupts, so Luger punches him in the face.
-Match 7: Motor City Madman VS Lex Luger
-Luger wins a slug fest with Big Cat before the match starts, but it allows Madman to get the jump on him. Luger hits an impressive suplex. Luger no-sells a bash in the corner, and clotheslines Madman for the win. Short and sweet.
-Tony is with Nick Patrick. They discuss the ongoing war between the Steiners and the Nasty Boys.
-Match 8: The Renegade Warriors VS The Nasty Boys
-JR promises to quit announcing if the Nastys beat the Steiners. Weird to think that the Nastys are four months away from winning the WWF tag titles. Nastys dominate the first few minutes. Nastys actually use some psychology, working on Mark Youngblood's arm. Saggs hits a shoulder breaker. Jay breaks up the pin, and the Steiners rush out, so the match is throw out. JR goes nuts asking why the Nastys won't stay and fight. Maybe because it would be 4-on-2? Match was just there to set up the run-in.
-Match 9: The Night Stalker (Bryan Clarke) VS Sid Vicious
-Crowd goes nuts for Sid, who looks strange as hell in amateur wrestling tights. Sid wrestles the match as a babyface, with Stalker working on Sid's "punctured lung". Big Cat walks out, so Sid nails him. Stalker tries to hit Sid with his Ax, but Sid avoids it, and hits Stalker in the throat with the handle for the pin. Stalker & Cat double-team Sid, who actually sells it well by not being able to even lift a chair to go back and fight. Odd match. Was this supposed to be an official face turn for Sid?
-The Freebirds join Tony to gloat about taking out El Gigante. Southern Boys walk up, and the Freebirds are not intimidated. El Gigante shows up, and the Freebirds bail. Nice of you to show up Gigante.
-Match 10: Magnum Force VS United States Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers
-Scott tosses the jobbers around, hitting one with a tilt-a-whirl slam, and the other with a flipping power slam. Surprised no one's ripped that move off, especially in RoH. Rick gets in to hit a Steinerline, and Scott finishes with the Frankensteiner. Total squash.
-The Nasty Boys run out, but are immediately shut down by the Steiners.
-Tony is with Ric Flair and AA. They say nothing of note, except AA gets in a nice line about their issue with Doom being an illustration of a man's greed destroying himself.
-Video recap of the Sting/Black Scorpion angle.
-It's time for "The Danger Zone" with Sting & The Black Scorpion, hosted by Paul E. The Black Scorpion performs some magic tricks, twisting a plant's head around 360 degrees, then making him disappear, and replacing him with a tiger. Sting wants to go after the Scorpion, but the Scorpion makes himself disappear.
-Video recap of the Horsemen/Doom feud.
-Match 11: Butch Reed (w/Ron Simmons & Teddy Long) VS Ric Flair (w/Arn Anderson)
-Coin flips determined who would represent each team. If Reed wins, Teddy Long gets Flair's yacht and limo, while if Flair wins, he & AA get another title shot at Starrcade and Teddy has to be Flair's chauffeur for a day. Reed sends Flair outside, and Simmons gets a couple cheap shots in. Reed clotheslines Flair on the runway. Reed gets a backslide for two. Flair turnes the tide. Flair gets Simmons to distract the ref, allowing Flair to toss Reed over the top, and AA to get a cheap shot in. Reed comes back with punches, and Simmons takes the opportunity to cheap shot Flair again.
Flair misses a knee drop, and Reed locks in the figure 4. Arn gets Flair in the ropes, and Nick Patrick has to pull Reed's hair to get him to let go of the hold. Reed misses an elbow drop from the top, but hits a clothesline for two. Reed hits a flying shoulder block from the top, but the ref is caught outside with Teddy & AA. Flair backdrops Reed on top of Teddy & Nick Patrick. Simmons clotheslines Flair and helps Reed get the cover. Simmons turns his back because he thinks it's over, and that allows AA to sneak in and hit Reed with a chair, and Flair gets the pin off that. The ringwork was nothing particularly special, but it was wonderfully chaotic at times, especially the finish.
-FINAL THOUGHTS: Main event was OK, but the rest was mostly squashes, most of which were pretty uninteresting. See the Z-Man botch, Landell/Pillman and the main event, but skip the rest.
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