Throwback Thursday: Looking back at WCW Starrcade 1997

by Vaughn Johnson

Published May 15, 2014, 4:10 a.m. ET

Each and every Thursday, I will look back at different event pay-per-view event wrestling history via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered here? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Starrcade 1997

Date: December 28, 1997

Venue: MCI Center (Verizon Center), Washington, D.C.

Match Results:

WCW Cruiserweight Championship – Eddie Guerrero def. Dean Malenko

Scott Norton, Vincent and Randy Savage def. Rick & Scott Steiner and Ray Traylor

Goldberg def. Steve McMichael

Raven's Rules Match Saturn def. Chris Benoit

Buff Bagwell def. Lex Luger

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship – Diamond Dallas Page def. Curt Hennig

Larry Zbyszko def. Eric Bishoff

WCW World Heavyweight Championship – Sting def. Hollywood Hulk Hogan

Observations:

- Starrcade 1997 is one of the most befuddling events I have ever watched for a number of reasons. If there is one event that personified the disorganization that could be World Championship Wrestling at certain points, this event has to be one of the top candidates. Average matches marred this event, and along with just plain odd booking decisions it brought down what should have been a landmark show for WCW. Instead, it's just an example of how WCW could be so confusing and downright frustrating. The potential was there. Oh, was it ever there, but the execution was poor at best.

- Despite the frustrating nature of the show itself, WCW did a tremendous job of building it up. The buildup, which we'll dig into later, made this show the most successful in the history of WCW from a financial standpoint. The event had the largest pay-per-view buyrate the largest live gate in the company's history. The attendance was said to be during the broadcast as "over 24,000", but everything I've seen says that it was 17,500, so someone is lying. Could it have been more than 24,000? It very well could have. There are more than 20,000 seats in what is now known as the Verizon Center and a wrestling configuration without a large stage could mean more than 24,000 people. Could WCW have inflated that number for television? They easily could have. Whether it was 17,500 or "over 24,000", the building itself looked mostly full if not completely filled. Another interesting note was that this was the first wrestling ever held in the Verizon Center, which was known as the MCI Center when it first opened.

- Most of the reason why everyone was in the building that night was the fantastic job WCW did in building up the encounter between Sting and Hollywood Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. To that point, Hogan had been running roughshod over WCW as the leader of the New World Order for more than a year. During that time, Sting had disappeared. Sting was off television for months before he began reappearing looking nothing like the colorful, energetic character he was before Hogan and the nWo began its reign of terror. Essentially, someone in WCW saw the movie "The Crow" and thought it would be an awesome idea for Sting to look like the main character. The stories even had some similarities.

Sting would periodically appear out of nowhere and attack the Hogan and his buddies and made it clearly that he wanted to face Hogan for the title. He wouldn't accept anyone else but Hogan. Sting literally didn't wrestle for more than a year just to make this angle hit home even more. After months, Sting finally got his wish in the form the main event of WCW's biggest show Starrcade. The build for the match probably couldn't have gone any better, but the match itself left a lot to be desired. It's not that the match was bad. It's the finish that completely ruined what was a solid match.

The clear story to tell here was Sting was the returning savior for WCW that would rid the company of the tyrant Hogan and his followers. It's so damn easy, maybe too easy for WCW. But WCW couldn't have it that easy. Something else had to happen. That something was for Hogan to pin Sting. That's right, Sting did all of that posturing and waiting just to get beat clean as a sheet in the middle of the ring by Hogan. However, in order for a match to officially end, the bell needs to be rung or at least that was the logic of WCW, as the debuting Bret Hart prevented the time keeper from ringing the bell, then proceeded to punch the referee and restarted the match.

Let's take a step back for a moment. This was Hart's first appearance on WCW television since he was screwed over by Vince McMahon at the infamous Survivor Series in Montreal. Well over a month later, WCW decided to make Hart the special guest referee in a match where it made no sense for him to be the official and that's it. What a way to take advantage of Hart's heat. But wait, there's more. Out of the clear blue sky because Hart was an official in that other match, it apparently meant that he could be an official in any match on the card, at least that what was explained to us by the commentators right about the time he was punching the official in the face.

After Hart restarted the match, Sting jumped up, hit a couple of Stinger splashes and locked Hogan into the scorpion death lock to not only win the match, but bring the World title back home to WCW.

Boy, was there so much wrong with that finish. First off, why would Hogan beat Sting? Why? Sting did all of that just for Hogan to beat him? That made zero sense. Secondly, since when is the bell needed to officially end a match? Everyone saw the three count. The ACTUAL official slapped his hand on the mat three times, but none of that mattered because the bell couldn't ring thanks to Hart who just so happened to be at ringside. Third of all, why would Hart punch an official? He came into the company as a babyface, but he's punching an official on his first night in the promotion. What a way to endear him to the masses.

Fourth of all, why was the match restarted? If the match never ended, why would it have to be restarted? I ask this question because the announcers said it was restarted. Once again, doesn't make any common sense. And lastly, where was the fireworks, the confetti or music after Sting won? The only thing that made that moment feel special was the ring filling up with WCW wrestlers that pretended they were happy with Sting's victory. You mean to tell me that WCW couldn't shell out some extra coin for some fireworks and confetti for Sting's monumental win? The company had fireworks for Larry Zbyszko's entrance, but I guess that was way more important.

- That wasn't the only terrible finish on the night, as the match between Zbyszko and Eric Bischoff had one as well. It comes as no surprise that it also involved Hart, as this was the match that he was supposed to be the special referee for to begin with. This match was for the control of Monday Nitro where Zybszko was fighting for WCW and Bishoff was fighting for the nWo. Late in the match, Bischoff's nWo running mate Scott Hall loaded his boot with a steel plate. In another terrible moment, Bischoff kicked Zybszko with the object in his foot, only for the object to go flying out of his boot into the stands. Bishoff began to gloat, but Hart just up and punched him in the head. Come to think of it, Hart was on a bit of a rampage on this night. Hall took offense to that and tried to put his hands on Hart, but Hart wound up putting him in the sharpshooter. Zbyszko choked Bischoff with a strap and then had his hand raised in victory by Hart for no real reason. It just happened without a pinfall or nothing. The match just ended.

- Continuing with the bad from this was that the event lacked a real ebb and flow to it. There just wasn't a real rhythm to it for whatever reason and the crowd wasn't into a lot that was going on. The fans popped for some things, but you would think the fans would have been more festive given it was the biggest show of the year.

- Some WCW stars were members of the audience on this night as well, as they showed their support for the company by sitting amongst the people. The commentators said that some of the wrestlers paid for their own flights to get to the show. Apparently, the being at the show meant that much to them. The card for this show boasted three future WWE Hall of Famers: Hogan, Eddie Guerrero and Curt Hennig. It's amazing to think that WCW had two more on its roster, but they were relegated to just sitting in the stands. For those wondering, those two were Booker T and Rey Mysterio. Yeah, I know Mysterio isn't in the Hall of Fame just yet, but he will be one day. He deserves to be at least.

- Those guys weren't on the card, but at least they were in the building. We can ot say that for Kevin Nash, who was scheduled to face The Giant, but was sidelined due to a health issue. To rectify the problem, instead of finding some sort of replacement for The Giant, which could have been any of those men sitting in the stands, WCW had The Giant beat upon Hall for a couple of minutes as apart of a quick angle.

- Now let's get on to the good on this show. First up is the opening match between Guerrero and Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. It's no surprise that these two put on a great match and it was yet another case where WCW's cruiserweights outperformed their big-name stars. These two were given a significant amount of time to tell a good story and provide some quality action for the fans. Also, there was a clean finish. What a novel concept that is.

- Probably the best match on the show was the match between Hennig and Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. Page was over like rover in Washington, D.C. and it was clear as day that it was time for him to win his first title in WCW. You want to know what else, the match didn't have a screwy finish. It had a nice clean finish with the babyface going over. Again, what a novel concept that is.