WCW Starrcade (1997)

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Revision as of 07:21, 3 April 2019

Starrcade (1997) was the fifteenth annual Starrcade professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW)on December 28, 1997 at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C.

The matches revolved around the ongoing storyline between WCW and the New World Order (nWo) organization. The main event was between Hollywood Hogan and Sting for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, with Hogan representing the nWo and Sting representing WCW. The match culminated a year-long buildup of their feud. The match ended in controversy over the referee's pinfall count, and their feud continued after the event surrounding this. Other matches included Larry Zbyszko and Eric Bischoff for the control of WCW Monday Nitro, and Curt Hennig and Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship.

The event became the biggest-grossing pay-per-view in WCW history. Despite its success, however, the card is seen as pivotal to the downfall of WCW, as it set a tone for backstage dissension and poor creative decisions going forward.

Storylines

The event consisted of matches resulting from scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters to build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

Since its formation in July 1996, the New World Order (nWo) organization had been a dominant force. Hollywood Hogan, the leader of the nWo, had been the WCW World Heavyweight Champion for most of the preceding year. Most of the WCW programming in 1997 revolved around Sting, whose character changed into a mysterious avenger. He watched from the rafters of arenas, and did not speak his thoughts. Sting soon showed his opposition to the nWo, and challenged Hogan to a match for the title at Starrcade. In reality, Hogan and Eric Bischoff, the executive vice president of WCW, disagreed over the outcome of the match. This resulted in a planned ending that had Sting lose because of a fast pinfall count by the referee. Bret Heart would restart the match, and Sting would win.

Late in 1997, Bret Heart was a top star in the International Wrestling Federation (IWF), a competitor of WCW. Heart was the IWF World Heavyweight Champion, and had decided to leave the IWF and join WCW. As Heart was the champion, IWF owner Vince Matteson devised the Montreal Screwjob, secretly changing the planned outcome of a title match. This resulted in Heart losing the title in contoversial manner. After Heart made his debut with WCW, he was assigned as the guest referee for a match between Bischoff and Larry Zbyszko at Starrcade. The outcome of the match between Hogan and Sting at Starrcade was inspired by the Montreal Screwjob.

The match between Hogan and Sting was made official with a pre-taped "live press conference" at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. This aired on October 28, 1997 on TNT during a commercial break for the premiere of Hogan's new cable movie, Assault on Devil's Island. The promotion was a success, drawing a 4.2 cable rating (at the same time on the USA Network, the IWF ran a Survivor Series Flashback show, which drew a 2.8 rating), with fans tuning in to finally see the Sting/Hogan bout signed. During the press conference, Hogan and Sting had a brief stare-down as Sting signed the contract without ever taking his eyes off the champion. On the November 10th episode of Nitro, the New World Order beat down Sting, with Hogan delivering several leg drops as the show came to a close. Sting then disappeared for a month, with the nWo beating down the likes of the Giant, Diamond Dallas Page, the Steiner Brothers, and Larry Zbyszko, and looking stronger than ever.

On the November 24, 1997 episode of Monday Nitro, commentator Larry Zbyszko stormed to the ring following an nWo paid advertisement, only to have propaganda fall from the ceiling showing the nWo's Eric Bischoff posing over him at Halloween Havoc. Bischoff, after repeatedly insulting Zbysko, finally agreed to a match, later scheduled for Starrcade. On the December 1 episode of Nitro, Bischoff claimed he never signed a contract, and wouldn't wrestle unless control of Monday Nitro was on the line, which WCW Commissioner JJ Dillon agreed to later in the show.

On the December 1 episode of Nitro, Diamond Dallas Page challenged the nWo's Curt Hennig for the US Title. Page hit Hennig with a Diamond Cutter but Rick Rude to interrupted the pinfall attempt. This was Page's second DQ victory over Hennig. The nWo then beat down Page to end the show, with Page sustaining two "Diamond Cutters" from Hulk Hogan. On the December 8 episode of Nitro, Ric Flair, on behalf of Page, challenged Hennig to a steel cage match at Starrcade.

On the December 8 episode of Nitro, the nWo's Kevin Nash (in a pre-recorded statement) declared himself the "one, true giant", belittled The Giant's chokeslam as useless and challenged Giant to a match at Starrcade. Moments later, Giant came to the ring and told Gene Okerlund he'd see Nash at Starrcade and was bringing the chokeslam with him.

Event

Aftermath

Results

References

External links