Starrcade 1989

Not a clue to why they did it other than it was something different. And every match up would have been Main Event worthy if Sid hadn't gotten injured. And it gave the fans their top stars 3X each in one night. I remember as a fan of all 4 singles competitors and a fan of the Steiners and the Road Warriors I loved the concept. I think I will actually watch it sometime before the end of the weekend.

On a personal note this was the last WCW PPV I ever watched with my father. And the '90 Royal Rumble was the last PPV we ever watched together as he would pass on that March 4th.


As far as Starrcade '89 went I was surprised how quickly​ they had Muta lose to Flair and from what I remember I don't think Muta sold the raised knees off the moonsault. I am pretty sure I remember the timing being off also. I remember Muta landing on Flair's knees and popping right up after then bending over for Flair to hit the small package roll up. But there was an awkward looking delay for a second or two before Flair got to him. I guess they did that (having Muta lose so quickly) was so it would make his match with Sting that much more dire. Seeing both had lost, but Sting's match was much more draining than his lost to Flair. Then while losing to Sting it gave Sting had another grueling and draining match heading into his match with Flair. Thus making his victory over Flair at the end that much special. It would have been nice to have Muta win one maybe against Lex, but if he did then the standings wouldn't have been as close in the end which would have made the tournament less exciting in he end as Sting would have dominantly won it with a score of 40 while everyone else would have been in the 20's. This way he only edged out Lex by 5 pts(?)

As for Doom I didn't see an issue with how it played out for them as they had a physical match against the Steiners to open the show. Then within 15 minutes later they were in another physical match against the Road Warriors. And then their final match was against the Samoans which was the Samoans first match of the night after Doom wrestled physical matches for about 30 minutes. So I really didn't see them looking weak. But rather just victims of a poor luck of the draw.

Now for me my biggest mystery about Starrcade was why did they double the R when spelling it? lol

For a one time deal I didn't mind the round robin format but thank God they never tried it again.

Besides Muta losing all his matches, I actually really enjoyed this show. I just re-watched it again and it still delivered some great matches. But I'm sure some of the talent wasn't overly trilled with wrestling 3 times in one night.

so funny because I consider Starrcade '89 on of my top 5 PPVs.

As a kid I didn't have any conception of "buried" so Muta losing to me was more like seeing my favourites (at the time) getting a win, and Sting's hard fought victories were edge-of-my-seat thrilling stuff - for an 11 year old.

The concept was intriguing. It would have been better at a Clash of Champions I guess, but again the kid in me couldn't wait to see The Steiner Brothers vs. The Road Warriors! The whole PPV lived up to the hype and both my favourite wrestler and tag team went over.

As an adult I can see the shortfalls I guess. I think the funniest thing to me was seeing Lex get raised on that platform which is supposed to turn him around like a lazy-susan as he posed, and it getting stuck and Lex trying to nudge it with his feet around while still trying to keep his body building pose. JCP had so many little malfunctions like that on their live shows and you never noticed as a kid.

I think I heard Cornette say something recently like their contracts were either almost up and they didn't know if they would be staying or that they had re-signed too late to get them in over the SST or something like that. The MIdnights definitely would have made it more interesting.

was bummed Muta got the shaft and Midnight Ex were not in it instead of Samoans.

what if WWF did this event instead of NWA at the time:

Hogan
Warrior
Piper
Rhodes

Powers of Pain
Demolition
Brain Busters
Hart Foundation