Product: WCW/NWA Starrcade 1989 [VHS]
Rating: 4.0
One Of The Best Starrcade's Ever!
It's been almost 20 years since the PPV took place & to this day, this is one of the most (if not THE most) unique wrestling event in the history of the professional wrestling right up there with the original Starrcade & WrestleMania. This PPV was based off an Iron Man/Iron Team tournament based off a point system. The idea behind the tournament is that NWA took their two top babyfaces & heels in both tag teams & singles wrestlers and had each other them face each other in 15 min. matches. Based off how you win, you gain points and the man & team with the highest amount of points at the end of the night would win the tournament. The point system went as follows: Pin/Submission = 20, 15 = Disqualification, Countout = 10, Draw = 5, Loss = 0. As Jim Cornette would say throughout the night, "it's as important HOW you win as IF you win." Basically, with this format, you would get alot of matches that were main event caliber & with the 15 min. time limit, there wasn't any time for long rest holds or stalling, you just had non-stop action.Steiner Brothers vs. Doom - This had a good mix of wrestling & with some heavy brawling towards the end but as throughout the entire tournament, Doom were just here to have the other teams to get over on & score points with. The Steiners ended up winning by countout receiving 10 points.Sting vs. Lex Luger - I've only seen a few Sting vs. Luger matches & this was the best one I've seen them have as it was high impact between the two. The ending was a bit exaggerated (just watch & you'll see what I mean) but again, best match I've seen between these two. Luger wins & gains 20 points.Road Warriors vs. Doom - Similar to the Steiners match earlier as it went back & forth with the Warriors getting the 20 point victory.Ric Flair vs. Great Muta - This match was probably the shortest match Flair ever had in his NWA career as Flair & Muta went back & forth until Flair gained the upperhand. From there was a brawl outside between the Andersons & Gary Hart's (Muta's manager) stable before Flair won with a inside cradle pin for 20 points & the end of Muta's year long undefeated streak. Throughout the tournament, Muta would assume Doom's role as the man to put others over & score points off of.Steiner Brothers vs. Road Warriors - This match was heavily STIFF! I mean, you could just tell that these guys were not going to go easy on each other to the point where Cornette just had to point out how stiff these guys were being. The ending had Animal doing an offensive maneuver but had his shoulders down & actually pinned himself. It was a good stiff match with an ending that saved both teams credibility. Steiners gain 20 points.Sting vs. Great Muta - This followed the same formula of the Flair/Muta match as they went back & forth before Sting scored the quick pin resulting in 20 mins. I enjoyed their Great American Bash match betterNew Wild Samoans vs. Doom - This match is heavily edited towards the end where a member of Doom & the Samoans collide & the Samoan just happened to fall on top of Doom for the 20 point win.Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger - This match is another one that's edited down towards the end where Flair had Luger in the figure four but time ran out before Lex gave up resulting in each man getting the 5 point draw.Steiner Brothers vs. New Wild Samoans - This was an average tag team match as it didn't pass the Road Warriors one but was better than the Doom match for the Steiners. Again, it broke out into brawl at the end with Scott Steiner tossing one of the Doom members over the top rope resulting in the 15 point disqualification victory for the Samoans.Lex Luger vs. Great Muta - This match wasn't really as good as their earlier showings but Luger did a great job of selling his leg being hurt from the Flair match earlier. Luger began gaining momentum before Muta sprayed him in the eyes leading to a 15 point disqualification victory.Road Warriors vs. New Wild Samoans - Good tag match with some brawling here & there but the Warriors pulled off the pinfall victory here giving them 20 points (40 total) to win the Iron Team tournament.Sting vs. Ric Flair - This match wasn't as classic as their later matches such as when Sting beat Flair for the World Title or their 45 min. draw at the first Clash Of Champions. However, this match was better than the one they put on Flair's WWE DVD or their match on the last WCW Monday Nitro. They went back & forth close to the full 15 mins. before Sting pulled out the victory in the end to gain 20 points (40 total) and win the Iron Man contest followed by the Anderson's welcoming Sting into the Four Horsemen.If you can get past some of the faulty booking such as Muta being undefeated for the entire year only to lose all his matches while Doom were being positioned as the top heel team to face the Steiners yet they lost all their matches that night, the point system made those wrestlers who the NWA saw as their top talent remained looking strong & no credibility was lost. This to me was a 5 star event from the NWA but I only had to knock it down one due to some of the matches being edited. Again, I recommend & get a copy of this if you can...you won't regret it.