Starrcade (1993)

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Starrcade 1993 was the fifth Starrcade event produced by World Championship Wrestling which took place on 19th December 1993

## Background

The main match heading into the show is WCW Heaviweight champion Rick Rude defending against Stunning Steve Austin. Rude and Austin debuted in early 1991 forming Dangerous Alliance, around a year later Rude betrayed Dangerous Alliance who was now led by Vader turning face in the process, Rude and Austin had their first match which Rude won to become NO1 contender but he failed to win the title. Austin went on to team up with Brian Pillman while Rude started becoming owner of WCW Dusty Rhodes's ally and turned heel, Rude returned in september and won the 32 men tournament for the vacant WCW Heaviweight title, Brian Pillman turned on Stunning Austin 2 weeks before Battlebowl ending that team, but Austin managed to win the Battlebowl battle royal gaining this title shot tonight

At Halloween Havoc 1991, Dusty Rhodes announced himself as the new WCW owner and turned heel along with his son Dustin Rhodes. Ever since then, Dusty has taken joy in screwing over people he didn't like and putting the title on the specific people he wanted, this made the whole WCW personnel hate him, even refs and security. Always by his side was his son Dustin who kept wanting title shots but Dusty kept slapping him and embarassing him calling him "not worthy of being champion" and replacing him in multiple championship and NO1 contendership matches. During the 32 men tournament for the vacant WCW Heaviweight Championship, Dustin faced Dusty in a quarter finals match, Dusty demanded Dustin to get down which he did but then he kicked out at 2 causing the crowd to erupt, Dusty slapped him and continued to trash talk him until Dustin officially turned face as he cross rhodes'd his father, Dustin would qualify to the finals against Dusty's bodyguard Rick Rude, Dusty showed up and chairshotted Dustin as much as he could and prevented the ref from ringing the bell or he'd be fired, Rude won the title. Dustin just wanted a match against his dad but he kept refusing until Dustin invaded the WCW ring with a bunch of the roster and even securities, cameramen and just backstage people and Dustin said the tapings would not continue if Dusty didn't give him what he wanted, a pissed off Dusty accepted the challenge and it would be a career threatening match

Meng debuted at Starrcade 1992 as the "new monster in town", him and Vader didn't meet until a gauntlet match where Dusty forced Vader to face 5 people and Meng was the 5th person, Meng couldn't take Vader down so Dusty slapped him which led to a lariat by Meng and Meng forfeiting the match. The next time they met was at Beach Blast, Vader won the WCW Heaviweight Championship and Meng cashed in his CITL tag team contract "winning" the title. Dusty reversed the decision as the CITL tag team contract was only for tag teams and vacated the championship putting it on the line in a 32 men tournament. Vader and Meng faced off in the first round which ended in a draw as both men passed out after a war. When they returned, they just wanted to take each other out constantly brawling throught the arena and using other people as weapons. Finally Vader challenged Meng to a match and Meng said that Vader just couldn't get over that there was a new monster in town and he's gonna be replaced, Meng accepts the match as a 2 out of 3 falls with every fall having a stipulation and whoever wins gets a WCW Heaviweight title shot

DDP formed Diamond Alignment with Ron Simmons, Dr.Death and Cactus Jack as 4 men who were floundering in the midcard division and wanted much more success in their careers. This led to Dr.Death winning the US title and holding it for a year, Ron Simmons eventually turned on DDP saying that it isn't in a group that they'll become successful, Ron won the Halloween Havoc battle royal and ended Dr.Death's US title reign. DDP, Cactus Jack and Dr.Death had a respectful triple threat match which DDP won to face Ron tonight, DDP says they're family and no one should betray family just to gain success so he wants to take down Ron tonight

The cruiserweight division has had a great spotlight in the past year. It started with Ricky Steamboat winning the CW title and The Great Muta challenging for it, many CWs rebelled against that as they didn't feel it was fair that heaviweights could train to become CWs and become the champs of the division, 3 of them stepped up more than anyone as Shane Douglas, Tom Zenk and Johnny B.Badd led a group against Steamboat and Muta and eventually revealed their leader: Jushin Thunder Liger. Steamboat and Muta got the aid of Stan Lane and 2 Cold Scorpio, there was a wargames match with the winning pinfall winning the CW title, the group broke up as Johnny B.Badd sneaked in and won the CW title. Liger revealed that the only reason he came back was to win the CW title and use those 3 bozos for his advantage. Liger and Muta had a NO1 contendership match which ended in a no contest as many CWs fought each other, Badd wanted this to be done and to just face someone at Starrcade, Dusty was pissed off from an earlier segment with Dustin so he put Badd against Liger, Muta, Steamboat, Zenk, Douglas, Lane and Scorpio in an 8 men package

Both Sasaki and Taylor were attacked by random masked men in mid 1993, first Sasaki thought it was Taylor who ambushed him but as Taylor got attacked as well, Sasaki immediatly apologized. Both men allied with each other as 2 masked men showed up and tried to beat them up, Taylor managed to unmask one of them revealing NJPW talent Yuji Nagata, at Halloween Havoc they had a tag match which Taylor and Sasaki won, the 2nd man unmasked and revealed the returning Masahiro Chono who formerly teamed up with Sasaki, they'll have a tag match tonight to culminate their feud with both men finally unmasked

Brian Pillman recently turned on his longtime partner Stunning Austin as he wants to succeed in the singles division, tonight is his first challenge as he will face Arn Anderson for the TV Championship

Harlem Heat debuted in 1993 and immediatly made an impact becoming one of the best tag teams in the roster, they won a triple threat NO1 contendership match and will face Road Warriors tonight

## Details

* The CW title match ends with Liger and Muta having an amazing 10 minute match which ends with Muta finally becoming CW champion
* The first fall ends with Meng doing a canadian destroyer off the apron through a table
* The second falls ends with Vader clocking Meng's head on the ladder 23 times in a row and Meng smiles as he's bleeding and falls off the ladder for Vader to retrieve the contract
* As soon as the third falls begins, another contract starts coming down and Meng quickly kips up and takes the ladder out, Vader falls with his legs over the rope and lands badly with his head on the ring
* The third fall is miserable for Vader as Meng just completely dominates him, it ends with Meng spearing Vader on the apron through a flaming table outside of the ring. This was a 5 stars match
* Dusty announces the Starrcade Countdown of this year is that their match will have a special guest ref: Dusty Rhodes himself.
* Dusty lowblows Dustin multiple times but he can't do anything about it as Dusty is the ref. Multiple people start coming ringside wanting to help Dustin as this becomes a lumberjack match, Dusty goes for another lowblow but Dustin reverses and lowblows him himself, Dusty calls for the bell but the ringkeeper refuses to do so, Dustin hits his finisher as many refs enter the ring and Dustin grabs Dusty's hand as they all count to 3 at the same time, everyone goes wild backstage and ringside as Dustin has ended Dusty's run as owner
* A WCW commentator Eric Bischoff steps up after the main event announcing himself as the new owner of WCW and his first order of business is that Rude will have one more match for the title tonight against this man. A new theme hits and HULK HOGAN MAKES HIS WCW DEBUT
* Rude tries to end the match in a DQ with a chairshot to the head but Hogan ducks and hits the big boot, he hits 2 leg drops and becomes WCW Heaviweight champion on his first night