Starrcade (1996)

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Starrcade 1996 was the eighth Starrcade event produced by World Championship Wrestling which took place on 22nd December 1996

## Background

The main match heading into the show is Hollywood Hogan defending his WCW Heaviweight Championship against Roddy Piper, Randy Savage and Ric Flair in a fatal 4 way. At Uncensored, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash completely dominated against Randy Savage, Sting and Ric Flair until Hulk Hogan came out but he shockingly leg dropped Savage as he formed New World Order with Hall and Nash. NWO continued to dominate throught the year, becoming owners at Hog Wild, Roddy Piper made his WCW debut and revealed that Eric Bischoff was behind it all, he was the one who sent NWO to destroy WCW. Piper, Savage and Flair ended up wanting a title shot against the WCW Heaviweight champion Scott Hall but Piper would have to defeat NWO's Lex Luger and The Giant in a handicap match which he did after rolling up Luger, Hollywood Hogan ended up winning the title in the 60 men world war 3 match so he replaced Hall in this match

Eddie Guerrero was pissed that he wasn't defending the US title at Starrcade so NWO just gave him HHH, Eddie was even more pissed because NWO's HHH didn't even do anything to deserve it

Ultimo Dragon became NO1 contender to the Cruiserweight Championship, he was attacked by 2 "mystery" big men and injured so NWO decided to give their member Syxx a CW title match tonight

A new Four Horsemen recently formed with Arn Anderson, Diamond Dallas Page, Steven Regal and Chris Benoit. Benoit and Regal defeated Arn and DDP to become NO1 contenders to the tag team titles

Arn Anderson announced the formation of a new Four Horsemen, the first ever 4HM not led by Ric Flair, he says he wouldn't pick any of the talent in the group, the 3 talent that can beat him or impress him in a match enter the horsemen, Regal, Chris Benoit and DDP managed to defeat Arn. Arn was taking more of a heel side as he kept trying to injure everyone and DDP tried to stop him everytime, DDP had enough of this after Arn tried to injure Benoit in their NO1 contendership match so he challenged Arn to a winner becomes leader of the Four Horsemen, Arn refused sending Benoit and Regal to beat him up but Regal and Benoit refused pissing off Arn even more

Chris Jericho has a big hatred for masked wrestlers, at World War 3 he tried taking off Juventud Guerrera's mask but he ended up being eliminated by him because of it. Juvi's teammate Konnan decided to do a match between them, if Juvi lost he would be unmasked, if Jericho lost he would be forced to wear a mask until January 1998

Lex Luger kept disappointing NWO with constant losses, Luger asked for a match against NWO TV Champion Scott Steiner(the title name is just because NWO replaced it, doesn't mean that Steiner is NWO), Hall refused but accepted after Luger said that if he lost and disappointed them again he would leave NWO for good so Hall gave him the match

Jushin Liger introduced Psicosis as his protege. During a feud with Jericho, Jushin Liger and his protege Psicosis had a tag match against Public Enemy where if they won, Liger would be included in the CW title match at Bash at the Beach, after Jericho took Psicosis and gave Liger the decision of whether he wins that match or he saves Psicosis from injury, Liger chose the first as he won the match and tried to save Psicosis afterwards but it was too late as Jericho had already injured him. He returned unmasked as Jericho's tag team partner against Muta and Liger at Halloween Havoc. Psicosis said Liger was a liar for saying he'd protect him from anything and his ego was too big so he challenged him

## Details

* Avalanche and Kevin Sullivan hold an open challenge and the newcomer Goldberg answers it. He beats them in 1 minute as the crowd pops huge with Goldberg's moves
* Lex Luger begs to stay in the NWO, Hall punts him in the head and Nash powerbombs him
* NWO say the Starrcade Countdown of this year is that tonight's main event will not be a fatal 4 way, it will be a 6 way also involving Hall and Nash
* The seeds for a civil war are planted in the main event as the 3 NWO members mainly help each other but also face off sometimes. After Nash wins the title, Hogan and Hall stare at him in the outside, one on each side of the ring