Starrcade (1998)

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Starrcade 1998 was the tenth Starrcade event produced by World Championship Wrestling which took place on 20th December 1998

## Background

The main match heading into the show is Goldberg defending his WCW Heaviweight Championship against Diamond Dallas Page. At Starrcade 1996 DDP defeated Arn Anderson to become the leader of the new Four Horsemen which consisted of DDP, Steven Regal, Chris Benoit and Goldberg. In the summer of 1998, Goldberg rised to the top as he became WCW Heaviweight champion, DDP quickly set his sights on the belt as he kept teasing that he would face Goldberg for it, Goldberg started getting pissed about it and after DDP won a fatal 4 way to become NO1 contender to the title, Goldberg speared DDP and attacked Regal and Benoit officially ending Four Horsemen, Goldberg started inflicting pain on his opponents and enjoying it, DDP felt like this wasn't the same Goldberg and the stress of being top champion had gone to his head so he just wanted to have a friendly match against him and get him back to the right mindstate, at Halloween Havoc Goldberg completely brutalized his former leader as the ref had to end the match in a knockout, DDP wasn't capable of fighting anymore. After NWO Wolfpac won the NWO Civil Wars, Scott Hall had the chance of choosing who he wanted to face Goldberg tonight, and he chose DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE. DDP returned beating down Goldberg with a chair, he tried to save him but he's beyond saving so DDP has decided he'll end his winning streak that is now 199-0 as Goldberg wanted to wait until Starrcade to get to 200-0 and get a big celebration

Dean Malenko was the king of the cruiserweights until he embarassingly lost his CW title to the debuting Rey Mysterio Jr, Malenko turned into a dick but had an overarching arc with Rey as he slowly got his groove back which Rey helped him and he turned back to babyface as he really wanted to become a 2 time CW champion, he won a lot of NO1 contendership matches but Billy Kidman attacked him before all his matches until he eventually became CW champion, since NWO Wolfpac won the Civil Wars, Malenko defeated Chris Benoit to become NO1 contender to the CW title, the big story heading into this is if Malenko can finally become a 2 time champion

Everyone respected Sting as he was revealed as the leader of The Resistance and defeated Hollywood Hogan at Starrcade 1997 in less than 2 minutes for NWO to be forced out of their ownership position, a member of The Resistance Eddie Guerrero started seeing some odd stuff as NWO kept dominating(which was shown by the fact that the NWO Civil War took up most of the show and quickly almost every member of the roster was involved on one side), The Resistance's Scott Steiner had a feud against Sting where it was revealed Sting could have saved them at any chance but he waited until he got a title match, this led to all of The Resistance turning their back on Sting pissed that he was corrupt and he didn't lead them to end NWO, he led them just to get another title reign, Eddie eventually won the US title while Sting won a World War 3 match between members of Wolfpac to become NO1 contender to the title, Eddie wanted to end the "most corrupt man on WCW"

Rob Van Dam won a 10 men war at Fall Brawl to become the first ever Extreme Champion, he has been featured weekly as the extreme division started getting over and a lot of spotlight with great extreme matches, after NWO Wolfpac's win where they would get all the title shots, RVD was allowed to choose his opponent for tonight and he chose former ECW Heaviweight Champion Meng who he felt was the embodiement of extreme but he never had the chance to fight him at ECW

Booker T and Rey Mysterio Jr started teaming up as both men were kicked out of NWO Chaos and were hell bent on destroying it, they managed to win the tag titles from Kevin Nash and HHH. After NWO Wolfpac's wargames win, a battle royal was held where the last 2 men remaining would form a team and challenge for the titles, Davey Boy Smith eliminated David Flair and Psicosis and managed to be the only man standing, he decided he didn't want to team up with neither of them and would instead choose his partner

As soon as HHH debuted on WCW and joined NWO, he impressed Hollywood Hogan who took him under his wing. The NWO Civil Wars started in 1998 because Hogan turned on Nash trying to get HHH to win the US title but HHH pedigree'd Hogan as he took his kliq buddy's side, HHH said he never respected Hogan and never wanted to be his protege, they feuded throught the year with HHH never managing to pin Hogan but his only goal is to end Hogan's WCW career and he has that match tonight, Hogan has started teasing a face turn but he keeps being booed by the crowd

Jushin Liger and The Great Muta have been a constant duo since 1990, Liger and Muta first feuded when Liger came into WCW back at Starrcade 1990 with the feud culminating a year after and Muta forcing Liger to leave WCW. At Slamboree 1993, a now heel Liger returned during a CW title ladder match between champion Ricky Steamboat and The Great Muta as he took out Muta, this ended with Muta becoming Cruiserweight Champion in an 8 men package but he would eventually lose the title, Liger won it and a double turn occurred in a title vs mask match against Muta as Liger defeated him, turned face while Muta took out his mask and turned heel revealing himself as Keiji Mutoh. The HWs vs CWs feud solidified a friendship between them as at first Liger didn't trust Mutoh as he didn't even consider him a true cruiserweight but Mutoh was the one who got them the win in the wargames match at Starrcade 1995, Liger gave Keiji his mask back and declared him as one of the best cruiserweights in the world. They started teaming up regularly even joining NWO Hollywood in early 1998, Liger announced he would be leaving WCW as he would focus on NJPW and wanted one last match against The Great Muta which he accepted

Kevin Nash blamed Vampiro for destroying NWO Chaos as his obsession with crushing dreams ended up with Booker T being forced out of Chaos and Booker was the catalyst for NWO Chaos to lose the civil war, Vampiro was pissed at this and challenged Nash to a match to end his Starrcade streak

Scott Steiner shockingly turned on his brother Rick, they had been a true force in the tag team division since 1989 and he turned on him to join NWO Chaos because of their promise that they would fire Sting if they won the war, Scott would tap out to Sting in the wargames match as NWO Wolfpac won, Rick Steiner challenged his brother to a match pissed at what he did

After NWO Hollywood's loss, Eric Bischoff tried taking over WCW again but The Mob quickly ended that as they turned on their group, they had a deal with Arn Anderson earlier in the year that if NWO were to ever try and takeover WCW again, The Mob would take care of it. Randy Savage, Bobby Eaton and The Giant stepped up against The Mob as the last team-up that NWO Hollywood could ever have

## Details

* People are heavily cheering for HHH here so another fatal mistake for WCW happens as Hogan starts hulking up, something he only did as a face, but this time he's getting booed for it, he does the big boot and the leg drop as he wins and has seemingly turned back face
* Muta unmasks and puts his mask on the ground as he bows down to Liger in a show of respect which just came off as weird
* Arn Anderson comes out and says "Randy Savage, The Giant, Bobby Eaton, thank you for your services throught the years and as the stipulation of the match referred, YOU'RE ALL FIRED." Savage screams pissed but Arn leaves before they can get an explanation
* Bret Hart is DBS's chosen tag partner as he turns face, Booker T goes overboard during this beating up Bret as he clearly hates him, Rey even stops Booker during the match but they retain
* The Starrcade Countdown starts, out comes Perry Saturn and Bam Bam to the stage but there's a gap in the middle, THAT GAP IS FILLED BY THE DEBUTING RAVEN, RAVEN'S CULT IS HERE
* Goldberg exposes the turnbuckle and is gpoing to spear DDP into it which might kill him, Goldberg goes for it, DDP jumps and Goldberg hits his head on the exposed turnbuckle, Goldberg goes for the jackhammer BUT DDP REVERSES IT INTO A DIAMOND CUTTER, HE ENDS GOLDBERG'S STREAK AT 199-1, DDP IS WCW HEAVIWEIGHT CHAMP