[1993-11-27-WCW-Saturday Night] Starrcade announcement

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Gene Okerlund is now in WCW! I think he was before this, but this is his first WCW appearance on the yearbook. With a straight face, they suggest that Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico City, several cities in Canada, all the major cities in the United States ... and Des Moines, Iowa (??).

 

The final decision is made that Starrcade will be held in Charlotte. Vader and Race are there in suits, and Flair shows up with a contract to claim that he wants to be in the world title match. It's in the contract that if Flair doesn't win the WCW World title from Vader at Starrcade, Flair will retire. Vader reminds him of everyone he has sidelined, and Flair wants it.

 

Both Flair and Vader are really great in this. Flair in a compelling program makes a huge difference.

[BackToBionic]

If Starrcade 93 is such a big deal how come it's not in Des Moines?

[El-P]

Watching the first few weeks of Okerlund in WCW, isn't he way more obnoxious than he was in WWF ? The running gag during Battlebowl with lecherous old man Okerlund fondling Fifi had run its course after the first segment... And he's already overpushing the damn hotline...

But yeah, really good segment here.

[Kevin Ridge]

I think Okerlund made yearbook appearance at Clash. Gene talks about many locations bidding for the chance to host Starrcade. Kind of how WrestleMania is now. He even calls Starrcade the grand daddy of them all which has been used for WrestleMania. Flair wants Vader for the World Heavyweight Title. Vader wants to know what Flair has to give. Ric puts his career on the line!

[PeteF3]

Yeah, they decided on a site to host the show 1 month in advance. The set for this is cheap and horrible, though Okerlund is still Okerlund and shilling to the best of his ability. They couldn't even spring for a damned podium. Flair shows up and gives Vader a contract. Vader isn't impressed with Flair's credentials, until Race shows him the clause stating that if Ric doesn't win, he retires. Vader rattles off the injuries sustained by Sting, Ron Simmons, Joe Thurman, Nikita, and Cactus Jack (still "with no memory"...Jesus Christ, the feud's over and they still can't get the story right). Setting aside, Flair and Vader are terrific. Flair closes by reminding Harley about "A Flair for the Gold" ten years earlier.

[NitroFan]

I think Okerlund made yearbook appearance at Clash.

 

yep. interviews flair at the end of his match against vader

[flyonthewall2983]

He made his first appearance on the November 6th edition of Saturday Night.

[garretta]

That was actually a very nice followup to Battlebowl. I would have liked Flair to at least have a little tape on his ribs, but hat's a nitpick. The career-ending stipulation's about the only one that makes sense here; Vader's already almost crippled Flair before a pay-per-view audience, so Ric's not really a viable challenger under any other circumstances.

 

Flair tries to get himself the match by claiming that he's giving Vader the honor of wrestling him, but The Mastodon's way too smart for that, as well he should be. It was Muhammad Ali who said, "It ain't braggin' if you done it", and Vader's come by his titles and scalps honestly. He doesn't need to bother with Flair unless Flair can give him one or the other.

 

Again, I'm struck by how useless Harley was to Vader in a traditional manager's sense. Vader does all of his own talking except at the very end, and quite well too. The only thing Harley was really needed for was his final exchange with Flair, and we could have done without that if we'd had to.

 

Mean Gene looked right at home here doing the same pseudo-news conference he did so well in the WWF. I haven't seen him pawing Fifi yet, and shilling for the hotline was part of his job description, so I'm not as turned off by him as a few of you are, at least not yet.

 

They overdid it with the big cities wanting to host Starrcade. If New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles were ​really ​in the running, does anyone think that Charlotte, of all places, could have beaten them out? They should have found a way to say that Charlotte got the card because there's a possibility that Flair the hometown hero could be wrestling his last match, which means that they should have had Flair present Vader with his contract ​before Charlotte was announced as the host. I admit the logistics would have been tough to work out, but anything's better than hyping Sao Paulo, Brazil as a potential Starrcade host, bullshit or not.

 

Charlotte didn't get much of an ovation from the plants in the audience when it was announced. Come on, Eric, either do a better job of inspiring your actors or don't hire any and let Gene do announcements like this from a regular studio.

[soup23]

Nice to see Gene here and he moves the angle along. The conflict between Flair and Vader has been superb and better than I remembered as I thought Starrcade was kind of rushed as a kid and more about Flair retiring or what not. The area they filmed this in really did look awful and they should be ashamed of themselves at how dingy it looked.