[1996-12-29-WCW-Starrcade '96] Hulk Hogan vs Roddy Piper

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is not a bad match. People who call it good are overselling it, but it's definitely not bad. The finish also involves The Giant screwing up (a botched spot due to a fan running in to attack Hogan and messing up the timing), setting the table for the following night on Nitro. This show was the first time the NWO showed vulnerability, and the timing was definitely right.

[Loss]

Oh, and the match retroactively being declared non-title is the biggest screwing over of the fans of the year.

[Strummer]

I'm probably missing the details but I love at the start of the match Tony sets the atmosphere and puts over the aura of the encounter and then Dusty follows up by basically repeating what Tony just said. Then Dusty dead pans "You jus said dat didn't ya?" That had me rolling at the time

 

edit: Yes!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXhV1n5XTgg

 

about 2:45 in. Still kills me.

[El-P]

This match had no right being as fun as it was. I have no problem saying it was a good match, and a more than satisfiying spectacle. I don't remember this match being retroactively declared non-title, I was it was already clearly stated during the build, but maybe my memory is fuzzy.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

I don't remember them ever stating in the buildup that it was a non-title match, but I had kind of figured that it would be since they never said it was a title match.

[Loss]

I don't remember them ever stating in the buildup that it was a non-title match, but I had kind of figured that it would be since they never said it was a title match.

Right, they never said either way, but why would anyone assume it was non-title? Hogan was the world champ and it was the main event of a PPV. I guess had it been known it wasn't for the title in the buildup, it would have given away the finish.

[jdw]

I enjoyed this match a good deal live on PPV. It was a lot of fun watching Hogan play bitching, stooging, cheating heel after all those years as an annoying face: he had a lot of his shit down pat. It wasn't pretty, and Piper really looked awful often in the match with Hogan doing the carry job. But for a spectacle... it was strangely fun that night.

 

Not saying it was Hogan-Rock good, as that one was a hell of a terrific spectacle. But this was pretty watchable at the time, capping a pretty enjoyable show.

 

John

[El-P]

Well, I still like this match a lot, all because of Hogan, really, as Roddy looked pretty awful at times. It should have been a one time only deal of course. Total feel-good moment and the first crack in the nWo armor. The booking was going into the right direction (in theory, with Luger being over like no one's business and a stronger and stronger undercard) and Starrcade was a great way to cap off a terrific 1996 for WCW.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW World Champion Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper - WCW Starrcade 1996

 

Liz looked pissed off all night especially during the Hogan interview before the match. I wonder what was up. Piper's promo was the usual nonsense except the line that it is hard to carry a piano in a parade cracked me up.

Staying with the theme of the night, these two were rocking it early, but got blown up late to finish this with the proper punch. I loved Hogan early shouting at the ref to watch Piper on the break only to paintbrush him. Hogan trying to antagonize Piper early by cheating and breaking his momentum by powdering was great shit. Piper looked good for the most part as a asskicking babyface taking it to Hogan. I liked Piper clamping on a headlock to inhibit Hogan from escaping, but then Hogan gets a nasty break on the rope and snaps his neck there. I thought Hogan would take over here, but Piper kept it going. Hogan says he has had enough. Then in my favorite part of the match, Piper finally follows him and starts whipping him like a scalded dog. DiBiase trips up Piper and now we get the Hogan heat segment. Hogan is such a good heel at this point and is so much bigger than Piper that a natural sympathy builds. He goes after Piper's bad hip, which does make Piper and Hogan feel old when you taking about hip surgeries. They blow up here, which is too bad because they were cutting a great pace early. There was pretty much no down time at all and I think that cost them here. Hogan misses the leg drop! The Giant senses the problem so here he comes. A fan fucks up the finish. Piper gnaws at The Giant's face. SLEEPER HOLD! PIPER WINS! HUGE POP! But he does not win the belt! Bullshit! I actually think they should have done a quickie title change here and had Hogan win the belt back on his "home" turf of NWO Souled Out. The early portion was great shit with Hogan playing the best damn heel in the world at that point. He was scummy, cowardly and vicious. You wanted to see Piper kick his ass and you really got that during the part where he was whipping him with the belt. They just lost steam going into the finish. I need to rewatch the Luger and DDP matches, but this may be the best Hollywood Hogan match. ***1/4

[PeteF3]

I dunno...I never really believed at the time that this was a title match. I mean, yeah, that should have been clarified before-hand, but what did Piper do to actually earn a shot at the title? (Yes, I think in '96 it was still time to take something like that into consideration). It's telling that even Dusty thinks Piper's won the belt afterward, though.

 

I'm not as high on this as others here, though this was by no means bad, and the finish is chill-inducing though not to as great of a degree as Luger beating the Giant. Piper looked pretty bad for the most part, though it was fun to see Hogan finally getting a taste of his own medicine, and Hot Rod can still sell you on simple character-based spots like yanking out Hogan's hair (Heenan: "That won't take long.") Mega-pop for the finish, the shock of which Randy Anderson sells beautifully. Then Piper actually holds off Hall & Nash and bails, and the stage is set for the Giant-NWO fallout the next night.

 

Not since 1990 have we had a month that felt more like a "changing of the guard" all across wrestling than the tail end of '96. Kaientai finally loses a big match to the Michinoku Pro babyfaces. Toyota drops the 3WA title to Kyoko Inoue. Golden boy Shawn Michaels loses the WWF title and the whole main event scene of the company is in upheaval. El Hijo del Santo is still a rudo. GAEA may be starting to have their younger trainees make some noise. Young Kobashi has the Triple Crown. And WCW finally gets one (or two, to be exact) over on the NWO. 1997 is shaping up to be the most exciting year of the decade yet.

[drew wardlaw]

Along the lines of the recent thread about finishes, this is one where the finish hurt the match a bit because of the fan. No ones fault, it just distracted everyone from Hogan going unconscious. However, this is a good spectacle match and I'm wondering if this is the best NWO main event?

[Childs]

My favorite NWO main event was the six man from the following May with Flair, Piper and Kevin Greene against the Outsiders. Second would be the original match in which Hogan turned.

[drew wardlaw]

Ohhh that six man tag rocks good call.

[Jingus]

Flair/Hogan from Superbrawl was pretty good too, before the inevitable shitty finish. But I think this Hogan/Piper match is a perfectly fun brawl which is often forgotten or underrated. Yeah, the stupid unannounced nontitle stipulation was incredibly aggravating, and the fan run-in was unfortunate. But the work itself in the match was downright energetic, some of the best that Hogan and especially Piper ever managed to deliver in this company. I'd say it's just as much fun as any of their matchups from 1985.

[tim]

I don't think they ever particularly led anyone to believe this match would be for the title in the build up, but when you have the world champion in the main event of the biggest show of the year, it's clear that a lot of people would assume it's for the title unless told otherwise. Other than whoever may have been disappointed about this not being a title change, I think this match succeeded about as well as it could have. This match was put together really well, never got boring and moved at a good pace. The crowd was really into it, it had the atmosphere of a big match, Piper unloading strikes on Hogan was awesome, and it had a nice chaotic ending with the babyface triumphing.

[soup23]

A good match with some great heat but certainly not without its flaws. Hogan outworked Piper here IMO and was a sleazy asshole controlling things on top. The stuff with Giant screwing up was unfortunate as it looked pretty weird and goofy. The finish also happening on a sleeper was kind of anticlimactic. I would have had PIper standing tall to end the PPV. *** (6) 

[G. Badger]

I'm with Tim on this match. It's good action, the guys told the story really well, and despite the finish being muddled by the crazed fan, it ended on a high note!

It felt like an early 80's big non title grudge match. It wasn't the cleanest work but, damn, it was intense, they kept the fans into it and felt like a meaningful victory for Piper and WCW. Good match and glad I saw it!