[1995-12-27-WCW-Starrcade '95] Ric Flair vs Sting vs Lex Luger

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Since this match is really three extended parts, I'll talk about each separately:

 

Flair/Sting -- This is standard fare for these two, but they do both seem to have a little extra pep in their step, but they're rushing through their usual 15-20 minutes of stuff in about 10 minutes. Sting does a top rope superplex, which looks great. Nice tease spot when Luger starts to come in to break up the Flair/Sting pinfall.

 

Flair/Luger -- Good to see these two lock up for the first time since Lex's return to WCW. Even this late, when neither guy is what he used to be, Flair/Luger is a better match than Flair/Sting, and seeing both matchups next to each other makes that point. It also exposes Flair's formula in a weird way, as he calls some of the same spots with Luger that he did with Sting a few minutes earlier. The biggest difference between this and 1988-1990 is that Luger just isn't as over, so the crowd doesn't pop for his big strength spots, which are set up nicely, but just don't have the heat they did in the past. Part of that is the role Luger is in. Part of it is the crap crowd. Part of it is that these two are older and not as hot as they were at one point. Flair working over Luger's knee is really good. I wish these two could have had a PPV match at some point in 1996. Flair trolling Sting repeatedly just to distract the ref long enough for him to low blow Luger was lots of fun. Warts and all, these two fit like a glove.

 

Luger/Sting -- This was pretty good, but if I hadn't just seen their Starrcade '89 match, it may have seemed better. That was a pretty fast-paced match, and this was not. This also doesn't have the heat you'd expect for these two finally locking up. Flair doing his run-in at the end does show how even at this stage, he was on a different level than both of them. And I do like the screwy finish of this with Luger costing Sting and Flair sneaking in.

 

Very interesting and worth watching, but not as good as I remembered.

[Tim Evans]

I enjoyed this. Early on, I didn't think Luger should have been in it but once he got in, he proved his worth. Flair was great as always. And Sting gets screwed over like he always does.

[Smack2k]

Is this the bloodiest Flair ever was on camera?? He was a MESS...

[slabinski611]

I remember liking this because of the match layout. I don't really care for triangle/threeway/triple threat match with a few exceptions but this was fun. It's not worth going out of your way to see, but still fun.

 

On a side note, what was with wcw and Starcade ? That is supposed to be your big money show of the year and they kept turning it into a concept ppv. 1989/ironman challenge, 1990/tag tourney, 1991-92/battlebowl, 1995/world cup. It is like having the wm4 tourney sandwiched in between years of Hogan/Andre and Hogan/Savage. Even then, at least that was a tourney for the world title. Any clue as to why wcw repeatedly screwed around with Starcade so much ?

[Loss]

Frequent changes in leadership, and I don't think all of the people in charge through the years saw Starrcade as THE big show of the year. It would be worth looking back sometime to see if Starrcade had a noticeably higher or lower buyrate than other shows from 1988-1996. Crockett treated it as the number one show of the year, but I'm not sure WCW did.

[Smack2k]

I never understood that either not keeping Starrcade as THE show of the year...

 

But to add to Loss's point, which is 100% accurate, the fact that the old line "Non-Wrestling Guys were running a wrestling company" really sticks it's head out here with this...But after 92, they got it again, at least close..

 

93 forward was all back to a BIG show feel for WCW..Even 1995 was special as it was a bunch of foreign guys coming in for a big one night tournament to see who was better, plus the two matches for the World Title...WCW just did a SHIT job promoting the World Cup portion, as it was basically never mentioned on Nitro...96 forward "Got It" again...even 2000 was attempted to be special, but so many guys were injured, they were stuck with the Mystery Opponent at the end of NItro.....oh, its Sid....

[El-P]

Flair/Luger -- Good to see these two lock up for the first time since Lex's return to WCW. Even this late, when neither guy is what he used to be, Flair/Luger is a better match than Flair/Sting, and seeing both matchups next to each other makes that point.

Agreed. Luger also makes a much better no-sell comeback, as it came after he already threw Flair off the top rope and he did register the shots as opposed to Sting who just no-sells from nowhere after some big spots a-la Hogan, which I can't stand.

 

The biggest difference between this and 1988-1990 is that Luger just isn't as over, so the crowd doesn't pop for his big strength spots, which are set up nicely, but just don't have the heat they did in the past. Part of that is the role Luger is in. Part of it is the crap crowd. Part of it is that these two are older and not as hot as they were at one point.

Disagree. Luger's role and the crap crowd played a lot in the lack of heat. Earlier on against Chono Luger was over like a rover, but here the crowd seemingly died at one point and they never got back into the groove. I think the Luger vs Sting part which was the worst of the three helped kill the crowd after an intriguing face off. The one thing I noticed with Luger is that no matter how many times they would turn him heel or face, he basically still was over with the WCW crowd, as showed by the insane reaction he got when he turned nWo Wolfpäck after months of doing nothing.

 

Basically I really enjoyed this as a big Ric Flair showcase even though it was 1995 Flair and not 1989 Flair anymore.

[Dooley]

I never understood that either not keeping Starrcade as THE show of the year...

 

But to add to Loss's point, which is 100% accurate, the fact that the old line "Non-Wrestling Guys were running a wrestling company" really sticks it's head out here with this...But after 92, they got it again, at least close..

 

93 forward was all back to a BIG show feel for WCW..Even 1995 was special as it was a bunch of foreign guys coming in for a big one night tournament to see who was better, plus the two matches for the World Title...WCW just did a SHIT job promoting the World Cup portion, as it was basically never mentioned on Nitro...96 forward "Got It" again...even 2000 was attempted to be special, but so many guys were injured, they were stuck with the Mystery Opponent at the end of NItro.....oh, its Sid....

Bischoff had said that he looked at Halloween Havoc as the biggest PPV of the year. '94 and '95 certainly bear that out with Hogan-Flair retirement match and Hogan-Giant happening there respectively. Starrcade those years had Hogan-Beefcake and this event, and this show did an abysmal buyrate because no one cared who the Japanese guys were or why WCW guys were facing them.

 

'96 evened out a bit more with the Hogan-Savage blowoff happening at Havoc and Hogan-Piper taking Starrcade, which did huge business.

 

'97 had the boffo Starrcade number as a result of the year-long Hogan-Sting build while Havoc featured the awful Hogan-Piper "Age in the Cage" match where the feud had clearly outlived its usefulness.

 

'98 again was more even as Havoc featured the double main event of Goldberg-DDP and Hogan-Warrior 2, while Starrcade had Goldberg-Nash. Starrcade also didn't feature Hogan but did a surprisingly big buyrate, showing that Goldberg really was the ace of the promotion at this point. So of course he lost to Nash and never recovered.

[BruiserBrody]

Most of the match felt like a "Best of" tribute to other matches these guys had in the past. Enjoyable but ultimately skipable. I loved the ending sequence though.

[PeteF3]

Even though I knew the result, I must admit they kept me guessing as to what would happen next and just how exactly Flair would pull this out. Schiavone jumps on the rather stupid one-fall, one-man-on-the-apron stip right from the start, wondering why anyone would ever tag out, but they work around that limitation pretty nicely and wouldn't you know--Flair *does* manage to win from the outside. Great, great finish. The crowd sucked--and man, was this a case of multiple personality disorder for them throughout the night--but the work was good.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Ric Flair vs Sting vs Lex Luger - WCW Starrcade 1995

I normally skip triple threats but these three a cool threesome with their 8 year history but this is during the period when the three way was still being innovated. This is a singles match with one man on the apron who can be tagged in. Being on the outside allows you to rest and recuperate but also you can’t win the match. 
 

The funniest part of the match is Dusty has never heard of playing possum and goes on a ridiculous rant and The Brain is beside himself that he has never heard of playing possum.

This is my first time reviewing a match over 20 minutes in length in a long time so breaking it in half. Work has been pretty light for a change this week. 
 

Flair and Sting start us off and go a good 10-ish minutes. It is not as good as the WWIII match I just watched but still solid. Sting steamrolls Flair to start. Flair slows things down with a hammerlock and some really good blows. Flair’s punch is so underrated. Sting no-sells and looks great against Flair. He does the All Japan no sell on the outside against the railing to steamroll Flair. Sting looks like there is no stopping him until he misses a dropkick and Flair takes over. Lots of cocky shit from Flair and taunting Luger. Sting no-sells a Flair suplex and the rout is back on. SUPERPLEX! Luger threatens to break it up. Sting is like what the hell man and Luger is like well I am not just going to let you win. Flair knocks Sting into Luger which is not wise as Luger has had 10minutes to rest. 
 

Luger transforms into 1988 Luger and immediately hits Flair with a FLEX to put him on his ass. I am a sucker for that spot. Luger Caveman Carries Flair back in the Ring. It get a little clunky. Flair is able to pinball off Luger to get them back on track. Another press slam it is 90s Flair he loves it. Flair is able to chop block the knee and works it over. Love chair smash on the knee. Lots of great knee work by Flair here. Back to watching the match. Flair hits a great blow to the hammies or was it the balls? The Figure-4 was worked great. The big flex by Lex was electric. Suplex by Luger and then Press Slam. The Package is rolling.  Flair opts to tag out. Will that be wise?

The match had been pretty good but it nosedives here. Luger and Sting have pretty bad chemistry and look actively lost at times. I would have gone with babyface vs babyface wrestling lots of symmetry before Luger starts to cheat. Neither guy knows how to chain wrestle so they opt for a lot of clubbering and you can hear the crowd dying. Luger heels way too quickly. He is stepping on Sting’s throat almost immediately. Sting gets it going but eats knees on a Vaderbomb and when Luger is in the ropes on Scorpion Deathlock, Luger hits him in the nuts. Inverted Atomic Drop by Total Package feel the testicular psychology. Love Sting intentionally not whipping Luger into Flair’s corner. Stinger Splash! Misses the second one. LUGER RACKS THE STINGER! Sting wipes out the ref. Flair chop blocks Luger! I love when Lugers knee gives out in the Rack so I loved that spot. He sends both packing to the outside. They both get counted out and Flair wins?!?

Both legal men getting counted out feels like it should be ruled a double count out but it is WCW so who the fuck knows. Clearly they wanted Flair to win but they wanted to protect Stinger and Luger from eating a fall. So as far as nonsensicalWCW finishes go this one isn’t so bad. It is essentially three separate matches. Flair/Luger was my favorite but just for the heat and finish. Flair/Sting was good start to finish. Sting/Luger drags this down. It was like *** 1/4-1/2 but let’s go a flat ***. At almost 30 minutes dont think I need to watch this again.