83 Weeks - Starrcade 1993 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Starrcade 1993

Starrcade 1993 took place on December 27th, from the Independance Arena, in Charlotte, North Carolina. It drew 7,000 with 1,000 comp tickets which a lot of *4 tickets sold for about $65,000. It did a 0.55 pay per view buyrate  for 1.35 million ppv revenue

Starrcade was WCW's version of WrestleMania; their big pay per view of the year. We're coming off of the BattleBowl pay per view, where we saw Vader injure Ric Flair outside the ring on the ramp and cause Flair to be taken out on a stretcher, to help build more heat for their Starrcade World title match

There's been rumors for years that the original World Title match for Starrcade was going to be Vader vs Sid Vicious, with Sid winning the World Title from Vader. However, because of the stabbing incident between Sid & Arn Anderson, those plans were changed and Sid was fired from WCW.

Is it true that the original match at Starrcade was going to be Vader vs Sid?

Had that match happened, what was the plans for Ric Flair? Starrcade was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, which was Ric's hometown, so there had to be plans for Ric, right?

When was it for super decided that Ric was going to be in the match with Vader? Who else was discussed for that spot?

Let's get to some company news heading into Starrcade

December 1993 vs December 1992

Estimated average attendance 12/92 930

Estimated average attendance 12/93 640 (-31.2%)

November 1993 370

Estimated average gate 12/92 $8,370

Estimated average gate 12/93 $6,720 (-19.7%)

November 1993 $3,300

Percentage of house shows sold out 12/92 0.0

Percentage of house shows sold out 12/93 0.0

November 1993 0.0

Average cable television rating 12/92 2.2

Average cable television rating 12/93 2.0 (-9.1%)

November 1993 2.4

Meltzer reported -  

Gene Okerlund on the Hotline called Anthony Valenti and Sean O'Shea (the government prosecutors in the Titan investigation) "clowns" and "government henchmen," which seems a wise move given the company he's working for is a sitting duck for the same kind of investigation. He said he'd love to be a character witness for Vince and that Vince was completely innocent of everything and that the government has no case. The last time I remember Gene as a character witness it was for Ken Patera and it sure did Patera a lot of good. Then he said that Vince's ego is way out of control for not taking himself off television until the case is settled. Gene also regularly talks about Hulk Hogan on his way in as well, which is all just a way to increase calls to the hotline and not a scoop with any semblance of reality. 

Right around this time, Hulk Hogan was publicly named in the lawsuit as being supplied steroids from Vince and Titan Sports from March 1988 to October 1989. What did you think about the lawsuit, did you keep up with it?

Did you think the government had a solid case against Vince or did you think it was a witch hunt?

Were you hoping that Vince went to prison?

Meltzer reported - two of WCW's most prominent bullseye posters for federal investigations, Davey Boy Smith and Sid Vicious were both fired. Vicious, who had agreed verbally with WCW officials to a four-year $2.4 million contract just before the 10/26 incident in Blackburne, England where he and Arn Anderson stabbed one another in a fight that got out of control, technically wasn't fired over the incident with Arn Anderson because of legal reasons, but for what was termed overall volatile behavior. 

Because of WCW officials apparently letting Vicious slide on steroid tests, there is a very messy can of worms that still has to be dealt with so any decision being absolute may not wind up being the case in the long-run, but for now, Vicious has been fired. Arn Anderson, who had been suspended since the incident, will be re-instated on or around 12/28. It's been ironic since television is not taped months in advance to see Anderson doing interviews that were taped in September and October talking about being stabbed in the back. Davey Boy Smith was also fired this past week, reportedly to set an example about too many no-shows. 

Despite what is being heavily rumored and reported, WCW is not getting out of the house show business (at least based on who is in power this week, as things could change at the drop of a hat) although there are only four non-TV tapings house shows scheduled for January, but the scheduled is a lot fuller come February and March reportedly. WCW management has finally acknowledged that one of the biggest problems that has absolutely destroyed their house show business is the consistent going into cities and not delivering the advertised product due to no-shows and apparently they are making Smith the well-paid example.  

Bulldog came in earlier in the year and immediately was put into the main event picture, challenging Vader for the World title at Slamboree. What led to his firing?

He was originally supposed to face Rick Rude at Starrcade, but after his firing, The Boss, formerly Big Boss Man in WWF and Big Bubba Rogers in the NWA showed up unannounced during an episode of Saturday night, and pinned Rick Rude, setting up their match at Starrcade

Meltzer later reported - In the case of Davey Boy Smith, who was the subject to something of a burial that at least bordered on being a cheap shot on television Saturday, the story goes something like this. Smith negotiated a deal with Bill Watts for a certain amount (presumably $1,000 although I don't know this to be an accurate figure) per match. Smith was under the impression that on dates he wasn't working for WCW, he was free to work independent shows, which is consistent with what Watts had said about the contracts he was signing people up with during that time period. 

atts also agreed to allow him to tour Japan since he had a deal already with Giant Baba before he negotiated with WCW, provided he give WCW two months notice before tours. Smith also claimed that Watts agreed to pay him a higher amount per match for European matches, since Smith was going to be the company's top draw there because of his existing popularity there from his WWF exposure and because of being a British native. 

Smith received the same amount from the recent (late October/early November) European tour as if the matches had been held in the U.S. 

He complained about the money and it wound up with him saying he wouldn't be going to the house shows unless he got what he felt was due him for the European tours. Apparently nobody at WCW contacted him to sort all this out, with the claim being they didn't know his new phone number for the communications problem. On 11/30 he taped the angle where he beat Rick Rude to set up their planned match at Starrcade. He then missed a TV taping in Dalton, GA and quit unless the European money was made good. WCW then "fired" him citing the missed show. 

This of course led to the angle that aired on television this past week where they re-taped the match with Rude, this time with Smith not showing up and largely buried as a coward on television, and with The Boss (Ray "Bossman" Traylor) beating Rude in the non-title match to set up a Starrcade match. Communication between Smith and WCW was still alive as late as the Monday after the television show aired which makes one think there's a possibility it could still be worked out, although Smith was buried again by Gene Okerlund on the hotline two days earlier. 

WCW was also mad about Smith working an indie show for his brother-in-law Jim Neidhart in Gate City, FL and demanding 60 percent of his pay for the show, with Smith believing his deal with Watts allowed him to work indies and WCW basically with the idea that anything Watts agreed to doesn't count because Watts isn't around, and Smith claiming he worked the show free since it was a family deal. Smith had also agreed to two All Japan tours this year, both of which WCW wouldn't let him go on because they had PPV shows that coincided with the tours.

 At this point All Japan lost interest in him, but New Japan then wanted him for the recently completed tour. He asked to go on that and WCW wouldn't let him because he was told they had big plans involving him for the Battle Bowl PPV show. As it turned out, the Nasty Boys, who were billed on all the house shows that followed Battle Bowl in the U.S., worked Battle Bowl, missing the first few days of the New Japan tour and worked the rest of the New Japan tour with the blessing of the office 

Speaking of Ray Traylor, was actually worked a few shows for the WWF the week before he showed up on Saturday night. What led to him coming to WCW?

Bobby Heenan left the WWF at the beginning of December. 

Meltzer reported that Bobby would be starting with WCW in January of 94. Heenan coming to WCW may spell the end for Jesse Ventura, although nothing is official on that. Ventura's contract, which reportedly is in the $500,000 annual range, expires in the next few weeks and it seems unlikely WCW would be wanting to renew him at that kind of a salary figure. Ventura himself on his WCW Hotline role brought up that his contract was running out and that he didn't know what his role would be long-term. It seems unlikely, but not impossible, that WCW would keep Gene Okerlund, Heenan and Ventura because of the huge payroll, and obviously of the three, Okerlund and Heenan are solid. 

Talk about when you started talking to Bobby about coming to WCW and at that time, did you already know that you were going to be letting Jesse go?

Curt Hennig who was Mr. Perfect in the WWF, left the WWF around this time and Meltzer reported that he was in the WCW offices not long after that. Did you negotiate with Curt around this time in 1993? Keller said that WCW gave him an offer to do commentary on ppvs, Clash of the Champions and TV.

Keller reported - While WCW personnel understandably cannot talk on record about future personnel matters, talk within the industry is that more than ever, it seems Dusty Rhodes's days are numbered as booker although we've heard that story before.

The leading candidate to replace Rhodes is Terry Funk, which might be one reason Funk refused to participate in the Survivor Series angle where he is unmasked. It also seems likely that if and when Terry Funk is hired, he will be the "WCW Commissioner" that Tony Schiavone has been talking about in recent weeks.

If Terry Funk gets hired as booker, which is still mere speculation at this point, one of his close allies remains Eddie Gilbert, who has a definite chance of returning to a prominent booking position in the industry. His return to the USWA this weekend seems to indicate he is still committed to being involved in pro wrestling after vowing several weeks ago that running for political office was in his future.

Funk has shown definite interest in the booking position with WCW and has apparently become friends with Eric Bischoff over the past couple of months, although some sources believe the opposite, that Funk would never enter WCW if Bischoff was working for the company. Funk was in Germany for the big Dec. 18 card and could not be reached for comment. 

Was Terry almost hired to replace Dusty as the booker? 

Meltzer reported - As if they don't have enough titles, WCW is going to introduce a European heavyweight championship belt next year. 

That didn't happen and ironically, the WWF introduced the European title in 1997. Was there talks about this happening? If so, why didn't it happen?

Keller reported in mid-December - Erik Bischoff was in Japan over the last week meeting with officials from New Japan Pro Wrestling, presumably looking to reestablished a working agreement with the promotion, and perhaps to learn a few things about how New Japan has achieved the level of success it has. 

Keller reported - WCW was negotiating with HBO to sell them monthly wrestling specials. HBO is now looking elsewhere for a different promotion to supply monthly specials... 

Any memories of this?

Keller said that in January WCW was going to be drastically cutting back on house shows.

Why was that decided at the time, and do you remember how long that lasted for?

Keller reported - Ted Turner spoke in confident terms to the WCW wrestlers in a much-anticipated meeting this past Thursday, saying WCW has a bright future. He also answered questions from WCW employees, including most of the contracted wrestlers.

Turner said that he has lost more money on the Hawks basketball team and Braves baseball team than on wrestling and they're still around, thus because he is also a wrestling fan, WCW will be around for a long time. One wrestler said he sounded like he didn't care all that much about losing money, although would obviously prefer to be making money. 

(The estimated losses sustained by WCW this year is $5-8 million according to figures circulating among employees this week.) Turner added (paraphrased), "If you think we're not happy with your performances, remember, you get your paychecks every week, so don't worry."

Turner mentioned future specials or promotions on his TNT network as a possibility. TNT is home of NBA basketball games and NFL games, besides its main line-up of old movies.

When one wrestler asked about steroids, Turner said, "I heard they make you sterile. Nothing's worth that. If you want to get bigger, buy a Jane Fonda workout tape," or something to that effect.

Was this something that Ted often did? If not, why did he do it at this time?

That takes us to Starrcade

Meltzer wrote - In a snafu the likes that seems to happen with alarming regularly with the company, a PPV ad that ran one week before the show in the trade magazine Multi Channel News, featured an ad not for Starrcade, but for SuperBrawl (2/20/94) listing the main event as Flair defending the title against Vader in a Thundercage match. Ad slicks for that match had been sent to cable companies around the country well before hand, so anyone within the cable industry with any interest in wrestling knew the result, but then again, any fan with a brain should have been able to easily figure it out as well. 

But the topper was three days later when the New York Daily News, which is I believe the largest circulated daily newspaper in the country, showed the ad for Super Brawl mentioning the snafu with the headline, "You Can Bet on it," saying the ad gave away that Flair was going to win the title four days later and said if you need some extra holiday cash, bet the ranch on Flair, if you can find someone to take the bet. Ironically, or perhaps not, the same newspaper ran a lengthy story on Flair the day before, treating Flair and pro wrestling as if it were a shoot. 

In addition, the ads in local newspaper TV Guides around the country for the show were still listing Vader defending against Vicious as the main event. If this was just one year ago and Bill Watts was still in charge of WCW, he'd have pulled out what little hair he had left, torn apart several sections of the office, and probably have to be heavily sedated in order to keep from changing the finish. But it's one year later and nobody cared, and quite frankly, I doubt if affected the number of buys for this show one iota. 

Who was in charge of leaking those results and did you hear about this at the time?

The show opened with a tribute to Ric, showing pictures of him growing up, and highlights of some of his past matches, and then highlights of Vader were shown

Terry Taylor pinned The Equalizer in a dark match. DUD 

Gene Okerlund interviewed Ric Flair at home with his wife and kids. Flair then left with Okerlund for the limousine ride to the arena. Vader was already shown arriving at the arena and working out earlier in the afternoon in the ring with Harley Race. 

Throughout the show, we'd see Ric and Gene riding together in the limo to the arena. This was very unique, we hadn't before or since seen something like this. Whose idea was this?

Was it live or was the whole thing taped prior to Starrcade?

Paul Orndorff & Paul Roma beat Too Cold Scorpio & Marcus Bagwell in 11:45 when The Assassin gave Scorpio a loaded head-butt and Orndorff pinned him. First disappointing match on the show as Scorpio & Bagwell were nowhere near the level they'd reached on previous major shows or even normal television matches. *3/4 

The cameras joined Okerlund and Flair riding to the arena in the limousine with Flair talking about the magnitude of the match he was going to be in. 

Shock Master pinned King Kong in 1:34 after a bodyslam. DUD 

The limo was shown arriving at the arena and Flair entering the arena 

So far looks like an edition of WCW Worldwide, instead of Starrcade, the biggest pay per view of the year

Steve Regal retained the WCW TV title going to what was billed as a 15:00 draw, which actually went 13:10, with Rick Steamboat. Another disappointment. *3/4 

Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne beat Tex Slashinger & Shanghai Pierce in 7:48 when Jack pinned Pierce with a double arm DDT. Match was uneventful until Jack tried a Lucha Libre move of being backdropped over the top rope by Payne and turning it into a plancha dive, which looked like it nearly killed him. *1/4 

Kyle Petty, a NASCAR driving, was interviewed by Gene, and compared Flair to his legendary father 

Steve Austin won the U.S. title in a 2/3 fall match with Dustin Rhodes. This was the second best match on the card. It was worked old-style early, but the blows were all stiff and everything looked solid. Rhodes was DQ'd in the first fall in 13:32 when he whipped Austin into Rob Parker, and Austin went over the top for a very cheap looking finish. Rhodes posted Austin between falls and Austin juiced heavy. Austin got the second fall pin out of nowhere using the tights in 1:28 and was announced as new champ. Since when does a title change hands when the challenger wins a fall with a DQ finish? Good thing it's wrestling so you can change storylines and rules at will. 

Speaking of changing storylines, how many people seeing Ric "Family Man" Flair with his wife and kids are confused from all the months of seeing Flair with Fifi on television? **3/4 

This was a rematch of their Halloween Havoc 1993 match a few months earlier in which Dustin won 

Rick Rude retained the WCW International World title pinning The Boss in 9:08. Bossman crotched himself on the ropes and Rude pinned him with a sunset flip. Not nearly as good as their television match. Rude got a good heel reaction coming out, so some people haven't caught on. They should not even worry about unification, they should just make this belt disappear. ** 

Sting & Hawk beat Nasty Boys via DQ in 29:11. Missy Hyatt gave Hawk a black rose before the match. Although sloppy at times, in some ways it wasn't that bad. But they were out their far too long to have such a weak finish. They did the Road Warrior finish on Knobs and Sting put him in the scorpion when Missy Hyatt interfered for the DQ. I'm in the minority on this but I didn't think the match was that bad, although the idea of them going that long for such a weak finish was awful. 

This may not have been the scheduled finish as they may have booked it to go the full 30:00 but Sags was injured and hospitalized after the card and they may have done a quickie impromptu DQ finish that didn't work. **1/2 

Missy Hyatt and Hawk were dating each other and just broke up right before Starrcade, she even slapped him very hard during this match. Do you remember anything about that?

The next match was the main event, Vader defending the World Title against Ric Flair, in his hometown of Charlotte. Let's talk about some history heading into this match.

On November 10th, at the Clash of the Champions, we saw the first Ric Flair vs Vader match, as Ric challenged then WCW World Champion Vader for the title.

They went 9:32 when after the ref bump, Vader did a superplex while standing on the top rope. He then missed a moonsault and Flair got on top and ref Randy Anderson did the swimming struggling walking with his hands that looks like a three count but isn't, called for the bell, and ruled Flair the winner via DQ. 

When the fans thought it was a pin, it got a huge pop because everyone thought that Ric just pinned Vader and was the new World Champion, but that wasn't the case. However, because of the way the finish it was done, it planted the seeds for the rematch.

At the end of November 93, Ric actually worked a few house shows against Harley Race, who was Vader's manager at the time, which ended up being Harley's final matches. Very fitting that they were against Ric Flair.

Ric of course had a legendary feud with Harley, even defeating him for the NWA World Title at the first Starrcade in 1983. Do you recall them working together on some house shows at this time, and how did they get along?

Flair pinned Vader in 21:11 to win the WCW title. Tremendous storyline and psychology. Pretty much everyone "knew" that Flair was going to win, so Vader just destroyed him early to the point it raised serious doubt. Whenever Flair would get an advantage, Harley Race would interfere and turn the tables. A Vader clothesline busted Flair's lip, mouth and tongue and loosened some of his teeth and he was bleeding badly the rest of the way. After kicking out of a superplex, Flair made a comeback working on Vader's knee, wrapping it around the post and hitting him with a chair. It turned into some great brawling outside the ring. 

After another Vader cutoff, he missed a splash and Flair got him in the figure four but Vader made the ropes. Finally Vader missed a moonsault, Flair went for the cover, Vader kicked Flair off and at the same moment 50-year old King Harley came off the top rope with a diving head-butt and hit Vader. Flair tried a tackle, but he was the one who went down. As Vader turned his back, Flair clipped Vader and schoolboyed him for the pin. ****1/2 

After the match, Vader tore up his locker room and screamed at Race. Flair was unable to speak much as he held back, at times unsuccessfully, his tears. Steamboat and Sting both congratulated Flair and his family in the locker room. 

This was probably the most physical match that we had seen Ric in, since the days of his feud with Ronnie Garvin. What did you think of this match?

How did Vader feel about losing the title to Ric?

This was officially Ric's 11th World Title win

Ric wrote about it - On December 27, 1993, Vader was supposed to lose his WCW Championship to Sid at Starrcade. As I mentioned previously, aside from his imposing physique, Sid offered nothing to the business. He didn’t want to learn how to perform or build up to execute an exciting match.

The title change was supposed to take place at the tenth anniversary of Starrcade. The show was in my hometown of Charlotte. At this point Sid was no longer with WCW and I was booked in the main event. 

You wouldn’t believe how much animosity there was over this. Ravishing Rick Rude, Paul Orndorff, and some of the other guys thought that they deserved to be champion, and here was Ric Flair getting the title again. 

But— despite our problems at other times— Dusty and Eric really did a great job of building up the match. As I’ve alluded to before, Dusty could be a genius. There were periods when he had a vision that was second to none.

I know that the other guys were kidding Leon backstage for having to lose the title to me, so when we got in the ring, we practically fought for real during parts of the match. When Leon suplexed me from the top rope, he protected me. When he jumped on me from the turnbuckles, he was ten times easier on my body than a lot of other guys. But when he punched me, it was legit. My ear was cauliflowered. My nose was swollen. He came at me with two fists at once, busting open my mouth.

We went to the floor, and Leon said, “I’m going to beat the fuck out of you if you don’t fight back.” I told him, “You want it, buddy? You got it.” And I just started tagging him. I’d been in fights like that before, but I never expected to have one at nearly forty-five years of age.

HARLEY RACE: Leon was being an asshole. He was hitting Flair with potatoes [direct shots to the head] the whole time. There was no need for it at all. Then Flair whaled back at him. Both of Leon’s eyes were swollen, and he started to loosen up after that.

I was biting Vader, and the fans loved it. As I covered him for a near-fall, Harley climbed the ropes, then came careening down with one of his flying headbutts. I rolled out of the way, and Vader took the hit. We got up, and I began chopping Vader. He knocked me down, then turned toward the crowd. That’s when I grabbed his ankle, tripped him, and rolled on top for the pin. It was one of my finest moments in the ring. 

The people were so happy. Even when I went backstage, the fans were still screaming, “Woooo!” I never really had the feeling that my parents liked wrestling. They told me all the time that they were proud of me, but I know they had no passion for the business. I was glad that they could be there with my kids that night, and see how much I meant to people.

In the dressing room, I cut an interview with Beth and all of my kids present. Reid started to wander out of camera range, and— with blood all over me— I steered him back into the shot. I had tears in my eyes as I lisped through a bloody mouth, “I’ve been a very, very fortunate man.” I couldn’t help it; the business was real to me. I’d given everything I could in that match for myself, for the fans who’d grown up watching me, and for my family.

The morning after I defeated Vader, my phone rang. It was Hulk Hogan. He was busy taking his kid to school, but he had one thing to tell me: “You made me cry last night, you old bastard.”

Ric and Vader would have a rematch at SuperBrawl in a cage with The Boss as the referee, which Ric also won, and the feud was abruptly ended right after that match

STARRCADE '93 FINAL POLL RESULTS

• Thumbs up 230 (66.7%)
• Thumbs down 76 (22.0%)
• In the middle 39 (11.3%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Ric Flair vs. Vader 327

No other match received more than one vote

WORST MATCH POLL

Shock Master vs. King Kong 164

Sting & Hawk vs. Nasty Boys 62