Grilling JR - Starrcade 1991: Battlebowl [Show Notes] (Patreon)

This week Jim we’re going to close out 2021 by looking back 30 years at Starrcade 1991: BattleBowl! 

We’re coming off Halloween Havoc 1991 which featured Lex Luger defending his WCW World Title over Ron Simmons, the return of Paul E. Dangerously, the debut of Rick Rude and the Chamber of Horrors match featuring Abdullah the Butcher being electrocuted in the middle of the ring.

In the meantime you have a Clash of the Champions coming up along with TV tapings taping for after the Clash but still running storylines coming off Havoc. There’s worked injuries like to Barry Windham coming out of shows but he’s still appearing on other syndicated shows. From the Observer: “That business of trying to pretend Barry Windham is wrestling with the hurt wrist on television comes off really clumsy. They're deathly afraid (as is Titan) for letting on that the matches are taped ahead of time, so given that, with Windham working on all the TV shows through the weekend of 11/16, I guess that's the only answer. However, on Sunday's Jim Ross show, when someone asked if he would be working the Clash in Savannah, Ross said he may be in Savannah but he's making all of his dates right now, which goes beyond anything that can remotely be construed as honesty.”

A lot to unpack there. How hard is it to keep kayfabe in that an injury that happens when it’s a shoot… which weeks of footage in the can … building got certain things but at the same time not knowing when the guy can be available again … be to navigate?

Did you find yourself having to be dishonest as Meltzer says on your radio show to protect the business and not insult customers?

Do you think doing these tapings for weeks ahead of time in television hurts the product in the long run and was a reason for WCW not being able to gain competitively against the WWF?

From the Observer: “They've re-assigned the Event Coordinators once again. Chip Burnham will be doing the old Mid South territory plus Georgia and Florida, David Crockett will be doing the Carolinas, I've got no idea whose doing the West Coast and Gary Juster will do the Northeast and Midwest.”

Crockett holding onto a job in WCW for such a long time shows how valued he was and Gary Juster still being involved in the business as recently as a couple weeks ago with ROH…but what can you tell us about Chip Burnham?

There’s talk in the Observer of Mike Graham being removed as a road agent and going back into the ring. Mike has had … such a history … in this business from his father to talking about Jeff Jarrett never drawing a dime … and then him sitting in with you during the Legends of Wrestling round tables on the original WWE Network. What was it about Mike that kept him in the business for as long as he was?

Dick the Bruiser passes away on November 11th in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. What are your memories of the Bruiser?

During this time the WWF is promoting two pay-per-views in a week’s time. On Wednesday November 27th they hold the Survivor Series and then Tuesday in Texas on December 3rd. That’s two full priced pay-per-views in 6 days. When the WWF does an experiment like this do you or anyone in the office take a look and wonder:

1. Could it work for us?
2. Will it work?
3. What the hell are they doing?

The TV tapings going into Starrcade feature a lot of direction changes. There’s a couple I want to talk about. Marcus Bagwell gets a couple tryouts and will eventually join the company. What was the eventual Buff like when he was trying out of the company?

There’s a convoluted storyline where Johnny B. Badd turns babyface aligning with PN News…man that’s a team … and Meltzer has this to ask: “How come when Badd debuted, he had no clue as to what to do in the ring, and he was pushed like crazy and beat everyone. Then, when he improves 1000 percent and gets over really strong, and learns to play his gimmick second-to-none, he gets buried while instead they push Van Hammer like he's the second coming, who is five times worse in every way and not over one-tenth as much?”

I mean…what’s the defense of that?

Teddy Long and Lady Blossom disappear from TV around this time. Was this just a fundamental phase out of managers not named Paul Heyman or budget concerns?

From the Observer: “Nearly everyone is saying that Jerry Jarrett will be coming in to work as co-booker with Dusty Rhodes in 1992, but best sources tell us that is far from a done deal, although Jarrett has talked with TBS about things.”

What is the relationship like with Jerry Jarrett at the time and were there talks of bringing him in?

From the Observer: “Starrcade will consist of a drawing to determine 10 tag team matches (the drawing will take place at the beginning of the show, so you won't know any of the matches on the card until you purchase the show), and the 10 winning teams will then go into a 20 man two-ring Battle Royal. The idea is for this to become an annual concept for Starrcade, as WCW wants to do exclusively theme shows on PPV at the same time WWF is adding title match main events to its theme shows.”

Where does this concept come from for the upcoming PPV? Was it a winning a concept in theory or did the creative end up hurting it?

Meltzer calls the Sting vs. Cactus Jack submission or surrender match on a World Wide episode “the best match I’ve seen on American television since at the very least the Ric Flair-Brian Pillman matches from both 1990 and 1991.” High praise from Dave. Was Cactus impressing the WCW front office like he was Meltzer?

The World Wrestling Federation announces their first steroid policy in light of a story about to come out on Entertainment Tonight & Inside Edition. When do you first hear about it and what’s your reaction?

What’s the internal Turner reaction and does this make anyone stand up and go - do we need to do this?

Is this something that ends up on the radar of say Ted Turner?

Ric Flair gives back the Big Gold Belt finally and the legal battle seems to be coming to an end. Why was this such a big deal to Jim Herd?

You head to England doing a promotional tour for some upcoming house shows and you go with Johnny B. Badd & PN News. What was this experience like?

Ricky Steamboat rejoins WCW for the Clash of the Champions. Between Ricky Steamboat & Rick Rude coming into the fold - that’s a pretty big shot in the arm is it not?

WCW institutes a total blood ban according to the Observer coming off the Magic Johnson HIV story. Where does this edict come from?

The Clash draws a 4.3 rating which is 2,460,000 homes and Meltzer even brings up how WCW is consistently out rating the WWF on cable as of late. He credits the really good matches of late and new talent joining. Would you give the same credit?

The Dangerous Alliance begins to take shape with Bobby Eaton joining the Enforcers, Arn Anderson & Larry Zybysko, Steve Austin, Rick Rude  and Madusa.. It starts with the Clash where Luger jumps Sting during an interview segment from Madusa’s distraction. It’s really a great piece of business the show long story about Bobby Eaton telling Sting to head to the hospital and then Rude and Paul having the contract set that Rude can win the title if Sting fails to show. It’s a layer of storytelling that doesn’t really happen much today. Who’s the one handling most of the creative at this point? Is Heyman involved?

There’s a lot of talk in the Observer at the time that Jim Crockett was having a renewed influence in creative. Is that accurate?

Lex Luger and Rick Steiner main event the Clash and Meltzer tells an interesting story that Luger’s contract was an issue at the time because his dates were all used up and there was talk of Steiner winning the title. What can you tell us about this and how close was the title going to Steiner that night?

Coming off of that Harley Race is fired and Lex Luger quits in protest. What do you remember of this and was this a sign that Luger was going to be wrapping up when his contract was up?

Go check out our Lex Luger episode in the archives as we cover all this in-depth. But coming out of that it’s announced that Atlantic City and Trump Taj Mahal will host be hosting SuperBrawl with Luger vs. Sting as the main event. Was running Atlantic City in the same building as Hogan vs. Savage something of a homage to it?

Just two weeks later it’s announced that Donald Trump pulled the show from the building because he was attempting to book the building for a one-on-one game between Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Julius Erving and it had to go to Milwaukee. Is this where WCW’s standing was in the entertainment world at the time?

KPTV, Channel 12 in Portland cancels Don Owen’s Portland Wrestling after 38 years. What memories of Owen and Portland Wrestling do you have and did you ever have any work with Don?

Can that terrority’s impact on wrestling really be stated correctly?

Dynamite Kid announces his retirement coming off the 1991 All Japan Tag Team Tournament. Was there ever talk of bringing Billington into WCW during this time frame or was his body just too broken down?

What could have Billington been if was born 10-15 years later?

From the Observer: “On the Wrestling Hotline, Jim Ross brought up several names in regards to coming to WCW. He called Ultimate Warrior coming in "a big longshot," said that Terry Gordy was negotiating, that he hoped Steve Williams would come in if Gordy did, that Great Muta was probable for an extended tour in 1992 and also brought up Scott Norton's name.”

Why was Warrior and WCW not a fit?

Gordy & Williams will come in in 1992 and then Muta and much later Scott Norton. Was the boat missed on Scott Norton and could he had been something in 1992?

Regarding the Starrcade buyrate Meltzer would say: “looking at all this, there is some potential for interesting match-ups, particularly since they aren't really going to blind draw the thing and hopefully they'll be booked with ideas in mind that will maximize the effectiveness of the talent. As for the Battle Royal, with very few exceptions, every time I watch a Battle Royal I come out of it with the feeling that if I never saw another Battle Royal for the rest of my life, I'm not going to be missing anything entertaining. My feeling is without any direct matches to promote, the show is going to draw an audience limited to those who will order every PPV show no matter what (an audience that is quickly dwindling) but will be bolstered a very small amount by the fact that the week after Christmas seems to be an opportune time for a PPV show. And at least they aren't going head-to-head with the seventh game of the World Series.”

Is this a tough concept to sell without having any guaranteed matches?

This is the first Starrcade without Ric Flair involved. How weird is that?

We’re here now for the show Jim. Let’s talk about the Observer readers reaction. 72.4% thumbs down for the show. The show gets 155,000 buys compared to last year’s 165,000 and it’s an increase of 35,000 buys from Halloween Havoc. Is this considered a success or a failure at this time?

Right off the top Meltzer has this to say in his recap: “Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone were frequently making references to moves and incidents, not just in the Battle Royal but in many of the tag matches that the viewer couldn't see because the cameras were pointed somewhere else. It's considered the cardinal sin for an announcer to talk about something the viewer can't see because it makes the poor camera work obvious. But geez, if they didn't, we'd never know that there actually was some good stuff taking place in the building.”

Is this a production issue? Is this not having a monitor at ringside issue? What is to blame there?

The show opens with Jimmy Garvin & Marcus Alexander Bagwell defeating Michael Hayes & Tracy Smothers in 12:42. Bagwell pinned Smothers with a fisherman’s suplex and Meltzer even states that Bagwell seemed to have a good deal of potential.

It’s a big pay-per-view debut for the future Buff but look at the talent of this match. This is the perfect 3 guys to be in the ring for Bagwell to get started with isn’t it?

Next up we got the Dangerous Alliance of Rick Rude & Steve Austin beating Van Hammer & Big Josh in 12:55 when Rude pinned Hammer. Meltzer speculates that this is the end of the mega push for Van Hammer. Was it just time to realize this was a failure and best to move on?

Big Josh - tell us about Matt Borne at that time.

Meltzer gave this ¾*.

Dustin Rhodes & Richard Morton defeated El Gigante & Larry Zybysko in 6:11. Yes that’s a real sentence regarding a real wrestling match that took place on pay-per-view. Zybysko of course eats the pin but I mean…who could have thought this was a good idea? Meltzer gave this ¾*.

DDP & Mike Graham take on Jushin Liger & Bill Kazmaier and yeah…Meltzer says it right off the bat, “What a waste of Liger. Liger did a few nice moves, some of which Graham didn’t sell right since he’s probably never taken those moves in his entire career.”

What a styles clash here isn’t it Jim? Another ¾*. Could there had been a better combo here?

Oh and Liger & Kazmaier win.

Lex Luger & Arn Anderson defeat Terry Taylor & Tom Zenk in 10:25. From Meltzer: “Taylor worked as a face and was the best wrestler on the show thus far. From a wrestling standpoint, this blew away everything else on the card. ***¼”

You look at the level of talent in this match and than some of the others and you have to think…couldn’t this had been spread around better?

Cactus Jack & Buddy Lee Parker team up in a losing effort to Ricky Steamboat & Todd Champion in 7:48. Parker stands up to be Cactus’ partner and Abdullah the Butcher destroys him in the heel locker room because he wants to be Cactus’ partner. Somehow this leads to Cactus - the heel - working alone and Steamboat and Cactus really clicked in this match. Somehow Parker finally comes to the ring and was tagged in and quickly pinned by Steamboat. The psychology of this is just all over the place is it not? *½

Speaking of Abby he teams with Sting in the next match and takes on Bobby Eaton & Brian Pillman in 5:37. It has a lot of Abby vs. Pillman in it which made me want to see more of these two but Sting & Eaton really go after it well. Cactus interferes but it backfires on Abby…then Sting cross bodies Eaton for the win while Pillman … WHO’S ON EATON’S TEAM… stops Abby from breaking up the pin. *** ¼ Jim but my goodness that finish.

Cactus and Abby brawl to the back which could be a turn or end up being nothing like it was. A lot of angles on this show that don’t lead to much. Why is that?

Vader & Mr. Hughes beat Rick Steiner & Night Stalker … the future Adam Bomb … Steiner and Vader together was great but everything else wasn’t great. *¾.

The other Steiner in Scott teamed up with Chip the Firebreaker to defeat Arachnaman & Johnny B. Badd in 11:16. Meltzer says the match went too long to be this late in the show but here’s our chance to discuss Arachnaman. For those that don’t know it’s Brad Armstrong in a Spider-Man costume. How does this even work? What did you think of the gimmick?

*¼.

Ron Simmons & Thomas Rich beat Steve Armstrong & PN News in 11:44. ¾*.

Steve Armstrong - kind of a forgotten Armstrong brother. Member of the Young Pistols with Tracy Smothers. What was it about him that didn’t get him more out of this business?

So 20 winners from the 10 tag matches are entered into a 2-ring battle royal. 10 in one ring and 10 in another. Why this compared to a normal 20 man 1 ring battle royal?

From Meltzer:

“Lex Luger and Sting won ring one and two respectively in the two-ring Battle Royal. Battle Royals suck on pay-per-view. A Royal Rumble is usually good because not so many are in the ring at once so they can work spots and you can follow the action. But traditional Battle Royals don't make good television, particularly when action is going on in two rings simultaneously. Clearly there was a substantial amount of good action (most of it outside the ring when two workers like, say Steamboat and Anderson, decided to get out of the ring and do something without everyone else getting in the way) but it was pretty bad overall. Luger ended up being the last one left in the first ring. In the second ring, the final four were Rude, Austin, Sting and Steamboat. Austin went out, then Rude and Steamboat went out simultaneously. Rude threw Steamboat over, Steamboat pulled himself up, then grabbed a head-scissors on Rude and flipped him over while hanging on. As Steamboat tried to flip himself back in the ring, Rude, from the floor, pulled him out in 17:37. 1/2* (The final spot was good enough to elevate it from a DUD)”

Vader is one week removed from becoming the IWGP Champion but has yet to really be a top guy in WCW at this point. Was Vader ready to be a top guy?

The finish is great but I don’t disagree with Meltzer. Too much going on and no ability to focus on anything. How hard is it to call this type of match and does anybody think about the viewer when putting something like this together?

Finally Sting throws out Luger in 6:29 to win the whole thing. It’s to set up Sting and Luger at SuperBrawl but it’s a great sprint with Rick Rude and Harley Race involved before Sting gets the win. **¾ to close the show.

Is this more a television format show that would be good for say a Clash compared to a pay-per-view must pay to see concept?

What say you Jim, thumbs up, thumbs down to thumbs in the middle?