Starrcade '87 "Chi-Town Heat"

NWA "Starrcade '87: Chi-Town Heat"

November 26, 1987

UIC Pavilion

Chicago, IL

Meltzer star ratings included. My match reviews appear in bold italics.

◾Six Man Tag Team Match: "Hotstuff" Eddie Gilbert, Larry Zbyszko, & Rick Steiner with Baby Doll vs. Sting, & "The Fabulous Freebirds" ("Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin & Michael "P.S." Hayes) with Precious ~ Winners ~  time limit draw in 15:00 = **3/4

This match was a way to get Sting in front of people in the NWA. JCP had just purchased the UWF and acquired much of its talent (Sting, Gilbert, Steiner, Steve Williams, Barry Windham, etc.). Booker Dusty Rhodes saw great potential in the young Stinger and wanted to debut him on the biggest event of the year. Putting him in a 6-man gets five other guys paydays and protects any deficiencies in his arsenal. It was certainly passable. The draw kept everyone strong.

◾UWF Heavyweight Title Match: "Dr. Death" Steve Williams (c) vs. Barry Windham (NWA Western States Heritage Champion) ~ Winner and STILL UWF Champion ~ Steve Williams in 6:50 = DUD

Meltzer rated this a DUD. I get that, but I still would have given it at least *. It really was match of two guys who could go, but who simply did not click in the ring. Windham was a phenomenal talent who just had a magnificent series with Ric Flair in the Spring of 1987. "Dr. Death" was a smashmouth worker in the ring. In fact, Jim Ross pretty much coined the term "slobberknocker" for his matches. This one didn't work. This was a face-on-face bout, which typically don't develop well anyway. They tried psychology, in that Williams got hurt earlier in the match and Windham gave him respite. Windham got hurt later in the match on an inadvertent low blow and Williams immediately took advantage for the pin. It gave the two heat for what seemed to be a program, but JCP basically phased the UWF out, so nothing came of it. This was a shame. I thought there should have been an invasion angle that culminated in some sort of "winner takes all" scenario. For as much as Crockett paid Bill Watts for the promotion (it was millions and he didn't even get the video library), you would have thought more would have been done before the UWF went away.

◾Tag Team Scaffold Match: "The Rock-n-Roll Express" (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) vs. "The Midnight Express" ("Beautiful" Bobby Eaton & "Sweet" Stan Lane) with Big Bubba Rogers & Jim Cornette ~ Winners ~ "The Rock-n-Roll Express"
 in 10:23 = ***

You had two of the finest tag teams ever to grace the ring in a gimmick match. A standard tag team match would have garnered four or more stars. These two teams battles for years and it always worked in the ring. The element of being fifteen or twenty feet above the ring will take the workrate down for anyone, much less four individuals perched precariously on scaffolding that was roughly four feet wide. Still, it probably was the most entertaining match of the night. Add Jim Cornette, who was gold, running traffic below, and you had a multi-faceted contest that, while slightly overbooked, provided the fans with a spectacle.

◾NWA World Television Title/UWF Television Title Unification Match: Nikita Koloff [NWA] vs. Terry Taylor with Eddie Gilbert [UWF] ~ Winner and NEW unified Television Champion ~ Nikita Koloff in 18:58 = *

This was another dagger in the hearts of the UWF. Reigning UWF "World" TV Champ Terry Taylor had stolen Koloff's NWA World TV Title belt, which added heat to the unification match. Since the UWF was being absorbed, it was clear Koloff would win, which made the match anticlimactic from a "smart" fan's perspective. Terry Taylor was a great in-ring worker. I love Nikita Koloff personally, but, in the ring, was never developed into a premier worker. This was another case of two guys who did not gel in the ring. One star was sad, especially for a near twenty-minute match. Taylor could not overcome Koloff's in-ring shortcomings. By the way, Nikita still has the UWF Television Title belt. I took a picture with him and it last year. It was my Facebook profile pic for a few weeks. LOL

◾NWA World Tag Team Title Match: "The Horsemen" Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard with James J. Dillon (c) vs. The Road Warriors (Animal & Hawk) with Paul Ellering ~ Winners and STILL NWA World Tag Team Champions ~ Anderson & Blanchard by DQ in 13:27 = ***1/2

This was the highest-rated match of the night, and for good reason. For my money, Arn & Tully are the greatest pure tag team in wrestling history. I rate the "Warriors" right behind them. Even Road Warrior Animal has conceded that point himself. The match was on track to be fantastic, until the infamous "Dusty Finish" reared it's ugly head. Animal & Hawk appeared to have won the championship in front of their "hometown" (they were billed from Chicago) crowd. Then, the decision was reversed and the champions retained due to interference from Paul Ellering before the pin. Smart booking would have been to give the "LOD" a feel-good win, only to have Anderson & Blanchard cheat their way back to the titles a few weeks later. But, as brilliant a mind as Dusty was, he let his ego for the swerve finish get in the way. Sometimes, booking should be as simple as 1-2-3.

◾NWA United States Heavyweight Title Vs. Career Steel Cage Match: Lex Luger with James J. Dillon (c) vs. "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes with Johnny Weaver  ~ Winner and NEW United States Champion ~ Dusty Rhodes in 16:28 = *

I would have rated this match as the DUD personally. I have never liked Lex Luger in the ring. He was clunky and mechanical for his entire career. He received preferential booking because he looked the part, plain and simple. He was an average worker, at best. He was an average talker, at best. The fact that Dusty was so entertaining truly was the only redeeming quality in this match. Dusty had put his career on the line against Luger and the only NWA championship he had not booked himself into to that point. Rhodes also learned the "Sleeperhold" or "Weaver Lock" from legend Johnny Weaver to add a new wrinkle in his offense. This on provided another anti-climactic finish that saw Dillon toss in a steel chair (much like he did during the match in which Luger won the championship in July '87). Dusty "DDT'ed" Luger onto the chair for the pin and the belt. This attempt at irony served to set the stage for Luger transitioning out of "The Four Horsemen" and into a babyface singles star.

◾NWA World Heavyweight Title Steel Cage Match: "Hands of Stone" Ron Garvin (c) vs. "Nature Boy" Ric Flair ~ Winner and NEW NWA World Champion ~ Ric Flair in 17:38 = **1/2

This is one of the lowest-rated "big money" matches of Flair's career, and it had to do with his opponent. Dusty Rhodes booked his buddy, perennial midcarder Ron Garvin, to the World Championship back in September '87. The goal was to give the fans a hero as transitional champion that Flair would defeat at some point to regain the championship. The problem was that fans crapped on Garvin from the get-go. The injury to Magnum T.A. in '86 threw booking plans into a tailspin. Nikita was turned babyface, but didn't as a World Title caliber opponent. Fans had seen Flair vs. Rhodes 1000 times. Sting was just coming into the company. Windham had gone over to the UWF and was just coming back. Garvin was Rhodes choice, but TV ratings tanked after he won the belt, so they decided to put Flair over two months later at "Starrcade." The fans loved it, as they cheered for the heel Flair and booed Garvin. Ron was simply awful as champion and this match showed he was not a primetime player.

Ultimately, this was the big nail in the coffin for JCP. It was the company's first official pay-per-view. Vince McMahon offered "Survivor Series" on the same night and strong-armed cable and satellite companies into carrying his event versus JCP's card. Crockett only had a few carriers that chose to air his PPV, which severely hurt sales. The fact that the event took place in Chicago instead of a southern city further hampered things, as Jim Crockett was attempting national expansion. After the dismal buyrate for this event, he was facing a financial crisis and sold to Ted Turner in 1988.