-Pat Patterson
-Wife’s birthday: We went all over looking at lights and going to Trader Joes.
-Christmas Watch:
The Homecoming
A Charlie Brown Christmas.
-Today we look at Starrcade ’89: Future Shock from the NWA and WCW.
-Starrcade ’89: Future Shock was shown on PPV on December 13, 1989 from The Omni in Atlanta, GA. There were 10,000 in attendance.
-Opening Credits.
-Gary Michael Cappetta welcomes us and asks that people stand for the National Anthem.
-Jim Ross, Terry Funk, and Jim Cornette are your announcers for the evening. Cornette will commentate on the tag team matches, and Funk will commentate on the singles matches.
-They go over the scoring system.
-Doom Ron Simmons and Butch Reed with Woman and Nitron, The Road Warriors Hawk and Animal with Paul Ellering, Rick and Scott Steiner, and The Wild Samoans Fatu and The Samoan Savage with The Big Kahuna Sir Oliver Humperdink are your teams competing for the Iron Team trophy.
-Doom VS. The Steiner Brothers: They explain the injury to Sid Vicious to say why The Skyscrapers aren’t in the tournament. The Steiners go for a quick win. Crowd heavily into The Steiners. Doom slows down the pace. Announcers pushing the tournament concept hard. They also talk about the crowd being slow to come in to cover the empty seats. It goes outside and Scott gets pummeled by Nitron. It works so well they do it again. Scott just tossed pillar to post. The referee is out of position when Scott moves and shifts a suplex. It speeds up as time runs out. Nitron trips Rick who decks him. All four brawl outside. Rick beats the count back in to win.
-Sting, Ric Flair, Lex Luger, and The Great Muta with Gary Hart are your Iron Man participants.
-Sting VS. Lex Luger: Luger is wearing an unfortunate gladiator type robe. JR and Terry Funk talk about Sting and Luger being the wrestlers of the ‘90’s. Luger walks out but Sting follows him and brings him back to the ring. Crowd is behind Sting. These two have good matches. Luger clearly the most hated wrestler of the night. If you drink when the announcers talk about the time limit, you will get alcohol poisoning. Luger pounds Sting, who keeps fighting back. They brawl on the apron, and as they tumble back in, Luger pins Sting holding onto the ropes.
-They update the scoreboard.
-Doom VS. The Road Warriors: Road Warriors are extremely over with the crowd. Animal and Hawk overpower Butch Reed. You will also get alcohol poisoning for drinking when they talk about the scoring system. They acknowledge the photographers at ringside. Doom takes over on Hawk. LOD chant goes out. Animal tagged in. Reed sets Animal up for a piledriver, but Hawk hits a clothesline on Reed, and Animal gets the pin.
-The Great Muta VS. Ric Flair: Flair accompanied by Arn and Ole Anderson. Welcome back to the NWA, Arn Anderson! Norman is at ringside dressed as Santa Claus. Muta comes out quick. Flair comes back. Puts Muta in the figure four. J-Tex Corporation comes out, but the Andersons cut them off. Muta goes for the moonsault, but Flair gets his knees up. Flair wins with an inside cradle.
-The Road Warriors VS. The Steiner Brothers: Crowd is split. Steiners with the early advantage. Hawk hits a big clothesline. Scott hits a nice belly to belly suplex. Nice showcase for both teams. Both teams do some saves. Scott gets a close two count on Animal. Scott with an ugly looking second rope belly to belly on Animal. Hawk hits a big powerslam. They have a double pin, but Scott gets his shoulder up right before the three count. Lots of controversy.
-The board is updated.
-The Great Muta VS. Sting: Lots of history between these two. Slow methodical match to start. Sting with the advantage. The announcers say that this event sets the pace for the 90’s. Muta gets a double chicken wing bridge. They have rest holds but quicken the pace in between them. Funk says Gary Hart gives stupid advice, building on their history. Sting dropkicks Muta from the top rope. Sting gets the superplex for the win.
-The announcers give an overview during the intermission. Jim Cornette picks The Steiner Brothers to win, Terry Funk picks Lex Luger.
-The Wild Samoans VS. Doom: They talk about Doom being a spoiler team at this point since they can’t mathematically win. The Samoans are fresh. Cornette makes an off color joke about the sexuality of a man who he thought was Woman’s hairdresser. It definitely wouldn’t fly today. Slow plodding match to start. Big thrust kick by Samoan Savage on Reed. Simmons tagged in and dominates. Doom can’t close the deal. Fatu finally tagged in. Humperdink shoves Fatu on top of Doom for the pin.
-Lex Luger VS. Ric Flair: Luger ditches the gladiator robe this time out. Flair comes out without his robe as well. Ross puts over Funk and the 1989 that he has had. Luger sucks chant goes out. Luger starts out with a side headlock. Luger playing a slowdown mind game. Flair opens up the chophouse in and out of the ring. Luger’s chest is red. Flair works a hammerlock. Ross talks about Flair’s plane crash if you’re drinking at home. Flair dominating. Wearing Luger down. Quick two counts by Flair. Luger hits a stun gun maneuver on Flair. Luger then takes over. Luger relentlessly going after Flair. Back and Forth. They exchange blows. Flair goes for his top rope move, but Luger catches him with a stiff clothesline. They kick it up a notch and Flair gets the figure four on with 30 seconds left. Time limit expires and the match is a draw.
-The Wild Samoans VS. The Steiner Brothers: Scott and Rick have young fans at ringside to hold their belts during the match. Slow going. The Samoan Savage gets a braid yanked out by Rick. Wild Samoans take a short stroll. The Wild Samoans switch and the referee doesn’t notice. They have barely touched this match. Mostly stalling tactics. Samoans take the advantage. Scott hits the Frankensteiner. It breaks down and Scott throws one of the Samoans over the top rope for the disqualification.
-The Great Muta VS. Lex Luger: Luger comes to the ring limping to sell Flair’s figure four from earlier. Muta attacks the leg. Luger tries to come back, but the leg is bothering him. Muta is just obliterating Luger. Muta puts on an inverted Indian death lock. The crowd cheers wildly. They so want Muta to be a face. Luger fights back, but Muta hits a big karate kick. They trade shots. The time winds down. Luger comes back. Muta blows the green mist and gets disqualified and Luger picks up 10 points.
-The Wild Samoans VS. The Road Warriors: The Road Warriors have to win by pin or submission to win the tournament. Animal no sells a Fatu piledriver. Hawk and The Samoan Savage trade hard shots. Animal hits a big powerslam. Crowd is getting into it. Samoan Savage misses a second rope splash. Hawk tagged in. Confusion in the ring. Hawk hits a top rope clothesline and gets the pin. The Steiners come in to congratulate The Road Warriors for winning the tournament.
-Sting VS. Ric Flair: Crowd is initially behind Sting. It’s the Scorpion Death lock VS. the Figure Four. Crowd becomes split. Flair chant goes out. The pace quickens. They push each other and Flair sells it big time. Sting gets a two count and Flair opens up the chophouse. It goes outside. Flair turns dirty. He can’t get a three count on Sting. Flair getting frustrated. Sting catches a clothesline and gets a two count. Sting says bring the chophouse. Sting reverses a suplex. Flair makes him look good. Sting hits the stinger splash. Crowd goes crazy as he puts the Scorpion on. Flair gets to the ropes, then puts the figure four on Sting. Sting gets to the ropes. Flair attacks the leg. They are down to the final minute. Flair goes back to the leg. Sting gets an inside cradle on Flair for the three count. Crowd goes insane. The Andersons come in. Flair shakes Sting’s hand as Arn Anderson raises his hand.
-Gordon Solie talks to The Road Warriors. Time’s running short. They say they have lived up to their theme song Iron Man. The interviews go on as the credits roll and the PPV ends.