This Day In Wrestling History - December 19

Date: December 19, 1999 (14 years ago)

Feature: The next-to-last-ever WCW Starrcade PPV featured Bret Hart retaining the WCW World Title over Goldberg as Step 1 in a process of re-forming the NWO with Hart as a centerpiece heel. Hart suffered a severe concussion during the match that eventually ended his wrestling career. Meanwhile, Vince Russo's attempt to re-form the NWO did not pan out, as Russo was demoted from his position of head writer one month later...

Torch Back-Issues: PWTorch Newsletter #581 for Starrcade. Torch #585 for WCW changes.

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WCW STARRCADE '99 PPV RESULTS
December 19, 1999
Washington D.C. at MCI Center
Report by Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Scott Hudson was grouped with Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan. Schiavone showed hints of bitterness toward having to share the announcing table.

(1) Big Vito & Johnny the Bull (w/Tony Marinara) beat Lash Laroux & Disco Inferno when Vito pinned Laroux in 9:00. Disco gave Lash the Chartbuster by mistake. Good opener. (**)

Schiavone announced that Scott Hall suffered a knee injury and was stripped of the U.S. Title as a result. Chris Benoit was awarded the U.S. Title by default. Benoit came to the ring and said titles are meant to be won, not given. He issued an open challenge to anyone. Since when did a champion not have 30 days to recover? Since when did the next challenger get awarded the title instead of a tournament being held. To Vince Russo, these are inconsequential details. To wrestling fans, it's what makes wrestling not worth following all that closely. What's the point if the rules and policies change on a whim without even a lame, half-hearted attempt at an explanation.

(2) Madusa pinned Evan Karagias (w/Spice) at 3:35 to capture the WCW Cruiserweight Title at 3:35 when Spice turned on Evan with a weak low-blow. The man vs. woman gimmick works with Chyna, not with Madusa. Time to drop it. (1/2*)

(3) Norman Smiley beat Meng in 5:00 to retain the WCW Hardcore Title thanks to interference from Brian Knobs and Fit Finlay. Good comedy. (*1/4)

(4) Saturn & Dean Malenko & Aysa & Shane Douglas beat Hacksaw Duggan & The Varsity Club (Rick Steiner & Mike Rotunda & Kevin Sullivan) at 4:52 after the Club turned on Duggan. (neg. ***)

(5) Vampiro beat Steve Williams via DQ at 4:58 when Williams threw the ref to the mat. Decent action. (*3/4)

(6) Creative Control & Curt Hennig beat Midnight & Booker T & Stevie Ray in 8:00. Stevie and Booker are arguing again. (Is it rerun season in WCW already?) Stevie distracted Midnight as Booker was triple-teamed leading to the finish. (*3/4)

(7) Jeff Jarrett pinned Dustin Rhodes at 11:18 after a guitar shot off the ladder. As Rhodes bulldogged Curt Hennig on the floor, Jarrett climbed a ladder and came off with a guitar shot onto Dustin for the pin. (**)

(8) Dallas Page pinned David Flair at 3:55. David hit Page with his new golden crow bar, but Page came back with a surprise Diamond Cutter for the win. Okay.

(9) Sting beat Lex Luger by DQ at 5:21. In the most ironic comment by an announcer in ages, Hudson said Sting and Luger were both in great shape and might wrestle all night. Five minutes later it ended with Liz turning on Sting and hitting him with a baseball bat from behind. This match was pretty good ten years ago. Now it's not only old (oh, I forgot, it's WCW rerun season), but it's not good anymore, either. Give me something new at least once every ten years. (*1/4)

(10) Kevin Nash beat Sid at 6:58 in a powerbomb match. This is the other candidate (along with Duggan's match) for worst match of the year (and perhaps of all time). (neg. ***)

(11) Chris Benoit beat Jeff Jarrett at 10:14 in a ladder match to retain the U.S. Hvt. Title. In the end, Benoit hit a diving headbutt (as usual for that move, there wasn't much of a sense of impact) and scored the clean pin. (***1/2)

(12) Bret Hart fought Goldberg to a non-finish in about 12:30 and apparently retained the WCW Hvt. Title. This may go down as one of the worst PPV finishes of all-time, After three refs went down, Piper walked to the ring in a ref shirt (good thing he had that handy, huh?), but mysteriously took his time. Goldberg was upset since he had Bret beat. It gave Bret time to recover. Bret attacked Goldberg and applied the sharpshooter. Piper immediately called for the bell, even before checking with Goldberg. He then left the ring with the title belt. Hart chased him down. Piper handed him the belt. The show then immediately went off the air. No wrap-up by the announcers; just an abrupt, unexplainable ending to the show at 10:42 p.m., more than 15 minutes before the top of the hour. The action in the ring was solid, but not spectacular. Neither wrestler took much in the way of bumps. Overall, a three-star match with a mitigating finish. (**1/2)

[Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

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