WCW Starrcade 1995 (1995 TV Special) User Reviews

Ric Flair becomes Champion for an unprecedented 12th time!

[callanvass · 5/10 · 17 March 2016]

(12.26.95)

Live from Nashville, TN

Attendance: 8,200

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, and Bobby Heenan

This is all about the World Cup! It's New Japan Vs WCW in a best of 7 series.

Chris Beniot Vs Jushin "Thunder" Liger (W/Sony Onoo)

Liger pins Beniot with a huricarana after Kevin Sullivan comes down and distracts Beniot. Japan leads 1-0. This was a good match, but not exactly a "great" one. Both wrestlers gave us an array of exciting maneuvers, but it just felt like there was something majorly missing.

***1/4

Koji Kanemoto (W/Sony Onoo) Vs Alex Wright

Kanemoto wins with a jackknife roll-up. Japan leads 2-0. This match was above average for the most part. Kanemoto's style was hard to get used to at first, but they eventually got it rolling. Too bad the crowd didn't care that much about it.

**3/4

Lex Luger (W/Jimmy Hart) Vs Masahiro Chono (W/Sonny Onoo)

Luger gets a huge face pop, even though he's a heel. Nashville, you disappoint me. Luger wins in relatively quick fashion with the Torture Rack. It's 2-1 for Japan. WCW needed a dominant win at this point and this kind of fit the bill. For some odd reason, Luger was way over with the fans.

*1/4

Johnny B Badd (W/Kimberly) Vs Masa Saito (W/Sonny Onoo)

Kimberly (Looking mighty fine, I might add) owns Sonny Onoo on the microphone before the match after he implies women have no place in wrestling. Badd wins by DQ after Saito throws Badd over the top rope. It's tied 2-2. This is the weakest match on the PPV so far. Saito was past his prime at this juncture and couldn't move all that well.

*

Shinjiro Ootani (W/Sonny Onoo) Vs Eddie Guerrero

Ootani wins by reversing a roll-up from Eddie. Japan leads 3-2. This ended up being a pretty good match overall. It was similar to Liger vs Beniot, but these two managed to make it really exciting when it counted.

***1/4

Randy Savage Vs Tensan (W/Sonny Onoo)

Savage wins with the flying elbow drop. Japan and WCW are tied at 3 now. Savage gets his ass kicked for most of the match and comes back with basically one move and wins the entire match. Since it's Savage, you can chalk it up to resiliency. With anybody else, it's stretching major credibility.

*1/4

Sting Vs Kensuki Sasaki (W/Sonny Onoo)

This is for the World Cup. Sasaki is also the United States Champion, but the title is not up for grabs. Sting makes Sasaki submit with the Scorpion Deathlock. This was a pretty mediocre match for the most part. Sasaki had a couple of cool moves, but it was smooth sailing for Sting.

*1/2

The WCW contingent comes out to celebrate with Sting for the World Cup presentation.

Triangle Match

Sting Vs Lex Luger Vs Ric Flair

The winner advances to face Randy Savage for the WCW title, immediately following this match. Ric Flair wins with some heel shenanigans, proving why he's the dirtiest player in the game. This match was highly inconsistent. It had moments of excitement, but they were negated by many moments of sheer boredom. The crowd got restless at one point and started booing loudly. The booking is also very confusing. Luger acted like a face AND a heel in this match. If WCW didn't care, why should I?

**

WCW Heavyweight Championship

Randy Savage (C) Vs Ric Flair (W/Jimmy Hart)

Ric Flair wins the title for a 12th time, thanks to outside interference from Beniot, Pillman, and Arn Anderson. I'm always shocked when I see a match between Savage and Flair that is sub par. Unfortunately, this one falls under that category. Flair winning the title is a cool moment, but it was somewhat anti-climatic. Savage being protected in defeat was the right call, but it was still anti- climatic.

*3/4

Overall, this PPV is extremely average, if not below average. There were a couple of ***1/4 matches, but nothing that was truly memorable. The World Cup was pretty inconsequential and didn't feel nearly as important as WCW made it out to be. As I've stated in my Nitro reviews, WCW was suffering from overexposure. Your main stars were wrestling 2 to 3 times on one night, not to mention segments as well. Obviously, WCW would change the business in 1996 and revitalize wrestling with The NWO. 1995 definitely tested my patience, though.

Decent WCW PPV... for 1995

[theanomaloushost · 5/10 · 12 November 2021]

1.) Chris Benoit vs. Justin "Thunder" Liger

Decent match, but never could get into Liger's style, with his over-the-top submission moves. Plus the interference ending hurt it a bit.

Rated: 3 / 5

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2.) Kojo Kanemoto vs. Alex Wright

Decent.

Rated: 3 / 5

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3.) Masahiro Chono vs. Lex Luger

Typical Luger match.

Rated: 2 / 5

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4.) Johnny B. Badd vs. Masa Saito

BS DQ ending.

Rated: 2 / 5

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5.) Shinjiro Ootani vs. Eddie Guerrero

Finally. A match given enough time to let these guys work. And it results in the match of the night. Eddie Guerrero has proven to be the best wrestler WCW has right now, in terms of technical skill. They just don't realize it yet.

Rated: 3.5 / 5

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6.) Tensan vs. Randy Savage

Savage put in the minimal effort for this ppv. This match, and his later one, were just matches where he was getting dominated for 90% of it, until he does some amount of fighting back during the last couple minutes. His matches this time around are just dull.

Rated: 2 / 5

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There is this highly amusing moment between matches with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan being a major klutz. Whether this was an actual act, or him legit being a klutz, it result in a few people being unable to hold back their laughter.

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7.) Kensuki Sasaki vs. Sting

Sting is one of the hardest workers I've seen so far.

Rated: 3 / 5

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8.) Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair vs. Sting

This is the dumbest stipulation I've ever seen for a triple threat match. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to have to tag in an opponent (only 2 of the 3 could be wrestling at a time), and have the match end once someone is pinned or submitted, with the guy who did the pin/submission being the winner? If this was an elimination match, I could understand it. But this? It's just ridiculous.

The longest match of the night. They managed to make it decent in spite of things, but it's too slow-paced. And it was never going to end well with this stipulation.

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9.) Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage

See comments above for match #6. Add in a screwjob interference ending, and it hurts the match even more.

Rated: 2 / 5

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Overall, there were plenty of dull matches. But a few solid ones too. It's a mixed bag, but it does probably result in the better WCW ppvs of 1995 (during the Nitro runs anyway). The only match really worth watching is Guerrero vs. Ootani.

WCW and NJPW Clash

[jeremycrimsonfox · 7/10 · 23 September 2019]

Starrcade 1995 is a PPV that took place in Nashville. The main focus on this event is the World Cup of Wrestling, seven matches where World Championship Wrestling goes up against New Japan Pro Wrestling in a four-out-of-seven series with matches like Chris Benoit vs Jushin Thunder Liger, Alex Wright Vs, Koji Kanemoto, Lex Luger Vs. Masahiro Chono, and Sting Vs. Kensuke Kasake.

What makes this get seven stars is because of some dumb moments (Chris Benoit loses to Jushin Thunder Liger because of Kevin Sullvian distracting the Canadian Crippler, which led to an interview where Eddie Guerrero telling Mean Gean that he had no business, DIamond Doll, the valet to Johnny B. Badd, talking down Sonny Oono, the manager accompanying the NJPW wrestlers, including Johnny's opponent, Masa Saito, who loses the match via over the top disqualification, and the fact that people are booing the NJPW wrestlers because they are the bad guys trying to take over WCW, and poor Bobby Heenan being bashed by Tony Shiavonte and Dusty Rhodes for giving positive words to them, which make the hate even worst). After that, it is a triangle match between Sting, Lex Luger, and Ric Flair, with the winner going to the main event to face Macho Man Randy Savage for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. It is good, but still has some things that keep it from being perfect.

Very solid PPV, better than anything by WCW in 1995. New blood and no Hogan!

[amanwhorocks · 7/10 · 22 October 2013]

1. Chris Benoit Vs. Jushin Thunder Liger - Good match, thanks to Sullivan Liger roll over Benoit. 8/10

2. Koji Kanemoto Vs. Alex Wright - WCW ate another lost in this WCW vs Japan matches. 7.5/10

3. Masahiro Chono Vs. Lex Luger - Quite normal match, even on Luger 6/10

4. Johnny B. Badd Vs. Masa Saito - Average match with silly "Over top rope DQ" ending 5.5/10

5. Shinjiro Ootani Vs. Eddie Guerrero - Eddie is God! But Ootani clearly won in great match! 8.5/10

6. Tensan Vs. Macho Man - Tensan dominated almost whole match and Macho sold one really nice move. But Macho "miraculously" won with elbow. 5.5/10

7. Sting Vs. Kensuki Sasaki - Solid match with clear victory and really well done Scorpion Death Lock. WCW won, of course. Btw. Funny that sting clotheslined Sasaki over top rope and no DQ approached like in Massa/Badd match, erm. 7/10

8. Triangle: Lex Luger Vs. Sting Vs. Ric Flair - Solid match, Flair doublecrossed both of them and Luger catch Sting's arm, so he was counted out either like Luger was. 6.5/10

9. WCW World Heavyweight Title Match: Champ-Randy Savage Vs. Ric Flair - Classic from these two, but this time Flair won. 6/10