Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg - WCW World Heavyweight title match - Starrcade (1998)
Undertaker's streak may be over, but at least he wasn't tasered by Paul Heyman for Brock Lesnar to pick up the unexpected win. How about being tasered by Scott Hall? Well, that's exactly what happened to Goldberg while defending not only his World Heavyweight title but his 173 win streak (despite most of those wins being squashes) here at Starrcade '98.
Goldberg would eventually try to duplicate his streak in the later half of 2000 in order to earn himself a title shot at the World Heavyweight title. Unfortunately, he only made it into the double digits, 35 to be exact, before being defeated in his last match in WCW at Sin 2001.
Part way through the match Mr. T gets his zebra shirt stuck on his hands rendering the toughest man in Chicago useless. Then the camera man falls over and T tries to pin him or something before Santa Claus comes out and stands around for too long. Eventually someone in the crowd takes Santa's hat off and reveals that he is Kevin Sullivan's wannabe Hulk Hogan brother, Dave. Dave then stuffs his Santa sack with Jimmy Hart's megaphone and clubs his brother over the head with it to help our handless hero, Mr. T win the match.
The segment ends with the crazed Kevin Sullivan seeking retribution on his jolly clad brother by beating Dave with his pants down, piledriving him, and smacking him around for a bit with the leather Santa belt. No run-in from the real Santa Claus to help Dave, no run-in from Hulk Hogan, no run-in from Hulk Hogan as Santa with muscles, no nothing. Merry Christmas.
This classic from the first-ever Starrcade back in 1983 (that's before Wrestlemania, oh my), is probably one of the most brutal and dare I say, most hardcore matches of the 80s. Yes there was lots of bloody cage matches around this time (along with Ric Flair blading since he was old enough to handle razors), but this match, this feud if you will, backed up by the fact that this was a dog collar match - not just a strap match where the two combatants are held together by the wrist with a leather strap or rope, but a steel chain - made this match one intense confrontation.
This was no gimmick match.
This back and forth style battle ends with Roddy Piper covering Valentine up with the help of the chain, but Piper does not get the chance to celebrate his victory in this non-titled match (Valentine was the US heavyweight champ at the time) as Valentine would assault Piper from behind and beat a mud-hole in the rowdy-one with the chain until the ref gingerly tells him to stop and Valentine leaves the ring.
It's the main event. It's a steel cage match. It features Dick the Bruiser as Popeye, Paul Heyman on commentary making Popeye and Gordon Solie jokes, and even a spaceship entrance to top it all off accompanied by the voice of The Shockmaster, Ole Anderson. What more do you want?
This was also the match that ended the Black Scorpion gimmick which, originally thought up by Ole Anderson himself, really had nowhere to go. So, after Dusty Rhodes took over booking in WCW, The American Dream put an end to whole gimmick by putting someone who could really be the man behind the mask after months of impostor Black Scorpions had been running around taunting Sting. I'm not going to give it away if you don't already know who signed up to be the real Black Scorpion but maybe you can figure it out yourself just by watching a little of this match. It's not as obvious as Mr. America (pic) but it's close-ish. Hopefully that flashy robe doesn't give it away after that out-of-this-world entrance too much.
Overall impression of the match: Beginning is crazy. Match is a little boring. Unveiling at the end is super rushed, especially with Good Ol' JR screaming the countdown and just who is under that mask,errr, those masks I mean. In the end though, definitely worth watching.
