An unusual gimmicked Starrcade card in Nashville on December 27th 1995 saw WCWs roster take on New Japan Pro Wrestlings roster, in a World Cup Of Wrestling seven-match tournament that took up much of the biggest pay-per-view of the year. Typically for WCW, the tournament received little promotion, and as a consequence the Japanese contingent were strangers to the casual wrestling fan, and the crowd was left fairly bemused throughout. The action itself was great, however: and the odd circumstances of the events booked matches didnt stop them from being truly memorable. In the opener and probably the best single match on the card, Chris Benoit and Jushin Thunder Liger killed it in a red hot ten-minute match that harked back to their efforts in Japan, Liger eventually pinning Benoit. Shinjiro Otani and Eddie Guerrero rivalled that bout in terms of sheer technical flair, if not intensity, with Otani going over and Sting beat Kensuke Sasaki in a great match near the top of the card. In a triangle match to determine the number one contender for Randy Savages WCW world heavyweight championship, Ric Flair would emerge victorious over Sting and Lex Luger, and go on to defeat Savage for the title later that night. Of the three, Flair was the fresher man, having not competed on the card until the contenders match. Weirdly, One Man Gang would wrestle Kensuke Sasaki for his WCW US title in a dark match taped for broadcast at a later date. The match was booked to restart after a botched finish had the Gang win the title even though Sasakis shoulder was up: upon the restart, Sasaki would win and retain the title. However, when WCW came to actually broadcast the match, they only showed up to the One Man Gangs victory, thereby cunningly swerving the Japanese contingent out of the US title. The One Man Gang would later lose the title he never won to Konnan, before leaving the company.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
