Starrcade '87: Chi-Town Heat

Now we're on the fifth.

Starrcade 87 in Chicago.

Loses it to Steamboat at the Chi-Town Rumble, February 20th, 1989. in Chicago, gets it back at wrestle war 89 in may, uh, loses it to sting at the great American bash 1990 in Baltimore, and then gets it back from sting.

And of all places, the, uh, the metal hands arena, the Brendan burn arena in New Jersey, uh, January 11th, 1991, and then he is stripped.

Just to further hit home how bad this show did at 50,000 buys, this is tied with Starrcade 2000 as the lowest buy rate for WCW since the popularization of pay-per-view.

The only show that did worse was Starrcade 87, and it's the one that was deliberately counter-programmed by Survivor Series.

And then the pay-per-view providers got mad at WCW, like, why would you do that?

Why are they getting mad at

By the way, it's cadaver stage Ric Flair, by the way.

Not like Ric Flair from Starrcade 87.

No,

no. Oh, no, no. It's the one that fits into the show.

He also had the styling and profiling that we've already talked about, but also a catchphrase that everybody remembers, "To be the man, you gotta beat the man." And then there's, "Kiss the girls that made all them cry." "Diamonds are forever." And even describing his very odd relationship [laughs] with Space Mountain, which I will leave right there.

But he would always have these go-tos that he did go back to, but then also have a bunch of new lines that sometimes he only threw out once [laughs] during an interview, and then you never hear them again, but in the moment you'd be like, "Oh my gosh, that's pretty clever." If you really do need specific ones, go and watch the promo he cut at Starrcade 1987, where he was very happy to tell you he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth.

Or go to the 1992 Royal Rumble where he did become the WWF World Champion after jumping ship from WCW.

Of course, that Royal Rumble was a big deal because the winner was gonna walk away with the title, but the way that Flair and Mr.

You know, I think before, I think in 1987, he dropped the title to Ron Garvin.

And he got that title back at Starrcade 87.

I don't think Ronnie Garvin had that title more than two or three months.

And again, Steamboat only had the title for approximately three months.