Starrcade '94: Triple Threat

Starrcade '94: Triple Threat
Starrcade '94: Triple Threat
	Promotional poster featuring Hulk Hogan, Big Van Vader and Sting
Promotion	World Championship Wrestling
Date	December 27, 1994
City	Nashville, Tennessee
Venue	Nashville Municipal Auditorium
Attendance	8,200
Tagline(s)	It's A Triple Threat!
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous; AAA When Worlds Collide	Next →; SuperBrawl V
Starrcade chronology
← Previous; 1993	Next →; 1995

Starrcade '94: Triple Threat was the 12th annual Starrcade professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). It took place on December 27, 1994, from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The main event of the show was WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan defending the title against his friend-turned-rival The Butcher. The show also included Jim Duggan defending the WCW United States Championship against Big Van Vader and Johnny B. Badd defending the WCW World Television Championship against Arn Anderson.

Aspersions were cast on the inclusion of The Butcher (Ed Leslie) in the main event, which was seen as a political maneuver on the part of Hulk Hogan (Leslie's real-life best friend). The match was received negatively by industry journalists, with Wade Keller calling it "one of the low points of WCW".

WCW closed in 2001, and all rights to their television and pay-per-view shows – including the Starrcade series – were bought by WWE. In 2015, all WCW pay-per-views were made available on the WWE Network.

Event

Other on-screen personnel
Role:	Name:
Commentators	Tony Schiavone
Commentators	Bobby Heenan
Interviewer	Gene Okerlund
Ring announcer	Gary Michael Cappetta
Referees	Randy Anderson
	Nick Patrick
	Jimmy Jett

The Honky Tonk Man was originally advertised for the show, scheduled to challenge Johnny B. Badd for the WCW World Television Championship but was fired by WCW's Eric Bischoff only days prior to the show for refusing to put over Johnny B. Badd. Instead WCW chose Arn Anderson to replace the Honky Tonk Man, wrestling and losing to Johnny. At the time of the show Harlem Heat had won the WCW World Tag Team Championship prior to the show, but the match had not been broadcast on television yet so Harlem Heat were not presented as the champions. This would be the last appearance in WCW of Jean-Paul Levesque, he would move to the WWF in 1995 and become Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a snobby aristocrat character.

Reception

The involvement of The Butcher (Ed Leslie) in the main event of WCW's flagship pay-per-view garnered particular criticism. Stuart Carapola of PWInsider wrote that "Starrcade 1994 saw [Hulk] Hogan defend the WCW World Title against his best friend [Leslie], who leapfrogged over everyone else in WCW despite being badly out of shape and greatly diminished from the wrestler he was."^[1] Wade Keller reported that Leslie's main event positioning was viewed as the result of Hogan making "a political move to help a buddy, not doing what was best for business".^[2] Keller called the match "awful", "one of the low points of WCW", and a "sharp turn away" from the "good pay-per-view main events" that the company was then known for presenting, while noting that Leslie "wasn't over".^[2]

Dave Meltzer awarded the Hogan vs. Butcher match ¾ of a star out of a possible five: no match on the card received a rating higher than 2¼ stars.^[3] In reviewing the event, Scott Keith of 411Mania wrote: "Welcome to rock bottom, as Hogan's egomania results in the main event of the biggest WCW show of the year involving [Ed Leslie]." He cautioned viewers to watch at their "own risk", while offering the "strongest recommendation to avoid."^[4]

Results

No.

Results^[5]^[6]

Stipulations

Times

1

Big Van Vader (with Harley Race) defeated Jim Duggan (c)

Singles match for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship