Since its debut in 1983 and until the company’s demise in the early 2000s, Starrcade was the flagship event of World Championship Wrestling, the equivalent toWWE’s WrestleMania. Starrcade remained dormant for 17 years untilWWEbrought it back as a WWE Network event in 2017. Starrcade is back on the WWE Network for the third year in a row, with Starrcade 2019 serving as a one hour special that will see one of WWE’s most-talked about and heated rivalries come to a head. At Starrcade 2019, Rusev and Bobby Lashley will finally clash in a Last Man Standing Match.
The actualStarrcade2019 card will consist of more matches than what’s shown on the WWE Network, and we will have results for those as they become available. In the meantime, fans can tune in at 7pm ET on the WWE Network to watch two matches from Starrcade 2019, in addition to an interview segment between Kevin Owens and professional wrestling legend Ric Flair, who competed in the main event against Harley Race at the first-ever Starrcade in 1983.
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Here is the full Starrcade 2019 card and results, along with reviews for the matches that will be airing on the WWE Network.
1. The OC vs. The Street Profits w/ Ric Flair
Winners:The Street Profits. Prior to this match getting started,Kevin Owenshosted Ric Flair on a special Starrcade edition of The Kevin Owens Show. The whole thing was just a contrived way to set up the Street Profits/OC tag match, with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows interrupting Owens and Flair. This wasn’t Owens' best mic work by a long shot, and a couple of his jokes fell very flat with the audience. Since Owens was just attacked by The Authors of Pain on Raw and appears to be actively in a feud with them and Seth Rollins for now, having him just joke around with The OC felt like filler. And it is filler, more or less, as Starrcade is a glorified house show.
The match itself was completely unmemorable. There’s nothing about it that stood out, but nothing was bad either except the finish. Karl Anderson was pinned, but his shoulder wasn’t completely down at first. It looked like Anderson leaned his own shoulder down onto the mat, and that extra long count just made him look weak. WWE’s handling of Anderson and Gallows has never been particularly good, but things like this don’t help.
Grade:C-
2. Fatal-4-Way Match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: The Kabuki Warriors (c) vs. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross vs. Bayley and Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair
Winners:The Kabuki Warriors. Similarly to the first match, there wasn’t really anything significant that happened in this match beyond it being the first timeAlexa Blisshas wrestled since coming back. Bliss got a very strong reaction from the crowd, as did Charlotte Flair, and everyone did their usual thing. On paper, this match has some of the top stars in the history of women’s wrestling, but no one really worked a match beyond house show quality. The finish came when Nikki Cross was forced to submit to the Asuka Lock, so The Kabuki Warriors retained their tag team titles. There was nothing bad about this match, but nothing spectacular either. Completely average.
Grade:C
3. Last Man Standing Match: Bobby Lashley w/ Lana vs. Rusev
Winner:Bobby Lashley. Rusev was not allowed to compete in the match due to Lana’s restraining order against him. So basically, the only match that had actual storyline implications for WWE was thrown out. Lashley was declared the winner by forfeit.
Grade:F
4. Bobby Lashley w/ Lana vs. Kevin Owens
Winner:Bobby Lashley. Another middle of the road, nothing special house show match where both men hit their usual spots and there were no stakes. This match came about because Kevin Owens didn’t want Starrcade to end with Lashley winning a match by doing nothing. Rusev ended up interfering and attacking Lashley to give him the DQ victory, and then brawled with Lashley throughout the arena. There were some weapon spots, presumably so the crowd that came expecting a Last Man Standing match wouldn’t be completely disappointed. However, it’s still incredibly lame that WWE pulled a bait and switch on this.
Kevin Owens was the “star” of Starrcade tonight, though all of the things he was involved with were obviously filler, and he didn’t have a lot to work with in his promos. We won’t be able to judge the quality of the rest of the show since it won’t be aired on the WWE Network, but we will still update this post with results as they become available.
