10 Things Fans Should Know About WCW's Infamous Starrcade 1997 PPV

Starrcade 1997 is still remembered as WCW’s biggest PPV ever due to the hype and results from that night. This event took place when WCW was clearly ahead of WWE in the Monday Night Wars. Sting vs Hulk Hogan is the massive match that sold the show, but there was a deep card with many Hall of Fame names on the card.

WCW wanted Starrcade to be their version of WrestleMania, but this was one of the few instances of Starrcade feeling bigger than that year’s WM show. A lot of interesting tidbits exist about this show before and after it took place. Starrcade 1997 deserves a deeper look at fun facts and stories that WCW fans should know about the show.

10 Press Conference Aired During Hulk Hogan's TNT Movie

WCW tried to do some synergy branding when using one of Hulk Hogan’s TNT movies as the lead in for their Starrcade 1997 press conference. Hogan and Sting signing the contracts to make the match official was taped and planned to air during the movie’s commercial breaks.

TNT gave Hogan a few movie and television projects as part of the way to sweeten up a WCW contract offer since he wanted a bigger acting career. Assault on Devil’s Island was the movie starring Hogan, but Eric Bischoff revealed it didn’t have the audience they expected to make the press conference feel like a big deal.

9 Set Gate Record On First Day Of Ticket Sales

Multiple signs of success showed that Starrcade 1997 was going to be the biggest event in WCW history. The live gate record for WCW was set on the first day of tickets going on sale. 11,036 people purchased tickets on that first day at a time when the internet didn’t make purchasing tickets as easy as it is today.

WCW sold out all of their expensive seats within 24 hours as only the $15 nosebleed tickets remained for a little while longer. The gate record for WCW ended up being $389,000 for a level of success that the company had never reached before.

8 Set WCW PPV Buy Rate Record That Was Never Broken

Sting v Hulk Hogan Starrcade 1997 Cropped

Another record for Starrcade 1997 came with the PPV buy rates creating a new high that would never be topped. WCW strategically waited over a year for Sting to wrestle his first match as the Crow character looking to get revenge on Hulk Hogan and the New World Order.

Fans were ready to buy that PPV before any other match was announced. Eric Bischoff even admitted he saved certain matches for other shows since anything else was going to get lost in the Hogan vs Sting drama. Starrcade 1997 received over 700,000 buys and never matched that again for future PPVs.

7 Eric Bischoff's Match Was His First Match Ever

One of the bigger complaints about Starrcade 1997 was Eric Bischoff and Larry Zbyszko having the semi-main event with Bret Hart as the referee. A retired wrestler and a non-wrestler facing off at the biggest show of the year in such a spot felt wrong.

WCW booked this since it was the first time Bischoff had an official match in the ring. There was some interest to seeing Bischoff finally forced to back up his big mouth. Bischoff felt that his first match was a drawing point in the storyline of the WCW vs New World Order feud.

6 Raven's Injury Changed Match On Card

Most fans forget that Starrcade 1997 had a couple of unexpected changes hurting the original plans. Eric Bischoff confirmed previous rumors of Raven vs Chris Benoit being a planned mid-card match to add some depth on the show.

This likely would have been a show stealing bout given how well both wrestlers were doing at the time. Raven dealing with an injury caused that match to be delayed until the following Souled Out 1998 PPV where they did have a show stealing performance.

5 Kevin Nash's Heart Issue Changed Another Match

Randy Savage and Sid v Kevin Nash and Sting Bash At The Beach 1999 Cropped

Kevin Nash was originally scheduled to have the second most important match on Starrcade 1997 during his feud with The Giant. WCW did a solid job marketing their two best big man wrestlers in a feud that felt like an important match.

Nash had heart complications and was in the hospital for a couple of days forcing him to miss the PPV. The original fear was that Nash had a heart attack, but it ended up being something milder. Nash’s family had a history of heart problems to make this a scarier situation that fans remember today.

4 Dean Malenko Received Private Jet To Make Show

Dean Malenko makes his entranc e Cropped

One of the wildest stories from Starrcade 1997 featured Eric Bischoff going above and beyond to make sure another match wouldn’t be changed. The opening bout of Dean Malenko vs Eddie Guerrero was meant to start the show hot and do something different from the rest of the card.

Malenko’s wife was giving birth around this time to make him request the date off. However, the other changes to the card made it important for Bischoff to keep this match on the card. Malenko received a private jet to fly him to the venue and have the match against Eddie.

3 Scott Steiner Was Livid About Getting Pinned in Six-Man Tag

There was another change needed for Starrcade 1997 when Konnan’s wife also gave birth, and a complication caused him to have to stay there. Randy Savage agreed to replace Konnan in a six-man tag match teaming with nWo members Scott Norton and Vincent to face Big Bubba Rogers and the Steiner Brothers.

Reports surfaced afterwards that Scott Steiner was upset with a last-minute change of him getting pinned and even confronted creative team member Terry Taylor backstage. Savage didn’t want to pin Rogers (as the previous plan called for) since he felt he was too low on the card and that caused the change to frustrate Scott.

2 Goldberg Had His First PPV Match

One underrated historic aspect of Starrcade 1997 was that Goldberg had his first PPV match and victory on the show. WCW had the undefeated streak storyline going for about three months, but Goldberg entered his first actual feud with Steve “Mongo” McMichael.

The real story of them both playing in the NFL saw them trying to sell a story of having issues going back to their football days. Goldberg scored the win in the third match of the night to continue the undefeated streak.

1 Eric Bischoff & Hulk Hogan Changed Plans Due To Sting's Conditioning

Eric Bischoff had a big argument with his podcast co-host Conrad Thompson trying to defend what went into the Starrcade 1997 finish. Many wrestling fans view this as a huge negative in WCW’s history with the fast count finish (that wasn’t fast) and the match restarting.

Bischoff revealed that he and Hulk Hogan lost all faith in Sting when he showed up to the venue without a tan and not in the best physical shape. This inspired the change to have the overbooked finish rather than the original plan of Sting cleanly winning.