Which Was The Superior Show Each Year They Took Place Together?

The competition and battle to the best between WWE and WCW didn’t start with the Monday Night Wars, with each trying to make their presence known as the top company in the world. WWE definitely had more of a case to make with the introduction of the WrestleMania phenomenon, but WCW had their own big show to offer in Starrcade.

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When comparing the two events from year to year, this will solely look at when Starrcade was officially a “WCW” show, rather than an NWA/JCP event, meaning that this will look at Starrcade and WrestleMania from 1988 and onwards. Of course, in 1993 WCW would leave NWA, but this will look at the years between 1988 and 2000.

13 1988: Starrcade

WrestleMania 4 is renowned for being a slog of a show, focusing largely on a show-long tournament that was rushed and messy. Starrcade on the other hand had a very solid show throughout with good matches making up the undercard.

The main event between Ric Flair and Lex Luger was better than anything WWE had going on at WrestleMania. Even with a cheap finish, this match alone was superior to WrestleMania 4 all by itself.

12 1989: Starrcade

The Mega Powers carried WrestleMania 5 with a big time main event between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, but the rest of the card did let things down. Even though Starrcade wasn’t the best of shows, it was still better than WrestleMania overall.

It hosted the Iron Man Tournament, but this was handled far better than the WWE Title tournament from WrestleMania the year before. Matches involving the likes of Sting, Ric Flair, and Lex Luger were given far more time to breathe.

11 1990: WrestleMania

WrestleMania 6 was headlined with a huge main event between Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. While the previous year’s match couldn’t carry the show ahead of Starrcade, this one could in 1990, as Starrcade’s event was quite poor.

It was dominated with a tag team tournament which was simply not good, and it was main evented by the terrible Sting vs. Black Scorpion match.

10 1991: Starrcade (Tokyo Dome)

1991 hosted two different Starrcade events, and the special NJPW/WCW event from the Tokyo Dome was better than WrestleMania. Matches like Ric Flair vs. Tatsuni Fujimani, Great Muta vs. Sting, and several more up and down the card were all standout matches.

WrestleMania 7 did have a great match in Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior, but the rest of the show was up and down with some quite poor matches. WCW and NJPW put on a great show from the Tokyo Dome which was more consistent.

9 1992: Starrcade

It must be said that WrestleMania had two standout matches with Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper and Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage, but the show overall had some terrible moments, such as the disastrous main event between Hulk Hogan and Sid Justice.

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Starrcade was a similar tale with two terrific matches in Sting vs. Vader and a great Tag Title match, but the show overall was simply more solid that WrestleMania, even if the main event wasn’t Battle Bowl Battle Royal wasn’t perfect.

8 1993: Starrcade

WrestleMania 9 is among the worst WrestleManias ever, with a horrendous main event angle as Hulk Hogan won the WWE Title. Other poor matches like Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez were a slog too.

Starrcade wasn’t amazing, but it was good enough to be superior. It had decent to good matches in Lord Regal vs. Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes vs. Steve Austin, and Ric Flair vs. Vader.

7 1994: WrestleMania

WrestleMania 10 was a huge success. It had two all-time classics in Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart and Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon, and it saw Bret Hart stand tall as WWE Champion in the main event.

Starrcade had very little to offer, and was especially let down with two poor “main events” between Sting/Avalanche and Hulk Hogan/The Butcher.

6 1995: Starrcade

Starrcade’s “World Cup Of Wrestling” in 1995 brought together many big stars from around the world for some great matches, and that was backed up with a very solid undercard.

Apart from Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania was not a good show. It was main evented by NFL star Lawrence Taylor, and also had some poor matches like Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund and The Undertaker vs. King King Bundy.

5 1996: Starrcade

WrestleMania 12 wasn’t a bad show, but unfortunately for WWE, Starrcade produced a very good event in 1996. It had its down points such as a little too much nWo shenanigans, but top tier matches from WCW’s cruiserweights, and strong US and Tag Title matches propelled it to decent heights.

Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels was a divisive main event at WrestleMania, but that alone wasn’t enough to make it a better show than Starrcade.

4 1997: WrestleMania

WrestleMania 13 may have pretty much been a one-match show with the classic between Steve Austin and Bret Hart, but Starrcade 1997 was a no-match show.

At least some of WrestleMania was palatable, but Starrcade was a mess. Goldberg/Steve McMichael, Buff Bagwell/Lex Luger, Larry Zbyszko/Eric Bischoff, and Sting/Hollywood Hogan were all objectively horrible matches, and that is too much for any one PPV.

3 1998: WrestleMania

Starrcade opened up with two great Cruiserweight Title matches, but everything went downhill from there, and it was capped off with Goldberg’s controversial first WCW loss.

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Everything on the WrestleMania card was solid at worst, making it one of the more well-rounded WrestleManias of the era. The Undertaker and Kane battled in a high profile match and Steve Austin made his name in the main event by defeating Shawn Michaels.

2 1999: WrestleMania

1999 was a case of which show was the least bad, and by that comparison it is WrestleMania 15 which just about edges it, mostly due to the strong main event between Steve Austin and The Rock.

Starrcade was a victim of Vince Russo’s rampant overbooking, and the most prominent example of this came in the main event between Bret Hart and Goldberg which had a rehash of the Montreal Screwjob.

1 2000: WrestleMania

The final ever Starrcade had a few good moments, such as the opening ladder match, but it petered out with a long, boring show which couldn’t find a way to properly stand out.

WrestleMania wasn’t especially good, but it was better than Starrcade. It was a messy event with no singles matches, but it had star power and the heat of the Attitude Era to carry it.