WCW Starrcade, St. Louis, MO
A request! This is a rematch from Halloween Havoc, where Hansen ended Luger’s long U.S. title reign. Luger had first won the belt in Feb. 1989, dropped it for 15 days in May 1989 to Michael Hayes, and then held it until Oct. 1990. Over that reign, he turned heel and back to babyface during the 523 days, which was really 599 days total, with 15 days of P.S. Hayes in the middle.
This is a Texas Lariat (bullrope) match, which is the gimmick specialty of the big Texan Hansen, whose stint in WCW from Aug. 1990 to June 1991 was the last real run he ever had in the United States. He did some matches for ECW in 1993 (four) and one more on a Funk show in Amarillo that year, but never worked in the States again, staying exclusively in Japan through the end of his career in 2000.
Hansen obviously jumps Luger as the referee is finishing tying Luger’s wrist. Headbutt from Stan and Lex goes “AWWAHHHFFF!” Hansen’s intensity forcing Luger to up his own and he rallies after Stan misses an elbow drop.
Luger with a back elbow and a slam, then drives a forearm down. Hansen firing back to the midsection. AWWAFFHHHFFFF! OOOHFFFHHH!!! Luger chokes Hansen with the rope and they spill to the floor, where Hansen sends Luger into the railing and whacks him with a steel chair across the back.
Back in and Luger is fighting with all he’s got, including breaking out a headbutt, which Jim Ross says he’s never seen Luger do. Lex hits a clothesline and goes for a pin on instinct, but this is four corners bullshit. Luger gets two corners, but Hansen gets him from behind and drops him with a terrible mess of a back suplex.
Hansen hangs Luger over the top rope with Luger dangling above the floor, off the apron. We just don’t have many hanging spots anymore. Well. We didn’t until Adam and Randy, they may have brought hanging back. After that, Hansen smashes Luger into the ring post, then they head back into the ring, Stan in control. He drops a quick elbow, getting a short lift off the bottom rope.
Hansen touches two corners easily, which everyone always does, and then gets the third despite Luger trying his best to pull him back. So Lex explodes up with a clothesline, but Stan chokes him down and then shouts out some spots, chiefly for Luger to get a knee up to hit Stan in the head three times and break the choke.
Hansen gets ejected out to the floor and Luger goes after him, sledging the upper back and laying in a right to the jaw. Hansen with more Cena shouting for spots as Lex beats up on him. They wander over right up to a seated security guard who not only doesn’t move a muscle, he looks so utterly disinterested that it’s pure comedy.
Luger pulls the rope and Hansen shoulders the post. Lex all fired up! After a few more shots outside, we go back in. Lex seems to be confusing himself so he does three quick legdrops in the corner. He’s got Stan’s hands tied up and is trying to drag the big man through the corners. Luger gets two, kicks Hansen down, and touches the third corner.
Crowd goes nuts when Luger gets the fourth corner, but ope! The referee got drilled at the same time, and Hansen gets his boot off to bonk Luger on the head. Hansen trying to wake Randy Anderson, but now Nick Patrick comes in. He’s counting Hansen touching the corners and the crowd is FURIOUS.
Hansen eventually gets the four corners and Nick Patrick calls for the bell, Stan Hansen retains the title! But wait! Referee Randy Anderson DID see it all, so everything after Luger had it won is nothing, and Lex Luger IS your four-time U.S. heavyweight champion.
Like the Havoc match, this more or less makes its point and gets out. Hansen could still work the occasional slugfest beyond 10 or 12 minutes, but in Japan it had grown increasingly rare for him by this point. He mostly worked tags, though he was the reigning Triple Crown champion, which he’d lose to Jumbo Tsuruta about a month after this in Matsumoto. And it’s not like the American fans were thirsting for a Japanese-paced 20-minute Hansen-Luger match, nor would it have been in Luger’s wheelhouse.
So they didn’t try to do too much, and they didn’t do too little, finding a solid sweet spot. It’s not like they were gonna go have 5-star matches, but they had the potential to be fine, and they were fine. The goofy finish drama here is just pro wrestling, man, I can’t be mad about it. The crowd were happy, then mad, then happy, and manipulating the crowd’s emotions is what it’s all about.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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