WCW Starrcade, Washington, DC
The main event of Starrcade ’98 and a match and outcome generally vastly overstated when it comes to problems that led to WCW’s downfall and inevitable demise.
The crowd is pretty well split here. Nash really was about as truly hot as he ever was in his career, and he came out of the nWo split better than anyone, really establishing himself as an A-lister and a leader. Not that he was some massive draw himself, but he did have a lot of fans, and unlike when he got the WWF babyface push on top, they let him keep being the Kevin Nash people organically grew to love.
Goldberg is still really popular, too. His fans are vocal. Nash’s fans are vocal. It’s as close to that sort of aggressive split and LOUD support as you can get to the famous Joe-Hero ’04 IWA MS match with a crowd of 16K.
This is nasty and physical and intense from the first bell. They’re throwing big shots at each other, both have confidence, both know they’ve got a real threat in front of them. Goldberg at “173-0” is the clear favorite, I mean how can he not be, but we all did have the sense that Nash — and this is not from insider stuff, just watching TV — was his first serious threat in a while. (We didn’t think it was real, by the way, we were just trying to see how things would play out.)
But Nash as underdog works, too. Goldberg is such a violent, powerful, finely-honed force of nature that Nash’s normal stuff is not going to be enough. He does the boot choke in the corner and gets taken down; Tony rightly points out we’ve never seen someone do that to him before. After Goldberg bulls him to the ground, Nash grabs a cross armbreaker attempt, way outside his normal arsenal. Goldberg is out quickly, because Nash is no submission expert, but it’s the attempt, the idea that he came in prepared to throw some stuff at Goldberg that we hadn’t seen before.
Nash also bumps flat on his ass from a wound-up Goldberg right hand. Goldberg hits the spear after ducking a Big Foot from Nash, but when Goldberg goes for the jackhammer, Nash hits him in the nuts. It’s a pure desperation move, but it’s fair; the match was changed to no-DQ beforehand for no reason other than it needed to be.
The low blow gives Nash a chance, because he was being overwhelmed. Nash throws everything he can at Goldberg, basically, but Goldberg just appears too much still. He hits a big powerslam for a really close two-count, nobody really bought it as a near-fall but it was executed well.
And now Disco Inferno is here. Goldberg spears the shit out of him. And now Bam Bam Bigelow, recently debuted is in. Goldberg takes him out. Those two run-ins fail. Scott Hall doesn’t run in. Disguises himself. Uses cattle prod. Success. Hall, dressed now as event security, had returned earlier in the show to do a promo about what a bad year it had been for him professionally and personally (it had been), and promising big things for ’99. He was a man without a faction and without a family. This is his attempt to get back in with one of those things.
Nash hits the jackknife and wins his first WCW world heavyweight championship. He did not see the Hall interference. He just did his job.
Just as a match, nothing to do with the finish or fallout or whatever, this was physical, great crowd, intense, and smartly put together with both guys giving their best effort. It’s a really good clash of the titans ass match. And a lot of what works is Nash going to these extra lengths, trying to work smart and efficiently, trying to mix in some new stuff when that doesn’t work, but through all of it it becomes clear that he simply can’t beat Goldberg. The part where he does is what makes it professional wrestling.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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