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WCW ’02: From the Ashes
Stories heading into Starrcade.
The main story heading into WCW’s flagship pay-per-view event sees four of the company’s biggest names fighting it out over the most coveted prize in wrestling – The World Heavyweight Championship. Current holder Kevin Nash puts the gold on the line against Diamond Dallas Page, Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett in a fatal four way. The big gold belt has changed hand seven times in 2001. Booker T ended Scott Steiner’s four-month reign in March, losing it to Kevin Nash in July before winning the strap back just six days later, entering his fifth reign as champion. Booker signed a contract with WWF in August though, meaning he had to lose the title before he left. Diamond Dallas Page was the man to take the helm, beating Booker at WCW Breaking Point. As WCW continued to grow throughout the latter stages of 2001, Sean O’Haire emerged as a breakout star, shocking the world when he pinned DDP cleanly at Halloween Havok. Unfortunately for him, the higher ups in the company didn’t see O’Haire as the man to take the company forward and had him drop the belt to Goldberg just three weeks later. Goldberg was screwed out of the title on the December 9th edition of Nitro when Kevin Nash cheated his way to victory, with the aid of long-time friend Scott Hall. The booking of this match saw Goldberg leave WCW for good, going to ply his trade with All Japan Pro Wrestling. Since winning the title, Nash has had a huge target on his back. All four competitors who’ll compete in the main event have each had their own success in recent weeks, but in the most recent edition of Nitro, it was Dallas Page who came out on top, claiming a pinfall victory over Nash in a tag team match, giving him the momentum heading into the event.
Despite winning the World Championship in the latter part of 2001, Sean O’Haire hasn’t quite broken out as a “top guy” yet. Sean had the fans backing and played the role of babyface perfectly up until he lost the strap to Goldberg. Since then, his entire persona has changed. O’Haire has been putting down the fans, the company, and many top stars within it. This led to the return of Ric Flair. The Nature Boy said the reasons for his comeback was mainly because he was sick and tired of these cocky, young punks coming in, bitching and moaning anytime something doesn’t go their way. Flair told O’Haire that he sees all the potential in the world with him. He can’t cry because things didn’t work out the way he expected and told him to find the fire within himself to get the gold back. The two men would team up throughout November and came within inches of winning the tag titles. After coming up short, O’Haire turned on the Nature Boy, beating him to a bloody mess in the middle of the ring. The two have been brawling around arenas ever since and will finally come to blows in an official match at Starrcade.
Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell formed a unit in the summer of 2001, when Bagwell saved Steiner from a beating at the hands of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. They had initially began their story as a babyface pairing, but it wasn’t long before they switched over to the dark side and began to decimate every team in their wake. Steiner and Buff focused on destroying the cruiserweight division, which led to young AJ Styles recruiting Kronik to deal with the egomaniacs. The two teams entered into a feud which saw Scott and Buff take the World Tag Titles from their new rivals at WCW Mayhem in November. In the weeks since, Kronik have been steamrolling teams and have earned an opportunity to get their titles back for the fourth time at Starrcade!
Sting hasn’t had the best year since WCW was purchased by Randy Savage. During the summer months, a story of authority vs fan-favourite babyface was the main focus of WCW. Sting overcame that and beat Savage on PPV at Bash at the Beach to keep his place in the company and [kayfabe] force ‘The Macho Man’ out of his own company. In reality, Savage no longer wanted to appear on-screen and would rather focus on building success to World Championship Wresting. Since Sting’s emphatic victory though, he’s been on something of a losing streak and slowly falling down the card. This has created much joy for Shane Douglas, who in recent weeks has made a mockery of Sting’s lack of success. Douglas has since recruited ‘Wildcat’ Chris Harris and ‘The Cowboy’ James Storm, and the three men have made Sting’s life a misery week in, week out. On the most recent edition of Nitro, Sting finally got some momentum on his side. With Storm and Harris celebrating a tag victory, the lights went out in the arena. Sting appeared in the ring with his signature bat once the lighting returned and used it to good effect by getting his revenge on Douglas’ lackeys. ‘The Franchise’ would appear on stage, absolutely irate – more so when Sting pointed the bat in his direction to close out the segment. Later on in the show, Douglas cut a backstage promo to say that he’s spoken with WCW management and the match would be booked for Starrcade.
The United States Championship has been gaining more and more prestige through 2001. The current holder, Scott Hall, spent a while in rehab to deal with his drug and alcohol issues and since his return in July has been undefeated. Hall was a fan favourite, teaming with Hardcore Hak on occasion. He eventually turned on Hak though, citing that he only got close to him because he wanted the gold. He would later defeat Hardcore at Mayhem and claim the title. The following night on Nitro, a new challenge appeared for the now-heel Hall, in the form of Rellik. A mysterious character, Rellik began to stalk Hall backstage. Eventually on the final Nitro of 2001, Rellik made his intentions clear when he attacked Hall during a US Title defence, cementing his place as the number one contender. Hall, later on in the night, was livid – even more so when WCW management informed him he’d be defending against the strange Rellik at Starrcade.
Billy Kidman is the longest serving champion in World Championship Wrestling right now. He won the title at Bash at the Beach in July 2001. Since then, he’s grown from strength to strength, proving to be the focal point of the recreation of WCW’s Cruiserweight division, defending the title 18 times since besting Shane Helms for it. Since November, Kidman has been embroiled in a war with Yang and Kaz Hayashi, known collectively as The Jung Dragons. Yang has built an obsession with becoming champion, even going so far to steal the title from Kidman after losing to him at the Mayhem PPV. In recent weeks, Kidman has entered an on-screen relationship with Paisley, who found herself at the receiving end of a beating from the Dragons on the final episode of Nitro before Starrcade, understandably angering Kidman. The match is now set for the final pay-per-view of 2001 with the title on the line.
The final story heading into WCW’s biggest event of the year sees former friends collide. Mark Jindrak and Chuck Palumbo were a force to be reckoned with as part of the Natural Born Thrillers. After Shawn Stasiak was injured and O’Haire went out alone, Jindrak and Palumbo would tear up the tag team division. However, the introduction of Curt Hennig started to create rifts between the pairing. Hennig took a liking to Jindrak and tried to get in his head, telling him that Palumbo was holding him back. Jindrak initially brushed off the comments, but after Chuck took the fall in a tag title match, Hennig managed to get inside his head. Jindrak turned on his partner and began to wrestle under the wing of Hennig. The two rivals fought at Mayhem in a great match, won by Jindrak, which appeared to end the feud, that was until management announced that the TV Title would be returning to the company. Jindrak and Palumbo went through WCW stars as part of a 16-man tournament and will now compete for the strap at Starrcade. Hennig has the ‘Reflection of Perfection’ firing on all cylinders, but can he beat his former partner for a second time and claim the championship?
