Event: WCW Starrcade "BattleBowl"
Location: Atlanta, GA
Announced Attendance: 8,000

This is an over the top rope battle royal with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Vader, Sting, The Great Muta, Dan Spivey and Van Hammer. Vader attacks Sting on the ramp as he comes to the ring and the rest of the wrestlers brawl in the ring. Muta pairs with Spivey as Windham is with Rhodes. Sting comes back in the ring and Vader flies over the top rope from the ramp onto Sting so all eight men are now in the ring. Vader and Windham double teams Sting while Rhodes gets chopped by Williams against the ropes. Muta attacks Williams, who he has fought before in New Japan, but Williams gets the better of it. Meanwhile Vader has gone back to Sting, while Rhodes has gotten the better of Windham. Spivey stops beating up Van Hammer and interrupts Muta and Williams, which gives Van Hammer time to recover and he eventually joins back in the fight. Van Hammer goes after Vader but Vader naturally punches him to the mat. Vader grabs Muta but Van Hammer rakes Vader's eyes from behind. Van Hammer pulls on Vader's leg but Windham comes up from behind and drops Van Hammer with a backdrop suplex. Vader meanwhile grabs Rhodes and puts him in a Cobra Clutch. Punches in the corner by Vader, while Williams still has the better of Muta and Spivey is messing with Sting. Sting gets the better of Spivey and all eight men seem to be pretty tired (they've all had at least one other match already tonight). Sting jumps on Vader and puts him in a sleeper hold, while Muta and Windham start tangling and Rhodes helps Van Hammer against Spivey. Rhodes punches Windham out of the ring (not over the top), and hits a facebuster on the ramp. Meanwhile, Williams unceremoniously dumps Van Hammer over the top rope, giving us our first elimination. Rhodes rolls back in as does Windham, Spivey goes for a clothesline on Sting but Sting ducks, sending Spivey over the top rope and giving us the second. Muta tries to throw out Rhodes, but he can't get him as Rhodes rakes him in the eyes. Vader starts wailing on Muta in the corner (old friends), Vader tries to dump him out of the ring but Sting saves him with a Stinger Splash. Sting is against the ropes, Vader goes for a body press and both of them go over the top rope onto the ramp, leading to both being eliminated from the match. The remaining wrestlers are Williams, Rhodes, Windham, and Sting. Rhodes hits a vertical suplex on Windham while Williams chops Muta in the corner. Rhodes and Williams choke their respective opponents against the top rope, but Muta knocks Williams back with a jumping kick. Another jumping back kick by Muta as Rhodes punches down Windham by the ropes. Muta throws Williams into the corner but Williams kicks him back. DDT by Windham on Rhodes, and at some point Windham's nose got busted open. Windham picks up Rhodes and hits a body slam. Windham goes up to the top turnbuckle but Rhodes recovers and tosses him off to the mat. Muta and Williams continue kicking each other while Rhodes hits a DDT onto Windham. Williams kicks Muta in his leg injured earlier by Masahiro Chono, Windham as Rhodes against the ropes and Williams comes running out of nowhere with a lariat onto Rhodes, but they both fall out of the ring and are eliminated. Windham and Great Muta are the last two. Windham punches Muta, he picks up Muta and throws him into his boot. Vertical suplex by Windham and he punches Muta repeatedly in the head. Windham tries to throw Muta over the top turnbuckle but Muta hangs on. Backdrop suplex by Windham, he picks up Muta and puts him onto the top turnbuckle. Windham joins him and nails the superplex, he picks up Muta and hits a standing dropkick. He picks him up again and throws him out of the ring, but Muta skins the cat and rebounds back into the ring. Dropkick by Muta, and the second dropkick sends Windham out of the ring to the floor! Your winner of the BattleBowl: Great Muta

Match Thoughts: Not a bad little battle royal, but what hurt it was just the percentage of people that eliminated themselves. When you only have eight wrestlers in a battle royal, to have four of them go out by double elimination just seems a bit like a cop out. The action in the first half was mostly punch-kick, but the Vader/Sting pairing kept things interesting. I also liked that Muta seemed to get paired up with wrestlers that he had worked with in New Japan, Williams and Vader, as it made sense that wrestlers would go after old foes. Muta winning was a surprise (or was at least sold that way on commentary), and it was his third match of the evening which was only briefly played up by Williams when he went for Muta's leg. Fine for what it was, although it does seem like a pretty lackluster main event for their biggest PPV of the year. Score: 5.5

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