WWE Starrcade Review - November 25, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Elias Performed with Ric Flair

It was cool for Flair to make an appearance on this show given his history with Starrcade and how he was a part of the inaugural installment almost exactly 35 years ago. Elias' concerts are always harmless and this was fun while it lasted, though I could have done without Nia Jax, Tamina, Mickie James and Alicia Fox interrupting them. I wouldn't be surprised if this was cut for time and was actually longer.

Sasha Banks, Bayley, Ember Moon and Alicia Fox def. Nia Jax, Tamina, Mickie James and Alicia Fox

This was your typical house show-style match in that everyone shined at one point or another and it was well-wrestled, yet it wasn't anything incredibly special. On the bright side, they made the most of the time they had and the crowd was into the action. It was also nice to see Banks, Bayley and Moon win for a change, even if it was a totally meaningless matchup and didn't factor into anything storyline-related.

The Miz Hosted Miz TV with United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and Rey Mysterio

Nakamura and Mysterio clashed on SmackDown 1000 in a match that was won by Mysterio, so I was happy that was acknowledged here. They went back and forth on the mic in what turned out to be a solid segment, which was designed to hype up their subsequent match for the title. Miz didn't play much of a factor here, but this did make me want to see a full-fledged feud between Mysterio and Nakamura eventually.

Rey Mysterio def. United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura; Mysterio and Rusev def. Nakamura and The Miz

Mysterio and Nakamura have good chemistry together and they had a fine match in the two minutes they were given, but it existed solely to set up the tag team bout with Rusev and Miz. None of these guys are feuding at the moment, so while this didn't serve much of a purpose, it was an entertaining outing. Nakamura deserves way more love from Creative what he's been getting lately.

AJ Styles def. Samoa Joe in a Steel Cage Match

This was originally supposed to be contested over the WWE Championship, but that was before Styles dropped the belt to Daniel Bryan on SmackDown Live a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, it was cool for them to rekindle their rivalry inside the cage, even if they've already done battle way too many times since SummerSlam (with Styles winning on every occasion). I appreciated the effort they put forth here, but it paled in comparison to their past encounters (especially when the outcome was never once in doubt).

Overall Show

Starrcade happened on Saturday night, and this was just part of it that was trimmed down for the WWE Network. I like it whenever they do these type of shows, but WWE has had so many of them recently that I couldn't bring myself to care. It was painfully obvious that it was a glorified house show, but I wouldn't call it a waste of time because everyone knew what to expect coming in. Although it was an enjoyable hour on the whole, I would hardly call it must-see.