Starrcade (2019)

The 2019 Starrcade was the 21st and final Starrcade professional wrestling livestreaming event. It was the third Starrcade promoted by WWE and was held as a live event for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. A portion of the event was livestreamed as a one-hour WWE Network special. It took place on December 1, 2019, at the Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, Georgia. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an event was not held in 2020 and no further events have been scheduled since.

Starrcade
Promotional poster featuring Lana, Bobby Lashley, Rusev, Kevin Owens, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch
Promotion	WWE
Brand(s)	Raw SmackDown
Date	December 1, 2019
City	Duluth, Georgia
Venue	Infinite Energy Arena
WWE Network event chronology
← Previous Survivor Series Next → TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs
Starrcade chronology
← Previous 2018 Next → Final

Eleven matches were contested on the card, four of which were broadcast live for the one-hour WWE Network special. In the main event of the non-televised live show, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt defeated Braun Strowman in a Steel Cage match to retain SmackDown's Universal Championship, while in the main event of the televised portion of the show, Bobby Lashley defeated Kevin Owens by disqualification.

Part-way through the broadcast, WWE began to stream the remainder of the special on YouTube; the WWE Network experienced a major service outage predominantly in the eastern United States.^[1][2]

Production

Background

The event was held at the Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, Georgia.

Starrcade was a live closed-circuit event that was conceived in 1983 by Dusty Rhodes. The event was originally produced under the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) banner by NWA member Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). The NWA and JCP regarded Starrcade as their flagship event of the year, much in the same vein that its rival, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), would begin to regard WrestleMania two years later. In 1988, JCP was sold to Turner Broadcasting and became World Championship Wrestling (WCW), with Starrcade being held by WCW until 2000; WCW and its assets were acquired by the WWF the following year (the WWF itself was renamed to WWE in 2002).^[3][4]

After a 17-year hiatus, WWE revived Starrcade as a live event on November 25, 2017, held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's SmackDown brand division.^[5][6] On November 24, 2018, WWE held a second Starrcade event, featuring wrestlers from both Raw and SmackDown, with a portion of the event airing on tape delay as a one-hour WWE Network special on November 25, 2018.^[7] On September 17, 2019, WWE announced that its third Starrcade event, again featuring Raw and SmackDown, would take place on December 1, 2019, held at the Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, Georgia. Like the previous year, a portion aired as a one-hour WWE Network special, but unlike the previous year, the one-hour special was livestreamed.^[8]

Storylines

Other on-screen personnel

Role	Name
Commentators	Tom Phillips
	Byron Saxton
Ring announcers	Mike Rome
Referees	Shawn Bennett
	Charles Robinson
	Dan Engler

Starrcade consisted of professional wrestling matches that involved various different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.^[9][10] Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.^[11]

Aftermath

The 2019 Starrcade would in turn be the final Starrcade, as an event for 2020 was not scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the cancelation of all live events outside of WWE's main shows, which were held behind closed doors.^[12] WWE resumed live touring in July 2021, but a Starrcade event was not scheduled for that year.^[13]

Results

No.	Results[14][15]	Stipulations	Times
1	Seth Rollins defeated Erick Rowan	Singles match[16]	12:46
2	Shinsuke Nakamura (c) (with Sami Zayn) defeated The Miz	Singles match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship[16]	15:46
3	Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) defeated The O.C. (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson)	Tag team match	10:06
4	The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) (c) defeated Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, Bayley and Sasha Banks, and Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross by submission	Fatal 4-Way Tag team match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship[16]	13:30
5	Bobby Lashley (with Lana) defeated Rusev by forfeit	Last Man Standing match[16]	—
6	Bobby Lashley (with Lana) defeated Kevin Owens by disqualification	Singles match	14:16
7	Aleister Black defeated Andrade (with Zelina Vega)	Singles match	9:34
8	Ricochet defeated Andrade (with Zelina Vega)	Singles match	6:33
9	Randy Orton defeated AJ Styles	Singles match	20:58
10	Roman Reigns defeated King Corbin	Singles match[16]	11:23
11	"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt (c) defeated Braun Strowman by escaping the cage	Steel cage match for the WWE Universal Championship[16]	10:32
(c)  – the champion(s) heading into the match

References

1. Phillip, Bupp (December 1, 2019). "WWE moves Starrcade to YouTube amid WWE Network outages". Awful Announcing. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
2. Jenkins, H (December 2, 2019). "WWE Airs Starrcade On YouTube After Network Shut Down". Ringside News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
3. Molinaro, John (December 17, 1999). "Starrcade, the original "super card"". SLAM! Sports. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
4. Meltzer, Dave (November 27, 2003). "Thursday news update: It was 20 years ago today..." Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Archived from the original on November 15, 2006. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
5. WWE.com Staff (September 18, 2017). "Starrcade returns to Greensboro this November". WWE. Archived from the original on September 18, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
6. "WWE Live presents Starrcade". Greensboro Coliseum Complex. September 18, 2017. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
7. Currier, Joseph (November 16, 2018). "One-hour Starrcade 2018 special listed on WWE Network schedule". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Archived from the original on November 17, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
8. Toro, Carlos (September 17, 2019). "WWE Network To Air One-Hour Starrcade Special On December 1". Fightful. Archived from the original on November 2, 2019. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
9. Grabianowski, Ed (January 13, 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
10. "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
11. Steinberg, Brian (May 25, 2016). "WWE's 'Smackdown' Will Move To Live Broadcast On USA (Exclusive)". Variety. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
12. Mohan, Sai (November 13, 2020). "Backstage News On WWE Moving On From House Shows Post COVID-19 Era". Wrestling Inc. Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
13. Brookouse, Brent (November 5, 2021). "WWE schedule, list of PPVs for 2021: Crown Jewel date, location, start time, watch live". CBSSports. Archived from the original on October 23, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
14. Powell, Jason (December 1, 2019). "12/1 WWE Starrcade results: Live updates on the full event, including the WWE Network broadcast". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on December 2, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
15. Johnson, Mike (December 1, 2019). "Complete WWE Starrcade 2019 coverage". PWInsider. Archived from the original on December 7, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
16. "WWE Starrcade". Infinite Energy Arena. Archived from the original on November 17, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.