Starrcade '83

Legacy Review

Starrcade '83

November 24, 1983 (Thanksgiving night) from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC, more or less the home base arena for Jim Crockett's Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. The show's tagline is either A Flair for the Gold or A Flare for the Gold, depending on how they're spelling it this minute.

Commentary: Gordon Solie and Bob Caudle, with a VERY young Tony Schiavone handling backstage interviews

About 18 months before Vincent Kennedy McMahon bet the farm on Wrestlemania, the NWA and their flagship territory came up with the idea for the original cable TV supercard. Major supercard shows were common in wrestling in the 60s and 70s, often taking place in baseball and football stadiums, but this was the first time that one was attempted with a home TV audience more in mind than the live attendees. To anchor this show, the NWA decided this would also be the coronation of Ric Flair as the new face of the NWA, and the transition show between the Harley Race era and the Flair era.

The WWE Network copy of this show doesn't have any kind of intro, but starts right up with the participants for the first match already in the ring.

The Assassins (w/Paul Jones) def Rufus R Jones and Bugsey McGraw in 8:11- Jones is the Mid-Atlantic Champion. Unlike most masked tag teams The Assassins are fairly easy to tell apart. One is fat and one is thin. McGraw and Thin Assassin start. McGraw tries to get the mask off. Such poor sportsmanship. They do a dueling helicopter punches spot. Solie badly mispronounces Tony's name on commentary (SHA-phoney). Jones has similar mannerisms to the Junkyard Dog. Like JYD, he is anything but a smooth wrestler. Johnny Gargano or KUSHIDA (the two smoothest wrestlers working today in my opinion) this is not. Tommy Young is selling more than the wrestlers are. Lil' Naitch definitely sat under Young's learning tree. Fat Assassin takes control with an eye rake. DONNYBROOK! Fat Assassin schoolboys McGraw for the pin in the confusion. Not exactly a hot opener, but they never took a break either. *

Solie and Caudle stand up spot in front of a promo sign for the show that looks like it's on the same cardboard that kids use for science fair projects. Solie mentions Dusty Rhodes is in the building and is planning to challenge the winner of the world title match. They cut to Tony in the face locker room, bringing us a "first time ever" look behind the curtain.

Kevin Sullivan and Mark Lewin (w/Gary Hart) def Scott McGhee and Johnny Weaver in 6:43- This is a young Kevin Sullivan (yes, that Kevin Sullivan, future Taskmaster) and three guys that I don't even know. I'm Johnny Legacy, wrestling's greatest substitute history teacher, let that sink in for a minute. Gary Hart is not, repeat NOT, a Calgary Hart, but he is one of the NWA's top managers of this era, and from what I've seen pretty underrated. Sullivan and McGhee have a spunky looking basic sequence. Solie: "Some people have accused Sullivan of being a druid". He was always a weird guy. The heels control most of the match, and they work in the phantom tag spot. Lewin and Sullivan hit a double team spot off the ropes behind the ref's back to win. After the match they grab an international object from Hart and bust McGhee open. 1/2*

Tony is in the heel dressing room now. Harley Race says Greensboro, NC is THE WORST TOWN HE HAS EVER BEEN IN. KCU! In all seriousness, Race was an amazing promo guy, always grounded, believable and always selling the match.

Abdullah the Butcher def Carlos Colon in 4:30- Much like Andre the Giant, Abby was a big special attraction wrestler that worked practically every territory in the world. According to Solie this match was "banned in Puerto Rico" because they got too out of control, so they had it here instead. Colon is a wrestling god in Puerto Rico. Funny side story, Colon was involved in one of the most well known phantom, unofficial title changes in Ric Flair's career. Flair went down to work PR for a few days during his first reign in 1982. The local bookers realized that if Colon didn't win the title there might be a literal riot, so it was allowed for Colon to win the title at the start of the tour, then Flair won it back on the last night and got the hell out of town, and the whole thing was scrubbed from the record books. This was not completely uncommon in the territory days, which is why Flair is much more than a 16 time world champion. The real number is most likely at least 20. You've still got work to do, Cena. Anyway, Abby does what Abby does and starts biting Colon right away. Colon fights back, steals Abby's famous spike from inside his tights and starts going to town on Abby with it, fully allowed by the ref. Abby is busted open. They do a spot where Abby presses Colon off a pin attempt right on top of the ref, then Abby "accidentally" elbow drops the ref. This allows Hugo Savinovich (yes, the future WWE Spanish announcer) to run in and nail Colon. The ref recovers and Abby gets the pin. 3/4*, which is pretty much Abby's ceiling.

Bob Orton and Dick Slater def Mark Youngblood and Wahoo McDaniel in 14:48- Orton and Slater had been working as Race's heavys during the Flair feud. Yes, this is Randy Orton's dad. McDaniel was a major star of the 60s and 70s and is the grizzled old veteran of the show, teaming with the younger of the Youngblood brothers. Youngblood and Slater have some solid mat wrestling. Youngblood is full of BABYFACE FIRE and can't be stopped, so the heels use a sneaky (but legal) tag to take control. Youngblood is face in peril for a long while but gets a hot tag to Wahoo. Wahoo cleans house, but the heels double team to take him down, then dump him outside and isolate Youngblood. Orton hits a superplex (or superplay in Soliespeak) to win. Solid tag formula for the most part, with a great closing sequence where the heels were just too much. Slater is one of the more underrated solid hand midcarders of the era. ***

Dusty is in the crowd, and tries to cut a promo but the mic keeps cutting out. WWE has no issues with keeping botches in NWA/WCW shows.

Title vs Mask Match for the NWA World Television Championship- Charlie Brown (From Outta Town) def The Great Kabuki (w/Gary Hart) (c) in 10:35- Interesting setup here. The official time limit is 60 minutes, but because TV title matches always had short time limits, the title vs mask stip is only good for the first 15 minutes. Charlie Brown is Jimmy Valiant. Valiant had lost a loser leaves town match to Kabuki earlier in the year, so in grand wrestling tradition he came back with a mask. But the mask only covered the top half of his face, so everyone could see Valiant's distinctive beard and was in on the joke. The Great Kabuki has a very similar look to the Great Muta, mist and all. In fact, Kabuki is Muta's in-storyline father. Brown takes it right outside and gets a chairshot in, again allowed by the ref. These refs give more leeway than Red Shoes. The majority of the match is Brown's sleeper vs Kabuki's claw, as they each lock in their holds and the other fights out. Brown hulks up a couple of times and hits some ugly backdrops, then sells the effects of the claw while he's on offense. After another Brown hulk up he dodges a Kabuki knee, Kabuki knees the top turnbuckle, and Brown hits an elbow drop for the win. Brown may have been over and charismatic, but as a wrestler he's.....not good. 1/2*

Dusty promo take 2, with a working mic. He officially lays down the challenge for the world title winner.

Dog Collar Match, Non-title- Roddy Piper def NWA United States Champion Greg Valentine in 16:08- Piper and Valentine had been feuding over the US title for the bulk of '83, trading the title back and forth a couple of times. Piper also missed time after injuring his ear in one of those matches. Because of the brutal nature of those matches and the feud, this match was set up not for the title, but to get their personal issues settled once and for all. Commentary puts over how dangerous this match can be. The visual of both guys connected by the neck with thick dog collars and a large chain is quite a sight. You'll never, ever see anything like this again, with all the paranoia about neck and head injuries nowadays. They have a neck tug of war to start. Valentine keeps snapping his neck trying to pull Piper down, while Piper drags Valentine closer using the chain and gets the first shot in. Both trade shots using the chain wrapped around their knuckles. Valentine gets a shot in on Piper's injured ear, then wraps the chain around Piper's eyes and pulls. Piper counters by wrapping the chain around Valentine's mouth and tugging on it. Valentine gets trapped in the corner and gets busted open. Valentine gets a hard hit on Piper's injured ear then jumps at the opening, attacking the ear with the chain, busting Piper open just around the ear. Piper's equilibrium is gone, and I don't think it's all selling. Valentine even bites the ear. Piper uses the chain to jerk Valentine to the mat and jumps on him. Piper is a crimson mask, but only on one side of his face. It's like his Wrestlemania 6 look with blood. Piper pulls Valentine off the second rope, wallops him with the chain, then wraps the chain around Valentine's legs to get the pin. An incensed Valentine lays Piper out after the match and tries to strangle him with the chain. This was 15+ minutes of pure brutality, the kind you never see in wrestling anymore. Definitely not in North America, outside the extreme CZW/deathmatch cult. (A style of wrestling I have zero interest in for what it's worth. In my opinion if you need fluorescent light tubes and flaming truck beds it's just sadistic garbage, not wrestling. Stepping off the soapbox now.) Years later Piper would reveal that he suffered permanent hearing loss from the stiff shots in this match. ***3/4

NWA World Tag Team Championship- Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood def The Brisco Brothers (c) in 13:24- This is the Briscos without an E. Jack was a two time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, while Jerry held numerous regional championships and in the future would be one of the most important behind the scenes figures in WWE, as well as being one of Vince's stooges on screen. They were also generally considered one of the greatest tag teams of all time to that point. Steamboat and Youngblood may seem like kids here, but they'd been teaming since 1979 and were already 4 time NWA Tag Team Champs. Jerry stands on the top rope for the entire introduction and doesn't flinch a muscle. Impressive. Jack celebrates breaking clean with Steamboat in the corner. Such great heel work. The Briscos do a few quick tags but Steamboat hits the DEEP armdrag. Youngblood finally gets tagged in 5 minutes into the match. There's a nice move where Youngblood knocks Jack off the apron a split second before Jerry could tag him. Jerry gets a boot in Steamboat's face and the Briscos take control. Steamboat manages to get a side suplex in (I can hear Tony shout "sidewalk slam!" from the locker room) and get the hot tag. But a quick suplex kills Youngblood's momentum. Lots of quick double teams from the Briscos. Tag, double team, get out before the five count. The Revival nods their heads in appreciation of the rules being followed. Jerry gets into a shoving match with the ref, allowing Youngblood to tag out. Now it's the face's turn to stick and move double team spots, and it wears Jerry down enough to get the pin and their 5th tag title win! Once again, following tonight's pattern, the heels beat down the winners after the match. ***3/4

While we're in a short intermission to get the cage set up for the main event, let's do a quick recap of how we got here with Flair and Race. Flair won his first world title in September of '81, defeating Dusty Rhodes. Unfortunately, this match took place in Race's home town of Kansas City and didn't get the reaction that was wanted. Flair still had a year and a half "trial run" with the title (minus the aforementioned phantom title changes) before dropping it to Race in June of '83 for Race's then-record 7th world title win. Their feud continued after that, with Race offering a $25,000 bounty to anyone that could put Flair out of wrestling for good. The bounty was collected by Bob Orton and Dick Slater, who attacked Flair during a TV taping and injured his neck with a piledriver. Flair initially announced his retirement, but over weeks of TV slowly began to claw his way back, eventually announcing he was ready to come back and challenge Race for the title at what was, to this point, the biggest wrestling show of all time. You could argue that this match was the biggest in wrestling history to this point.

Steel Cage Match for the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship- Ric Flair def Harley Race (c) in 23:49- Whenever it involves the 10 Pounds of Gold belt, it's World's, not World. Flair's entrance is unlike anything ever seen at the time. The arena is darkened, there's a disco ball, lasers, smoke, a back light, a spotlight, a classic Flair robe (If you want to be fair to Flair you gotta be fair and say that's a heck of a robe!) and Also sprach Zarathustra playing through the arena (more commonly known as the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey), one of the first instances of a wrestler having entrance music. Race gets a cool entrance of his own. No music, but the arena is still dark and there's a great shot looking at him from behind staring at the ring from across the floor. All the better, there's not a peep from commentary during either entrance, letting the moment speak for itself. Now it must be said, Ric Flair here is great but he's not quite RIC FLAIR yet. Most of the attitude and mannerisms we associate with him would be developed during his gradual heel turn over the next couple of years. At this point he's very much a white meat babyface. Commentary mentions the fact that the cage is there to prevent outside interference, which in this era more or less worked, and to keep the competitors inside the ring. Unlike WWF the NWA never ran escape rules cage matches. I also have to mention the special guest referee here, former world champion Gene Kiniski, because he gets himself involved a little too often. Flair lets out a WOOOOOOO right after the bell rings and we're on. Kiniski insinuates himself early, trying to force Flair to open his fist and physically pulling Race back for multiple rope breaks. Race hits the jumping knee but misses the fall down headbutt. Flair gets a Flair chop in that Race does a spit sell for. Flair keeps Race down for a long headlock sequence but Race gets a side suplex ("SIDEWALK SLAM!" Shut up, Tony) to get out. Race gets an ear punch in and Flair shouts out a classic Flair "OH GOD!". Race starts going after Flair's neck, his stated strategery from prematch interviews, hitting a piledriver and a swinging neckbreaker. Race then throws Flair into the cage for the first time, and Flair gets busted open. Again Kiniski physically pulls Race away when Flair is in the ropes, letting Flair get a punch and then a cage shot of his own in, and Race is now bleeding. Kiniski gets on to Flair for the cage shots. Flair does some ground and pound then struts just a little bit. Not a full on Flair strut, but getting there. Flair hooks in the figure four but Race is able to reverse it. According to Solie that's "only the second time I've ever seen someone reverse the figure four". Sure. Race starts to hit his signature fall down headbutts, including one off the second rope. He then accidentally headbutts the ref, allowing Flair to climb to the top and hit a (pretty off target) crossbody to get the 3! This won't be everyone's cup of tea compared to modern-style wrestling, but it was a physical battle that lived up to the prematch hype. You do have to knock it down a bit for Kiniski getting himself so involved though. ****1/2

The babyface locker room storms the ring to celebrate with Flair, as does one of his future alimony checks. There's also a long sports-style post show recap with multiple locker room visits and lots of talk from Solie and Caudle. Solie keeps calling Flair a three time champion even though it's officially only two. The phantom title changes are already confusing people.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- There's not a whole lot going on in the undercard, but the top matches definitely delivered. Back in those days and even into the Attitude Era shows were often sold on the main event only, anything else was gravy. You have to say the first attempt at a modern style supercard show was a success. This would be Race's final hurrah as a major player after being the NWA's biggest star of the 70s. A couple of years after this he would have a very uninspiring run in the WWF, a combination of his body breaking down and Vince not knowing what to do with him, before revitalizing his career as a manager for Lex Luger and Vader in the 90s. Race truly is one of the greats. It's unfortunate that so few matches from his peak years are available. I urge everyone to dig into the Hidden Gems section of the Network for every Race match that's available there, you won't be disappointed. Some of the other guys who made big names for themselves here (Piper, Steamboat, Valentine) would move on to bigger thjings in the WWF over the next few years, but Crockett and the NWA still had plenty of talent reserves remaining, and a new megastar to carry the company. Just two months after this Hulk Hogan would win the WWF Championship, giving birth to Hulkamania and cementing the top two faces that would help carry wrestling for the next decade. Starrcade would quickly become a fixture of the wrestling calendar.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE- B