The Furious Flashbacks – NWA Starrcade ’83

The Furious Flashbacks – NWA Starrcade ’83

A Flair for the Gold

After I finished my WCW reviews I asked what people wanted me to cover next. I got a few asking for TNA and ROH but I figure there’s enough coverage of those on 411 as it is. I did get an email that consisted of two words though – “old school”. Well, it doesn’t get much more old school than the first Starrcade. Of course this isn’t old school in my sense of the word because in 1983 my only exposure to wrestling was World of Sport on ITV. I didn’t know who Ric Flair was but I did know who Big Daddy was. Seeing as I covered a huge chunk of the NWA’s demise in the early 90’s I thought it’d be good to go back and check it out back in the day.

With the WWWF trying to compete nationally, the first wrestling promotion to truly attempt this, the NWA was somewhat in a bind. The territory system was beginning to crack because of TV and videotape. Fans were trading tapes and starting to see the holes in logic from one promotion to the next. The McMahon family saw this as an opportunity to push their TV product onto the entire nation and started signing as many big names as possible for the WWWF. The NWA’s solution was Jim Crockett. Running his promotion out of Charlotte he aimed to imitate the McMahon’s and sign up a comparable roster of big name talent. In the early 80’s Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) was the most successful of all the NWA territories leading to Crockett being named the president of the NWA. Starrcade was Crockett’s brainchild. He saw the WWF putting on the big Shea Stadium shows and making waves (there were three “Showdown at Shea”, the last in 1980) and Crockett believed the time to act was now. He saw potential for a massive year ending supercard that would wrap up all major feuds in the NWA territories. “The Granddaddy of them all”. Starrcade.

November 24th 1983. We’re in Greensboro, North Carolina. Hosts are Gordon Solie and Bob Caudle.

The Assassins w/Paul Jones v Rufus R. Jones/Bugsy McGraw

McGraw is somewhat stout and bald. He looks like wrestlers used to look like. Big out of shape guys who could kick your ass. The Assassins are Jody Hamilton and Hercules Hernandez. Hamilton was the “Masked Assassin” who appeared first. He also went on to train guys for WCW. McGraw is terrible but the fans seem to love him. He just wails away and spins in the circle like the players in the mechanised football game. It’s actually bizarre to watch. Jones is even more charismatic jivin’ and struttin’ around the ring. He’s known as the “Freight Train”. From this opening match I can see how Dusty Rhodes got over. He looks just like these guys only was slightly more mobile. I think McGraw may be a little, erm, ‘slow’. The babyfaces do a lot of goofing around but surprisingly the Assassins don’t take advantage of it. Jones seems to be doing a poor man’s Dusty Rhodes in terms of his offence. He also can’t be bothered to do much when he’s in charge. In particular he works a LOOOOONG standing armbar. The heels never get in charge of the two dingus’ they’re wrestling until McGraw loses track of which Assassin is legal. Jody rolls him up for the win. *1/4. Not the greatest of starts to the history of Starrcade.

BACKSTAGE Tony Schiavone, whose balls haven’t dropped yet, is in the locker room. Weird seeing Flair, Piper and Steamboat milling around in the back there.

Johnny Weaver/Scott McGhee v Kevin Sullivan/Mark Lewin w/Gary Hart

Caudle cracks me up with his usual little fuck up’s. This time getting Gary Hart’s name wrong twice. Lewin is about a 20 year pro by this point although he’s in pretty good condition. Weaver uses the sleeper as a finisher, which he called the Weaver Lock. He was the first guy to use it since Jim Londos some 30 years beforehand. Weaver is probably better known as a colour commentator for JCP. McGhee worked out of Florida mostly before retiring early in 1988 after suffering a stroke. Sullivan is entering his druid phase and is still in Florida. We’re introduced to an old NWA ruling where you have to tag over the top rope. That may be the case everywhere but it’s never enforced. It is here thus preventing Scott getting a hot tag. The camera actually misses the hot tag as the guy sitting in the front row looked more important to the director. Weaver cleans house but Sullivan avoids the bulldog and now Weaver gets a beating. Sullivan and Lewin make frequent tags showing some great team work and keep Weaver in trouble. Lewin kneedrops the arm off the top while the ref is distracted and that’s enough for the heels to get the big win. ½*. Some nice tag work but it came up short.

POST MATCH Hart pulls out some form of weapon and Lewin uses it on McGhee who gets busted WIDE open. There’s blood everywhere. Former Canadian football star Angelo Mosca runs in for the save.

BACKSTAGE Barbara Clarey talks to some dumbass fans at ringside. They all think Ric Flair is going to beat Harley Race tonight.

ELSEWHERE Not So Fat Tony talks to the champs including Harley Race. He tells us knows Flair’s weaknesses and he’ll go after them tonight. Maybe not totally stupid then.

Carlos Colon v Abdullah the Butcher

Colon would be Carlito’s Dad. Colon actually won the NWA title earlier in 1983 but it’s not an official title change. Just an excuse to kickstart the WWC title. Seeing as it happened in Puerto Rico nobody in America cared about the title switch. Anyone who’s seen an Abby match knows how it goes. He just sort of clubs away and tries to sneak in illegal shots. Colon isn’t much better as he punches and bites Abby until he starts bleeding. The ref somehow misses Colon using a foreign object for about 3 minutes. Ref gets bumped when Abby kicks out and Colon lands on him. Abby miscues an elbow drop to make matters worse. Poor ref. Colon takes apart the knee and hooks the figure four but Hugo Savinovich runs in and bashes Colon with an International object. Abby gets the cheap pin. ¼*. Predictably dreadful. EVIL HUGO though. That’s got to be worth something.

BACKSTAGE Tony has a word with an injured Angelo Mosca. He’s going to be referee later tonight regardless of Lewin hurting him. It’s a horrible promo and reminds me of when I heard him commentating once. Shudder. Scott McGhee is sat next to him and he appears to be dead. Er, medic? At least wash some of the blood off. Geez.

ELSEWHERE Barbara Clarey has some more fans who root for Ric Flair. Shocker.

Wahoo McDaniel/Mark Youngblood v Bob Orton Jr/Dick Slater

“Two Injuns in one corner” announces Bob Caudle. The mic breaks as the announcer is calling for Dusty Rhodes to come out here but that doesn’t happen and you’d question how well organised this is. Mark is Ricky Romero’s son. It amuses me that it’s another wrestling gimmick thing. Samoans playing Japanese etc. In this case Puerto Rican playing Native American. Orton shows more power than usual here with a press backbreaker and he just throws Youngblood’s corpse away afterwards. Usually he doesn’t use that strength. Youngblood gets fired up and pops off armdrags. Orton is totally befuddled and the crowd goes wild. The heels team to get Youngblood back down and a heat segment follows. Slater is really aggressive and either goes after the win or seeks to do damage. A fine example being when he throws Youngblood out to the floor where Orton puts the boots in then slams him on the rail. Youngblood is taking an ASS KICKING in this bout. Youngblood tries to fire up but Orton kicks him square in the face. Unfortunately Orton doesn’t have Slater’s aggression and opts to go to a chinlock during his controlling segments. Slater comes back in but Youngblood backdrops him and they clash heads. Youngblood should have tagged out. He had the chance. He gets lucky and tags out anyway. Wahoo cleans house albeit in slow motion. Crowd eats it up regardless and Orton makes a point of way overselling everything. Slater turns the course back in the heels favour by dishing out another trademark beating. Wahoo is pretty deteriorated and can’t even kickout. He just doesn’t have the energy. Orton and Slater have demonstrated superior tag teaming in this match so far. Heels miscue, naturally, with Wahoo moving. Orton high knees Wahoo out of the ring but Youngblood had already got the tag. He showboats, like an idiot, but somehow manages to stay on top with dropkicks. Slater holds Orton back to prevent another connecting, which is yet more shrewd teaming. Orton finishes it with a superplex because Youngblood is too weak to kick out. **1/2. Fun little formula tag effort. Dick Slater was pretty badass in there.

POST MATCH Slater considers coming off the top rope to destroy Wahoo’s arm but thinks better of it and Orton does it instead. Nifty.

BACKSTAGE Thin Tony chats to Ric Flair. He’s surprisingly low key and wishes Steamboat & Jay Youngblood luck in their title match this evening.

ELSEWHERE Interview Girl gets a word with Dusty Rhodes and the mic still doesn’t work. Dusty can almost make himself heard without the mic, which is quite impressive. Gordon Solie speculates as to what he’s rambling about. “Dusty Rhodes said it all”. In fact he said very little. He’s highly animated though, which makes it even funnier.

TV title – Great Kabuki (c) w/Gary Hart v Charlie Brown

Title v mask. Charlie Brown “from outta town” is Jimmy Valiant in a mask. Basically he assumed an alter ego whenever he got suspended or whatnot. Everyone knows it’s Valiant but the heels can’t prove it. Hogan ran the same gimmick in the WWE the last time he had a long run there. Kabuki blows mist pre match but that doesn’t help him much. Valiant crotches him and slaps on the sleeper. Gary Hart eyes up the ring, raises his hands and the crowd jump all over him. Now THAT is heat. Just considering cheating provokes a huge roar. Hart distracts for long enough to get it broken but Valiant slaps it right back on. Valiant gets himself distracted again allowing Kabuki to lay in some kicks. IRON CLAW~! Of course he could just rip the mask off but it doesn’t occur to him. Valiant with a couple of really sloppy backdrops. IRON CLAW~! There’s no escaping the Iron Claw. They sit in that for a while and this is swiftly becoming a real yawner. Valiant twitches. Is he dancing? Hulking up? Mentally challenged? Back to the Claw. I’m marking out significantly less now. This match is SO boring we have to clip ahead to Kabuki working the claw like 10 minutes later. Kabuki finally tries to unmask his foe. It’s blocked and Valiant starts dancing. He drops an elbow and wins. Wow, did that ever suck. Crowd completely loses its mind though popping insanely hard. ½*. Super-dull. They don’t even know if it’s within the 15 minute time limit for a title change, which renders the entire match useless. Call it a DUD instead then.

BACKSTAGE Tony talks to Bob Orton about how Flair came back from the bounty beating they gave him. Orton tells us Harley Race has more than enough information to beat Flair and retain the title tonight. Slater cuts a terrible promo where he stumbles over everything.

ELSEWHERE Dusty Rhodes gets a working mic to put over Starrcade as a concept. He puts over Race v Flair in the process and can’t pick a winner. He can issue a challenge to whoever wins though. Oh, and then he picks Race to win. I hate Dusty Rhodes.

Dog Collar match – Greg Valentine v Roddy Piper

I’ve done this one before. In the interests of getting a quick review done, here’s that commentary. Apologies for any mistakes. We get a weird tug ‘o war to start before they start whipping at each other. Piper takes control on that and hammers on Valentine. That weird delayed sell from the Hammer kicks in again. That always bugged me about him. Valentine gets the chain and attacks Piper’s EAR and then his EYES. Piper gets out and chokes Valentine with the chain shoving it in his MOUTH. Piper ties Valentine in the corner and pummels him some more. That opens the Hammer up. Outside and Piper tries to hang Valentine before punching him in the cut. Valentine goes to the EAR to save himself wailing on it with the chain. It’s hard to watch someone working the ear over. It just looks nasty and wrong. Eventually Piper can’t even stand and Hammer drops an elbow for 2. Valentine spends too long taunting however and Piper fires himself up into a brawl. Piper looks to be bleeding heavily from the EAR and he just whips Valentine IN THE HEAD smashing up his nose in the process. Piper is still weak to ear shots though and takes some more of those for 2. Valentine goes after the ear again for 2. He changes tack looking for a suplex but Piper counters into one of his own. Blood everywhere by this point mostly from Piper’s ear. Valentine goes to the sleeper but Piper grabs the chain and smacks Valentine in the face with it. Valentine climbs the ropes but Piper uses the chain to pull him off. Piper then starts wailing away with the chain and uses it to hook the legs for the pin at 16.06. Well, ending was a bit sudden but it was a brutal old school brawl. I’ll go ***3/4 on this one. Post match Valentine makes a point of choking out Piper with the chain and punking out the referee. What a git. He continues to whip away at Piper’s ear like the most sadistic bastard at the dance.

BACKSTAGE Tony has Flair, again. Flair and Race have been trading promos all night. Flair is still barely awake. It’s been a long time since I saw such an understated Flair promo. The injured Wahoo McDaniel is in there with his arm all wrapped up. He bets all his money on Naitch.

ELSEWHERE Babs is with Don Kernodle. He talks about how both the teams in the tag title match are great. He backs Flair for the title match.

Tag titles – Jack/Gerry Brisco (c) v Jay Youngblood/Ricky Steamboat

Once again I’ve reviewed this before on the Best of Starrcade. Ref is Angelo Mosca. The Brisco’s are nearing the end of their NWA run as they’d soon sell out to Vince McMahon and the WWF. Jerry got himself a job for life in the process. Jay Youngblood is Mark’s brother and is therefore Ricky Romero’s son. He died in 1985. Another wrestler gone at an early age.

Brisco’s have tremendous continuity although that’s mostly to cover for Gerry being the much weaker brother. Steamboat outpaces both of them and brings the armdrags. Gerry’s selling bugs me pretty much right away so naturally he gets isolated and has his arm worked over. Gerry gets out and brings Jack in to hotshot Steamboat on the ropes. Now THAT is the man you’d want isolated and selling. Double underhook suplex from Jack gets 2. He uses the waistlock roll on the cover. Old school is RIGHT! Jack goes to a short arm scissors. Steamboat powers him up into a fall away slam and the fans DIG that. Hot tag to Youngblood who gets suplexed immediately and isolated by Jack. Gerry comes in to knee drop the spine for 2. Vertical suplex gets 2 and Gerry uses the abdominal roll up for 2. Gerry gets into an argument with special referee Angelo Mosca that allows Steamboat to get the hot tag and clean house. Youngblood comes in and Steamboat press slams him onto Gerry for 3 at 12.01. The Brisco’s take exception to that and lay out the new champions and the referee. ***. Solid enough. Shame about all the Gerry Brisco selling. Don’t get me wrong – he’s great on offence but his selling makes baby Jesus cry.

BACKSTAGE Bob Caudle talks about the title match during a late intermission.

ELSEWHERE Tony is with Flair, again. Flair is now dressed and ready for action. He looks suitably motivated. He also gets a word with the new NWA TV champ Charlie Brown thus confirming the title switched earlier. Brown claims he did it for “Boogie Woogie Man” Jimmy Valiant. Doy. Roddy Piper also gets promo time. He screams about how Valentine left him with one working ear and that was his mistake. He says he’ll win the US title to teach Hammer a lesson. Jay Youngblood and Ricky Steamboat come in. Jay’s promo is pretty bad. He says they’re not “closet champions” whatever that means. Is he coming out? Steamboat calls them a “good wrestling combination”.

ELSEWHERE Solie joins Caudle for some more main event analysis.

NWA title – Harley Race (c) v Ric Flair

Again I’ve done this one before. Great match.

Flair’s entrance is amazing. The lights come down and “Thus Spake Zathura” plays then when it’s finished Flair walks out through dry ice. This is inside a cage. Gene Kiniski is the referee. Race didn’t think too highly of him being in there btw and suggested he got in the way and screwed with the flow sometimes. They go to the mat early and Flair uses a closed fist that Kiniski objects to. Odd hearing someone talk about a wrestler having the experience edge on Ric Flair. Race hits a high knee but Flair rolls out of the way of a falling headbutt. CHOPS! Flair tries for a cover and my God, Kiniski is slow getting down to count. Race drags Flair into position and suplexes him for 2. He misses following in again though but Race falls on Flair on a slam attempt for a slow ass 2 count. Come on Kiniski, show some hustle. Piledriver from Race but he doesn’t bother covering. He drops the elbow for another slow pin for 2. Swinging neckbreaker from Race gets 2. Race decides it’s time to use the cage and bounces Flair off it. Over the shoulder slam gets 2. Flair tries to come back but Race uses the headbutts to stop that. Race uses the cage as a weapon again. That opens Flair up. Kiniski gets in the way AGAIN as the bloody Flair makes a comeback. Race gets whipped into the corner and hits hard getting cut in the process. Flair drops the knee on Race’s bloody forehead. Piledriver from Flair and he makes the cover quickly for 2 showing a more focused attack than the champ. Double underhook suplex from Flair gets 2. Kiniski gets in Flair’s way AGAIN totally screwing with the flow of the match. Then he feels the need to interfere with Race. This match would have been so much better if Kiniski wasn’t in there. It’s a CAGE MATCH. There are no DQ’s in a cage match Kiniski so just take a step back and let them get on with it. Flair is a total mess by this point in terms of blood loss. FIGURE 4! Flair has the Figure 4 locked on! Race turns it though and they roll into the ropes. Race looks for a suplex and his leg gives way allowing Flair to fall on top for 2 (Wrestlewar ’89 finish anyone?) Race comes back with headbutts though and dives off the ropes with a big one for 2. Race looks for another suplex and this time he connects for 2. Race looks for another one but Flair blocks and counters for his own. He misses with the elbow drop though and Kiniski gets bumped allowing Flair to hit a crossbody off the top where Race falls over the fallen Kiniski in the process for 3 at 23.44. Ric Flair wins his 3rd world title. ****1/4. Gene Kiniski did his damndest to overshadow this but the cream always rises. Ignore one of the worst officiating jobs in the history of the business and it’s a really great match. The babyfaces come in to raise Flair up on their shoulders. Flair gets on the mic to thank the fans for their support.

The 411: The last three matches are really solid especially Flair-Race and of course that’s a huge benchmark in the history of wrestling because it marks the point where Flair took over as “the man”. While the first three years of the 80’s it was him and Race neck and neck this was the point where Flair went ahead. And he stayed there. The rest of the 80’s was Ric Flair territory all the way. One great match after another right the way through to passing the torch to Sting. For this historic changeover Starrcade gets a thumbs up. It also has to be noted it’s a significantly better show than the WWF’s later attempt at a supercard; Wrestlemania.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]