NWA (JCP) Starrcade 1984

After the critical and commercial success of the first Starrcade in 1983, the NWA ran the even again for 1984. Meanwhile, the WWF was starting to ramp up its long and often fierce battle with Jim Crockett – soon introducing WrestleMania to follow up on the success of Starrcade – but in November 1984, Starrcade remained the first, and only, nationally broadcast supercard, playing in closed circuit locations across the country.

From Greensboro, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Gordon Solie and Bob Caudle.


Opening NWA Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Mike Davis v Denny Brown: Davis tries to dominate him on the mat, but Brown quickly regroups, and gets the champion into an armbar. They keep it lively with lots of escape attempts from Davis - all met with well executed armdrags of fireman's carries. First 'this is 1984' spot comes when Brown goes tumbling out to the floor, so Davis goes out and pats him on the back before helping him back in. Davis with a backbreaker for two, but Brown nails him with a forearm out of a criss cross. 2^nd rope forearm, and a backdrop allow Brown a dropkick for two. Criss cross leads to a double knockout, and Davis recovers first with a side suplex - but forgets to lift his shoulder, and Brown wins the title at 5:38. Very old school stuff - with realistic looking chain wrestling, and good execution all around. Fine choice for an opener. *

Mr. Ito v Brian Adidas: They go to a few stalemates out of the initial lockups, until Adidas manages a side-headlock. Ito counters into an armbar - keeping him grounded by using the hair - but Adidas eventually reverses. Ito gets sick of trying to match him on the mat, and starts slugging away, but Adidas holds his own, and pins him after an airplane spin at 4:00. Decent quickie. ¼*

NWA Florida Heavyweight Title: Jesse Barr v Mike Graham: Graham quickly gets him on the mat with an anklelock, but Barr counters into a standing-chinlock. They keep countering around, until Barr hooks an overhead wristlock to slow his challenger down. They fight over a test-of-strength - Barr dominating - until Graham fires off an armdrag into an armbar. He tries a figure four next, but Graham dives into the ropes to break before it can be properly applied. He's more cautious of Graham after that, but still manages a side-headlock. Nice one, too, as Graham fights him to stay standing, and even once Barr gets him on the mat, Graham keeps trying to roll it into a pinfall. One thing about the older days - almost everyone knew how to use a resthold properly. Graham finally breaks with a kneebreaker, and hooks a leglock, as the champ screams in pain. Graham properly gets the figure four on, but Barr manages to make the ropes again, so Graham with a sunset flip for two. Inside cradle, but the referee gets bumped, and there's no count. He rallies with an atomic drop, but Barr supermarket sweeps him in the corner, and pins him with two feet on the ropes at 11:43. The more you watch classic events like this, the one thing you definitely come to appreciate about more modern stuff is the rise of distinctive ring gear/costumes - as these two literally wore the same tights, and similar boots - pretty much only differentiated by Barr's black kneepads to Graham's red. Match was slower, but technically proficient, with a nice bit of ring psychology, as Barr matched him hold for hold, but when he saw things were getting out of control, resorted to cheating to retain. *

Tag Team Elimination Match: The Zambuie Express v Buzz Tyler and The Assassin: Big brawl to start, with the faces clearing the Express out of the ring. Tyler and Elijah Akeem start proper, but Tyler easily dominates, so Akeem tags Kareem Muhammed. He doesn't do too much better - the faces pinballing him in the corner - so he tags back to Akeem. He finally manages some offense on Tyler, and shoves him over to Kareem to help cut the ring in half. Tyler shrugs the two four hundred both guys off, though, and starts unloading fists of fury, but ends up getting into it with Kareem on the floor, and it's a double countout at 4:00. Meanwhile, Assassin gets into a double knockout with Akeem, so Tyler helps him on top for the win at 5:26. Didn't really go anywhere, but served its purpose. DUD

NWA Brass Knuckles Title Match: Black Bart v Manny Fernandez: 'It's 1984' moment: Fernandez comes out to 'Beat It' completely unironically. The idea here is that both men wear knux, competing for a title the NWA promoted on again-off again throughout the 80s before abandoning it. Both guys size each other up - knux at a ready - and it's Fernandez to get off the first shots. Bart tries to slow him down with a collar-and-elbow, but Fernandez decks him again. Slugfest goes Bart's way, with Manny blading as Bart unloads on him. Fernandez comes back with more punches - allowing Bart to join him in the color club - and a fistdrop gets two. Bart with more punches to takeover, and he tries to use his bull rope to finish things (because when brass knuckles aren't getting it done, God knows, a bull rope will), but Fernandez rolls him up for the title at 7:35. Just a long slugfest - as expected, given the gimmick. Probably exciting for the time, but certainly not so much so today. DUD

Loser Leaves Town Tuxedo Street Fight: Paul Jones v Jimmy Valiant: That's one mouthful of a gimmick match. Basically, both are in tuxedos for a no holds barred match, and the winner is the first to be able to tear the tux off the other, or get the pin - the loser must then leave the NWA. Valiant goes right for him - choking him with a tie - but stupidly takes his own jacket off. He starts tearing at Jones' jacket, and actually gets him down to his undies, but the shoes and socks remain! Sleeper, but the referee gets bumped, and JJ Dillon runs in to whack Valiant with a shoe. Why he needed a ref bump in a street fight to do that is unexplained, however. Either way, Jones gets the pinfall out of the deal at 4:35. Despite the stipulation (and stripping) Valiant didn't go anywhere, and, in fact, would face Jones again at Starrcade two years later. Any match where the bulk is a description of how one man took the clothes off of another is never any good. Luckily, they've long since moved onto doing this concept with Diva's. DUD

NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title Match: Ron Bass v Dick Slater: Slater also has the exact same ring gear as Graham and Barr earlier. If they had a Create-a-Wrestler feature in video games back then, you could have half the roster done with one template. Also, it would help if they had wrestling video games to begin with. It must have sucked being a fan in 1984 – watching guys like Ron Bass every week, and never getting to simulate his mat classics at home. Bass uses manager JJ Dillon to psych Slater out, but eventually gets caught in a side-headlock. 'It's 1984' moment: Slater tries a simple stomp, but the referee literally catches his foot on the way down to stop it. Meanwhile, a young Steve Austin was watching on closed circuit, and rebellion sparked in his heart. Bass uses that bit of assistance to get off a bulldog, but Slater DICKS UP!! Fists of Fury! Side Suplex! - but the referee gets bumped, and Dillon runs in (ironically, with a stomp) to break things up. The referee wakes up in time to see Slater clearing JJ out, and disqualifies him at 9:12. Slow, dull match, with a bad ending to boot. DUD

Ivan Koloff and Nikita Koloff v Ole Anderson and Keith Larson: We get a random, midshow instrumental rendition of the Star Spangled Banner (complete with Patton-esque steady shot of Old Glory) since the Russians be from Russia, and need to hear the sounds of freedom! Ole and Keith jump the Russians before the bell, and the dust settles on Ivan/Larson. The faces pinball him in their home corner, and they spend a long time working the arm - cutting the ring in half. Larson eventually misses a blind charge, allowing Ivan to go to the top rope - only to get slammed off, and armbarred some more. Ivan finally gets the tag off to Nikita, and he hugs Ole like a bear. A big ol' Russian bear. The Russians cut the ring in half on Anderson, but a tag to Keith sets the house on fire. Dropkick misses Nikita, though, and the Russian Sickle triggers a four-way brawl - with Ivan walloping Larson with a chain for the pin at 15:28. Pretty dull stuff - particularly the extended armbar segment on Ivan at the start. DUD

NWA Television Title v $10,000 Match: Tully Blanchard v Ricky Steamboat: 'It's 1984' moment: ten grand is considered huge prize money. To give you an idea, with inflation, it's worth more than double that today. Tony Schiavone tries to interview Steamboat before the match, but the power dies in the locker room - leaving both standing around with their dicks in their hands like a football player in New Orleans. To be clear, that's not a Super Bowl reference - that's a 'there are lots of hookers in New Orleans' reference. Big slugfest goes Steamboat's way, and he hits a nice hanging vertical suplex for two. Chinlock - held onto aggressively through all of Tully's escape attempts - but finally broken when Blanchard makes the ropes. Tully tries to sneak in an elbowdrop during the rope break, but Steamboat sees it coming, and dodges. Blanchard backbreaker, and a backelbow ground the challenger, but he starts throwing knife edge's to throw Tully off his game, and goes back to the chinlock. Tully fights out with a release side suplex, and tries a chinlock of his own, but Steamboat gets downright offended, and blocks. Both guys cautiously circle each other, until Steamboat initiates a criss cross (and we all know no one can stop running on their own volition), so he finishes it with a powerslam. Steamboat starts unloading more chops, and a swinging neckbreaker gets two. A nice slingshot suplex for two, and a dropkick gets two. Side suplex, but Tully bops him with a pair of knux on the way down, and hits a bodypress for two. Superplex, but Steamboat tosses him off, and hits a flying splash for two. Sunset flip, but Tully uses the knux again on the way, and retains at 13:17. Good work from both, working in lots of exciting stuff for the period. *

NWA United States Title Match: Wahoo McDaniel v Billy Graham: Graham uses his power to dominate McDaniel, but gets his eyes raked, and McDaniel unloads with chops. Graham hooks a full-nelson to slow him down, but McDaniel makes the ropes, so Graham drags him back to center ring for another try. Wahoo still won't go, though, and powers up into another knife edge to retain at 4:18. Odd ending to a match that never really got going. DUD

Main Event: NWA World Title v $1,000,000 Match: Ric Flair v Dusty Rhodes: Joe Frazier is the special referee for this one. Dusty railroads him into the corner during the initial tie-up, but gives a clean break. Criss cross allows him to bop Flair with an elbowsmash, and hook a standing side-headlock. Flair railroads him into the ropes, but also offers a clean break. He tries to go to the chops to takeover, but Rhodes starts unloading elbows, and goes back to the headlock. Flair gets him in the corner again - this time firing off some closed fists - and a kneedrop gets two. Another try, but Dusty dodges, and hooks a figure four - but Flair makes the ropes. Rhodes drags him back for a leglock, but Flair slugs free in short order. Dusty with a slam, and Flair Flips to the floor, as Frazier counts. Dusty suplexes him back in for two, but caught with a backelbow, and locked in a Sleeper. Dusty dumps him to the floor to break, so Flair drags him out for some chops, and bashes his head into the post - busting the challenger open. Back in, Frazier keeps Flair in the neutral corner to allow him to check the cut, and as soon as Rhodes says he's okay to continue, Flair pounces - literally smelling blood. He tackles Rhodes with mounted punches, but Frazier keeps breaking them up to check the cut. More hammering, but Smokin' Joe says 'no no no' and stops the match for blood loss at 12:12 - which isn't only silly as the finish to the main event of the biggest show of the year, but outright ridiculous, considering how many other guys bladed, up and down the card. Adding to the stupidity, Manny Fernandez runs in to help Rhodes to the back, his own blade would still fresh from earlier. That finish might (and I heavily stress ‘might’) have been acceptable if it had more behind it, but it was a poor, unsatisfying match before the ending, and a really bad main event for the promotions biggest card of the year. There’s sense in keeping both guys strong, but this was outright stupid. Flair would end up keeping the title more or less until 1990, though he likely lost the million bucks by the end of the week. DUD

BUExperience: That main event didn’t do anyone any favors – particularly the NWA, as many fans felt understandably cheated out of both money, and their emotional investment in the show. The rest of the card is a typical supercard from this period, with tons of gimmicky blowoff matches (Tuxedo! Brass Knux! $10,000 on the Line!), but is relatively historically insignificant, as no major titles changed hands, and has become remembered unpleasantly for the main event. DUD