NWA (JCP) Starrcade 1987

In the fall of 1987, Ric Flair had been – with the exception of a few token switches along the way – NWA World Champion for four years. And, not coincidentally, it had been four years since Starrcade – the NWA’s flagship show – had a clean, satisfying finish in the main event. With the 1987 edition slated to be the NWA’s first pay per view offering, they decided to build intrigue by having Flair lose the title, and face the man that beat him in a rematch at Starrcade. However, the offer of becoming a transitional champion with no chance at actually carrying the ball didn’t exactly cause a feeding frenzy, and the promotion literally had trouble finding someone willing to win the World Title. They finally settled on relative non-contender Ron Garvin to win the title in September, as the aging Garvin decided a lame duck NWA World Title reign was better than having a career with no World Title reigns. Unfortunately, the rest of the roster was less then eager to work with Garvin, fearing that losing to him would lower their stock in the fans’ eyes, and leaving him twisting in the wind – big gold belt, and all.

Another factor going into Starrcade was Jim Crockett’s purchase of Bill Watts’ failing UWF in the spring. While Crockett had continued to allow the promotion to exist separately throughout 1987, he had plans to close and merge it into his own circuit by the end of the year – with Starrcade becoming more or less the last stand for the UWF.

More interestingly than internal issues, as the NWA prepared for its first pay per view, the WWF (already a player in the pay per view market) decided to counterprogram their efforts by holding a new event known as Survivor Series on the same day, also on pay per view. In a bold move, Vince McMahon not only forced fans, but forced cable companies to chose between Starrcade and Survivor Series – with the threat that cable providers carrying the NWA show would be ‘shut out’ of future WWF business. His strong-arming worked, and almost every provider chose Survivor Series (featuring household name stars like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Randy Savage), and in turn, decimated Starrcade’s buyrate.

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Opening Six-Man Tag Team Match: Sting, Michael Hayes, and Jimmy Garvin v Eddie Gilbert, Rick Steiner, and Larry Zbyszko: Weird to see Hayes and Garvin teaming before they were Freebirds together. Though, in all likelihood, they were already freeballing together regularly. Sting and Rick Steiner start, and Sting puts him on the floor quickly for a plancha. Missile dropkick draws the heels in, but they're met by Hayes and Garvin, and cleared out. The dust settles on Garvin and Zbyszko, and they trap Larry in the home corner for some abuse, so he bails to let Gilbert give it a shot. He suffers the same fate, so Steiner begs the referee to call a timeout. No dice, of course, and they continue the formula of trading off tags, and subsequently getting killed by the faces, until Steiner forces Garvin into the wrong part of town, and the heels turn the tide. Steiner hugs him like a bear - mostly to be able to position himself close enough to trade perm maintenance secrets. Balding Larry doesn't really have any use for that, and decides to try an abdominal stretch, but Garvin hiptosses out (he will talk about his hair, or he will do NOTHING!) and tags Sting. He tries to set the house on fire, but pretty quickly walks into a triple-team, but Zbyszko fucks it up for them again, and Hayes properly commits arson. Six-way brawl quickly breaks out, and Hayes looks to finish Gilbert with a sunset flip, but the time expires at 15:02. Well, at least Steiner got his wish. Time limit draws have their place, but never as the opener, and especially not as the opener of the biggest show of the year. This one had its moments, but was pretty dull overall - never really going anywhere, as they just built towards time expiring. ½*

UWF Heavyweight Title Match: Steve Williams v Barry Windham: Big criss cross allows Williams a hiptoss, and press slam. Barry is more cautious after that display - trying to slow things down on the mat - but Williams keeps overpowering him. Barry manages a gutwrench suplex, and a side suplex, but Williams gets him in a bracing side-headlock. Another big criss cross ends with Windham headbutting him in the nuts off of a leapfrog attempt, and that completely shuts Williams down - leaving him rolling on the mat in agony. Since they're both faces, Windham gives him time to recover, and once his left nut descends, Barry starts dominating the fazed champion. He misses a blind charge, however, and goes tumbling out to the floor. Inside, Williams pulls him into an Oklahoma Roll to retain at 6:50. Match had zero flow, but is notable for featuring what is easily the greatest low blow spot in the history of wrestling - not really for the move itself, but for the longest, most realistic sell job I've ever seen off of one. Williams would end up being the last UWF Champion, as Crockett abandoned it along with the rest of the promotion the next month. ½*

Skywalkers Match: The Midnight Express v The Rock 'n' Roll Express: Like the year before, it's a scaffold match - though, unlike the year before, this one has sort of faded from peoples memories, and isn't revered the way the 1986 version is. Long stall session as they jaw at each other, then finally start to climb, but Midnight enforcer Big Bubba Rogers grabs Ricky Morton for a uranage to keep him from climbing. That leaves Robert Gibson alone with both Midnight's (though, really, that's very short sighted strategy, since they can't win the match without tossing Morton off, and if he's hurt, they won't be able to force him up the thing. It's not Bunkhouse Stampede!), but Morton recovers quickly enough to even the odds. Usual scaffold stuff, with everyone trading off, and spending a lot of time on their knees. Kinda like an orgy, but even less safe. The Midnight's try the powder in the eyes bit from last year, but it doesn't go anywhere, and the R'n'R's start whacking them with the support poles, holding the thing up. Morton and Stan Lane end up playing monkey bars on the underside, but Lane can't cut it in kindergarten, and gets kicked off. That leaves Bobby Eaton alone with both R'n'R's, and they beat him with Midnight manager Jim Cornette's tennis racket until he falls off at 10:23. Like all scaffold matches, I appreciate the effort the guys made, and their bravery, but the match style just doesn't intrigue me - uncomfortably dangerous, and impossible to work any spots. It would have been interesting to see what Mick Foley could have done with it, though. *

Unification Match: NWA Television Title v UWF Television Title: Nikita Koloff v Terry Taylor: They work a couple of stalemates, but it quickly devolves into a shove fest. They trade armbars - Koloff dominating - but Taylor keeps getting uppity, so Koloff backdrops him - but that allows Terry to have escaped the hold, and he scrambles to the floor to regroup. Koloff drags him in by the hair to go back to the arm, as Taylor struggles for the ropes. Koloff lets him free to try the Russian Sickle, but Taylor dodges, and he runs himself into the corner. Terry uses the opportunity to shoves him to the  outside for some abuse, posting his shoulder a couple of times. Inside, Taylor works the arm, but a sunset flip fails, and Koloff reverses a suplex. Taylor keeps going after him, but Koloff ignores him with a ten-punch count, and another backdrop. Taylor bails to the floor - luring Nikita into a chase - ending with Koloff twisting his knee on the way back in. Taylor with a rope-assisted figure four, but the referee catches him, and Koloff clobbers him with the Sickle to unify the titles at 18:58. This was all Koloff, and unfortunately not in good form - spending the bulk of an overlong match in an armbar. ½*

NWA World Tag Team Title Match: Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard v The Road Warriors: Anderson makes the mistake of shoving Hawk to start, and gets grabbed in a chokehold (with brilliant facial expressions from Double A). Press slam puts the champ on the floor, and he regroups before cautiously coming back in. Hawk tries to get him in an armbar, but Anderson spares us all having to sit through another one of those tonight, and bails to the floor again. Tag to Tully, and he walks right into a lariat. He tries to bail, but Animal meets him on the floor, and press slams him back in. Bail again, this time leaving Anderson behind, and going home - but the Warriors drag him back. Hawk dropkick gets two, and an Animal powerslam for two. Tully gives up and tags Arn, but he's not too eager to climb in. Lariat for him, too, so he has a strategy session with Tully. Apparently his advice was to get caught in a bearhug, and then clotheslined again. Hey, next time go to JJ Dillon when you need strategy, champ. Tully comes in to try to show him how to do it right, but gets slaughtered as well - with the Warriors not even bothering to cut the ring in half, just beating both men, and letting the bodies fall where they may. A well placed shot to the knee finally takes Hawk off of his feet, and the Horsemen properly cut the ring in half as they work on it. Anderson eventually crotches himself while trying for the pin, and the tag to Animal triggers a four-way brawl, bumping the referee in the process. Another runs out as the Warriors clean house, and hit the Doomsday Device on Anderson for the titles at 13:27. Whoops, nope. Turns out the first referee saw the Warriors throw the champs over the top rope (an illegal move), and disqualifies them - giving the win to Arn and Tully. Match was a decent slaughter before the bullshit finish - with the Horsemen having to outthink the Warriors to take control, since they couldn't bully them, and couldn't get them to the mat to outwrestle them. The Warriors would eventually win their one (and only) NWA/WCW Tag Title from the Midnight Express the following fall. * ¾

NWA United States Title v Career Cage Match: Lex Luger v Dusty Rhodes: Luger powers Rhodes into the corner during the initial lockup, and starts unloading, but Dusty fires back with the dreaded elbowsmash to slow him down. Luger responds by posing. Dusty responds by strutting. Shit, if only Dusty could book political debates. Luger with a standing side-headlock, but Rhodes counters into a sleeper - so Luger ducks into the ropes. In a cage match. Dusty settles for an armbar instead (oh no...), but Lex won't quit, so Rhodes just starts hammering him. Doesn't go his way, though, and Luger starts launching him into the steel to draw the requisite Rhodes bladejob. Jumping elbowdrop gets two, so Luger poses some more. Shockingly, his front double bicep pose doesn't end Dusty's career. He tries the Torture Rack, but Rhodes grabs the cage to block. Luger also ambles into an armbar, but Dusty starts BOOKING UP!! Jabs! DDT (and a poorly executed one, at that)! Sleeper! - so Luger manager JJ Dillon throws a chair in. Luger tries to go for it, but ends up getting DDT'd on it (a decent one this time, at least) to save Dusty's career at 16:28. Really dull stuff. ¼*

NWA World Title Cage Match: Ron Garvin v Ric Flair: The crowd is firmly behind heel challenger Ric Flair here - even chanting 'Garvin Sucks' at the champ. Garvin (of the aforementioned sucking) controls the initial lockup, but Flair taunts him with chops, so Garvin goes ballistic in the corner, and hiptosses Flair across the ring. Shoulderblock leaves Flair laying, so Garvin scoops him up for some closed fists, flopping the challenger. Backdrop, a ten-punch, and a second backdrop allow the champion to do the Garvin Stomp (literally a series of stomps, to different parts of the body), so Flair blows him low to turn the tide. Inverted atomic drop moves Garvin a step closer to sterility, and a shindrop tries to fuck his face up so he doesn't even get a chance to use that sterile penis. Figure Four, but Garvin bails to the ropes. Flair starts firing off shots at the knee, and a kneebreaker sets up the Figure Four for real. If only he'd discovered the shin guard two years earlier. He still manages to reverse (shinguardlessly?!?!), but fuck you, Flair's in the ropes. He keeps after the knee, but gets reversed on a ram into the cage, and Garvin grates him to draw blood. Flair tries to climb out to escape the terror that is Ron Garvin, but gets dragged back down, and slammed off of the top rope. Garvin hooks his own figure four, and even though he hasn't even taken a token shot at the knee to set it up - Flair sells it like death. He still makes the ropes, of course, but he made Garvin look good on the way. Garvin with a flying bodypress for two, and a backslide gets two. Flair tries to bail again, but Garvin knocks him down with a headbutt - crotching him on the top rope. Flying sunset flip gets two, and he tries a ten-punch, but Flair tosses him off, and stunguns him into the cage for the title at 17:38. The idea of passing the title around to buildup intrigue for Starrcade wasn't a bad one in theory, but Garvin just never worked as NWA Champion (made glaringly obvious by the crowd chanting against him, despite him being a devoted babyface), and the match suffered for it. Hard work all around, and particularly great selling from Flair, but no real intrigue. **

BUExperience: This one certainly comes off as a more focused, streamlined show than the multi-city, gimmick laden earlier Starrcade’s – but doesn’t manage to do much with it. Other than the historical significance of being the NWA’s first foray into pay per view, there’s really no interest in this one – with a poorly remembered main event, cheap finishes where clean wins were needed (opener, tag titles), and the corpse of the UWF stumbling around. DUD