Every Tuesday night at 8pm ET we look back at the next pay-per-view in WCW history, and discuss the show in the comments section below. I will provide “live” coverage of the event, and a brief review when it’s finished. All selections for Wrestlezone Network Club are available for viewing on-demand via the WWE Network.
Let’s catch up, shall we?
Last week we kicked off the WNC with the very first Starrcade event, headlined by Ric Flair defeating Harley Race to win his third NWA World Heavyweight title.
1984 was a major transition year for professional wrestling. Vince K. McMahon had fully taken over the WWF and was rapidly expanding his company’s borders, much to the fear of every other wrestling promoter in the U.S. By August he had purchased both Maple Leaf Wrestling and Stampede Wrestling (from Stu Hart) as a way to break into Canada.
A new craze called “Hulkamania” was quickly becoming a problem for the NWA as well. 1984 was a massive year for Hulk Hogan, who had returned to the WWF to be pushed to the moon as the most popular babyface in wrestling, winning the WWF Championship and setting in motion the events that would lead to the very first WrestleMania just one year later.
To combat McMahon’s apparent manifest destiny, the likes of Jerry Lawler, Jerry Jarrett, Jim Crocket Promotions, Verne Gagne, Ole Anderson and more had to temporarily set aside grudges (and more than a little ego) to found the super-group, Pro Wrestling USA. The idea was to get all the major non-WWF names under one brand for the promotion of wrestling shows.
The main event for Starrcade ’84 was set up the previous year, with Dusty Rhodes challenging the winner of Flair vs. Race to a match for the title. Championship glory (and one million dollars) were on the line. And, in the “if you only watch one match on this card…” position today, we have Ricky Steamboat squaring off against Tully Blanchard for the old Mid-Atlantic TV Championship.
Let’s get to it…
NWA Starrcade ’84
“The Million Dollar Challenge”
Date: November 22, 1984
Venue: Greensboro Coliseum
Location: Greensboro, North Carolina
-After a recap of Ric Flair defeating Harley Race after Starrcade ’83, we head to the ring for the “premiere wrestling event of the decade”. About 10 second later it’s “century”. It’s a big deal.
NWA Jr. Heavyweight Title Match
1) Danny Brown vs. Mike Davis (c)
Brown took a bump on the floor and sold a back injury for about thirty seconds before forgetting about it. Davis drops him with a back suplex for a three-count, the referee counts the three then hands the title to… Danny Brown? They announce the winner as Davis, commentary blames it on the referee for calling it wrong. They show a replay – Brown got his shoulder up and the champ basically pinned himself in a little less than six minutes. That call might have gone over better in a modern setting with jumbotron replays and coached announcers, but here it was just all kinds of confusing.
2) Brian Adidas vs. Mr. Ito
Brian puts this one away with an airplane spin in four minutes. They do some solid grappling throughout, but there’s definitely not enough time here to get anything going. Adidas probably could have passed as a wrestling relative of Bob Orton if he wanted to.
3) NWA Florida Heavyweight Title Match
Mike Graham vs. Jessie Barr (c)
Welcome to Wrist Lock City, bitch. This entire twelve-minute match is almost entirely two moves – a wrist lock from Graham, and a headlock from Barr – that divide it into two parts. Somehow the crowd is still fired up by the end, where Mike fights back and starts working over the champ’s leg for the Figure Four. The referee goes down and doesn’t see Graham make the three-count. There’s a nice series of pin attempts that ends with Barr using the ropes for leverage to steal the win and retain. Eh. This would have terrible if the crowd didn’t love Mike Graham so much; that they did made it passable. Definitely one of those older, slow-paced matches that lives or dies by whether or not the crowd is into the babyface; that they were in this case made it passable.
4) The Zambuie Express (Elijah Akeem & Kareem Muhammed) vs. The Assassin & Buzz Tyler
No, Elijah Akeem is not the One Man Gang. The crowd is on fire as everyone wants to see The Assassin get his hands on Zambuie manager Paul Jones. By the time their posturing and yelling is over, they have about three minutes to slam into each other and brawl. Assassin and Akeem do the big-man collision spot, both get dazed, and Buzz pushes his partner over on top of the opponent to pick up the win. That was…definitely a match. Not a good one.
-Dusty Rhodes cuts a promo on winning the NWA title, looking like a homeless man trying to get some sleep. He doesn’t even get out of his chair; and he doesn’t have to, because he’s Dusty Rhodes.
5) Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship
Black Bart vs. Manny Fernandez
The great JJ Dillon is out with Black Bart. Both guys have their hands tapped up, so obviously per the stipulation this one is just a big brawl. Both guys are busted open by the halfway point. It’s pretty back and forth until the end, where Black Bart controls the match and builds heat on Manny. Dillon throws him a big rope – I’m assuming to choke him out with – but it’s enough of a distraction for “Raging Bull” to roll up Bart for the surprise win at 7:35.
-Ricky Steamboat rants on Tully Blanchard, calling him a “yellow bellied coward”. He spends several minutes talking about all his various injuries, then says he won’t give Blanchard a hint about any of them in the ring; you probably should have that before you cut a promo on closed-circuit television.
6) Tuxedo Street Fight, Loser Leaves Town
Jimmy Valiant vs. Paul Jones
Rules are pretty simple – pinfall and submission still apply, the opponents are in tuxedos, and the loser must leave town. The fans are at a fever pitch for this one, as they were the tag match earlier, to see Paul Jones get what’s coming to him. Valiant ties him to the ropes and beats the hell out of him for a few minutes and strips off his tuxedo, but JJ Dillon and the Zambuie Express take out the referee and lay out Valiant, allowing Jones to pick up the win. The fans sound like they’re about to riot. Jimmy has to leave town…although he already left town once, so I’m not sure what that actually means. This one was a mess, as it was always going to be.
7) NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title Match
Ron Bass (c) vs. Dick Slater
Bass didn’t want to lock up early on and spent some time with manager JJ Dillon on the floor. The entire first half was Bass bailing from the match, and Slater not wanting to risk the title match to go after him (YOU CANT GO OVER THE ROPES!). By the time they get anything going, the match is 90% over and JJ has taken a half dozen cheap shots from the outside. At this point Slater is pissed off, and he goes after him in the corner, throwing the referee out of the way. He mounts a comeback and has the three-count put away, but the ref recovers and throws out the match by DQ. Dick clears the ring of JJ and Bass to a great ovation. The crowd was really into this one, as is the case for pretty much everything on this show so far, but by the time they did anything interesting my attention was gone, and the match was over a minute later.
-And…there’s a trumpet player doing the U.S. national anthem. I guess that signals intermission. Or they really just wanted to stop and celebrate America. One of the two.
The post Wrestlezone Network Club: NWA Starrcade 1984 – “The Million Dollar Challenge”; Live Viewing Party & Discussion in Progress appeared first on Wrestlezone.