While the WWE Network has many “old school” broadcasts that go back to the mid to late 1970’s, the “modern history” of pro wrestling, if you will, arguably began in 1983. If you go to the archives of the WWE Network and try and find the first pay-per-view event available, you will discover that the first such event is Starrcade ’83. You can find this under the WCW tab, depending on what device you use. However you get there, just go under WCW, find Starrcade and go to 1983.
This, my friends, is the beginning of the pay-per-view road and where our journey begins. It is important to note that WrestleMania was not where the modern concept of a Supercard was born—it was actually Starrcade. True, Supercards had happened before, at least to a certain extent. But nothing quite like what Jim Crockett Promotions and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) attempted on November 24, 1983 .
Starrcade ’83 was called “A Flair For The Gold.” If that is not some serious foreshadowing then I do not know what is. The first Starrcade centered around the main event between then NWA—which is what WCW was known as in 1983—World Champion, Harley Race, and a man very familiar to anyone who has been a WWE fan for any length of time, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
Professional wrestling was still very territorial at this point in time and Vince McMahon Jr. had not yet truly globalized the WWE (WWF at that time) in the manner that would herald the WrestleMania era we have enjoyed since 1985. To the contrary, in 1983, the NWA was widely regarded as the preeminent wrestling organization in the United States, with the WWF and American Wrestling Association (AWA) running close behind. Without question, the NWA had been around the longest of any of the other organizations—but the winds of change were beginning to blow. McMahon’s WWF was well on its way towards becoming a national wrestling powerhouse and everyone was feeling the noose tightening around their respective necks.
The NWA itself was a region within a region at this point in time. Review this map for a moment and you will see what I mean:
The NWA was a massive, but splintering, conglomeration of territories. You had World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), home of the famous Von Erich family. You had Championship Wrestling from Florida and Georgia Championship Wrestling and All-Star Wrestling. The NWA extended to Japan with New Japan Pro Wrestling and north of the border with Stampede Wrestling, home of the famous Hart family.
But by 1983, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) was probably the cream of the crop and attracted most of the big-name talent. Also commonly known as Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, JCP probably did more to push the NWA towards mainstream acceptance than any of the other NWA regional promoters. Jim Crockett Jr. had been president of the NWA since 1980 and he saw what McMahon was trying to do. Naturally, he wanted to counter McMahon and try and nationalize the NWA as well. He began to televise events in arenas as opposed to studios. He traditionally held events on major holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. With cable television and closed circuit broadcasts emerging, the time was right for pro wrestling to reach a broader audience than ever before. With that as a backdrop, Starrcade was born.
Utilizing the power of closed circuit television, Starrcade would go where previous events had not. It was a bold move by JCP—and one that McMahon had to have been watching closely as he would up the ante considerably roughly a year and a half later.
The feud between Race and Flair made for great drama and gave the inaugural Starrcade a true main event around which the rest of the card developed. Five months earlier, Race had defeated Flair to win his seventh NWA World Championship.
Here is some video of Race beating Flair to capture his 7th World Championship:
The real world politics of the NWA at the time aside, the ongoing story line had Race doing whatever he could to make sure Flair did not regain the title. Race placed a $25,000 bounty on Flair’s head—a bounty that was accepted by Bob Orton Jr. and Dick Slater.
Orton and Slater executed a spiked piledriver on Flair causing a serious neck injury. Flair retired for about a month—but naturally returned a month later and exacted some measure of revenge against Slater and Murdoch with a baseball bat.
Thus the stage was set for the main event of Starrcade ’83.
There were seven other matches on the card that evening and many of them involved long-running feuds and attempts to resolve those feuds, or matches involving revenge or something similar. That was one of the best things about the first Starrcade—it provided the NWA and JCP with a forum by which it could bring many storylines to a conclusion or provide continued momentum to other stories.
This is something we still see to this very day, albeit it not as often. For instance, Daniel Bryan’s long running pursuit of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship that culminated in his capturing the belt at WrestleMania XXX.
A good example of this at Starrcade ‘83 was the tag team match between the team of Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood, seeking to avenge the attack perpetrated upon their friend Flair at the hands of Slater and Orton. This match was the fourth one on the card and while the previous three matches were pretty good, this is the first match at Starrcade ’83 that truly stood out.
The revenge factor immediately made this match feel a bit more intense. It obviously helped that in Slater, Orton and McDaniel, you had three well-established wrestlers who had very good technical skills and who were all very good workers. Youngblood was no slouch either.
Early on, the match had good back and forth action but as things progressed, it was quite evident that Slater and Orton were the better and more consistent team. Near the end of the match, Slater and McDaniel squared off and Slater would gain an advantage with a belly-to-back suplex. Slater would hit Orton coming off the top rope and this temporarily turned the advantage back to McDaniel and Youngblood. After a series of dropkicks by Youngblood, things looked even more promising. But with McDaniel stunned and outside the ring, a well-timed double team of Youngblood led to Orton superplexing Youngblood and covering him for the pin before McDaniel could make the save.
Not only did Youngblood and McDaniel fail to exact revenge on Slater and Orton but after the match Orton and Slater would injure McDaniel’s left arm with the big blow coming from Orton, who came off the top rope and crashed down on McDaniel, whose arm was being held in an extended position by Slater.
The phrase “show stealer” has been around for many, many years and if you have been a wrestling fan for a decent period of time, then you have seen your fair share of these matches. Simply stated, a show stealer is a match on the undercard that outshines the main event. At Starrcade ’83, the Dog Collar match between Greg Valentine and Roddy Piper was that match.
The match itself was one of those situations I spoke of earlier, a battle designed to end a long feud and a particularly nasty one at that. On April 16, 1983, Piper ended the 163 day reign of Valentine as United States Champion when he beat him in Greensboro, North Carolina. Piper’s reign would only last two weeks though. On April 30, 1983, Valentine would regain the US Championship as he attacked Piper with the ring bell opening up a horrid gash over his left ear. The match was stopped and Valentine was awarded the title with Piper reportedly losing 75% of the hearing in his ear. Thus, the two men were slated to battle each other in a Dog Collar match.
For unknown reasons, the US Championship was actually not on the line in this match. Nevertheless, the brawl between Valentine and Piper, both of them now members of the WWE Hall of Fame, was a bloody, brilliant affair from start to finish.
Early on, Piper had a slight advantage but Valentine would soon gain the upper hand. At one point, Valentine had the chain connecting the dog collars wrapped around Piper’s head to the point it was digging into his eyes. Piper would gain control back and Piper would loop the chain around Valentine’s nose and then again around his mouth.
Piper was intent on pummeling Valentine with the chain and it was not long before Valentine was a bloody mess. The thrust of Valentine’s attack, meanwhile, focused on Piper’s bad ear and Piper began to bleed badly from the ear again. Robbed of his equilibrium, Piper seemed to be a beaten man. But it only seemed that way. Valentine dropped a couple of big elbows on Piper but could not secure the three count. Piper would retaliate with a clothesline and then really went to work on Valentine with the chain.
The match degenerated into a slugfest for a while until Valentine again took command, driving his knees into Piper’s mid-section. Piper would hit Valentine with a suplex and as both men lay on the mat, it was the first time the action had stopped. They did not lie still for long though. A sleeper hold by Valentine almost won the match but Piper was able to ram him in the head with the chain to break the hold. Valentine would nail Piper from the top rope and then followed that up with a big elbow drop. But when Valentine went to the top rope again, Piper yanked him down, nailed him in the head with the chain and then wrapped the chain around Valentine’s legs as he secured the win in one of the most brutal matches ever.
Here is some footage of the end of the match. It is not that great and I would urge anyone wanting to watch this excellent match to do so on the WWE Network:
If you listen to the legendary Gordon Solie’s commentary immediately after the match, he indicates that Piper recaptured the US Title. But he quickly corrects himself and notes that the title was not on the line. Regardless, after the match Valentine works over Piper some more, sullying an otherwise awesome performance from the Hot Rod.
For much of 1983, the tag team of Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood had been feuding with the team of Jack and Jerry Brisco over the NWA World Tag Team Championship. The Briscoes had captured the belts from Steamboat and Youngblood on June 18, 1983 in Greenville, South Carolina. Steamboat and Youngblood would recapture the straps on October 3, 1983 only to drop them back to the Briscoes in Richmond, Virginia 18 days later. So, at Starrcade ’83, the final chapter of this excellent rivalry would be written.
Angelo Mosca would serve as the special referee for the bout for the Tag Team titles. The early part of the match was very even. Steamboat and Youngblood began to employ some more aerial tactics and they gained a slight early advantage. It did not last long. The Brisco brothers soon took control and they began to really put a beating on Steamboat. Steamboat got out of the predicament and tagged Youngblood in. But Youngblood was quickly overwhelmed and the Briscoes secured several near falls.
Steamboat and Youngblood would fight back however and began making quick and crisp tags. At the end of the match, Steamboat slammed Jerry to the mat. Youngblood bounced off the ropes and Steamboat executed a variation of a gorilla press slam, lifting Youngblood high above Jerry and then helping him crash down to secure the pin fall and the NWA World Tag Team Championship. After the match, the Briscoes attacked Mosca and placed Youngblood in a Figure Four Leglock. But the new champions fought them off and began to celebrate their fifth reign as Tag Team champs.
The Main Event of Starrcade ‘83—a Steel Cage match between two of the all-time greats, Harley Race and Ric Flair, for Race’s NWA World Heavyweight Championship—was all that remained. Though Flair was regarded as a heel for the bulk of his career, he was clearly the heavy crowd favorite on this night. Another factor that would come into play was that the special referee for the match was Gene Kiniski. Between the three men, they had held the World Championship, in one form or another, a total of 10 times.
As you might have expected, the match between Race and Flair—both men being members of the WWE Hall of Fame—was an excellent one. The early stages of the match were quite even with Flair trying to use various holds to control Race and Race countering with suplexes and some more underhanded tactics.
One of the issues I have with this match, and one of the few complaints I have, is just how involved Kiniski gets in the match. I am all for the special referee being the law and order in the ring. And Kiniski does a great job the whole match as far as the consistency and cadence of his count. But in this match, Kiniski is too hands on a bit too often. He literally drags Race off of Flair on several occasions. Race and Kiniski spend a lot of time arguing with each other and maybe I am nitpicking, but it takes something away from the match in my opinion. There is even one point where Kiniski is holding Race and Flair takes advantage to blast Race in the chest.
Relatively early on, Race connects with a piledriver and from that point on, Race controls things for a long while. This includes slamming Flair’s face into the fence, busting Flair wide open. Flair would soon counter though and Race would take his own turn getting thrust into the cage. Race too would be a bloody mess very quickly. Flair would then take control for a while, delivering a piledriver of his own and coming very close to capturing the title.
Flair and Kiniski got into a shoving match as, once again, Kiniski got too involved in things. Flair gained control of the match by putting Race into the dreaded Figure Four Leglock but the champion was able to reverse the hold.
Race then regained control of the match for several minutes and Flair seemed to be beaten. But in the match’s closing moments, Flair reversed a suplex attempt, but missed with a running elbow. Kiniski got knocked to the canvas by a Race head butt. The two combatants ended up flailing at each other in the corner and Flair ultimately connected with a flying body press. Kiniski is already on the canvas and turns over to count the 1-2-3 as the Nature Boy captured his third NWA World Heavyweight Championship, although I have seen several sources indicating this was only Flair’s second title reign. Whatever the case may be, it was a great win for the Nature Boy, clearly the biggest of his career at the time. The other faces, such as Steamboat, Youngblood and Mosca, flooded the ring to help Flair celebrate.
Here is some footage of Flair beating Race to capture the NWA World Championship at Starrcade ’83:
The remainder of the broadcast is largely dedicated to interviews, including an excellent interview with a blood soaked Flair, who profusely thanked Steamboat and was soon confronted by The American Dream Dusty Rhodes, who put Flair on notice that The Dream would be gunning for him.
FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT 1983
While 1983 might not be as monumental a year as say 1985 or 1988 or 1998, in many ways 1983 can be considered the birthplace of the modern era of pro wrestling. Now, of course, there is a wealth of history that predates 1983. To ignore the history of pro wrestling before 1983 would be to ignore the legacy and accomplishments of great champions such as Lou Thesz, Buddy Rogers, Bruno Sammartino, Superstar Billy Graham and Bob Backlund, just to name a few.
Nevertheless, 1983 saw pro wrestling truly evolve on multiple fronts. The old guard was beginning to fade away. The territory system was on extremely borrowed time. The staying power of well-respected organizations such as the AWA and WCCW was beginning to wane. The entire industry was getting smaller, yet larger at the same time. And at the forefront of this massive shift was Starrcade. It is an interesting quirk, isn’t it? The first closed circuit Supercard of significance was not a product of the WWF/WWE; instead it was the offspring of the NWA/WCW and Jim Crockett Productions.
As for Starrcade ’83 itself, I feel it was a very solid event. The card starts off a bit slowly but really picks up about halfway through. The Dog Collar match between Valentine and Piper remains one of the bloodiest and most brutal bouts of the past 30 years or so. In fact, that is one of the things you will notice if you spend some time watching the first few years of WCW/NWA pay-per-views; many of the matches are bloody as hell and, as we will see when we get to Starrcade ’84, sometimes all that “color” actually has a direct impact on the match.
The Main Event, and the ascension of Ric Flair, were done quite well and provided a satisfying ending to Flair’s feud with Race. By beating the seven-time champion cleanly, Flair was immediately legitimized and this gave the NWA a new flag bearer for many years to come. More importantly though, Starrcade ’83 was a significant step up as far as the quality of the card and from the standpoint of production values. It was far from perfect, but it was a very strong start on the road to a brave new world for pro wrestling. Had a nasty winter storm not kept many people away from closed circuit broadcast centers, Starrcade ’83 would have had been a bigger financial success.
Overall, I would rate Starrcade ’83 as an 8 out of 10.
Following Starrcade, Race would take some time off while Flair would reign as champion until May of 1984, when he would briefly drop the belt to Kerry Von Erich in the wake of David Von Erich’s shocking death three months earlier.
Kerry Von Erich beats Ric Flair for the NWA World Championship:
Flair would win the title back just 18 days later and he and Rhodes would engage in a program that would then lead into Starrcade ’84.
Over in the WWE/WWF, the entire landscape was about to change drastically. On December 26, 1983, barely a month after Starrcade ’83, Bob Backlund— who had held the title since February 20, 1978—lost the WWF Championship to the Iron Sheik. This is the famous match where an “injured” Backlund was caught in the Camel Clutch and his manager, Arnold Skaaland, threw in the towel. It was well known at the time that Vince McMahon Jr. wanted a new champion and someone who would not be as clean cut and straight laced as the “Howdy Doody” look alike Backlund. This would fit in with McMahon’s overall strategy. Did Starrcade, and the relative success of the event, cause McMahon to accelerate his plans to some extent? That is certainly possible.
Whatever the reasons, a day after Backlund lost the title, Hulk Hogan returned to the WWE/WWF, having enjoyed a huge renaissance in the AWA. On January 23, 1984, at Madison Square Garden, just two months after Starrcade ’83, Hogan beat the Iron Sheik for the WWE/WWF Championship, “Hulkamania” was born—and nothing was ever the same again.
Hulkamania is born:
McMahon had the champion he wanted and a champion that would enable him to fully execute and implement his plan to nationalize the WWE/WWF. The birth of WrestleMania was still more than a year off. But the momentum created by Hogan’s title reign, combined with the birth of Starrcade, combined with the emergence of Flair as a true champion would set pro wrestling on the road to places it had never been before.
The glory days of professional wrestling had arrived—and its’ birth place might very well have been Starrcade ’83.