Starrcade (1984)
| Starrcade (1984) | ||||
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 Official poster used to advertise the event locally, featuring Ric Flair (left) and Ricky Steamboat (right) | ||||
| Tagline(s) | The Million Dollar Challenge | |||
| Information | ||||
| Promotion |
National Wrestling Alliance Jim Crockett Promotions | |||
| Date | November 22, 1984 | |||
| Attendance | 16.000 | |||
| Venue | Greensboro Coliseum | |||
| City | Greensboro, North Carolina | |||
| Pay-per-view chronology | ||||
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| Starrcade chronology | ||||
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Starrcade '84: The Million Dollar Challenge was a major professional wrestling show broadcast live on closed-circuit television that took place on November 22, 1984. The show was promoted by Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) under the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) banner and took place at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The main event of the show was billed as "the Million Dollar Challenge" as the storyline was that the winner of the match would not only win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship but also win a $1,000,000 purse, part of the illusion that professional wrestling was a legitimate sporting competition. The main event saw champion "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair defend the championship against long time rival "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, with boxer Joe Frazier acting as the special guest referee for the match. The show also saw the championship matches for the NWA United States Championship, NWA World Television Championship, NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship, NWA Brass Knuckles Championship and NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship.
Highlights of the show was shown on JCP's weekly television shows and an edited version of the show was later available for purchase or rental on VHS tape. With the launch of the WWE Network in 2014 all closed-circuit Starrcades (1983 through 1986) alongside the subsequent Starrcade shows in the pay-per-view section. The WWE Network versions of the shows were not edited for content but did replace some entrance music due to copyright issues.
Production
Background
From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was tradition for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) member Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) to hold major professional wrestling events atThanksgiving and Christmas, often at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina in the center of JCP's Virginia, North and South Carolina territory. In 1983, JCP created Starrcade as their supercard to continue the Thanksgiving tradition, bringing in wrestlers from other NWA affiliates and broadcasting the show its territory on closed-circuit television.[1] Starrcade soon became the flagship event of the year for JCP (later World Championship Wrestling, WCW), their Super Bowl event featuring their most important storyline feuds and championship matches. The 1984 event was the second show to use the Starrcade name.
Storylines
The Starrcade show featured a number of professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing, scripted feuds, plots, and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either heels (those that portray the "bad guys") or faces (the "good guy" characters) as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Results
| No. | Results[2][3] | Stipulations | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denny Brown defeated Mike Davis (c) | Singles match for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship | 05:38 |
| 2 | Brian Adidas defeated Mr. Ito | Singles match | 04:00 |
| 3 | Jesse Barr (c) defeated Mike Graham | Singles match for the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship | 11:43 |
| 4 | The Assassin and Buzz Tyler defeated The Zambuie Express (Elijah Akeem and Kareem Muhammed) (with Paul Jones) | Tag team elimination match | 05:26 |
| 5 | Manny Fernandez defeated Black Bart (c) (with James J. Dillon) | Singles match for the NWA Brass Knuckles Championship | 07:35 |
| 6 | Paul Jones defeated Jimmy Valiant | Tuxedo Street Fight Loser-Leaves-Town match | 04:35 |
| 7 | Ron Bass (c) (with J.J. Dillon) defeated Dick Slater by disqualification | Singles match for the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship | 09:12 |
| 8 | Ivan and Nikita Koloff defeated Ole Anderson and Keith Larson (with Don Kernodle) | Tag team match | 15:28 |
| 9 | Tully Blanchard (c) defeated Ricky Steamboat | Singles match for the NWA World Television Championship and $10,000 | 13:17 |
| 10 | Wahoo McDaniel (c) defeated Billy Graham | Singles match for the NWA United States Championship | 04:18 |
| 11 | Ric Flair (c) defeated Dusty Rhodes by knockout[Note 1] | Singles match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and $1,000,000, special guest referee Joe Frazier, judges Duke Keomuka and Kyle Petty. Should the match reach time limit, Frazier, Keomuka, and Petty would score the match, determining the winner by a vote of the three. | 12:12 |
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- ↑ The referee stopped the match due to a cut on Rhodes's forehead
See also
References
- ↑ "Flair defeats Race for wrestling title". Greensboro Daily News. 1983-11-25. p. D3. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
- ↑ Cawthon, Graham (2013). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 3:Jim Crockett and the NWA World Title 1983-1989. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 149480347X.
- ↑ "Starrcade 1984". Pro Wrestling History. November 22, 1984. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
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