Starrcade--"The Granddaddy Of Em All" Turns 30

I was a few weeks shy of a year old for its debut, but in the thirty years since I'm not the only wrestling fan who has come to celebrate and cherish what Starrcade stood for.  It was the event, and concept, that combined southern territorial wrestling with the advent of going beyond the walls of the host arena via closed circuit television.  With no one denying the boundaries broken by WrestleMania less than two years later, the door was opened by Starrcade.

Growing up as a "WWF kid," to me Thanksgiving wrestling tradition meant the Survivor Series.  As my fandom grew, I learned that Starrcade has an equally large space at the wrestling holiday table.  These two events were actually a then new-era equivalent to traditions that had been going on for decades.  For many years, after wrestling fans enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner or opened their presents on Christmas, a night out at the matches was in order.  While it probably wasn't the ideal night to be working for the wrestlers themselves, I would imagine that some of the hottest crowds of the year packed armories and arenas for these special shows.  With the advent of Starrcade, the talent no longer had to be split up among towns.  Finally, one huge holiday supercard could be seen in multiple towns on the same night.

That first Starrcade in 1983 was subtitled "A Flare for the Gold."  Inside the brutal confines of a steel cage, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair was looking to regain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from the man who wanted him out of the business altogether, Harley Race.  Gene Kiniski, a former NWA Champion himself, officiated the match which saw Flair capture his second NWA title in a blood-soaked celebration that has been replayed many times since.

Championship grandeur aside, others look to another match that night as the most memorable portion of the event.  Rowdy Roddy Piper and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, two men who would go on to participate in the first WrestleMania as well, battled in an absolutely vicious dog collar match.  If certain ECW matches made fans of the '90s think that the participants were truly brutalizing each other, then this match did the same for the audience of a decade earlier.  Dog collars were wrapped around each man's neck which were connected by a heavy chain.  The chain ultimately became one of the stars of the event, helping each man to wreak havoc on the other.  Although Piper emerged victorious, he has since claimed that the effects of the chain hitting his ear caused hearing loss.

In 1984 and 1985 the event grew with subtitles of "The Million Dollar Challenge" and "The Gathering," respectively, but it was in 1986 that the event became "The Night of the Skywalkers."  It was on this night that one of the most awkward match concepts in wrestling history suddenly became one of the most memorable.  Jim Cornette's Midnight Express battled Paul Ellering's Road Warriors in the notorious scaffold match.  The only way to win?  Toss your opponents off of the scaffold.  While Hawk and Animal were successful in tossing "Beautiful" Bobby and "Loverboy" Dennis from the elevated war zone, it was a third fall that became the most memorable.  The fans rabidly wanted to see the much-hated Cornette get his just desserts that Thanksgiving.  Cornette's bodyguard Big Bubba Rogers was supposed to catch the loud-mouthed manager as he fell, but was legitimately just a few seconds too late.  Cornette blew his knee out thanks to the fall and says that he still feels the effects to this day.  Thanks to the moment being played on a commercial for the videotape that aired for weeks on end, it became one of the most seen wrestling "bumps" in history.

Due to the Survivor Series and the WWF's tactics of promotional war, Starrcade was later moved to late in December.  When Jim Crockett Promotions became WCW, the event continued and many fans point to the tenth anniversary of the event as its last great moment.  Once again Ric Flair, the man who arguably could add "Mr. Starrcade" to his list of nicknames, was on another quest for the gold.  This time, Flair would be up against the monstrous Big Van Vader.  A dramatic build insinuating that Flair was too old to defeat the behemoth from the Rocky Mountains only helped to bring the true Starrcade "feel" to the event.  Flair was victorious, in his hometown of Charlotte, NC to boot.  A few months later, Hulk Hogan would enter the company much to the chagrin of some fans who had been with the event and the NWA/WCW brand of wrestling for many years.

Although I was never able to attend Starrcade, my own "live" memories of the event were first created four years after the last one was held.  In 2004, my very first wrestling convention was the Thanksgiving weekend Mid-Atlantic Legends Fanfest in Charlotte.  The event was a tribute to Starrcade and included many of the stars that made the events what they were.  Fittingly, the first autograph that I obtained that weekend was from the original voice of the event, Bob Caudle.  Many of the Fanfests since have had Starrcade themed moments such as Flair and Race reuniting as well as Piper and Valentine posing for photos with the original dog collars, still owned by Piper today.

At press time, we're at just about the time of the year that would be the halfway point between Starrcade's two "homes," Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We're just a few weeks removed from the 30th anniversary of the event's premiere and just days away from the 13th anniversary of its end.  What would Starrcade be today?  I always held out hope that, like the Great American Bash, WWE would someday resurrect the name.  It's most likely not to be, but recent reports indicating that WCW-themed home video releases outsold most of the other WWE titles this year could be good news.  Will more DVD and Blu-Ray releases join the 2008 Starrcade collection?  Time will tell.  In the meantime, memories and memorabilia from the event like those just displayed here will continue to ensure that "The Grandaddy of Em All" is remembered for another thirty years...and beyond.

From The Musty Yellowed Pages--1987 Great American Bash Program

With it being July, Mid-Atlantic Fanfest on the very near horizon, and the recent War Games DVD/Blu-Ray release from WWE, this edition of "From The Musty Yellowed Pages" was a no-brainer.  Always one of the more popular Jim Crockett Promotions publications, The 1987 Great American Bash program has a lot going for it.  The colorful and fittingly patriotic cover is the most obvious, but a lot of people have never had the chance to dive inside.  It isn't easy to obtain and often sells for fifty dollars or more when it does pop up on the secondary market.

I have no one to thank more for my particular copy than an anonymous group of elderly women.  Around twenty years ago I was at a library book sale in a neighboring town.  In the back of the crammed basement, I spied this wrestling artifact tossed among the children's books.  Needless to say, once I figured out exactly what I had discovered, there was no putting it down.  It was but a few years earlier that I had gotten into learning about wrestling's glorious past, and the 1987 War Games video was something that I was already very familiar with.  Upon arrival at the checkout table, the gracious ladies who were in charge must've found my love for the publication charming.  Although my family made other purchases, the ladies told me that I could have the red, white, and blue relic absolutely free.  My JCP program collection was off to an amazing, and quite affordable, start.

It was about ten years following my lucky find that I began to use the program as an autograph project.  Manny Fernandez, Skandor Akbar, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, Dusty Rhodes, J.J. Dillon, Paul Jones, Ricky Morton, Jimmy Garvin, Ric Flair, Nikita Koloff, Jim Cornette, Tully Blanchard, Steve Williams, Magnum T.A., Ivan Koloff, Robert Gibson, The Barbarian, Bob Caudle, and Road Warrior Animal.  Amazingly, I even managed to have each signature signed in blue.  It was more of a coincidence at first, but it certainly adds to the flag motif.  Beginning with Dusty Rhodes, twenty signatures fill the cover.  My rule was that as long as the talent is shown and/or mentioned inside, they're welcome to sign the cover.  The twenty illustrious names are

Interestingly, the program does not kick off with War Games coverage.  The tag team and UWF championship sagas are instead featured at the front.  Following a Business Reply Mail card advertising NWA tapes from Turner Home Video, a great photo of eight of the ten men from the original War Games match is shown.  "The American Dream" appears more cocky than any of the Four Horsemen in this photo, but that's simply "Dusty being Dusty."  Curiously this photo does not include Paul Ellering or JJ Dillon.  Regardless, it's a great shot that would induce a boatload of memories from any NWA fan.

A page made up solely of graphics breaks down that first War Games match.  It's obvious from the effort shown here that the company truly felt that a lot was riding on this one match.  They had every right to believe that they had something special in their hands, as this was a concept that lives on with so many fans to this day.  One can only wonder why no effort was made to put this on pay-per-view.  While they obviously hoped to make this a concept to pop the individual live gates, it is interesting to ponder if anything could've played out differently had they opened the match up to thousands of other curious fans via pay-per-view.

The following ten pages are photo capsules of each of the ten men involved in that first "Match Beyond."  Ellering and Dillon are not omitted here and are highlighted in photos showing both their wrestler and managerial sides.  It should be noted that the photography in this program is glorious and vibrant as it is in many of the JCP publications.  It's a shame that more items like these weren't made by the company, but that all goes back to the much-discussed marketing problems of the company that extended far beyond the Ted Turner purchase of the company in 1988.

Following the War Games profiles, many other wrestlers, matches, and angles which were important on the '87 Bash tour are featured.  The company was obviously hurting with the loss of Magnum T.A. just a few months earlier.  Fortunately, Magnum was well enough to make appearances by this time and gets a full page to himself.  Text and photos discussing his appearance in Dusty's corner against Tully Blanchard on television appear, but a notation of Magnum now being in the corner of Dr. Death in a battle against Dick Murdoch is mentioned.

Initially, so many of the autographs on my copy were obtained at the 2004 Fanfest over Thanksgiving weekend.  One of the wrestlers to sign it was "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin.  After signing the cover, Garvin asked me if this was the program with "the great bloody picture of me against Flair."  I assured him that it was and we flipped to it where he took the time to sign it again.  Not only is the shot another example of the great photography, but a rare example where a wrestler recalls something about a piece of memorabilia.  Remember, in that era talent rarely had to the time to see these items let alone collect them.  This is sadly why many wrestlers have no clue as to what is out there, but it also makes it all the more special when a recollection is made when obtaining an autograph.

This has always been one of my favorite wrestling items between what it represents, how it ended up in my collection, and now that I've had so many of the original participants sign it.  These are the items that keep the memories of these events and concepts alive.  WWE may own the footage, but you're only going to see what they want you to see.  It's these vintage pieces that show you just how epic, raw, and real it was to many fans...and continues to be today.