WCW Wednesdays Part IV – Starrcade ’85

25th November 2015 by Rock Star Gary
Rants

I apologize for the tardiness, but once again, it’s WCW Wednesday!

Add to that it’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so let’s discuss the best Thanksgiving Starrcade of the bunch–Starrcade ’85. If you’re not familiar with the show, please read my reflection here.

Here’s a little backdrop: Jim Crockett with Dusty Rhodes’ assistance created Starrcade in 1983. In March 1985, Vince McMahon took the premise of a wrestling supershow and amped it up big time with WrestleMania. Crockett saw this and had to make a drastic business statement to keep up. His answer–let’s not only sell out the Greensboro Coliseum with two cage matches but also sell out the Omni with Ric Flair versus Dusty Rhodes with Rhodes’ revenge being the dangling carrot.

So what happened? One of the biggest and best shows of the 80’s happened. Let’s run down the results:

  1. Krusher Khrushchev pinned Sam Houston to win the vacant Mid-Atlantic title.
  2. Manny Fernandez defeated Abdullah the Butcher in a Mexican death match.
  3. In a Texas bull rope match, Ron Bass beat Black Bart (w/ James J. Dillon).
  4. Subsequently, Dillon pinned Bass with Bart’s help.
  5. “Superstar” Billy Graham beat the Barbarian (w/ Paul Jones) in an arm-wrestling contest.
  6. Immediately afterwards, Graham defeated the Barbarian by DQ thanks to Jones.
  7. “Nature Boy” Buddy Landel (w/ James J. Dillon) pinned Terry Taylor to win the National title.
  8. Ole & Arn Anderson retained the National tag team titles by beating Wahoo McDaniel & Billy Jack Haynes.
  9. In one of the most remembered matches of the 80’s, Magnum T.A. made Tully Blanchard submit to regain the US title within a steel cage. This match gets my highest recommendation for settling a blood feud.
  10. Ron Garvin Miss Atlanta Lively & the “Boogie Woogie Man” Jimmy Valiant (w/ Big Mama) beat the Midnight Express (w/ Jim Cornette) in a bloody comedy match to cleanse the palette.
  11. In a great underdog story, the Rock’n’Roll Express (w/ Don Kernodle) regained the NWA World tag team titles by defeating Ivan & Nikita Koloff (w/ Krusher Khrushchev). This match has to be seen to be believed.
  12. In the main event, Dusty Rhodes recaptured the NWA World title by pinning Ric Flair. Or did he?

In my opinion, it’s a very bloody, very violent, and not-so-family-friendly show, but it’s also great entertainment. What did you think? Are you queuing it up on the WWE Network as you read this? You should.

Be sure to catch all of my reflections at rockstargary.com.