WCW Starrcade '85: The Gathering
Atlanta, GA & Greensboro, NC - November 1985
COMMENTATORS: Tony Schiavone and Bob Caudle
Starrcade 85 begins with the National Anthem followed by Sam Houston vs. Krusher Kruschev. Kruschev would go on to wrestle as Smash (of Demolition), the Repo Man, and an assortment of other gimmicks. The referee's bright yellow outfit is odd, but I guess that was the norm in 85'? The crowd is red hot, reacting big for the slams and escapes, fervently supporting Houston. I'm not sure why Houston became a jobber in the WWE - he moves around pretty well, has good size, and is/was over enough. There's a dull stretch built around a head scissors, but they break out of it and go on a decent sequence afterwards. Houston applies an armbar. Kruschev escapes and sends Houston to the ropes and then, instead of back-body dropping him, just pops him in the air and lets him drop face-first. He then does the same thing from a guerilla press position. Kruschev applies a bearhug and the crowd goes nuts chanting "USA!" Kruschev continues to cut off every one of Houston's desperate attempts at offense. Kruschev goes to the top rope (why?), but Houston is back on his feet and Kruschev ends up crotched. In the corner, Houston delivers a number of big blows and then calls for the Bulldog. He hits it as the crowd goes nuts, but when he goes for the cover, Kruschev is too close to the ropes! Houston celebrates like an idiot and Kruschev hits him with a big clothesline for 3! Kruschev is now the Mid-Atlantic Champion! The crowd hates it. This match isn't anything special, but listen to the audience - the match did its job and the crowd was fully into it. (2.5/5)
Abdullah the Butcher makes his way down the aisle for the next bout. As he walks to the ring, he gets in a fight with a fan - which is awesome. Bonus point for that. His opponent is "The Ragin' Bull" Manny Fernandez. This is a Mexican Death Match, the Butcher's specialty. Fernandez is opened up early and in a big way by Abdullah's favorite weapon - the fork. He is able to recover and open up Abdullah with his boot and basically that's the entire story of the match until Fernandez miraculously lifts up the Butcher with a big suplex. The crowd is 1000% into this even if, watching it now, it looks like both guys are moving in molasses and this is just a plodding brawl. It doesn't help that the camera men also miss some of the big bumps, including one that Abdullah takes from the second rope. Oh, did I forget to mention, this is a Sombrero On A Pole Match? Proof that Vince Russo didn't originate stupid "Item on a Pole" matches, he just thought bringing them back 15 years later would work. Fernandez misses a huge splash from the top rope, but when Butcher tries to crush him in the corner, the Bull steps aside and Butcher goes head-first into the corner post. Nowadays you see that spot in every other match but I'm not sure how often it was used back then. Like the opener, this had the crowd on their feet for its duration and I really did enjoy seeing Butcher fight a fan. (3/5)
Backstage, Krusher Krushev cuts a promo. Was his gimmick that he was claiming to be Russian but wasn't Russian? I don't know enough about the NWA to know, but the fact that he has absolutely zero accent makes his allegiance to Russia extra brilliant (and makes me think this was the gimmick).
The next bout is a classic NWA gimmick bout - Black Bart vs. "Cowboy" Ron Bass in a Bullrope Match with the added stipulation that if Ron Bass wins, he gets to face Black Bart's manager, JJ Dillon, in another Bullrope Match afterwards. Can you guess who is going to win? Like a strap match, Bart and Bass are tethered to each other by a rope with a cowbell in the middle that can be used as a weapon (and is immediately by Bass). Bart is opened up in minute one (as the camera captures Bart slicing himself in the corner). Like the previous match, this is basically just a brawl with even less technical wrestling (hey, at least Fernandez busted out a suplex and a flying forearm). As Bart takes over, it is Bass who gets busted open, both men bleeding profusely. This is too one-note to maintain my attention and it is noticeable how much quieter the crowd is, even as they leave buckets of blood on the mat. Bass gets a pin after coming off the ropes with the cowbell and JJ Dillion immediately gets into the ring and puts the boots to him. Good psychology there. The "after-match" has a time limit of 5 minutes but Dillon tries to end it early with a pinfall. He then proceeds to bash Bass with the bell and choke him with the rope, the Outlaw trying to draw on the crowd support to rally. As Dillon tries to choke him out, Bass makes his way onto his feet and turns to Dillon, who now plays the coward. Bass hits him in the head with the bell and Dillon goes to the mat, the camera panning to the crowd so as to cover the fact that it is now his term to do some blading. Dillon is a bloody mess as Bass continues to knock him in the skull with the cowbell. Bass goes for the pin (which doesn't make much sense), but Black Bart gets back in the ring and hits him with a piledriver. Somewhere in the mix the referee went down and when he gets back up, Dillon is making the cover. I liked the "bonus match" much more than the original, but as a total package, this was a bit boring. (2/5)
Next up - a $10,000 Arm Wrestling Match/Grudge Match between The Barbarian (with Paul Jones) and "Superstar" Billy Graham. The Barbarian is forced to arm-wrestle with his left hand due to an injury to his right hand (which is in a cast). Can you guess what's going to happen with that cast? Anyway, once they get going they make a good show of their struggle, Graham using his whole body to draw the crowd in. By this point, Hulkamania was running wild, but you can really see the inspiration for the Hulkster here. Of course, as soon as Graham wins, Jones strikes and the Grudge Match portion of this bout begins. Graham gets busted open, the Barbarian even biting into the Superstar (and getting a bunch of his blood on his chest from it). Barbarian misses a leg drop and Graham unloads with some big right hands (again, the similarity to Hogan's is unmistakable), but Barbarian cuts him off. Barbarian misses a splash from the top and Graham locks him in a...a...bearhug. Its a bit of a letdown after the fast-paced action these two were pulling off, but hey, it is 1985 and these guys are legit 300-pounders. Graham keeps him locked in the bearhug until Jones comes in with his cane and breaks up the hold, getting his man DQ'd in the process. Outside the ring they go, where they brawl there way over the guardrail - which is a good 10 feet in front of the crowd. Graham leaving through the audience is an underwhelming conclusion, but this was still quite a 10-minute war and pretty fun for what it was. (2.5/5)
The not-so-one-of-a-kind Buddy Landell is up next to take on fan favorite Terry Taylor, who is the NWA National Champion (and you think the WWE has too many belts!). Taylor and Landell lock up to start things and then go face-to-face in a jawing session. It is amazing how much Landel looks like Flair here. Taylor slaps the spit out of Landell's mouth and he begs off like the real Nature Boy. This is the first real technical wrestling match of the night and it is a welcome change-up from everything that came before. Taylor shows great fire, Landell is a solid bumper, and there are some interesting twists and turns that modern wrestling fans will recognize. I really like the theory behind and most of the execution in the finish, but wish the ref had "come to" just a little bit quicker so that it didn't look like Taylor was knocked out for what seemed like an eternity before he made the count. Another solid match, but probably not better-than-average just because it was short. (2.5/5)
The Minnesota Wrecking Crew - Arn and Ole Anderson - defend their NWA National Tag Team Championships against Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Jack Haynes in the next bout. There are some great individual moments and details here, but as a whole, this wasn't anything I'd recommend or be eager to re-watch. Wahoo's chops are great, Ole's punches look good, Anderson is a great seller - but that still doesn't make this a riveting 10 minutes. The finish is fine, classic heel stuff with Wahoo getting pinned by the edge of the ring and having his legs held down by Ole from the outside. (2/5)
The next bout is a wrestling classic and one of the most gruesome bouts in history - Magnum TA challenging Tully Blanchard in an "I Quit" Cage Match for Blanchard's United States Championship. Magnum gets bloodied early on, but what I like about his color is that it starts out as a bit of a mere drip, not a full crimson mask (unlike most of the other bladejobs on this show). In terms of wrestling moves, this one doesn't offer much - but what it does feature is two guys tearing into each other with realistic urgency, a red hot crowd that is audibly gasping in horror as they grind the mic into eachother's wounds, and both participants looking super tough as they refuse to say "I Quit." The camerawork also captures some great facial expressions from Tully's valet, Baby Doll, on the outside watching her beloved get bloodied. I've seen some reviewers rank this as one of the top 5 matches of all time, but I must admit that as a more modern viewer, I wouldn't rank it up as high. That being said, when fans talk about matches that look and feel like a real "war," this will immediately come to mind as the violence in this match unspools in such an organic way, from mere tit-for-tat striking at the start to the two competitors trying to bash their opponent's brain in until they give up. The finish is outstanding too as Blanchard destroys a chair so he can make a wooden stake to ostensibly murder Magnum TA in front of a paying audience. It is something out of a prison movie and, having now seen this match, I can totally see how the sequence was the clear inspiration for the Jeff Hardy/Randy Orton wrench spot and Triple H/Batista nose-ring from this past year. The post-match scene is fantastic too as Magnum TA, reduced to an animal in this match, leaves the ring with the belt over his shoulder and the smallest amount of his dignity in tact as he refuses to "finish Tully off." Meanwhile, Tully screams in pain like one of the poor victims in a Saw movie. This is how you end an "I Quit" Match cleanly without the loser actually losing any credibility. (4.5/5)
Back to Atlanta we go for an Atlanta Streetfight between The Midnight Express (Eaton and Condrey) and the "Street People," Jimmy Valiant and Miss Atlanta Lively (aka Ronnie Garvin dressed like a woman). The Midnights are in tuxedos, Jim Cornette is yelling and screaming, Ronnie Garvin is wearing make-up, "The Boogie Woogie Man" is shaking his hips - this match screams "comedy," but the action is super intense and there's way more blood than a "comedy" match should ever have. At one point, Bobby Eaton takes a hip toss onto the concrete floor that is anything but a joke. The finish is rather cool too as Eaton tries to come off the top with his patented leg drop but gets uppercutted by Valiant. Nowadays, that would just be a nearfall because a match could never finish without one guy hitting their finishing move at least twice. A fun brawl. (2.5/5)
Next up, the NWA World Tag Team Championship Match - Nikita Koloff and Ivan Koloff defending the straps against The Rock n' Roll Express. Aside from this being in a cage, it is a fairly standard Rock n' Roll Express match - not necessarily a bad thing - as the faces get some shine early, then one Rock n' Roller gets mercilessly beaten down (in this case Robert Gibson), before he makes a hot tag and the other (Ricky Morton) miraculously leads a comeback. Instead of leading a fiery comeback filled with double dropkicks, Morton's tag leads directly a roll-up flash pin, which is an exciting ending but not necessarily as fulfilling as seeing the heels actually get their comeuppance. Equally odd is the post-match, which sees Morton essentially abandon his battered teammate as he gets beaten down even more by the nefarious Russians. Nobody even makes the save or anything - Robert Gibson just eats shit in the cage until the Russians get tired of stomping him. I'm guessing the bookers and the Russians wanted to maintain their heat - which is understandable - but they dominated 90% of the match and crushed the faces after the bell and it comes off as overkill. Not a bad match, but too one-sided for me and the post-match was confusing. (2/5)
Main event time - Ric Flair defending the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against longtime rival Dusty Rhodes. The backstory for this match is that Flair had turned heel on Dusty in October, forming the Four Horsemen with the Andersons and Tully Blanchard. As the Horsemen had barely been in existence by this point, though, the commentators don't mention the stable by name and really just focus on the action. The Atlanta crowd is hot for this, but its not quite clear if they're cheering or booing anything as both guys are pretty over. The thing about Flair, even back then, is that no matter what he did as a heel, a large portion of the audience always loved him. Anyway, Flair and Rhodes never put on any mat classics like Flair did against Steamboat (or even Luger for that matter), but there's tremendous passion behind every chest chop. There's also some good psychology throughout as Flair focuses on Rhodes legs to soften him up for the figure four while Dusty tries to take out the champion with everything he can think of - mostly strikes and, whether purposely or not, the wise decision to take out Flair's legs too (which would prevent him from applying the figure four and make countering the move easier and more painful). While the match has those positives, it also has some negatives - an extended body scissors segment (always kind of death in any match) and a number of moments of blatant no-selling and stalling that a match like Blanchard/Magnum or Flair's better matches just didn't have. Plus, the production is marred by a particularly loud fan wooping it seemingly directly into the commentators' microphones. While this is a considerable improvement from the previous year's bout, which ended with a blood stoppage, I wouldn't consider it a Top 10 Flair match or even, necessarily, the best example of how entertaining Dusty Rhodes was as an in-ring performer. The finish helps bump this one above average. (3/5)
Starrcade 85' is a considerably stronger show than the previous year's offering (a show that earned a weak 1.77 Kwang Score), though its still not a show I'd recommend to just any fan. The Magnum TA/Tully Blanchard cage match is a fantastic, "must see" match that I am embarrassed to having never seen before. It is as brutal as advertised. For some, the danger and gore of the rest of the card will be a huge selling point. Aside from the Magnum/Tully match, there is lots of great brawling on this show from the Midnights, Bart and Boss, and in the Abdullah/Manny Fernandez match. There's also some good straight-up wrestling in the Terry Taylor/Buddy Landell match. I could even see the argument that while I personally felt the Koloffs/Rock n' Roll Express match was too one-sided and the post-match made no sense, others might look at it with fondness based on their personal love for Ricky and Robert. To others, though, the poor production quality, one-note commentary, and the wrestling style of the era - mostly brawling with very few high spots - will be an automatic turnoff. With a Kwang Score of 2.65-out-of-5, Starrcade 85' is not for everybody, but as a change of pace from today's wrestling, you could do far worse. Plus, it bears repeating, the Magnum TA/Tully Blanchard match is probably one of the top 25 matches of all time.
FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand
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