NWA Starrcade 83'

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should start this review (and viewing stretch) by admitting the mega-wide omission in my viewing that is the NWA/early WCW. 

Growing up, I was a fairly massive wrestling fan. I watched WCW in the 90s, but the WWE (then WWF) was what I obsessed over. The local video store provided me with plenty of Rock n' Wrestling-era WWF, but barely anything from WCW (at least until Hogan jumped ship in 94'). Even once I could find cheap bootlegs of classic NWa shows (or watch a ton of it absolutely free on YouTube or DailyMotioon), I never had the patience. Shallow as it may be, a large part of that comes from the production quality. For someone who grew up a WWF fan, where every star wrestler had a custom theme song, choreographed entrance, and pyro, where the commentators were as cartoonish as the competitors, and where the arena itself was lit up to show massive crowds waving homemad "Hulk Rules" signs, watching 80s-era NWA/WCW (hell, watching most of the 90s-era NWA/WCW) is like stepping into a smoky, dank dive bar after spending a full day at Disneyland.

And so this year I plan on righting that wrong and learning a bit of the history I've been so willfully ignorant of for so long. What better place to start than NWA/WCW's first closed-circuit supershow....

Starrcade 83' - November 1983

Greensboro, North Carolina

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, Harley Race is the NWA World Champion, The Briscos hold the NWA World Tag Team Championships, Greg Valentine is the United States Champion, and The Great Kabuki is the NWA Television Champion. Now, because is the NWA, there at least two dozen recognized regional champions at the time, but as the previously mentioned titles are the only ones defended on the card, I'm going to stick to just mentioning those.

COMMENTATORS: Bob Caudle and Gordon Solie

Starrcade 83' kicks off with a tag contest pitting The Masked Assassins with Paul Jones versus the team of Rufus R. Jones and Bugsy McGraw. Not a ton to say about the action, but the crowd is certainly into it. Jones and McGraw do loads of dancing and jiving between their strikes, making them a pretty fun team to watch. While certainly not actively bad at any point, this isn't a barnburner either. Fortunately, the match doesn't overstay its welcome and ends in an impressively straightforward and believable fashion. By today's standards, this wouldn't deserve placement on pay-per-view, but I'm not going to knock it too much when it's obvious by the crowd responses that they were entertained. (2/5)

Tony Schiavone is backstage, announcing that he'll be getting words from the challenger of tonight's main event later. Its pretty nifty to see Piper, Flair, and Steamboat behind him shooting the shit.

Johnny Weaver and Scott McGee take on Kevin Sullivan and Mark Lewin (with Gary Hart) in the next bout. McGee connects with a couple of dropkicks on Sullivan early on, popping the crowd, before Weaver comes in and locks on a headlock. Its noticeable how much more energy this match has compared to the opener, the wrestlers bouncing off the ropes and breaking up the standard headlock/wristlock offense with lots of quick tags and big strikes. Speaking of strikes, what's most notable about this match is the consistency of the story told. The referee is distracted several times (allowing the heels to team up behind his back), but the minute he has things in order, the heels cleverly go out of their way to act like upstanding rule-followers, making their tags blatant and on-the-level. The ultra-bloody post-match earns serious bonus points from me too. Also, like the opener, this one didn't run a second too long, which means a ton to a viewer like myself that has no natural inclination to care about the competitors involved. (3/5)

Tony Schiavone is in the back with Greg Valentine, Harley Race, and the Brisco Brothers. Race cuts a short, serious promo about how he knows Flair's shortcomings and will take advantage of them.

Carlos Colon vs. Abdullah the Butcher is next. Gordon Solie explains that the feud between these two began in Puerto Rico, but that they need to settle it here because it has been banned overseas. Neat concept. Abby dominates early on and looks noticeably more spry and energetic than in any of the matches from the 90s I remember him from. Colon ends up in possession of a fork (?) that Abdullah pulls from his pants, bloodying the Butcher within the first 3 minutes of the match. Abdullah is able to kick out of a pinfall attempt and end ups taking out the referee with an elbow drop soon after, which prevents Colon's figure four attempt from ending the match. A run-in by Hugo Savonivich leads to an Abdullah victory in a match that ends before it ever really gets started. (1.5/5)

Next up - Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood vs. Bob Orton and Dick Slater. Unlike the previous couple of matches, this one actually features some wrestling holds, some "suplays" (in the words of Gordon Solie), and a match structure that modern fans will be familiar with (the classic "face-in-peril-to-a-hot tag" story). Orton's the most interesting worker to watch here, at least to these modern eyes, as it really is remarkable how much his son moves likes him at times. While Youngblood is passable in his role as the least experienced hand fighting to stay alive against two vicious, crafty, rule-bending heels, he can't muster the sympathy that, say, Dustin Rhodes did in a similar position in the early 90s (though, admittedly, very few have ever been comparable to Rhodes in that department). Adding an even more "modern" flair to the match is Orton's use of the outside barricade to gain an advantage over his foe, the kind of straightforward heel tactic that is underemphasized today, but, 30 years ago, comes across as a legit difference maker. The match runs a few minutes long for me, but its also the first bout of the night that seems to actually matter. (2/5)

Ric Flair is in the back with Jay Youngblood and Ricky Steamboat. Flair gives an understated promo pretty removed from the type of interviews he's known for. Youngblood and Steamboat give an equally serious and somewhat monotone promo. Cut to Dusty Rhodes in the audience, but technical difficulties prevent the audience from hearing much of anything he says. Eeesh. 

The NWA Television Title and Charlie Brown's mask are on the line next - Charlie Brown (aka Jimmy Valient) challenging Gary Hart's The Great Kabuki. Brown comes at him with a head-of-steam to start the match off, sending Kabuki to the floor and tossing him into the guardrail and the steel post before busting out a chair. After hitting him with not much of anything resembling wrestling, Brown locks on a sleeper in the center of the ring, bringing Kabuki to the mat. Kabuki claws his way out via an eye rake, but gets locked up again when Brown dodges a backhanded chop. Hart breaks the hold by draping Kabuki's foot over the bottom rope and the face-painted martial artist is able to get control, clamping on a claw and bringing the level of "wrestling" utilized in this match to a low that I don't think I've seen outside a Torrie Wilson/Stacy Keibler match. The crowd is into this, though, which just goes to show how different presentation, audiences, and expectations were 30 years ago compared to today. Throw this same match in a ring in 2016 and there's no way a WWE crowd would be impressed by a bout that, literally, contains nothing more than clotheslines, ugly-looking low-elevation spin kicks, multiple sleeper holds and claws, and a match-ending elbow drop. Despite going under 10 minutes, it feels like it goes at least 3 too long. (.5/5)

Dog Collar Match time - US Champion Greg Valentine taking on "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. From the first minute, the intensity in this match is off the charts as the two combatants do an excellent job of selling the dangers of their predicament. What sets this match apart from any other brawl, though, is the number of incredible visuals it provides - within the first 4 minutes, the audience has been witness to more depravity than in any chain match I've ever seen before. Valentine is a bloody mess early, but when he takes control he goes right after Piper's previously damaged ear, causing the entire left side of Hot Rod's face to look like roadkill. While I've criticized some of the previous bouts on this show for their lack of actual wrestling, this one, which features little more than punches and chain whips, works because the animosity between the competitors comes across as realer than a wrestling match. In fact, when Valentine goes for a pin, it seems almost weird, a sudden reminder that this, in fact, is an athletic contest, not just two guys mercilessly wailing on eachother. As the brawl continues, Piper surviving several more pinfall attempts and eventually finding himself in a Valentine sleeper, there is a sense of repetitiveness rather than an escalation, though. The ending of the match comes across as a bit lackluster, Valentine seemingly "giving in" more out of exhaustion than being the beaten man. This point is driven home even more with the postmatch beatdown he gives to Piper, an incredibly violent attack that has the crowd on their feet and screaming. When Piper gets back on his feet and swings the chain, it is an awesome moment that, sadly, gets cut away from too soon. I've seen this match heralded as an all-time classic, but I'm not sure the story of the match is as riveting as the individual moments and scenes that can be cherry-picked from its entirety. A very good, very violent match, but one that lacks a definitive finish and doesn't really escalate beyond the immediate barbarity of its first few minutes. (4/5)

After some words from Ric Flair and others, the World Tag Team Championships are on the line as Jack and Jerry Brisco defend the straps against the team of Jay Youngblood and Ricky Steamboat. As someone pretty unfamiliar with the Briscos ring work beyond what I've read about them over the years, I was surpised by their charisma, believing them to be far more "old school" and stoic than they are here (Jerry, in particular, does a great job of riling up the crowd early on). The action on display isn't exactly riveting at first, but the crowd is into things enough to keep this one hot. As the match enters its last third, things pick up noticeably as Steamboat shows some excellent face-in-peril spirit before busting out some strength spots that today's fans will certainly recognize. Good bout that starts slow but ends strong. (3/5)

Jimmy "Charlie Brown" Valient, Roddy Piper, and Dusty Rhodes all get a bit of promo time, Hot Rod's being the most memorable, as we prepare for tonight's main event.

Ric Flair gets a grand entrance for his showdown with NWA World Champion, Harley Race, inside a steel cage. Gene Kiniski is serving as guest referee for this. Flair applies a headlock early, the crowd loudly in support of the Nature Boy and popping pretty big for Race missing a headbutt. Race takes over a few minutes later and shows off some simple-but-vicious offense, laying knees into the head and throat of Flair and throwing in an old-school "fall back" piledriver for good measure. What really impresses me about Race is how intense his strikes are, how effective his offense comes across despite being the opposite of flashy or innovative. Even his pinfall covers look stiff, like it really does take tremendous energy for Flair to get a shoulder out from under Race's considerably large frame. Unfortunately, Kiniski's involvement in certain points of the match taint things a bit for me. Essentially, Kiniski attempts to hold both men back from attacking their opponent in the corner, but ends up becoming a de facto tag partner to each in consecutive spots. Maybe this was a common occurrence back in the day, but to these eyes, it is as bizarre as watching Mike Chioda help set up The Miz for a Doomsday Device from Dean Ambrose. Flair gets back on offense and, by this point, both men are bloody messes, having been busted open by the unforgiving walls of the steel cage. Flair and Race exchange a series of stiff shots and closed fists, angering Kiniski and causing him to break up the fight multiple times. Fortunately, Solie does a nice job of explaining why Kiniski is so eager to get this one back under control, noting that Kiniski respects "what's on the marquee" (wrestling) and wants this match to be fought under the rules and regulations of the sport. Race escapes a figure four attempt but considerable damage has been done as Race is unable to capitalize on a vertical suplex attempt. Moments later, Race again falls prey to his own fatigue, hitting Naitch with a headbutt from the ropes, but unable to make the cover quick enough to win the match. A second vertical suplex attempt (this one successful) gets kicked out of again by Flair, who looks to be an absolutely beaten man. Kiniski gives Flair some time for a breather, pulling Race off of him when he begins stomping on him on the edge of the ring. Flair then connects with a big suplex of his own before crash landing on an elbow drop attempt. This leads to a somewhat wild ending, with Kiniski ending up on the mat but alert enough to make the pinfall count on a Flair crossbody from the top. The post-match celebration is an incredible sight, the crowd going crazy and Flair being hoisted up by the company's top babyfaces in the center of the ring. As an overall contest, I enjoyed this one just as much as the more-often heralded Dog Collar Match, largely due to how intense Race is and how hot the crowd is. Kiniski's ref work leaves much to be desired (aside from being too actively involved the match, he was slow as molasses when getting in position), but Solie and Caudle do a great job of covering for him on commentary. Extra half-point for Flair's in-ring victory speech, a brief but touching and emotional moment, and the less emotional, but considerably "meatier" backstage interview (with cameo from Dusty Rhodes). (4/5)

Like the first WrestleMania, Starrcade 83' doesn't quite hold up as an all-time great show, but it is not without its merits, earning a decent watchability score of 2.5-out-of-5. The Dog Collar Match comes across as brutal today as it probably did when it first aired. The main event can still raise goosebumps. The Briscos and Steamboat are a blast to watch too. Unfortunately, every other match is dated filler with only small moments of excitement that fans like myself, who are not really invested in the stories of a Jimmy Valient or a Mark Lewin, will be intrigued by. Recommended for fans already familiar with the era from whence it came or those that, like me, are seeking to broaden their knowledge of the sport's history.

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuever