I had always thought that early 80s wrestling consisted of the territories (all under the NWA banner) and the WWF.
After watching what WWE Network has to offer (Mid-Atlantic, Mid-South, WCCW 81-83), I realize my largest misconceptions were the sheer number of territories (I thought there were far fewer) and their connection to the NWA.
I've since read that Mid-South and WCCW had no affiliation with the NWA. While WCCW was more confusing because they brought in the NWA champion to defend their belt every few months and also mention that their matches were sanctioned by the NWA, Bill Watts and Mid-South never even really mention the NWA, though they do frequently mention things happening outside their territory in the world of wrestling. In fact, Watts mentioned and showed more WWF programming than NWA.
Mid-South and WCCW seems to also have some sort of working agreement where they began sharing talent or had several performers appearing on the other program in '83.
There appeared to be two large (pun intended) exceptions to all of this, who would occasionally appear on all the programs and territories in the network in that era, including WWF. Those two traveling special features were
Andre the Giant, who eventually settled into WWF permanently post-83. Sometimes (as in Mid-Atlantic) I believe they used Andre's name just to get their big guys over without ever even showing up on tv.
Dusty Rhodes
I had always thought that Rhodes was a pure NWA guy, but he's shown up in all three territories (least frequently WCCW, which is strange because it's in Texas) and probably most frequently in Mid-South.
As Mid-Atlantic builds up to the first Starcade in November of '83, they've only announced three matches (Race/Flair, Valentine/Piper, Briscos/Steamboat & Youngblood), I'm surprised that Dusty is not on the card in a prominent spot. There was a short promo from him mentioning that he'll be there in a viewing capacity.
Bret gives Hogan-Andre five stars. I think that's a very defensible POV, certainly more than that initial negative-star nonsense from Meltzer. Tough to imagine that almost anyone in the crowd went home dissatisfied with what they got from that match.
Given that Bret is a self-serious guy who got over almost entirely on workrate, I've always found it refreshing that he's really far from being a purist who only judges things based on people who worked near his style.
Bret gives Hogan-Andre five stars. I think that's a very defensible POV, certainly more than that initial negative-star nonsense from Meltzer. Tough to imagine that almost anyone in the crowd went home dissatisfied with what they got from that match.
Given that Bret is a self-serious guy who got over almost entirely on workrate, I've always found it refreshing that he's really far from being a purist who only judges things based on people who worked near his style.
As a then 9 year old who first experienced WM3 through listening and watching through the scrambled PPV cable channel, I fully support the 5 star rating.
Im excited that I can watch Bret Harts first title win vs Ric Flair on the Coliseum video release, Smack Em asnd Whack Em!
Looks like the show has some other interesting matches too, Crush vs the Berserker was a cool match up, surprised Berserker jobbed out to Crush's skull crusher finisher. Berserker had just lost Mr Fuji as his manager so was on his way down the card.
Some funny chat between Gorilla and Lord Alfred around the Berserker's origin from the nordic countries. Hayes mentions that he speaks nordic but he is not sure what "Huss" means.
Interesting tidbit on John Nord after wikipediaing him during this match
After the American Wrestling Association closed in 1991, Nord joined Pacific Northwest Wrestling as "Nord the Barbarian". He formed a tag team with The Grappler called "The Breakfast Club". After winning matches, Nord and The Grappler would humiliate their opponents by pouring Cheerios and milk on them.
Another interesting fact about Mr Nord...
Last edited by AllBlackDan; 03-15-2024 at 05:30 PM.
I've seen Starcade '83 before, but never with this much context.
I had always believed the first few Starcades were an event where all the NWA territories came together for a supercard, but this is entirely a Mid-Atlantic event, aside from a single Abdullah vs Carlos Colon match and bringing in Gordon Solie to commentate.
Wikipedia states that either Dusty Rhodes or Dory Funk Jr. booked the show, though the latter would make much more sense because at least he was more strongly associated with the territory at the time. My thoughts on Dory were that he appeared this kindly old gentlemen, almost like somebody's grandfather. He was so quiet, you never even realized he was there in interviews, where Paul Jones did all the talking until he turned face. There was really nothing heelish about him. Terry got all the charisma in that family.
I'll likely follow up with match reactions when I'm done with the entire show in the next day or two.
The second match of Starrcade '83 features Sullivan and Lewin, who were doing more of a crazy than a dark gimmick at this point, against two enhancement talent. After the match, they bloody one of the enhancement workers (Scott McGhee) until Angelo Mosca comes out to make the save and gets stabbed in the arm.
Third match is Abdullah/Colon. Blood, of course.
Next comes the backstage interview of the year. Notice how they just left the bloodied Scott McGhee sitting in a corner.
(Best quality I could find.)
Wahoo and Mark Youngblood face Orton and Slater next with Charlie Brown from Outta Town beating Kabuki for the TV title next. Nothing particularly interesting about either match.
Match of the night and the one that made Starrcade a thing is next. Piper & Valentine in a dog collar match. This feud ran the entire year of '83. However, both were already on their way out the door to WWF. So, despite Valentine being the champion, this was made a non-title match. (Valentine would drop it a few weeks later. before leaving.) Knowing they had no reason to kill themselves in this match and could have easily phoned it in before leaving makes it even better.
Steamboat and Youngblood win the tag titles from the Briscoes. Wikipedia says Steamboat temporarily retired after this match. It's also Mosca's 3rd appearance of the night, as he was the special referee.
Finally, Flair beats Race in the cage for the title. The entire night was set up for Flair.. The match itself wasn't one of Flair's greatest and the finish was an awkward cross body. They had to change the special referee here to avoid any bias. This may have been the first time I heard Flair use entrance music, but it stops as soon as he appears through the curtain, not when he gets into the ring.
Quote:
...former NWA World Champion Gene Kiniski as the special referee (another former NWA World Champion, Pat O'Connor, was originally set to be the special referee, but it was discovered that O'Connor (along with Race, Bob Geigel, and Verne Gagne) owned the Central States territory so the change was made (kayfabe) to avoid a conflict of interest).
Angelo Mosca makes his fourth appearance of the night, as he's the first one in the ring to pick up Flair.