Starrcade
Starrcade is a recurring professional wrestling event, originally broadcast via closed-circuit television and eventually broadcast via pay-per-view television, held from 1983 to 2000 by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and later World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Starrcade was regarded by the NWA and WCW as their flagship event of the year, much in the same vein that its rival, the World Wrestling Federation, regarded WrestleMania. As a result, the buildup to each Starrcade featured the largest feuds of the promotion.
| Starrcade | |
|---|---|
 The Starrcade logo used since 2017. | |
| Created by | Dusty Rhodes |
| Promotion(s) | NWA (Governing body) (1983–1990) JCP (1983–1987) WCW (1988–2000) WWE (2017–present) |
| Brand(s) | SmackDown (2017–present) Raw (2018–present) |
| First event | Starrcade (1983) |
From 1983 to 1987, Starrcade was produced by Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the dominant promotion of the NWA, and aired on Thanksgiving Day. In 1987, the WWF scheduled a pay-per-view of their own, Survivor Series, on Thanksgiving night and demanded exclusivity from cable providers on carriage of the event. In order to prevent such a problem, Starrcade was moved to December the following year and the show was held around Christmas Day, mostly in the days following, beginning in 1988.
Also in 1988, JCP was sold to Turner Broadcasting due to financial problems and became WCW, though Starrcade was held under the NWA banner until 1990.[1][2]
From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was tradition for JCP to hold major professional wrestling events on Thanksgiving and Christmas, mostly at Greensboro Coliseum. In 1983, JCP created Starrcade as their supercard to continue the Thanksgiving tradition, and spread it across its territory on closed-circuit television.[3] It popularized broadcasting on closed-circuit television and was financially successful. From 1987, Starrcade was broadcast on pay-per-view, the first NWA event to do so.[4]
Starrcade was held for the final time as a WCW event in 2000: the promotion would be acquired by the World Wrestling Federation in 2001, and the brand would become dormant. In 2017, WWE revived the Starrcade brand for a SmackDown-branded non-televised house show on November 25, 2017. The following year, Starrcade began to be held as a WWE Network special.
Dates, venues, and main events
| SmackDown-branded event |
| Event | Date | City | Venue | Main event | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Wrestling Alliance/Jim Crockett Promotions | |||||
| Starrcade '83: A Flair for the Gold | November 24, 1983 | Greensboro, North Carolina | Greensboro Coliseum | Harley Race (c) vs. Ric Flair in a steel cage match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship with special guest referee Gene Kiniski | |
| Starrcade '84: The Million Dollar Challenge | November 22, 1984 | Greensboro, North Carolina | Greensboro Coliseum | Ric Flair (c) vs. Dusty Rhodes for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship with special guest referee Joe Frazier | |
| Starrcade '85: The Gathering | November 28, 1985 | Greensboro, North Carolina | Greensboro Coliseum | Ric Flair (c) vs. Dusty Rhodes for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship | |
| Atlanta, Georgia | The Omni | ||||
| Starrcade '86: Night of the Skywalkers | November 27, 1986 | Greensboro, North Carolina | Greensboro Coliseum | Ric Flair (c) vs. Nikita Koloff for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship | |
| Atlanta, Georgia | The Omni | ||||
| Starrcade '87: Chi-Town Heat | November 26, 1987 | Chicago, Illinois | UIC Pavilion | Ron Garvin (c) vs. Ric Flair in a steel cage match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship | |
| National Wrestling Alliance/World Championship Wrestling | |||||
| Starrcade '88: True Gritt | December 26, 1988 | Norfolk, Virginia | Norfolk Scope | Ric Flair (c) vs. Lex Luger for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship | |
| Starrcade '89: Future Shock | December 13, 1989 | Atlanta, Georgia | The Omni | Ric Flair vs. Sting | |
| Starrcade '90: Collision Course | December 16, 1990 | St. Louis, Missouri | Kiel Auditorium | Sting (c) vs. The Black Scorpion for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship with special guest referee Dick the Bruiser | |
| World Championship Wrestling | |||||
| Starrcade '91: Battlebowl/The Lethal Lottery | December 29, 1991 | Norfolk, Virginia | Norfolk Scope | Battlebowl | |
| Starrcade '92: BattleBowl/The Lethal Lottery II | December 28, 1992 | Atlanta, Georgia | The Omni | Battlebowl | |
| Starrcade '93: 10th Anniversary | December 27, 1993 | Charlotte, North Carolina | Independence Arena | Vader (c) vs. Ric Flair in a Title vs. Career match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship | |
| Starrcade '94: Triple Threat | December 27, 1994 | Nashville, Tennessee | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Butcher for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship | |
| Starrcade '95: World Cup of Wrestling | December 27, 1995 | Nashville, Tennessee | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | Ric Flair (c) vs. Randy Savage for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship | |
| Starrcade '96 | December 29, 1996 | Nashville, Tennessee | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper | |
| Starrcade '97 | December 28, 1997 | Washington, D.C. | MCI Center | Hollywood Hogan (c) vs. Sting for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship | |
| Starrcade '98 | December 27, 1998 | Washington, D.C. | MCI Center | Goldberg (c) vs. Kevin Nash in a no disqualification match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship | |
| Starrcade '99 | December 19, 1999 | Washington, D.C. | MCI Center | Bret Hart (c) vs. Goldberg in a no disqualification match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship | |
| Starrcade 2000 | December 17, 2000 | Washington, D.C. | MCI Center | Scott Steiner (c) vs. Sid Vicious for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship | |
| WWE | |||||
| Starrcade 2017 | November 25, 2017 | Greensboro, North Carolina | Greensboro Coliseum | AJ Styles (c) vs. Jinder Mahal in a steel cage match for the WWE Championship[5] | |
| Starrcade 2018 | November 24, 2018 | Cincinnati, Ohio | U.S. Bank Arena | AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe in a steel cage match | |
| Starrcade 2019 | December 1, 2019[6] | Duluth, Georgia | Infinite Energy Center | Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens | |
(c) – refers to the champion prior to the match | |||||
2017
| Starrcade (2017) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Promotion | WWE | ||
| Brand(s) | SmackDown | ||
| Date | November 25, 2017 | ||
| City | Greensboro, North Carolina | ||
| Venue | Greensboro Coliseum Complex | ||
| Attendance | 10,234 | ||
| Tagline(s) | Starrcade Returns | ||
| Starrcade chronology | |||
| |||
Starrcade (2017) was a professional wrestling special house show event promoted by WWE for the SmackDown brand. It took place on November 25, 2017, at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina.[5][7] It was the nineteenth event under the Starrcade chronology, the first under WWE, and the first Starrcade event in seventeen years. It was also the first Starrcade event not to be televised in any way and the first to be held in the Greensboro Coliseum since 1985. The event featured appearances by Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ricky Steamboat, The Rock 'n' Roll Express and The Hardy Boyz.
References
- Molinaro, John (1999-12-17). "Starrcade, the original "super card"". SLAM! Sports. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
- Meltzer, Dave (November 27, 2003). "Thursday news update: It was 20 years ago today..." Wrestling Observer. Archived from the original on August 10, 2007. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
- "Flair defeats Race for wrestling title". Greensboro Daily News. 1983-11-25. p. D3. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
- Hoops, Brian (2007-12-18). "Specialist – 20 Years Ago: Detailed look back at Starrcade '87 with Flair vs. Garvin". PWTorch. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
- "Starrcade returns to Greensboro this November". WWE. September 18, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
- "Starrcade returns to WWE Network Dec. 1". WWE. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
- "WWE Live presents STARRCADE". Greensboro Coliseum Complex. September 18, 2017. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2017.