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The original Starrcade was such a success that they did it again the following year, and so we got Starrcade 1984: The Million Dollar Challenge, so named because the winning purse for the main event was set at one million dollars, in storylines, at least. Much like Wrestlemania 2, the second edition of Starrcade had the name value to build on, but didn’t quite live up to the standard set by the first show.
The Undercard
Starrcade 84 opened as Mike Davis defended the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title against Denny Brown. This was a pretty nondescript match between two guys I had never heard of, and they finished with the German Suplex spot where one guy suplexes the other and bridges, but the guy who took the move gets his shoulder up and the guy who executed the move ends up getting pinned. In this case, Denny got the shoulder up and won the World Junior Title.
The second match pitted Mr Ito against Brian Adidis, who you might remember better as Brian Adias, a guy who made a career as an underneath guy in Dallas. Ito was a stereotypical evil Japanese wrestler who was nowhere as good as some others you may have seen. This was a short match which mostly saw Adidis work over Ito’s arm before catching him in an airplane spin and dumping him for the win, which is one of maybe two or three times I’ve ever seen that used as a finish.
Next, Jesse Barr defended the Florida State Title against Mike Graham, son of legendary Florida promoter Eddie Graham, who was never very exciting to watch even though he was technically sound and was sporting a Magnum PI mustache. Barr was the older brother of Art Barr, who formed a team called Los Gringos Locos with a guy you may have heard of by the name of Eddy Guerrero, and also the son of promoter Sandy Barr. Jesse would end up going on to semi-fame in the WWF and later Dallas as Jimmy Jack Funk, but never did much more of note afterward. Jesse overpowered him with Greco-Roman knuckle locks and headlocks for much of the match, liberally using the ropes and Graham’s hair (though not his mustache) to his advantage. Graham made a comeback late in the match, hitting a really wicked fireman’s carry takeover, then getting a small package, sunset flip, and an inverted sunset rollup all in succession, but Barr cradled him with his feet on the ropes to score the cheap win and retain the title.
That was followed by an elimination tag match pitting Buzz Tyler and the Masked Assassin against the Zambuie Express. The Zambuies were not those big machines that clean the ice at the skating rink, but were actually two largely immobile, big fat black guys in baggy body suits (think a pair of mini-Mabels), while Buzz Tyler was another dancing guy, and I assume that this Assassin was Jody Hamilton since he was getting a bit on the chunky side. All joking aside, the match sucked, but was mercifully kept short as Tyler and one of the Zambuies (I have no idea which) got counted out, then Assassin came off the ropes with a shoulderblock and pinned the other one. Right.
Next, Black Bart defended the Brass Knucks Title against “The Raging Bull†Manny Fernandez. For those who have never heard of a Brass Knucks Title, this was something that several territories in the south would have back in these days and the rules slightly varied from territory to territory, but the one common theme was that they were No DQ rules, so it’s kind of like an early Hardcore Title without being quite as cartoonish. Manny Fernandez was one half of the World Tag Team Champions with Dusty Rhodes at this point, but since Dusty was challenging for the World Title in the main event, the World Tag Team Title was not defended, which was a curious move since Crockett was known for running a tag team territory. This was a good, old fashioned southern brawl with both guys pounding the crap out of each other, and both bled, but when Bart had his manager JJ Dillon throw him his rope (which he would no doubt use for nefarious means), Manny got an inverted sunset rollup to pick up the win and the Brass Knucks Title.
But now we move back to the ridiculous, as we move on to a Tuxedo Street Fight between Jimmy “Boogie Woogie Man†Valiant and Paul Jones, with the loser having to leave the NWA. Both men came to the ring with seconds in their respective corners, as Jones had one of the Zambuie Express with him (again, I have no idea which and they did tell me on commentary, but I can’t be bothered to go back and check), while Valiant had the FatAssassin in his corner. I realized that Paul Jones looks an awful lot like Patrick Troughton, and big points to anyone who knows who Patrick Troughton even is. These two had been feuding forever, I forget over what, but this is the latest encounter between the two, and Valiant nearly stripped Jones all the way down, but Jones still had shoes on. Jones did a bladejob, and I’m not even sure what was done to him that would have caused the blood, but in the end the ref got bumped and JJ Dillon ran in and knocked Valiant out with a foreign object, allowing Jones to get the win.
The next match on this increasingly monotonous show featured Ron Bass defending the Mid Atlantic Title against Dick Slater. I don’t know what history there was here, if any, but they had a really boring brawl for what seemed like eight or nine centuries before Slater got disqualified for tossing the ref when he tried to break Slater out of the corner. What a jerk.
American xenophobia reigned supreme in our next match, as Ivan & Nikita Koloff took on the all-American team of Ole Anderson & Keith Larson, with Don Kernodle in their corner. Kernodle, who had been attacked by the Russians, was apparently Larson’s brother even though Kernodle appeared to be like 80 years older than Larson. Good thing we’re wrestling fans who will believe anything. I always love watching Ole Anderson wrestle, it’s great the way he methodically, physically dissects his opponents, even though he doesn’t quite work as a babyface for me. For some reason, Ole wound up as the face in peril in this match, but eventually made the hot tag to Larson, who looked kind of like Ric Flair and Terry Taylor’s 15 year old love child. Anyway, Ole wound up brawling to the floor with Nikita after Nikita attacked Don Kernodle, and the distraction allowed Ivan to sock Larson with the chain and pick up the win.
Next up was a match which sounded like it could be pretty good, as Tully Blanchard put the World TV Title on the line against Ricky Steamboat. As an added incentive in this match, both men had put up ten grand of their own money, so whoever won here would not only get the TV Title but would also be $20,000 richer. On top of that, Blanchard would lose the title on a DQ, and Blanchard would be disqualified if he were determined to be running from Steamboat. Obviously with all this, the odds would seem to be heavily against Blanchard, but Tully paid the Long Riders to attack Steamboat and injure his ribs to make Tully’s life a little easier once Starrcade came around.
Quick side digression: this match is good evidence that the theory about WWE’s titles not meaning anything because there’s so many of them is total crap, because there were about a zillion titles floating around the NWA at this point, yet here you had two of the top guys in the company putting huge amounts of money on the line because the damn TV Title meant so much to them. I think anybody who thinks that CM Punk getting “demoted†to the Intercontinental Title is a bad thing is shortsighted, because if booked properly, that IC Title could end up meaning as much or more than the World Titles.
Anyway, this was a slow, methodical match with Tully working over Steamboat’s injured ribs early on, but Steamboat made a brief comeback before Blanchard did the Lawler gimmick where Steamboat tried to give Tully a belly-to-back suplex from the apron into the ring, but Tully pulled a foreign object out of his tights and used it to nail Steamboat. That didn’t get the win, but a few minutes later Steamboat went for a sunset flip and Tully again nailed him with the object and that knocked Steamboat out long enough for Tully to cover him for the win. I felt disappointed in this one, like it could have been better because of who was in the match, but unfortunately it just didn’t click this time out.
Our semi-main event featured Wahoo McDaniel defending the US Title against Superstar Billy Graham. This was well after Graham’s run as a main eventer in the WWWF, but still a couple of years before his body broke down and he was forced into retirement. At this point, Graham was working a karate gimmick where he obviously didn’t know any more karate than your average coyote, but came out in the karate pants with nunchakus and a headband and that was apparently good enough for everybody. The match was all of about four minutes long, most of which saw Wahoo pound the crap out of Graham, and Superstar briefly came back and locked Wahoo in a full nelson a couple of times, but Wahoo caught him with a double chop off the ropes for the win.
The Main Event
All this leads into the one match that could save the show, as Ric Flair defended the NWA World Title against former champion Dusty Rhodes in the Million Dollar Challenge for which the show was named, as the winning purse for this match would be one million dollars. No, not really, though it was at least promoted as the largest purse in wrestling history, for which I would have to imagine it would have been. This match had a bit of history behind it, as Flair had defeated Rhodes in 1981 to win his first World Championship, and the previous year at Starrcade 83, Rhodes was in the crowd and challenged the winner of Flair-Race, and that big match finally happened here, and boxing great Joe Frazier was named the special guest referee for the bout.
Like most of their matches, Dusty physically dominated Flair, and Flair would make brief comebacks, but would be unable to maintain control for any length of time. Dusty started the match by working over Flair’s leg, and even caught him in the figure four. Finally, Flair rammed Dusty into the ringpost on the floor and busted Dusty open bigtime. Once Dusty started bleeding, Flair tore into the wound like a shark, and Dusty came back pretty soon and continued to beat Flair up, but Dusty ended up bleeding badly enough that Frazier stepped in and stopped the match, awarding Flair the win. Dusty had totally dominated Flair and would probably have won the World Title, but a freak injury ended up costing him the match, the title, and the million bucks.
Postmatch, announcers Gordon Solie and Bob Caudle played up that an injury like the one Dusty had suffered becomes more of a factor in boxing than it would in wrestling, and being from the world of boxing himself, Joe Frazier may have jumped the gun in calling a stop to the match due to blood. They did a great job building up a scenario where Dusty should have won the title, but ended up getting screwed, and even went so far as to have Dusty cut a very heated promo backstage after the match where he went off on what he perceived to be a bad call and actually threatened to go after Joe Frazier. Unlike a lot of screwjob finishes we see these days where the finish just makes people groan because it’s been done to death, this was a great finish because it built interest in Dusty continuing to pursue Ric Flair and the NWA Title.
Final Analysis
Despite a good main event with a great finish, I can’t really recommend much of anything on this show. Most of the matches stunk, and Tully Blanchard and Ricky Steamboat had an uncharacteristically bad outing. Thankfully, things would improve the next year, but this was as underwhelming a show as they come. Recommendation to avoid.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all when I get back with the 1985 edition of Starrcade. Until then, all feedback can be sent to stupwinsider@yahoo.com, and you can also find me on Myspace at www.myspace.com/stupwinsider, where I check in every few days with my short thoughts on stuff that doesn’t quite merit its own column, as well as all my past columns. Take care, and I’ll see you all soon!
