Starrcade

Starrcade was a recurring professional wrestling event, originally broadcast via closed-circuit television and eventually broadcast via pay-per-view. It was originally held from 1983 to 2000, first by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) from 1983 to 1990, with the 1983–1987 events specifically held by Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) under the NWA, and then held by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1988 to 2000.

Starrcade
The official WWE Starrcade 2017 logo
WWE Starrcade logo
Created byDusty Rhodes
PromotionsNWA (Governing body)
(1983–1990)
JCP
(1983–1987)
WCW
(1988–2000)
WWE
(2017–2019)
BrandsRaw
(2018–2019)
SmackDown
(2017–2019)
First event1983
Last event2019

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 (WWF), regarded WrestleMania. As a result, the buildup to each Starrcade featured the largest feuds of the promotion. In 2001, the WWF acquired WCW, and the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002.

WWE revived the event in 2017 as a house show with portions of the events in 2018 and 2019 airing as WWE Network specials. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an event was not held in 2020 and no further events have been scheduled.

History

From 1983 to 1987, Starrcade was produced by the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the dominant promotion of the NWA, and aired on Thanksgiving Day. In 1987, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) scheduled a pay-per-view (PPV) 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 World Championship Wrestling (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 PPV, 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 WWF in 2001, and the brand would become dormant.[5] In 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (with its "WWE" abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism in 2011).[6][7] In 2017, WWE revived Starrcade for a SmackDown-branded non-televised house show on November 25, 2017.[8] The following year, WWE's Starrcade house shows began to be held as WWE Network specials and featured both the Raw and SmackDown brands.[9][10] An event did not occur in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented WWE from holding shows outside of its normal weekly television programming and PPVs.[11] WWE resumed live touring in July 2021, but a Starrcade event was not scheduled for that year.[12]

Events

WCW/nWo co-branded event SmackDown-branded event
# Event Date City Venue Main Event Ref.
National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions
1 Starrcade '83: A Flare 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 Gene Kiniski as the special guest referee
2 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 Joe Frazier as the special guest referee
3 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
4 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
5 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
6 Starrcade '88: True Gritt December 26, 1988 Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk Scope Ric Flair (c) vs. Lex Luger for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
7 Starrcade '89: Future Shock December 13, 1989 Atlanta, Georgia The Omni Iron Man tournament - final: Ric Flair vs. Sting
8 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 Dick the Bruiser as the special guest referee
World Championship Wrestling (WCW)
9 Starrcade '91: Battlebowl – The Lethal Lottery December 29, 1991 Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk Scope Battlebowl
10 Starrcade '92: Battlebowl – The Lethal Lottery II December 28, 1992 Atlanta, Georgia The Omni Battlebowl
11 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
12 Starrcade '94: Triple Threat December 27, 1994 Nashville, Tennessee Nashville Municipal Auditorium Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Butcher for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
13 Starrcade '95: World Cup of Wrestling December 27, 1995 Nashville, Tennessee Nashville Municipal Auditorium Randy Savage (c) vs. Ric Flair for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
14 Starrcade '96 December 29, 1996 Nashville, Tennessee Nashville Municipal Auditorium Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper
15 Starrcade '97 December 28, 1997 Washington, D.C. MCI Center Hollywood Hogan (c) vs. Sting for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
16 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
17 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
18 Starrcade 2000 December 17, 2000 Washington, D.C. MCI Center Scott Steiner (c) vs. Sid Vicious for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
WWE
19 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 [8]
20 Starrcade 2018 November 24, 2018 Cincinnati, Ohio U.S. Bank Arena AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe in a steel cage match
21 Starrcade 2019 December 1, 2019 Duluth, Georgia Infinite Energy Center Kevin Owens vs. Bobby Lashley [13]
22 Starcade 2023 December 23, 2023 TBA TBA
(c) – refers to the champion(s) going into the match

2017

Starrcade
PromotionWWE
Brand(s)SmackDown
DateNovember 25, 2017
CityGreensboro, North Carolina
VenueGreensboro Coliseum Complex
Attendance10,234
Tagline(s)Starrcade Returns
Starrcade chronology
 Previous
2000
Next 
2018

The 2017 Starrcade was the 19th Starrcade professional wrestling event. It was the first Starrcade promoted by WWE and was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's SmackDown brand division as a non-televised house show. It took place on November 25, 2017, at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina.[8][14] It was 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.

No.ResultsStipulations
1DBobby Roode defeated Dolph ZigglerSingles match with Arn Anderson as special outside enforcer[8]
2DMike Kanellis, Rusev (with Aiden English), The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan), and The Colóns (Primo and Epico) defeated Sin Cara, Tye Dillinger, Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango), and The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor)Twelve-man tag team match
3DNaomi defeated Tamina (with Lana)Singles match
4DDustin Rhodes defeated Dash WilderSingles match[8]
5DShinsuke Nakamura defeated Baron Corbin (c) by disqualificationSingles match for the WWE United States Championship[8]
6DThe Usos (Jimmy and Jey) (c) defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) (with Big E), Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin, and Kevin Owens and Sami ZaynFatal 4-Way match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship[8]
7DCharlotte Flair (c) defeated Natalya by submissionSteel Cage match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship[8]
8DAJ Styles (c) defeated Jinder Mahal (with The Singh Brothers) by escaping the cageSteel Cage match for the WWE Championship[8]
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match
D – this was a dark match

References

  1. Molinaro, John (December 17, 1999). "Starrcade, the original "super card"". SLAM! Sports. Archived from the original on February 6, 2015. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
  2. 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.
  3. "Flair defeats Race for wrestling title". Greensboro Daily News. November 25, 1983. p. D3. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
  4. Hoops, Brian (December 18, 2007). "Specialist – 20 Years Ago: Detailed look back at Starrcade '87 with Flair vs. Garvin". PWTorch. Retrieved May 24, 2008.
  5. "WWE Entertainment, Inc. Acquires WCW from Turner Broadcasting". March 23, 2001. Archived from the original on March 13, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  6. "World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Drops The "F" To Emphasize the "E" for Entertainment". WWE. Archived from the original on January 19, 2009. Retrieved August 28, 2008.
  7. Sacco, Justine; Weitz, Michael (April 7, 2011). "The New WWE" (Press release). Connecticut: WWE. Retrieved November 25, 2021.
  8. "Starrcade returns to Greensboro this November". WWE. September 18, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
  9. Joseph Currier (November 16, 2018). "ONE-HOUR STARRCADE 2018 SPECIAL LISTED ON WWE NETWORK SCHEDULE". Wrestling Observer. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  10. "Starrcade returns to WWE Network Dec. 1". WWE. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
  11. Mohan, Sai (November 13, 2020). "Backstage News On WWE Moving On From House Shows Post COVID-19 Era". Wrestling Inc. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  12. Brookouse, Brent (October 20, 2021). "WWE schedule, list of PPVs for 2021: Crown Jewel date, location, start time, watch live". CBSSports. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
  13. "Starrcade returns to WWE Network Dec. 1". WWE. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
  14. "WWE Live presents STARRCADE". Greensboro Coliseum Complex. September 18, 2017. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
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