Jan 1, 202017 min read

Nerd Watch Wednesday: NWA Starrcade 1983

Updated: Jun 3, 2020

It's been a bit of a mad week what with Christmas, New Year and generally not knowing what day it is, so it is little surpise that some of the nerds didn't remember to write their review!

I attempted to do mine via the Network today across three devices and each time was unable to actually load the content. Quality update, that.

Matt Connolly is a huge NWA nerd and he rightly takes us back to 1983 for the epic that was Starrcade 1983. Let's get to the gold...

BUGSY MCGRAW & RUFUS R JONES v THE ASSASSINS

By Ross Casey

So I sat myself down to watch this match on the WWE Network today and I got the sorry could not load content message. So yeah, dunno if this was good or not because the thing I pay monthly for doesn't work.

My team also lost 4-0 at home. Happy fucking new year.

WINNERS - BRENTFORD

JOHNNY WEAVER & SCOTT MCGHEE v KEVIN SULLIVAN & MARK LEWIN

By RJF

So here we are, no entrances, all men in the ring to be introduced. 45 minute time limit, not going to lie, I’m praying for there not to be a time limit draw here! Johnny Weaver and Scott McGhee introduced first, followed by Kevin Sullivan and Mark Lewin accompanied by his manager Gary Hart. Boo’s ring out for Sullivan and Lewin.

McGhee and Sullivan kick things off with some fast offence before Lewin tags in and out pretty quickly. Weaver now tags in. A lot of head locks to start this off. Lewin back in now with Weaver, some arm twisting before Weaver before McGhee tags in. McGhee gets some offence in to a chorus of cheers from the crowd.

Great match this if you are into arm twists, pretty sure it’s the only move I’ve seen so far... they also like to tag in and out after about 30 seconds. Lewin works over McGhee, stretching out... you guessed it’d the arms! Lewin and Sullivan continue to tag in and out and work over McGhee, McGhee thought he had the tag, but no! The ref disallows it because Weaver was reaching between the middle ropes, not over the top.

McGhee is wearing down, but finally gets the hot tag. Weaver runs wild beating down both the opposition, hits a running bulldog on Sullivan but Lewin breaks the tag before coming back in. Not sure what planet the commentators are on, they are talking about how these men have nearly worked a full quarter in a professional football match, pretty sure we are only 6 minutes in... it does feel like 15 though to be fair.

The ref is distracted by McGhee trying to help his partner as Lewin gets the upper hand. Lewin then hits an axe handle from the top as Sullivan holds... you guessed it, the arm!

Lewin covers Weaver, 1.... 2.... 3... and just like that, with no real excitement, this ones over. All sorts of shenanigans in the ring as Lewin and Sullivan just start stabbing people with what looks like a knife under the instruction of Hart. McGhee is bleeding a lot from the head which had been sliced open. Just weird really.

WINNERS - KEVIN SULLIVAN & MARK LEWIN BY UNEXCITING PIN

ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER v CARLOS COLON

By Matt Brummitt

I usually like to kick off my NWW reviews with an introduction on the participants, in case any readers aren’t familiar with them. So here’s a few fun facts about WWE Hall of Famer Carlos Colón:

1) He’s run Puerto Rico’s biggest wrestling promotion for nearly 50 years!

2) He’s the father of both Carlito & Primo!

3) In 1988, some claim he covered up the death of Bruiser Brody for financial gain, and then went on to promote Brody’s murderer (Jose “Invader I” Gonzalez) for over 25 years after the incident, even putting the company’s main title on him 8 times, and portraying him as a face only months after Brody’s death.

Apologies Ross if one of these facts is libellous. I don’t have Primo’s birth certificate.

On the other side of the ring tonight, we have another WWE Hall of Famer, Abdullah The Butcher. It’s hard to really sum up Abby’s 60-year career in a paragraph. The fork wielding, faux-Sudanese King of the Bladejob is one of those characters whose existence is hard to predict or imagine outside the batshit world of professional wrestling. I’ll leave it at that.

As for tonight’s match, it’s not a one off. Abby & Carlos had a 25 year long feud, starting in 1979, and finishing (we hope) in 2004. In terms of sharing a ring together, it actually goes to nearly 30 years, as Carlos special guest refereed an Abby match as recently as 2008. As feuds go, it’s not one for the technical wrestling aficionado.

The ring announcer says this has a 60 minute time limit. I strongly doubt it will get that far. The storyline behind this particular Abby-Carlos match is that it was banned in Puerto Rico so Carlos came to the mainland US to challenge Abby.

Things start off with a lockup & Abby gets an early cheap shot in. He follows up with some punches & headbutts. Carlos gets a rogue shot in but it’s all Abby. An elbow drop on Carlos gets a 2 count. More domination from Abby until Carlos gets a few more shots in. Crowd are starting to stir.

Carlos nicks something off Abby (is that an icepick?!) and starts stabbing him in the head! That escalated quickly. The ref somehow misses this & Carlos hides it in his trunks. Carlos continues punching him in the head & Abby starts bleeding (quelle surprise). Carlos is now biting Abby’s bleeding head in a terrible advert for hepatitis prevention. The crowd love it.

Carlos gets his icepick thing back out and starts stabbing Abby in the head more. The referee is watching all of this & just admonishes Carlos. Maybe in 80s NWA, the referee allows the first 50 head stabs but then gives you a warning. Carlos is now stabbing Abby in the mouth. I’m not making any of this shit up.

The referee separates them but doesn’t take the weapon away! I’m sure I didn’t miss any funky stipulation. Carlos still on top but goes back to punches and kicks. He hits consecutive leg and elbow drops and goes for a pin. Abby kicks out at 2 and in the process throws Carlos onto the ref. Abby goes to elbow drop Carlos but he moves & he elbow drops the ref instead.

Whilst the ref is down, Carlos hits a dropkick and starts working Abby’s knee. He applies a figure four but then Abby’s manager, Hugo Savinovich comes in and twats Carlos with something. The ref wakes up and Abby covers Carlos for the 3.

Summary: That was a strange match. Lots of punching and kicking and a referee just watching Carlos openly stab Abby. Was there really any point in the ref bump if he’s willing to allow that anyway?

WINNER - ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER BY PINFALL WITH HELP FROM HIS MATE HUGO

BOB ORTON JR & DICK SLATER v MARK YOUNGBLOOD & WAHOO MCDANIEL

By Nineties Mike

First up, a big happy new year to all you wrestling nerds reading this, hope you have a greatone!

Also, thanks to Matt C for choosing this little piece of history, especially as I think I’m one of the few in the Nerd group that was alive when this took place…?

I’m not going to pretend I know a great deal about the competitions in this one, except that they are all names I’ve heard before. First up, we have Mark Youngblood, who is the son of Ricky Romero; he often tagged with his brother Jay, and formed a tag team with his younger brother Chris following Jay's death before retiring in 1999.

His partner is Wahoo McDaniel, previously an NFL star at Houston, Miami, New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins, he started off wrestling in the off season! He wrestled for Vince McMahon Sr in the WWWF in 1965, before moving onto Houston territories, the AWA, and the Mid-Atlantic for his biggest feud against Johnny Valentine before trading the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship with Ric Flair over the course of 1975-1977.

Johnny Valentine’s son, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine joined with Flair and entered into a feud with Wahoo after his father was forced to retire, breaking Wahoo’s leg at a TV taping. He wrestled all over after this in Florida, Georgia and even Japan leading up to tonight’s event.

The first of their opponents was “Dirty” Dick Slater, trained by Hiro Matsuda and Eddie Graham, who worked his way through the territories in Georgia, Mid-Atlantic, Mid-South, the WWF, AJPW, the AWA and finally WCW. He won titles wherever he went, including the NWA TV title twice, though never in the WWF or WCW.

His partner, “Cowboy” Bob Orton Jr is the son, father and brother of wrestling royalty. He was also trained by Matsuda and Graham, along with Jack Brisco, and was the first wrestler to use the superplex as his finisher. He became Cowboy during his first stint in the NWA around 1980. In 1981 he went off to compete in WWF, nearly winning the WWF title from Bob Backlund on his debut before returning to the NWA in 1983, which gets us all up to date…

The match is announced as having a 45-minute time limit. Slater and Orton get the desired reaction from the fans and we’re left in the capable (?) hands of referee Tommy Young. The announcer tries to announce something but his mic cuts out, before he can announce Dusty Rhodes, but he isn’t shown on camera?! The bell rings, and Slater evades Wahoo until they lock up and Slater powers Wahoo into the corner. Chops traded and Wahoo has the upper hand, Irish-whipping Slater into the corner and he goes over the top for a little breather.

Wahoo again has the upper hand and tags in Youngblood to continue the momentum with a nice double-legdrop and a chop before beginning to work the arm. They cut away for a rather cool shot from the top of the iconic Greensboro Coliseum. Back to the action and Slater uses all his ring nous to evade a blow from Youngblood and turn into a pin for our first two-count and they stare off against each other. Traded wristlocks, with Youngblood on top, but Slater gets what Gordon Solie calls a “back-leg-pickup” sending Youngblood down, but he kicks Slater away and he nearly goes over the ropes and onto the floor.

Orton is furious and thinks they should be awarded the win, but Tommy Young is having none of it. Russian leg sweep from Slater and Orton is finally in this. Gorilla Press into a backbreaker from the Cowboy, before a snapmare takedown and just as he lines up the elbow drop, Youngblood moves and Orton hot-tails it to the outside. Youngblood chases him, and just as it looks like Orton has his number, Youngblood with a deep arm drag and the crowd goers mental as Orton begs off and tags Slater back in. Slater begs off and Orton’s back looks like it’s taken a battering.

There was no tag, so Orton and Youngblood lock up again. Criss-crossing on the ropes, and Orton blind tags Slater in and they hit him with a back-breaker/elbow-drop combo. The bad guys are in control now as Slater hits some punches and a gut-wrench suplex gets a two-count. Slater sends Youngblood to the outside and Orton continues the beatdown, with a backbreaker onto the guard rail finishing off the attack. Wahoo complains, but the ref, again, will hear none of it. Youngblood eventually battles back in, and his reward is a headbutt and kick to the head from Slater. He then locks Youngblood into a chin-lock, which sends the crowd crazy.

Youngblood battles out, and just as he looks like he may be back in this, Orton cuts him off with a huge boot and stomp to the face. Sleeper hold by Orton, and he tags in Dirty Dick to continue the onslaught with punches and a suplex for another two-count. He goes for a piledriver but Youngblood escapes with a backdrop. Rather than go for a tag he runs the ropes and collides with Slater and they’re both down.

A dazed Youngblood crawls towards Wahoo and the crowd again goes nuts. Orton tries to cut him off, but just succeeds in nudging him into the tag, Wahoo is in! And he means business, with chops for everyone before banging Orton and Slater’s heads together! Orton is whipped into the corner and hit with a suspiciously low-looking blow, and Slater is hit with a big atomic drop. Tomahawk chop from Wahoo and Orton is in trouble now, but just gets a two-count and then a foot on the rope.

Orton tags Slater in holds onto Wahoo’s legs for Slater to hit him with a big stomp to the face. The tide has turned again thanks to these wily veterans’ great ring awareness. Slater stomps away, but Wahoo works his way to his feet. Chops are traded until Wahoo hits a big double Tomahawk chop, and then Cowboy hits him from the outside and the ref has a quiet word in his ear.

Wahoo starts a beatdown, but is cut off with a backdrop and three times he escapes at the count of two. Slater hits him with his big double-legdrop. This is starting to drag now as all four men are clearly tired. Orton is tagged back and they hit a double-elbow and Orton hits another elbow and a knee for a two-count. Another tag and double-team, but Slater misses Wahoo and hits Orton instead! Is this the chance Wahoo needs to get Youngblood back into this?

McDaniel hits a knee-drop and Youngblood unloads on Slater in the corner before tagging in. Double-chops and the crowd lets them know how much they liked that! Orton attacks Wahoo from behind while Youngblood has his hands full with Slater, and Wahoo falls to the outside.

Blind tag to Orton and Youngblood has his hands full with these two. Dropkicks from Youngblood to Slater and Orton. Slater and McDaniel fight outside, Youngblood goes for the dropkick on Orton but Slater grabs Orton’s feet and helps him escape as Youngblood crashes and burns. Youngblood is set up and Orton hits a huge superplex. Wahoo tries to break up the pin, but he’s too late, Orton and Slater win!

Not satisfied with the win, they attack Wahoo’s arm before they’re ejected by the referees. Real concern for Wahoo McDaniel but we break away to a young Tony Schiavone interviewing Ric Flair ahead of his steel cage title match with Harley Race later in the night.

A couple of suplexes are the only real surprises here, with the majority of the action based around punches, kicks and headbutts; but the psychology of all 4 men keeps the crowd hooked and at fever pitch throughout. A solid mid-card tag match, not much to fault here. This gets a thumbs up.

WINNERS - BOB ORTON JR & DICK SLATER BY HUGE SUPERPLEX

NWA TELEVISION TITLE MATCH: THE GREAT KABUKI v CHARLIE BROWN

By Pete Hitchcock

KABUKI! SOMEONE TAKE THE DAMN MONEY!

R.I.P. Harley Race, while we're doing Starrcade. Hell of a wrestler and champion. What the fuck is this match. The mask and title are only on the line for the first 15 minutes out of a potential sixty? Dusty Rhodes, are you drunk?

Charlie Brown immediately gets offence and just continues to alternate between dicking on Kabuki and dancing around like he's L.A. Park. I'm expecting five other fat skeleton luchadors to show up. Brown now grabs a sleeper for about two minutes only two minutes in. This feels like an execution or something, but just weirder. The crowd are very into this Charlie Brown character, who may be Jimmy Valiant in a mask, possibly, but is also possibly AGENT 47 FROM HITMAN based on this match.

Kabuki fires back finally because in the 80s the babyfaces took everything and it was the heels scrabbling to get anything in (see: Flair, Ric). The already absolutely dreck new WWE Network which just does not work at all on my computer now dies and I have to flick over to my iPad. Why is this company so trash. Side note: really enjoy the scientific commentary from Caudle and Solie in this match. It would fit in perfectly in a baseball game or maybe even horse racing or something like that.

Kabuki with a top rope flying claw hold! It's ridiculous but sure, why not? Charlie Brown now firing back a little but Kabuki drives him back down to the canvas, but Brown is up if a little unsteady! Quite like the dizzy delayed collapse as gravity and vertigo catch up with Mr. Brown. Yet more claw. Oh, it's Gary Hart! I just wrote about him in the Thunderdome match!

Kabuki now goes for Brown's mask and I've got to say, this match isn't quite up to the 2016 and 2017 New Japan Rumbles as far as Great Kabuki classics go, let me just say. Finish comes out of nowhere as Kabuki goes for a dropkick on Brown in the corner but bounces back off the post with a cool bump for 1983 and Brown pins him with an elbow drop. Not a Savage top rope one, just an elbow drop.

OK then. I picked this match mostly because of Harley Race's promo just screaming Kabuki and to be honest I would have rather watched that again. But still, nice to be a part of history.

WINNER - NEW NWA TELEVISION CHAMPION, CHARLIE BROWN BY A NON TOP ROPE ELBOW DROP

DOG COLLAR MATCH: GREG VALENTINE v RODDY PIPER

By Shafi

Unfortuantely Shafi was one of the nerds who forgot to write his review this week, which is a shame as this is widely respected as one of Greg Valentine's greatest matches and I was looking forward to his argument that he is a better worker than Will Ospreay.

Alas, we will never know.

WINNER - WILL OSPREAY

NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: THE BRISCO BROTHERS (C) v JAY YOUNGBLOOD & RICKY STEAMBOAT

By Matt Connolly

Ok. So this week was my week to select what the Nerds get to watch and after a little deliberation I decided to go for Starrcade 1983. I've watched this show all the way through twice and if that doesn't put me in the mix for top Nerd I don't know what does.

We hadn't had anything from this era and I'm pretty sure it's the first PPV listed on the WWE network (I know it isn't actually a PPV but let's just call it that to save a history lesson.) I'm pulling double duty this week and my first offering is NWA Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers (Jack and Jerry, not those ROH boys) defending their titles against Jay Youngblood and Ricky Steamboat, yet to get his Dragon moniker from Vince.

For background the titles had switched between these teams in June earlier this very year so this was an opportunity for Blood and Boat to get them belts back. Now usually I would go through this match play by play and talking about the bits that stand out but this isn't too pretty. It's good for the time and the crowd eat up every strike like Stone Cold's glass just shattered but this match exists before the invention of the hot tag and to modern eyes it just kind of drifts along until the finish.

As good as these teams are tag wrestling really caught fire in the latter part of this decade. The Briscoes are just a couple of old shooters. Jack is very believable in his offence and Jerry is good but behind his brother in my opinion. He would be the one laughing 15 years later when he was playing a stooge and earning that coin for it. Youngblood is a very capable hand too but I just want to go wax lyrical about Ricky Steamboat. He's just fantastic even here.

Firstly, has there ever been a more pure babyface than Steamboat? I mean he is a bit of a charisma vacuum on the mic but for this time he is streets ahead of anything else on offer. He's absolutely beautiful aswell. Bet he was face down in pun every city they toured. It's crazy to me that Vince looked at that guy and went he needs a Dragon. I mean, that's the genius of Vince I guess. I haven't even talked about his wrestling ability. He wrestles smoothly with those legendary arm drags of course a highlight and he manages to make his crappy Karate stuff look okay here.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer the menacing Karate based stuff Kabuki is handing out but Steamboat manages to make his offence fun as opposed to scary. The finish is crap. After taking a beating most of the match Steamboat takes control. Tags in Youngblood and Steamboat body presses his partner on Jerry for the win.

It's out of nowhere and in comparison to today looks awful. The crowd don't care though. They eat this up and celebrate. The Briscoes try and get their heat back but the babyfaces run them off. The credits roll before our main event which is bizarre but I guess they were still working this stuff out. I had fun here but as for recomending it? I'm not that brave.

WINNERS - NEW NWA TAG CHAMPIONS, RICKY STEAMBOAT & JAY YOUNGBLOOD BY BODY PRESS

NWA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE CAGE MATCH: HARLEY RACE (C) v RIC FLAIR

By Matt Connolly

And so on to our Main Event. NWA Heavyweight Champion Harley Race defending the Gold against at this point former two time champion Ric Flair inside a Steel Cage. Harley is in his 7th run with the strap at this point. The Pay Per View Sub Title is 'A Flair for the Gold' so possible spoilers there. A little history on this one.

The legend is that Flair's title runs hadn't drawn as much as the NWA would have liked and so Race lobbied to get the belt put back on himself. Flair's run features all sorts of unrecognized title changes but the official change was done June prior to this event. Also, Flair won his first title from Dusty Rhodes so I presume he was a Heel when he won the belt. He's definately the hero we deserve by this point though.

The back story to this particular match is dope. After Race took the belt from Flair he placed a bounty of $25000 on Flair's head and this peaked the interest of Bob Orton and Dick Slater, who hit an assisted Piledriver to Flair thus taking him out of action for what seemed forever. Flair even cut a retirement speech.

However, he makes a miraculous recovery and is able to return here which begs the question over whether Orton/Slater really did enough to secure that bag? Something I would like to add about the whole show is it is all built to this moment. Commentary beat you over the head with the fact this match is coming up from match one and lots of the interviews are centered solely around this match. It's a smart way of booking that would be much harder to achieve in todays product. Playing into the fact that the show is treated like a one match card, these are the only two wrestlers who get an entrance to the ring.

Before the match we get a Fat Man singing the Star Spangled banner in the dark. It goes on for what seems an eternity. In theory I am pro a national anthem being played before a wrestling match to help hype up the importance of the contest but in practice this plays woefully. So things I like about this match. I love the commentary here. Solley is a delight and talks up the sporting elements of the contest. He mentions the one hour time limit and says how this is more intense than other sports such as American Football because they don't get to take a break. It helps add to the sporting edge it is trying to present.

Whilst WWF would go toward entertainment and celebrity involvment the NWA would try to veer the opposite and offer legit tough men as opposed to gimmicks. Although history is against them I think it's smart to attempt to offer something different to your competition. I love the psychology here too. The whole story is how Race has tried to bust Falir's neck so in the pre match interview he lays out his gameplan. Attack the neck. Simple stuff and throughout the match he attempts a variety of holds and strikes to the neck. It's basic storytelling but it's something this era holds over the current product in many ways ( I realise I sound a bit too Cornette here.)

I love how the Special guest ref is Gene Kinisky. For those who don't know Kinisky was a former NWA champ in the late 60's. It means that you have The Past, The Present and The Future of the Championship in the ring and that to me is pretty neat. He also referee's this thing in a unique way. I'm not sure if this was the norm for Cage matches of this era but he refuses to let the wrestlers utilize the cage.

Now at points they manage to use it but he makes the fans yearn for their fill of extreme violence. He really doesn't let them breath but it's frustrating in the best way as when the claret inevitably appears it feels earned. Final plus point, the cage has a purpose. Cage matches now are just used because a feud needs a conclusion.

Also the introduction of Hell In A Cell has kind of made it feel unnessesary. Here the purpose is to stop all the shenanigans. Just two men and a ref to see who is the best. With so many moving pieces to this feud it feels right that they would want to shut that all out and just let these men sort out their business.

Flair wins. Not with his now infamous Figure Four and we don't get a whole lot of woo-ing either. All that would come in the mid eighties. I'd still say watch this though. If only to get a flavour for how wrestling was, for better or for worse.

WINNER - NEW NWA WORLD CHAMPION RIC FLAIR BY NOT THE FIGURE FOUR