Mike Rickard
GREAT MOMENTS IN WRESTLING: A FLAIR FOR THE GOLD!
By Mike Rickard II
Sep 11, 2006 - 6:59 AM

The night (11/24/83) Ric Flair defeated Harley Race to become NWA World Champion a second time was a great moment in wrestling on many levels but the journey there was equally great.  Last week we examined the events leading up to Flair’s second title win.  This week we’ll examine the match itself as well as the event it headlined-STARCADE.

While Starcade is often referred to as wrestling’s first pay-per-view (PPV), this was definitely not the case.  Long before Starcade, promoters had toyed with the concept of running wrestling shows on closed circuit television for those who could not attend a live show.  During the 1970’s Vince McMahon Jr. dabbled in PPV with the famous (some would say infamous) card headlined by legendary boxer Muhammad Ali taking on Japanese wrestling superstar Antonio Inoki.  Later on, the big card at Shea’s Stadium headlined by the cage match between Larry Zbyszko and Bruno Sammartino was broadcast on closed circuit television.

Starcade began after Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (MACW) promoter Jim Crockett Jr. ran a wildly successful house show at the Greensboro Coliseum in spring of 1983.  Headlined by a steel cage match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship between the teams of Sgt. Slaughter/Don Kernodle (the champions) and Ricky Steamboat/Jay Youngblood, the show sold out with over 6,000 fans being turned away at the door (The show was so popular that Slaughter and Kernodle almost missed getting there due to bumper to bumper traffic on the way the arena).  Sensing that the demand for his product was even greater than he imagined, Crockett decided to try his hand at running a closed circuit event.  He couldn’t have picked a better match to headline his first PPV outing. Ric Flair was the without question the fans’ darling for his Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (MACW) promotion and the storyline involving his chase of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was about as perfect as angles could be.

As detailed last week, Crockett ran an angle where the NWA champion, dogged by the challenger, placed a $25,000 bounty on Flair.  After Bob Orton Jr. and Dick Slater collected it by severely injuring Flair’s neck, Race thought he’d heard the last of Flair.  However Flair came back with a vengeance, vowing to get his payback on Race by regaining the NWA championship.  The event was hyped on MACW television with NWA President Bob Geigel announcing that a rematch between Flair and Race had been signed for Greensboro, North Carolina. 

For many years, Jim Crockett Promotions ran a spectacular show every Thanksgiving, packed with all of the promotion’s top stars and featuring the blow-offs to major feuds. Starcade would be no different.  In addition to the Flair/Race match, the undercard featured the blow-off matches to two red-hot feuds.  First, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper would face the much hated Greg “The Hammer” Valentine in a Dog Collar Match, a match booked after Valentine had brutalized Piper in a U.S. Title bout, nearly ending Piper’s career. Second, was a feud involving the wildly popular duo of Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood taking on the once popular Jack & Jerry Brisco, two babyfaces who had turned heel after they concluded nice guys finish last.  The feud between the two teams saw the NWA World Tag Team Championship changing hands like a hot potato and this bout featured the Briscos defending the tag straps with Angelo “King Kong” Mosca serving as special referee. 

Unbeknownst to most people at the time, the main event match almost didn’t happen.  Two nights before Starcade, WWF kingpin Vince McMahon tempted Harley Race with a quarter of a million dollars to jump ship to the WWF and leave Jim Crockett Promotions high and dry.  In his autobiography King of the Ring: The Harley Race Story, Race discusses the offer made by Vince and his refusal to make the move:

We stood in front of a full length mirror, which I pointed to.  “Vince, what do you see?” I asked.  “You and me in that stupid mirror” he shot back.  “Yeah” I said, motioning to the mirror “And I’ve got to look at that person when I wake up tomorrow” “Then evidently you’ve answered my question” Vince said and then proceeded to turn around and walk out.

Of course the match that everyone wanted to see was the Flair/Race bout and thanks to Race’s integrity, it happened.  The NWA World Heavyweight Championship would be defended in a steel cage to prevent any outside interference and former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Gene Kiniski had been appointed as special referee for added measure.  The match itself was no classic but it was a good one enhanced by the hometown crowd seeing the much beloved “Nature Boy” Ric Flair triumph over Harley Race.  Veteran announcer Gordon Solie called the match as hanging on two words-intensity and execution.  Solie, working with Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (MACW) announcer Bob Caudle called the action in his usual crisp and professional style, adding to the enjoyment of the struggle between Race and Flair.  Race used his signature headbutts and piledrivers to punish Flair, working on the challenger’s neck.  Referee Gene Kiniski enforced the rules strictly, treating the match as a normal match save for the steel cage surrounding it.  Kiniski argued with both Flair and Race over their sometimes questionable tactics during the match but Kiniski really seemed to have it out for Race (This was done in order to set up a program between Kiniski and Race in Race’s St. Louis promotion.  In St. Louis, Kiniski was seen as costing Race the title and the two fought over this).   The match went back and forth with Race seeming to have the slight edge. However after a ref bump dazed Gene Kiniski, Flair gained the upper hand once and for all. The challenger scaled the top rope to successfully launch a high cross flying body block.  Flair stunned the champion long enough for Kiniski to deliver the three count.

The fans in Greensboro went crazy as Flair was awarded the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.  Babyfaces ran out of the dressing room and into the cage to congratulate Flair on his second world title win.  Veteran babyface Angelo “King Kong” Mosca hoisted Flair on his shoulders as Rufus “Freight Train” Jones, Vinnie Valentino, and Ricky Steamboat joined in the celebration.  An emotional Flair thanked the wrestlers, the fans, and his wife for making the victory possible. 

 This great moment in wrestling saw Flair achieve his second world championship but more importantly, it led to a new era in wrestling promotion with promoters discovering a new way to expand their revenue stream.  Starcade was such a success, both in terms of the arena gate as well as PPV (combined revenue of around $650,000 at the time) that PPV was now seen as a way for promoters to expand their audience and more importantly, their revenue.  Emboldened by the success of Starcade, Vince McMahon would run with the concept and secure his place in history by running the first WWF PPV, Wrestlemania.  attaining the success he needed to establish the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a national promotion. 

For pictures, click http://www.wrestleinfo.com/A%20Flair%20for%20the%20Gold.html