Throwback Thursday: Looking back at Starrcade 1985

Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Last time, I covered ECW Heat Wave 1998. Next week, we'll look back at WWE Canadian Stampede 1997

Starrcade 1985: The Gathering

Date: Nov. 28, 1985

Venues: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, N.C. and The Omni, Atlanta

Some random notes

This was the third annual Starrcade, which was the biggest event for the National Wrestling Alliance and Jim Crockett Promotions.

For a couple of years, it was the biggest event in professional wrestling. That was until Vince McMahon and WWE began producing WrestleMania earlier that year.

Although WrestleMania became the biggest event in wrestling from the standpoint of spectacle and mainstream notoriety, Starrcade was still a highly anticipated event for professional wrestling fans, especially in the southern part of the United States.

Because the event was so highly anticipated, the NWA decided to hold the 1985 event in two different venues. Yes, a year before WWE tried to up the ante and produce WrestleMania 2 from three different locations across the United States, Starrcade emanated from the two most famous arenas in the South in the 1980s — The Omni and the Greensboro Coliseum.

If there was a big event happening in the South, more often than not it took place at either The Omni in Atlanta or the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C., which made the two buildings ideal spots to hold Starrcade 1985.

With Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair on top of the card, it was easy to sell out both venues to help the NWA draw about 30,000 combined fans on this night.

The production for the show was surprisingly tight considering Crockett Promotions was producing this show in two different states. Bob Caudle and Tony Schiavone were stationed in Atlanta, but handled commentary for both venues. Greensboro was not completely left out, as Johnny Weaver was stationed there to interview the wrestlers backstage after the matches.

When WWE attempted to pull off WrestleMania 2 from three different venues the next year, the production was a complete mess, especially by WWE standards.

Unlike WrestleMania 2, which showed every match from one venue before going to the next, Starrcade event jumped back and forth between Greensboro and Atlanta.

While Atlanta got the main event between Rhodes and Flair, Greensboro got a pretty nice consolation with the United States title match between Magnum T.A. and Tully Blanchard and the world tag team title match between the Rock 'n' Roll Express and Ivan and Nikita Koloff. Both matches took place inside of a steel cage.

Because those matches were inside of a steel cage, things got bloody fast, but those weren't the only matches to feature blood. Nearly every match on the card had at least one person that bled. If you thought Extreme Championship Wrestling was bloody, it didn't have anything on this event.

It was quite ridiculous, especially when you have wrestlers bleeding as soon as the match started in some cases.

With that said, let's get to the matches.

NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight championship - Krusher Khruschev def. Sam Houston

Kruschev's real name is Barry Darsow, but you may know much better as Demolition Smash from Demolition. You may also know him as Repo Man.

Sam Houston (real name Michael Smith) is apparently the half-brother to Jake "The Snake" Roberts (real name Aurelian Smith Jr.), as they are both the sons of Aurelian "Grizzly" Smith. Smith also had a daughter named Robin Smith, who wrestled under the name Rockin' Robin in the WWE and even won the WWE Women's championship in 1988.

Houston has his own measure of success in wrestling and was crazy over with the fans in Greensboro on this night. The match itself was good, but was somehow one of the longest matches on the card and one of the very few where no one bled.

Houston lost when the referee saw Kruschev's foot on the ropes during a pin attempt, but conveniently missed Houston's foot on the ropes when he was pinned.

The craziest thing to me was that the show began not only with a heel winning, but with a heel winning a championship.

Mexican Death match – Manny Fernandez def. Abdullah the Butcher

The Atlanta portion of the card kicked off with a match built to spill buckets of blood. They didn't waste any time in Atlanta, as Butcher hit Fernandez with a foreign five seconds into the match and Fernandez was already bleeding.

However, this was not really a death match in the sense that someone had to be pinned or there was barbed wire surrounding the ring. It was essentially a sombrero-on-a-pole match with street fight rules.

In order to win the match, one of the combatants had to grab a sombrero off a pole.  That is not a typo.

Butcher had the upper hand for maybe two minutes, but Fernandez eventually took off his boot and started clobbering Butcher with it, which had both men gushing blood.

Although there was blood everywhere, the biggest spot of the match came when Fernandez delivered a suplex to Butcher, which was not easy considering Butcher was every bit of 350 pounds, maybe more.

Eventually, Fernandez beat Butcher so bad that he was able to grab the sombrero off the poll and pick up the win.

Texas Bull Rope match – Ron Bass def. Black Bart

As if the bull rope stipulation wasn't enough, if Bass won, he got Bart's manager J.J. Dillon alone in the ring for five minutes.

As expected, there was a lot of blood — lots of it. Eventually, Bass picked up the win, which granted him five minutes in the ring alone with Dillon.

Texas Bull Rope match – James J. Dillon def. Ron Bass

Dillon jumped right on the bloody Bass as soon as the match ended. People probably were not aware back then, but Dillon used to be a wrestler before he became a manager.

So when he was delivering a beating to Bass, he did not look out of place in the ring. He knew what he was doing. Bass eventually got the upper hand, but was thwarted by Bart, which allowed Dillon to pick up the surprising victory.

The canvas was damn near covered in blood by this point.

Arm Wrestling match – Billy Graham def. The Barbarian

Billy Graham was in the NWA, but was more known for his days as the top man in WWE during the 1970s.

Because the Barbarian was a … barbarian, he was not familiar with the concept of arm wrestling, so his manager Paul Jones kind of had to teach him right before locking up with Graham. It was quite funny, actually.

Graham won, but Jones as soon as he did, Jones hit him over the back with his cane. Guess what? Graham began to bleed.

Billy Graham def. The Barbarian via disqualification

For whatever reason, the arm wrestling match had to be followed by an actual match between these two.

Jones got involved in this as well, forcing the referee to disqualify Barbarian and award the match to a bloody Graham.

NWA National Heavyweight championship – Buddy Landel def. Terry Taylor

For the life of me I don't understand the point of the NWA National Heavyweight title when they already had a United States Heavyweight title? What was the difference?

The national champion was the champion of the nation, but what nation? It couldn't have been the United States because there was already a United States champion, right? I don't get it and I never will.

What I also didn't understand was how Vince McMahon saw Terry Taylor and thought he would make a good rooster. The more I watch of Taylor before he went to WWE, the more confused I get by the decision to make him the Red Rooster. This guy had "star" written all over him and was headlining stadium shows against Flair at one point.

But he was told to be a rooster.

Taylor had a match on this night against the Nature Boy, but it was not Flair. It was the other Nature Boy in Landel, who modeled himself after Flair.

Landel had the robe, he had the hair, he had the swagger and on this night he even won a title to go along with the gimmick.

Landel won that title after Dillon, who appeared with a bandage wrapped around his head, tripped Taylor off the top rope during a superplex, which was his finish, to help Landel pick up the win. It is crazy to think that a superplex was a finish in 1985.

It is also crazy to think about Dillon managing Landel before he began managing the real Nature Boy in Flair not too long later as a member of the Four Horsemen.

NWA National Tag Team championship – The Minnesota Wrecking Crew def. Wahoo McDaniel & Billy Jack Haynes

The same thing I said about the National Heavyweight title applied to the National tag team titles, too. Even more confusing was that McDaniel and Haynes were the United States tag champs, but were challenging for the national titles. I'm confused.

For those that don't know, the Minnesota Wrecking Crew was Ole and Arn Anderson before they joined the Four Horsemen.

Ole and Arn were family members in storyline and were billed from Minnesota, which helped the connection with Flair, who was raised in Minnesota and was a cousin to the Andersons — in storyline, of course.

McDaniel was a star well before he began wrestling, as he played linebacker in the American Football League. In the AFL, he played for the Houston Oilers and Denver Broncos before being traded to the New York Jets, which was where he became a star.

Every time he made a tackle, the fans would yell "Wahoo!" He even made 23 tackles in a single game. He became such a star that his jersey didn't even have his last name on it. It simply had his first name.

McDaniel was left unprotected for the 1968 expansion draft and was selected by the Miami Dolphins in 1968. He eventually finished his career with the San Diego Chargers.

McDaniel's partner on this night, Haynes, looked like he could have done whatever he wanted to on a football field because he was absolutely jacked. I'm not going to speculate how he got so big, but he was a very, very large man.

The Wrecking Crew picked up the win with thanks to their famous technique of cutting off the ring, working on McDaniel's arm and using an underhanded tactic or two.

As far as I can remember, no one bled during this match, which was a surprise.

NWA United States Heavyweight championship ("I Quit" Steel cage match) – Magnum T.A. def. Tully Blanchard

This match had a lot of blood, but it was the first match on the card that actually warranted it.

That's because Magnum T.A. and Tully Blanchard had the definition of a blood feud over the United States title heading into this match. It called for the climax to take place under a dramatic set of circumstances.

The circumstances were an "I Quit" match that took place inside of a steel cage. Yeah, things were going to get gory during this one.

The thing I liked about this match the most was that it resembled a real fight. There weren't any fancy choreographed spots in hopes of getting a "This is awesome" chant, which didn't even exist yet.

Instead, Magnum T.A. and Blanchard went out there and had a fight befitting the feud they were embroiled in. I don't think this match had one slam or suplex. There were just punches, kicks and whole lot of blood.

During the course of the match, it looked like Blanchard cut his arm really bad. It was just another battle scar from the many he gained from that night.

Eventually, someone (probably Baby Doll) tossed Blanchard a wooden chair. Blanchard broke a leg off and tried to drive a spike into Magnum T.A.'s face.

However, Magnum T.A. turned the tables and got hold of the spike, drove it into Blanchard's head and forced him to quit, becoming United States Heavyweight champion. Yeah, things got pretty brutal in the course of this match, but the fans loved every second of it, especially when Magnum T.A. won.

Magnum T.A. and Blanchard will be forever linked because of this match, but they'll also be forever linked because of some personal history, as Magnum T.A. eventually married Blanchard's former wife Courtney.

Atlanta Street Fight – Jimmy Valiant & Miss Atlanta Lively def. The Midnight Express

You may not know who in the world Miss Atlanta Lively is, but that was apparently Ron Garvin dressed in drag. Why? I don't know. Big Mama was there, too. Certain portions of her body were very big, but not her entire body.

Remember when I said there were certain matches where people were bleeding as soon as it started. Well, this is one of them as Dennis Condrey of the Midnight Express began bleeding essentially as soon as the match started. I'm not even sure anyone had even hit him in the head.

This match was quite the cluster. Powder was thrown, brass knuckles were used and even Lively was bleeding and that was supposed to be a woman in storyline.

After Valiant and Lively won the match, they stripped Jim Cornette down to his underwear, which featured hearts on them.

NWA World Tag Team championship (Steel cage) – The Rock 'n' Roll Express def. Ivan & Nikita Koloff

The steel cage was not really necessary for this match because it wasn't really used, but I guess since it was there for the United States title match, they just left it up for this one as well.

Because the cage was there, it didn't take long for Ivan Koloff to be the first to bleed in this match.

The match itself had a unique finish, but was quickly forgotten once the Russians began beating the crap out of the Rock 'n' Roll after the match.

NWA World Heavyweight championship – Dusty Rhodes def. Ric Flair

By now, most wrestling fans have seen Rhodes' legendary "Hard Times" promo, where he talked about people losing their jobs and struggling to put food on their table.

The promo is one of the very best in the history of professional wrestling and encapsulates what made Rhodes so special on the microphone. Just watching that promo one time made you want to see the match he was alluding to.

Well, this was that match. After having his leg broken by Flair and the Andersons, Rhodes challenged Flair for the NWA World title in one of the most anticipated main events of that era.

Both men got special entrances (special for Crockett Promotions in 1985) and had the feel of a big fight.

The match was worked at a deliberate pace with Flair working over Rhodes' injured leg. However, Rhodes worked Flair's leg in retaliation.

But you had to have known that someone was bleeding during this match and that someone was Flair. This should have been one of only two matches that featured blood, but nearly all of them did so it kind of hurt the impact.

Rhodes won the match, but the decision was reversed after the show due to the interference of the Andersons. That interference helped lead to the formation of the Four Horsemen, but it had to be disappointing for fans hoping to see Rhodes get at least a brief run with the title.

Instead, like it did so many other times, Crockett pulled the rug from under them.

Oh well. They got to celebrate with the American dream on this night.