Starrcade

Starrcade is a recurring professional wrestling event, originally broadcast via closed-circuit television and eventually broadcast via pay-per-view television, held from 1983 to 2000 by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and later World Championship Wrestling (WCW). 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, regarded WrestleMania. As a result, the buildup to each Starrcade featured the largest feuds of the promotion.

For the 1991 and 1992 shows promoted in Japan as "Starrcade", see WCW/New Japan Supershow.

For other uses, see Starcade (disambiguation).

Starrcade
The Starrcade logo used since 2017.
Created by	Dusty Rhodes
Promotion(s)	NWA (Governing body) (1983–1990) JCP (1983–1987) WCW (1988–2000) WWE (2017–present)
Brand(s)	SmackDown (2017–present) Raw (2018–present)
First event	Starrcade (1983)

From 1983 to 1987, Starrcade was produced by Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the dominant promotion of the NWA, and aired on Thanksgiving Day. In 1987, the WWF scheduled a pay-per-view 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 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 pay-per-view, 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 World Wrestling Federation in 2001, and the brand would become dormant. In 2017, WWE revived the Starrcade brand for a SmackDown-branded non-televised house show on November 25, 2017. The following year, Starrcade began to be held as a WWE Network special.

Dates, venues, and main events

SmackDown-branded event

Event	Date	City	Venue	Main event
National Wrestling Alliance/Jim Crockett Promotions
Starrcade '83: A Flair 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 special guest referee Gene Kiniski
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 special guest referee Joe Frazier
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
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
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
Starrcade '88: True Gritt	December 26, 1988	Norfolk, Virginia	Norfolk Scope	Ric Flair (c) vs. Lex Luger for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
Starrcade '89: Future Shock	December 13, 1989	Atlanta, Georgia	The Omni	Ric Flair vs. Sting
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 special guest referee Dick the Bruiser
World Championship Wrestling
Starrcade '91: Battlebowl/The Lethal Lottery	December 29, 1991	Norfolk, Virginia	Norfolk Scope	Battlebowl
Starrcade '92: BattleBowl/The Lethal Lottery II	December 28, 1992	Atlanta, Georgia	The Omni	Battlebowl
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
Starrcade '94: Triple Threat	December 27, 1994	Nashville, Tennessee	Nashville Municipal Auditorium	Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Butcher for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
Starrcade '95: World Cup of Wrestling	December 27, 1995	Nashville, Tennessee	Nashville Municipal Auditorium	Ric Flair (c) vs. Randy Savage for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
Starrcade '96	December 29, 1996	Nashville, Tennessee	Nashville Municipal Auditorium	Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper
Starrcade '97	December 28, 1997	Washington, D.C.	MCI Center	Hollywood Hogan (c) vs. Sting for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
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
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
Starrcade 2000	December 17, 2000	Washington, D.C.	MCI Center	Scott Steiner (c) vs. Sid Vicious for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
WWE
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[5]
Starrcade 2018	November 24, 2018	Cincinnati, Ohio	U.S. Bank Arena	AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe in a steel cage match
Starrcade 2019	December 1, 2019[6]	Duluth, Georgia	Infinite Energy Center	Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens
Starrcade (2020)	December 6, 2020	TBA	TBA	TBD
(c) – refers to the champion prior to the match

2017

Starrcade (2017)
Promotion	WWE
Brand(s)	SmackDown
Date	November 25, 2017
City	Greensboro, North Carolina
Venue	Greensboro Coliseum Complex
Attendance	10,234
Tagline(s)	Starrcade Returns
Starrcade chronology
← Previous Starrcade (2000) Next → Starrcade (2018)

Starrcade (2017) was a professional wrestling special house show event promoted by WWE for the SmackDown brand. It took place on November 25, 2017, at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina.[5][7] It was the nineteenth event under the Starrcade chronology, the first under WWE, and 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.	Results	Stipulations
1	Bobby Roode defeated Dolph Ziggler	Singles match with Arn Anderson as special outside enforcer[5]
2	The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan), Mike Kanellis, The Colóns (Primo and Epico Colón), and Rusev (with Aiden English) defeated Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango), Tye Dillinger, Sin Cara, and The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor)	Twelve-man tag team match
3	Naomi defeated Tamina (with Lana)	Singles match
4	Dustin Rhodes defeated Dash Wilder	Singles match[5]
5	Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Baron Corbin (c) by disqualification	Singles match for the WWE United States Championship[5]
6	The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) (with Big E), Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable, and Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn	Fatal four-way tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship[5]
7	Charlotte Flair (c) defeated Natalya by submission	Steel cage match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship[5]
8	AJ Styles (c) defeated Jinder Mahal (with The Singh Brothers) by escaping the cage	Steel cage match for the WWE Championship[5]
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

References

1. Molinaro, John (1999-12-17). "Starrcade, the original "super card"". SLAM! Sports. 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. 1983-11-25. p. D3. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
4. Hoops, Brian (2007-12-18). "Specialist – 20 Years Ago: Detailed look back at Starrcade '87 with Flair vs. Garvin". PWTorch. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
5. "Starrcade returns to Greensboro this November". WWE. September 18, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
6. "Starrcade returns to WWE Network Dec. 1". WWE. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
7. "WWE Live presents STARRCADE". Greensboro Coliseum Complex. September 18, 2017. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2017.