NWA World Championship Wrestling on WWE Network

[Shining Wiz]

Well....so much for anything else that needed doing anytime soon.

[themib]

The full theme. Really happy WWE decided against dubbing over it.

[Drew Wardlaw]

NWA/JCP always had really cool theme music. This one and original Starrcade one in particular but even the later Saturday Night themes were well done.

[Rich Kraetsch]

I started with 1985 and am grinding through, about 5 episodes in today while waiting for various people to get ready, travel, etc. Super noteworthy shows right out of the gate as they build towards Starrcade 1985. You have Dusty Rhodes talking hard times, Arn mentioned "Four Horsemen" for I believe the first time and lots and lots of squash matches. People can say all they want that squashes would get boring but I totally disagree. There's no better way to have a focused TV match than to have one of your over guys decimate someone while the announcers put him over. I've blown through these and can't wait to see more.

[BillThompson]

Squash matches are a forgotten art, and there's really no reason why there shouldn't be local enhancement talent used every week for a small number of squash matches. Would help keep the contracted wrestlers away from one another for longer periods of time, allow for more build to the big matches, and allow for the contracted wrestlers to be put over one at a time.

[Joe Lanza]

I started with 1985 and am grinding through, about 5 episodes in today while waiting for various people to get ready, travel, etc. Super noteworthy shows right out of the gate as they build towards Starrcade 1985. You have Dusty Rhodes talking hard times, Arn mentioned "Four Horsemen" for I believe the first time and lots and lots of squash matches. People can say all they want that squashes would get boring but I totally disagree. There's no better way to have a focused TV match than to have one of your over guys decimate someone while the announcers put him over. I've blown through these and can't wait to see more.

The thing about these squashes is that they're entertaining and fast paced, in stark contrast to the slooooow and methodical WWF squashes of the same time period.

The other thing that stands out when watching this footage is the promos. Everybody knows JCP was miles ahead of WWE in the ring during this time period, but they were even further ahead in my opinion in promos. And not just Flair, Dusty, Cornette. EVERYBODY (well, except for Paul Jones) was good or better. Landel, the Andersons, Tully, Magnum, Roadies, Black Bart, everybody could either talk or talked to what the gimmick called for. Compare these shows to 1985 WWF. Watch WrestleMania I. It's not even close.

[BoxingRobes]

I started with 1985 and am grinding through, about 5 episodes in today while waiting for various people to get ready, travel, etc. Super noteworthy shows right out of the gate as they build towards Starrcade 1985. You have Dusty Rhodes talking hard times, Arn mentioned "Four Horsemen" for I believe the first time and lots and lots of squash matches. People can say all they want that squashes would get boring but I totally disagree. There's no better way to have a focused TV match than to have one of your over guys decimate someone while the announcers put him over. I've blown through these and can't wait to see more.

The thing about these squashes is that they're entertaining and fast paced, in stark contrast to the slooooow and methodical WWF squashes of the same time period.

The other thing that stands out when watching this footage is the promos. Everybody knows JCP was miles ahead of WWE in the ring during this time period, but they were even further ahead in my opinion in promos. And not just Flair, Dusty, Cornette. EVERYBODY (well, except for Paul Jones) was good or better. Landel, the Andersons, Tully, Magnum, Roadies, Black Bart, everybody could either talk or talked to what the gimmick called for. Compare these shows to 1985 WWF. Watch WrestleMania I. It's not even close.

All of those guys were constantly selling whatever they were doing or whatever is coming up.

WWF promos, even by the greats, at times, were nonsense...many times without a point outside of just filling up time.

[Joe Lanza]

I started with 1985 and am grinding through, about 5 episodes in today while waiting for various people to get ready, travel, etc. Super noteworthy shows right out of the gate as they build towards Starrcade 1985. You have Dusty Rhodes talking hard times, Arn mentioned "Four Horsemen" for I believe the first time and lots and lots of squash matches. People can say all they want that squashes would get boring but I totally disagree. There's no better way to have a focused TV match than to have one of your over guys decimate someone while the announcers put him over. I've blown through these and can't wait to see more.

The thing about these squashes is that they're entertaining and fast paced, in stark contrast to the slooooow and methodical WWF squashes of the same time period.

The other thing that stands out when watching this footage is the promos. Everybody knows JCP was miles ahead of WWE in the ring during this time period, but they were even further ahead in my opinion in promos. And not just Flair, Dusty, Cornette. EVERYBODY (well, except for Paul Jones) was good or better. Landel, the Andersons, Tully, Magnum, Roadies, Black Bart, everybody could either talk or talked to what the gimmick called for. Compare these shows to 1985 WWF. Watch WrestleMania I. It's not even close.

All of those guys were constantly selling whatever they were doing or whatever is coming up.

WWF promos, even by the greats, at times, were nonsense...many times without a point outside of just filling up time.

Did you know THE GATHERING is coming up? Have you heard about THE GATHERING? In case you missed it, Manny Fernandez puts his PRIZED SOMBRERO on the line at THE GATHERING. Ric Flair is facing Dusty Rhodes at THE GATHERING.

Shit, they've hyped up Black Bart vs Ron Bass so well, that I almost want to see it.

[Rich Kraetsch]

So hyped after one of the episodes I was searching for Starrcade 85 closed-circuit locations in my area.

[Joe Lanza]

The problem, of course, is that Starrcade '85 is a TNA level show.

Think about it. Multiple screwjob finishes. A homeless man & a cross dresser beat The Midnights. Multiple cage matches. Nearly every match has a stipulation, ranging from an "I Quit" match that ends even though nobody ever says "I Quit", and a match with a SOMBRERO on the line. Awful production, even by the standards of 1985. Mediocre matches (at best) up and down the card.

Starrcade '85 is like a modern TNA show if everybody in TNA was over.

[Rich Kraetsch]

I think a lot of what you think of that show will hinder on what you thought of the Tully/Magnum I Quit match. Some people consider it worthy of Greatest Match Ever nomination while others think it's tremendously overrated. I'm somewhat in the middle but do enjoy the brutality of it and think it's a lot of fun.

There's also the Dusty/Flair cage which I believe most people think is just kinda there but if you liked that match, I can definitely see you loving this thing. Also the two shows, two locations thing was probably fun for live audiences but doesn't work for the TV/closed-circuit audience since many of the same things were repeated on both shows. This is a contrast to WrestleMania 2 where each locale got their own "big" attraction, in this case it felt like Starrcade was booked to be two fully immersed shows in two different locations which would've been fine had they not been stacked together and viewed in that context.

[Joe Lanza]

I think a lot of what you think of that show will hinder on what you thought of the Tully/Magnum I Quit match. Some people consider it worthy of Greatest Match Ever nomination while others think it's tremendously overrated. I'm somewhat in the middle but do enjoy the brutality of it and think it's a lot of fun.

There's also the Dusty/Flair cage which I believe most people think is just kinda there but if you liked that match, I can definitely see you loving this thing. Also the two shows, two locations thing was probably fun for live audiences but doesn't work for the TV/closed-circuit audience since many of the same things were repeated on both shows. This is a contrast to WrestleMania 2 where each locale got their own "big" attraction, in this case it felt like Starrcade was booked to be two fully immersed shows in two different locations which would've been fine had they not been stacked together and viewed in that context.

Flair/Dusty wasn't in a cage, you're mixed up on that.

But yeah, I agree that your mileage on the I Quit match matters a lot. I think it's overrated, one of the most overrated matches ever. I don't think it's bad, but I don't think it's anywhere near all time great. A lot of that is that type of match doesn't really appeal to me, plus I think I Quit is a terrble stip that almost never works.

My favorite matches on the show were RnR vs The Russians, and Landel vs Taylor. Neither were great, but the RnR/Russians match comes close. The Anderson's match, Flair /Dusty, and I Quit were fine. The rest is pretty much trash.

[Rich Kraetsch]

Ah right (I hadn't seen the full show in years but am now getting context to it), it was Rock n Roll vs. Russians and it's actually pretty good. Flair/Rhodes was Bash '86, sorry about that.

[BoxingRobes]

But yeah, I agree that your mileage on the I Quit match matters a lot. I think it's overrated, one of the most overrated matches ever. I don't think it's bad, but I don't think it's anywhere near all time great. A lot of that is that type of match doesn't really appeal to me, plus I think I Quit is a terrble stip that almost never works.

I kind of want to gouge your eyes out with a piece of broke chair for this trash take.

[Drew Wardlaw]

I think a lot of what you think of that show will hinder on what you thought of the Tully/Magnum I Quit match. Some people consider it worthy of Greatest Match Ever nomination while others think it's tremendously overrated. I'm somewhat in the middle but do enjoy the brutality of it and think it's a lot of fun.

There's also the Dusty/Flair cage which I believe most people think is just kinda there but if you liked that match, I can definitely see you loving this thing. Also the two shows, two locations thing was probably fun for live audiences but doesn't work for the TV/closed-circuit audience since many of the same things were repeated on both shows. This is a contrast to WrestleMania 2 where each locale got their own "big" attraction, in this case it felt like Starrcade was booked to be two fully immersed shows in two different locations which would've been fine had they not been stacked together and viewed in that context.

Flair/Dusty wasn't in a cage, you're mixed up on that.

But yeah, I agree that your mileage on the I Quit match matters a lot. I think it's overrated, one of the most overrated matches ever. I don't think it's bad, but I don't think it's anywhere near all time great. A lot of that is that type of match doesn't really appeal to me, plus I think I Quit is a terrble stip that almost never works.

My favorite matches on the show were RnR vs The Russians, and Landel vs Taylor. Neither were great, but the RnR/Russians match comes close. The Anderson's match, Flair /Dusty, and I Quit were fine. The rest is pretty much trash.

The most controversial statement here is the implication that Manny Fernandez vs Abdullah is trash!