It was announced today by the WWE that it is bringing back WCW/NWA staple event Starrcade this year, and for the first time in 30 years, it’s returning to it’s original home at the fabled Greensboro Coliseum.
WWE Brings Back Starrcade for SD Event
Starrcade is back, and for the first time in 30 years, it’s coming home.
On Saturday, Nov. 25, during Thanksgiving weekend, Starrcade returns when the Superstars of SmackDown LIVE descend on Greensboro, N.C., for a historic event at the Greensboro Coliseum.
The premier event of the National Wrestling Alliance and, later, WCW, Starrcade got its start in Greensboro on Thanksgiving 1983 with a star-studded lineup that saw Ric Flair defeat Harley Race to win his second of 16 World Championships. Starrcade remained in Greensboro through 1986 and was the stage on which legendary performers like Dusty Rhodes, The Four Horsemen, Magnum TA, The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express and many more etched their names into sports-entertainment history.
As the calendar turned to the 1990s, a new generation of competitors emerged to take the Starrcade spotlight, like Sting, Vader and the nWo. The last edition of Starrcade under the WCW banner took place in December 2000
The Greensboro Coliseum confirmed the news as well as the line-up, including two steel cage main events.
.@WWE LIVE STARRCADE is back on 11/25 for the first time in two decades with double steel cage match main events! Check out the lineup below pic.twitter.com/IBApHh6pMk
— Greensboro Coliseum Complex (@Gbocoliseum) September 18, 2017
Starrcade was created in 1983 by Jim Crockett Promotions (NWA Mid-Atlantic) as their annual supercard (it pre-dated WrestleMania by two years), and was traditionally held on the American Thanksgiving weekend and at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The inaugural Starrcade, subtitled A Flair For The Gold, was an historic event, as it featured the coronation of “Nature Boy” Ric Flair as a reputable World Champion, when he defeated NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race to regain the title. While this was Flair’s second World title win (he’d defeated Dusty Rhodes in 1981), this win over Harley Race was seen as a passing of the torch for Flair. The first Starrcade also featured the classic dog collar match between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine. The last Starrcade held at the Greensboro Coliseum was in November of 1986, with the event beginning to take the road starting in 1987 in Chicago. It never returned to the Greensboro Coliseum again under the NWA/WCW and by 1988, had moved from being a Thanksgiving Tradition to a Christmas one, shifting to the end of December. WCW’s final Starrcade aired in 2000.
Interesting to see that another Flair, this time Ric’s daughter, 6x WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair (4x Raw, 1x Divas, 1x NXT) will be looking to regain a World title, this time against her old adversary Natalya, for the Smackdown Women’s title. With such a rich history of the area and event with Ric Flair, it wouldn’t be unsurprising if Charlotte was to win the title at this event.
No word yet if it will be televised as a Network special or remain as a special Live Event, similar to WWE’s Madison Square Garden Live Events.
Stay tuned to lastwordonprowrestling for all the latest news from this event, other WWE events and pro wrestling from around the globe.
