#109 – Starrcade 88
We are back with another visit to the Crockett household for Thanksgiving dinner with all the listeners of the Old School Wrestling Podcast and you’re favorite stars of the late 80s and we are THRILLED to announce the release of our new book THE OSWP 500 now available at flairchop.com featuring our list of the top 500 old school wrestlers as discussed on the podcast! We also break down the classic Starrcade 88 featuring several great matches like the battle of the Midnight Expresses, Flair v Luger, and the Road Warriors v Sting and Dusty. Please support the show by picking up THE OSWP 500, one of our box sets, a t-shirt, or one of our excellent posters.
I’m only about 30 minutes in, but I wanted to weigh in on something. I think Dusty was better at improving on ideas than coming up with his own, which is why he was stealing names from things that already existed. ie StaRcade was a gameshow on TBS before StaRRcade came along, and of course True Grit was a movie (and the remake was pretty good). I think the main reason for the double consonants was copyright related, mixedwith being to lazy to come up with a new name.
This was the first show I ever attended live! Amazing show , after the ppv ended we also got to see a Bunkhouse Stampede qualifying match which JYD won. Strange years later watching the ppv version you can hear the ring intros over the closing of the broadcast. As a side note , during the Flair/Luger intros the camera goes to a shot of a 11 year old JBLCENAFAN wearing a Jordache sweatshirt. Matches announced that didn’t happen were Nikita and Ivan vs The Russian Assassins in a double chain match , and Fantastics vs Sheepherders with Rip Morgan waving the flag of the winners. Years later , I will say this is the best show ever that I went to. Pro Wrestling 1988 – 1992 cannot be touched!
just when i thought i could not hate Tommy Rich anymore than i already do.
Thanks Drew
I too went to this, and this was my area (I’m about an hour in, so more things forthcoming)
To pronounce “Norfolk” with the correct dialect, it’s pronounced “Naw Fuck”
It’s Horseman country, thus white meat babyfaces (other than Magnum and maybe Dusty) don’t get much love.
I will be spending Thanksgiving with the Starrcade highlight package theme song in my head–Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo, Duh Duh Duh Duh, Doo Doo Doo, Duh Duh Duh Duh–Thanks. No, really. Thanks.
The other Russian Assassin was David Sheldon (aka The Angel of Death and the Black Scorpion.)
Guys,
Excellent job as always with the Jim Crockett Thanksgiving episode. Although I rank Dre’s (wait, sorry – I mean “Drew!”) Dusty Rhodes impersonation as my favorite, I have to admit Jim Ross is growing on me.
While I greatly enjoy the podcast and appreciate the hard work that goes into each one, I have to weigh in on an unfortunate and ill-informed comment made by the Black Cat.
When referencing the “disgusting hot dogs in a blanket” he saw at a work meeting, the Black Cat mistakenly referred to these as Kolache. As someone who has Slovak roots (and who only knows like three things about being Slovak), I recognized the delicatessen in question as Klobasnek – or “pigs in a blanket.” And yes, these are kind of nasty – especially when they’ve been sitting around all day or eaten by an otherwise disgusting person.
However, Kolache refers to fruit filled pastry – usually cherry, apricot, prunes or nuts – all coated with sugar and butter and are insanely good (even the prune kind). Kolache is basically Slovak and Polish wedding and holiday desserts that are similar but better than a danish. Kolache can be made into small, individual pieces or baked into a long roll that can be cut up.
Anyway, upon hearing this comment, I was tempted to find the Black Cat at Jim Crockett’s house and repeatedly smash him over the head with said roll of Kolache. However, given the spirit of the season this wouldn’t seem appropriate. Plus, no one can get a Kolache past Tommy Young.
I found out where most of your thanksgiving guests headed to after they left the Crockett house. They went down the road to Winston -Salem to Wrestlecade, an event that saw over one hundred legends and local stars gather for an entire afternoon and evening of wrestling awesomeness. Everyone from Tommy Dreamer to Tully Blanchard were in attendance, and the autographs flowed like water (as long you were willing to pay between $5-$10 a piece that is) and all the wrestlers were extremely cordule, except for Greg The Hammer Valentine who just sorted of grunted.
Later in the evening there was an actual wrestling show which saw an elimination tag match that included the teams of the rock & roll express, accompanied to the ring by the boogie woogie man Jimmy Valiant, Geoerge South & Manny Fernandez, the Powers of Pain accompanied by Kevin Sullivan, Demolition, and Rick Steiner & Buff Bagwell, and if anyone just said “that sounds terrible” it mostly was. The remainder of the card included Hacksaw Jim Duggan “hoooooo” taking on Navaari, Tommy Dreamer taking on CW Anderson in a hardcore match, won by Dreamer, and main event featured Matt Hardy taking on Carlito for the Wrestlecade title in what turned out to be an excellent latter match won by Hardy. Since I am in Winston Selam every thanksgiving I entend to make this event a yearly ritual.
Thanks a lot, guys. Another great episode and probably my favorite Thanksgiving episode so far. The doorbell was an hilarious addition. I watched Starrcade ’88 before listening, so that was pretty cool.
Keep up the good work, Black Cat and Drew.
Been a loyal listener for about two years but this last podcast almost made me give up on my favorite podcast. It took a Bundy style 5 count before I hear about the greatest celebration ever?! Maybe it was the fact that I was coming off a 18hr black Friday shift but I felt hurt and betrayed by the greatest wrestling podcast that Mick Foley’s first tittle win did not make the list in the first three. I remember watching that “with a tear in my eye” and it’s probably why I still love wrestling. That win is why I still watch…and have to hide that fact from the world
My dad wanted me to post this for you guys, He does not know how to use the internet (To Old) and I was listening to this podcast when he dropped in and heard the beginning..
True Grit is not just a John Wayne movie ,it is THE John Wayne movie, It was not replayed on TBS and in fact was the last of all of John Wayne movies released to video and the airways. The John Wayne movie that was played after wrestling several times was “Hondo”
Thanks for leting me share my dads thoughts , Keep in mind that this is the same guy who made me turn off the Magnum TA retun episode because we were being to loud…… LOL
Thanks for the show
I watched a few of the matches from Starrcade ’88 before finishing this episode and loved Barry Windham vs. Bam Bam. Windham hulking up after Bigelow missed the top rope atomic splash – how is anyone supposed to Barry him if he’s supposed to be the bad guy?
I must mention that calling Wrestlemania XX the 20th Anniversary of wrestlemania is wrong. I know they do it on TV all the time but it’s a mistake. Wrestlemania 1 wasn’t the 1st anniversary of Wrestlemania. Wrestlemania 2 would’ve been. Your wedding day isn’t your 1st annivesary. You don’t celebrate your 1st birthday party the day you’re born.
I want to give an honorable mention for best celebrations to when Dusty beat Harley at the Omni with a top rope cross body to win the world heavyweight championship and the crowd filled the ring.
Why wasn’t Steamboat on Starrcade if he was at Chi-Town Rumble winning the world heavyweight championship two months later?
How is anyone supposed to boo Barry if he’s supposed to be the bad guy?
That’s what I meant to say.
while I was pondering which event / show I would most like you to review I suddenly remembered an absolute classic that I’m sure I have never heard you mention before.
On one of the free to air movie channels in the UK I once stumbled upon “Jessie Ventura Story,The Movie” and yes that is the grammatically awkward title.
There are so many historical and factual inaccuracy’s included in this beauty its horribly fantastic.
I know you two will have an absolute ball dissecting this little crapfest.
I would also love to hear your take on exactly who made this and why.
Cheers
I love how you guys always dog Luger…but then can’t resist talking about how he ‘looked like a million bucks’ all the time. That’s 75% of wrestling. Looking the part and making people feel like they want to see what a guy like that can do. I’m going out on a limb…Luger had one of the top-10 wrestling careers of anybody in the last 25 years. The guy main evented for YEARS in both the NWA and WCW. And he main evented in the WWF. With the way Vince destroys guys who come from other promotions, it’s pretty amazing that Luger took such a high profile role. Not only that…but he returned from WWF and immediately went back to main eventing in WCW!
Main eventing in 1987. Main eventing in 2000. Amazing. The guy has put on dozens of amazing matches (even winning match of the year and feud of the year a couple times). Great tag team member. Breathed new life into the Horseman. TV Champ. US Champ. Tag Champ. World Champ. And the undisputed king of breathing techniques!
Just re-listened to this episode and the discussion of why they named this event “True Gritt” and finally hit me. In the months leading up to this event Dusty Rhodes had his eye “spiked” by the Road Warriors and had to wear a bandage/patch for a while before healing just in time to get his revenge at Starrcade. In the movie True Grit, John Wayne wore an eye patch! Dusty named the ppv after his own angle which wasn’t even the main event. Good old American Dream…gotta love him. Executive producer Virgil Runnels sure loved him!