| Starrcade '86: Night of the Skywalkers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 VHS cover featuring various wrestlers | |||
| Promotion(s) | National Wrestling Alliance Jim Crockett Promotions | ||
| Date | November 27, 1986 | ||
| City | Greensboro, North Carolina Atlanta, Georgia | ||
| Venue | Greensboro Coliseum Complex Omni Coliseum | ||
| Attendance | 30,000 (combined) | ||
| Tagline | The Skywalkers | ||
| Starrcade chronology | |||
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Starrcade '86: Night of the Skywalkers was the fourth annualStarrcadeprofessional wrestlingclosed-circuit televisionevent, produced byJim Crockett Promotions (JCP) under theNational Wrestling Alliance (NWA) banner. It took place on November 27, 1986, from theGreensboro Coliseum Complex inGreensboro, North Carolina andOmni Coliseum inAtlanta, Georgia.
The main event sawNWA World Heavyweight ChampionRic Flair put the championship on the line against theNWA United States ChampionNikita Koloff in a rare for the time champion-vs-champion match. The dual location saw six matches take place in each location, with the Greensboro Coliseum main event being asteel cage match between defendingNWA World Tag Team ChampionThe Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton andRobert Gibson) defended the championship against the Andersons (Arn andOle). The "Skywalkers" tag line came from one of the featured matches of the show whereThe Road Warriors wrestledThe Midnight Express in ascaffold match with both team fighting atop a 20 foot tall scaffold erected across the top of the ring.
Highlights of the show were shown on JCP's weekly television shows and an edited version of the show was later available for purchase or rental onVHS tape. With the launch of theWWE Network in 2014 allclosed-circuitStarrcades (1983 through1986) alongside the subsequent Starrcade shows appear in thepay-per-view section. The WWE Network versions of the shows were not edited for content, but some entrance music was replaced due tocopyright issues. At 4 hours, this Starrcade is the longest in the event's history.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was tradition for the NWA member JCP to hold majorprofessional wrestling events at Thanksgiving andChristmas, often at theGreensboro Coliseum inGreensboro,North Carolina in the center of JCP'sVirginia, North andSouth Carolina territory. In 1983, JCP created Starrcade as theirsupercard to continue the Thanksgiving tradition, bringing in wrestlers from other NWA affiliates and broadcasting the show throughout its territory onclosed-circuit television.[1] Starrcade soon became the flagship event of the year for JCP (laterWorld Championship Wrestling, WCW), theirSuper Bowl event featuring their most important storylinefeuds and championship matches. The 1986 event was the fourth show to use the Starrcade name, and the last event to take place in two different locations at once.
The Starrcade show featured a number ofprofessional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing, scripted feuds, plots, and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as eitherheels (those that portray the "bad guys") orfaces (the "good guy" characters) as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Magnum T. A. was originally scheduled to face Ric Flair at the 1986 Starrcade, but was left temporarily paralyzed and had to end his wrestling career as a result of a car accident. The NWA decided to haveNikita Koloff, who was engaged in a feud withRonnie Garvin at the time, turn face as a result and took Magnum T. A.'s place in the main event of the show.
| Role: | Name: |
|---|---|
| Commentator (Greensboro) | Bob Caudle |
| Johnny Weaver | |
| Commentator (Atlanta) | Tony Schiavone |
| Rick Stewart | |
| Interviewer | Johnny Weaver (Greensboro) |
| Rick Stewart (Atlanta) | |
| Referee | Sonny Fargo |
| Scrappy McGowan | |
| Earl Hebner | |
| Tommy Young | |
| Ring Announcer | Tom Miller (Greensboro) |
| Tony Schiavone (Atlanta) |
The 1986 Starrcade show took place in two separate locations, theGreensboro Coliseum andThe Omni inAtlanta, Georgia. The shows were broadcast live on closed-circuit TV to the other arena. The show alternated between matches, starting withTim Horner and Nelson Royal defeated Rocky andDon Kernodle in aTag team match at the Greensboro Coliseum, then switching over to the first match at the Omni, alternating untilRic Flair andNikita Koloff faced off in the main event at the Omni. Switching between shows allowed the Atlanta crowd to watchThe Road Warriors wrestleThe Midnight Express while the steel cage was set up for the Greensboro Coliseum main event match betweenThe Rock 'n' Roll Express and the Anderson Brothers (Arn andOle Anderson).[2][3]
The Road Warriors won the"Skywalkers" scaffold match by knocking bothBobby Eaton andDennis Condrey off of the scaffold, dropping into the ring below. After the match managerPaul Ellering chasedJim Cornette up the scaffold; this led to Cornette suffering a legitimate severe knee injury when he fell from the underside of the scaffold ontoBig Bubba Rogers. Rogers was supposed to catch Cornette, but failed to do so. Cornette did not land properly and had to be carried out of the ring.[2]Road Warrior Hawk wrestled the match with a broken leg, an injury he suffered during a match during a Japanese tour The Road Warriors did a month earlier.[2]
Jimmy Valiant's years-long feud with Paul Jones finally came to an end, Jones would go on to manage Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez to theNWA World Tag Team titles, then lost them back to the Rock 'n' Roll Express after Rude jumped to the WWF in 1987. Ole Anderson would be kicked out of the Four Horsemen in February, 1987, replaced byLex Luger, with his performance in this match as well as being absent for his son Bryant's amateur wrestling matches (in reality, this is the reason Anderson wanted to retire from active competition) being the pretext of kicking him out. Arn, having thus split from Ole, would form a tag team in the Horsemen with Blanchard, winning two NWA World Tag Team titles as Horsemen and one WWF World tag team championship as The Brain Busters. Also forming a regular tag team were the newly babyface Nikita Koloff and his former enemy Dusty Rhodes - the Superpowers would go on to win the 1987Crockett Cup.
Big Bubba Rogers would move to theUWF afterJim Crockett Promotions bought the territory in April 1987, and winning theirworld title then briefly returning to JCP and his bodyguard role for Cornette before jumping to the WWF to become the Big Boss Man. Jimmy Garvin would turn face in 1987 after his (kayfabe) brother Ron Garvin had his face burned at the hands ofJim Cornette and the Midnight Express, then would challenge Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Title during that summer's Great American Bash. Sam Houston, in real life, marriedBaby Doll and would eventually leave Central States for the WWF. Also headed to the WWF shortly after this event was Kruscher Kruschev (Barry Darsow) who would replaceRandy Colley in the role of Smash ofDemolition in late January 1987 - the resulting "classic" Demolition lineup of Darsow andBill Eadie as Ax would go on to win threeWWF World Tag Team championships, the first of these being the longest reign ever with the belts. Kruschev's spot in the Russian Team, meanwhile would be taken byVladimir Petrov who, along with Ivan Koloff, continued to feud with Nikita.