WWE: Starrcade - The Essential Collection

Introduction

Before there ever was an event called Wrestlemania, the National Wrestling Alliance's annual "Starrcade" event was the grand-daddy of them all. First held in 1983 at the famous Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina, it may not have been the first professional wrestling pay-per-view event (this distinction is held by the WWE's "Wrestling Classic" event), but it was broadcast live to many different areas on closed-circuit television.

The inaugural show featured a memorable main event between NWA World Heavyweight champion Harley Race and Ric Flair, which was officiated by former wrestler Gene Kiniski. Dubbed "A Flare For The Gold", the event was so successful (drawing a $500,000 gate) that the event continued to be held annually until 2000, a year before the renamed WCW company was bought by Vince McMahon.

"Starrcade: The Essential Collection" is a three-disc look back at the history of the event, with a fifty-minute documentary and, as extras, 25 of the greatest matches in Starrcade's annals, as voted for by WWE fans.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is very good for a DVD of this genre. The new interview footage with the likes of Ric Flair, Harley Race, and Arn Anderson looks excellent, but as we have come to expect from WWE releases, it is the quality of the archive footage that really sets this apart - even if the production values may seem positively ancient by today's standards, the footage has been kept in pristine condition.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is also very good. While background music is clearly audible throughout the documentary, setting a tone for the subject matter, it never impinges on what is being said by the participants. Thus, even with a simple 2.0 track here, there's a wide soundspace that works wonderfully in these documentary settings.

Extras

The extras, unquestionably, are the selling point of this disc, with roughly eight hours of wrestling matches available here, as opposed to 50 minutes worth of documentary.

While there are some surprising inclusions on this "Best 25 Matches in Starrcade history" feature - Roddy Piper vs Hulk Hogan (1996), Sting vs The Great Muta (1989), Goldberg vs Kevin Nash (1999), and most notably, a horrible Battlebowl match (1991) - this three-disc set is full to the brim with excellent wrestling, from all manner of different eras.

The highlights of those highlights, if you will, are the Ric Flair vs Lex Luger (1988), Sting vs Big Van Vader (1992), Greg Valentine vs Roddy Piper (1983), Magnum T.A vs Tully Blanchard (1985), and Ric Flair vs Big Van Vader (1993) bouts, all of which are required viewing for any wrestling fan. The latter two, in particular, are indicative of the emotion that professional, at its best, can generate.

Main feature

The main feature is a 50-minute look back at the history of Starrcade, from its creation and naming by Dusty Rhodes in 1983, to its comparatively sad conclusion in 2000. A lot changed in the wrestling business, and judging solely by that final year, not for the better.

Here, the beginnings of Starrcade are captured in excellent detail, even going as far as to tell the truth about Vince McMahon's threat to cable companies, should they have chosen to air Starrcade 1987 on what was its traditional Thanksgiving night. The background stories of the bouts are covered, too, in particular the feud between Ric Flair and Harley Race, which saw Flair put up his career against Race's title gold at the inaugural event.

Unfortunately, beyond the details of Starrcade '83, the documentary doesn't feature the detail that you might expect from a WWE release, so while it might have been impossible to cover every Starrcade event in such detail, it's clear that this feature became a rush-job for the WWE DVD team. Even considering the entire feature lasted but 50 minutes, there was more room for detail here than we actually got.

That said, the one area in which WWE DVDs consistently perform is in their archive footage, and this DVD is heaven for anyone who enjoyed WCW during the time of Starrcade. In the footage alone there's a history lesson of the event, and its major happenings. Those stories, furthermore, are told by the people who were there; the likes of Road Warrior Animal, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and David Crockett.

Clearly, the documentary could have been much more detailed, and a lot longer, but for what it is, it's an interesting watch.

Conclusion

Overall, Starrcade: The Essential Collection is just that for any wrestling fan - essential. Featuring a good documentary on the history of the event, the extra matches here (25 of them!) are the real reasons to buy the DVD.