29 years ago today, NWA in association with Jim Crockett Promotions presented Starrcade '85: The Gathering (WWE Network link) from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina and the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. The multi-venue idea would be used by both WWF and NWA for their big events, with the NWA using the same two buildings for Starrcade '86, while the WWF used three arenas (Nassau Coliseum, Rosemont Horizon, and the LA Sports Arena) for Wrestlemania 2. The arenas would alternate matches; when their arena wasn't having a match, the match in progress from the other building would be broadcast via closed-circuit television.
Greensboro Coliseum:
- Krusher Khruschev defeated Sam Houston to win the vacant NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship.
- Ron Bass defeated Black Bart in a Texas Bullrope match.
- James J. Dillon defeated Ron Bass in a Texas Bullrope match.
- Buddy Landel Terry Taylor to win the NWA National Championship.
- Magnum T.A. defeated Tully Blanchard in a "I Quit" steel cage match to win the NWA United States Championship.
- The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) defeated Ivan and Nikita Koloff in a Steel cage match to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
The Omni:
- Manny Fernandez defeated Abdullah the Butcher in a Mexican Deathmatch.
- Billy Graham defeated The Barbarian by disqualification in an arm wrestling match
- Billy Graham defeated The Barbarian by disqualification.
- NWA National Tag Team Champions the Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Ole and Arn Anderson) defeated Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Jack Haynes.
- Jimmy Valiant and Miss Atlanta Lively defeated The Midnight Express in an Atlanta Street Fight.
- Dusty Rhodes defeated Ric Flair to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The decision was later overturned by referee Tommy Young and changed to a disqualification win for Rhodes due to interference by Arn Anderson, allowing Flair to retain the NWA world title. So the real decision (which wasn't revealed until a week later)...
- Dusty Rhodes defeated Ric Flair by disqualification in an NWA World Heavyweight Championship match. This perhaps is the most well-known and polarizing of "dusty finishes" in wrestling history, a finish that teases one result (usually in favor of a babyface, usually for a title), only to have said result reversed on a technicality (i.e. outside interference or intentional over-the-top-rope throw).
4 years ago today, actor Leslie Nielsen dies of complications of pneumonia at a Fort Lauderdale, Florida hospital. He was 84. Best known for his role as Lt. Frank Drebin in the television series Police Squad! and the Naked Gun film series, Drebin made a few cameos for the WWF in the leadup to and at Summerslam 1994 as a man on the case to find the real Undertaker. Drebin was his most famous role, though he had appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying over 200 characters.
BONUS! Though it was taped seventeen days prior, this match from Saturday Night's Main Event, originally broadcast November 28, 1987 between Bret Hart and "Macho Man" Randy Savage is worth a watch. It's on the Best of Saturday Night's Main Event DVD, which you can buy for under $10 using that link there. You're welcome. Or, if you have WWE Network, you can the entire event that includes Savage-Hart right here.