For 108 minutes, Arn dives deep into his memories of his very first Starrcade for Jim Crockett Promotions, the big two-city closed-circuit megashow Starrcade '85.
It was Thanksgiving night and JCP was putting on their biggest show in their history to that point. It sold out two of their biggest arenas simultaneously, the Greensboro Coliseum and the Omni in Atlanta, with each city seeing the matches in the other city via closed circuit mixed in together. The entire event was also broadcast closed circuit to other arenas throughout the southeast and even in the Superdome in New Orleans.
As is usual for Thompson's podcasts where they review big events from the past, the rundown of the card and Arn's thoughts and memories on it is interesting, but the real gold nuggets in this show are found early on before they even get to the show itself. In providing context to that time in Arn's life, there are several stories that shed a fascinating light into what it must have been like for a young 25 kid with the wrestling world in front of him at the time. The most interesting to me was his story about almost leaving JCP in those early months and returning to the Pensacola territory because of being unhappy with early payoffs. If that had happened, imagine how the wrestling world would have looked different for JCP in the next three years - - it was Arn who named the Four Horsemen later in 1985.
There is also an interesting discussion about the things he learned working and traveling with Ole Anderson in those years, and some interesting light shed on Ole's transition from owning his own territory (albeit a struggling one in the end) to going back to just being one of the boys and working the road. Great stuff if you are a fan of that time period like we are.
The "Starrcade '85" episode from Westwood One is up now on the Arn Show website and is available everywhere and anywhere you get your podcasts. Required listening!
