On November 24th, 1983, the National Wrestling Alliance held its inaugural Starrcade event in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ric Flair and Harley Race battled in the main event.
While the story culminated in a battle between the two, fans may most recall the story leading into it. Harley Race was the NWA World Heavyweight Champion going into the event.
The story was so notable that it would be replicated twenty years later by Goldberg and Triple H, friend and one-time ally of Ric Flair, during their feud on Monday Night Raw.
Before the match, Race was determined to remain the NWA World Champion. To ensure this, he would put a bounty on the head of Ric Flair to not just be beaten but to be taken out of professional wrestling.
Ric Flair and Harley Race –
The Title Match After The Bounty
What Race did was offer a $25,000 bounty to anyone who could take Flair out of the NWA. What would ensue would be an attack by Dick Slater and Bob Orton Jr, who would attack Flair.
The two would beat him down mercilessly and, in the process, inflict so much damage that would result in a suspected career-ending neck injury.
With it believed that Flair’s career would be over, Slater and Orton Jr would collect the bounty from Harley Race. The two would do so when Flair had announced his retirement.
But the retirement would be premature as it was all a ruse. Nearly three months after the attack from Race’s bounty hunters, Flair would eventually return, and it would be announced that Flair would be granted a world title match, much to the chagrin of Harley Race at the inaugural Starrcade event title “A Flare for the Gold.”
The event’s name alone told fans what fans could anticipate happening between the two rivals. To add to the suggestion of a title win, the event would take place in the Nature Boy’s home state of North Carolina.
But before the event even took place, an underlying story was brewing about the match and the event itself.
Starrcade was the NWA’s first (at the time) pay-per-view event, and rival WWF owner Vince McMahon appeared to interfere in its main event and one of its competitors.
A Champion’s Pride
“He was asking me about coming up there and trying to avoid that part of it. I had been involved in wrestling for a long time and the NWA World Title was what I had my heart and mind set on doing since day one,”
“I wasn’t going to get involved with Vince until I was through with the NWA side. That’s what I wanted to do, and that’s what I did.”
– Harley Race on Vince McMahon trying to convince him to no-show Starrcade 83′
There had been some reports that Race was offered as much as $250,000 to no-show the event.
While speculation surfaced that Race had considered the offer, the late former World Champion shared that his mind was focused on finishing what he had initially committed to doing.
The story going into the match itself ushered in a changing of the guard. The grizzled veteran and then world champion Harley Race faced the now up-and-coming ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair for the prestigious NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Flair had overcome the odds of having his career come to an end prior with a tragic plane crash (shoot) and this scripted neck injury proved that stars may have been aligning for the Nature boy.
As the two stood inside a steel cage, the story was a callback to what initially drove Flair away from wrestling. The match became a brutal and bloody battle between the two.
From the use of piledrivers to Flair cranking on the neck of Race to inflict on him what he suffered, it was clear that this had become personal between them. As often the case the cage itself became a weapon that both men utilized time and time again to inflict damage.
Neither man was resigned to the idea that the other would walk out the winner. As the match reached its conclusion, it resulted in an untypical win by one competitor.
With the referee down on the mat, Ric Flair would hit a crossbody off the middle ropes onto Harley Race, pinning him for the one…two….three. The pin would result in Ric Flair becoming, at the time, a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion.
Ric Flair has long been known for his rivalries, alliances, and championship reigns. But if any one moment or match stops to put the former champion and Hall of Famer on the map, it would be his particular match against Handsome Harley Race.
Flair had no qualms on who made who on this particular night. Despite having a reign previous to this one that was far longer at 631 days, it was this night and this match that, in Flair’s own words, made him.
“Without Starrcade, without Harley Race, there is no Ric Flair. He was already a made man, and Harley made me that night.”
– Ric Flair on the impact of defeating Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight title on his career.
Whenever a proverbial torch is passed, the person having it bestowed upon them often shares a sense of gratitude. In the case of Ric Flair, he was no different. This would be the ushering in of a new era.
Flair held Harley Race in such high regard that capturing the title from him and what that storyline did for him put the often wheeling-dealing, Rolex-wearing, kiss-stealing challenger in the role of hunter rather than hunted.
To respect those who came before him, his appreciation for what Race did did not go unappreciated. But for all that Race and Flair did at Starrcade 83, the lasting memories of Flair’s relationship with Harley Race and how he carried himself would remain.
“Harley Race will always be the most respected man ever to walk that aisle. He was the world champion 24 hours a day.
And if you ever hung around Harley Race, he had a license plate that said the seven-time champion, and he had no problem telling anyone in the bar that”
When a storyline, a feud and a match is replicated year’s later it is a sign that what left a lasting impression the next generation as it did on those that created the moment. This is evident by what was mentioned earlier in the feud between Triple H and Goldberg.
This was the story of the feud between Ric Flair and Harley Race and their culminating match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
