On November 22nd, 1984, Starrcade took place at the NWA’s event in Greensboro, North Carolina. The main event was called “The Million Dollar Challenge” for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, where Ric Flair successfully defended the title against Dusty Rhodes, and won a kayfabe $1,000,000 prize money. The special guest referee for the title match was boxer Joe Frazier.
The seed for Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes at Starrcade ’84 was planted the previous Thanksgiving. At the end of Starrcade ’83, after Flair topped Harley Race for the NWA World’s Heavyweight Title, Dusty openly staked his claim on the next big shot, putting the “Dream vs. Nature Boy” collision on a slow burn heading into 1984.
Jim Crockett Promotions wanted Starrcade to feel like a true superfight. So when they titled the second Starrcade “The Million Dollar Challenge,” it wasn’t just flashy branding.
The storyline was explicit: the winner would leave Greensboro not only as NWA World Champion but also with a $1,000,000 purse.
This was the way in which it was promoted on television, certainly adding to the big fight feel and spectacle. While the championship was always the goal, the $1,000,000 was, without a doubt, something that typically helps any competitor, regardless of their place on the card, let alone the main event.
The Million Dollar Challenge – Why the Money Stipulation?
On-screen, the $1,000,000 was a dramatic hook: a life-changing purse on top of the richest prize in the sport. Behind the scenes, it was also a smart marketing device.
Jim Crockett Promotions had launched Starrcade specifically to compete with the WWF’s national expansion and to make their November special feel like a legitimate sporting event.
That ethos—adding judges, naming a celebrity referee, touting a giant purse—was how Crockett made Starrcade look and sound like the NWA’s “Super Bowl,” which wasn’t unlike the WWF’s WrestleMania event that would debut nearly four months later.
They went all in on presentation: “Smokin’” Joe Frazier—a former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion—was installed as special guest referee (and ringside judges were introduced on TV to emphasize the big-fight framing).
The Build on TV: Flair the Champion, Rhodes the Challenger of the People
On television through 1984, Flair did what he did best—carry himself as a champion you paid to see lose—while Dusty cut mission-statement promos about chasing the world title for the people.
While the famous “Hard Times” speech came a year later, before Starrcade ’85, it distilled the Rhodes persona that JCP leaned on in 1984: a blue-collar ace promising to take what Flair “cherishes more than anything in the world… the World’s Heavyweight title.”
“And Ric Flair, Nature Boy… Let me leave you with this. One way to hurt Ric Flair, is to take what he cherishes more than anything in the world and that’s the World’s Heavyweight title.
I’m gon’ take it, I been there twice. This time when I take it daddy, I’m gon’ take it for you. Let’s gather for it. Don’t let me down now, ‘cause I came back for you, for that man upstairs that died 10-12 years ago and never got the opportunity to see a real World’s Champion.”
Flair, in countless interviews over the years, has acknowledged how uniquely effective Dusty was as his foil—“one of a kind,” as he put it in later media appearances—underscoring why Crockett kept circling back to this matchup for major cards.
–Ric Flair on Dusty Rhodes being one of a kind
Why include Smokin’ Joe Frazier?
While on the surface it may seem like an unlikely choice, bringing in Joe Frazier wasn’t a random stunt casting. Starrcade had been built to emulate the spectacle of a heavyweight title prizefight, so appointing a boxing legend to police the action sold the story: two world-class competitors, a huge purse, a neutral arbiter, and judges at the ready if it went the distance.
A boxing-style cut stoppage would, as it turned out, become central to the finish—further tying the presentation back to that “big fight” feel Jim Crockett Promotions may have wanted.
The Million Dollar Challenge – The Night in Greensboro
The date was November 22nd, 1984. The venue was the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina, airing on the now-defunct closed-circuit television in front of a crowd of 16,000.
The stipulation was the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship AND a $1 000 000 check going to the winner. Former boxing champion Smokin’ Joe Frazier would act as the special referee for this historic matchup.
The match begins with simple enough exchanges between the two men, featuring basic tie-ups and side headlocks. Smoking Joe Frazier didn’t need to do very much, allowing these two men to battle in the middle of the ring, as evident by the commentary of Bob Caudle and Gordon Solie.
Dusty Rhodes has the early advantage in the match-up. When it appears as though Flair has managed to recover and gain control, Rhodes maintains the advantage.
It was now where Ric Flair had a momentary advantage, only to have Dusty Rhodes recover and lock in the figure four leg lock on the champion, the Nature Boy.
Joe Fraizer is checking on Flair, but he refuses to give up while locked in the hold. But Flair got to the ropes and forced the hold to be broken.
After a momentary break, Rhodes locks in the leg and continues to work it over. With both men on their feet, we see them try to clutch one another in a top wrist lock as time passes in the match.
Rhodes works over Flair in the corner turnbuckle and has the decisive advantage in the match. Flair then backs Rhodes back in the corner and attempts a pair of chops, but Rhodes quickly reverses it and works him over in the corner, then throws him into the corner turnbuckle, forcing him over the top rope and to the floor.
Rhodes goes for a pinning attempt but only gets a count of two. Flair retaliates with a chop but then gets caught on the top rope and is tossed to the main by the American Dream.
Flair then locks in a sleeper hold on Rhodes, but ends up on the outside of the ring. Now, on the outside, both men battle on the floor. But Rhodes is then tossed into the ring post by Ric Flair.
Fans then see a cut over the left eye of Dusty Rhodes, and Joe Fraizer is looking at it, and Flair is like a shark in the water working away on that eye, but Rhodes recovers.
But Fraizer checks on the eye of Dusty Rhodes and is talking to someone outside of the ring, and Fraizer is trying to keep them away from one another and calls for the bell. He stops the match because of the cut over the eye of the American Dream.
After the bell, Rhodes has to be restrained by some of the other talent holding him back as Ric Flair heads back with the $1,000,000 check heading back up the aisleway as Dusty Rhodes is being tended too by his partner and friend Manny Fernandez.
The result was unfortunate and certainly one that came at a point in the match where Rhodes had a decisive advantage both in momentum and fan support.
Had it not been for the ring post spot causing the eye gash, would the result have been different? History will never know.
