From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was tradition for the NWA member JCP to hold major professional wrestling events at Thanksgiving and Christmas, often at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina in the center of JCP's Virginia, North and South Carolina territory. In 1983, JCP created Starrcade as their supercard to continue the Thanksgiving tradition, bringing in wrestlers from other NWA affiliates and broadcasting the show throughout its territory on closed-circuit television. Starrcade soon became the flagship event of the year for JCP, their Super Bowl event featuring their most important storyline feuds and championship matches. The 1986 event was the fourth show to use the Starrcade name, and the last event to take place in two different locations at once.
Storylines
The Starrcade show featured a number of professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing, scripted feuds, plots, and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either heels or faces as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Magnum T.A. was originally scheduled to face Ric Flair at the 1986 Starrcade, but was left temporarily paralyzed and had to end his wrestling career as a result of a car accident. The NWA decided to have Nikita Koloff, who was engaged in a feud with Ronnie Garvin at the time, turn face as a result and took Magnum T.A.'s place in the main event of the show.
Event
The 1986 Starrcade show took place in two separate locations, the Greensboro Coliseum and The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. The shows were broadcast live on closed-circuit TV to the other arena. The show alternated between matches, starting with Tim Horner and Nelson Royal defeated Rocky and Don Kernodle in a Tag team match at the Greensboro Coliseum, then switching over to the first match at the Omni, alternating until Ric Flair and Nikita Koloff faced off in the main event at the Omni. Switching between shows allowed the Atlanta crowd to watch The Road Warriors wrestle The Midnight Express while the steel cage was set up for the Greensboro Coliseum main event match between The Rock 'n' Roll Express and the Anderson Brothers. The Road Warriors won the "Skywalkers" scaffold match by knocking both Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey off of the scaffold, dropping into the ring below. After the match manager Paul Ellering chased Jim Cornette up the scaffold; this led to Cornette suffering a legitimate severe knee injury when he fell from the underside of the scaffold onto Big Bubba Rogers. Rogers was supposed to catch Cornette, but failed to do so. Cornette did not land properly and had to be carried out of the ring. Road Warrior Hawk wrestled the match with a broken leg, an injury he suffered during a match during a Japanese tour The Road Warriors did a month earlier.
