Starrcade (WCW Buys WWF)

Starrcade is a recurring professional wrestling event, originally broadcast via closed-circuit television and eventually broadcast via pay-per-view television. Host originally by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) from 1983-1990, it is now hosted by World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and is regarded as their flagship event of the year. Starrcade 2016 has the record for the highest-attended professional wrestling event held in America, with 102,000 fans in attendance at AT&T Stadium. December 16th 2018 will be the 35th Starrcade and will be held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans Louisiana.

History
From 1983 to 1987, Starrcade was produced by Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the dominant promotion of the NWA, and aired on Thanksgiving Day. In 1987, the WWF scheduled a pay-per-view of their own (Survivor Series), on Thanksgiving night and demanded exclusivity from cable providers on carriage of the event. In order to prevent such a problem, Starrcade was moved to December the following year and the show was held around Christmas Day.

In 1988 JCP was sold to Turner Broadcasting due to financial problems and became WCW, though Starrcade was held under the NWA banner until 1990.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was tradition for JCP to hold major professional wrestling events on Thanksgiving and Christmas, mostly at Greensboro Coliseum. In 1983, JCP created Starrcade as their super card to continue the Thanksgiving tradition, and spread it across its territory on closed-circuit television. It popularized broadcasting on closed-circuit television and was financially successful. From 1987, Starrcade has since been broadcast on pay-per-view, and was the first NWA event to do so.