Wrestling On Thanksgiving

I've never been to a wrestling show on Thanksgiving, I would like to.  Growing up pro wrestling on Thanksgiving night was common place starting with Starrcade 83 and then later with Survivor Series.  Before that even in the territories wrestling was huge business on Thanksgiving and Christmas nights.

Starrcade 1983 was the first Starrcade event promoted by Jim Crockett Promotions featuring the stars of the NWA.  That first card was STACKED featuring  the infamous Greg Valentine vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper Dog Collar Match, Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood taking the NWA World Tag Team Titles from The Brisco Brothers, and of course the Main Event with Ric Flair claiming his second NWA Worlds Championship from Harley Race.

Starrcade would be held on Thanksgiving night until 1987, airing on closed circuit from 1983 - 1986 and making it's Pay-Per-View debut with the 1987 edition.  They were forced to move Starrcade by the Pay-Per-View companies because of another Thanksgiving night tradition that started in 1987.

The WWF Survivor Series ran it's debut PPV event on Thanksgiving night in 1987 as direct competition to Starrcade 1987.  Vince McMahon used the leverage of the very popular WrestleMania III forcing PPV companies to choose between carrying Starrcade or Survivor Series. This lead to only a few providers carrying Starrcade.

This event featured only 4 matches all being 5 vs 5 elimination matches, or 5 teams vs 5 teams in the instance of the Tag Team match. This even featured the first televised confrontation between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan since their WrestleMania III main event.

Survivor Series would be held on Thanksgiving Day through 1990, and then in 1991 was moved to Thanksgiving Eve, a night that would host the PPV through 1994.  In 1995 it was moved to Sunday evening.  

One of my all time favorite matches took place 29 years ago today, on Thanksgiving Night November 28, 1985 at Starrcade.  The "I Quit" Steel Cage Match between Tully Blanchard and Magnum TA for the NWA United States Championship. Tully NEVER said "I Quit".

I cannot find any other promotion that ran a PPV in the United States on Thanksgiving.  I'm not aware of any local show happening in Maine on Thanksgiving.   In modern times, the Worcester, Massachusetts based Wrestling Open has now run on Thanksgiving night the last 3 years.

Worcester is just too far to travel on Thanksgiving night for me, thankfully it is broadcast live on IWTV.  Someday I will make it a show on Thanksgiving night mostly to check box to do something that I have read about so extensively in wrestling.   

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book the 2024 Limitless Wrestling Almanac, or any of my other books.

Until next time!