Background
Starrcade was headlined by the match between Ric Flair and Ron Garvin for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The booking committee wanted to end Flair's reign as the champion, but their top preferences of who to be the new champion could not be chosen due to the circumstances. Garvin was chosen instead, and he defeated Flair to win the title on September 25. He was not well accepted as the champion by fans.
Jim Crockett Promotions had previously only broadcast Starrcade on closed-circuit television while the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a competitor, had started to broadcast events on pay-per-view in 1985 with WrestleMania, and was very successful. The 1987 Starrcade was the first pay-per-view event of the National Wrestling Alliance. To compete with Starrcade, the WWF introduced the Survivor Series event, and held it on the same night as Starrcade. The WWF also limited the amount of pay-per-view providers that would carry Starrcade by not allowing providers to carry WrestleMania IV if they did not carry Survivor Series exclusively. Only a small amount of providers carried Starrcade, and it drew a 3.30 buy rate while Survivor Series drew a 7.0 buy rate.
Read more about this topic: Starrcade (1987)
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