"Starrcade is live for the first time in 19 years" and "36 years ago Starrcade began" are the sort of lines WWE can feed to their announcers to use in spite of this version of the (original) 'Grandaddy Of Em All' being nothing like its forefather.
This isn't exclusive to WWE of course - Cody and AEW have already done this with the very presence of Tony Schiavone and will surely do the same when they run a Bash At The Beach edition of Dynamite in the New Year, but the cognitive dissonance between southern wrestling sycophancy and the Rusev/Bobby Lashley match in particular was a little hard to swallow.
No wonder All Elite Wrestling's flawed mission statement was to "Change The Universe" - we are still clearly all living in Vince McMahon's world.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
