I found the solution, kind of. IN GUI go to
System Administration > Configuration > Global System Options > Trust Communication Settings
There you will find a check box for "Enable Nodes Trust Communication"
Uncheck this and the box will not check certificate.
However, turns out when I do this I get error that 5.8 can't register with a 5.5 master :(
Off to rebuild my VM as a 5.5 ACS server and use that till I upgrade my master to 5.8.