Woman O Woman Wont You Marry Me Now: Ric Flair & WCW Nitro from April 1996-June 1996

“I stayed up all night throwing touchdown pass after touchdown pass and LOOK at my wide receivers [Woman & Miss Elizabeth]” – “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, WCW Nitro May 13, 1996

I Got The Whole World In My Hands

I got wicked sick about a month ago (bacterial sinus infection, not COVID-19) and I needed something mindless to watch as I spent an hour at a time transforming my bathroom into a steam room. I settled on watching old episodes of Nitro. I grew up on Nitro from 1997 on and there is something so nostalgic about the show, the announcers, its set and the wrestlers that I love going back to it whenever I just want to watch something that makes me feel good. Since I started watching in July of 1997, I like going back and checking out the older episodes because it gives me the same feel, but at the same time being new to me.

I decided to start with Nitro after Uncensored because it was the end of the silly The Alliance To End Hulkamania (read: Horsemen & Dungeon of Doom) storyline, but still before Scott Hall’s debut on May 27th. So I was intrigued what WCW’s landscape was like during this, what was the main story and who were the major players.

I was pleasantly surprised at how fun the Nitro was from Uncensored up to Bash at the Beach so this from March 26, 1996 to July 7, 1996. Nitro was a one hour show up until May 27th when it expanded to two hours. When it expanded to two hours is when they introduced Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko as the hour one announce team and Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan as the hour 2 announce team. When I was growing up, Tony was the consistent thread through an episode along with Mike Tenay, but they would rotate Larry Z and Bobby Heenan out. This would not be a bad idea for WWE to try especially with the 3 hour RAW. The other fun they did is that they shoot off pyro at the beginning of hour 2. It felt like a party on Nitro. I cant remember which guest on Austin’s podcast said it but he said what makes AEW’s Dynamite stand out is that it feels like a party. I think that’s one of things WCW did really well in the early days of Nitro. It was so fresh and exciting. You couldn’t wait to see what happens next and this had stood the test of time as the show still feels very fun to watch. Besides the atmosphere, the other thing that made Nitro so much fun to watch were the colorful characters and it also helped that Hulk Hogan was gone for the bulk of this period.

Uncensored was main evented by Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage beating eight grown men in an absurd cage match which I have not seen. I actually now want to watch the build for it because I think the Ric Flair and Kevin Sullivan promos leading up to it would be gold. Hulk Hogan would stick around for three more weeks with his last appearance on Nitro being April 15th where he would defeat Kevin Sullivan & Arn Anderson (remnants of Horsemen/Dungeon Alliance) in a handicap match, intimidated Woman & Miss Elizabeth, humiliated Jimmy Hart and owned The Giant. It all felt very disgusting, ego-driven and stale. It was easily the worst part of WCW during this time period. It was very forced and so transparent that it was desperately trying to overcome Hogan’s shortcomings as top babyface by putting him over every top heel besides Flair all at once on Nitro. Once, he left Nitro never felt like that again. The show was dynamic and interesting and it all ran through one man: Ric Flair.

“O, Mean Gene, how it is hard to be humble!” – “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, Spring 1996 pretty much every single Nitro

Ric Flair started this campaign as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion and ended this campaign winning the US Heavyweight Championship from Konnan. The month of April was built around his feud with The Giant which was a part of the overarching Horsemen vs Dungeon of Doom, heel vs heel feud. Slamboree was built around him and Randy Savage, mortal enemies teaming in the Lethal Lottery. Great American Bash was sold on Ric Flair teaming with Arn Anderson against the Football Players, Steve “Mongo” McMichael & Kevin Greene. It was not until Bash at the Beach that he took a backseat to the Outsiders. He did all this alongside his valets, Woman & Miss Elizabeth, who he affectionately called “The Girls”.

What a trio these three were! It was such a great old school heel act. It was just about being an asshole. Ric Flair was such a greedy, delusional, vain, and low-down cheat; it was awesome. He reveled in spending Miss Elizabeth’s alimony from Macho Man Randy Savage. He taunted the football players (Steve “Mongo” McMichael & Kevin Greene) for being half-man he was and that Debra was really lusting after him, not the other way around.  He loved flaunting to the world that he got to spend time in the company of such beauties. “O Woman O Woman wont you marry me now!”
A lot of people say post-WWF heel Ric Flair became a caricature of himself. He did become more over the top and more of a supervillain during his time in mid-90s WCW. He lost all volume control in the 1990s and became very loud all the time. One funny thing I really enjoyed about this Flair run he would sing a couple lyrics every promo out of tune and it always popped me. It was fun and wrestling is missing that fun. He cheated a lot more and relied a lot more on tricks and gimmicks. During every match, Woman would cheat nonstop to garner the victory from hot coffee (which was preposterous), to high heel shoes, to a well-timed kick to Konnan’s gonnads, Woman was always there to help the Nature Boy to victory and Flair always tied it off with having his foot on the ropes. It is easy to believe Flair had become a shell of himself, but I disagree with this notion as I still feel Flair was one of the more fleshed out characters in pro wrestling.

Well he was not wrong! WOO!

The one thing that really stood out about WCW during this time period is that they did not do much in terms of building storylines around their wrestlers. Instead they would book a match and let the fact these two characters were colliding sell itself. This only works of course if the characters sell themselves. I think in WCW’s landscape that was true. They were lucky in the fact they inherited 5 main event stars (Hogan, Savage, Flair, Sting & Luger) from the 1980s with well-defined and easily distinguishable characters. I think unlike the others Flair actually kept his character fresh in the 90s. He stopped hanging around the Horsemen so much and started hanging around “The Girls”. He cheated more than ever because he was older and more than ever was trying to hang onto past glory. He was leaning more into the playboy aspect of his character than ever before. It all centered around a very important idea in Ric Flair’s mind and that is what a man ought to be. That’s how he taunted Randy Savage & the Football players he would go after their manhood because his own manhood is so near & dear to him.

If there is one thing I recommend above all else from this time period is go watch all the Ric Flair promos with Mean Gene from this era with Woman’s fingers crawling up Mean Gene’s shoulder, Flair shouting incessantly and Miss Elizabeth wondering what the fuck she has gotten herself into, it all works together in one awesome heel package. It is easy to overlook Miss Elizabeth but she is essential in all this. Even when Randy Savage was a heel, Elizabeth was the reluctant babyface. She didn’t help him cheat. She was being pressured by her insane, jealous husband. For her to turn heel was absolutely shocking at the time. It was clearly dwarfed by Hogan turning at Bash At The Beach, but it was crazy that girl next door betrayed the Macho Man and hooked up with the loathsome Nature Boy. Unfortunately, her lack of acting chops did not afford them as strong of a follow through, but her mere presence with the Nature Boy made the heel act feel like a main event act.

The only major fumble during this run of Nitro (besides the aforementioned Hogan burial of the Dungeon of Doom) was that Ric Flair was not allowed to go in front of the live crowd in Charlotte, NC on June 24th. As was customary for Nitro, the announcers would run down the card at the outset of the show, spontaneously and organically a thunderous “We Want Flair” chant rung out. During the Horsemen (Anderson/Benoit) vs Rock N Roll Express match, the Rock N Rolls were BOOED and they chanted “We Want Flair” (the previous week, it was insane how over Arn Anderson was against the American Males, Horsemen Country was a very real thing). They chanted “We Want Flair” during Randy Savage’s match and during Carolina Panthers’ Kevin Greene’s promo. I know Ric Flair was a heel at the time, but fucking hell how did you rob these people of Ric Flair. The pop would have been huge. At the end of this episode, the Outsiders invade with baseball bats causing Sting & Lex Luger to lose the WCW World Tag Team Titles to Harlem Heat in a triangle match (also including the Steiner Brothers). If the Horsemen confronted them, they would have needed a new roof on the arena because that crowd would have blown it off. I really felt bad for those people even in 2020 because they so desperately wanted to see Ric Flair and they were robbed that. The kayfabe reason was that he was under guard in his locker room safely away from Savage & Greene. There are times to respect kayfabe and there are times to give the fans what they want and this was a time to give them what they wanted.



This is already going much longer than I expected, but hell there was a lot that happened in these three months. Lets keep the ball rolling with the Horsemen. In April when Ric Flair was either teaming with or facing The Giant, it felt like the Horsemen were not a thing. Anderson was hanging around the Dungeon, Benoit was on tour in Japan and Pillman had left the company. So it felt like Flair and The Girls was what was left and that was no Horsemen. After Flair dropped the title to The Giant, his focused was renewed on Savage and also Debra McMichael, wife of Steve Mongo McMichael. They reintroduced Ric Flair & Arn Anderson as a tag team and they would face McMichael & Greene at Great American Bash with Randy Savage in the corner of the football players and Bobby The Brain Heenan in the corner of the Horsemen. This was the last appearance of the classic Bobby The Brain character. He was always so great in his interactions with Flair and there is a great moment on the Nitro after Great American Bash where The Brain is being chased by the Macho Man and he does his classic over the top rope leap to floor. Wow! The Brain still had it then. With the New World Order looming, it was our last chance to see classic Brain.

In parallel, Kevin Sullivan was attempting to maintain his alliance with the Horsemen because he feared that when Hogan returned he would gunning for him and he wanted allies. However, Benoit thought he was a snake and wanted to end the alliance. Sullivan thought Benoit was like Pillman weak and undeserving of being a Horseman. Anderson was caught in the middle and made it seem like he was siding with Sullivan, but ended up turning on Sullivan at Great American Bash during the classic Benoit/Sullivan brawl that ended up in the men’s bathroom (“Tony there’s a lady in men’s bathroom”-Dusty). Finally, we get the Mongo heel turn when Debra comes out with a Haliburton full of money and bashes Kevin Greene’s head in with the briefcase. It felt like the Horsemen had all the momentum in the world. Of course, this would all be squandered in deference to the New World Order. The Horsemen of the 90s is something that would have kept Nitro hot and done well, but Hulk Hogan turning heel is on whole other world, brutha. Horsemen were correctly sacrificed, but still this was a great run for Ric Flair and proof positive that he could hold down the fort basically by himself while Hogan was away for three whole months.

I am going to do the rest of this in bullet format.

• Macho Man delivered some great unhinged promos during this time trying to get in the building. His best was after beating Hugh Morris and getting up in the Turner suit’s grill. Most of his matches were 90s Savage formula matches. Long heat segment and short comeback with the Elbow for the win. I thought the matches against Fit Finlay (Belfast Bruiser) and Greg Valentine were his best. He had a match with Flair after Great American Bash and he has had better, but it was fun. It was the blow off to the feud as they were transitioning Savage into his role as top babyface against the New World Order. The feud deserved a better, more climatic ending.
•  The Giant was the World Champion during the bulk of this time period. He slowly got better as a promo but was still trying too hard to be menacing and knowing what we know now about The Giant just wasn’t who he was as a person. They worked really hard to get the Chokeslam over. I liked how he would chant “Chokeslam” in the background of a Sullivan or Jimmy Hart promo to get it over. They did a great job playing up his size as the reason behind his confidence.
•  Kevin Sullivan & Jimmy Hart it is amazing how these two were such huge acts in the middle of the 1990s. They would fade into the background after the New World Order, but after Ric Flair these were your top two heels in 1995 and 1996 which is crazy to think about. Sullivan had not had a big time run on top since Florida and Jimmy Hart always played second fiddle to Heenan in WWF so it had been since Memphis that he was a top heel manager. Good for them, but crazy they got a second run on top. Sullivan, probably cause he was booking, cut the most story-driven promos and if you were smart you knew where a story was going based on a Sullivan promo.
•  Lex Luger & Sting – I think they could have done so much with the Lex Luger character. The whole he is a babyface with Sting and heel with everybody else is so good and it is so real life. There are so many people that have kinda scummy friends/family members, but we put with them because we love them and we try to help them change.  Also because nobody is all good or all bad. However, I just felt like they dropped the ball with Luger more often than not. I wanted them to play up the relationship with Jimmy Hart more. Slamboree and Great American Bash were main evented by Giant World Championship defenses even though both PPV was sold on Ric Flair angles and matches. They did so little to build these matches up. They put more effort into John Tenta leaves the Dungeon of Doom and takes on Big Bubba Rogers storyline than these. I liked The Giant chokeslamming Lex Luger through the table a week before his Slamboree defense against Sting. That was a hot, crazy angle especially for 1996 and really put the chokeslam and Giant over. They do the interesting finish where Luger/Hart are handcuffed together and they are tussling over the Megaphone and it ends up cracking Sting in the head. Did Luger mean to hit Sting or was it an accident? However, this all got erased by the New World Order when everyone had to go babfyace. Again, a big missed opportunity. The Great American Bash match between Giant vs Luger, had almost no build. It was just Chokeslam vs Torture Rack which is a solid story but they could have leaned into more. They had a much better match at Starrcade 1996 so check that out instead. Finally, there was a random mini-push of Steven Regal right before Great American Bash. Regal had the awesome series with Finlay including the very novel and cool Parking Lot Brawl. Then Regal slapped Sting in an interview segment and gets a match with Sting. Regal & is Bluebloods go over some midcard babyfaces but he loses to Sting at the Bash and is shunted back down the card. Very peculiar.
•  “Diamond” Dallas Page, the only man outside the Big Six (Hogan, Savage, Flair, Sting, Luger and Giant) to get a consistent push during this time period was Dallas. Page is such a try hard I love it. You tell him to be a heel. He is a fucking heel. He is such a scum bag. The king of the gimmicks. Don’t tell Page less is more because he will tell you less is just less, brutha! He won the Lord of the Ring Battlebowl ring which everyone wanted to call the Lord of the Rings and would trip over themselves not to say. He had the chains, the sunglasses, the cigar, the Self Hi-Five, the weird psychedelic thing he did with his hands. He oversold everything. He bumped like a cartoon. He made funny faces. He made a royal horse’s ass out of himself. It was all so fucking glorious! He wanted to be the biggest scummy, clown heel of all time and he just rocked it. Watch the Craig Pittman match for his most over the top performance but pretty much every DDP match from this time period is so entertaining because of how much effort he puts into the match. That’s why I love DDP and I will always rank him in my Top 100 wrestlers of all time because no one and I mean no one tries harder than Diamond Dallas Page.
•  In terms of great matches well there are the obvious ones:
• o Fit Finlay vs Steven Regal – Nitro April 29th Parking Lot Brawl
• o Dean Malenko vs Rey Mysterio – Great American Bash 1996, my pick for WCW Match of the Year 1996
• o Rey Mysterio vs Psychosis – Bash at the Beach 1996
• o Chris Benoit vs Kevin Sullivan – Great American Bash 1996 Fall Count Anywhere
•  The not so obvious ones include
• o Ric Flair vs The Giant -Nitro March 25th
• o Ric Flair vs Lex Luger – Nitro April 1st you feel like you transported back to 1988
• o Nasty Boys vs Public Enemy – Nitro April 15th Fucking insane brawl. Knobbs and Saggs still the hell out of Public Enemy, I wish that the Nasties got a run in ECW. They would have ruled that tag division
• o Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit – Nitro April 22nd not as good as their 95 stuff but it is Eddie vs Benoit
• o Dean Malenko vs Jushin Liger – Nitro May 6th
• o Ric Flair vs Eddie Guerrero – Nitro May 20th
• o Faces of Fear vs Lex Luger & Sting- Nitro May 20th, watch this one! Barbarian was the best worker in 1996 that no one talked about. He should have been pushed to the moon.
• o Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs American Males – Nitro May 27th , the best of the “Flair & Anderson get ready to take on the Football players so we put them in a bunch of tag matches” matches. Perfect Horsemen psychology
• o DDP vs Craig Pittman – Nitro May 27th I love DDP and this was such a DDP match so over the top. So many fun spots. DDP rules!
• o Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs Rock N Roll Express – Nitro June 3rd It is Flair vs orton, you cant go wrong!
• o Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs Sting & Lex Luger – Nitro June 10th. In 1988, this would have been the biggest thing ever. Still good craic as the Irish would say.
• o Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit vs American Males – Nitro June 17th just watch this to see how fucking over Arn Anderson is.
• o Randy Savage vs Ric Flair – Nitro June 17th not their best match but it is the blowoff to their epic 1995-1995 feud so worth seeing.
• o Dean Malenko vs Rey Mysterio – Nitro June 17th not as famous as their July8th Nitro match but this one is still very good and Mysterio’s debut on the show.
• o The Giant vs Scott Steiner – Nitro June 17th The Giant’s best title defense of his reign. Great rib selling by Scotty and a focused attack by the Giant. They build the comeback well and Steiner’s suplexes are impressive and pop the crowd.
• o Eddie Guerrero vs Barbarian – Nitro June 24th The night where Barbarian got more over with crowd because of his workrate than Eddie. Push Barbarian!
• o Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit vs Rock N Roll Express – Nitro June 24th The Horsemen are so over in Charlotte that Rock N Rolls get booed! Arn vs Morton, you cant go wrong!

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 46: Best of World Championship Wrestling 1988-1990 (Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Sting)

Hey Yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 46:

The Best of World Championship Wrestling 1988-1990

Objective:  Break up the Greatest Match Ever Project (hosted at http://gweproject.freeforums.net/) into more manageable chunks to help me build my Top 100 List for the project.

Motivation: Contribute to the discussion around these matches to enrich my own understanding of pro wrestling and give a fresh perspective for old matches and even hopefully discover great pro wrestling matches that have been hidden by the sands of time.

Subject: This forty-sixth volume of Pro Wrestling Love is the beginning of the Top 12 countdown of the best matches to take place in Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling from 1988-1990. In 1988, for all intents and purposes, pro wrestling became a duopoly of World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. World Championship Wrestling was born out of a series of mergers and acquisitions between the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Kansas City and Mid-South Territory (Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana). In 1988, it was still under Jim Crockett Promotions with Dusty Rhodes in charge of operations, but by the end of the year Dusty was ousted as booker and Jim Crockett sold to Ted Turner which formally changed the name to World Championship Wrestling. The year 1989 is generally considered the apogee of American Pro Wrestling as Ric Flair had probably the greatest single calendar year in the history of the business of pro wrestling between his two feuds with Ricky Steamboat and Terry Funk. The year 1990 was marred by multiple poor booking decisions and pissed away the great booking capital afforded by 1989 and the great young talent (Lex Luger and Sting) waiting in the wings. The year 1990 is a good stopping point because 1991 sees Ric Flair leave WCW.   You can revisit past Pro Wrestling Love Volumes at ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com. You can check out the full version of these reviews in ProWrestlingOnly.com by going to the forums and finding the folders associated with the date of the match.

Contact Info: @superstarsleeze on Twitter, Instagram & ProWrestlingOnly.com.

DOUBLE CHICKENWING~!

Honorable Mentions

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair - NWA/WCW 3/18/1989

The house show match from the vaunted 1989 series. Flair always asserts that him and Steamboat were having even better matches on the house show loop. What this match tells us is that they were definitely not taking days off. They were putting every bit as much effort into this match as they did Clash VI, which is impressive. Since this match has almost no audio, I liken this to watching the best possible silent movie and these are two of the best silent movie actors.

Horsemen (Flair, AA, Tully) vs Blond Ambition (Sting, Luger & Windham) - Main Event 4/3/88

NWA World Tag Team Champions Lex Luger & Barry Windham vs Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard - NWA World Championship Wrestling 4/23/88

The first match I want to re-watch again at some point because I think I short-changed the rating, but I don’t think it would make it into the Top 12. I remember an incredibly fun, popcorn match with the MOST MOLTEN CROWD EVER! Luger, Sting and Windham, the 90s sure as hell looked bright! The 4/23/88 match is the Luger heel turn and is a solid match, but should definitely be watched for the angle.

NWA US Champion Barry Windham vs Eddie Gilbert - NWA World Championship Wrestling 12/24/88

Terry Funk vs Eddie Guerrero - WCW 5/20/89

Two great TV matches here. The first one is more competitive and is a great veteran champion vs young lion match. Windham looks primed to be the heir to Flair as the heel World Champion. Funk vs Guerrero is one of the best squash matches of all time.

Ric Flair & Barry Windham vs Midnight Express - Clash of the Champions IV

Flair & Windham vs Steamboat & Gilbert - NWA World Championship Wrestling 1/21/89

Ric Flair & Sting vs The Great Muta & Dick Slater - Clash of the Champions VIII

We don’t talk about Flair as a tag wrestler too often, but in these matches he absolutely rocks it. He is a joy to watch on the apron as a babyface in the match against Muta and Slater. The Horsemen vs MX dream match actually lives up to the hype. The Flair/Windham vs Steamboat/Gilbert match is one of the all time great TV angles and really set up Flair vs Steamboat at Chi-Town Rumble as something big.

NWA World Champion Ric Flair vs The Great Muta - World Championship Wrestling 11/18/89

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Bobby Eaton - NWA Main Event 1/7/90

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Brian Pillman - 2/17/90

Ric Flair was not just getting it done on PPV in this era. He might as well have been the TV champion given the frequency he was on TV and just how amazing his output was. Flair vs. Muta was a dream match at the time and it comes off great. I think Flair vs Eaton and Flair vs Pillman are two of the best free TV matches of all time. In the Eaton match, Flair at his babyface best and just a month later he is at his heel best against Pillman. So very physical. Especially against Pillman, definitely had the same vibe as with Garvin. Flair vs Pillman on a PPV or Clash in 1990 or 1991 would have been gang busters.

NWA US Tag Team Champions Midnight Express vs Fantastics - NWA Pro 3/26/88

NWA US Tag Team Champions Midnight Express vs Fantastics - NWA Worldwide 5/14/88

NWA US Tag Team Champions Fantastics vs Midnight Express - Great American Bash 88

Tremendous series of matches that dates back to 84 in Mid South and then in World Class, but these are their best matches. What a way to debut a tag team to give the Fantastics the entire hour of Pro. That’s special and they hit out of the park. These two teams defined 80s workrate in the tag team division as a blend of comedy, high end offense and big time selling. There is one match conspicuous by its absence I wonder how high it made it?

NWA US Tag Team Champions Midnight Express vs Southern Boys - GAB 1990

A lot of people love this match and myself included, but it falls short of the Top 12 for me. The Midnight Express of Lane and Eaton had such a strong run in this period in a stretch without Flair they would have placed more in the Top 12. This is the Midnight Express at their best, a perfect mix of comedy, high-end offense and a big time finish run. It still holds up.

NWA World Tag Team Champions Doom vs Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Barry Windham) - NWA Starrcade 1990

Another match I want to revisit. Just a gnarly, violent brawl between four big hosses. This is a Bill Watts Mid-South special but with extra violence. Great sprint.

NWA US Heavyweight Champion  Lex Luger vs Ricky Steamboat - GAB 1990

NWA US Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger vs Brian Pillman - Halloween Havoc 1990

It gets overshadowed by Ric Flair’s out of this world 1989 just how strong Luger’s campaign was in 1989. A really terrific heel turn against Steamboat that led to an awesome match as Great American Bash and then a really strong match against a wet behind the ears Brian Pillman. The Pillman showed us what a NWA Champion Luger would look like and it looked damn good.

Western States Heritage Champion Barry Windham vs Tully Blanchard 

 NWA World Championship Wrestling 1/23/88

This last match to be cut and I think it is a great hidden gem find by Where the Big Boys Play Podcast because I had never heard of it anywhere else. Great old school babyface vs heel match. We all know Tully can bump & stooge with the best of him. Windham forces Tully to work a strong heat segment by selling so well. This is by far the best Tully Blanchard control segment I have ever seen. Barry’s comeback was just so dramatic. Definitely check this hidden gem out.

Top 12 Matches of World Championship Wrestling 1988-1990

#12. WCW US Tag Team Champions Steiner Brothers vs Nasty Boys – Halloween Havoc 1990

I remembered this match fondly, but this was even better than I remembered. It was not just a heavyweight bombfest, but actually a very well-structured match with great progression. It actually felt very All Japan with all the bombs, saves, suplexes and just general chaos. Loved how they just started with a brawl and Saggs throwing Scotty into the railing and bouncing a chair off his back. Saggs is definitely my favorite Nasty Boy. The Steiners' shine is awesome. Top Rope Belly-to-Belly Suplex, Butterfly Powerbomb and Steiner Bulldog. Electric! Nasty Boys smash Scotty's back with a chair and now we go to work. Nasties are throwing all sorts of suplexes on Scotty's back and working great holds. Loved the belly 2 belly out of the bearug as a hope spot. Rick is a little overzealous thinking Scotty would make the tag and hits a MONSTAH STEINERLINE! Then takes a wicked tumble over the top rope and was so pissed he smashes the back of Saggs' skull, which he blades off of. The work on Scotty's back continues and the Nasties are actually really damn good working cutoffs and building the drama to the tag. When Scotty does tag, the place explodes and Rick just destroys everything with huge Steinerlines. I love the double Steinerline from the top rope and Saggs takes it like a man to the back. Rick signals for Scotty to for the Frankensteiner and the place explodes in anticipation. Scotty hits the MUTHA OF ALL FRANKENSTEINERS! Everyone always says Nasties' best match or a contender with their '94 Cactus brawls. But the Steiners actually don't really have a laundry list of great matches either. In fact, you could make the argument this is the Steiners' best match without it being the Nasties best match. I need to rewatch that one great MVC match, but other than that I got this at number two for the Steiners. Incredible bombfest with a relaly strong middle section that builds to the finish. One of the best North American tags of the decade! ****1/2

#11. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Sting – Clash of the Champions I

First 15 minutes: Ric Flair in that bearhug is a great exhibition of why he is one of the greatest of all time. The pain expression, biting his thumb, clenching his fist and the wails of agony. God, he makes even the most boring holds very entertaining. I feel like this is a cross of the "musclehead" Flair match (Nikita/Hawk) and the Butch Reed style match. The first five minutes is tests of strength but also plenty of traditional shoot off into the ropes, criss cross movement Flair style. You feel like they are not telegraphing the draw. However, once they hit the Butch Reed headlock portion is when I felt that the telegraphing became evident. While I didnt care much for the Butch Reed matches, I thought these were better because they worked in and out of the headlocks more frequently and with more interesting, dynamic portions. I really liked the spot where Flair throws Sting out of the ring and he lands on his feet and he immediately leaps back into the ring. Watching a lot of Flair that is a typical Flair spot to buy himself some time and ultimately take over on the outside. This shows that those tricks would not work. He used this spot with Magnum when he was working that series in 1985. I really liked Sting catching Flair in the press slam on two occasions on the criss cross. Flair loves to use motion in a kayfabe sense to create offense and in a non-kayfabe sense to generate excitement, you see the early portion Sting winning all these battles usually with the press slam. You are generating excitement from the motion and the payoff is the babyface press slam is just smart pro wrestling psychology. Then on one drop down, Sting just jumps on him with and clamps down the headlock. This shows Sting is smart (which is a shocker) because he is not just blindly following routine he sees an opportunity goes for it. Flair's majority of offense is coming from non-clean breaks as one would expect. He lands a couple good shots to the ribs, but cant sustain any momentum. Again, this makes Sting look like a viable champion because he is not just ragdolling Flair, but overcoming his shortcuts. There was one awkward sequence when Sting misses a dropkick but Flair takes a Flair Flop. The first third of the match is that great bearhug that I opened with. I really think thats the best bearhug I have ever seen. This is way better than I remember. It is quite engaging and Flair is doing a great job leading in the match. 

Middle 15 minutes: Tremendous Ric Flair heat segment. I am actually a little disappointed they did so many Sting hope spots because I think they had so much in the tank. This middle section is is defined by the overeager Sting making rookie mistake after rookie mistake. As Ric Flair is hollering out "My back, my back", Sting lets go of the bearhug. I get it. He was frustrated and had grown impatient, but that was the start of the downfall. I love how gradual the transition is. First Sting misses an elbow drop but he can still whip Flair hard into the corner, but he goes charging in and Flair moves and Sting hits hard on the buckles and hurts his ribs. Still Sting perseveres and tries to mount for the ten punch in the corner but Flair comes out and hits the inverted atomic drop. Now it is Rolex Time, brutha. He throws Sting out and whips him hard into the steel railing repeatedly. Flair is targetting the back and great selling from Sting. I really, really liked the backrakes and then fishhook! Flair was getting nasty. Sting did a lot of No Selling to get back into the match. I like No Selling; it definitely beats just going back on offense. At least it signals to the offense something cool is happening. I also like that each time it looked like Sting would gain momentum he would get overeager and fuck up. First it was a flying lariat into the steel post and then a lariat over the top rope onto the floor. The side headlock and bearhug were serving Sting so well as soon as he started leaving his feet he started to dig himself in a hole. I love that these moves were being treated as high risk moves because they are! They are NOT gimmes! What I didnt like is that there were so many of them that they lost their luster. I think they could have built off the flying lariat to the post that they went back to Sting on offense too quickly. I did like the top rope Sting crossbody as a nearfall. Then as the second 15 minutes was ending Flair hits a kneecrusher. We had three different body parts and four major momentum swings to Flair in a 15 minute time period. As much as I enjoy Flairism and its chaotic nature, this was too much and things were not allowed to breathe. It is amazing that you can claim things are being rushed in a 45 minute match, but they were. Flair works the leg very well as expected. Kneecrushers, kicks, knees and chops to the knee. It only dawned on me recently but he really loved the back suplex as his setup move to the Figure-4. It makes sense you need to get your opponent flat on his back and it is cooler than a bodyslam. I thought they established a good foundation in the first 15 minutes. I liked the story of Sting making a ton of rookie mistakes in this 15 minutes but it is tempered by the fact that I thought it was a little rushed and the Flair heat segments did not feel fleshed out. 

Final 15 minutes: Ok it is official, this match is way, way better than I remember it. I loved this thread they weaved of Sting being able to ever hit a move when he leaves his feet. If Sting just works holds, he can  stay in control, but he cant win the match either that way. So needs to take these chances but they never pay off. Until he finally hits the Stinger Splash with 30 seconds left and then applies the Scorpion Deathlock...I mean how fucking great is that! Lets take it from the top, Sting is in the Figure-4 at the start of this third. I really thought there was some exceptional selling from both men. I really thought Flair sold the turnover well. Stinger goes for a splash on the mat, but Flair gets the knees up. See Sting cant buy a big spot. But when it comes time to put on the abdominal stretch he can get that. If Sting can keep it basic, he can use his strength, but he cant put the match away that way. He grabs Flair by the feet and pulls him over into the corner and posts him! I love it! Sting uses the figure-4 see now this is a submission hold. Of course this does not get it done, but now we go into overdrive with Flair doing the Flair Flip right over the celebrity judges and Sting kicking ass on the outside. We get all the great Flair sunset flip spots; I really liked the Flair Flip->Crossbody roll through for nearfall for Sting. In this fracas, Sting absolutely crashes and burns on a Stinger Splash in the corner and ends up on the outside. Nasty bump. Great reinforcement that Sting has controlled the match, but cant hit the home run. Then with time dwindling and all the rapid nearfalls, we finally get that Stinger Splash that finally lands and the Scorpion Deathlock as time expires. It is ruled a draw. 

I thought I was going to like this match, but I ended up loving it! I had seen twice before, but I think once I picked up on the thread that Sting just couldnt buy a highspot and they really treated high risk moves as just that high risk moves that match was really enhanced. The first 15 minutes is very basic but establishes that Sting can do Pro Wrestling 101, but you cant beat the Nature Boy that way. The middle 15 minutes is Flair gaining his advantages because Sting is impatient and keeps making mistakes going for the home run. Flair is great on offense during this time. The last 15 minutes is just balls to the wall can Sting pull out a major upset. Whats amazing is half of Sting's offense was just fucking No Selling. Flair took a greenhorn and made him look like The Man. Flair was just on fire. I cant say enough about his selling in the holds. Just so damn good. Look how good he was when he going for those backrakes and fishhooks, he looked nasty. In that last 15 minutes when it is all cardio and it is a race against the clock thats Flair in his element. This is A-Grade Flair Spot Calling combined with a very compelling Flair performance and a game opponent, thats all the recipe for one of the best matches of all-time. You know whats crazy, is I think they needed more time! I think some of this match was rushed that they could have spread out some of those Sting mistakes that this match would be even better! Only Ric Flair could ever need more time than 45 minutes to take his match to next level. He rocks! I am saying it here this match has become so overrated that it is now underrated. Clash of Champions I with MX vs Fantastics at ***** for me and Luger/Windham vs AA/Tully at ****3/4 and with this at a whopping ****3/4, it is undeniable to me that Clash I is the greatest US card of all time! 

#10. NWA World Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs

Lex Luger & Barry Windham – Clash of the Champions I

Balls out sprint! Luger killed it at the beginning. Manhandling the Horsemen and he came to win. Signals for Torture Rack and hoists Blanchard up, but AA attacks the leg. I love babyfaces going for quick victories. They work a short but energetic heat segment on Luger's leg, Luger kicks Arn into Tully and they knock heads. Here comes Windham to kick some ass. Powerslam, Lariat and sleeper. Love Blanchard in this he is a total schmuck in the best way possible. AA rubs his shoudlers after sleeper great spot. Windham gets clocked in ab stretch by The Enforcer who drops him in a heap on a DDT and then SPINEBUSTER1 Just like that the Horsemen are in control. Windham does some awesome next level selling. I love the extended barrage of hope spots needed to earn the hot tag. He is just throwing desperation right hand bombs against the Horsemen. SLINGSHOT SUPLEX! KICKOUT~! HOLY SHIT! Greensboro is fucking rocking tonight! MOLTEN ALL NIGHT LONG! Best crowd in US history? Windham clocks Blanchard and falls into the Total Package! LUGER DESTROY! JoJo Dillon has a chair and Luger sends Double A's skull into the chair. 1-2-3! GREENSBORO EXPLODES! ONE OF THE LOUDEST POPS EVER! Luger's celebratory leap is the number one thing I remember from this match having been burned into my mind from previous viewings.

Blanchard made the faces look like a million bucks. Arn brought the street cred. Windham brought that awesome babyface selling and Luger was an offensive dynamo! Amazing sprint tag team match!

#9. Midnight Express vs Rock ‘n’ Roll Express – Wrestlewar 1990

What I think is so amazing about this match is its ability to seamlessly transition from comedy to dramatic wrestling. So many matches would have felt disjointed given this format, but that is why the Midnights and RnRs are the best of the all-time because of their deft execution of this layout. This has to be one of the best face shine segments in the history of wrestling. I have watched a lot of Midnights shining up babyface tag teams so thats really saying something now in 2019. It establishes the RnRs as clearly the best tag team, the Midnights bump & stooge in a way that keeps that million-watt smile on your face and it never feels like heel in peril. As the biggest "Sweet" Stan on the internet, is there a better Stan Lane performance? I dont think so. He is so on his game in this match. He takes the beginning of the match. He just makes Gibson look great. I love that spot where Lane goes for the monkey flip and Gibson fist drops him. It is just perfect fun wrestling. Then of course the Lane/Patrick confrontation that leads to great Cornette/Patrick confrontation that always puts an ear to ear smile on your face when you watch. Another great spot is Lane gets hit with an atomic drop and collides with Eaton. Then Lane shoves Eaton. It is so rare that there is dissension that does not lead to anything so that makes it stand out. Sometimes tempers flare it doesnt mean the team has to dissolve. I liked that touch. It is so good nobody has mentioned that cool spot where Morton climbs up on Eaton and delivers a fist drop onto Lane. That was a holy shit moment for me. They just jammed so many damn good spots in that opening segment. Honestly, it is not worth making an entire list. Really just watch it. It is just comedy gold and the Midnight Express cant buy a break. Morton looks so damn good in there. Next thing, you know Bobby Eaton and Ricky Morton slug it out and end up tumbling outside and Lane delivers a wicked slam and we enter Ricky Morton's bread and butter.

The Midnights have so many MOVEZ~! but they never get lost in just tossing them out and everything is filled with great heelish behavior: the tennis racket shots, the eye-rakes and cutoffs. Again, like the the babyface shine, I dont think there is too much of a point of just listing move after move, but I think what makes that's this so good is how urgent the action is. They know that Morton is one of the greatest of all time so they are constantly tagging in and out. How many times did Morton have one member of the Midnight Express down, but the other cut him off. Stuff like ramming Eaton's head off the post, but Lane saves. Or Morton looks for an O'Connor Roll, but Lane had blind tagged Eaton and he hits a devastating neckbreaker. The spots looked great: Eaton's top rope elbow drop and Lane's powerslam, but it was the tension around the hot tag that makes this work. You really felt that agony of it being 2 on 1. Every time Morton would get the upper hand on one the other would save. It was exhilarating. Morton is in his element. The face in peril segment I believe is in excess of 10+ minutes. On second watch, I do think they go a little too long. The arm work at the end is strong but ultimately it is filler. The more Morton I watch the more I believe his penchant for really long face in peril segments is to the detriment of the match. I realized this time the finish is botched, but still the finish stretch was red hot and liked that Midnights had another nearfall with the racket shot before they went home. I am happy the Rock N Rolls go over because in such a feel-good match it was the perfect touch to have the Rock N Rolls pick up the duke.

Is this considered the best RnR/Midnights match? I asked this back in 2013. I actually think I have now seen every major one now. I think some of the Condrey matches from 1986 on TBS are little underrated, but I dont think they match this level. Lane/Eaton are the ultimate workrate heel tag team and while I dont think workrate is everything, but when you add how selfless and how character-driven the Midnights are with this workrate you have a recipe for really amazing matches. To me, this match is the cure for depression.

# 8. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Lex Luger – Wrestlewar 1990

WCW Match of the Year, 1990

WOOOOOOOOOOOO! It doesnt get much better than this. The Nature Boy vs The Total Package. I am not going to rehash the backstory. It has been analyzed to death. I am going to echo many other sentiments when I say this is the exact right match to run except it should have been Flair as a face dropping to a heel Luger who runs roughshod over the territory as the new ace heel. Luger vs Sting at GAB '91 would have been something to write home about it. 

First 15 minutes: When Flair sells for Luger's flex that's my favorite moment of the match. I love this match and have seen it bunch. Flair thinks he has finally gotten one over on The Package. Only to turn around and see Luger no-sell and then flex and Flair just wilts. It is perfect. Ten minute shine. Luger looked great. Did Flair feed him? Sure as hell, but that big boy can eat! This is not a typical 80s Flair shine. I am seeing 90s Flair already here. What do I mean by that? There are a lot less short knees. A lot less chops. A lot less strategy changes. It is not Flair going for offense and being overwhelmed. Instead, he is opting for just outright feeding. It was a fun and energetic shine. The knucklelock spot was awesome. Luger carrying him back in on the powder was over like rover. The press slams were impressive. Those were really damn good press slams. Luger said in his pre-match interview: powerslam, torture rack. He was working the back with those slams and the bear hug. Great call on the transition to heat with Luger going for that home run clothesline, but whiffing and sailing over the top rope. I really liked his selling. Flair was masterful in playing King of the Mountain and using Woman to keep the advantage. Really good heel work from Flair, both on offense and character work. The kneedrops get him his first cover. Luger starts to fire up, but again he charges in with reckless abandon but this time eats the turnbuckles. Now Flair will settle in on the arm. Perfect pacing thus far just as I remembered. Have enjoyed the revisit.

Second Ten Minutes: Flair is consummate heel here. Cocky and always cheating. Lots of hammerlocks with the feet on the ropes for extra leverage. Luger hollering out in pain. Lots of short punches to the arm or a thunderous chop to the chest. Whenever, the Total Package looks to mount a comback, he goes to the eyes. Lots of eye pokes even Woman gets in on the action with a eyerake. I thought Luger did a great job selling the pain and how disoriented he is from this. Luger's real comeback is amazing. The way he just goozled Flair coming out of the corner is electrifying.  Flair tries to chop his way out of trouble, but it is 1990, we are in Greensboro, NC and the Total Package is ROARING! Luger actually works the leg by wrapping it around a ring post to set up the figure-4. We all know the opponent putting Flair in the figure-4 is a common spot, but it sometimes feels shoehorned. They actually build to it, but Luger fucking botches the figure-4. I am a huge Luger defender, but that was cringe-worthy. Then they get their signals crossed when Flair shouldertackles Luger and bowls him over, but Flair also takes a bump. They get back on track with a powerslam and Flair bouncing off Luger on a jumping elbow. I am not an execution mark, but those two are noticeable enough that they do mar the match enough along with the finish that I dont consider this is a tippy top great match like I do Starrcade 1988. 

The Finish: Was way better than I remember it. This match is actually less repetitive than I remembered to. They do go for another ten count punch and one more press slam, but I thought it was a barrage of press slam. Just one more aint gonna break the bank and actually fit well. Flair went for a lot of eyepokes thats for sure. It was that ten count punch that did Luger in as Flair hit his inverted atomic drop out of the corner. Flair was great on offense here. A lot more top rope stuff from here, he busted out the butterfly suplex, a really nice sleeper and then we went to school. All the classic Flair trappings going into the Figure-4. The Figure-4 was an electric moment with Sting out there on crutches. Flair was alternating between slapping Luger in the face and spitting at Sting. Thats a heel's heel. Sting's pep talk is great early 90s trash talk "Kick his you know what! DO SOMETHING!" Becky Lynch wants to talk about being The Man and Straight Fire. LEX FUCKING LUGER WAS STRAIGHT FIRE! Holy shit! What a comeback! Just perfect no-sells. The No-Sells can be one of the most effective tools in pro wrestling and Lex Luger was popping Greensboro like no tomorrow with it. You look into that crowd and every middle-aged woman was freaking the fuck out. Tons of great power moves. Woman gets involved. She needs to just haul off smack a bitch. Cmon those are some of the daintiest slaps of all time. Just go for it. Flair comes flying in with a high knee wiping out Luger and the ref. Something is rotten in the city of Greensboro. Luger continues his home stretch. Powerslam, but no ref. He is signaling for the Torture Rack. He racks up the Nature Boy, but the Andersons threaten the injured Sting and Luger opts to save his friend and ends up being counted out. Then the Steiner Brothers make the save. Where the hell were you?

Wow! To me this is the quintessential wrestling match. When I think of wrestling, I think of the good looking, musclebound hero against the cocky, cheating villain. Has any match-up exemplified that more than Flair vs Luger. Yes, I hear the argument for Flair vs Kerry. I really do. For my personal tastes, it is missing the wrestling that the Kerry matches has and it is missing the levels and gear shifts that Starrcade 88 has. Starrcade 88 has an all time great finish. But in terms of what I think of when I think of as a match that is the essence of pro wrestling I think it is this match because how overboard Flair goes with the cheating and character work. Just how much a Superman Luger looks like in this overcoming all the cheating. Not the best match of all time, but when you watch it you go that's pro wrestling. 

#7. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair 

Clash of the Champions VI 2 Out of 3 Falls

It feels weird writing Steamboat as the champion and Flair as the challenger. 

First Fall: We see Flairism at its peak here with the shifting gears and the perfect blend of movement and story. Flair shows five different strategies in the opening 15 minutes. The first two are readily quashed by Steamboat and end up with Flair embarrassed, slapped and on the outside. As is typical, Flair tries to wrestle at the outset of a match. He bested both in an amateur riding sequence and a top wristlock test of strength by the champion. Thwarted by these two, he tries two of his more successful strategies: crowding in the corner and creating movement via rope running. The heavy chop in the corner definitely stings the Champ. Steamboat sells this so well, great facial expression and his arms lock up as he tries to push Flair away. Ultimately, Steamboat starts rifling Flair with his own chops and overwhelming him. In the movement game, Steamboat proves to his superior, not falling for a drop down he drops into a side headlock or he is able to pull off a headscissors/dropkick combo or he converts two shouldertackles into nearfalls. Flair tries his last go-to strategy: begging off. He successfully breaks Steamboat's rhythm and even gets a boot to the midsection, but Steamboat quickly rallies. Flair does get an inverted atomic drop that looks like it could lead to something, but against Steamboat snuffs out the rally. We see Flair use the powder twice, but both only serve to delay the inevitable Steamboat offense. Steamboat has used the headlock and front chancery as his primary touchstone hold. The kneedrops to the back of the head have been sold exceptionally well, great verbal selling. Steamboat has been able to transition out of the headlock into uptempo offense. A very strong opening 15 minutes that shows Flair at his best trying out different strategies, but getting bested at every turn while Steamboat has done a great job mixing it up between holds, highspots and firefights. Steamboat's first mistake is a splash that eats knees. Flair hits a heavy duty chop and follows that up with a great double stomp. A butterfly suplex gives Flair his first pin attempt. Look how good Flair's pin is. One hand in the lateral press, the right arm hooking the leg and the shin covering the near arm. Any one who says Flair is not detailed oriented is a moron. Great 3/4 nelson follow up. You can see how valuable the first fall is to Flair, he switches a knucklelock, but Steamboat has a great display of strength and powers out. Steamboat misses the follow up dropkick, another mistake. Figure-4...NO...Inside Cradle...1-2...REVERSAL 1-2-3! Nature Boy Goes up 1-0. Strong first fall that lays the foundation without blowing their wad. It is nothing Steamboat cant come back from. He should be pissed. He dominated that first fall, but made two late mistakes and it cost him the fall. Flair tried a lot of things, but until Steamboat made the mistakes it looked like a rout. 

Second Fall: Steamboat comes out breathing fire! Press slam! Top rope chop! 1-2-NO! Love this attitude from Steamboat. He is challenging his frustration.  He gets a bit overzealous and Flair executes a back suplex. Flair up 1-0 slows it back down going to his patented, measured kneedrop. First one hits, second misses, and Steamboat takes him to school. Repeated elbow drops on the leg and you know what that means...FIGURE-4! Flair makes the ropes and kicks Steamboat off a second one, but he goes for the Boston Crab. Great selling here by Flair. Now here's a strategy that does well for Flair and that is take the match to the outside. He powders to break the momentum, but Steamboat gets too close to the apron so he drags him out. He whips him hard into the steel railing twice and then he Steamboat tries to re-enter the ring he stomps him hard because he is now King of the Mountain. Flair looks good up 1-0 and employing his best strategy. He gets his best nearfall off a vertical suplex from the apron back into the ring. He applies an abdominal stretch (Steamboat's midsection has been worked over since the missed splash and railings). Goes into the banana split rollup. Watch the different pinning predicaments he applies. Great struggle here and a great sense of the objective of pro wrestling, hold your opponent's shoulders to the mat for a count of three. Simple but effective. Steamboat rattles off two quick nearfalls: O'Connor Roll and Jacknife. Flair seems to get worried by this and unwisely heads up top. Steamboat meets him there and SUPERPLEX! The momentum has swung to the Dragon! Flair is hollering and selling the back. Steamboat smells blood and attacks the back vigorously. Double Chickenwing! which I dont think I have seen applied before or since even though I think it should be a finish today. Flair does a fantastic job selling this and I love his head shaking and then we get the head nod. It is all tied up!

Third Fall: They saved the best for last besides the Double Chickenwing there has not been many bells and whistles. It has been uptempo and lots of great chops, but it has been sound wrestling. Now they go all out. We see the first eye pokes and chop blocks from Flair early in the 3rd fall. It is desperation time. There is no more wrestling with 25 minutes to go and one fall left, it is time to throw everything including the kitchen sink at Steamboat. I love how Steamboat keeps fighting back. There is some amazing chop exchanges. There were some BRUTAL Flair chops. There is one that almost knocked Steamboat clear over the top turnbuckle. Flair ends up getting the kneecrusher and now it is looking bad for the Champ. Still he presses on, gets the ropes quickly on a Figure-4 attempt. I love the Flair Flip into the chop on the apron. It is better than the press slam finish. Steamboat wrenches his knee on a tree of woe spot and now things have gone from bad to worse. Flair gets the lengthy Figure-4 he was looking for but cant force the submission. Great selling and love Flair slapping Steamboat in the hold. Flair Flip against but this time he finishes the frantic run down the apron with a top rope crossbody for TWO! Huge reaction to that. They are peaking at the right time! Desperate Steamboat tries for a bodyslam, but his knee cant hold Flair's weight and Flair falls on top of him for two! Flair tries to go a motion-strategy late in the game. They are at the 45 minute mark and they are doing criss-cross sequences like they are only 5 minutes into the match. Their cardiovascular conditioning is awe-inspiring. Steamboat wins these criss-crosses even getting a top rope crossbody the move that won him the title in Chicago. Flair does end up winning one with a sleeper which stops the Steamboat rally, but Steamboat drives Flair's head into the turnbuckle. Again, Steamboat goes back on offense and Jim Ross notes that Steamboat could try to milk the clock for a draw but he is here to win the match. He misses a flying bodypress from the top and Flair goes back the leg. AMAZING SELLING BY STEAMBOAT! AMAZING CHOP BATTLE! THIS IS SCINTILLATING! There is a great moment where Steamboat goes for a pin and hooks the leg but he is so exhausted that Flair is able to force his leg onto the ropes to break the count, great facial reaction by Steamboat there. Flair gets a back suplex, but instead of going for Figure-4; he goes for a move off the top. Oh no! Press slam and Steamboat goes back to the Double Chickenwing which won him the second fall, his knee buckles and both men's shoulders are down. Thus necessitating the rematch at Wrestlewar. 

Incredible match on so many levels from a physical standpoint to go 54 minutes and still be wrestling so fast and so quickly speaks to their conditioning. From a booking standpoint, this is a great way to sell the PPV rematch with the draw finish that still ties back to the pure wrestling. From a psychology and pacing, just great with Flair trying so much at the beginning, but Steamboat having an answer for everything. Flair winning the first fall even though Steamboat dominated was smart booking because he made the second fall that much hotter and this was a much longer second fall than in most 2/3 falls matches. Flair got some solid heat and I really liked the run up to the Double Chickenwing. I loved the pacing hey wrestled an excellent 35 minutes, but really kicked into high gear in the last twenty minutes, HUGE chop exchanges, great Steamboat selling and big nearfalls.

 It is an easy ***** match, but it is not perfect. There are some times when there could have been a bit more struggle and the finish stretch which while exciting could have been more efficient and some of the spots lacked consequence. I think it is non-obvious which is better Flair/Taylor 6/1/85 in regards to the best long NWA championship match. I think it is non-obvious whether this or Chi-Town Rumble is better for best Flair/Steamboat. I am going to wait until I see Wrestlewar again before I do any rankings. Regardless, as someone who likes their wrestling to be between 15-25 minutes for a 54 minute match to hold my attention, feel breezy and exciting means it is an all-time great match and it still holds up today.

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 17: Best of WCW 1991-1994 (Sting, Vader, Rick Rude, Ricky Steamboat)

Hey Yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 17:

The Best of World Championship Wrestling 1991-1994

Objective:  Break up the Greatest Match Ever Project (hosted at gwe.freeforums.project.net) into more manageable chunks to help me build my Top 100 List for the project.

Motivation: Contribute to the discussion around these matches to enrich my own understanding of pro wrestling and give a fresh perspective for old matches and even hopefully discover great pro wrestling matches that have been hidden by the sands of time.

Subject: This seventeenth volume of Pro Wrestling Love completes the Top 12 countdown of the best matches to take place in World Championship Wrestling from 1991-1994. Originally, I wanted to go from July of 1991 to July of 1994. July of 1991 is when Ric Flair the most important, biggest star of Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW left for the WWF after a dispute with Jim Herd and management. July of 1994 is when Hulk Hogan debuted in WCW. Both are landmark events in WCW history and bookend what I consider the classic Turner era of WCW. The year 1989 still feels very Crockett. With Flair’s departure, it really feels like a fresh promotion. The returns of Rick Rude and Ricky Steamboat in November of 1991 are the shot in the arm for WCW to lead it to its best in-ring year in 1992. Of course, the debut of Hulk Hogan changes the complexion of WCW forever shedding its Southern roots and becoming a national promotion. For ease, I chose to use the calendar years of 1991-1994. You can revisit past Pro Wrestling Love Volumes at ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com. You can check out the full version of these reviews in ProWrestlingOnly.com by going to the forums and finding the folders associated with the date of the match.

Contact Info: @superstarsleeze on Twitter, Instagram & ProWrestlingOnly.com.

Rest In Peace, Brutha

In the first volume of Pro Wrestling Love, I talk about how I wanted this to a celebratory series of Pro Wrestling. However, while I do love Pro Wrestling, I do not love every pro wrestling match. Probably my most controversial opinion about wrestling is that Wargames 1992 pitting the Dangerous Alliance (Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, and Larry Zbyszko) vs Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, and Nikita Koloff) is merely a great match, not a classic. This is usually heralded as the greatest match to take place in WCW in the 90s and while I enjoy it. It just doesn’t do much for me. It is such a highly acclaimed match that I wanted to give my thoughts on it in full. It is a bit of a ramble as I was using this writing to try to ascertain why I did not feel as passionately about this match as so many others.

Dangerous Alliance (Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Eaton) vs Sting's Squadron (Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes) 

WrestleWar 1992 WARGAMES

We all have those opinions. That just dont jive with the rest of the crowd. That one movie, that one song, that one TV show that everyone else loves, but you think yeah it is great but there's a hundred or so movies or songs or TV shows that are better. It is not that you think it sucks. It is just you think it is great, but it is not the best thing ever. Everybody kinda looks at you like you got three heads when you say it. Wrestlewar '92 Wargames is that match for me. It is a great match, 100%. But match of the decade in the US. Nope. Match of the decade for WCW. Nope. Match of the Year for WCW. Nope. I am not ever sure it is my Match of Night, I really like that Steiners vs Fujinami&Iizuka match. What makes this so weird for me is that I am usually the dude with the opinions in the opposite direction. Like this match totally rocks, why does no one talk about it. I am not the guy who cries about things being overrated. What is also weird is this is like the least polarizing match of all time. Like everyone loves it. 

So there is one big thing I inherently don't like about WARGAMES is that you miss a lot of stuff. I don't like missing stuff. This is why I dont like three ring circuses. I want all my attention invested so I can understand the plot and action/reaction. I will say this WARGAMES does better with plot than most stuff. You have Larry Z as the only wrestler who did not turn the tide in the favor of his team and ultimately screw the pooch at the end. Also, they have the Sting/Koloff hug which got a big reaction. WARGAMES are more about action than plot. Another thing is the universe of gimmick matches, I prefer street fights to cage matches. Dont get me wrong there are many great cage matches that I will vote for my GME but overall I think it is a restrictive, claustrophobic atmosphere that wrestler has to overcome compared to the freedom of a street fight. Now add ten men instead of 2-4 and you have only increased the claustrophobic nature and thankfully someone was smart to add a second ring or they really would have been fucked. WARGAMES follows a great formula. It is basically a string of hot tags. People love hot tags. I thought Steamboat, Dustin and Arn really stood out. I find that there is always a 30-60 second lull before the next entrant though. I remember watching Larry Z was in a figure-4 towards the end of the match and I just was not moved at all. Like why should I care? I feel like in a single or tag match they would have built so much ground work for me to care. I have given WARGAMES '91 and '94 high ratings. '94 was really carried by the Rhodes family reunion. '91 I thought Brian Pillman and Barry Windham gave outstanding performances. Here a lot of people bled when did the cuts happen. I am pretty observant person I cant even tell you when half bladed. In a way that match almost feels incomplete. There are things I loved I remember really liking Rude tearing at Steamboat's nose. I really liked those hot tags. I think I know what it is. There is a lack of connectivity. It feels like a collection of exciting one minute spurts rather than a great match as a whole. I am sticking with that. ****1/4 

#6. Dustin Rhodes vs Bunkhouse Buck – Spring Stampede 1994

Just a down home, Southern brawl that is a totally lost art in today's pro wrestling landscape. Incredible match. The Brain was gushing over this match talking about how this was the wrestling he was raised on. It was not the wrestling I was raised on, but damn if it was not the wrestling I truly love. Dustin sets the tone perfectly coming flying over the top rope onto Buck from the ramp. He just whups Buck, who is great at selling. It is so weird watching Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller just absolutely own WCW in 1994 putting on the best quality act in the promotion. Dustin crashes and burns on the crossbody attempt. Now it gets real good. Parker choking Dustin with the handkerchief and then Buck absolutely blasts Dustin with a stick. I mean that thing went flying into the crowd. Dustin is bleeding and of course wearing a white Texas shirt. Buck chokes him and tries to destroys the leg, but Dustin fights back. Dustin is such a fucking good babyface. Powder to Buck! Buck responds by whipping Dustin with a belt while he is standing. Holy shit! He is rifling him. God Bless This Match! Buck gets caught up in the ropes and here comes Dustin with a MONEY firey comeback. He blasts him with his belt buckle drawing blood and then with the heel of his cowboy boot. This is so damn Southern! Then he whips Bunkhouse Buck like the dog he is. Bionic Elbows in the corner complete with crotch thrust! BULLDOG! Parker is in the ring and Dustin whips him. Dustin seems to have command of the match, but Parker gets a pair of knuckledusters to Buck who cleans Dustin's clock for the win. Brain makes a big deal about a Rhodes losing a Bunkhouse match, which is pretty legit shocking.

There is a moment between beating Parker and where Parker gives Buck the foreign object that match seems to lose its way. That aside, fucking incredible heated Southern brawl. One of the last of its kind. Looking forward to the rest of the feud!

#5. Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat – WCW Saturday Night 5/14/94 

Vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship

WCW Match of the Year, 1994

Flair and Steamboat put on one last classic before Steamboat's forced retirement that contends with the Ladder Match and Bret/Owen for American MOTY. The Spring Stampede match was wrestled a little too straight for me and had its lulls. This really felt like a high-octane match with plenty of cool new spots that built on the classic canon of Flair/Steamboat. Flair playing the heel more strongly in this match avoided them playing it too straight and added more dynamic elements to the match. It also never feels like a nostalgia match. They still are wrestling at a very high level. It is a cardio tour de force and they are adding spots and nuances to their already well-developed series.

I love, love the amateur riding sequences that usually start their matches. They just see where it goes and when Flair picks an ankle he turns it over into a half crab, but then misses the flying knee on Steamboat's knee. It is so organic and logical, but when has Flair ever picked an ankle and gone to the half-crab. It manifested itself naturally out of the riding sequence. Flair is so good at creating movement in his matches to let his opponent shine, the press slams and armdrags were great ways to establish Steamboat's control. However when there is motion, there are times to take advantage. A well-timed Flair punch to the gut ends Steamboat's energetic work. From there, it is 1989 again, baby! Flair hits wicked chop after wicked chop. Flair has such an underrated punch. There is one punch after inverted atomic drop that just looked so picture perfect. You gotta love Flair in the corner. It has to be either Flair or Vader as the greatest corner wrestler ever. Steamboat is milking this for all its worth and I thought the Center Stage crowd was behind The Dragon during the entirety of this match. Every time Steamboat starts to light up Flair they are ready to get behind him. These are some amazing chop exchanges, lots of fire and fury behind them. One of my favorite spots ever was when Steamboat had taken so much punishment that he nearly collapses on the apron, but catches the ropes. I love, love that spot. Someone needs to crib that for a big time match. (2017 me is marking out so hard for these chop exchanges)

Among the many things I love about this match is they forget the crux of the match. It is for a vacant championship. There is no championship advantage. So both men are very aggressive and very offensive. Not only that, they are always going for pinfalls to catch their man unawares, but they also work hard to negotiate their pinfalls. Flair is using amateur cradles and jackknifes (using the ropes for leverage when he can) while Steamboat is using flash. Their goal is to win the match and you win the match by pinfall. There is no wasted motion in excessively beating someone up because a mistake on a home run could cost you the title. So many times you will see a disconnect from the story of the match and the action nowadays. Flair and Steamboat always remember that is about pinning a man's shoulders down for a three count.

Flair looks to sap all the energy out of Steamboat with a nice long sleeper and the crowd really gets behind the Steamer at this point. They move to the next chapter of the match where Steamboat works over the knee. It begins with a Flair Flip to the outside only to catch Steamboat in the midsection when he comes off the ropes with a chop only to fall prey to a Steamboat suplex on the floor and then float over on a Steamboat suplex and Flair misses a kneedrop. Thus begins the awesome part where Steamboat builds to applying the figure-4 on Flair. So many times the babyface just slaps on the figure-4, which gets a pop, but for Stemaboat to work over the knee to build to it just made it that much better. I am still a sucker for stuff like Flair pushing Dragon away during a series of chops only to do the Flair Flop. (Im rewatching this in 2017 and sprucing up this review. I popped again for this Flair Flop.) 

Back from commercial break, The Steamer misses a top splash and Flair immediately double stomps him in the abdomen. Flair is still selling so fucking well. Delayed vertical and Flair is still selling like a million bucks. Flair goes for multiple pinfall attempts, but still cant negotiate a win. Flair hits the knee crusher and now we go to school! The ref catches him using the ropes for leverage so he goes for the kneecrusher again, but Steamboat hits an enziguiri. I loved the Flair Flip where he actually ducks the chop on the apron, but gets nailed coming down from the top rope. Huge mark out moment! At about the 35 minute mark, they are still flying around and they do the bridge spot because they are Cardio Gods. Steamboat gets the superplex, but Flair foot on the ropes. Steamboat was the king of the frenetic finish. He is flying off the top rope. He is throwing a ton of cradles at Flair. I am outta breath just watching all this unfold. I loved the finish with the flying around during a criss cross 38 minutes in and Flair headbutting Steamboat in the midsection on a leapfrog attempt. It is simple but stays true to the match being about getting the pin at all costs. I think if Steamboat actually sold it more with writhing it would have helped.

The constant thread throughout the entire match was two champions trying to win the match by throwing out everything they had in their arsenal. From beginning to end, it was about negotiating a pinfall. They occasionally lost their way in order to fit in Flair signature bumps and spots, but overall they stayed true to the match. I thought right up to Flair's figure-4 at 30 minutes they were wrestling at insanely high level and had me totally hooked. The first Flair press slam was when they kinda lost it and it started to peter out. I think if they went 32 minutes instead of 36 minutes this would be a perfect match. That's my nitpick complaint. I loved how Steamboat was just pouring it on at the end. Top rope chops, constant motion. You see Flair throw these wicked chops and then nearly collapse. Steamboat had Flair down from almost sheer exhaustion. He was trying to sap Flair's energy with a barrage of quick cradles, but his plan backfired because when he is not able to get high enough on his leapfrog and Flair is able to get the win. They were such equals in every way that it was just a small mistake that separated them. I have this ahead of the Ladder match, just behind Bret/Owen as the number two match in the US during 1994. It is just an excellent championship style match that I wished still existed to this day. 

#4. Sting vs Vader – Starrcade 1992

"That's got to be depressing as hell when you do the move and the other guy's up first" - Jesse Ventura, Vader covers on after a Sting Suplex.

There was a period of time when this was my favorite match of all time and still is one I will just give it a spin when I need a pick me up. A couple years ago, one of my cousins (11-12 years old at the time) was getting feisty about whether pro wrestling was real and was on the verge of ruining it for my younger cousin. I played this match and he was totally hooked all over again and thought Vader was the toughest badass to ever walk the planet. He still talks about Vader to this day. I love this match.

It is almost the ideal David vs Goliath match with Sting giving his career performance in this match.From there the very beginning, he conveys the daunting task that stands before him. He is not going to cower, but he also realizes the gravity of the situation. When he tries to unload with punches early and Vader shouts back the classic "NO PAIN!" "NO PAIN!", I still get chills. Unlike the Great American Bash, there is no hot start for Sting. Vader is going to bulldoze him and throw him around at will. Sting tries to run at him and is that awesome Vader body attack. It is one of my favorite spots in wrestling. Vader takes a page out of Akira Taue's book and Vader drops him throat first across the ring ropes. Sting starts to stick and move. He avoids the clotheslines and hits a Kappo Kick, jumping Kawada kick! Vader was really good at selling the missed clotheslines and the beautiful German suplex and making it believable. They both spill to the outside and the crowd is rocking! Vader takes off the match and starts swearing. The front row loves this and gets on his case. Sting comes flying over the top to crash down on Harley and Vader.

This brings me to my favorite part of this match and that was Sting's strategy. Jim Ross starts off the broadcast explaining Sting was going to try extend the big man and fatigue him. Jesse pointed out if the victory presents itself you got to take it. Sting amalgamates both points into a perfectly wrestled match. When the opportunity was present after the Kappo Kick, he was absolutely suffocating Vader. It was a full court press, giving Vader minimal time to recover. Sting simply would not be denied as he fought through Vader's counters to hit DDTs and apply the Scorpion Deathlock. It was only Vader's size that saved him from a quick exit. It is crucial how urgent Sting's actions are because it sets up the big turning point. He goes for the Stinger Splash on the railing and eats steel. Now that full court press has backfired and Vader smells blood. What follows may be one of the greatest exhibitions of selling in wrestling history as Sting was just so on point with modulating selling throughout the rest of the match.

Vader dominates Stinger, but not all the credit can go Sting's way. The fact that Vader was selling the effects of Sting's offense allowed for the comeback to make more sense. Vader was beating the shit out of Sting with clotehslines, strikes and splashes, but Vader was not staying on Sting as well he should have because he was recovering from the attack. Sting looked resilient and the finish was not jeopardized by overkill in the heat segment. I loved Vader being overzealous on a pinfall after a splash that basically pulled Sting's shoulders off the mat. My favorite moment of the match and my favorite Ventura call (quoted above) was Sting finally gets a suplex, but it takes so much out of him that Vader is able to cover him. That is a totally ingenious spot! Sting now executes the second part of his strategy as he retreats to a corner and puts his arms up to block. Vader is throwing heavy blows, but is not landing as much damage. This whole segment is so dramatic. You can actually see the shift in Vader and Sting. Vader is being sapped of his power and Sting becomes emboldened as Vader no longer has much behind his punch. Now Sting is punching Vader in the face. He has him rocking! He has him reeling! He knocked him down! Samoan Drop! FLYING STINGER SPLASH! 1-2-NO! Can David do it? Harley is nervous for his investment and tries to buy time for his charge. It works as Vader clobbers Sting from behind. Damn, it was a good run. Vader splashes Sting from the middle rope, but he bounces off instead of hooking a pinfall. Vader is beside himself. He goes again, but this time from the top and Sting is able to catch him with a slam and cradle to win!

Sting wrestled the match of his life. His offensive strategy was pitch perfect as discussed and his selling was even better. At beginning, he sells the enormity of the task, in the middle he sells the beating, but he is still defending himself. Then as he is staggering around with his arms up trying to drain Vader was absolutely perfect. Then when the moment was right he mounted an electric comeback. Vader was no slouch himself and was timing his offense perfectly for great damage, but also to make a Sting comeback credible. My slight qualm that keeps this from the tippy top is that the finish is clearly just Vader doing a flying somersault. It takes a bit of steam out of the match, but still one of the best matches in the history of pro wrestling.

#3. WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vader vs Sting – SuperBrawl III Strap Match

WCW Match of the Year, 1993

Often it is overstated when a commentator says a wrestler is trying to end his opponent's career, but here you really feel that to be the case. Vader is the World Heavyweight Champion, but this is a non-sanctioned strap match. Just as Vader lured Sting into the White Castle of Fear, he lured him into this match. With no championship to lose, Vader could all out assault Sting, his archnemesis, and effectively eliminate him from the title hunt. Like in the other Sting vs Vader encounters, Sting had to survive and find a way to thrive in this environment.

I love the elimination of a babyface shine at the outset. They set the tone that this is Vader's match and he will dominate Sting. He was throwing him around and whipping him at will and splashing him. NO PAIN! WHOS DA MAN! FLEX CITY! Vader's bully arrogance is his fall and Sting pulls the strap causing Vader to punch himself in the balls. Why you punching yourself? Sting with some nice punches and a big splash from the top of his own. Time for Vader's receipt with the lashes of the strap (he could have hit him harder). One of the more famous moments is when Harley blades Vader's back. Sting throws Vader down on the outside. This establishes Sting is strong enough to carry Vader to all four corners. In a neat moment, he attempts to do just that around the outside, but Vader uses the strap to pull him into the railing hard. OW! Sting hits a Samoan Drop, but he is clearly worse for wear and Vader hits some his Vader Body Attacks. Sting misses his top rope flying splash and finally Vader takes over.

I think that is what this match does so well is it takes so much for one man to earn control. Vader had to whip Sting into railing, hit two body attacks and get out of the way of the splash. During Vader's control, Vader missed a VaderBomb, crotched on the top rope and did a somersault off the top. It made the match feel like a real war of attrition. Sting felt desperate. The way Vader arose from each big bump made him feel like a massive monster. Vader was kicking the dogshit out of Sting. He did not settle for just one VaderBomb, never really attempting to win the match, but rather pounding Sting at every turn. Victory for Vader meant the end of Sting not just touching four corners. Vader hits a massive superplex and finally looks to try to win the match, but Sting hooks the bottom rope with his feet. Vader beats Sting mercilessly in the corner and then pulls him for more Vader Body Attacks, but on the third one Sting hits a KAPPO KICK! The great equalizer that kick has stunned Vader before. Release German! A Beauty! DDT! Everything is to the head to destabilize him. Sting SNAPS~! He beats the shit out of Vader in the corner who blades his ear, which even nastier than his back! Sting hoists the big man onto his back and the ref is bumped. Sting carries around three corner, but trips over the ref on the fourth corner. Damn! Sting has collapsed after that surge of energy. Vader lands with his ass right down on Sting's lifeless carcass. Vader feeling he had destroyed Sting carries him around three corner, but on the fourth Sing holds onto dear life and kicks Vader into last corner. Vader may have won the match but it is Pyrrhic at best as he is a bloody mess and does not look like a winner.

Vader escapes with a win is not the finish I would have gone with. I think a Sting victory makes a lot of sense here especially since Sting never got that big victory over Vader. The story they were telling was Vader trying to destroy Sting and Sting desperate to survive. In my opinion, either Sting survives the beating and takes the victory OR he falls short Vader squashes with his ass and wins the match. This whole trying to protect Sting was lame, Vader already looked like a bloody mess the kick back into the corner was just lame. A total war of attrition and really compelling and dramatic. Loved all of Sting's hope spots and Vader just keeps getting back up. You really feel a sense of hopelessness before the Kappo Kick. It is hard to generate that in wrestling knowing a comeback is coming, but here they do a great job. Sting's comeback is AWESOME! Definite classic and easy 1993 US Match of the Year!

#2. WCW US Champion Rick Rude vs Ricky Steamboat – Beach Blast 1992 Ironman Match

You know what always surprises me about this match is how it is never touted as the first Ironman match ever. It is, right? Like I cant think of anything before. That's a big deal and no one talks about that. This really shows the difference between WCW and WWF. WWF would be putting this new gimmick over huge. You listen to Jim Ross call this match you would think Ironman matches are a weekly occurrence. There is no discussion about how the strategy of this match differs from a routine one fall match. Honestly, I am starting to believe even Michael Cole is better than Jim Ross.

First Fall: Tremendous textbook execution of elementary pro wrestling. I don't think doing the obvious things right is lauded enough. It could have been so easy for Steamboat to lose focus or Rude to blow off selling. This match is exemplary it is commitment to body part psychology. Rude tries to jump Steamboat at the bell and pays for it with a gutbuster. The way Rude sells his ribs you know this is not a register, but that he is seriously hurt. Steamboat zeroes in on them. We do not think of Steamboat as a great on top worker, but he was phenomenal here. Great creative moves that incorporate movement, charging shoulder, throwing Rude into a belly flop and holds like bearhug and Boston Crab. I loved the splash after the Boston Crab. It was a team effort as Rude was really giving one of the best sell jobs ever. It was never sympathetic either. You wanted to see Steamboat pour it on. That's tough for a heel. I loved the finish with the flash knee. You ram your head into someone's hard ass knee that sure as heel can knock you out for three. Great finish. Steamboat gets his shine, we have a thread to weave the falls together, but somehow by luck the heel gets a quick pin and the babyface is in an early hole. That's great pro wrestling.  

Second Fall: Jesse has a tremendous hockey analogy. Steamboat is like the team that has had ten shots on goal, but nothing to show for it. While Rude's first shot when in. I loved the balance between urgency and pain from Rude. Rude Awakening as he fights through the pain for the second fall. This is a lot better than I remembered and I already remembered it as a classic.

Third Fall: Rude hits a backbreaker. Jesse says Rude should tie up Steamboat and run the clock out. Rude does the exact opposite and hits a flying knee drop. Perfect. He gets DQ'd but Jesse & JR knows what he is doing.

Fourth Fall: Rude gets his fall back with an inside cradle. JR & Jesse think after that Bombs Away Knee Drop that the Dragon is toast.

Fifth Fall: This match is a competition of who can sell the ribs better. This match should be shown to every aspiring wrestler because it really shows the nuanced differences between how a babyface and heel should sell a body part injury. It is hard to articulate, but watch how Steamboat sells the ribs how much more sympathy garners in you as a viewer and how much more you want him to make that comeback. We see some flickers of fire from the Dragon as he tries to attack the ribs of Rude, he hits some wicked chops and even gets the Electric Chair Drop (a Rude bump favorite), but at each turn Rude snuffs out the comeback whether with his favorite camel clutch or knees to the midsection on a splash. The finish to this fall is riveting. Rude gets a wicked piledriver, but only two. He goes for the tombstone, but they do that trademark WCW tombstone reversal spot and it is Steamboat who nails it to get his second decision. It is a nailbiter with 12 minutes to go!

Sixth Fall: A superplex and a double clothesline are great spots to put over the grueling contest and the eveness around the ten minute mark. Steamboat gets a backslide for a three count. It is all knotted up with ten minutes to go. You gotta believe next fall wins!

Seventh Fall: Steamboat goes for pinning combination barrage. It is hot and heavy! Rude slows him down with a jawbreaker. Taunting and posing with one arm because his left side hurts so bad. Rude is thinking Rude Awakening, but Steamboat steals his finish, foot on the ropes! Great nearfall. Steamboat builds momentum only for Rude grabs a sleeper. They milk this bad boy. Great selling by Steamboat and great job by Randy Pee Wee Anderson checking Steamboat's eyes. Steamboat hulks up and kicks off the buckles to get a pin!

Eighth Fall: Rude is besides himself. Electric 30 seconds as Rude keeps bowling Steamboat over four times and each time Steamboat kicks out. No decision rendered as time expires. Steamboat wins 4-3!

Small detail is I would have Rude get three of those nearfalls, but with about 10 seconds left have Steamboat get the last offensive move a chop and send Rude on his back as the bell rings. You want your babyface victor to be standing tall at the end of the match. Not on his back. It is a small detail, but I think the match a lost a little something because of that. I have seen this a bunch and already had my star rating in my head of ****3/4, but they really impressed me and I am going the full monty *****. I think it was a combination of tremendous selling from both men, great pacing throughout, and a ton of well-built drama. It is easy to lose your attention in 30 minutes but they had me the whole time. At worst, a top five WCW match of the 1990s. It could be the best, Sting vs Vader and Eddie vs Mysterio are the other contenders. I will have to mull this over. 

#1. WCW World Heavyweight Champion Sting vs Vader – Great American Bash 1992

WCW Match of the Year, 1992

What I love about this trilogy is that any order of the matches is the correct order they are all so awesome in their own way. For me, when I first watch these as a teenager, it was Starrcade '92 that stuck out to me. Then in college it was the brutality of the Strap match, but for the past couple years it is this one that is my favorite. In my mind, this is the perfect David vs Goliath match. You always believed Sting, but in the end he does himself in. These matches are always so selfless. Vader gives as much as he gets. Sting puts over the new monster heel huge. Early on when Sting is getting rocked, that does so much for Vader's credibility and makes him a mountain for Sting to climb. When Vader misses the charge and Sting explodes with the suplex and then big clothesline, the place comes unglued. Because he earned it. They made Vader an unstoppable force and here was Sting overcoming that challenge. I loved Sting's response to Vader's knucklelock challenge to stomp the foot. It made so much sense for Vader to reset and force Sting into his game, but Sting outfoxed him. It leads to another great flurry. Also, I love how much struggle. Vader just doesn't take it. He still hits that Vader body attack. He is giving a lot to Sting and making Sting look like a superstar, but also getting his. Then comes the massive sitdown splash. You can hear the air not just evacuate Sting's lungs, but the building. How about that for an emphatic transition to a heat segment? You all know I am a mark for transitions and that has to go down as one of the best. Vader's posing was always one of my favorite things. FEEL NO PAIN! Vader is so great working on top and bruising. He makes clobbering an art. Stealing the Scorpion Deathlock was a great spot especially letting Sting muscle out. Sting's fiery comeback coming out of the corner with fists of fury when all hope looked lost was rousing. KAPPO KICK! That always gets me. What a great fucking move! DDT! I love that Sting is going for headshots to rock the Big Man. He has taken a lot of punishment he needs home runs. The Fireman's Carry is just damn impressive. German Suplex with Bridge looked fantastic. Your blood is really pumping during all this. You really believe Sting has a chance to slay the monster. Stinger Splash. I love how kicks Vader into the back to set up the next. He is so keyed up he overshoots his target and busts himself open on the turnbuckle. Wow! What a finish! Vader throws him down with a powerbomb to seal the deal. It is funny that Vader was just a one month transitional champion for Ron Simmons, but in the short term that's all this was. The match is so great and Sting/Vader trilogy has become the stuff of legend that this match seems so much more important than it actually intended to be. That is a true testament to the workers in this match who gave an A+ effort bell to bell. Sting was the consummate babyface looking the monster in the eye, marching forward and never backing down. Vader is the stuff of nightmares that Wooly Mammoth that can KO you in one shot. I loved how smartly the shine was built with Sting overcoming Vader early in raucous fashion. Then that transition to the heat segment where the sitdown splash was a metaphor for how every fan in that building felt. Then that absolutely tremendous finish so much excitement and drama. When pro wrestling is done this well, it is hard to beat.