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I got on the internet in the late 90s like a lot of other people, and being that WCW was vilified as badly as it was, it was inevitable that an impressionable kid in his late teens/early 20s such as myself would have fallen in with the “everything about WCW sucks†crowd, despite the fact that there were a lot of things about WCW that I quite enjoyed over the years. All that was out the window, and the only thing that mattered to me where WCW was concerned was that Hogan held everyone down and Chris Benoit should have been World Champion forever.
However, as the years went by and I got older and more mature, I became able to look back at WCW years after they closed up shop and see all the things that were good about WCW. Let's face it, there were a lot of people who cared a lot about WCW and were upset when they closed up shop, and just stopped watching wrestling without switching to the WWF to watch all their former favorites get buried. Though we will always have the Fingerpoke Of Doom, Hulk Hogan pushing the Giant off the roof of Cobo Hall, and the KISS Demon amidst our memories about WCW, I think it's only fair to take a look back at some of the stuff in WCW that was actually good because, while speaking fondly about WCW to most wrestling fans sounds to them like “Hey, Hitler did some great stuff!†I only think it's fair to recognize some of the significant contributions that many major stars made over the years.
With that in mind, I think it's poetically correct to start this series off by talking about a man who's on the tip of everybody's tongue these days following his retirement at Wrestlemania 24, and a man very closely associated with WCW, Ric Flair. Of course, Ric Flair had been the NWA/WCW World Champion for the better part of ten years, but left WCW under less than friendly circumstances in 1991. Flair spent a year and a half in the WWF, winning their World Title twice, but was soon on his way back to WCW,which was no longer being run by uber-moron Jim Herd. For those who thought Ric Flair never got any respect anywhere he went after 1989, I'm going to tell you about a time in 1993 and 1994 when he was treated like the biggest deal in the world. For a little while, at least.
Part I: Ten Time Champion
In Flair's absence from WCW, the Four Horsemen had ceased to exist, and rightfully so. Flair was the centerpiece of the Horsemen and without him, there was no reason for the group to exist. But as it happens, Flair made his on-screen return to WCW at Superbrawl III, the same night former Horseman Barry Windham defeated the Great Muta for the NWA World Title. Following Windham's victory, Flair attempted to congratulate his former stablemate by strapping the belt he once wore around Windham's waist, but Windham pulled away from Flair and wandered off. In the following weeks, we got our explanation when Windham declared himself “The Lone Wolf†and that he didn't need help from Flair or anybody else.
Flair reassembled the Horsemen at Slamboree 93, and yes, it was the infamous Paul Roma version. But the point was that Windham was invited to join the Horsemen and refused, so after Windham interfered when Flair and Arn Anderson challenged the Hollywood Blonds for the Unified World Tag Team Title on a Clash Of The Champions and cost them the match, Flair set his sights on Windham and regaining the NWA World Title.
There was some question as to whether the NWA Title should be considered a World Title at that point in its history, and the way it was booked made a strong case for World Title consideration because it was around the waist of a world class worker like Barry Windham, and former World Champion Ric Flair was his top challenger, with the angle that not only were they former friends, but Flair was being billed as a nine-time World Champion (again, a debatable number which I will address in the future), so the possibility of him becoming a ten-time champion was a pretty big deal. They met at Beach Blast 93, and of course Flair won the title, albeit in screwy fashion. He had Windham in the figure four leglock and Windham was reaching for the ropes, but as he reached over his head, his shoulders were on the mat and the referee counted him down and awarded the match to Flair.
Not exactly the epic climax you'd expect to a match like that, but Flair was now the “ten time†World Champion, and with Windham heading to the sidelines with a legit knee injury that he had when he went into Beach Blast, Flair needed some new challengers. He had a great match with Sting on WCW Saturday Night, then fell into a feud with Rick Rude after Rude goaded Flair into a title defense by trying to pick up on Flair's maid Fifi, and then knocking him out with the NWA Title belt.
The match was set for Fall Brawl 93, but before they got there a funny thing happened: WCW pulled out of the NWA and the NWA stripped Flair of recognition as the NWA World Champion, leaving WCW with a title that they had months of footage with in the can (because they taped several months of TV at a time back then), but the title now had no name. After a few weeks of recognition as the “Big Gold Belt†(I guess they couldn't come up with anything more generic), they came up with a fictional International Board Of Directors which recognized Flair as the International World Champion, so when Rude used a pair of knucks to knock Flair out and win the title at Fall Brawl, the victory had lost a little meaning.
Flair briefly feuded with Rude after the loss, but didn't get the title back. Instead, he was on to bigger and better things.
Part II: Starrcade 93
In an unfortunate series of events, Sid Vicious, who was scheduled to challenge Big Van Vader for the WCW World Title at Starrcade 93, was fired from the company after nearly stabbing Arn Anderson to death in a hotel room during a tour of England (another story I'll tell sometime). Now WCW had no challenger for the main event of their biggest show of the year. In a rare stroke of good thinking, somebody in WCW realized they were running Starrcade from Flair's hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina and decided that it would make sense to put him in the main event against Vader.
For this match, they ran an angle where Flair put his career on the line for a shot at the title, and almost the entire build to the show centered around what could have been Flair's final match. Starrcade opened with a vignette from Flair's home where he said goodbye to his tearful wife and kids before leaving for the arena with Gene Okerlund. Later on we were treated to a vignette from inside the limo of Okerlund talking with Flair about what he's up against, and what it would mean if Flair lost the match and never wrestled again, and then finally a third vignette of Flair and Okerlund arriving at the arena and Okerlund wished Flair good luck as he got his bags and began preparations for the match. These were really powerful vignettes, and Okerlund's role in them as the second-guessing voice in Flair's head is sadly overlooked.
Finally we get to the match, and despite being physically dominated and bloodied by Vader, Flair never gives up, finally catching Vader with a rollup out of nowhere for the win and making the crowd explode with cheers. Never was it more apparent what Flair meant in the Carolinas than this night, as the crowd was on their feet after the win and after going to the back, the crowd kept cheering until a tearful Flair came back out to wave to his fans one more time before calling it a night. In the back, he was congratulated by Sting and Ricky Steamboat, two of his greatest rivals. Other than Wrestlemania 24 and the tribute on the following Raw, I consider this to have come as close as anything ever did to Ric Flair Night.
Part III: The Man, One More Time
Unlike his final NWA Title run, Flair was now once more undoubtedly the flagbearer for WCW, and he didn't waste any time in defending the title against top challengers he could have great matches with. At Superbrawl IV, Flair defended the title against Vader in a rematch, but this time it was in a cage. Vader had injured Flair (in kayfabe) leading up to Superbrawl and the match had been called off, but Flair announced that he would tough it out and put the title on the line against Vader. Interference by Vader's manager Harley Race was thwarted by special referee The Boss (aka the Big Boss Man), and Flair defeated Vader once more.
Up after that was a long-awaited rematch with Ricky Steamboat. Anyone reading this probably knows about the classic trilogy of matches Flair and Steamboat had in 1989, and now they would cross paths once more, five years later, with the World Title once again on the line. The match was first built as a friendly meeting between two competitors who had a healthy respect for one another, but misunderstandings between the two led to cracks in the friendship and we were left wondering how respectful and friendly the match at Spring Stampede 94 would be.
As it happens, they went out and put on another classic match that went about 40 minutes, and the end saw Steamboat once more catch Flair in the double chicken wing, and Steamboat bridged backwards and put Flair's shoulders to the mat. Unlike the last time this happened in the 2 out of 3 falls match at Clash Of The Champions 6, they were nowhere near the ropes, but also unlike that match, Steamboat's shoulders were also on the mat, and the referee had no choice but to count both men down. The referee called WCW Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel out to make a ruling, and Bockwinkel ruled that in the event of a tie, the title defaulted back to the champion, and raised Flair's hand.
However, there was controversy since Flair's shoulders had also been counted down, so to prove his claim as champion, Flair handed back the WCW World Title, saying that he would remove all doubt as to his claim to the title by defeating Steamboat in a rematch. Two weeks later, Flair defeated Steamboat in what may or may not have counted as another World Title win in another match that went over 30 minutes.
Now with Steamboat out of the way, he was faced with a mystery opponent that Col. Rob Parker would bring to Slamboree 94. All we knew beforehand was that he was 6'7â€, blond, over 300 lbs, and a former World Champion. This was obviously meant to make us think of Hulk Hogan, but instead we got Barry Windham, who was back from his knee injury and not in the greatest shape of his career. They did end up putting together a decent match, which Flair won when he actually hit a move off the top rope onto Windham for the pin.
Life was good for Ric Flair. He was World Champion and was once again putting on terrific matches against quality opponents, but things were about to change.
Part IV: The Beginning Of The End
After Slamboree, WCW finally decided to mercy-kill the International World Title, which was held at this point by Sting, and a unification match was signed for the Clash Of The Champions in June of 1994. However, a new twist was thrown in when Hulk Hogan, who had just been signed by WCW, laid out a challenge to the winner of this match for the unified World Title.
With help from his new manager Sherri Martell, Flair defeated his longtime rival one more time to become the one and only WCW World Champion, and no sooner did he win the title and begin laying a beatdown on Sting did Hulk Hogan come racing out of the back to run Flair off and thrust the spotlight onto himself. Sting was immediately demoted to the midcard and positioned as Hogan's lackey so as to not allow him to be a potential threat to Hogan's spot as top babyface, and in his first match in WCW, Hogan defeated the now-heel turned Flair for the WCW World Title at Bash At The Beach 94.
From there on, Flair spent months being treated like a total jobber by Hogan before losing a retirement match to him at Halloween Havoc 94. Of course we know well by now that this wasn't the end of Flair in the ring, but it was the end of Flair's final major run at the top of the company. Over the years to come he would be jobbed out, beaten down, and embarrassed at every turn until WCW closed and he went to WWE for more of the same. But for this one year stretch, Flair was able to get some real respect and proper treatment for a champion of his caliber for the final time, and it happened in WCW.
Thanks for reading, and you can send all feedback to stuwrestling@hotmail.com and visit my wrestling blog at stuwrestling.livejournal.com. See you soon.
