[1993-01-25-WWF-Raw] Ric Flair vs Mr Perfect (Loser Leaves the WWF)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Not as good as I remembered, as it's aimless for big parts of the match, but still good heat and energy. They just seemed to be doing a bunch of stuff to fill time until the finish. Perfect botching the clothesline and doing a reverse chinlock to cover for it was weird and took me out of the match. But he puts Flair away with the Perfectplex and just like that, Flair is out of the WWF. Hmm, will we see him again in 1993?

[benj]

The ringpost spot was a little scary, but I felt it turned up the intensity in the match. I really dug this even with some goofed spots. The leapfrog/clothesline turned into chinlock actually looked brutal on Flair. Heenan going nuts is always fun.

[shoe]

Their were spots that I liked and spots where you were like WTF are you doing. Hennig's over the top bump was sick. I liked how Flair started working the cut, but left it real soon. Then toward the finish he went back to it. Oh well. a good match, but not excellent.

[flyonthewall2983]

Comedian Rob Bartlett, who I knew later on doing Don Imus' show, with his peculiarly racist impressions.

[Matt Franklin]

Good match, but like Loss I remembered it being better. Perfect may have got legit concussed by his insane corner bump, as he had a fair sized hematoma and appeared to be off from that point on. I thought Flair was really good in this, but they just didn't click as well as you would think. Still a good match, just not to the caliber you would expect. Heenan was gold throughout, Flair matches brought out the best in his commentary.

[Kevin Ridge]

Heenan finally got himself a broadcast journalist position on Monday Night Raw. Earl Hebner sucks and completely missed out on catching Mr. Perfect's towel. Am I to understand that it was not announced to the live crowd that this was a Loser Leaves Town match? El Santo wishes he got do a big dive to the outside like Hebner did to interrupt that chair shot. Rob Bartlett does not care for the Flair flop. I do like the Manhattan Center. It is a great early Raw match but overall it is probably overrated in the end. Bye bye Flair! WWF gave Flair a bigger send off than WCW did in the Halloween Havoc match against Hogan.

[Smack2k]

I preferred the match they had on Invasion Of The Bodyslammers much more...longer and better to watch..

 

I still really enjoy this one to, but more for nostalgia and the fact the ending means something..

[PeteF3]

Oh, dear God, Rob Bartlett. I think he mostly shuts up for this, though. The Manhattan Center may be my all-time favorite weekly wrestling venue. Even if it's a bad sign for the WWF that they were running a venue that small. For a hated career-ending grudge match there sure are a lot of drop toe holds and mat reversals going on here. I'm not really complaining, because the work is good and sort of different for the WWF Style. It's just odd. Perfect goes to the floor, and oh my God, that cues a commercial break! The more things change... This soon does get a lot more vicious, with some really stiff punches from Ric. Holy crap, blood--I had no recollection of that at all. Perfect wins with his standard finish--opponent goes for a back body drop and gets Perfect-Plexed--prompting yet another classic tantrum from Heenan. This is a match that got pimped for awhile and then started getting tagged as Overrated--now looking at it again, I think it's so "overrated" that it's underrated again, because I thought this was a hell of a match. More intense than your average WWF bout and they kept the bout moving as befits a TV main event. A worthy WWF swan song for Ric, as this is one of his better matches for the company.

[WingedEagle]

Not as good as I remembered, as it's aimless for big parts of the match, but still good heat and energy. They just seemed to be doing a bunch of stuff to fill time until the finish.

Basically sums up my thoughts as well, although you could argue it should've been more heated given the stakes. Perfect was taking some really exaggerated bumps here. Bartlett on commentary may have been a disaster, but this was a great example of Vince's unrelenting enthusiasm and ability to sell things as a big deal. He was in full Red Bull mode and was going to rise to the occasion even if no one else was. Perfect basically hulks up, Flair flips the turnnuckle, runs to the other and comes off to get nailed. Perfect hits the perfectplex on a backdrop attempt and wins. This was nowhere near as good as I remembered it.

 

**3/4

[bradhindsight]

I liked this a good bit and took some of the aimlessness as guys trying different things to try to retain their career. I thought their energy was fine given the stakes and man were Perfect's chops sharp (better than Flair's). I thought the cheating fit and Heenan did a great job on commentary. Shame there are commercial breaks which rid of us chunks of these two going at it.

[JaymeFuture]

I was actually disappointed when I watched this after hearing a lot of good things about it, it's a rather disjointed mess that doesn't particularly hook the crowd that much. They seemed like they weren't really on the same page at points, which is odd given their chemistry as a heel act.

[zep81]

Regarding all tv matches, can they show the full match without commercials?

 

They released the Punk/Cena (Raw Feb 2013) match on the history of the WWE dvd set, and it still had breaks in it.

[soup23]

A real love/hate match for me. I watched this a couple of months ago on PTB and thought it was great. Then, today I was left cold and thought the heat and first portion was really lacking until Perfect gets posted. I have done some spoiler-ish looks at Loss's rankings and list for 1993 as a whole so I know he has near 100 **** matches. Saying that, this would be a great candidate for #100 in any given year as its so inconsistent to me. I am glad Bartlett shut up and Bobby probably delivers his last classic WWF announcing job. (***1/2)

[garretta]

I can only imagine what this would have been like as a co-feature at the Rumble the day before, where these two men could have really beaten the crap out of each other with everything they could lay their hands on. I'm pretty sure that it was because the match aired on free TV that we got something resembling an actual match instead of a brawl, and while I certainly enjoyed what I saw, I can't help but wish we'd gotten more of a brawl.

 

Flair got more of this match than most guys on the way out get; you can tell that Vince truly respected what he'd done in the year-plus that he was in the WWF. As for Curt, he's never really had a chance to be in danger before as a face, and he really pulled that off well too.

 

The cut actually played a bigger role than I thought it would, but Flair couldn't really go after it for a long time under these circumstances.

 

As much as I loved hearing Heenan go wild on commentary, he should have been at ringside for this. I'm sure Curt would have known not to touch him, and managerial interference would have been out of place anyway. The same goes for the Survivor Series main event from November.

 

Since Bobby was so unabashedly for Flair and Bartlett was a nonentity (and may not have even grasped what he was seeing), it made sense for Vince to go full babyface in support of Curt. The "1....2.....3....HE GOT HIM! I KNOW I SAID IT FIVE SECONDS AGO, BUT THIS TIME HE REALLY DID!:" routine was still annoying no matter what, though.

 

Vince blaming Heenan for the whole mess made sense in light of what we've seen since November, but I would rather he'd given Flair credit for making a move on his own just this one time. Flair's leaving, Vince, it wouldn't kill you to admit that he can think for himself!

 

I know that the Perfectplex is Curt's finisher, but I'd rather have seen this match end on a move that Flair hadn't presumably scouted from thousands of videotapes. A man as experienced and smart as Flair shouldn't put his head down if he knows that his opponent executes his finisher using that position. Have Curt bust out the Ax in tribute to his dad instead, and maybe actually acknowledge that Curt has a dad who wrestled and used that move.

 

Heenan's rant at the end was a classic, even though we couldn't actually hear most of it. It's kind of a shame that he didn't end his managing/advising career on this note; I think Luger just shrugged him off without a word on the USS Intrepid when he took Yokozuna's bodyslam challenge, and that was all she wrote.

 

The commercial breaks really didn't bother me much; it looks more fake to have guys standing around for two minutes or more like they did on SNME for years than it does to have a match continue and the TV show join it in progress.

 

Is Bartlett's obnoxious line about Flair and Heenan having a sexual relationship typical of him? If it is, I think I'd rather have "Puppies!" Lawler four years early.

[Superstar Sleeze]

100% agree with Pete, this match was so overrated when it came out, it has now become underrated. I thought this was terrific

 

Ric Flair vs Mr. Perfect - WWF RAW 1/25/93 Loser Leaves Town

 

I almost feel like it is a crime to write "Mr. Perfect" because this is some great AWA Curt Hennig shit right here. I thought he was ferocious in this match. Everything was a stiff chop or a hard blow to the head. We all get on Perfect rightfully so for having shitty offense in WWF, but here he was Curt Fucking Hennig and just bringing it to the Nature Boy. I loved the slaps to start. They were hard slaps to get Flair off his game, but also FUCK YOU slaps for not believing in them even though they were friends. This is a very Flair by the numbers performance, but what makes it good is he responding to a fierce opponent. I liked Flair going for the chair on the outside. They hate each other and the stakes are high in this match (loser leaves town) and they are treating them as such. Hennig takes a nasty spill over the top rope and blades. Flair works the cut off and on well. I think one problem was this match was an overabundance of hope spots. Flair needed to get some real heat on Hennig, but they kept running hope spots. Hennig looked damn good don't get me wrong but it was hard to build momentum. Flair with the shin on the throat and the brass knux was great over the top heel touches. The figure-4 was a strong false finish I will say and Hennig tried to sell, but Flair was in total go-go-go mode. Hennig in that comeback was friggin awesome. Channeling Luger and Sting, but the was he contorted his face and how he was yelling at Flair made it feel personal before he unloaded with the chops and then TWO big Larry Ax Hennig forearms!!! FUCK YEAH! Perfectplex gets three!!!

 

1993 was a stellar year for Hennig. I think this match had a backlash to it, but it is a really damn good Hennig performance. The best since AWA in terms of fire and great offense. This feels like a huge blowoff to a blood feud with all the chops and strikes, blood and the big finish. Flair was very Flair here which means there is some good things like pace and fire, but some bad like letting too many hope spots happen and cramming too much in the finish. Don't overlook this match, give it a another chance and watch for a fired up Hennig performance because this aint no Mr. Perfect performance. ****

[JKWebb]

Love your review Sleeze.  Yes this match holds up, and yes this match rules.  Ya know, Hennig was incredible in 1988-89 when he joined the WWF.  I just wrapped on watching all the squashes and other matches on Prime Time and SNME and big events from that year, and he was incredible.   To throw in another true classic post-AWA in WWF, I just wanted to recommend Mr. Perfect vs. Roddy Piper - 12/28/1990.  To each his own, but I love Hennig in the WWF and love this match too.  

[cactus]

After watching the Flair/Steamboat '89 trilogy, I have to say that I'm not a fan of Flair hamming it up here. I prefer the super serious Flair who limits the comedy face flops. It's also a shame that we didn't see more of Mr Perfect as a babyface. His bumping is well more suitable for a face. His comeback after no selling Flair's chop was a cool moment and made Perfect looked like a million bucks. There's nearfalls aplenty here. Perfect gets the W after hitting a Perfectplex out of nowhere and that's the end of Flair's WWF first run.

This was an 80's territories styled match injected with some cartoony 90s WWF colour. 

★★★★