[1993-10-30-WCW-Saturday Night] Ric Flair vs Sid Vicious

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

No heat. This has its moments and isn't terribly far behind Bret and Shawn's best matches with Sid. It's behind, but it's not a ridiculous gap. Flair, perhaps surprisingly, is much better at getting himself over as an aggressor than Shawn. This isn't Flair vs Luger, Nikita or Sting ... it's a completely different layout than most of the best Flair vs muscleman matches. I guess the closest comparison is Flair/Luger at Bash '88, with spots like the bear hug into the pinfall. When Flair is on offense, the heat slightly picks up, but when he's selling for Sid, the crowd is dead.

 

This is presented as a match where the winner would get a shot at Vader at the Clash, but I think that's a retroactive decision IIRC, since the stabbing incident had already happened when this match aired. Flair wins by DQ after Col. Parker interference. This and the Sting match at Havoc seemed to be paving the way for a Sid turn.

 

Interesting match for Flair vs monster. When you watch Flair vs Giant, you see how much he slipped in those few years.

[El-P]

No heat. This has its moments and isn't terribly far behind Bret and Shawn's best matches with Sid. It's behind, but it's not a ridiculous gap. Flair, perhaps surprisingly, is much better at getting himself over as an aggressor than Shawn. This isn't Flair vs Luger, Nikita or Sting ... it's a completely different layout than most of the best Flair vs muscleman matches. I guess the closest comparison is Flair/Luger at Bash '88, with spots like the bear hug into the pinfall. When Flair is on offense, the heat slightly picks up, but when he's selling for Sid, the crowd is dead.

It was a shitty crowd that was dead also for a very good Steamboat vs Eaton match earlier which had a reasonnably hot stretch to the finish. I agree Flair was really good at being an agressor, and Sid is actually at his best when he's doing the goofy bumping heel, since he's so brutal on offense. Sid had a better match with Sting at Fall Brawl, but Sting suits him better as he's got more spectacular offense that he can bump off of. You can feel Flair is trying to keep things moving, and instills quite a bit of intensity in the match, beating the shit out of the big wimpy Sid on occasion with chops, which Sid hates (he wouldn't take Benoit's in 1999). Decent match, and Flair can get all the credit for it. Fifi, how man Fifi...

 

This is presented as a match where the winner would get a shot at Vader at the Clash, but I think that's a retroactive decision IIRC, since the stabbing incident had already happened when this match aired. Flair wins by DQ after Col. Parker interference. This and the Sting match at Havoc seemed to be paving the way for a Sid turn.

It was not a retroactive decision, I think it was taped before Fall Brawl. The plan was to get Vader vs Flair at the Clash then Sid turn face (this was the turn after the match) and have Sid vs Vader at Starrcade. So, the stabbing spared us a horrible babyface Sid reign in 1994, which would probably led to Sid vs Hogan redux. Picture the horror.

 

Interesting match for Flair vs monster. When you watch Flair vs Giant, you see how much he slipped in those few years.

I'll get to that point eventually, but yeah, Flair was working extra-hard with Rude and Sid and it showed. I thought he was disapointing early on his comeback, but he sure showed me some good stuff with way inferior opponents.

[Kevin Ridge]

I really, really like Shawn versus Sid from Survivor Series. So I would put this much below that one but it may not be far from the Royal Rumble effort. More heat would have helped but Flair being more aggressive is good here. I wish he brought that against Sting in their recent match against one another. Parker ends up costing Sid the match. Oh, so the stabbing incident had occurred by air date. If Sid had stuck around and won the title I wonder what that would have done for Flair. He seemed to have the confidence back after winning the title with a great start to 94 until the Hogan show came to town.

[PeteF3]

WCW was just papering these TV tapings to death in a desperate effort to look major league on television, which would explain the lack of heat. Flair works really hard, busting out a top-rope chop to the floor and being really energetic on offense. His offensive flurries are the best part of the match. Honestly, Sid tries too--he's just incapable of putting three or more moves together without pausing to stare at the crowd or bail out. Easily the best parts of this are Sid selling for Flair's big chops--not often that Sid's selling carries a match, but here it is. Unfortunately the segments with Sid on top feel like they last about 6 years. I'm all bearhugged out at this point, even if they worked two-counts out of it. Fuck finish as Sid reverses the figure four, but Col. Parker is already in the ring kicking away at Flair, giving him a DQ win and title shot at Vader for the Clash. Sid cements his babyface turn after the match by giving the Colonel a chokeslam as they go off the air. WCW would have been really, really babyface-heavy if that had amounted to anything. They gave it the old college try here but I can't say this was a good match.

[garretta]

Three years before, this would have been an epic. Now, it's a match which leads to nothing (although no one could have known that at the time) in front of a dead crowd whch felt disjointed somehow. This pairing had a good match in it somewhere, but this match wasn't it.

 

Sid never truly looked like the monster he should have, even though he got a few power spots in. I hated the selling that Pete thought was so cool; a man who claims to be a monster who rules the world should laugh at those chops, not sell them like Ricky Steamboat. Also, he shouldn't be in a position where a man who almost never hits a move off the top connects three times. When was the last time Flair even went up top three times, let alone hit anything that often?

 

Jesse had Fifi pegged right; if she's going to be at ringside, she better learn to do something besides look good. This is the problem that some people had with Liz; managers/valets shouldn't just be fans with a better seat. They should at least be a slight threat to get physically involved or at least distract their man's opponent enough to turn the tide of a match. Fifi doesn't even do loving concern like Liz did so well; she just stands there and smiles blankly, not even at ​anything. Besides, Arn and/or Roma should be Flair's second, assuming that the Horsemen are still a group (which I'm honestly not sure about at this point).

 

Speaking of the Horsemen, there was no mention of Sid and Flair's past history as partners in the group, which would have made for an interesting footnote if nothing else.

 

The finish stank, but how else were they going to set up Sid's turn? I liked how Jesse instinctively takes Fuller's side, and the Stud absorbs Sid's chokeslam like a champ. That chokeslam might have been Sid's best-looking move all night long, to be honest.

 

Tony and Jesse were both in pretty good moods here, which helped this match remain watchable. Tony can play straight man to Jesse as well as anyone when the mood strikes him, and it did here. The only false note was when he chided Jesse for telling the director to keep a closeup of Fifi on the screen. Other than that, these two realy seemed to be having fun. Here's my favorite exchange. It comes right after Sid has risked a disqualification by choking Flair:

 

Tony: If Sid gets disqualified, who will get the shot at Vader at the Clash?

Jesse: You!

Tony (laughing): Yeah, right. No thanks!

 

It doesn't read like much, but after so many months of more than occasionally sounding like they're going to come to blows on the air, it's nice to hear them having fun with each other for a change. I also liked Tony saying that the Awesome Kongs (Jesse's new favorite tag team since the Blonds have broken up) could outeat him at lunch. That last one needs to be heard to be appreciated.

 

If Sid had gone on to a long reign as WCW World champ after eventually dethroning Vader, this match would be a lot more fondly remembered As it is, it's disappointing and a waste of time, at least as far as the title picture goes. Maybe I would have appreciated it more if it was just another upper midcard match without Sid's turn stuck on the end of it

[soup23]

I so want to like this because the structure is well done and Flair is bumping around and doing power spots and what not to help Sid get over but the crowd feels like they are at a wake and Sid didn't really give much in the way of a good to decent performance like he would in 1996-97 vs Bret and Shawn. A good match to watch but this should have made anyone fearful for Starrcade before the scissors incident. **3/4

[Superstar Sleeze]

Ric Flair vs Sid Vicious - WCW Saturday Night 10/30/94

Taped well before the Scissors Incident but aired after. Winner faces Vader at the November Clash. They play up the dissension between Sid & Parker due Halloween Havoc miscommunication. 
 

I really enjoyed this match; it is comparable to the Bret/Sid matches I’ve seen but nowhere close to Survivor Series 1996. It is standard Flair vs the Big Man except Flair is baby face which is a cool wrinkle.

Flair reminds me immediately why I love him because he establishes the basic story through a variety of ways. He gets shoved off on collar elbow tie ups so he switches to a side headlock but get thrown off. Running off the ropes into shoulder tackles doesn’t work. Missing a wild swing and getting some heavy handed chops does. That shit is why Flair is the GOAT. He really takes the time to establish the story. Sid comes back and shows blow for blow is not a winning strategy for Flair. Flair Flip not looking good for our hero. Flair is able to get Sid on the outside and really open up. Great shine here. Double axe handle from the top to the floor. Ramming Sid into the railing. Sid splays over the railing and Flair gets some punts in. Great right by Flair. We are cookin' now! Sorry about that! Duty called at work where was I?

I forget the exact transition into heat but we get some Parker interference, a great steel chair shot and a vertical suplex back into the ring for a nearfall. Sid matches really benefit from commercials as we come back it is a bearhug which I am sure without a commercial may have felt a lot longer. We get some nice slams by Sid to cut off Flair in between bearhugs. Flair gets some momentum but as he comes off the top he is caught in the bearhug. Nice! Sid misses an elbow drop and now we go to school. Flair drags Sid over to the post wraps his knee around it. Flair gets his belly-to-back suplex which is usually the prelude to the figure-4, but in this case he gets a nearfall with Sid pressing him off and into the ropes. Flair does eventually get the Figure-4. The Colonel gets over-anxious and attacks Flair, BUT Sid had reversed the pressure! Flair wins by DQ and gets the title shot against Vader at the Clash. Sid is none too pleased with the Colonel as we are going off the air he chokeslams Parker to cement the babyface turn, which should have been his ticket to ride into Starrcade to win the World Tile and be a babyface champion in 1994. That is a very interesting what if with Hogan coming in. Obviously, Flair/Vader and the Flair/Steamboat matches were awesome and I am really glad it played out the way it did. The best Sid singles match I have seen during this watch project. *** 1/2