[1995-11-06-WCW-Nitro] Ric Flair vs Sting

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Really heated match. Sting attacks Flair at the opening bell and this has a little more hate than your usual Flair/Sting match at first. I remembered this being one of their better matches, but it's odd in that it's really hot at the beginning and end, and just too by-the-numbers in the middle. When Sting is making his comebacks, this is terrific, but when Flair is in control, this drags. I really liked the finish, but they treated it as a blowoff to the feud when it could have just been a way to heat it up even more, with Sting refusing to release the scorpion until Luger whispered something in his ear. What is up with Sting and Luger whispering things to each other and WCW never telling us what they were saying? This was hot enough that they should have run with this for a while.

 

This was around the time it seemed like they were teasing a Sting turn on Hogan, but Sting was consistently more over than Hogan, so I guess they dropped it.

[Tim Evans]

Man a Sting/Luger heel team in 96 would have been awesome. This was a good match and the crowd was going nuts for it.

[BackToBionic]

This is in my hometown, I remember they came back a few months later for a house show that had Flair vs Sting and it was an even better version of this match.

[El-P]

When Sting is making his comebacks, this is terrific, but when Flair is in control, this drags.

I couldn't disagree more. Sting made no less than three no-sell babyface comebacks, including no-selling a suplex on the floor, which sucks. Flair showed a little more agression than usual when he tried to use a chair, but transitionned back to Sting with the usual "gets launched off the top rope" bit. I don't think there's any big match more formulaic than Flair vs Sting, and this is my least favourite Flair series because of it. This was every Sting vs Flair match with some nice intensity, but considering Sting said he was gonna kill Flair, I wouldn't call this really good, especially with the no-sell galore. Post match was really good though, especially with Luger's involvement.

 

This was also a complete fraudulent "interactive match" that the fans booked by calling the hotline. Yeah, like there was any chance they would call for Scott Norton vs Dave Sullivan...

[PeteF3]

The usual Sting/Flair match, which I'm not a fan of. Nowhere near as good as Nitro's opening night despite the fact that that match had no real story or build-up behind it. Lots of no-sell spots, lots of Sting blowing off the work on the knee, lots of Flair by numbers. Not terrible but not good. The post-match is more intriguing, even if it seemed like Luger missed his cue or the timing was fucked up somehow. WCW really needed to run Luger & Sting vs. the MegaPowers on PPV in some form.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I am in Camp Loss, I actually would go as far and thought this pretty damn entertaining. I was marking out for the no sell comebacks last night at 2am so it was doing it for me then. I actually thought Flair was pretty strong working on top and was pretty vicious. They have had better matches with each other, but I thought this was one of their more heated and personal matches, but I have never actually seen Great American Bash 1990. Very good Nitro main event and I liked the Luger angle.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Surprised I didnt watch a full review of this back in the day. I know I did a big Nitro rewatch in college of all the 95 Nitros stitching together a bunch of these via a youtube playlist. I think this 2015 post came from a Nitro rewatch that went from the beginning to WWIII (I remember thats where I stopped last time). I havent decided if I am going to stop this watch at the end of 1995 or at Uncensored

WCW United States Champion Sting vs Ric Flair - WCW Nitro 11/6/95

I thought this was even better than their match from the first Nitro. Surprisingly, Flair works really strong in this match. Flair tends to work small against Sting and 90s Flair is more oriented to cheating and bumping. Even though this is from 1995 and against Sting, Flair works really strong. Flair has definitely been the in-ring MVP of these Nitros. He always comes in and lights it up. Ton of energy, outworking the whole roster and just bringing the fun. 

Coming out of Halloween Havoc, not surprisingly, Sting came out hot manhandling Flair beating him from pillar to the post. As you can expect in this match there were Press Slams early and often throughout the match. I really liked the transition from this fast-break start from Sting with Flair not only getting suplex on the floor but consolidating that advantage by moving out of the way Sting who crashes and burns on the railing on a Stinger Splash. Awesome transition!

Really enjoyed the Flair heat segment. Although we missed a low blow during the ad break, which is a bummer. Flair is just hammering Sting and working the knee. Figure-4 was a good mid-match climax. Sting reverses and Mongo has never seen that before. The Sting no-sell after the Figure-4 was INCREDIBLE! I love a well-timed No-Sell. It was incredible. The classic stare as Flair was throwing heavy hands and having no effect. Inject that shit into my veins, brutha. Guess what! A press slam! Flair eye poke which gets back on top, which I liked as a transition. They do some 80s spots with Flair's foot on the ropes, the bridge into a backslide. Flair is feeling it tonight! Press slam off the top. Sting is walloping Flair in the corner, but the ref is forced to break the action. Flair clocks Sting with knuckledusters. 1-2-NO! I bit on that. I figure he wins here by nefarious means to set up the WWIII match. ANOTHER STING HULK-UP! Love it! Final Press slam! Scorpion Deathlock! He doesnt let go. It takes Luger whispering something in Sting's ear to let it go. 

Great shades of grey booking here as Sting & Luger walk out. It plays on Sting & Luger's real-life friendship but Luger is DOD 4 Life. Is he friend or foe? Looks like Macho Man needs to find out. I love all this shades of grey booking in the Nitro 6 main event scene. Great, high energy match. Really enjoyed this. *** 3/4