[1990-05-05-NWA-Worldwide] Ric Flair vs Lex Luger

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Earlier in this show (in a clip we sadly couldn't find), Sting and Luger *officially* solidified their friendship. Luger was scheduled to face Dutch Mantell and the Horsemen bought Dutch's contract, giving us a Flair vs Luger match, with Sting in Luger's corner. Ole, who negotiated the whole surprise Flair/Luger match, is in Flair's corner. So that's the setup here. Pretty big match for syndication. Bill Apter is at ringside, which is a clue we're going to get an angle.

 

Flair wears the ponytail during the match, which starts to fall as the match progresses. He looks a mess, like George Washington first thing in the morning. The crowd is VERY hot for this, solidly behind Luger. Good match, not as good of a match as these two usually had around this time, but it's still good. It's just abbreviated. Luger even corrects the figure four issue from Wrestle War and applies it well here.

 

The Horsemen run in and attack Luger. Lex is holding his own until BARRY WINDHAM shows up at ringside in a big surprise, attacks Sting, then runs in to help attack Luger. Flair now gets his hands on Sting, with every stomp on his knee getting sold like crazy and the crowd totally losing it. Flair is about to apply the figure four, when pretty much every babyface in the promotion has to run in to hold off the Horsemen.

 

Great stuff.

[Bix]

Pretty big match for syndication.

First Worldwide of May sweeps

[PeteF3]

Fun spotfest of a match in front of a hot crowd followed by a killer post-match. BARRY WINDHAM shows up out of nowhere to take out Sting and the Luger beatdown is on. Sting gets dragged into the ring and Flair goes to town on his knee--pretty wild to see Sting getting bumped around like this in his condition. As Flair is about to figure-four Sting and render him unable to walk, a mass of babyfaces storm the ring, but the damage appears to be done. Windham is an instant breath of fresh air to the Horsemen group.

[soup23]

Shame you couldnt find the Sting/Luger friendship thing.

 

Match is really big for syndication and I initially thought that it was stupid to have them wrestle this close to the PPV but the angle left me wanting more. The actual match is a good greatest hits version of their match with a lot of outside brawling and good intensity from both men. The angle is fucking awesome and maybe my favorite thing on the yearbook so far with Windham coming back in a re debut I had forgotten about and the crowd going nuclear with Flair going after sting.

[shoe]

A good match between the 2 with super heat. The angle with Sting was great. Bringing Windham back to the NWA where he belongs. Plus all the interference refreshes our memory on why we need a cage stip in case we forgot about February.

[Kevin Ridge]

No to the ponytail on Flair. Sting is in Luger’s corner while Ole is backing up Flair. Teddy wants the referee to disqualify Luger for launching himself over the top rope. Lots of clotheslines and press slams from Luger. He gets in a top rope suplex and that’s enough for Ole as he gets involved. Arn shows up too. Sting tries to help out but Windham blindsides him. Horsemen go after Sting’s leg until the Steiners show up.

[Cox]

Ric Flair rockin' the pony feels...wrong. And just to hammer home the point, the ponytail comes out during the match. Good, short TV match that is more about setting up the angle than anything, but Flair bumps his ass off to put over Luger. And hey, Barry Windham's back. It's a damn shame he wasn't anywhere to be found for the first four months of the Yearbook but I'm glad to have him back.

[jasch]

If Flair still rocked that ponytail he and Heyman would be like Yin and Yang.

[bradhindsight]

Awesome inclusion here. This is pretty much a sped-up version of their other matches, with the crowd heat off the charts. Flair's work on Sting's knee is great after things break down and Windham shows up. Despite Sting being hurt, stuff like this really keeps him at the forefront of the main event scene. I like this match + post match stuff more than the Capital Combat cage match and antics.

 

Two other quick notes:

 

Loved the old ladies in the front row. Reminded me of a story my Dad tells about my great grandmother being a huge fan back in the day (we're talking 30s-40s-50s) who absolutely loathed the heels and would yell at them (and hopefully swing her purse). She's long passed (mid 1980s) but I wish I could find out what those cards were (Allentown PA area).

 

Teddy Long on commentary "Is that a backslide?" Horrible.

[garretta]

This match's main purpose is the reintroduction of Barry Windham into the Horseman fold, and it works superbly. I don't think anyone actually expected a title change this close to the pay-per-view, but the very fact that this match is on World Wide just two weeks before Capital Combat is a huge deal. Luger dominates from beginning to end, although this isn't quite a squash, mostly because of the looming Horseman threat and Sting's vulnerability. This is one of the few times we see the babyface use the figure-four on Flair without Flair using it first. We get the superplex instead of the Torture Rack as Lex's almost-finisher, and then here comes the cavalry.

 

Kudos to Sting for allowing his knee to be attacked; even though he was no doubt cleared for action before participating in the angle, accidents can happen, and it was an accident that put him on the shelf in the first place. For one of the few times since Dusty put the original group together four years before, the Horsemen look unstoppable, as the faces flood the ring to break up the attack, and even then, there's serious concern about Sting's leg. Just tremendous stuff.

 

Tony makes his return to World Wide and picks right up where he left off, but who decided on Teddy Long as a color man? Heels that make stuff up in their own heads turn me off completely; if you can't spin what the fans know they've actually seen to your advantage, you're in sad shape, and Teddy's baloney about how Luger should have been disqualified for launching himself over the top rope cast a pall on the match that took me a few minutes to completely shake off. I guess Terry Funk was out of the company by now, since he shows up in Memphis to rekindle his feud with Lawler later in the year. Still, they could have done better than Teddy to take his place. Anyone but Missy Hyatt!

 

That aside, a superb TV match and a way to bring interest in the actual human beings involved at Capital Combat to a fever pitch.

[drew wardlaw]

Teddy Long and Tony on commentary. Luger is really fired up, and it's the in-ring (I think) debut of the ponytail! It falling out during the match looks super ragged, it's awesome. Reading Loss's description up top, I really wish we had the Luger/Sting part, that's a pretty important moment in their history. This is clearly done to set up the angle, but both guys work super hard and have a hot tv match beforehand. Windham looks like a beast here and gets me pumped. Sting crawling away from Flair is a great visual, with Flair just slowly walking after him.

[JKWebb]

The Flair ponytail is awesome. I vote yes to the ponytail. This match was a blast! Flair and Luger just have a great chemistry.

[GSR]

A world title match on Worldwide! Ole Anderson is in Ric Flair’s corner and Sting in Lex Luger’s, while on commentary they say that Anderson’s plan is to take Luger out before they get to Capital Combat.

 

Clever opening from Flair as they go for a lock up but he just pokes Lex in the eye and tosses him straight out to the floor. Chop to the chest that has no effect other than to rile Luger up. Lex with a big press slam followed by an Irish whip which Flair take a nice bump over the turnbuckle and to the floor from. They fight at ringside and Flair even picks up a chair to clock Luger with. Back in the ring and another press slam followed by a bear hug. Flair manages to escape and he unloads with punches and chops in the corner (boy does he love to chop Lex!). Again these only seem to fire Luger up who stalks down the ‘Nature Boy’. He gives him a hip toss but when he charges at Flair, he ducks and Luger goes careering over the top rope to the floor. Teddy Long on commentary thinks that the referee should disqualify Lex at this point for deliberately going over the top rope! Flair controls things from here with Ole even getting in some shots himself when Ric distracts the referee. For the third time Flair’s chops don’t have the desired effect (you’d think he would’ve learned!) and Lex with a backslide for a near fall. Flair misses a knee drop and Luger applies a Figure 4 of his own which the ‘Nature Boy’ manages to escape from. Flair goes to the top turnbuckle but Lex catches him and slams him to the canvas. Superplex by the ‘Package’ and he signals for the Torture Rack. Ole fearing the worst at this point interferes for the title saving DQ. Arn Anderson is out next but Lex is managing to hold them all off, when out comes BARRY WINDHAM who jumps Sting from behind and rams him into the post. The four of them start beating down Luger and Sting rolls into the ring to try and help him out. Flair goes straight for him, attacking him and stamping on his already injured leg. Some wrestlers from the back come to try and help out but Windham is guarding the one side of the ring and preventing anyone from getting in there. Flair continues to go after Sting’s knee and as he is about to apply the Figure 4, the Steiners, Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk all rush from the back leading to the Horseman finally clearing from the ring.

 

This was a really good TV match with an even better post-match angle. The match itself was very fast paced, as though they were trying to do a 30 minute match but in a third of the time. The crowd was hot for this and Flair doesn’t pull any of those chops on Lex! I didn’t mind Flair’s ponytail at first, but when he’s worked a few minutes of the match and it’s started to fall out, well, it looks daft then! Post-match was excellent with the Windham surprise and then Flair deliberately targeting Sting’s knee and trying to put him out of there for good. The whole segment in total only lasted a shade over 11 minutes, but it was tremendous from start to finish.

[dawho5]

Post-match was incredible. Sting should probably stay away from the Horsemen until his knee is better. He's proving to be just as dumb as Chris Champion in the USWA.