[1990-09-22-NWA-World Championship Wrestling] Fabulous Freebirds & Little Richard Marley / Ric Flair vs Scott Steiner / Interview: Sting

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I know they were trying to move on from Flair, but Flair doing a job in a throwaway 10-minute TV match to a guy far below him on the pecking order does no one any good, and just ruins the whole match for me. Steiner pinning Flair should be a big moment, if they're going to do it. It's also weird that they are willing to give Scott Steiner a televised pinfall victory on Flair at this point, but Luger still can't beat him. It makes no sense at all. I try not to compare U.S. booking to All Japan booking because the U.S. promotions can't possibly come out of it looking good, but there's a daylight between WCW booking of big wins and losses and All Japan booking of big wins and losses that is hard to avoid.

 

Not to fantasy book too much, but Steiner squashing Flair is also ridiculous. Flair was still The Man, even if Sting was the champ and even if the promotion didn't want Flair to be The Man anymore. Based on their difference in card placement, Steiner should have worked from underneath for a big chunk of this. I have no idea if the match was any good or not, because I couldn't get past the booking.

[PeteF3]

We start with a green screen promo from the Freebirds as they unveil Rocky King in a ridiculous paint job as LITTLE RICHARD. Yes, there are always more than 2 Freebirds. It's hard for me to fathom this group sinking any lower.

 

All that in the first post, plus it's telling that Flair is #2 in the Gauntlet instead of the climax. If Flair can't beat Scott Steiner, should we really expect Arn Anderson to do it?

 

Anyway, it's an okay match, but not nearly as good as the Eaton bout the night before as Eaton got lots more offense in and more or less kept Steiner in check. We get a lot of smoke-and-mirrors false finishes and Arn interference that Scott keeps shrugging off, before one Rick Steinerline puts Flair down. It's rather fascinating to see such a rapid Flair de-push at this point.

[soup23]

The Rocky King reveal was something....

 

Flair vs. steiner is a good match with a finish I hated. Flair worked hard though and had a nasty knot on his back develop. Steiner was definitely wet behind the ears but did ok in this position.

[Kevin Ridge]

Hayes looks like he got punched in both eyes. Little Richard takes care of anything the Freebirds needs. Hayes feels he needs to repeat this point. We got you Michael.

 

Scott stalls a bit when doing his tilt-a-whir slam. Steiner continues to dominate. Flair visibly calls a clothesline spot. Arn nails Scott but Flair can’t get the three count. Frankensteiner attempt but Arn grabs Flair at the ropes. Arn totally outsmarting Rick and hits Scott with the DDT. I figure that is it but Rick ends up nailing Flair with the Steiner Line and Scott wins!! Upset. Flair looked weak at losing like that.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Worst Flair match, pre-1991, I have ever seen and actually it has very little to do with booking. I actually think Flair took too much of this match. Now there is a sentence I never thought I'd write. That should have been my tip that he was jobbing. Steiner is pretty awful at selling so I don't think a match with this much Flair offense was playing to his strengths. While I get Loss' point that Scotty should work underneath, but Loss you have watched 20x the amount of Flair footage I have, but isnt it pretty rare for him to have anybody work underneath against him especially when he is a heel?

 

It is not that Flair dominated it is the exact 50-50 nature of the match that irked me. What was literally like Steiner would do a spot and Flair would cut him off. Flair would do a spot and Steiner would cut him off. I think they were trying to sell it nip and tuck, but it just felt jarring and disjointed. Plus as bad as Steiner's selling was, Flair's selling was not much better. He got rammed into the ringpost and goes back on offense almost immediately.

 

Flair being de-pushed seems a little strong. You needed Sting to try to go it on his own without Flair to be a crutch so that necessitated Flair being cycled down, but Flair got 50% of the offense in this match and was heavily protected in the finish.

 

Finally Scott Steiner vs Ric Flair with Rick Steiner has to be an announcer's nightmare. EVen Lance Russell was having trouble. I can only imagine how JR would have butchered this... "Steiner with a Steinerline on Ric. Steiner. I mean Rick Steiner. *pause* He did the Steinerline. *pause* The Steiners were All-Americans out of the University of Michigan..."

[ajtroma]

Well I'd forgotten about Rocky King as Little Richard Marley, Freebird roadie.

[garretta]

A brief promo from Sting that says next to nothing.

 

So this is where Rocky King has been hiding himself. Did anyone actually buy this as something interesting? I wonder if he wrestled in this gimmick or not. If he did, it probably didn't help his win-loss record.

 

I didn't really care for Flair/Scott at all. After so much buildup about this being one of the greatest matches ever presented on free TV, it became nothing more than a showcase for outside interference. Rick happens to get the last illegal lick in, so Scott gets handed the win. Big deal. I thought we'd get something on the order of Flair's big TV matches earlier in the year with Bobby Eaton and Ricky Morton, but this wasn't even close to being on that level.

 

Unlike Loss and Pete, I think they were trying to protect Flair, not depush him. Regardless of Arn's earlier interference, it still took both Steiners to beat him, and it was Rick, not Scott, who finished him off. Unless this storyline continues during the upcoming Scott/Arn match, or unless they're trying to promote a Steiners/Horsemen feud for the U.S, tag belts (which we know they aren't), this match did nothing at all for either man.

[drew wardlaw]

I don't necessarily have a problem with Steiner beating Flair here, I think mostly I wish Flair was the final match instead of Arn. I guess WCW was still the main tv show so maybe they wanted the highest ratings for that one or something? There was a lot of interference so I think it's passable, plus, in the context of a tournament type setting it's more forgivable. I liked the match fine enough, but I absolutely love the gauntlet concept so the matches are automatically at a higher level for me.

[GSR]

Jim Garvin says that they do whatever they want, whenever they want to do it and nobody is going to stop them. Michael Hayes says that when you are the greatest rock and roll band in the world it allows you a few special perks, and they then introduce a face painted Rocky King. They thought they pulled one over on them at the Clash, but there is always more than two Freebirds and Little Richard takes care of anything that they need.

 

Buddy Roberts is already history then, no wonder I couldn’t remember him being in the NWA at this time. King looks out of place straight away here as a member of the Freebirds. He’s clearly being kept around for some reason and given a modicum of a push, first with the Dudes with Attitude and now the Freebirds. Is this Ole? T-Bolt? He’s an odd fit full stop.

[dawho5]

Didn't care much for this. Too much interference so Flair could be half-assed protected. I think the standardized Flair Broomstick Match on fast-forward would have worked far better here.