[1990-11-23-NWA-Power Hour] Ric Flair vs Buddy Landell

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The Battle of the Nature Boys! This was fun because of who was involved, and it's the only full-length match involving these two that's available. It's solid, and I like the similarity spots, but I wish it had been much better.

[PeteF3]

Anticlimactic finish, even though Paul E. was smartly hammering how Flair needed to put this away early due to his grueling Clash match. Not a great match but a worthwhile curiosity. The opening mirror spot and Landell swiping Flair's mid-match catchphrase were the highlights.

[soup23]

Not a bad match with Flair running the gauntlet but sort of disappointing. I really liked the beginning with them warming up and starting the match in the same fashion. Match sort of dwindled off of that but was still ok and had to be included for novelty sake.

[Kevin Ridge]

I like the early similar mannerisms by both guys. Ross was talking down Landell in match. Camera angle didn’t get the finish first time around and the announcers missed it. Too bad it wasn’t longer.

[garretta]

Nice little match here, as Landell finally gets his chance to take Flair out directly and is at least somewhat equal to the occasion. He really impressed me here, going toe-to-toe with Flair and looking as good as he ever had. Flair was a bit off, which makes sense from a kayfabe standpoint considering his match with Reed three days ago, as Heyman continually pointed out. It was a bit odd to see a back suplex finish the match, but again, Flair had just wrestled Reed and was due to wrestle Simmons "later that night", so it made sense that he'd dispatch Budro as quickly as possible with the first move he thought he could win with.

 

JR practically laughed at Landell all through the match, really pointing up the fact that he was a Flair imitator, and not in a way designed to get him over either. I remember that Budro was in and out of Mid-South/UWF, and I'm guessing that he and Watts (and by extension, JR) didn't exactly see eye to eye.

 

By the way, Flair lost to Simmons by DQ on WCWSN, ending his gauntlet run. Maybe it was for the best, because if he'd beaten Simmons, he would have wrestled the Nightstalker the next night on Main Event. This was also the final appearance of the gauntlet concept. Flair/Nightstalker was only one of two gauntlet matches that never took place, the other one being Steve Armstrong/Bobby Eaton on the 11/11 Main Event. Armstrong lost on WCWSN the previous evening to, of all people, Buddy Landell.

[drew wardlaw]

Cool match to see in a tv episode. It felt like it was kind of front loaded to do the similar poses and stuff, then lost some momentum towards the end. Still a solid match, and I can't complain about seeing the battle of the nature boys in its full form.