[1999-09-13-WCW-Nitro] Ric Flair, Sting and Lex Luger

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Ric Flair is back! Three days after Bischoff was fired at that. He subtly references that he has a real job for the first time in five years and makes fun of his own booking for the last year, but Gene steers him away from that. Flair turns his attention to Sting and admits that he was probably jealous when he first showed up, but he felt like he was still The Man, so he kept on keepin' on. "You were The Franchise, I was The Man." Flair can't believe Sting would cheat to win a title, which is amusing. Finally, new top heels Sting and Luger come out to confront Flair. Flair offers to teach them how to read a TV format, where it says Ric Flair, 10 minutes. Funny.

 

Sting recalls all the times Flair lured him and stabbed him in the back but also says he respects him for putting him on the map. He drops a lot of praise on Flair, but says because he respects him so much, he's going to give him a chance to leave peacefully and gracefully. Flair calls it a testament to his manhood that he can admit that he made Sting everything he is today, but says he doesn't appreciate Sting talking to him like his wife talks to him. The "Not!" reference is pretty dated even for 1999, though.

 

Sting gets this back on track, saying he and Lex been waiting patiently for ten years for Flair to step aside and he's still here. They aren't waiting anymore. Luger backs him up and gets a ton of heat in doing so. He points out that this has been a year of graceful exits in sports with Gretzsky, Jordan, Elway and Sanders, and encourages Flair to follow their lead and get out of the ring. Flair responds by saying he was ready to retire until he watched Nitro the last few weeks and said no way they can't do this without him. Flair ends on a serious note, saying he respects him but he isn't going to walk on him. This prompts Sting and Luger attacking Flair. This is one of those segments that would have been amazing ten years earlier (it was good even in 1999), but the stars of 1989 NWA just couldn't compete with Austin and Rock, and that wasn't the ideal direction for WCW.

 

Finally, Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart make the save and run Sting and Luger off. Hogan wants a tag match that night, and finds a way to use the word "ass" about a dozen times in two minutes. This was also the beginning of a very brief run where Hogan and Flair were both on the same side. Funny to see Hogan pandering to Flair so he gets cheered in North Carolina while also being part of a segment where he makes sure he's positioned above him.

[Tim Evans]

Nice to see the Ric Flair of early 1999 back after the awful summer he had. Sting bringing up all the times Flair turned on him was funny. Of course Hogan has to come out and put himself over everyone. Flair/Sting is a good program but like Loss said, it wasn't gonna touch Austin in 1999. I also loved Luger in this segment. HUGE Luger sucks chants.

[soup23]

Yes these are a bunch of grandpas arguing but damn if it doesn't have good heat and Sting gives one of his better promos. I loved the look on Luger's face when Flair tells him and Sting to lead. This does have all the makings of a bunch of big stars still within the world of wrestling with HOgan and Bret run down. I think if WCW could have really had these guys mixing it up, an up and comer to get the rub that they were behind, and Goldberg back to his old ways, they could have salvaged something. Jarrett comes in and they assume he is the younger guy but we know how that worked out.

[PeteF3]

It wasn't going to turn WCW around, but this was still an awesome segment. Great heat for the cheapshot and beatdown on Flair, and damned if even with all the old guys in there, WCW somehow feels fresh again. I laughed out loud at Sting and Luger weaseling out of the match backstage, especially Sting breaking down the hypocrisy of Hogan's "say prayers and kick your ass" catchphrase.