[1986-11-27-JCP-Starrcade '86] Ric Flair vs Nikita Koloff

[Superstar Sleeze]

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Nikita Koloff - NWA Starrcade 1986

 

Before match there is this weird music video of Magnum TA running to the beach to what appears to be his mother, but there is this horrible post-grunge song with the chorus of "her life is like a box that is always empty". I just couldn't believe that a song that sound like it was from the mid-90s would be used in the original segment. I knew I had seen this before. I took to google found my post from here. (Hey remember Comments That Warrant A Thread!). I am still apparently the only one who cares about this. Zellner informed me that Wind Beneath My Wings was originally the music set to the video, which makes way more sense for a son running to his mother on the beach. Which begs the question who the fuck thought it was a good idea to dub over that with this trash. Not only does the song suck but has absolutely zero to do with the video.

 

Anybody who listens to Tag Teams Back Again (Whoomp There's The Cheap Plug) knows I am just stalling because I don't want to talk about the match. It is not a bad match so much as it is a sad match. Up until this point Ric Flair made his opponent earn their shine and earn their keep in a match. We finally see Flair's bad tendencies and instincts rear their ugly head that would plague him more and more in the future. Flair pretty much just wrestled himself in this match. Nikita just happened to be standing there. I wonder if it is just because Flair really felt like he could only trust himself at this point and he just did not have the patience to teach his opponents. Usually Flair would be a perpetual ball of motion constantly trying to attack his opponent and his opponent would overcome the onslaught. Here Flair acted like Nikita's ragdoll. He bumped around for him and then would beg off or go running to the hills. It is entertaining, but it is in a cheap and superficial way. I was surprised at how much offense Flair did get. This was not a squash by any means and given that Nikita was not going over I expected him to wreck Flair en route to the cheap finish. Koloff missed the Russian Sickle went tumbling outside. Flair worked the leg pretty well and then when Koloff starts to power up. Flair transitions to a different heat segment with him busting Koloff open on the outside. I think the one thing Koloff did add was that he is very good at no selling. No selling is an art. It can be very effective for a pop. He is quite good at it and he gets you excited to watch Flair get his ass kicked. Koloff makes his comeback, the ref gets bumped. Russian Sickle! No ref, brawling and the ref gets tossed around by both and it is a Double DQ. Predictable given its the World & US Champ. What's annoying is that they have this kickass brawl for like 5 minutes. Flair is not scared of Nikita at all. He is constantly jumping on him and there is a ton of heat.

 

The post-match brawl is the match they should have had. This felt very WWF and cartoony. Big power man throws around sneaky coward. Coward gets his cheapshots in and then powerman makes comeback. The difference between this and WWF is that Flair is a better bumper, verbal seller and works a better heat segment than most WWF heels. However, this did not have that NWA feel of a true athletic exhibition with lots of struggle and urgency. You see Flair slip and slip more and more to this. Still entertaining, but at the same time kinda sad. ***

[El-P]

Really good match, shit finish. I always thought Nikita's strong point was his selling (and no-selling). Shitty on offense though, but Flair is at his pinballing glory here so it doesn't matter. The only thing sad to me was the no-finish at Starrcade. Different times maybe, but still a complete cop-out for the biggest show of the year.