[2000-05-15-WCW-Nitro] Ric Flair vs Jeff Jarrett

[soup23]

Flair is in the ring demanding stuff when we cut to Russo at the Flair house with David and Daphney. They tour Flair’s house and Russo puts on one of his robes. They refer to Reid throughout this as champ. David’s room consists of a cot on the basement floor that is unfinished. Beth, Reid and Ashley (Charlotte) come into the house and David berates them until Beth kicks them out. Flair in the ring looks shell shocked. David comes out and gets some legit heel heat calling him Ric instead of Dad. He then says his Dad (Russo) is in the back right now. Ric invites him to the ring. Daphney continues to make faces at Ric during his promo. Ric wants to become the champion tonight and face Jarrett right then and there. Ric challenges David to a match at Great American Bash. This hit a little too close to home. Ric can still cut a compelling promo and as groan inducing as some of this stuff is, most of it hits. Jarrett comes in and slams a guitar over Flair’s head.

 

Main event starts with Flair brawling after Jeff in his street clothes. Russo is out on commentary in Flair’s robe. These two have a decent amount of chemistry together and do a good brawl around the ringside area. Inside the ring, Jarrett locks on the figure four as Flair is in pain. Madden being so against Flair now continues to feel odd considering how much of a drum beater he was up to this point. Jarrett has some good heat from the Biloxi crowd. Flair goes low to start his comeback. A good call by Tony stating he is using his heartbreak from tonight to motivate him. Flair gets a quick inside cradle and wins the title with Russo saying holy shit on commentary. The pop is good for this moment. Charles Robinson gets smashed with the guitar and they attack Flair making his title celebration short lived. Russo runs off with the belt. The wolfpak music starts and here comes the personal bodyguard of WCW, Kevin Nash. Nash takes the belt from Russo and hits Jarrett with it. Powerbomb for Jeff with the ring collapsing. Nash hands the belt to Flair as the show goes off the air. As far as telling an overall story that was pretty compelling, this is probably the peak of the Russo/Bischoff regime. **1/4

[GSR]

As Crowbar and Daffney celebrate after defeating Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch, an irate Ric Flair heads out and attacks Crowbar. He clears the ring of them both and calls out Vince Russo as he wants them to settle things now. A video plays on the big screen and Vince Russo (“this is an expose baby. I’m Geraldo!”), David Flair and Daffney pull up at Ric’s house in Charlotte, NC. There is a limo outside the property and David says that is Beth’s and he’s never ridden in it. They head inside the property and on the wall is a picture of Beth, Ashley and Reid. Russo makes a crack bout how many facelifts Beth has had, before saying how Reid is known as ‘champ’ because of all the medals and trophies he won and David (who must be ‘chump’ then) could never live up to his expectations. There is a swimming pool in the back garden which David says is ‘their’ swimming pool, while his is a filthy little creek off the side of the house. Russo finds the Naitch’s wardrobe and talks about how the contents cost more than David’s education did, before putting on one of Ric’s robes. We head to ‘champ’s’ bedroom with all his trophies and then contrast that with David’s, which is supposedly a room in the basement of the house with a quilt on the floor. Beth, Reid and Ashley return home and David says they’re doing an expose on Ric, but Beth tells them all to get out of there or she’ll call the police. As they’re leaving Russo tells Ashley to keep her hands to herself as Reid gives him a shove in the back to hurry him up.

 

Back at the arena and David and Daffney are out, and David says that “his Dad” is busy in the back so anything Ric’s got to say he can say it to him. Ric invites him into the ring and tells him that those are the biggest steps he’ll ever take in his life because tonight he’s going to grow up. Flair talks about how he told David that when he got in the business they would try to manipulate him, to turn them against each other; they would talk about his divorce, about Reid, about Ashley. He says that he never wanted this, but he kept pushing and pushing. They set up a match for the Great American Bash where David won’t face his dad; he’ll face Ric Flair, with Ric promising that if he loses to David (“an embarrassment to their family”) he’ll retire from wrestling for ever. Jeff Jarrett then appears from nowhere and breaks a guitar over his head before putting him in the figure four.

 

World title match, and Vince Russo, David Flair and Daffney are out first, joining Tony Schiavone and Mark Madden at the commentary table, with Russo still wearing one of Ric’s robes. No ring gear for ‘the Naitch’ as he’s going to wrestle this in T-shirt, trousers and dress shoes. Flair charges at Jarrett a soon as he walks through the entrance, meeting him on the ramp way. He pummels him around ringside and cracks a chair over his back. After tossing him into the ring, Ric stops to “Whoooo!” to the crowd, that slight delay giving ‘Double J’ the chance to yank up the middle rope when he through and in himself. Whip to the corner, and Flair just about manages his flip over the turnbuckles and to the outside. Jarrett launches him into the guardrail and then repeatedly jabs a chair into his stomach. Nice vertical suplex on the arena floor. Figure four, and after being unable to reverse the hold, Ric makes it to the ropes for the break. ‘Naitch’ counters the punches in the corner with a reverse atomic drop followed by a low blow. A second flip in the corner after Jarrett reverses the Irish whip, although his time Ric lands on the apron and drops ‘Double J’ with a clothesline. He heads up top, but Jarrett is back to his feet and slams him to the canvas. Backdrop attempt is telegraphed and Flair with an inside cradle for the win and the World title change. Jarrett breaks a guitar over the head of referee Charles Robinson, and David and ‘Double J’ beat on Ric, while Russo snatches the title belt and runs to the back. He’s met halfway by Kevin Nash who grabs the belt off him. ‘Big Sexy’ steps into the ring, nails Jarrett with the belt and ‘Jackknife’ powerbombs him through the ring, before presenting the belt to Ric and raising his hand.

 

The expose at the start might be the crowning moment of Vince Russo’s career. He’s perfect as this obnoxious jerk, twisting and manipulating everything to tell the story that he wants to be told. Daffney is great jumping around and pulling all these faces, just a shame David is so wooden and stilted; something that is evident in the follow up promo where they set the match for the Great American Bash. Ric is tremendous cutting his side of it, bringing in elements of real life (his divorce from David’s mum) to the point you’re completely captivated by what he’s saying and hanging on every word. Sadly David is the polar opposite and just so not cut out for professional wrestling. The World title match wasn’t the longest, but it was an enjoyable little watch (although I really wish Ric would’ve been in ring gear as opposed to street clothes) and neither phoned in a performance. That vertical suplex on the floor looked great mind and good on Flair for taking a bump like that when he clearly didn’t have to.