[1983-11-24-JCP-Starrcade '83] Harley Race vs Ric Flair (Cage)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[cactus]

I wish this clicked with me more. This felt like they couldn't decided whether they wanted to do a explosive bloody brawl or a slow-burner technical bout, so they decided to meet in the middle and the result is a match that is lacking in urgency. The individual performances of both Flair and Race was solid, even if this was a drag to sit through. The most interesting part of this is the increasing tension between Race and guest referee Gene Kiniski. Kiniski has to physically pull Race from Flair. This might be No DQ, but Kiniski still wants Race to fight with honour! ★★½

[tcg91]

This was an historic match, but such a huge disappointment, especially considering the big time angle that they did to build the bout. The best part of the contest was Race trying to destroy Flair's neck again with some very stiff knee drops, but the match went too long at 25+ minutes, when Flair comeback 10 minutes earlier could have easily closed it in a more fitting way. Nothing was "bad", but the second part really looked like a filler, even though the finish was epic due to Flair always failing his top rope dives. Referee Gene Kiniski also hurted the match, as there were No DQs but he kept stepping in to enforce the rules
***