[1980-10-18-MACW/MLW] Greg Valentine vs Ric Flair

[SAMS]

1980-10-18
MACW/MLW
Greg Valentine (c) vs. Ric Flair
NWA United States Heavyweight Title Match
Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York, USA
★★★
Card

The first long singles match I’ve seen of Flair so far on tape for the year. This definitely had a house show vibe, and a house show finish, but to just go out there and deliver a strong 3 star match shows what these guys could do.
This was chunked up into a beefy shine sequence -> heat -> comeback stretch -> finish. Flair seemed to handle Valentine pretty handily for the first 5-8 minutes. He had the bravado and the ADHD energy and after the initial use of punches and forearms to the head, he wrestled Greg down into a hammerlock and maintained his control. Flair had been pretty decent up to this point, but I was concerned about when Valentine was going to show some stuff. He’s always been a subdued seller (face flop spot aside) and often that’s a plus, but I also wouldn’t say it’s his strength either and being rammed face first into the mat for several minutes didn’t give him a lot to work with. I shouldn’t have been worried though, as we got the transition soon enough and boy did Valentine not pull any punches when it was his turn to lay them in. His strikes were fast and vicious and looked fantastic. I love it when the heel can actually dish it out when required. He went to the same well that Flair did and ground Flair down into a hammerlock of his own. This time however they really slow burned the comeback. Flair got to his feet, then back down they went. Once again he managed to get to his feet, but he couldn’t lift Greg, and back down they went. Finally, amid a torrent of crowd noise, he managed to stand for a third time, and it was this time that he managed to lift Greg, dump him in the corner and then the comeback was in full swing. I’ll briefly stop to mention that the crowd were solidly behind Flair all night, but at this point they were thoroughly and totally losing their collective shit. One of the more veracious crowd’s of the year no doubt.
Flair ran through his stuff, did his strut and woo’d to the crowd when needed before we had the countout finish with Greg on the wrong side of the apron. Despite being the main event, and part of a pretty heated feud, this felt very meat and potatoes from a structure standpoint. They weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel here, but deliver a satisfying match. The crowd didn’t get the result they were hoping for, but they were completely invested, and at least their guy picked up the win. I would say very good performances from both men in my first long hard look at either in a singles setting. Valentine gets kudos for his offense while Flair’s comes from being a ball of charisma.