1980s
THE TURN FROM TAG TEAMS TOWARDS SINGLES COMPETITION
So
now we enter the second decade in which Flair imposed his excellence, the
1980s. This decade would witness Flair's metamorphosis into the wrestler we
primarily know today, the singles wrestler. On August 8, 1979, just before
the turn of the decade, Flair collaborated with Blackjack Mulligan to defeat
Paul Jones and Baron von Raschke in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the NWA
World Tag Team Title. Losing it a mere two weeks later, however, Flair was
at a crossroad in his career. He soon made the decision to focus mainly on
singles competition; four months into 1980, on April 20, Ric Flair defeated
"Superfly" Jimmy Snuka to capture the NWA United States Heavyweight
Title for the fourth time. Losing it to his former tag team partner, Greg
"the Hammer" Valentine three months later in Charlotte, North Carolina,
Flair, in his unwittingly steady march towards establishing a lasting wrestling
legacy, reclaimed it on November 24, 1980, in Greenville, South Carolina,
and fended off all competitors until Rowdy Roddy Piper wrested it from his
waist on January 27 the following year in Raleigh, North Carolina.
FROM MUNDANE VICTORIES TO CROWNING LAURELS
1981 would signal the move of Ric Flair from the level of ordinary mid-card champion to the upper echelons of legends and fables. On September 17, 1981, Ric Flair defeated Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City,Kansas, to win his first world championship belt, the NWA World Heavyweight Title. This singular victory was seminal; indeed, the true measure of his unequivocal dominance in the 1980s is his unprecedented seven NWA/WCW World Heavyweight Championship reigns. The defeat of Rhodes marked the beginning of the highly celebrated Flair/Rhodes feud. It is clear, though, that the feud was one-sided, as Flair completely mastered Rhodes in only losing the world title to him once, that defeat coming on July 26, 1986. The first title reign of Ric Flair lasted almost a now-uncanny two years with defeat coming at the hands of then-Missouri champion Harley Race on June 10, 1983. The reign wasn't without its intrigues, though. On July 4, 1982, Ric Flair, the NWA World Champion, battled Bob Backlund, the WWF World Champion at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. With action highly intense and furious, they were eventually both disqualified after twenty minutes. After Race defeated him in June 1983, Flair entered a twenty-man tournament for the Missouri title which Race vacated after winning the world title; Flair subsequently defeated David Von Erich in the finals to capture the championship.
Four months after first defeating Flair, Harley Race again encountered Ric Flair at the inaugural Starrcade in Greensboro, North Carolina, on November 24, 1983. A capacity crowd of 15, 447 people, as well as approximately 30,000 fans throughout the mid-Atlantic area via closed-circuit television, witnessed Flair recapture the NWA World title. There were two additional battles for the title in the ensuing months: Harley Race won the title yet again from Flair in Wellington, New Zealand, on March 21, 1984, but two days later was handed his second defeat from Flair in Singapore. After losing and regaining the world title to and from Kerry Von Erich in May 1984 in Irving, Texas, and Yokosuka, Japan, respectively, the NWA found its way back to the New York metropolitan area, stopping at the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey. There, Ric Flair defeated Ricky Steamboat in the epic main event.
APOCALYPSE NOW
After defeating Von Erich in 1984, Flair surpassed his earlier, seemingly impossible feat of maintaining title supremacy for close to two years, this time not losing the belt until July 26, 1986, to Dusty Rhodes. Shortly before facing defeat, however, Flair, Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard formed the first, unopposed wrestling group, the Four Horsemen. Appropriately named after the biblical harbingers of apocalyptic doom, they proceeded to wreak havoc and mayhem on all opposition and all opponents.
The
Horsemen were formed by a complex convergence of different factions in the
NWA roughly around May 1986. Ole Anderson, originally the tag team partner
of Thunderbolt Patterson, abruptly dropped him and decided to join with another
Anderson, Arn, to resurrect the Minnesota Wrecking Crew; meanwhile, Flair
was engaged in a monumental feud with Magnum TA for the United States Championship.
This particular angle revolved especially around the claim that Flair or TA
could beat the other wrestler in ten minutes or less. During one match of
this feud, TA actually had Flair in a figure-four leglock at the ten-minute
mark. The Andersons, at ringside providing color commentary, rushed in to
interfere, ham-handedly establishing through a Minnesota connection that Flair
was a "cousin." After this clumsy incident, members of the trio
routinely appeared at the matches of the other members for support or, usually,
interference. Tully Blanchard was approached by the Minnesotan trio after
a incredibly intense encounter with Sam Houston, at the time a promising,
young wrestler who had feuded briefly with Flair and the Andersons. After
interfering in the match, the four proceeded to brutalize Houston until amelioration
came in the form of various jobbers. The quartet was finally galvanized into
a bona fide group by JJ Dillon, Blanchard's manager. Flair, now with a formidable
force trailing him, only continued to assert his grave hand against all who
would mount any opposition against him.
THE SHINING PATH TO THE MOST EPIC MATCH OF ALL TIME
After defeating Dusty Rhodes decisively in St. Louis a mere two weeks after losing to him in Greensboro, Flair proceeded to retain the title for slightly over a year, uncontested until facing a formidable foe in "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin. On September 25, 1987, in front of a manic crowd in Detroit, Michigan, Garvin virtually stole the hearts of fans and the belt, dethroning the champion in a match marred by controversy. Flair would not stay vanquished for long, however; a disgraced Garvin only held the title for two months before painfully succumbing to pinfall after a particularly savage blow to the head in Chicago, Illinois, on November 26, 1987.
This sixth title reign would once again be marked by utter dominance, as this reign was not ended until February 20, 1989. Ricky Steamboat, a familiar and, more importantly, well-matched foe, ended the seemingly eternal sixth reign in Chicago, Illinois; the match was exemplified by drama, the rawest of human emotions, and scientific wrestling par excellence. Steamboat and Flair would again confront each other at the Clash of Champions in New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 2. Flair, proving himself to be a most able tactician, engaged Steamboat in a monumental battle of nearly one hour; the match, a virtual primer on the sport of wrestling, was two out of three falls. The match abruptly ended in Steamboat taking the third and decisive fall, despite the strategic and psychological edge Flair possessed and his fateful, unseen foot on the ropes. These two epic grapplers, resurrecting a feud existent since the late 1970s, engaged in this battle only surpassed by the match that followed it, the match on the fateful day of May 7, 1989, at Wrestle War.
WRESTLING'S APOGEE, WRESTLING'S APEX
As high as the heavens are above the earth, so was the match that occurred on May 7, 1989, in the city of Nashville, Tennessee. To counter accusations of referee corruption and quell mounting suspicions of administrative negligence, National Wrestling Alliance officials ordered yet another rematch between Steamboat and Flair, this time at Wrestle War. A phenomenal bout, it featured spectacular moves and countermoves on the parts of both Flair and Steamboat. Flair's strategy throughout the struggle was to weaken the leg of Steamboat to prepare it for the dreaded figure-four leglock, a maneuver which had humbled countless opponents before. Conversely, Steamboat attempted to cripple the arm of Flair through a series of kneedrops, Irish whips, and armbars in order to end the match with the chicken-wing submission hold. It seemed as if Flair had achieved final vindication when he forced Steamboat into the figure-four hold; however, Steamboat managed to break the hold and stage a slight, if ultimately futile, comeback. The momentary change in the momentum was all for naught, though, when Steamboat picked Flair up for a bodyslam. Midway through the maneuver, Flair grabbed the leg of Steamboat and countered the bodyslam by executing a reverse inside cradle pin. After this grueling exhibition of wrestling purity, Flair regained the world title for the seventh time in the 1980s.
This was an ephemeral celebration, however; Terry Funk, appointed as the ringside judge and timekeeper, came into the ring supposedly to congratulate the new champion. Challenging Flair to a title match, Funk abruptly and savagely attacked Flair with vicious punches, foreign objects, and taunting. Funk ended this brutal display by piledriving the new champion through the timekeeper's table. It was clear that Flair, weakened by his just-finished match against Steamboat, was severely and debilitatingly injured. Would Flair, a champion replete with triumphs over a multitude of opponents over a period of seventeen years, not enter the 1990s because of the unforeseen and unexplainable actions of a madman?
1990s HISTORY COMING SOON
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