STING v. FLAIR: Part 1
The Main Event (1988-1994)

• NWA World Champion Ric Flair vs. Sting – (NWA Pro, 1/2/88)
  

Right after Flair regained the NWA world title back at Starrcade, Sting has been making a challenge for the gold. This is the first televised meeting between these two and it happens in the wrestling capital of the south: Greensboro NC. One of my personal favorite teams: JR and Bob Caudle are on commentary. They mention a crazy brawl between these two to set this up. I would LOVE to see that. Sting hits a press slam early and Flair has to bail out. He hits another and lunges for the Stinger Splash, but Flair moves. Suplex on Sting is no good and Flair has to leave again. Back inside again, the chops don’t work and the Rolling Knee Drop misses. Sting puts Flair on the mat with a sleeper and we go to commercial as a splash hits knees. WILL YOU EVER LEARN, STINGER? When we return, Flair controls and the chops start to *sting*. Har har. Flair works the arm, but Sting gets free and grabs him by the throat. Oh, but Flair drops to his knees and there’s the low blow. Shinbreaker sets up the FIGURE FOUR. Flair uses the ropes, but Sting refuses to give up. Eventually, Sting beats on his chest and turns the hold over. However, the damage is done. Flair tosses Sting out to the floor which is bad for a knee. Back in, Flair kicks at the knee. Sting manages a crossbody block, but only gets two. Backslide gets two. Flair whips Sting into the corner, but Sting explodes out with a clothesline. Flair wants to put Sting away with a suplex from the apron to the floor, but naturally Sting counters and brings Flair inside the ring with a suplex of his own. Sting continues to mount a comeback on the champ as TV time expires. (14:49 shown) Just working towards a perfect Clash match, I believe. ***

• NWA World Champion Ric Flair (w/JJ Dillon) vs. Sting – (NWA Worldwide, 2/20/88)
  

Another encounter prior to the Clash. Tony Schiavone and David Crockett are on commentary. It’s a WOO contest to start. Flair can’t corner the man and takes a couple press slams before bailing to the floor. Back in, Sting delivers a hiptoss and a dropkick out of the corner. Vintage Sting! He works the arm until we take another commercial break. When we return, Sting unloads with another hiptoss, but whiffs on a dropkick. Sting gets tossed to the floor, but comes right back in with a sunset flip. Flair tries to fight him off, but he collapses for 1-2-NO! Sting misses a charge in the corner, but Flair is so exhausted that he commits to the Flair Flop anyways. JJ distracts the ref while Flair delivers a suplex, but Sting NO-SELLS! He pounds his chest and punches Flair to the floor, but it’s all just to bait Sting over to the ropes as Flair pulls Sting out and whips him into the guardrail. More commercials! When we come back, Flair hits the Rolling Knee Drop and takes Sting back to the floor for more guardrail violence. Clearly not very well constructed, one of the guardrails even falls apart. Flair threatens Sting with a chair, but ref Tommy Young intercepts on his behalf. Back inside, Flair chops away and as JJ distracts Tommy Young, he pitches over the top rope which was an automatic DQ. Sting NO-SELLS the toss and catches Flair by surprise with a flying clothesline! Cover, 1-2-NO! Another commercial break! We come back to see Sting getting a bunch of nearfalls on the champ. He slams Flair off the top and there’s the Flair Flip. Sting gives Flair a suplex from the apron inside the ring, but a running splash hits knees. Has he learned NOTHING from Ricky Steamboat? Flair and Tommy Young have a spat. Sting tries to take advantage with a Flying Bodypress, but nails both of them and Tommy gets knocked to the floor. Another ref comes down to check on Tommy Young. Meanwhile, there’s the Stinger Splash and the SCORPION DEATHLOCK inside the ring. As the ref crawls in to see if Flair gives up, JJ Dillon pulls him out and throws him into the ringpost! Good night. JJ tries to break up the hold, but he can’t get Sting off Flair! He calls for the Horsemen to come down. Arn Anderson runs out to help, but Lex Luger and Barry Windham stop him at the pass. A bunch of jobbers come down to convince Sting to let go of the hold. Once he’s free, Flair rolls to the floor and starts SCREAMING for Sting’s blood. What’s the decision? Heck if I know. (over 13:00 shown) We would see them recycle this same finish in 1995. Basically the same match as before with an actual finish. ***

• NWA World Champion Ric Flair vs. Sting – (NWA Clash of the Champions, 3/27/88)

Not too crazy about the original review, so I’m giving this one an upgrade. This is the main event of a HECK of a show that went up against WrestleMania IV and cost the WWF quite a bit of money. Of course the NWA had a two-fold plan: get revenge on the WWF for stealing attention away from their first two PPVs and hopefully make a new star at the same time. We got judges for this one and they just might be the worst panel I’ve ever seen. An NWA board member Gary Juster, former authority-type figure and wrestler Sandy Scott, the highly esteemed Penthouse Pet of the Year Patty Mullen, Eddie Haskell from both incarnations of the Leave it to Beaver TV series, and Wayne Arnold from The Wonder Years. You would see Jason Hervey every now and then on WCW TV over the years (mostly while dating Missy Hyatt) and he would actually later receive an executive producer credit with WCW, become friends with Eric Bischoff, and then they would begin the Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment company, who are responsible for some pretty terrible reality television shows involving Hulk Hogan.

More importantly than who the judges are, JJ Dillon is locked inside an ascended cage to prevent any foul play. No longer is Sting from every man’s nightmare. THIS-IS-STING! As opposed to the typical 60-minute time limit, this one can only go 45 minutes. JR and Tony Schiavone join us for commentary. Flair finds out that Sting is just too strong during the feeling-out process. The hiptoss and the dropkick send Flair out to the floor. Back inside, Sting is all about the leapfrogs. There’s the press slam and an old school flying headscissors. Sting sticks to a headlock on the mat. Once Flair gets to his feet, he takes Sting over to a corner. The chops don’t work, but he can certainly another dropkick. WOO! Flair dumps him out, but Sting jumps right back in the ring for some punches up in the corner. Back to the headlock. Flair fights out, but Sting catches him for another press slam. Sting grinds on Flair with a bearhug and takes him down to the mat. Jumping elbow drop misses, but Sting is just fine until he misses a corner charge. Sting tries the punches up in the corner again, but Flair brings him down with an inverted atomic drop. They go to the floor for some guardrail stuff with Flair in total control. Back inside, Flair starts up with the hard corner whips. He follows up with a couple of Rolling Knee Drops. More corner violence ensues and Flair tosses Sting to the floor. Flair threatens Sting with a chair, but ref Tommy Young takes it away from him. Back in, Sting starts to PSYCHED UP. They head back to the floor where Sting misses a clothesline up against the ringpost. In the ring, Flair twists on the arm. Sting starts to choke him back into a corner using his good arm and mounts Flair for more punches. Hiptoss and a clothesline gets two. Sting goes for the SCORPION DEATHLOCK at the 25 minute mark, but Flair reaches the ropes. Sting punches Flair to lead to the flop for two. Now Flair ducks a charge and Sting goes flying over the top rope to the floor. However, Sting NO-SELLS a neck snap on the top rope and delivers a Flying Bodypress for 1-2-NO! Flair hits a quick shin breaker and begins to take Sting to school. He delivers another one and Sting has to roll out. Back in, Flair continues to dissect the knee as he hooks on the FIGURE-FOUR after the 30-minute mark is announced. The ropes are pulled on, but Sting will not submit. From there, looks like we JIP to Sting having Flair in the figure-four. What. Flair reaches the ropes and as Sting breaks the hold, he runs over to the camera to yell out to Greensboro: “Do you know how to party or what?!” Now Sting start to take Flair to school. The Flair Flip lands the champ on the floor as Sting takes it to him on the guardrail. Now over at the ringpost! Back in, Sting stands tall when Flair tries the sunset flip. Flair tries to bring Sting out of the corner with another inverted atomic drop, but Sting avoids the knee and nails Flair with a clothesline for 1-2-NO! Oh, but the Stinger Splash misses with less than five minutes to go. Back inside the ring, Flair tries to cut off Sting with a sleeper. Sting then runs him into the corner. Now Flair dumps out. Sting comes back with a sunset flip. Flair drops down to his knees and grabs hold of the ropes to try for the cheap win. Tommy Young knocks his hands loose and Flair falls back for 1-2-NO! Flair runs down the apron out of the corner flip to the top turnbuckle for a flying bodypress, but Sting rolls through for 1-2-NO! Sting NO-SELLS the chops and fires himself up. One minute remains. This time the Stinger Splash connects! He hooks on the SCORPION DEATHLOCK, but Flair holds out until the 45-minute time-limit expires. (39:16 shown) The Penthouse Pet awards the match to Flair while Gary Juster gives Sting the nod. In a ridiculous final decision, Sandy Scott declares the match a draw. Apparently he doesn’t understand the judge concept, which renders the entire panel completely meaningless. Well, they just went out there and tore the house down. Not just historically significant for creating one of the biggest stars of the 1990s, but also a great match in front of a crowd that stayed lava hot for the entire show. ****

• Ric Flair vs. Sting – (NWA Starrcade, 12/13/89)
  

At this point, Sting is a Horsemen alongside Ole, Arn & Ric, which would make this very interesting at the time. Sting grabs a headlock to start. Flair shoves him off, but Sting hiptosses him around and Flair takes a breather. Back in, they have WOO-off. Sting tries to go the mat, but Flair picks him up over his shoulders and places Sting in the corner for some head games. Sting overpowers an overhead wristlock and puts Flair down with a press slam. They trade shoves and Flair bails out again. Back in, Sting counters a hiptoss into a backslide for 1-2-NO! Flair doesn’t like that a dang bit and chops Sting into the corner. Sting blocks another hiptoss and delivers one of his own. A pair of dropkicks and a clothesline follows for two. Flair begs away, but then kicks Sting in the knee and tosses him out to the floor. Haha, jerk. Flair takes him into the guardrail and then brings him back into the ring with a stalling suplex for two. He tries for the pin once more, but Sting kicks out at two. Rolling Knee Drop connects. He brings Sting down to the mat with an Oklahoma roll for a couple more two-counts. Inside cradle from Flair gets another two. Flair is just getting desperate now. Flair hits another suplex for two. Flair whips Sting hard from corner to corner and follows up with a butterfly suplex for 1-2-NO! Sting is kicking out of everything, but the crowd is nearly drained at this point. Sting comes back with a clothesline out of nowhere for 1-2-NO! Flair rolls out to the floor to set up an attack, but Sting starts NO-SELLING! Sting comes back in with a sunset flip, but Flair punches out of it. Oh man, Flair tries to suplex Sting to the floor, but its reversed back in for 1-2-NO! Flair chops back, but it has no effect on the Stinger. He backs Flair into the corner for the ten-count punch and flips him out with a hiptoss and a clothesline for 1-2-NO! He hits the Stinger Splash and goes for the SCORPION DEATHLOCK, but Flair gets into the ropes very quickly. Flair grabs Sting out of nowhere for the shin breaker to set up the FIGURE-FOUR! Sting grabs the bottom rope, but Flair continues to kick on the leg. Flair chops him down and delivers the Rolling Knee Drop across the knee. For some reason, Flair then grabs a headlock, which Sting reverses into another backslide for 1-2-NO! There’s one minute left in the match! Sting’s still selling the knee injury, which is more than I can say for John Cena at ‘Mania. Flair connects with another shin breaker and pounds on the leg some more before going for the FIGURE-FOUR, but Sting counters into an inside cradle for 1-2-3! (15:53) This match sets the stage for not only Sting’s eventual title win, (which was originally scheduled for WrestleWar in February, but we all know why that didn’t go down) but foreshadows Flair’s 22nd heel turn out of the 40 or so that he’s done throughout his career. This was their usual stuff, which is always fun. Post-match, Ole & Arn want to confront Sting about what he just did, but Flair lifts Sting’s arm up in celebration all the same. At the next Clash in February, the Horsemen would beat up Sting and kick him out of the Horsemen for his aspirations to become World champion over Flair to kick start Sting’s successful chase for the gold. ***

• NWA World Champion Ric Flair vs. Sting – (NWA Great American Bash, 7/7/90)
  

This is the long-awaited blowoff match to part II of the Sting/Flair feud. The story goes like this: Sting joins up with the reformed Four Horsemen and beats Flair in the Ironman tournament finals match at Starrcade and asks Flair for a title shot. That sends Flair over the edge and gets Sting beat up and kicked out of the Horsemen for good. So bad in fact, the Horsemen destroy Sting’s knee and try to put him out of wrestling. Of course as we all know now, it was all just an injury cover-up, as Sting had legitimately tore a tendon in his knee as he tried to climb a cage at the Clash X. After months of rehab, Sting is back and wants revenge. That leads us to where we are right now. Sting not only has the “Dude with Attitudes” surrounding the ring to keep anybody from interfering during this match, but he also has Ole Anderson freakin’ handcuffed to El Gigante to prevent any tomfoolery whatsoever. Oh yeah, and it’s also no-DQ. To say the odds are solidly in Sting’s favor would be the understatement of the year. Flair puts Sting in the corner to start, but Sting NO-SELLS the chops and delivers a military press. Flair wants out, but the Steiners stand in his way. Flair turns around into a hiptoss and a dropkick and rolls out onto the elevated walkway, but Sting follows him out and hiptosses him before giving him a clothesline back in the ring. Flair begs away and pokes Sting in the eye to set up the snapmare/knee drop combination. Flair hits a delayed suplex, but Sting pops right back up and drills Flair with clotheslines. He heads up top and catches Flair with a flying crossbody for 1-2-NO! Flair rolls out successfully this time and slows down the pace. He re-enters and goes right after the previously injured knee. Flair chops away, but Sting explodes out of the corner with a clothesline. Sting misses the jumping elbow drop and Flair goes for the FIGURE-FOUR, but Sting kicks him away. Flair fires back with a forearm and tosses Sting out to the floor to send him rolling around on that knee. Back in, Sting wobbles around on one leg and punishes Flair with a hiptoss, but then whiffs on a standing dropkick. Flair goes back to work on the knee, but then misses a rolling knee drop. Now Sting has Flair in the FIGURE-FOUR, but Flair quickly grabs the bottom rope! They go to the floor again for Flair to whip Sting into the guardrail, but that has no effect on the Stinger! Flair cowers back into the ring and gets pummeled. Flair goes low and heads up top, but that never ends well for heel Flair. Sting gets a backslide for 1-2-NO! Sting turns his attention to the ref, allowing Flair to clip Sting in the back of the knee. Flair tries for another FIGURE-FOUR attempt, but Sting kicks him away again. Flair tries more chops in the corner, but Sting NO-SELLS them as well! Sting’s chest looks BEAT. Sting hits the military press for two and then heads over to the corner for the ten-count corner punch. He whips Flair across for the Flair Flip and nails him as Flair runs down the apron. Suplex back in gets two. Sting looks to put Flair away with the STINGER SPLASH and the SCORPION DEATHLOCK as the Horsemen come down. The Dudes with Attitudes stop them at the pass. In the ring, Flair refuses to quit and reaches the ropes. Flair tries to gets a cheap win by shoulder-blocking Sting from the apron and sliding in to cover with his feet clearly on the ropes. Scott Steiner quickly runs by and yanks Flair off of Sting. Flair looks at Steiner and gets rolled up for 1-2-NO! Headlock/backslide sequence follows as Sting gets 1-2-NO! Flair begins to get frustrated as he repeatedly chops at Sting and finally gives up and goes to his knees to beg for Sting to leave him alone. Classic. Sting whips Flair into the corner and charges in with a knee, but Flair avoids the contact as the crowd collectively shrieks as they sense what is about to happen next. That’s right, the FIGURE-FOUR! Oh wait-NO! Sting counters with an inside cradle for 1-2-3! NEW WORLD CHAMPION! (16:06) The Baltimore Arena EXPLODES in a moment possibly no one there will ever forget. A classic match and one of the very few classic, timeless moments in WCW history. It was a rare time in WCW where they actually gave the fans what they had been begging to see and that’s witness Sting defeat Ric Flair for the gold. To show just how great a professional Sting is, after the match he puts Flair over as the greatest world champion ever. ****

• NWA World Champion Sting vs. The Black Scorpion – Cage Match (NWA Starrcade, 12/16/90)
  

From the Starrcade 1990 review. Dick the Bruiser is *your* special guest referee. JR mentions that St. Louis has seen more NWA World title changes than any other city in the world. The Little Scorpions are the so-called “messengers” of the real Black Scorpion’s arrival. Right. Finally, the “spaceship” lands and the real Black Scorpion comes in the backdoor of the “spaceship”. Then, the “spaceship” opens up and the Black Scorpion is on the rampway. You’d think they would have let Sting come out first so he can look all scared in the ring. After 3-4 months of this Black Scorpion business, it’s come to this. Sting dominates to start with some basic stuff. Scorpion fights back with a clothesline and a gutwrench suplex for a one-count. Scorpion applies a headscissors on the mat. Sting escapes, but goes down to a back elbow as Scorpion tries to pin Sting with his feet on the ropes. There’s your first clue as the crowd already knows who it is. Scorpion whips Sting from corner-to-corner and then puts on a chinlock and uses the ropes again for leverage. Sting finally comes out and press slams Scorpion to the mat. Sting goes for a crossbody on Scorpion, but he moves and lets Sting fly into the cage. Scorpion covers for one. Scorpion whips Sting across into a corner, but Sting gets the foot up. Sting covers for two. Scorpion goes to the eyes and sends Sting face-first into the cage several times. Scorpion hits a piledriver and covers for two as Sting gets his foot on the bottom rope. Sting mounts his comeback and hits the faceslam. He delivers the Stinger Splash and goes to the SCORPION DEATHLOCK, but Scorpion actually powers out. Scorpion tries to take Sting to the cage once again, but Sting counters and sends Scorpion instead. Sting goes for the mask, but Scorpion’s got another one underneath. They go to the top where Sting gets shoved off, but then Sting stumbled into the ropes causing Scorpion to get crotched. Sting takes Scorpion to the cage a few more times and then heads up for the Flying Crossbody for 1-2-3. (18:32) Sting and Bruiser fight off the Little Scorpions as long as possible until Windham and Anderson come in to help them out. They beat the crap out of Sting with a chair! Morton, Taylor and Zenk run down and try to climb over the cage to help Sting, but Anderson and Windham swat them away. The Steiners run down with bolt cutters to cut the chain on the cage door. They get the door open and clear the ring of the Horsemen as Sting finally gets the mask off the Scorpion and its finally revealed that the Black Scorpion is Ric Flair. Real weird match, as part of it Flair tried to throw you off the scent that it was him by using holds like the headscissors, and sometimes it was blatantly obvious that it was him. Like for example, using the ropes every chance he got and being crotched on the top rope in a cage match. Anyways, the good part to all of this is the Black Scorpion feud is over with and never mentioned again as far as I know. **

• NWA World Champion Ric Flair vs. Sting – (WCW Saturday Night, 8/21/93)

Last week, Sting agreed to team with Ric Flair against Harley Race’s Colossal Kongs at the previous week’s Clash show, and in return Ric Flair would give him an NWA world title shot. I would need to rewatch some Saturday Nights of the time to see why that match was even happening. Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura are on commentary. This is the first meeting of the two where they were both babyfaces. Schiavone somehow tries to convince us this is their rubber match: Sting winning the world title at the Great American Bash 1990 and Flair regaining the gold in 1991. I’m assuming just for the purpose of giving the match importance, but it really doesn’t make sense. We know they’re pals by the way they high-five each other. Get ready for all that to end as this match begins. Feeling out process to start with hammerlocks and armbars. Sting’s first press slam gets thwarted as Sting tries to cover by grabbing a chinlock. Once they regroup, Sting delivers the press slam real good this time. Sting follows with a suplex and applies a Boston crab. Flair reaches the ropes and takes a breather. Back in, he connects with the chops, but misses the knee drop. Another press slam gets two. Oh, but he misses the jumping elbow drop. There’s an ab stretch and Flair makes the ropes. Flair avoids the Stinger Splash and pulls Sting out for a piledriver on the floor, but Sting backdrops out. Back inside, Flair begs off and goes low. However, Sting refuses to take Flair’s crap and Flair has to bail. Back in again, Flair ducks a charge and Sting flies onto the ropes. Flair hits the Rolling Knee Drop and kicks the ribs a bunch, but can’t get the pin. Commercials! During the break, Sting rolled through a flying bodypress and nearly beat Flair. Currently though, Sting whiffs on a dropkick for Flair to take back over. Sunset flip by Sting nearly gets the win. Backslide has the same result. Flair Flip sends him to the floor. Once he’s back on the apron, he thumbs Sting in the eye and heads up top, but of course that’s a mistake. Jumping clothesline gets two. They head to the floor where Sting NO-SELLS some guardrail action. Back in, Sting delivers an O’Connor roll for two. Oh, but Flair goes to the eye again. WOO! Chops and the shinbreaker lead to the FIGURE-FOUR. Sting reverses the hold and here comes Sid Vicious walking out in his fancy street clothes. He joins Tony and Jesse on commentary. This should be interesting! Clearly he’s pissed that Sting is getting the title shot and not him. It’s like WrestleMania 8 all over again with this guy! He’s begging for the winner of this match. Sting makes his comeback with press slams and everything. He tries the jumping splash, but Flair brings up the knees. Sting NO-SELLS a suplex and runs Flair down to slap on the Figure-Four. He finds the ropes and tries his signature corner pin, but Sting kicks out at two and pulls Flair into a small package for two. Nice! Sting delivers the superplex, but can’t capitalize quick enough on the cover. Another press slam and then they collide with each other to flip over the top rope to the floor. Right as Sting starts to make it back inside before the ten-count, Sid walks over and pulls Sting off the apron onto the guardrail to give Flair the win. (39:24 shown) Flair protests the decision to save face, but here comes Harlem Heat to beat on Flair. He fights them off, but Sid attacks and Sting makes the save leaving everything the way it was before this show began. ***¾

• WCW World Champion Ric Flair vs. WCW International Champion Sting – Title Unification Match (WCW Clash of the Champions, 6/23/94)
  

After the ring introductions, “Sensuous” Sherri Martel makes her appearance. Since showing up in the audience at Slamboree, she’s been watching and figuring out which WCW talent to manage. She walks out with a masquerade mask covering her face. Once she makes it down to the ring, she reveals Sting face paint. Sherri is in Sting’s corner! Sting shoves Flair out of the tie-up several times. Flair is PISSED! Flair grabs a wristlock and tries to bring Sting down to the mat by his hair, but he kips up every time. Sting points the finger at Flair. Sting takes Flair down and they get into the ropes. That flusters Flair, so Sting poses. Flair takes a walk up the platform for a double-bicep pose. Woo! Back in, Sting delivers a pair of press slams and Flair is back on the floor for a Flair Flop into Johnny B. Badd’s confetti right in front of Sherri. Back in again, Sting NO-SELLS chops in the corner and Flair just doesn’t know what to do with himself. Sting hiptosses Flair out of the corner and follows up with clotheslines. Flair takes another breather on the floor and jaws with the front row. He returns to the ring and goes low on Sting to take over, but he decides to chop and that has no effect on Sting. He starts up again on Flair, but whiffs on a dropkick. FIGURE-FOUR? No! Sting gets an inside cradle for 1-2-NO! Flair shoves the ref and the ref Randy Anderson shoves back, so Flair takes another walk. “Sting” chants go up with Sherri leading the crowd. Just as that happens, Flair avoids a Stinger Splash and throws Sting over the top rope behind the ref’s back. Flair chops him down while Sherri tries to help Sting up. Back in they go, Flair connects with a pair of Rolling Knee Drops. Flair puts his foot on the top rope and gets a bunch of nearfalls. Sherri yells at the ref, so Flair gets up and tells her to SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP! Flair hits a back suplex and goes for the FIGURE-FOUR, but Sting kicks him off. Sting ducks a chop, but not a back elbow. Flair grabs a sleeper. Sting escapes by running Flair’s head into the top turnbuckle. Here comes Sting! He catapults Flair into the corner and brings him in from the apron with a suplex for 1-2-NO! Flair Flip leads to a clothesline for Flair. Sting takes Flair to the corner for the ten-count corner punch, but Flair brings him out. The inverted atomic drop fails, so Sting drops him with a clothesline for 1-2-NO! Sting delivers a top-rope superplex and follows with a flying splash, but there’s nobody in the pool! Just when you think Flair has Sting down, he NO-SELLS a suplex. Sting goes wild on Flair and clotheslines him out for a plancha, but Flair pulls Sherri in the way! Oww. Looked like she hit her head on the guardrail. But she’s not Mick Foley? Sting’s pretty upset now. Flair kicks Sting in the back of the head from the apron and brings him back in the ring. Sting gets a backslide, but the ref was slow to get back in the ring because of Sherri. Sting checks on Sherri again and promptly gets rolled up by the tights for 1-2-3. (17:16) Another great Sting/Flair affair, but had Hogan and Flair not already shown signs of an immediate feud, maybe the match would have been less predictable. After the match, Flair looks at Sherri. Sherri looks at Flair. They embrace and once again, Sting gets double crossed by Flair. Will he ever learn? When Sting goes after Sherri, Flair clips him from behind and a double-beatdown follows until Hogan makes the save as we end the show. ***¾

• WCW World Champion Ric Flair vs. Sting – (WCW Saturday Night, 7/9/94)
  

This was a LIVE fan’s choice match where the viewers called the hotline to vote on who they wanted to see in the main event. Since Flair just beat Sting to unify the world titles with Sensuous Sherri Martel screwing over Sting, everyone wanted to see this match. Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are on commentary. This is not fair to Flair! Flair refuses to willingly get in the ring with him, so Sting forces him inside. Dropkicks and press slams. Look, Hulk Hogan is here. Sherri is barred from the building, by the way. Out goes Flair and he flops down over by Hulk. Back in the ring, Flair goes low and chops Sting down. However, Sting slams Flair off the top and hits a jumping clothesline, but then misses a corner charge up against the ropes. WOO! Sting doesn’t care too much about the chops and starts his superman comeback. Superplex sets up the SCORPION DEATHLOCK. Wait a minute! A “fan” jumps the rail wearing what appears to be a bad Groucho Marx costume. “He” throws out the ref and starts clawing on Sting’s eyeballs. Hogan gets up from his chair and gives the “fan” an atomic drop. Lawsuit! Hogan points the finger and pulls off the wig to reveal the fan: Sherri Martel! Hulk rips off the t-shirt and gives chase, but Flair attacks Hogan from behind and goes for the knee. Even though Sting is right there, Mr. T and Jimmy Hart have to make the save to chase Ric Flair to the back. WHAT. (around 6:00) You can already see where this is going. Sting out, Hogan in. This was high energy stuff until the Sherri mess started. **
And that ends the main-event matches of the Sting-Flair rivalry. Coming soon is part TWO, which I’ll just call “Nostalgia”.