10 Awesome WCW Moments You Forgot

9. Ric Flair Vs. Brian Pillman

When you think of classic Ric Flair matches, the usual suspects spring to mind. Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes and other iconic main event stars, great babyfaces sharing the ring with arguably the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots.

How about Brian Pillman? That all depends on your age. Older fans may think of the Hollywood Blondes and cruiserweight classics with Jushin Thunder Liger, while Attitude Era lovers of pro wrestling will remember classic promos and edgy character-work over actual between the ropes action.

Ric Flair vs. Brian Pillman might not jump to mind, but the two legends went one-on-one on a couple of occasions inside a WCW ring, including on the third ever episode of WCW Nitro. Their best match came in 1991 on an episode of Main Event, where the Nature Boy put his WCW World Heavyweight Championship on the line against then-babyface extraordinaire, 'Flyin' Brian Pillman.

The match ticks all the boxes. Flair was in his element as the Dirtiest Player in the Game, while Pillman was making serious waves as an ultra-high-energy babyface. A wildly-telegraphed ref bump allowed Arn Anderson to run interference as Flair attacked Pillman's leg and applied the Figure Four, only for El Gigante (of all people) to head out for the save. The ref threw the match out (maybe?!), and the four resolved their issues in a house show cage match weeks later.

Not quite a lost classic, but a damn good match nonetheless.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.