It could be argued that there wasn't a better year for in-ring product in wrestling history than what the NWA gave us in 1989. A huge part of that was the magnificent match trilogy between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat. They put on wrestling clinics, and even though they wrestled for a combined 111 minutes in those three matches, crowds were on the edges of their seats for every one of them. However, something that many wrestling fans would not find out about until years and years later is that Flair and Steamboat were no strangers to each other in the ring in 1989. They had themselves a good feud in 1977, battling over the Mid-Atlantic Television Title, back when Steamboat was a 24-year-old that was brand new to the business. In 1994, a full five years after their last match, Flair and Steamboat would have yet another classic, this time at Spring Stampede. They've faced each other hundreds of times, but 99% of those matches took place at live events that weren't recorded for television or pay-per-view, but for the matches that were seen by the mass public, you're looking at nothing but phenomenal work. If you're someone that cares about these types of things, Dave Meltzer gave their four matches the following scores, in chronological order: five stars, five stars, five stars, four-and-a-quarter stars. That's the kind of thing that does transcend all "eras", time, crowd size, and anything else. They were able to go from the 1970's, when "it's still real to me, dammit" didn't need to be said, because of course wrestling was real, to the mid-1990's, when the business had lost that aura and was more focused on "characters". Not everyone can make that happen, but they were successful.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
