Many people feel that Sting owes his entire career, and everything he was able to get because of it, to Ric Flair. Honestly, that isn't an unfair thing to say. Sting was already a budding star before he began having matches with Flair, but "The Nature Boy" helped to make Sting look like a megastar. Flair's specialty, in his prime, was taking younger opponents and helping to elevate them to the next level in their careers, even in matches where he beat them. In the two years between their match at the first Clash Of The Champions event and their match at the 1990 Great American Bash pay-per-view, where Sting defeated Flair to win the NWA World Title, Flair helped to "groom" Sting. Flair was, for all intents and purposes, an in-ring "trainer", of sorts. He did a great job at it, too. They would go on to remain strong rivals for the duration of WCW's existence, squaring off on the final episode of Monday Nitro in 2001. While people hoped their feud would continue on in WWE, both men threw people a bit of a curveball by keeping the rivalry going in TNA. It was another wave of nostalgia for long-time fans of the sport, but it wasn't much. Flair was a very part-time wrestler in TNA, and he would move on from the company after a relatively short time. With both men working with WWE to an extent right now, there's always a possibility we could see them cross paths again in the future, which would be pretty fitting, over a quarter-century after their Clash match.
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.
