10 Great Wrestling Matches Hidden On Terrible Pay Per Views
7. Ric Flair Vs. Vader - WCW StarrCade 1993
StarrCade was WCW's biggest event of the calendar - and the 1993 iteration was also similar to WrestleMania 13 in that it was a one-match show.
Matches that shone on paper were performed with a subdued dullness on the night. The Television Title draw between Steven Regal and Ricky Steamboat was tedious. Steve Austin Vs. Dustin Rhodes, then two of wrestling's foremost emerging stars, was similarly disappointing. At 29:11, the Tag Team Title match pitting Sting and Hawk against The Nasty Boys was unfathomably long.
Expectations were, if not low, then middling for the main event pitting Ric Flair against Vader. It represented a curious clash of styles. Could Vader live up to his fearsome style in a match with a man unwilling to take the extreme brunt of his notoriously stiff offence?
The answer, resoundingly, was yes. Flair is best remembered as heel (and with G.O.A.T promos like this, it's little wonder), but he was also a fantastic babyface - one with an astounding ability to yield sympathy. It's this ability which informs the dramatic heft of the match; Flair's first-rate body language, at once anxious and gritty, almost negates the need for a Cactus Jack-esque display of masochism - though Flair does absorb enough punishment to preserve Vader's formidable aura.