5. Chi-Town Rumble 1989
WWE.comThe main event match between Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair is one of the best matches ever, so that's a big reason why this show is here. Flair was the heel World Champion while Steamboat was the heel challenger. This was about two years after Ricky's epic match with Randy Savage at WM3 and after he got bounced from WWE, NWA was able to snag him up. Smart move by them. The crowd was so into this. Flair had so much credibility as the champion while everybody loved Steamboat. Every time it looked like Ricky was close to winning they went crazy for it. They had a 23 minute classic that ended with Steamboat winning on an inside cradle although the original ref didn't make the count after he bumped, so it was somewhat of a disputed finish. They would go on to have two more amazing matches after this one at Clash of the Champions and WrestleWar 1989. It's probably the best series of high profile matches ever. Lex Luger beat Barry Windham for the US Title. Luger was awesome during this time period. He wasn't too big by this point and was healthy. Once he got seriously hurt a few years after this his work suffered. Windham was a terrific athlete for a taller wrestler. There's even a six man tag with Jim Cornette and Paul E Dangerously (Heyman) involved in a Midnight Express feud. Heyman was only 23 years old at the time. Pretty amazing that he was such a great performer at such a young age.
It's a strong show from top to bottom. The NWA was really awesome in 1989 thanks to the Flair/Steamboat feud more than anything.