4. Shawn Michaels vs Ric Flair - Prime Time Wrestling, December 12th, 1991
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L-LAp8PoZQ Long before Michaels love-kicked Flair into temporary retirement the showstopper in the making was taking it to The Nature Boy, who was on his way towards his classic '92 rumble win. You would think on historical value alone, this would be one of the most famous matches in Shawn's early career. Actually, this battle between two bona-fide legends was first shown on RAW precursor Prime Time Wrestling and is only commercially available on weird compilation video Invasion '92. How weird you ask? Weird as balls. Weird enough to have part time commentator Sean Mooney present the thing through the least funny Star Trek parody ever. I suppose this was doomed to obscurity the second Vince set his phasers to retard. At only ten minutes long, this isn't quite up to the standard of their Wrestlemania 24 classic, but it's still great fun and well worth going out of your way to watch. The match features some great chain wrestling, with Michaels made to look every bit Flair's equal. For his part, The Nature Boy does all his signature spots and sells generously for the soon to be ex-Rocker, even allowing a few near falls for the rising singles star. The commentary here is just awful, made even worse by some awkward legal issues with Flair still carrying around the big gold belt and calling himself the "real world champion". Which led to WCW suing the bejesus out of everything Flair touched. So Lord Alfred and Spaceman Sean Mooney awkwardly skirt around the subject and at one point go completely silent for about nine seconds, while someone presumably gives them a bollocking over the headset. But that's pretty much the only bad thing I can say about this match, which is as good as could be expected for the timeslot. It's interesting to see Shawn in the position of being elevated by an established star. He got lucky in that respect. Arguably nobody is better than Flair at putting talent over. The end comes when Perfect pulls Flair out of harms way leading Michaels to get KO'd onto the guardrail. Party Marty then ran down to ringside and pushed his lifeless partner into the ring, presumably to give him chance to mount a comeback. Instead Flair pins him with his legs on the ropes: cheating even when his opponent is out cold. Classic Flair. Classic Michaels too, for that matter.