To most huge 80s wrestling fans who started watching in the 80s, Flair is the greatest wrestler of all-time. He’s the kiss-stealing, wheeling-dealing, limousine-riding, jet-flying son-of-a-gun. He’s the man who changed for me what I always knew wrestling to be. I became a pretty big wrestling fan in the mid-80s, stemming from the time just before the first WrestleMania. I was a Hogan guy through and through. I believe that one of the main reasons I became such a big WWF fan is that their TV was so easy for me to find. They had a nationally syndicated TV show on Saturday morning right at the tail-end of the Saturday morning cartoon run (when that was a major deal). Finding the NWA was a bit harder, but as a budding wrestling fan, I eventually did find them.

I would see bits and pieces of the NWA and one of my best friends at the time would tell me about the Road Warriors, who were his favorite tag team. When I saw the Road Warriors, it was like looking at two super heroes in the ring. But if I trace back the first time I ever saw Ric Flair, it would’ve been on a syndicated Joe Pedicino/Gordon Solie show called “Pro Wrestling This Week”. They were discussing “The Nature Boy” against the “American Dream”. I didn’t know of Flair and Dusty Rhodes quite yet, but when they started talking about who is who, I just figured that the dream would’ve been Flair, since he was wearing his trademarked sequined robe and flanked by blonds. And when Rhodes came out shirtless and fat with a splotch on his belly, I just figured he was of nature. I was very confused when it turned out to be the reverse.

But soon-thereafter, I was hooked on Flair. Now, I would never claim to be a big Flair fan in the mid-to-late 80s, because I was such a Hogan guy and I had to be loyal to Hogan. And plus, Flair was a heel. I was too young to root for the heels at the time. But you couldn’t not keep your eyes on him, especially since one of the main stories the Apter mags would present was about who was better between Hogan and Flair. I would say Hogan was better, but silently believe that Flair was the better guy.

One of my early favorite Flair matches was a cage match against Ronnie Garvin at Starrcade 1987. I actually hated the fact that I saw that PPV because I was supposed to see the inaugural Survivor Series. But my cable company at the time was one of the few cable companies to stick to their guns and show Starrcade instead of the Survivor Series. That match with Garvin was full of Flair flops, chops, and ultimately, the Nature Boy prevailed like we all knew he should’ve.

While I could probably write 5,000 words on Flair and miss more on his career than I actually covered, I’m going to write about the two most distinct memories I have about the Nature Boy. The first is from 1989. And it has nothing to do with Ricky Steamboat. Well, that’s not true. It has little to do with Steamboat, but it has much more to do with Terry Funk. After Flair won his belt back from Steamboat at WrestleWar of 1989, Terry Funk jumped him after the Nature Boy wouldn’t accept his challenge, saying that he had to start from the bottom. I don’t know why this feud has stuck in my mind after all these years considering it wasn’t even that long, but I think it’s two fold. Terry Funk made things seem very realistic and insane. He also felt like the real deal. And secondly, I always loved Flair’s face turns. He may be one of the best heels of all time, but I also think he was an awesome babyface.

Flair would go on to beat Funk at the Great American Bash in 1989, which was such a great show. He and Sting would beat Funk and The Great Muta in a Thunderdome cage match at Halloween Havoc, which set up an I Quit match between Funk and Flair at the 9th Clash of the Champions. I wasn’t watching WCW PPVs until they hit video several months later, so the Clash match actually stands out most in my mind since it was the one I saw live. Flair and Funk had a great match concluding with Funk saying “Yes, I quit!” after yelling in the microphone that Flair was breaking his leg. The match ended with a handshake before all hell broke loose. My favorite part of the aftermath was that Sting comes down to save Flair in slacks, dress shoes, shirtless, and with face paint. Only Sting.

Here’s the ending of the match:

The second thing that stands out in my mind when I think about Ric Flair is the entire surroundings around him jumping to the WWF in the fall of 1991. If I was to gauge my wrestling fandom, I would say that in 1991 and 1992, I was a bigger wrestling fan than I’d ever been in my life. It got so bad that I was listening to “inside wrestling” radio shows on a cable channel that would stream radio shows while displaying a community schedule of events on a blue screen. The wrestling show probably just read news from the Observer, but I clearly remember knowing all the details of what was going on with Flair and NWA/WCW at the time and knowing he’d show up in WWF weeks before he did. The anticipation from him joining WWF made me a super nutty wrestling fan. While I loved every second of it, in retrospect, I wish they would’ve done it a bit differently. The goal should’ve been to make Flair vs. Hogan as hot as can be for WrestleMania, but they ran the program in house shows in late 1991 and many who wanted to see the match probably saw it.

I really wish they would’ve had him defend his “Real World Championship” against the likes of Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, Jake Roberts, and Randy Savage, continued to do the Undertaker vs. Hogan program and then have Flair win the Rumble to win the title with Hogan feeling like he had to win it for all of the WWF. As we know, it didn’t quite happen that way, but that year’s Royal Rumble is still one of my favorite wrestling matches of all time.

Defining Match Of The WrestleMania Era: Royal Rumble 1992

When it comes to defining era Flair matches, you can really close your eyes and pick and not be wrong. What about the matches in 1989 with Steamboat? His match at the first Clash with Sting that is still one of the most viewed matches of all time. His match with Savage at WrestleMania VIII was excellent. He had matches with Barry Windham in the late 80s that were great. There were other matches with Big Van Vader, Triple H, and heck, even some pretty darn good ones with Hogan too. But Royal Rumble 1992 is the match that’s stuck with me best. It was the ultimate wrestling “performance”. It was the performance that has defined the actual Royal Rumble match. Oh, and please, Be Fair To Flair.

Here’s the entire match:

The 90s saw Funk’s career go in a whole new direction. Having always been one of the more believable brawlers in the world, the popularisation of “hardcore” wrestling in Japan and in the US gave Funk a whole new avenue to grow his popularity and feed his insanity. Bordering on 50 years of age, Funk was lighting himself on fire, jumping into C4 explosives and doing moonsaults off balconies. In doing so he helped two fledgling companies in FMW and ECW solidify themselves in the wrestling world with their own niche audience. In a gripping scene from the movie Beyond The Mat, Paul Heyman was shown rallying the ECW crew before their first PPV Barely Legal. With conviction in his voice, he told them all to thank Terry Funk because without him they wouldn’t be where they are. Funk’s role in ECW’s success is often underrated – he really was a key force in establishing what they became at their peak.

Now finally retired (well, we think), Funk can be looked at as a guy who, whilst a completely unique entity unto himself, was also a man who you could point to and say “that man is professional wrestling”. He embodied everything great about the business – the grittiness, the larger than life character, the know-how and talent inside the ring, and of course the incredible speaking ability. In a world where almost nobody is free from criticism, Terry Funk is probably one of only about five wrestlers who you will NEVER hear anyone say a bad word about. He truly is as respected and revered as they come.

Defining Match Of The WrestleMania Era: Terry Funk vs. Atsushi Onita

The match that defines Terry Funk? You could pick several but I think this one goes that little bit extra in showing the kind of performer Terry was. From May 5th 1993, Funk vs. Atsushi Onita in the first ever exploding time bomb death match. This is every bit a gripping buddy movie as it is a pro wrestling match. The drama is off the charts, and the closing scenes are some of the coolest ever in wrestling.

Oh, and we would be remiss if we didn’t include a classic Terry Funk promo.

Steamboat wrestled in the NWA before the WrestleMania era started, but left for WWE right before the first WrestleMania. He wrestled Matt Bourne at the WrestleMania I, just before he was given the dragon gimmick yet. After feuding with Don Muraco, Steamboat beat Hercules at WrestleMania 2, before beginning a feud with Jake The Snake Roberts. Roberts DDT’d Steamboat on the concrete floor on one show and it legit knocked Steamboat out. But soon, Steamboat would move into a feud which most would consider his second best work, with Randy Savage.

In late 1986, they wrestled on Superstars of Wrestling and Savage brutalized Steamboat’s throat, injuring his larynx with the ring bell, as well as draping his neck over the guard rail and giving him the double ax handle. Vince McMahon said it looked like Steamboat was trying to “swallow his tongue”. Uh, right Vince. But it worked amazingly well. Savage acted like a lunatic heel, and Steamboat’s overselling made it seem like he was seriously injured.

In early 1989, he returned to the NWA and was immediately put in a feud with Ric Flair. From late February to May, he and Flair wrestled three classics with Steamboat winning the title at Chi-Town Rumble, retaining at the Clash Of Champions, and then losing it back to Flair at WrestleWar. Oddly, Steamboat would soon be gone and after spending some of 1990 in Japan, he was back in the WWF in a hokey costume and simply billed as The Dragon in the summer of 1991. He seemed to be doomed from the start maybe because of the way he left them in 1988, or maybe to show the fans that NWA’s champion couldn’t be more than just a mid-carder in WWF. But he was gone quickly and back in the NWA, which was transitioning into becoming WCW. His stay in WCW was strong wrestling-wise, and interestingly, he returned shortly after Flair left for WWF. He stayed in WCW for three years and had great tag team matches as a partner of Shane Douglas and Dustin Rhodes and had really good singles matches against Rick Rude and Steve Austin. In 1994, when Flair came back to the company, he had one more short feud with Flair which culminated in Flair retaining his title that he’d won from Big Van Vader.

Steamboat had been mostly away from wrestling until 2005, but worked for short periods of time in ROH and TNA before working exclusively with WWE as a road agent and sometimes trainer. He came out of retirement in 2009 for a handicap legends match vs. Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 25 and then had a fun singles match with him at Backlash.

Defining Match Of The WrestleMania Era: Ricky Steamboat Vs. Ric Flair at Chi-Town Rumble

As much as I’d like to say it was his match with Savage at WrestleMania III, his matches with Ric Flair were just a tad bit better. They were on a slightly smaller stage, but in the wrestling world, they’re known as some of the best matches of all time.

He was born right outside of Edmonton, Alberta Canada and played college football and wrestled. Kininski portrayed a villainous heel for most of his career and had a legendary feud with “Whipper” Billy Watson early in his career. Kininski will most be remembered by wrestling fans as the first Canadian man to hold the recognized NWA World Heavyweight Championship and a favorite amongst Canadian sportswriters of the era. He defeated Lou Thesz in 1966 in St. Louis to become the Champion and held the title for three years non-stop until he would lose to Dory Funk Jr in Tampa, Florida at the legendary Armory. He was honored in the 1992 Cauliflower Alley Club festival.

We wish his family the best.

Steve Williams will be remembered by the hardcore fans for his series of incredible matches in All Japan Pro Wrestling during it’s heyday in the mid 90s. Traditional fans of the sport will remember his runs in ECW, teaming with the late Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy. In addition, he had a few shorter runs in WCW In 1992 and then again in 1999, and for the WWF as Jim Ross’ protege in 1998 and 1999.

We would like to send our condolences to the family of Steve Williams.

The only solace is that Doc and Gordy are suplexing each other around in Heaven…

Source Credit: PWInsider.com

They talked about a bunch of topics including the end of the AWA, the Western States Heritage Title, The Monday Night Wars and why he left TNA.

Check it out on Stevie J’s site at AngryMarks.com.

It’s not WOOO its WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Known to have influenced such workers as Barry Windham and John “Bradshaw” Layfield (both of which incorporated the “Lariat” into their arsenal of moves), Hansen seems to be a forgotten legend to most casual fans. I can’t blame them too much though; he was before their time.

He knew how to sell, he knew how to put together a main event caliber match, and he knew how to make everything he did look real. His punches looked like they would knock your head off, and at times they did. It was a well-known fact that Hansen was blind. I mean, not Helen Keller blind, but he couldn’t see very well. So when he’d throw out his arm for a looping right hand or a Lariat, he swung it as hard as could and made sure it connected. He would rather have knocked somebody unconscious and protected the business than have missed completely and made it look fake. This subsequently led to Hansen accidentally knocking Vader’s eye out of it’s socket in a match in Japan.

Hansen’s brute force style of work and brawling have put him up there with the likes of Abdullah the Butcher, Bruiser Brody, and others in terms of workrate. “The Lariat” also had legendary feuds with the aforementioned individuals. Wrestling historians will point to Hansen’s reign as All Japan Triple Crown Champion, and subsequent defeat at the hands of Mitsuharu Misawa, as the peak of All Japan’s boom period in the early 90s.

So today, we honor the career of Stan “The Lariat” Hansen with this awesome video I found on YouTube. Maybe one day, Hansen’s giant frame will rise like the sun into the WWE Hall of Fame. He damn sure deserves to be.

Today we present a face to face back and forth promo between WWWF Champion Bob Backlund and NWA World Heavyweight Champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, hyping up a big unification match to happen on Independence Day – July 4th, 1982, at the Omni in Atlanta, GA. In the early 80s, Georgia was one of the hottest territories in the country and the Omni was a perfect building to host this big match.

Thanks to Jared Cheeseman for the heads-up

Thank You Sweet William…

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO