Ric Flair: To Be the Man…Whoooooo!

There’s been some truly legendary stables in the wrestling business. We’ve seen The Heenan Family, the NWO, DX, and more recently, Evolution and The Shield. However, none of them reached quite the level of success that Flair and his comrades did when they formed the original Four Horsemen. The group consisted of the NWA‘s true elite talent Ric Flair, Arn and Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and were managed by J.J. Dillon. At one point, The Four Horsemen held every major title in the NWA, with Flair being NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Arn and Ole Anderson being NWA World Tag Team Champions, and Tully Blanchard being NWA United States Heavyweight Champion. In 1986, Jim Crockett made the decision to consolidate his NWA territories and take the promotion national, the result was the creation of World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Starrcade 1987 would be the first official pay-per-view for WCW, and it would be main evented by Ric Flair vs Ron Garvin for the World Heavyweight Championship. Then, in early 1988, Flair would receive perhaps the most iconic rival of his long illustrious career, a young up and comer named Sting. At Clash of the Champions 1988, he and the “Stinger” wrestled their first match together and delivered a 45 minute instant classic that ended in a draw. By going the distance with the World Heavyweight Champion and refusing to lose, Sting became an instant main event star, and presented WCW with a clear successor to Flair. However, the “Nature Boy” was far from done, and the return of an old rival would soon provide him with the opportunity to prove he was still on top of his game.