Ric Flair: To Be the Man…Whoooooo!

In January 1989, fresh off his Match of the Year with “Macho Man” Randy Savage at WrestleMania III, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat would return to the NWA (which was transitioning into being mainly WCW) and entered a feud with Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The two men were perfect rivals. Steamboat was the honest hard working family man, who would have his wife and kids with him at shows. While Flair was a proud womanizer and misogynist, who cared about nothing more than remaining the World Heavyweight Champion. It made for some great story telling, and even better matches. Their first match would take place on February 20^th 1989 at the Chi-Town Rumble event. That night Ricky Steamboat would defeat Flair to become the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and set up a highly anticipated rematch at 1982’s Clash of the Champions. It would be another classic, and would end just short of the 60 minute time limit with Steamboat barely retaining. Flair would finally regain his NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Steamboat at WrestleWar 1989, in what would be voted as Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Match of the Year. He had started the decade as a young performer full of promise and potential, and would end it as the the top performer in the entire business. It would have been completely understandable for the 90’s to not be as kind to Flair as the 80’s had been, but when you’re “The Man,” conventional wisdom doesn’t always apply…Whoooooo!