[1993-11-10-WCW-Clash of the Champions XXV] Ric Flair vs Vader

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes. Pretty good action, and Flair's fake title win gets an enormous pop. But the ref overturns the decision because Vader was DQd for hitting the ref. Austin runs down to attack Flair after the match, a clear sign they wanted to push this guy to the top. Hmmm, maybe Dusty was on to something with this Austin guy.

[El-P]

I never was a big fan of their Starrcade match so I was surprised to enjoy this as much as I did. One very interesting spot here is Vader basically forcing Flair into a routine of his, and failing at it, which is ironic since Flair is the one supposedly foring people into his requisite spots : basically Vader powerslamed himself from the second rope, and although I always thought that spot was cliché here it really looked ridiculous and stupid, as Flair isn't a power guy to begin with. Anyway, the finish is yet another annoying Dusty finish, like having 3 of them on the previous PPV wasn't enough, and the promise of Flair teaming with Sid was shady to say the least since the stabbing in Europe already happened and Sid was probably gonna get fired at this point. The foreshadowing of Austin vs Flair is salivating, it's just sad they never pulled the trigger on it, I guess because Bischoff got power and scrapped it.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I have been digging babyface Ric Flair for a while now and this was a pretty good match. Vader worked on top really well and Flair's verbal selling was top notch. I liked the construct of all the openings Flair took advantage of. Every chance, he pounced on like the first time he got Vader on his back (Vader missed an elbow) he went right to the Figure-4. It showed he wasn't fucking around. I have always dug the superplex. Flair wins so we think off a missed Vadersault.

 

This really put over Flair's underdog spirit and that the only way he could fell the monster is if the monster made a mistake, which is a great to put over guys. I think after you hear that crowd reaction, WCW was not too worried about putting the belt on Flair again. I know that Starrcade match has been polarizing. Historically, I have fallen on the positive side and a MOTYC for WCW. After the the Saturday Night tag match, I will get to it.

[Kevin Ridge]

Vader did powerslam himself as Flair barely touched him. The superplex off the top was awesome though. Looks great when a big guy like Vader does that move. The finish reminded me of Hockey where a team commits a penalty but the referees allow play to continue until the penalized team touches the puck. Vader hits the referee but Anderson still counts the pinfall attempt by Flair later. Ric doesn't get the full three as Vader gets his feet on the rope. So referee then just disqualifies Vader. Was like he was giving Flair the chance to get the pinfall count. Doesn't look right in wrestling. Anyways, Flair is looking strong lately as you can totally see the confidence in him. He wants a tag match with Vader and Austin versus him and Sid Vicious!

[PeteF3]

That powerslam thing was silly, but otherwise the closing stretch of this was pretty great. Flair is more motivated than he's been in a long time. Randy Anderson gets leveled by a Vader clothesline, and Flair dodges a moonsault for an apparent 3-count. But Randy Anderson wasn't actually counting, he was slapping the mat trying to crawl over. Then we tease the fans further by having Anderson raise Flair's hand as he grabs the belt, *then* the DQ decision is announced. As a standalone finish this is rather clever, but a.) it's basically a ripoff of Flair vs. Hawk from either the Bash tour or Bunkhouse Stampede, and b.) just reeks of pure Dusty booking, which is not something this company needed at ANY point, much less coming off a PPV packed to the brim with similar shit finishes. Still, it's a promising sign of things to come for Flair.

 

Afterwards Ric gets laid out by Vader, Parker, and Austin, before Dustin Rhodes and the Shockmaster--for fuck's sake--make the save. Gene Okerlund, his first night with the company, gets a word with a fired-up Ric, who challenges the two heels to a tag match with Sid as his partner for WCWSN. This, despite the fact that Sid and Arn have already had their hotel altercation. Hence the bullshit about Sid not being allowed in the building--they actually had the audacity to have Okerlund tease that Sid was in fact there. How WCW can you get?

 

Small sample size and everything, but parts of this show FELT like WCW when it was hot, thanks to a hot crowd and good wrestling. But it also reeked of the usual WCW bullshit at the time. Talking up of an already-departed (or at least suspended) Sid, the Shockmaster getting time during the climactic angle, and Dusty Rhodes' old fingerprints (the Dusty/Assassin feud continued to be pushed, and his pals the Nasties went over two top babyfaces, one of whom was ostensibly being pushed into a feud with Rick Rude). A tale of contradictions.

[BruiserBrody]

Sid and Flair vs, Vader and Austin did happen, as it was taped before Sid stabbed Arn. The match doesn't start and Sid gets laid out.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW World Champion Vader vs Ric Flair - WCW Clash of the Champions XXV

 

The forgotten match before the polarizing famous Starrcade 93 match is a great pump up for Starrcade 93. Vader was such a great monster in this. I love his pre-match ranting "No Pain. No Fear. Im da man!". After the commercial, Flair has the figure-4 on Harley allowing Vader to splash Flair. Flair's verbal selling is great and matches so well with Vader' brute strength and bulliying. Press slam, Vaderbomb and just general trash talk. Flair fires off some heavy handed chops and looks to make some in roads but when he tries to build some momentum he eats a Vader body attack. What they do well here is give Flair opening through Vader missing moves on multiple occasions. The best is Vader misses a middle rope elbow and Flair immediately goes for Figure-4 only to have Harley rake the eyes. Show Flair knows how fleeting these moments are and needs to capitalize immediately. Love that superplex spot by Vader on Flair. The ultimate missed move is that Vader misses the top rope moonsault always incredible. Flair covers 1-2-3! MASSIVE POP from a kinda dead crowd, but it is a DQ because the ref had been wiped out by Vader.

 

Not quite as good as I remembered (I remembered more energy), but this was a great narrative and build. Flair had to take the openings given to him and pounce. He did just that. Vader was his usual monster self. I liked how the openings built and built to the missed moonsault. Finally after years and years, going to revisit Starrcade 1993. ***3/4

[garretta]

​​The pinfall that wasn't was actually the least confusing thing about all of this.

 

First of all, what were Dustin and Uncle Fred doing out there? You see, there's this group called the Horsemen, and they're buddies of Flair's. When he's in trouble, they ​should be bailing him out. As I said in an earlier thread, I'm honestly not sure if the Horsemen were a unit by now, because Arn and Roma had nothing to do with the Rude feud whatsoever, and they're nowhere near this feud either. Even if Dusty didn't think Roma was worthy of being in the same group with Flair, how does that explain the absence of Flair's on- ​and ​offscreen best friend Arn? I understand why Flair wants to team with Sid (to get up Fuller's nose), but why not at least put Arn in the corner to offset Fuller and Race? (If the stabbing's already happened, use Roma.)

 

Not only that, the postmatch was complete chaos, and not the good kind either. Were they that short on time that Fuller and Flair had to talk over each other? I had no idea what anybody ​was going on about, and neither did Tony, because he made it seem at first like Fuller was issuing an entirely different challenge to Flair rather than accepting the one Flair was laying out at the exact same moment​. Fuller knew enough about the business not to do this of his own accord, so I'm guessing people were giving the wrapup sign all over the place. If that's the case, I'm sure there were a few minutes that they could have cut somewhere else so that the show's main angle could proceed with a minimum of confusion.

 

I liked Jesse siding with Flair here, although technically he ​wasn't ​robbed, since Pee Wee's hand motions were never meant to be construed as a pin count.

 

The superplex spot looked great, but the powerslam was more Vader careening off of Flair's outstretched hands like a pinball (which isn't a bad athletic feat in itself, come to think of it). We also saw Flair hitting his stuff off the top again, which he'll have to do in future matches if he hopes to beat Vader. He looks more comfortable up there than I've ever seen him before, which he should considering all the practice he's been getting lately.

 

Mean Gene didn't miss a beat; he looked like he's always belonged in WCW right off the bat. It's a shame that they had to start involving him in angles and such, as that really killed his overall reputation. I wonder if Bischoff already knew he was going after Hogan and thought that signing his old friend would help entice him to come on board. (Gene probably would have ended up in Atlanta regardless, since they didn't really have an interview specialist unless you count Bischoff, who had more important things to do.)

 

Jesse really seems like he's been having a ball lately, to the point where Tony's even commenting on it. You'd better enjoy yourself while you can, Bod; you've only got about two more months before that no-good weasel Heenan steals your job!

[PeteF3]

The stabbing had already happened, and Arn would be out of action until the very tail end of the year. Roma was already scheduled to be turning heel at this point (Arn was his original Starrcade opponent), and was sort of in limbo with his next feud opponent on the shelf. Though I think at the Disney tapings he was already teaming with Orndorff.

[garretta]

Thanks for the info, Pete!

[soup23]

If I didn't know the stabbing had occurred, I would say after this they were setting up Austin vs Flair and Sid vs Vader as the two main Starrcade attractions again. I didn't really like the finish bait and switch here but the action was good and Vader and Flair seem to have good chemistry with each other. It was also nice to hear Jesse on commentary play this one pretty straight and even admit that Flair got kind of screwed.