[1990-01-26-NWA-Power Hour] Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Sting vs Great Muta & Buzz Sawyer & Dragon Master

[JKWebb]

I remember loving this match when I went through the 90 YB. I love AA and Sawyer starting this off, and the look that Buzz gives him after the initial lockup. The hot tag to Sting sends the crowd into a frenzy! It's so awesome seeing Flair, AA, and Sting teaming together. The crowd is on fire for it. Sawyer plays his role perfectly. The heels feed to the crowd favorite Sting and keep the fans on their feet. Sting had major ups prior to his injury. He was super athletic and always bouncing and flying around. Flair's punches look super stiff on Dragon Master in the corner. I do think my favorite parts of the match come from the AA/Sawyer moments. They have good chemistry. AA is just the best at tags. You take a guy like Sting that he never teams with, and he works over the leg of Dragon Master to tag Sting in for the Scorpion. Maybe that's not a big deal at all, but I appreciate it anyway. Flair does great as the FIP. You can feel the tension in the crowd building for the hot tag. I guess since Flair is a face, he can hit the off the top rope chop to the head. Hot tag to Sting followed by a jump kick and drop kicks and then Stinger Splash. Finished off in true heel fashion with mist to the face by Muta. Awesome crowd/Fun TV match. Sawyer's splash after the bell looked awesome. Yep, I still love this match.

 

#447 - placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-450-401/

[ohtani's jacket]

Loss' #447 is a super heated six-man tag. Fantastic TV main event. Great finish, too. Perfect lead in to the clash. Agree that Flair vs. Sawyer would have been amazing.

[dawho5]

Wasn't sure this should have been booked 12 days before the Clash, but the finish is right for the build. Crowd is amazing and I'm pretty sure they should have stopped in Johnson City way more often than they did. I will also echo the Buzz Sawyer praise. He's been incredible so far.

[Stiva]

Good lord did Ric Flair, the booker, know how to put on some fantastic TV main events and we have more Cornette and Ross on commentary! More praise for Sawyer who cuts a pretty incredible pace throughout all of this, not to mention his great reactions to the (incredibly hot) crowd which just stokes them up even further. I LOVE Arn pulling Sting over the ropes for the flying clothesline since Stinger gets some awesome height on it. I agree that babyface Arn is fantastic; able to balance being the Enforcer with showing enough babyface vulnerability and selling to make the crowd fear he might lose. Flair as FIP works really well but the best moments are between him and Sawyer, making you realise how good, not even a Clash main, but just an Eaton style TV main would be with those two. Great TV match but when the crowd is this hot, everyone involved starts firing on all cylinders through osmosis.

[Calvin]

You can hear the announcers struggling to justify the reason this is being shown on a Power Hour right before Clash of Champions X, and it is a questionable booking decision for sure, but it doesn't matter because the crowd is fucking molten hot for this, and it's so much fun. It's the intersection of all the feuds currently at play between these two teams plus the new addition of Sting into the Four Horseman, and everything seamlessly flows together.

***1/2

[Chess Knight]

Some pals and I did a top 100 WCW matches poll a long time ago and I can't find any mention of this in any of our posts, and I certainly don't remember watching it, which is wild, because the crowd for this is ballistic. Surely one of us had to know about it? This is maybe not the hottest crowd I've heard in wrestling, but probably at least the hottest crowd I've heard from WCW, other than perhaps Goldberg's biggest reaction or two. They were already hollering like mad people when the match started, but when Sting tagged in and did anything it was like Elvis Presley in the 50s. Sting was great egging them on too, amping them up with yelling (he woo'ed and clapped during a leap frog which was amazing) and milking the build up to moves, like the timing on gorilla pressing Muta to the other heels outside. I liked Flair a lot in this, he's as good a puncher as anyone here and mostly sticks to that plus his chops, leading to him trading blows with Sawyer at a couple points which ruled. The heels cut the nuts off the faces (and therefore the audience) at a couple points by stopping a couple submission attempts, and we get a nice Flair FIP out of it when they break up the figure four. Flair's Irish whip bump over the top rope looked really awesome and I'm not sure how many times he did it exactly like that. You just know the audience is blowing the roof off if Sting gets tagged in and guess what buddy. DQ finish isn't the most gratifying finish but these six have an upcoming Clash match so dangle the carrot and all that. HOOT of a match and a prime example of how working off of the reaction you already have, and keeping it, can help argue a case for a wrestler.