[1985-11-24-Mid South-Oklahoma City, OK] Ric Flair vs Jake Roberts

[Superstar Sleeze]

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Jake Roberts - Mid-South 11/24/85

 

Jake the Snake is another substitute for Butch after he was injured by a bounty put on his head by Flair. I think it was Dicky Slater and Buzz Sawyer that collected the bounty.

 

The beginning of the match is the perfect blend of Flair and Roberts psychology. Flair is using his jack psych out tactics mocking Roberts gangly frame, which results in a shoving match and then BANG! DDT! But one problem the bell has not sounded. Flair sells and sells then flees to the back. The ref forces him back and Roberts is over huge. Jake the Snake really gets the DDT chants going. Flair the master of the psych out actually looks a little skiddish. Jake is actually pretty energetic in this. Flair tries his normal crowding tactics before settling for a hair pull (set up by complaining about his own hair being pulled) and then a butt to the balls. Loved the double stomp follow up. Flair is really good at this heat segment until his kneedrop gets caught leading to a Jake the Snake figure-4. Jake goes after the leg, but to no avail. I really liked the Schoolboy with Flair's foot on the ropes as that got a ton of heat. The crowd was really pissed and worried that Flair might win. Jake the Snake was really into using the kneelift in this match. Flair gets a kneecrusher. Flair's sell of missing the seatdrop on the knee was fucking awesome. Jake doing a Sting-esque comeback was pretty funny at first, but then doing the whole hit me right in the kisser and then no sell was really good shit. Jake gets a big running kneelift, but whiffs on the second one, which was a wicked bump. Flair reverses an inside cradle for the win.

 

Butch Reed in a neck brace is pissed. Flair goes for the piledriver, but reversed and runs Flair out of town. I think Flair stopped coming to Mid-South after this, but I could be wrong. So Flair/Reed was never resolved.

Excellent Flair match! I loved the beginning psychology portion before they settled into a strong 15 minute match. Jake was a great babyface in this. I would have liked so more DDT teases. Flair was so on his game here with the crazy selling and offense. I would say this is probably Jake's second best match of his career after the Steamboat Boston Garden one. Gotta love Flair! ****1/2

[Loss]

I feel like this in some ways reached **** even before the opening bell! Just tremendous stuff.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I didn't bring up in my review, but if they had Roberts work the neck more and Flair really sell they could have gotten this to *****. I can see why they wouldn't as it may have been to heel in peril. Maybe more hope spots around Roberts attacking the neck.

 

Liked you said, that was one of the best pre-match angles ever. Really well done.

[WingedEagle]

Does Jake have anything that approaches this? Really amazing to think about how many wrestlers had their career match with Flair.

[Matt D]

How many other World Title matches does Jake have?

[Superstar Sleeze]

I actually think his matches with Steamboat from Boston in 1986 are comparable to this. I may even have the 8/9/86 match over the Flair match.

[Outsider]

is this on a super-show or on video?

[JKWebb]

Haha, yes it probably did reach **** before the bell even rang. This was great! It's pretty cool to think about how many wrestlers did have their career match (or pretty close to it) with Flair. It's even cooler to just think about how many of those happened in this month in 1985. I'm thinking about the Koko Ware match, the Ted DiBiase angle/match, and this one. That's three guys with three of their best moments of their entire career, but only one month for the Nature Boy. Woooo! (plus you have the really good stuff with Butch Reed - even if it's not his career match)