Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 14: Ric Flair vs. Sting (Nitro 1/15/96)

We’ve already seen this twice on Nitro in the four months, so we’ll see if they do anything different or stick with the ten minute Flair heel formula match. Last time Flair got beat clean with the Scorpion Death Lock. This was prime Bischoff makes Flair put everyone over period here.

Flairs got the World title at this point, which surprises me. Mongo, The Brain, and Bischoff are in the booth. For some reason Flair comes out with Jimmy Hart. Great champ with a great manager, but the two don’t mix well for my tastes. Flair gets over powered and out-quicked early. They pace it with some standard stare downs. Sting has a bad tendency to take advantage of Flair’s stooging/giving style. He just walks up and takes advantage instead of making more out of it. Flair sells crazy in typical spots, just like their last match. The crowd isn’t exactly enthralled so far.

Flair goes to work after an eye poke. They pace slows down but the offense is solid. It’s not vintage Flair, but it’s a decent facsimile. Flair takes a superplex, which amazes me. The match really picks up after a break. Sting is working harder now. Sting does manage to screw up bumping over the top rope though. They’ve got the crowd after some back and forth stuff. I dig that Sting grabbed a sleeper in a transition period.

The final stretch and near falls are a lot more exciting than the last formula match they had, with this one being closer to Flair’s longer formula classics from the mid 80s (I reviewed several for the Mid South Diaries). This is a hard working match, flaws, highlights, and all. Totally crappy ending though, as Luger comes out to interfere and costs Sting the match. It looked to contrived and Luger isn’t good at making a mistake spot look good. Sting gets knocked out and counted down while Flair puts him in the figure four.12:30 rough running time. Bad ending to a fun match. 3 ¼ and 6.7/10.