Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 25: Sting/Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair/The Giant (Nitro 4/15/96)

I have no idea why Flair and the Giant made friends after their match (Match # 23). I guess there just that much of bad guys. Sting and Luger are always friends no matter what. I’m not expecting to much out of this, aging Flair and the big guy as the offensive force in this one. This one is for the titles held by Luger/Sting.

Sting looks like he’s got the energy to go early. Flair makes him look like a million bucks early. Luger is a goof, flexing to scare Flair. But Flair makes him look like gold too. The faces press slam Flair onto the Giant, and then Flair & The Giant get mad at one another. Apparently they aren’t suck bad guys that they don’t have a professional rivalry.

Back from commercial. Luger selling for the Giants power offense is plain old boring. Sadly, the heels get the heat on Luger for a few minutes. It monotonous, sometimes pretty good, but overall not very inspiring as a consumer. The crowd live seems to stick with it better than I can. Flair is always entertaining, and the Giant was agile in his youth (for a giant).

Flair really makes the middle section of this match work. I actually had to re-watch it as I simply walked away at one point, but heard the crowd popping on my TV. I came back to see Flair dancing around, hitting some fun moves, then taking the fierce comeback of Luger and the hot tag beating of Sting. He knocks over the camera man doing his patented turn buckle bump. This match breaks down and Giant sells great for Luger punches. I’m reminded of why WCW wasn’t cool and ECW was to high school me as Woman throws coffee at the faces and hits Sting for the DQ. Hot coffee decided this match. What a shame. A good ending would have put this match a lot higher. The Giant chokeslams everyone after, which looked pretty cool. 2 ¾ and 6/10.