Sting © vs Ric Flair – WCW
NWA/WCW World Heavyweight Title Match
01/11/1991
Some men are seemingly born to work together. For reasons of chemistry, every time they step into the ring with each other, something, if not magical, at least watchable is created. With the relative importance of house shows in terms of generating cash, it isn’t surprising to see companies return to the same matches if they work – if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
In a little over three years in the same promotion, Ric Flair and Sting would contest ninety-three singles matches against each other before meeting on the 11th of January. Beginning in 1988, when Sting was brought into the company off of the back of the UWF takeover, the feud revolved initially around Sting chasing Flair for his NWA World Heavyweight Title. To further highlight the value the company placed in the duo, and primarily the future they saw for Sting, the two main evented the first every Clash of The Champions. This was a coming out party for Sting as a legitimate title contender, taking Ric Flair to a time limit draw and more than holding his own end of the legwork.
Over the tail end of 1990, the shoe was on the other foot as Sting, following a title victory at the Great American Bash, fended off Ric Flair (fighting as The Black Scorpion) at the year-ending Starrcade. However, the man billed as from Venice Beach’s days as NWA World Heavyweight Champion were numbered.
In one of the final times that the major title in WCW changed hands off of television or PPV, Sting would lose the title to Ric Flair in a house show in New Jersey. With cameras in attendance, footage of the final four minutes was aired on WCW syndicated television. Within this window of time, we saw what we expect from a confrontation between Flair and Sting: Sting delivering the pace and power with a jumping clothesline and a press slam; Flair bouncing around the ring and providing the usual trademark spots, getting chucked off the top rope and bleeding like a stuck pig.
With the face Horseman run of the previous year long behind us, it was never going to be a clean finish to a Flair title win. Sting, having been overzealous enough to miss a Stinger splash in the corner moments earlier, managed to wipe out both Flair and the referee on a dive off of the top rope. Both the dive and a small package that followed gave the fans the visual pinfall, but the referee was still down. The stage seemed set for some good old fashioned Flair cheating, but the finish was more novel than this; after a collision off of an Irish whip which dropped Sting on the mat, Flair collapsed on top of him and the ref counted the pinfall – unaware that Sting had his foot on the rope.
Even though the footage was there to invalidate the title win, the usual trigger happy championship committee were content to let the title change stand. With this victory, Ric Flair had equalled the most number of NWA Title reigns at seven with Harley Race. In just under a decade, Flair had managed to hold onto the NWA World Heavyweight Title – across his title reigns – for close to 3,000 days. More was soon to follow.
In the same month, WCW officially ended its affiliation with the NWA, declaring Ric Flair their new WCW World Heavyweight Champion. As a means to start off the new title lineage with as much credibility as possible, turning the title over to Flair did seem to make a lot of sense. Also, Flair as heel champion with Sting as perpetual nemesis alongside other babyface wrestlers of the time period such as Lex Luger had the potential to keep eyes on the burgeoning WCW brand as it transitioned away from the NWA name.
Instead, Ric Flair left for the WWF in less than six month’s time, infamously turning up on Federation television with the Big Gold Belt in tow. As for Sting, February 1992 saw his first taste of the WCW World Heavyweight Title, defeating his on-again, off-again friend, Lex Luger.
