Views from the Hawke’s Nest: The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection – Disc One

This DVD set is a bit old and well-known. Thus, I decided not to recap all the extra features designed to compliment the matches. I do however provide links to detailed descriptions of all of those segments.

 

The DVD starts with Flair doing some talking head interviews in regards to his first NWA Title win. That quickly transitions to clips of Race winning the belt back in controversial fashion. They build up the rematch at the first Starrcade as being a big deal (which it obviously was), and then they send us to the match. I already love the format of this DVD. I don’t care what Flair’s life was like as a kid; I will watch Flair talk about specific feuds and matches a hundred times out of a hundred over hearing about his childhood. There is also some footage from their feud in this section. For recaps of that footage, check out JD Dunn’s review.

 

Starrcade
11/24/1983

Harley Race© vs. Ric Flair [Cage match for the NWA Heavyweight Championship]
I’m embarrassed to say that this is the first time I’m watching this match. Gene Kiniski is the referee.

Things started very slowly. Race got the first advantage. Kiniski pulled him off at one point, which seems like a weird thing for a referee to do in a cage match. Race hit a piledriver and slowly hit an elbow drop. Race was in complete control. Race sent Flair into the cage. Race hit an inverted Styles Clash. Flair bladed. Flair finally came back, and Race quickly got busted open. Flair got a nearfall with a piledriver. Race came back. Flair showed a lot of fire and fought right back. Flair locked in the figure four. Race made the ropes. Race got a nearfall with his diving headbutt. Race was beating Flair up too much. Kiniski pulled Race off by the hair. Ref bump. Flair hit a diving crossbody: 1…2…3?

I’m glad I finally watched this match, but there were a ton of bizarre things about the structure of this match. The most important aspect of the match that I really detested was that Kiniski kept pulling Race off of Flair. If this were a regular singles match, it would be technically justifiable for Kiniski to keep pulling Race off Flair (although from a psychological standpoint, it would still be fucking stupid). However, this is a flippin CAGE match. Why is the referee interfering to prevent someone from kicking too much ass? On top of that, Gordon Solie kept putting Kiniski over for being an impartial referee. This was tomfoolerly that I did not appreciate.

As for the action itself, I enjoyed large portions of the match. I didn’t mind the pace at all. It was methodical, but everything seemingly had a purpose. The finish left a little to be desired though. I don’t understand why they felt the need to do a ref bump in a cage match to begin with, and it just made the finish look real messy.

If you want to argue that “I don’t understand old school wrestling,” I welcome the challenge. However, it needs to be acknowledged that the crowd was not into the gaga. They were not red hot. They were not this amazing crowd that the wrestlers could do no wrong in front of.
Match Rating: **3/4

 

We next turn to a chapter on Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes. Flair puts Rhodes over HUGE as someone who was a great worker and could work all night. We get a lot of clips of their promos. Flair presents himself as a celebrity. Dusty presents himself as the son of the plumber. It’s the perfect dynamic for the times (not to say their dynamic wouldn’t get over today). There is also some footage from their feud in this section. For recaps of that footage, check out JD Dunn’s review.

 

Starrcade
11/28/1985

Ric Flair© vs. Dusty Rhodes [NWA Heavyweight Championship]
Yep, I’m watching this match for the first time, too. Mock me. I deserve it. Flair and the Andersons had broken Dusty’s ankle at one point in this feud.

The crowd loves Rhodes, and they HATE Flair. Well, Flair had some fans, but most of the crowd hated him. Flair got control of the match for a brief period of time. Dusty made a comeback and the fans went wild. Dusty went after Flair’s right leg. Dusty called for the figure four, but Flair kicked him off. Dusty injured his ankle. Flair called for the figure four twice, but Dusty avoided it both times. Rhodes got a nearfall on a diving crossbody. The referee was out of position and was late to count the pinfall. Dusty hit a number of elbows. Flair flop. Flair avoided a kick from Dusty, and Dusty reinjured his left leg when he accidentally kicked the ringpost. Flair went after the injured leg. Flair got the figure four! Dusty turned over, and they managed to get to the ropes. Dusty made a big comeback. Ref bump to the floor. Dusty got the figure four!!! Arn Anderson ran in. Dusty knocked him down. Ole Anderson attacked Dusty from behind. Flair covered him. New referee: 1…2…NO! Ole checks on Arn. Dusty gets a small package on Flair: 1…2…3!!!!

Everyone comes out to celebrate with Dusty. I love parties.

I really enjoyed this match. Dusty was not the most technically savvy wrestler ever, but he knew how to fucking work. He was over, and the dynamic between these two worked so well with this crowd. The only thing about this that I didn’t like was that this was the original “Dusty Finish.” Because the match had interference, Dusty’s win was taken away from him a week later. The NWA title history counts this as Flair winning by disqualification. Very weak.
Match Rating: ***1/2

 

The next chapter of the DVD was on Flair vs. Barry Windham. Flair said wrestling Windham was like putting on gloves. He said Windham never got his due as a great performer. Apparently, Windham could keep up with him in AND out of the ring. Keeping up with Flair outside the ring may actually be more impressive. There is also some footage from their feud in this section. For recaps of that footage, check out JD Dunn’s review.

 

World Wide Wrestling
1/20/1987

Ric Flair© vs. Barry Windham [NWA Heavyweight Title]
Once again, this is another match I’ve never seen. I believe I’ve seen the rest of the matches on the DVD though.

Flair retreated to the floor early on. He threatened to leave the match, seemingly. There was a commercial break. When we came back, Windham was still in control. They ended up on the floor, and Flair got the advantage. Flair was in control, as they got back in the ring. Windham eventually fired back with a lot of punches. The crowd loves Windham. Flair Flop. Another commercial. Flair got control back briefly, but Windham took him down with a big right hand. Flair hit a back suplex and locked in the figure four. Flair used the ropes to do more damage. The referee broke up the submission. Flair went after the left leg some more. Windham managed to get some great nearfalls with pinning combinations. Windham went for a diving elbow, but Flair avoided it. Windham managed to lock in the figure four! Flair made the ropes, and he then begged off. Another commercial.

Five minutes left in the time limit. Flair hip tossed Windham onto the referee. Windham hit a goofy missile dropkick. The referee was late to count: 1…2….NO! Flair hit another back suplex and diving crossbody. Windham rolled through for a nearfall. Two minutes left. Windham hit a big diving lariat and then a delayed vertical suplex: 1…2…NO! One minute left. Windham got a nearfall with a backslide. Windham got another nearfall with a snap powerslam. 15 seconds. Another lariat! The bell rang to signal the time limit expiring. Windham thought he had the match won.

In an interview after the match, Windham said he wasn’t going to steal the belt. He wanted to pin Flair clean to win the belt.

This was so fucking excellent. They worked a ridiculous pace the whole time (we got about 30 minutes of the 45 minute match), and the crowd was losing their shit for most of it. This is a very eighties style match, but much like the Flair/Steamboat matches, it ages tremendously well. The only thing that would have made this match better was a Windham victory; the crowd would have lost their minds if that had happened here.
Match Rating: ****1/4

 

Watch some Ric Flair matches for free!

Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels

Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels

Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart

Ric Flair vs. Edge

Ric Flair vs. RVD vs. Matt Hardy vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Finlay vs. Bobby Lashley

Ric Flair & Hulk Hogan vs. Sting & Lex Luger

Ric Flair & The Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan & Sid Justice

Ric Flair & Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash & Hulk Hogan

Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels & Triple H vs. Edge, Randy Orton, & Kenny

Ric Flair, Matt Hardy, Abyss, & Bully Ray vs. AJ Styles, Kazarian, James Storm & Bobby Roode (wtf)

Ric Flair vs. Val Venis

Ric Flair & Roddy Piper vs. Edge & Randy Orton

 

Thanks everybody for reading! You can send feedback to my Twitter or to my email address: [email protected]. Also, feel free to check out my own wrestling website, FreeProWrestling.com. Check out a full/organized list of all the wrestling show reviews I’ve done at 411mania.

9.5

The final score: review Amazing

The 411

All these years later, this is still one of the best DVDs that the WWE has produced. Two more disc to go!