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

Flair talks about how he did not get along with Jim Herd at all. Herd did not come from a wrestling background, and their relationship was never productive. When they were in the middle of contract negotiations, they wanted Flair to drop the title. Herd eventually decided they would just strip him, but he wouldn’t give Flair his deposit back to get back the belt. So, Flair went to the WWF with the WCW Championship. Flair described his first run in the WWF as the second best time in his career. For a look a closer look at some segments from Flair’s first run with the WWF, check out JD Dunn’s review.

 

January 19, 1992
Royal Rumble

The Royal Rumble Match
Rumbles are almost always fun, and this is considered to be one of the best of all time. I have not watched it in years, and I’m greatly looking forward to reliving it. This Rumble match was actually for the vacant WWF Championship.

Davey Boy Smith was #1. Ted DiBiase with Sensational Sherrie was #2. DiBiase thought he quickly Davey Boy, but Davey held on and then eliminated The Million Dollar Man! Wow, I had forgotten about that. Ric Flair was #3. Bulldog was just running through Flair. LOL, Jerry Sags was #4. Sags helped Flair worked over Bulldog. Bulldog came back though and eliminated Sags! Haku was #5. IT’S RAINING MENG! Bulldog eliminated Haku right before Shawn Michaels came out at #6. Tito Santana came out at #7. Things seemed to settle down at this point. The Barbarian was #8. The Texas Tornado was #9. The Repo Man was #10. The match is starting to feel like a battle royal at the moment. Greg Valentine was #11. Nikolai Volkoff was #12. Texas Tornado eliminated Nikolai pretty quickly though. The Big Bossman was #13. Repo eliminated Valentine. Bossman eliminated Repo Man. Flair managed to dump Davey Boy. He then dumped Tornado. Santana and Michaels eliminated each other, as Hercules entered at #14. Hercules eliminated Barbarian, and Bossman then eliminated Hercules. Bossman took down Flair with a massive lariat. Bossman dove at Flair, but Flair ducked and Bossman eliminated himself. Roddy Piper was #15. I sometimes forget how well Roddy used to move around. Roddy was completely running through Flair. Jake Roberts came out at #16 and attacked both men. Jim Duggan was #17. I know it’s been said a billion times before, but this Rumble is just so loaded in a way that fewer and fewer Rumbles seem to be. I.R.S. was #18. Jimmy Snuka was #19. The Undertaker with Paul Bearer was #20. Taker eliminated Snuka. Randy Savage was #21. He was looking for Roberts, but Roberts was on the floor. Taker attacked Savage. Savage finally got his hands on Roberts and then eliminated him. Savage even eliminated himself to attack Roberts more. Taker went to the floor to attack Savage. Taker threw Savage back in the ring, and the commentators claimed Savage could not eliminate himself. The Berzerker was #22. Virgil was #23, and he attacked I.R.S. Colonel Mustafa was #24. Rick Martel was #25. Mustafa got eliminated by Savage. Hulk Hogan was #26. Hogan managed to eliminate Taker and Berzerker. Hogan using heel offense never ceases to make me laugh. Duggan and Virgil eliminated themselves. Skinner came out at #27. Sgt. Slaughter was #28. At this point, Flair officially set the record for longest time in the Rumble. Sid Justice was #29. The Warlord came out at 30. Flair and Hogan brawled on the floor. Hogan gave him a suplex on the floor. Sid eliminated Slaughter. Piper eliminated I.R.S. Hogan and Sid eliminated Warlord. Sid eliminated Piper and Martel at the same time. Sid, Hogan, Savage, and Flair were the last four. Flair quickly helped Sid eliminate Savage. Sid eliminated Hogan! Hogan was pissed off and pulled on Sid, which made him easy pickings for Flair! Flair wins the WWF Championship!

This match is considered to be one of the best Rumble matches of all time, and I think that is perfectly fair. There have been some Rumbles with better stories told throughout the match. However, between Flair bumping around for an hour and the sheer amount of star power in this match, it’s just too much fun to complain about anything.
Match Rating: ****

 

The DVD immediately cuts to a Sting promo from the eighties. Flair discusses Sting and says Sting is up there with Steamboat, Rhodes, etc. in terms of being one of his classic rivals. They show the closing minutes of their Clash of the Champions draw. Flair puts over Sting as a great person and a really good worker. For a look a closer look at some segments involving these two, check out JD Dunn’s review.

 

Clash of the Champions XXVII
June 23, 1994

Ric Flair© vs. Sting© (w/ Sensational Sherrie) [WCW World Heavyweight Title / WCW International Heavyweight Title Unification Match]
Sting was running through Flair early on. Flair got an opening and went for a figure four, but Sting reversed it into a small package for a nearfall. Flair was all out of sorts and could not get anything going. Flair finally got a break when he avoided a Stinger Splash. Splash hurt his chest, and Flair finally started to work him over. Flair applied a sleeper at one point, but Sting managed to send Flair into a turnbuckle a few times. Flair did some Flair bumps for them. Sting made a comeback. Sting no-sold a suplex and then continued to come back. Sting went for a dive, but Flair pulled Sherrie in front of him. Sting just destroyed Sherrie with that dive. Holy shit. The referee was checking on Sherrie, which caused him to be late to counting Sting’s backslide on Flair. Sting then checked on Sherrie which allowed Flair to catch him with a schoolboy: 1…2…3!

Sherrie kissed Flair after the match. Sherrie and Flair then attacked Sting a ton after the match. I am shocked that someone turned on Sting. Hulk Hogan ran in for the save.

While the finish was not satisfying in any way, the match itself was just so much fun. These had a fantastic dynamic, and they could probably sleep through an entertaining match at this stage in their careers.
Match Rating: ***3/4

 

Special Features

They showed footage from after a 2003 Raw where they held a celebration for Flair. It was a nice segment.

 

March 1, 1976
WWWF
Ric Flair vs. Pete Sanchez
This was Flair’s WWWF debut.

There was no commentary for a while, but then Vince McMahon randomly started doing play-by-play. Flair cut Sanchez off and worked him over. Sanchez came back. This was some very dull work. Flair kicked him in the face and then hit a suplex: 1…2…3

This was really awful.
Match Rating: DUD

 

May 19, 2003
WWE Raw
Triple H© vs. Ric Flair [World Heavyweight Championship]
HHH was coming in with taped ribs after Kevin Nash powerbombed him through a table.

HHH wanted Flair to lie down for him, but Flair was not into that obviously. Flair went after the ribs, and the crowd was obviously very much behind Flair. HHH briefly cut him off for a bit, but Flair came back and applied the figure four. HHH survived, but Flair fired back with some chops. There was a ref bump. HHH went for a belt shot, but Flair hit an eye poke, a kick to the balls, and a belt shot: 1…2…NO! That was a great fucking nearfall! HHH avoided the figure four. Flair avoided the pedigree. HHH avoided the pedigree and then hit the Pedigree: 1…2…3

The match was really heating up towards the end. The finish was a big wet fart obviously, but I cannot imagine the biggest Flair mark in the world would genuinely think he should get the belt in 2003.
Match Rating: ***

 

Unfortunately, I think my DVD was fucked up because instead of giving me the Flair speech from the Final Nitro, I got a montage of everyone saying Woo. There were a couple of other special features. We got to see a WACKY amateur wrestling segment with Flair and Piper. We also saw the WCW segment where Flair got named the PWI Wrestler of the Decade (for the 1980s).

 

Watch some Ric Flair matches for free!

Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan

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

This is easily one of my favorite DVD sets from the WWE. Instead of trying to cover too much and watering down the set with filler matches, this DVD focused in on just a few of the very significant feuds in Ric Flair’s career. Obviously, Flair’s career featured so much greatness in so many territories that they could have made a much longer set, but I genuinely have no complaints about the decision to narrow the scope of this DVD. The only section of the DVD that I found lacking was the Sting section, as they selected a fairly random Sting/Flair match considering that they had way more important matches together in their career. I’m probably the last wrestling fan to watch this set. In case there are any other slackers out there like me though, I greatly encourage you to pick up this set.