Ric Flair has been the NWA World Heavyweight Champion for over a year as he held onto the belt for the entire year of 1988. Flair was involved in many high-profile classic matches in 1989. His first feud of the year was with an old foe by the name of Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, who Flair had many classic matches back in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Steamboat returned to NWA-WCW following several years in the WWF, including his legendary match with Macho Man Randy Savage at WrestleMania III, on the January 21, 1989 edition of World Championship Wrestling.
He was the surprise tag team partner of Eddie Gilbert to take on Ric Flair and Barry Windham. Steamboat ended up pinning Flair to win the match and became the number one contender to Flair's NWA World Title.
Steamboat took on Flair at the Chi-Town Rumble PPV on February 20, 1989 from Chicago. In what was an instant classic of a match, Steamboat defeated Flair to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the first and only time after Steamboat countered Flair's attempt at the Figure Four into a small package to win the match. This ended Flair's 452-day reign as NWA World Champion.
Also at the PPV, Lex Luger finally got his revenge against his arch nemesis Barry Windham by defeating him to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. Windham left the company shortly after to join the WWF for a brief time.
Steamboat defended the title against Flair in a two-out-of-three falls match at Clash of the Champions VI from the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans on April 2, 1989. WCW decided to once again put their Clash of the Champions event head-to-head against WrestleMania was on as WrestleMania V was the same night.
Unlike the year before where the inaugural Clash was successful against WrestleMania IV as it was free on TBS whereas WrestleMania was on PPV, that same model would not be as successful this year as the Clash only had 5,300 fans, which was ridiculously low for a 70,000-seat stadium, and drew only a 4.3 rating. WrestleMania had 19,000 fans in attendance and drew a 5.9 buy rate.
Despite the low attendance and rating, fans were treated to perhaps an even better Flair-Steamboat match as it lasted nearly one hour. Flair won the first fall and Steamboat won the second by making Flair submit to a Double Arm Chicken Wing submission move.
For the third and final fall, Steamboat again had Flair in the chicken wing move as both men fell to the mat. Both men's shoulders were down and the referee counted three. Steamboat got his shoulder up just before three and was declared the winner. However, a replay showed that Flair's foot was on the bottom rope and the pin should not have counted.
Flair was given another chance to win the title against Steamboat at the WrestleWar PPV on May 7. In yet another trilling match between the two that lasted just over a half-hour, Flair took advantage of Steamboat's "injured leg" to roll him up into a small package to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship back for the sixth time.
After the match, Flair showed respect to Steamboat by shaking his hand after the match. One of the celebrity judges Terry Funk congratulated Flair for winning the title and wanted a title shot. Flair refused so Funk attacked him.
He gave Flair a piledriver onto the judges' table, "injuring" Flair's neck and turning Flair into a babyface for the first time in four years. This was used as a storyline to have Flair seem like he suffered a career-ending injury and would contemplate retirement and took him of TV for two months to further enhance their thrilling feud for 1989.
The three Flair-Steamboat World Title matches in 1989 were given 5-star ratings by Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as these matches were truly classics. It's amazing that Steamboat was involved in some of the best matches in the history of pro wrestling with Flair and the aforementioned WrestleMania III classic with Randy Savage two years prior.
While Flair was out, Steamboat entered in a feud with U.S. Champion Lex Luger. Luger attacked Steamboat after Steamboat, not Luger, was still the number one contender to the world title and Luger turned heel. Steamboat took on Luger for the title at The Great American Bash. Steamboat lost by disqualification when he hit Luger with a steel chair. Steamboat left the company shortly after due to a contract dispute.
Flair came back to defend the world title against Terry Funk, accompanied by manager Gary Hart, at The Great American Bash. Flair defeated Funk to retain the title. Hart's other wrestler, The Great Muta, ran in to attack Flair as Flair's former rival and Muta's current rival Sting ran in to help Flair. Flair and Sting ran the two heels out as Flair and Sting formed an unlikely alliance.
Flair and Sting would continue to feud with Funk and Muta and Hart's "J-Tex Corporation" for the rest of 1989. Funk attempted to "suffocate" Flair with a plastic bag at Clash of the Champions VIII: Fall Brawl during a match between Flair and Sting vs. Muta and Dick Slater replacing an injured Funk.
At the inaugural Halloween Havoc PPV on October 28, 1989, Flair and Sting took on Funk and Muta in a Thunderdome Cage match. Flair and Sting had Ole Anderson in their corner as Funk and Muta had Hart in their corner. The only way you could win the match was if either Anderson or Hart threw in the towel for their respective teams.
Wrestling legend and inaugural WWE Champion Bruno Sammartino (the longest champion in WWE history) was the special guest referee for the match and even took out Muta after Muta went after him. The end came when Flair had Funk in the Figure Four and Sting kept splashing him off the top rope. Hart had no other choice but to throw in the towel, giving Flair and Sting the win.
The next month at Clash of the Champions IX: New York Knockout from Troy, New York, Flair took on Funk in the classic "I Quit" match. The stipulation was that if Funk said "I quit", he would shake Flair's hand after the match.
Flair had Funk in the Figure Four and eventually after not being able to take the pain any longer, Funk finally said I quit. He lived up to his end of the bargain and shook Flair's hand, only to be turned on and attacked by Gary Hart and The Great Muta. Flair helped Funk as Sting came in to help as well.
This match also was given a 5-Star Rating by Dave Meltzer, the fourth such match in 1989 alone to receive that honor as Flair was a participant in all four matches. Flair had a banner year with blockbuster feuds with Funk and Ricky Steamboat along with his alliance with Sting and not having the Four Horsemen at his side.
Sting also continued to improve as a wrestler as he won his first NWA-WCW title by winning the NWA World Television Championship by beating Mike Rotunda on March 31, 1989. Sting had a thrilling feud with The Great Muta along with teaming with Flair.
Sting and Muta had a controversial finish to their match at The Great American Bash where the TV Title was held up after both men had their shoulders up as the referee counted three. Muta defeated Sting to win the TV Title in September. Sting continued to feud with Muta for the rest of the year along with helping Flair in his battles with Terry Funk.
The Fabulous Freebirds were a very successful tag team for years, especially down in Texas, where they engaged in a legendary feud with the Von Erich family. The Freebirds were a threesome that featured Michael "P.S." Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts. Two of the three would wrestle in tag teams any two of the three could defend tag team titles in something famously known as "The Freebird Rule."
The Freebirds came to WCW in 1989 as first Hayes actually wrestled in singles competition and was quite successful early on. Hayes defeated Lex Luger, with help from longtime Freebird associate Jimmy Garvin, to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship at WrestleWar. He lost the belt back to Luger two weeks later.
Hayes would team with Terry Gordy and new full-fledged Freebird member Garvin to reform The Fabulous Freebirds. Hayes and Garvin defeated The Midnight Express to win the vacant NWA World Tag Team Championship at Clash of the Champions VII in June.
The Freebirds used the "Freebird Rule" to their advantage as any two of the three members could defend the titles at anytime. The Freebirds had feuds with legendary teams such as The Midnight Express, The Road Warriors, and the up-and-coming Steiner Brothers. Tag team action was as exciting as ever in WCW in 1989.
At The Great American Bash, all three members of The Fabulous Freebirds teamed with The Samoan Swat Team (Samu and Fatu) to take on The Road Warriors, The Midnight Express, and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams in a WarGames match. The Freebirds' team lost when Jimmy Garvin submitted. The Freebirds eventually lost the NWA World Tag Team Titles to the Steiner Brothers in November.
Starrcade '89 was an interesting event as the card featured only four singles wrestlers and four tag teams in Round Robin Iron Man tournaments. There would be 20 points awarded for a pinfall or submission win, 15 for count out, 10 for disqualification, 5 for a draw, and 0 for a loss.
The singles wrestlers were Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger, and The Great Muta. The tag teams were the Steiner Brothers, The Road Warriors, The Wild Samoans, and Doom (Butch Reed and Ron Simmons). None of the titles would be on the line.
The Road Warriors won the tag team tournament as Sting won the singles tournament. Sting defeated Flair in the finals with the winner of the match winning the tournament. Sting was awarded an NWA World Heavyweight Championship match against Flair for winning the tournament even though Sting and Flair were allies.
This might have been far from the greatest Starrcade ever, but it put an end to the best year perhaps ever in WCW history, or at least until the late 1990s. The amount of talent and successful matches and PPVs made this one heck of a year. It was a turnaround year in the first full year of Ted Turner's ownership.
Flair had a super successful year in 1989 with his classic matches as it was no surprise that WCW thrived with its best wrestler being on top of his game. As if the success in the ring was enough, Flair was also a member of the WCW booking committee team along with Jim Cornette, Jim Ross, Kevin Sullivan, and Eddie Gilbert. Flair would be the head booker and made totally awesome matches in 1989.
Flair and Sting were the top two in the company and were destined to carry WCW forward going into the new year and new decade as the 1980s closed. They ended the year as allies, but it would not last long into the new year as Sting was destined for greatness in the 1990s.
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