Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
You didn’t think we’d seen the last of Ric Flair, did you? Following his iconic series with Ricky Steamboat, it didn’t take the Nature Boy long to find his next opponent. Just minutes after their final match Terry Funk put his boot up Flair’s ass and all roads led to Clash of the Champions IX in an I Quit match.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk, I Quit Match, 15/11/89”
Well, we couldn’t watch Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat forever. Our latest five-star match sees us heading back to Japan where Jumbo Tsuruta is taking on Genichiro Tenryu. I’ll be honest, this is one of those matches where I hadn’t heard of the competitors. Ten minutes of research tells me that coming into this fight Jumbo Tsuruta is the Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a title which he unified by winning the PWF World Heavyweight Championship, NWA United National Championship and the NWA International Heavyweight Championship.  While Tenyru only retired a couple of years back in a match against Okada.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Genichiro Tenryu 5/6/89”
I’m almost sad to be writing this article for it means we come to the end of Ric Flair vs. Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat. The final match in their iconic series (although not in their careers) takes place at NWA Wrestle War in 1989, a month after their two out of three falls match. That means Ricky is still the NWA Champion and Flair is desperate to get it back.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Steamboat vs. Flair III”
If you’ve been reading these reviews, then you’ve probably figured out by now that Ric Flair was quite good at this time. This is the fifth Flair match we’ve covered and his second with Ricky Steamboat. This time the two men go for nearly an hour in a two out of three falls match.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Steamboat vs. Flair II, Two Out of Three Falls”
While Flair has been a regular in this series so far, we are now hitting what many might see as his heydey. His feud with the Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat is still spoken about in hushed tones, and there are three five-star matches between the two in 1989. The first one is for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and took place at NWA Chi-Town Rumble.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Steamboat vs. Flair 20/2/89”
After a brief time in the US of A, we are back in Dave Meltzer’s beloved Japan for our next five-star classic. Once again it is a tag team match featuring Stan Hansen, but this time he teams up with Terry Gordy to take on Genichiro Tenryu and Toshiaki Kawada. This match was the final of the bizarrely named World’s Strongest Tag Determination League in All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics – Hansen & Gordy vs. Tenryu & Kawada”
‘This is War Games,’ as we dive into 1987 we hit our first five-star match which would feel at home in the world of sports entertainment. War Games sees two rings sit side by side with a giant cage covering both. Two teams of five go head to head, taking it in turns to have a man enter the structure until all ten men are in the ring at which point the match ends when someone is knocked out, surrenders or submits.
Barry Windham and Ric Flair have done it all together, and for the second time, the two men appear on the list of Dave Meltzer’s Five Star classics. This time we are in 1987 and the match is taking place at the Crockett Cup for the World Title.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham II”
Let’s start this one off with a confession. I was very surprised to find The Sheepherders (later known as The Bushwackers) on this list. They are a tag-team that even as they were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame felt like more of a comedy duo that a real wrestling proposition. Although, maybe that all stems from seeing the clip of Luke being eliminated from the Royal Rumble a million times.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: The Sheepherders vs. The Fantastics”
The name Ric Flair will pop up time after time in this series and more than once it will be placed next to the name Barry Windham. The first 5-star match the Nature Boy took part in was for the NWA Title at Battle of the Belts 2. This is also the first time that one of these matches take place in America, as Flair finally does enough to turn Meltzer’s eyes nearer to home.
Continue reading “Meltzer’s Classics: Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham”
Ramblings About Wrestling 