Nikita Koloff vs. Ric Flair

[6.0] "Babyface Koloff was tough to do even with the circumstances surrounding the turn. They only had a month to come up with a replacement for TA so I get it and can't say I would do anything different. The ending is really bad though. Even more unfortunate is the world learned Nikita doesn't like underwear as Tommy Young has to put Koloff's penis back in his singlet after a suplex."

[4.0] "Flair tries to make Koloff look as strong as possible, but it's a very slow and dull match that leads to unbelievably awful finish. Not a good match at all."

[7.0] "This was a hell of a match that unfortunately ended with a really weak double DQ finish. Nikita Koloff was absolutely terrifying, bringing raw power and aggression, while Flair did everything he could to gain the upper hand, often failing spectacularly. Koloff looked like a monster, but Flair showed why he was champion by holding his own through brutal punishment. The crowd was electric throughout, which made the disappointing finish even more frustrating. Otherwise, this was delivering the goods. *** 1/2"

[7.0] "A good main event until this disappointing finish, given the importance of the event. It's not a technical demonstration, but the two have good chemistry. The acting is of good quality, especially Koloff's various no-sells. Flair is not to be outdone, with an attitude oscillating between fear and recklessness. You can feel that he's trying different approaches to destabilize the machine in front of him. Whether it's leg work, chops, timing, etc., he's got it all down. Disappointing in the end, but a pleasure to follow. In-ring quality: 1.5/4. Stakes: 2/2. Justification: ? /1. Place on the card: 1/1. Suspense: ? /1. Bonus/Malus: none. Total: 7.5/10. Match seen on the WWE Network."

[6.0] "Thought this match was a pretty solid character strong match. Obviously nothing flashy bit Nikita Koloff looked like a beast with some feats of strength and Ric Flair made him look even stronger while playing the dirty heel as well as he always does. The finish was just really lackluster and I know false finishes were pretty commonplace in the 80s but damn this is the main event of Starcade."

[7.0] "These two really complement each other. Nikita looks like a million bucks and Flair bounces off him like a brick wall. Flair doesn't even have to get cartoony with his selling like he does against smaller opponents. Watching this, I'm shocked WCW never ran Goldberg and Flair on a PPV cause they could have had the same match, except with a real finish. The finish here would be a letdown for a TV match; for the main event of the biggest card of the year it's horrible. I'm unclear why it was announced as a Double DQ as Flair didn't seem to do anything other than get choked in the corner."

[6.0] "The match was fine. It did not deliver the big time feeling of the previous Starrcade main events but that was probably due to the unplanned main event after the Magnum TA injury. Nikita did a solid job with Flair but I felt like the whole bit with Nikita staring down Flair was a bit overdone. The finish really drags down the match for me because I never like to see DQ finishes in the main event of very big events. Overall it was solid but it could have been better."

[7.0] "3.75 stars finally this 4 hour ppv is done anyway this bout showcases nikita's strength athleticsm & speed the psychology is off the charts nikkita's bumps look great and so is ric flair's koloff looks terrifying here and overall would love to give it a higher but the dq finish stopped it"

[7.0] "This match puts on full display Nikita's incredible athleticism and speed - his bumps look great, he moves like a bull and his stoneface contrasts perfectly Flair's show off character. They knew when to slow things down and when to speed them up and Ric was a fantastic heel here, getting a big heat from the crowd. It had a big match feeling, partly because of Magnum's injury, but Koloff's seriousness also helped it tramendously. I only wasn't the fan of the finish since it was the main event of a big PPV and I would have preferred the clean one."

[6.0] "Nikita is a late replacement for Magnum TA which means the face/heel dynamics are not as clear cut as you would hope. Flair has got his formula down at this point for better or worse. Such a crap finish, lord knows what Dusty was thinking booking that."

[7.0] "Good match with a downright lazy finish. At this point in his career, Flair could get a good match out of anyone and Nikita is more than capable of serving as the powerhouse, no-selling babyface across the ring. The story of the match is that Nikita overpowers Flair in every exchange until the big man takes a bump to the outside and hurts his knee, which Flair pounces on. Nikita sells pretty well during the heat, to be fair, gets color and starts to make his comeback, which is where the match falls apart. There are like 4 ref bumps in quick succession, with Nikita getting a visual pin in the meantime, and when Tommy Young recovers and gets back in the ring, Nikita just hits him for unexplainable reasons, leading to the DQ. They have a locker room clearing post mast brawl, but that doesn't wash out the bitter taste of such a lazy, overdone, stupid finish. The match that preceded the stupid finish is good though, which you can credit to Flair's abilities and the fact that Nikita is over like rover with the crowd and plays his role well enough"

[7.0] "It's a good performance from Flair, in less than ideal circumstances. Koloff is the first major beneficiary of the ol' broomstick match. Flair plans the whole thing out and Koloff, and subsequent opponents, just slot in there and no sell. Would this have been better if Magnum TA had been in the match? Almost certainly. Even just keeping the same structure, as he was a more gifted technician and a more capable opponent. What really tanks the match is having such a bad finish. You can't finish the biggest show of the year with such a lame duck DQ. It was trademark Dusty business. At least Nikita's visual pin wasn't also accompanied by a fake three count from Scrappy McGowan."

[8.0] "A very solid main event. I really enjoyed this one. I'm a big Nikita Koloff mark so I was very happy to see my boy get his moment. It is very sad that the angle/turn wit Nikita only comes at the expense of Magnum TA's unfortunate career ending accident. Considering how thrown together this match became it's shocking how well it played out. Ric Flair did a great job here; arguably his best Starrcade showing so far leading this match."

[8.0] "Many folks call this a carry job by Flair, and while I do think that's true to some extent I don't like to sell the towering Russian short either. The story was simple, when targeting Koloff's weak points, the legs, he could make some headway, but he couldn't resist going after the upper body with signature chops and strikes, against which Nikita proved all but invincible. Bonus points for using the scaffolding from a previous match as a weapon. The finish was a bit cheap, Nikita became so enraged he threw the referee around and got DQ'd. A better finish would have helped a lot, but still an overall excellent match IMO."

[7.0] "I wasn't very interested in this match going in to it, but it turned out to be better than I expected. It's a very strong performance from Flair, who really makes Koloff seem like a threat. Flair does so well at finding ways to mount offence on Koloff without making the powerhouse seem weak. While the strength of this match is really a testament to the skill of Ric Flair, Nikita has some impressive moments in his own right, largely in the form of some powerful looking moves, such as his big Russian Sickle lariat down the stretch that looks great. Unfortunately all the good work doesn't really lead to a very satisfying payoff, as the finish is a bit of a cop out. Still, this was enjoyable and worth checking out, especially to see how good Flair was at getting the most out of any opponent."

[6.0] "Nikita is a clear replacement for Magnum TA. So much that a tribute video played rather than Nikitas entrance, unless the Network edited out. But guess who was booed. Thats right! The communist. Nevertheless, Flair was entrenched in a heelish gimmick which means cowering at Nikitas strength and toughness before regrouping outside and in the crowd. After a good few minutes of this, Flair gets the better of him and delivers a suplex. Flair celebrates but turns around to see Nikita already up. It was a funny spot. The way Flair was proud of himself was a terrific touch to a standard no-sell spot. Flair works the leg to set up the Figure Four as thats all thats left to do and it seems to work. Nikita gets caught in a figure four but reverses it but he sells it, at least. The match is more interesting when Flair is in control because the powerhouse offence gets tiresome after a while for me. Its effective at points but there needs to be progression at some point. Flair uses the already built scaffolding to his advantage, smacking Nikitas skull off it but the match resumes to the tired old trope of putting over the strong man. The ref gets bumped and the match starts to come to an end and unfortunately its a DQ loss for Nikita. Nikita gets a visible pin on Flair but no ref and Nikita loses it after that. The match turns into a brawl and Nikita attacks the ref and everyone else. The bell is rung and the locker room empties to contain this brawl. Flair is even willing to get into a scrap with Nikita, opposed to cowering behind the Horsemen, who aren't there. Its a big angle to do but this is supposed to be a show of blow offs. I dont think a DQ finish works here. It works at the Bash but either Flair needs to win properly or Nikita does. This was a fine main event involving someone who is limited. I expected a bit more, however. Flair was good but he had one role and it was to bump for Nikitas offence. ***"

[7.0] "This had a super interesting dynamic, as you would think anyone going against a 'Russian' in the US in 1986 is going to be a babyface, but Flair is still the Nature Boy after all and he works this match like an outmatched heel. It's rather progressive for a wrestling company to have a Russian babyface during the Cold War, even if said Russian is from Minnesota! The first exchanges establish Koloff's power and that Flair's chops aren't much of a weapon as Koloff just brushes them off. Flair has to escape the ring to take a breather and think up another game plan. He soon goes for Koloff's leg in an attempt to soften him up for the Figure Four. Flair busts open his opponent by bashing his head into the scaffold. Flair makes the mistake of chopping Koloff again and all this does is hype him up into making a comeback. Two referees end up getting taken out and the first referee calls this one after Koloff shoves him. The non-finish was a bit shit, but both face and heel locker rooms rushing out to stop the brawl made for quite a visual. Koloff did a good job at portraying a no-nonsense powerhouse, even if this was still a Flair carry job."

[8.0] "Classic carrying job by Ric, this was 100 times better than you think it would be going in. Ric really was the best here."

[6.0] "A nice carry job by Flair. I was really absorbed in the match to begin with but it did lose steam towards the end and the weak finish drags it down a notch. A good effort but I can't help but feel it could have been much better."

[7.0] "Really solid outing here. Love the slow build. Flair did great as per, and carried this match as expected. However, Nikita also did good on his part too so I can't really give all the credit to one man. The ending was rather flat, but they obviously didn't know what they were going for so they just went with a draw instead. Good performance from both men, still. [***1/2]"

[7.0] "It's odd seeing Nikita Koloff as the face, and the crowd doesn't seem totally convinced by it at first, lengthy Magnum TA promo pre-match or no, but Nikita proves himself a worthy top act in the ring, at least. Then again, he's in there with 80s NWA Champion Ric Flair, who could probably make me look like the next Sting. Alright, maybe not, but I think I could stand up to Tommy Rich. Either way, a feisty match that leans into the best of Koloff - the big Russian bruiser who's too strong for Flair, but not seasoned enough to deal withh is cagey heel tactics - and they turn in a very solid performance. It's let down slightly by the double-DQ finish, but still well worth watching."

[7.0] "A Russian guy is the face against an all-american, amazing stuff. The fight itself was real good, Ric Flair trying to find a way to defeat Nikita who looks invincible. Some work on the legs but mostly the match is Nikita standing tall with Ric Flair cowering or trying to figure a way to defeat him. Ric Flair carried the match but Nikita did his part too. Match ended without a real conclusion and also a brawl which you would expect wouldn't be the case as a season ender, but thats how they did it. Could have been great albiet for the ending and maybe Flair working on the leg a bit more."

[5.0] "Ric Flair worked his ass off, bumping around the ring like a pinball, to get a decent match out of a total stiff."

[8.0] "Great match and a heated battle, I like how the battle got on after the end (sadly, a DQ for a main event of Starrcade). ***3/4"

[8.0] "While not the best show of the entire Starrcade show it was easily the best match of the Atlanta section of the show."