Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat

[10.0] "Watching this on youtube made me fall back in love with wrestling and for that reason this will always be my one of all time favourites. The action is brilliant, these two were magic together."

[10.0] "It's been a long time since I watched this one and heading into it, I *thought* it was my least favorite of the big four Ric/Ricky matches from '89. I'm not the world's biggest proponent of super long matches but yeah, there's no denying this match is an outright masterpiece. You give these two guys 60 minutes and three falls to show you what they've got and they give you a clinic, alright. It's not as slow and methodically paced as I recall and the overall structure of the bout is pretty darn close to perfect. You are NOT going to see many 60-minute-long matches this good and it never really falls into any doldrums or dull spots, which is definitely an achievement. A technical, scientific classic -- if not the very epitome of it."

[9.0] "It's a great match although I prefer the Chi Town Rumble match. I do think their chemistry is lessened somewhat by the length. It does get a little repetitive and structurally it lacks direction at times. There is also a famous criticism of this match which is that Steamboat gives Flair at world record amount of elbows to the knee and Flair doesn't sell them at all."

[6.0] "My least favorite match of the feud, largely because of the unclear finish which feels very dissatisfying especially after such a long build (and a controversial finish in the prior match as well). Nonetheless a great example of Flair & Steamboat's chemistry and athleticism. Some exciting spots but pretty heavily reliant on long periods when both men are just selling or exchanging blows (some of which are stiffer and more convincing than others)."

[10.0] "An engrossing match that feels much faster than its one hour. The suplexes were deployed perfectly and heightened the tension every time they were used."

[8.0] "[4 Stars] Good action, yes, but 55 minutes--wow, that's cardio because it's repetitive. Then the finish comes out of nowhere, like a roll-up, and I can't take it anymore."

[10.0] "I can't believe I haven't reviewed this match yet. A true love letter to pro wrestling. Why? They didn't meet in the back or get to the ring and say to each other "let's write a love letter to pro wrestling". It's two men at the apex of their careers showing how to put on a near hour long match without getting lazy and sacrificing the pace. It's an amazing back and forth match and throughout the duration both men continue to sell offense done to them earlier. This match should be a requirement for wrestling school."

[10.0] "What a great match, non-stop action with a Steamboat who after a great comeback ends up retaining the Big Gold Belt, a match that is a great banger, with not moves that are not too technical or complex, but still shows the great chemistry and psychology in ring that Flair and Steamboat had, for me this is the 2nd best match of their trilogy behind the one on Chi Town Rumble, 10/10 [*****1/4]"

[10.0] "Great lesson of professional wrestling, alongside their other matches from '89. Prime example on how should you book two out of three falls when it comes to psychology and in-ring smartness."

[8.0] "The first fall is my favourite here, where their indignance for one another comes across load and clear, particularly with Steamboat's slaps. The second and third, if you're one of those sticklers for things like selling and psychology, they're far less consistent. Flair does no selling of the back after all the work it gets in the second fall, Steamboat is much better selling the knee in the third fall than he had been in the Chicago match, but it's still not consistent. Flair whips him off the ropes far too much, forcing him to run, and it makes no sense. The finish is also completely stupid (the way it looks and is called by the referee, not the idea of him collapsing, which is great). I get that is the point to set up one more match, but how anyone could take that seriously is straining credibility. The key to the whole thing is (kind of) to make Steamboat look like the confident new champion, but in the end he gets outworked and lucks out with the title."

[9.0] "Spectacular match, I'm not very fond of those super long matches generally speaking, specially considering how overused they are, and I really value when you can put up stories and do something incredibly deep in not a long time, but excluding that natural barrier, it's a formidable match, almost one hour of perfectly executed wrestling, very flawless, confirming the special chemistry that Flair and Steamboat showed at Chi-Town. This is a linear match and the fun of it is the nonstop greatness, it's very impressive how they keep the flow going and the match doesn't drag at all, it's always interesting and the 55-minutes pass by very quickly. There's a lot of interesting moments here, the first fall is awesome, it's probably my favorite, the level of wrestling is amazing and they're going full speed, Steamboat looks sharper than Flair, but Flair steals it. The Dragon wins the second fall with the chicken wing, and then the third fall transitions into a exhaustive battle, where both of them are absolutely tired, and they play with that exhaustion with brilliancy, it's an incredible sell from both wrestlers. Flair took a while to cheat, but eventually he did, and I also loved the chop battles, and the moments where Flair tries to pin Steamboat by repeatedly forcing his shoulder against the mat. The ending of the match had all the elements in the world to be underwhelming, but it wasn't, because the storytelling is fantastic... Steamboat, who's the good guy, a role model, won by a very controversial way, which is something you definitely didn't expect, and has a poetic touch into it, the guy who entered with his family and it's the superhero, won via cheating? Very intriguing way to pack things up - {****1/4}"

[10.0] "One of the greatest rematches of all time. Pro Wrestling presented as a contest of sport will always be my favorite. A true showcase of endurance and chemistry. Steamboat, now the champion, wrestles even more confident than he did at Chi-Town Rumble and Flair wrestles with more desperation. The rhythm these two wrestle in is unmatched, an hour long 2/3 falls match that never feels slow. Each moment is two guys flat out doing everything they can to win. The chops are vicious, the wrestling is pure and because a fall could come at anytime; any pinning combination, any role up, there's always a surprise around the corner. I always wish this was in front of a bigger crowd. A true classic that leaves the door open for the final match of the 1989 trilogy."

[5.0] "By far my least favorite of the Flair/Steamboat trilogy. Not a fan of hour long matches and this one runs out of steam and drags after the first pinfall."

[10.0] "Fantastic match. The pacing, the endurance, the commentary and the big match feel are all there. I just find it engrossing as a contest because of the psychology, the selling, the way its presented, everything about it really - perfect representation of what wrestling could and should be and light years ahead of what gets produced by modern day promotions at times."

[10.0] "This is my favorite NWA match that I've seen so far. Both of these guys went out balls to the wall and brought it. Side Note: I loved having Terry Funk on commentary. He did a great job at planting seeds for his future feud with Flair later in the year. The stamina that one has to have to go 55 minutes with this amount of intensity is extremely impressive. What's tremendous about this match is how each fall has its own identity. The first fall is surprisingly fast paced considering how much work they have ahead of them, and it ends with a cradle pin reversal. In the second fall, Steamboat does a phenomenal job of working on the torso and midsection of Flair which eventually leads to the submission. In the final fall, both are battling exhaustion and fatigue, while Steamboat is also heavily selling his leg. At this point you almost feel that it's going to lead to Flair winning with the Figure Four (which was probably the point). The match ends in controversy with Steamboat picking up the victory with Flair saying he was in the ropes. Both of these guys told an incredible story and created some real drama. The selling for this match was absolutely out of this world. This seriously might have been the best selling I've ever seen in any match. This was probably the best match of the year. Certainly the best American match."

[10.0] "I was anxious going into this match with it having a 1 hour run time, but it delivered! I didn't find myself checking the time or feeling like it dragged at any stage of the match (which is super impressive for a one hour match). Ric and Ricky have unmatched chemistry, their polar opposite characters/personalities complement eachother perfectly and in-ring they were so smooth and played the crowd fantastically. Ric was incredibly giving in the 1980's (well his entire career to be honest), he didn't just lose the first encounter, but he lost here too... and still came out looking like a superstar. Huge props to Steamboat too, he was fantastic and it is sad to see that he is becoming forgotten as time goes by. The result surprised me as a first time viewer, I did not expect Flair to lose both the first and second match of this legendary trilogy. I think the first was still the best they had, but this was still top top tier."

[7.0] "I would've given it a 7, 5/10 if I could. I couldn't get into the match, it was long and never got going for me personally. It just stalled and it felt like they were just building slowly to something that never came. Maybe old school american wrestling is not for me."

[10.0] "(*****) Not much more to say a brilliant classic highly influential, a fantastic display of psychology, storytelling, and crowd control. One of my favorite matches of all time."

[8.0] "Often dubbed the best match of their legendary 1989 trilogy, and while I personally much prefer their Chi-Town classic, I have to say that for them to keep things interesting for almost an hour is a remarkable feat. It's certainly not as fast paced nor as smooth as their Chi-Town classic as this one's over twice as long, it's a more grueling affair with a much more methodical pace. But the storytelling remains outstanding. Just Steamboat's attitude, him refusing to get disrespected and slapping Ric off the bat set the tone perfectly. The finish is pretty slick and served as a nice device to set up the final match of the trilogy. ****"

[10.0] "Perfect and classic match. The match quality was top notch, obviously It's the best match of 1980s. But I found every pin fall very confusing. They both played Their psychology realistically and really showed good storytelling. Especially some points, they even overplayed their selling, tho not a problem at all. (*****)"

[10.0] "[5.0*] One of the best matches of all time. Probably the best rematch ever (if you count that Santito vs Casas II happened only 10 years after the first one and it's not a sequence). What an absurd match with the highest level possible. Yes, 55 minutes is a lot, but I swear to God the time passed so fast. I think the fact it was a super fluid 2/3 Falls made it look like 3 different "mini-matches" so it turned the match a lot easier to watch without feeling tiring. I actually wanted more when it ended! Anyways, what an exaustive selling job these guys did, you could feel their struggle. The in-ring psychology here was just perfect, with a lot of callbacks from the first match, creating a really great story that was super well developed. Steamboat once again started out-wrestling Flair, but when he made his first mistake in a missed dropkick, Flair took advantage and won via roll-up, showing that he was paying more attention this time. In the second fall, Steamboat made Flair quit with the Chicken Wing, because it was smarter to just quit fastly and make it 1-1 than being injured for the 3rd fall. In the 3rd fall they're already very damn tired and they sold it perfectly, culminating in the best false finish of the match where Flair locked-in the Choke and Ricky almost loses until he raises his hand and stops the referee of ending the match. The finish came in a little bit of a questionable way to build the third match of the trilogy when Steamboat pins Flair but both of them were with the shoulders on the mat, so you have this tension thinking about who won until the referee raises Ricky's hand for a gigantic pop on the crowd. This match made me feel, man. You could feel their fighting spirit, their struggle, their selling. This was also so smart-worked with the limb-work and classic heel moves by Flair, while Steamboat kept his honor until the end where he couldn't stand Flair's bullshits anymore. Clear and beautiful story, the best pacing I've ever seen for an 1-hour match and an all-time classic that topped Chi-Town Rumble imo and will live forever in our hearts."

[10.0] "Sometimes you hear this described as being good because it's not like other 2/3 Falls matches of the era. Actually, structurally, it is a lot like the NWA Title match formula of the '70s into the early '80s. It uses the "even pace" fall structure with the challenger winning first, it uses the sort of protective finishes you got in decisive matches (Flair's fall is a reversed small package, Steamboat gets his second fall in an intentionally contentious manner), it uses the same sorts of repeated heat segments and limbwork that are typical in the old NWA Title matches when they involved good technicians. Teasing Broadway isn't unheard of. What's different here is the absurd workrate through long sections, the willingness to keep moving and do just a bunch of stuff - there are a plenty of very good classic Title matches which run at about half the efficiency of this one. Just constantly engaging. There are a few repetitive moments during specific heat segments, there's the bum finish - "decisive" but protecting Flair - but this is just magnificent. 5/5"

[10.0] "the best WCW fight, it was not the typical fights of the Monday Night Wars when the company was disappearing."

[9.0] "Phenomenal, and completely worthy of its place amongst the greatest matches of all time. I do prefer the Chi-Town Rumble match but I can see why so many feel this is the best they had. Outstanding purely from a stamina point of view These guys go nearly an hour and keep the pace up the whole time. A textbook example of how to do two out of three fall matches that you can still see influencing the match type today. 4.5 stars."

[10.0] "If Chi-Town Rumble is these two men self-actualizing 10+ years of their prior matches, and careers, bottling it into one magical night and match, this match is them taking everything from that match and using it to create the most perfect rematch they possibly can. Everything done here is building off of the first match, sells the impact of what happens in the first match, how that match was wrestled, the important intricacies and events of the match. It makes every momentum swing matter, it makes every move matter, it means everything is elevated beyond what it otherwise would be and these men are already masters of elevating things beyond what they already could be. Flair is a different wrestler here. There's no dirtiest player in the game here. There's an aggression, a nastiness, a determination. Unlike the first match, where Flair is from behind, he is ahead. Steamboat constantly is wrestling upwater. His momentum shifts are so much shorter. You'll never see 2/3 falls flow and structured like this, it builds and builds, it's paced brilliantly. This is aggression, intensity, competition, championship pro wrestling packaged as good as it gets. *****"

[10.0] "An iconic display of stamina and skill, this is Flair and Steamboat's all-time 2-seed for my money. The 2-out-of-3 falls stipulations allows them to sustain an incredible pace across almost 55 minutes, taking multiple different directions along the way. As usual, Steamboat dominates early, frustrating Flair and chipping away at his neck. Upon dropping the first fall though, his approach shifts, launching leg work that soon produces a duel of sorts in that domain. It's hard to look past their familiar clobbering as a centrepiece though, with spectacular chop exchanges at every turn. The match is yet another example of this pairing's sports flavour, sporting a fatigue in the second half that captures the desperation and drama of a championship prizefight. Jim Ross certainly adds to that feel, with Terry Funk's raw enthusiasm providing a charm of its own. *****"

[10.0] "Standard duel. Great sequence and pure chain wrestling. Comprehensive version of previous battles. fancy selling that make whole body shake at a simple chop. The final ending is also convincing, making it difficult to predict who wins until the end. amazing"

[8.0] "Their Chi-Town Rumble match is still the best out of the trilogy for me, but this one was still a hell of a battle. It was so impressive watching them go almost an hour, showing off their ridiculous cardio and what a fantastic shape they were in. They paced it very well and even when they were trading headlocks and armbars they kept it interesting, as everybody was in constant movement and it wasn't getting boring. Flawless execution of all the spots and a great chain wrestling all around, plus the speed they were keeping up was extraordinary. Not the biggest fan of the finish, but it set the ground for the third match."

[10.0] "Awesome match between these two legends. Even though it went for nearly an hour it didnt got boring or slow. This match was really physical and just to watch Ricky and Flair go at it for nearly an hour is just really entertaining. Flair got the first fall and then Ricky got the rest. I think their previous match in Chi-Town was just slightly better."

[9.0] "Enthralling best of 3 falls match. I love Ric Flair matches from around this time, I find them so enjoyable regardless of how long they go, similarly to the time limit draw the had with Sting which was around this time I think. I love everything about this match - the pacing, the athleticism and stamina, the submission holds and the commentary which has that old school, understated feel that is massively missed in the current era of dumbed down, patronising drivel we have to put up with. Top stuff, I would watch this again and again. The only reason I stop short of 10 is I feel I need somewhere to go if I ever see anything better!"

[10.0] "Bell to bell, this is an amazing display of athleticism. Both Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat have incredible stamina to maintain such a fast pace through all three falls in an almost 60 minute match. Both men do an incredible job selling the limb work of their opponent - every Figure 4 looks agonizing. It's an odd but interesting finish that justifies the rubber match."

[10.0] "Two out of two in the "nailed it" column for this series. It had all the same upsides of the first match with tremendous psychology and they really got you hooked with the 2 out of 3 falls 60 minute stipulation. If you didn't know the result beforehand you'd bet your house on it being a draw. So when Steamboat gets the pin with just a couple of minutes left, there's a huge combination of shock and jubilation. Exhilarating stuff."

[10.0] "What a first match to comment and rate on here. Flair and Steamboat wrestle just a picture perfect match with an utterly genius finish. Say what you will about the real life character of Ric Flair, hes one of the greatest wrestlers to ever walk the Earth, and anytime he battles his best rival, its bound to be magic."

[10.0] "This is the perfect match...pure and simple. Many love the Wrestlewar match more, this one is my #1."

[10.0] "This was an amazing match, even better than their previous performance. The first fall was a match in its own, with chain wrestling and striking, Steamboat dominating Flair for the most part, but Flair reversing Rickys inside cradle with one of his own, winning the first fall. The second fall is a bit more even, Steamboat targets Flairs leg and tapped him out with a double chicken wing of sorts. The third fall was crazy. There were tons of crazy spots, big moves, great sequences and near falls. The leg work of both men was amazing. The finish did good at keeping both men protected. Overall, the match was structured well and kept you invested for a whole hour."

[10.0] "One of the finest ever displays of professional wrestling. Perfect technical wrestling awesome chops and strikes and selling of the highest quality. A 55 minute match that felt like half of that run time without a single moment wasted. A timeless classic as good now as it was over 30 years ago."

[7.0] "This is really good, but its straight up inferior to chi-town rumble, which there's nothing wrong with that its one of the best matches of all time. Steamboat winning again is very good, Flair is also great as usual in this match and its overall A good match."

[10.0] "Wow just wow! this match is just awesome two great wrestlers going at it flair and Ricky did great here Ricky playing the babyface and ric being a great heel.The action is just amazing the comedy by Ric was amazing the wrestling was amazing everything about this match is just amazing! one of the best matches i have ever seen which is why im giving it 10 points"

[8.0] "Absolutely adored this match, it was for sure going to be a 9 or 10 for me until the finish. Im not a huge fan of a finish where no one knows who won until the arm is raised and you have to rewind to figure out if it actually worked or not. Also, and maybe Im seeing things here, but flair does a rope break. Maybe Im the only one whos ever noticed this, but his leg is clearly under the rope as hes getting pinned. I hate the guy, but he actually kinda got screwed here. Anyway, its a testament to the brilliant psychology and emotion of the rest of the match that Im still giving it an 8, and the pop at the end is still nice even if its a bit tainted. The other thing is that Ricky doesnt seem to be selling the leg enough at the end imo, I get that adrenaline rush is a real thing but it feels like he should barely still be walking in kayfabe. It does kinda make the finish work since he falls into it and its generally done pretty well, so it doesnt affect my score too much. Ive seen much more horrendous no-selling. As I said, I was waiting until the finish to score it a 9 or a 10 depending on how much I liked the finish, and the rope break thing is what brought it down to 8. Highly respect the notion that this is a 9 or a 10 tho, the way it makes you cheer for Ricky is special. Edit: I kinda marked out for a second there and didnt watch the rest of the show before commenting this lol. They address the rope break thing several times over and probably turned it into a storyline, I frankly wouldnt know, but its still a problem for me that the finish of a 2/3 falls match has an asterisk on it. Im standing by an 8"

[10.0] "Another perfect match between these two wrestlers. It's a mix between their two previous matches but with a duration of one hour this time. A crazy hour, nothing negative to say. Even after an hour it's still interesting to follow. The finish sees Steamboat pin Flair who had one foot under the top rope. (5*)"

"10 As with everything I write on here this is just my opinion. This is my highmmark. Probably because simply I watched it live as a kid and things from our childhood can obviously make it biased. 2 of the greatest ever doing their thing the best they could. I remember at the time talking to other fans at school and my uncles about the match. A proud time to be a fan."

"Probably the most memorable match I watched as a kid. Never got a PPV as a 10-year old so this was the closest big event I ever watched live on TV. Still remember watching from my living room, although I don't remember the corny Steamboat entrance."

[7.0] "Their prior match at Chi-Town Rumble was better. That match accomplished pretty much everything this match did, but in 1/3 of the time. It was a much more efficient match. This match is roughly the same quality and has a lot of the same aspects, with the primary addition being some callback spots to the prior match. But those weren't enough to make a significant gap, so it falls short compared to its predecessor. I also wasn't a fan of the finish, though I understand its purpose was to set up a rematch, but it was still a bummer. I believe the commentary was also worse this time around."

[10.0] "Out of all of their matches, this is definitely my favorite. Like usual, the match starts slow and builds up and picks up the pace as it goes along, with amazing work rate and psychology, leading to the climax where Steamboat is finally able to put Flair away."

[9.0] "It feels like blasphemy to not give this a 10.0, but hear me out. This is undoubtedly a terrific match with a lot of incredible work. The intensity in the opening minutes is palpable, and the cardio of both men is incredible. The match is much faster paced than you might expect from a bout of this length in this era, and it's very impressive than they were able to go as hard as they did for so long. The third fall has some really tremendous moments. I absolutely love how Steamboat sells the leg as well as his exhaustion in the final few minutes. He is literally dragging his limp leg along the canvas as he battles back against Flair. The moment where he drops Flair with a double chop, falls to one knee and poses, covered in sweat, is absolutely iconic. I personally really liked the finish, too, and thought it was much better executed than is often the case with similar spots. I could really buy the exhaustion of the two men and the toll that the match had taken on their bodies as Steamboat fell backwards while holding on to the chicken wing. So what holds this back from a 10.0 for me? Simply put - I just thought it was too long and that they didn't quite have enough material to fill the run time. I am not a fan who loves matches that run this long at the best of times, so it really takes a lot to hold my interest for such a lengthy period, and this fell a bit short of being able to do that. The hour(-ish) matches that work best for me tend to have a lot of evolving stories and and narrative threads to follow in order to keep them engaging, and there is often a lot of variety. While this match had some of that (the changing body language of both men throughout the match told a story all by itself), it wasn't enough to keep me fully immersed for the entire duration of the match, and I did find my interest waning at points. There seemed to be some attempts to address this through Steamboat changing the body parts that he was working over, but it ultimately felt a bit inconsequential (I especially found it a little odd when he did so much to work over the leg then promptly abandoned that strategy to go for the back instead). It's Flair and Steamboat, so you know that this is still an excellent match, but I'd consider it a notch behind Chi-Town Rumble. I do have to wonder how much my enjoyment was hampered by watching the event in its entirety, though, as perhaps this would have had more luck keeping my attention if it was the only match from the card that I was watching. I will certainly have to test that theory one day - but considering how long the match is, I definitely won't be in any hurry to do so."

[10.0] "55 minutes of pure, great, professional wrasslin'! I love the story told throughout this match, and also like that this is two out of three fall. I'm very happy this match was given the proper time to breathe. This makes the third 5 star match of my watch-through now. You could argue to this being the weakest of the trilogy but I love them all. I'm glad that Steamboat got such a high class defense in during his short reign on top."

[7.0] "It's okay that this match is an absolute classic and super important, but not every match of this duration works for me, in many moments this match gets boring and pace is already slow, there are times when it gets even slower, I expected that at least in the final minutes this match got into gear, but that was not the case and this one is consequently far from being among my favorite 1 hour matches (***1/2)"

[10.0] "I rewatched this and my original rating was an 8. The length really hurt it for me but the second time around I was able to appreciate this match more. The athletic ability here is insane. The pure wrestling is insane. The amount of time these two wrestled for is insane. I actually was popping for steamboat here. The first fall is probably the weakest part of the match as it is the feeling out process and is slow. The second fall is when things really speed up and things get good. Like I said before, flair in the chicken wing is absolutely iconic and when I think of this trilogy that's the thing that comes to mind. The third fall is when it goes from 4 star to 5 star as by then they are pulling out all the stops trying to pin each other. When the announcer announces 5 minutes left it becomes a mad dash to the finish. The finish is a bit wonky as I stated in my first review. The camera angle makes it look like a double pin and you can tell the audience is confused. Other than the finish and the first ten minutes, this is a very respectable follow up to one of the best matches of all time. 6/5"

[10.0] "One of the greatest matches of all time hands down. If you have not watched this yet, you absolutely need to."

[8.0] "02/04/89 Clash of the Champions 6 WCW. Ric Flair getting robbed of reclaiming the title. I definitely don't see this as the greatest match of all time. It was a marathon of high intensity with legendary selling & psychology. I just felt it was a little repetitive on itself some of the sequences were on a loop with the same 3 or 4 spots happening in the same order several times. The crowd could of been better as well, it's not going to get a 10 from me unless the crowd go absolute ape shit crazy. A legendary performance with two of the best, but lacking in a few places. 8*"