(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Vader vs. Ric Flair – WCW Starrcade 1993

One of the many readers here at Blog of Doom said that this match should be put in a time capsule since it’s just that great. This is high praise given the breadth of great matches that’ve taken place over the past 35 years.

Then again, this IS Ric Flair and Vader we’re talking about. They’re two of the most highly-regarded American wrestlers in modern times. Flair is shorthand for greatest of all time in many fans’ eyes and some circles consider Vader to be the greatest big man to ever wrestle. These two men had already faced each other twice in singles competition with Vader coming out on top thanks to shenanigans. But now that WCW was putting on its biggest show of the year, could Flair break the streak and beat the most dominant super-heavyweight in WCW history up to that point?

The Story

Vader won his third WCW World Championship in March of 1993 and held it throughout the remainder of the year. During his reign he ran roughshod and destroyed a variety of opponents including Cactus Jack, Ricky Steamboat, and Davey Boy Smith. He faced each of these men multiple times thanks to the fact that he had his manager Harley Race helping him out. Race served dual purposes as both Vader’s ringside helper when the referee’s back was turned and he added a sense of legitimacy to Vader in general because he’s Harley goddamn Race and he was venerated for decades for his roughness and accomplishments.

Anyways Vader retained the title time and again, at times by disqualification due to Race’s ringside antics. At Clash of the Champions 25 in November these same tactics allowed Vader to beat Flair as well, which should’ve led to Vader pivoting towards another high-caliber challenger in Sid. However, Sid got fired by WCW because he got into a serious fight with Arn Anderson. This left Vader without an opponent but the company found a simple solution: put Flair back in the title picture and have him put his career on the line in front of his hometown crowd.

This was a simple and easy way to draw money: have the legendary Flair risk never wrestling again and have him face an indestructible beast who not only out-powered and out-weighed him, but also had a conniving manager who was more than happy to get involved if it meant protecting his charge. These factors put the legendary Flair at serious risk of actually losing, which gave fans more reason to watch it. With Flair being disadvantaged from pretty much any angle, could he somehow pull off the impossible and continue his already storied career?

The Match

This took place on December 27, 1993. It was rated ****1/2 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer. This is technically an apuestas/wager match with Flair wagering his career against Vader’s world title. And considering how long Flair had been wrestling in 1993, there was a very real possibility that he actually could retire (or at least disappear from WCW/JCP view).

Vader flexes and goes to one knee to show he’s not worried about Flair. Loud “FLAIR” chants as Flair tries powering Vader into a corner only for Vader to shove him back and across the ring effortlessly. Vader spends the next minute or so shoving Flair back with minimal effort until Flair bails to ringside. Vader chases him for a moment but Flair outruns him to show he has the better conditioning.

Back in the ring Vader hammers Flair and wrenches his wrist with one hand and slaps him with the other. Vader follows with a short-arm clothesline and continues torturing Flair until Flair fights back with chops using his healthy right hand. Except Vader brushes him off so Flair has to bail outside once again.

Vader gets Flair in a corner once again and peppers him with heavy shots. He follows with a military press slam and then another military press that drops flair throat-first on the guardrail. Vader gloats and charges for an attack but Flair sidesteps and explodes with a strike barrage. The crowd roars as Flair drives Vader’s head into a ringpost. The ref focuses on Vader for a moment which allows Vader’s manager Harley Race to attack Flair behind the ref’s back. Vader capitalizes with two over-the-ropes drop vertical suplexes and another stream of stiff shots to the head and body. He whips Flair into two corners with such force that one of them sends Flair over the ropes and instead of doing his usual apron run Flair falls back to the floor.

Vader stiffs Flair some more and shuts down another comeback attempt. He hits a powerslam for two and follows with a diving clothesline. Then Vader snapmares Flair and goes for a splash but Flair rolls away. Flair follows with two diving ax handles and some chops. Then a third diving attack finally gets Vader off his feet. Flair follows with a kneedrop but Vader gets right back up and drops him with another clothesline. Vader follows with a superplex and an elbow drop to Flair’s thigh to trap his leg. The camera zooms in on Flair’s face and there’s blood coming out of his mouth. Vader goes for another running splash but Flair rolls away once again. Flair bounces off the ropes but Vader drops him with a body block. He dumps Flair ringside and distracts the ref so that Race can attack Flair once again.

Flair returns to the ring and continues fighting back with what little he can. Vader shoots him into a corner but Flair dodges a corner body block. Flair lands more chops but Vader reverses another corner whip and lands the body block. Vader squeezes Flair’s hand some more but Flair escapes and fights back. Flair keeps going until he gets Vader down to both knees. The crowd goes absolutely nuts as Flair begins his comeback in earnest with attacks to Vader’s leg. The referee gets distracted with Race which allows Flair to hit Vader’s leg with a chair as it’s wrapped around a ringpost.

The brawling continues ringside as Vader loses his mask. Flair lands more chair-shots as Race continues to occupy the ref’s attention. Back in the ring Flair punches Vader down to size and even bites his forehead. Flair drags Vader to the ropes and continues working the knee. He tries a Figure-4 but Vader powers out. Vader goes to the second rope but misses his Vaderbomb. Figure-4 leglock. The crowd cheers as if the match is already over. Race climbs halfway into the ring as the ref stations himself between Race and Vader and then Vader gets a ropebreak. Flair, all fired up, rushes into a corner but Vader boots him away. Vader drops an elbow and mounts Flair with punches and forearms. Then Vader decides to climb to the tope rope. 440-pound diving moonsault…misses. Flair goes for a cover. Race decides to climb to the top rope. Vader kicks out and Race lands a diving head-butt on his own charge. The ref throws Race out of the ring as Flair attacks Vader with more strikes. Flair gets a running start but runs into another body block, but before Vader can do anything else Flair trips him and lands a sudden pin. One, two, and three! Flair beats Vader in his hometown and the roof blows off the arena!

Winner and NEW WCW World Heavyweight Champion after 21:11: Ric Flair

Post-match Flair celebrates while Vader fumes and argues with Harley Race. Vader trashes the locker room a bit and then we cut to Flair who is joined by his family and Gene Okerlund. Flair cuts a short but emotional promo in his typical style and then we get celebratory and admiration-filled comments from his wife, Sting, and Ricky Steamboat.

Review

When people talk about old school American wrestling classics this is one of the first matches that come to mind. It was simple and straightforward with the hometown hero putting everything on the line in an all-or-nothing final gambit against a monster almost twice his size. Even when Flair wrestled dirty the crowd cheered wildly because, to them, he could do no wrong. Flair had spent decades cultivating a loyal and unyielding fanbase and they stood by their man no matter what. Vader and Race understood this which is why they did their parts to create a nearly-flawless David versus Goliath story that, as that one reader described, still does hold up well over three decades later.

It was incredibly simplistic by today’s wrestling standards: most of the match featured brawling, simple power moves, ringside shenanigans, and the token heel manager. But those weren’t clichés or negative tropes; rather they were the perfect tools to make this into a genuine struggle for the underdog challenger. Flair had no surefire mechanism to damage Vader, who no-sold everything he did for most of the match. In fact, the only ways he managed to hurt Vader at first was to use Vader’s own momentum against him. Much like the John Cena-Umaga match from WWE Royal Rumble 2007, this match was built around the monster being such an unstoppable threat that the underdog had to rely on the narrowest of openings to land any shot and gradually wear the beast down until something managed to make a dent in his armor. From there it was a matter of Flair playing the hits (which was all he needed to do) to catch up and bring Vader down to his level.

The only real blemish here, though, is that the finish seemed pretty weak and included a ham-fisted interference spot that looked like it was supposed to be an “out” for Vader to not lose clean. Harley Race landed his patented diving head-butt which was a powerful and effective finisher on Vader which played directly into the immediate finish of Flair rolling Vader up with one of the lightest trips I’ve ever seen. It looked almost delicate as Vader went down with barely any power and Flair got a simple cover as if Vader had been damaged so badly from one head-butt that it was enough to damage him as much as he had damaged Flair up to that point.

Maybe I’m nitpicking here but the finish could’ve been a bit more impactful or decisive for Flair so that it wouldn’t’ve felt like a bit of a cop-out with the need for Vader to be over-protected in his loss here. Vader tapping out to Flair’s fabled Figure-4 or Flair getting a surprise cover like he did in his Steamboat trilogy would’ve been more on-brand for a high-stakes Flair match as opposed to a delicate trip into a nondescript pin that seemed to lack any power behind it. With wrestling requiring so much careful thought into move choice, the decision to have Vader lose like that just seems like it was way too easy of a win for Flair.

Final Rating: ****3/4

Save for one of the more deflating finishes out of any classic Flair or Vader match you’ve got nothing but simple greatness here. This was old school wrestling without any unnecessary overt flashiness or dragged out sequences to pad its length. From the opening bell there was a refreshing sense of seriousness to it with Flair balancing his usual pomposity with a seriousness and sense of peril not seen from most of his usual matches. Then again, he was right to be nervous since Vader played the monster perfectly and had Flair’s number at every turn until the finish. Though it was a bit cartoonish at points during the start and at the end, the crowd was still roaring hot and made noise not to react to music or to any ridiculous gimmicks, but to the action that was taking place before them.

This is something you won’t find in today’s wrestling environment: an audience so focused and enamored with the action taking place before them that their excitement doesn’t die down at all. Flair and Vader told a simple story that took place at the right place at the right time in front of the right crowd. When all those factors align as well as they did, it’s no wonder some fans consider this something worthy of a pro-wrestling time capsule.

Thanks for reading.