Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner in 1991 (and other Dream Matches!)

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week I have one I’ve been curious about for a LONG time- the infamous Ric Flair/Scott Steiner Clash of the Champions match that led to a lifelong grudge from Scott to Flair, accusing the Nature Boy of “sandbagging” him and deliberately making the match worse to hurt Scott’s career! Various people have interjected at this point, with Lance Storm seeing “I can kind of see it!”, so I wanted to check it out for myself and see what Flair was doing, precisely.

Next up, a classically “WCW D-Show” match with El Dandy vs. Rick Fuller on WCW Worldwide! The giant jobber takes on the shrimpy, dumpy jam-up guy in a quick one! And then I find a LATER Rick Fuller match, as he’s put against WCW’s new giant hireling, HAIL! Apparently a tall guy I’ve only vaguely heard of, getting a micro-push before WCW died! Next up, another failed would-be star, as WWF hire GLENN KULKA appears in two matches for Power Pro-Wrestling, a WWF developmental territory in the late ’90s- first he takes on KURT ANGLE while Kurt was getting seasoned for the WWF, and then Dangerous Doug Gilbert (oh yeah, that’s a Memphis territory alright). Finally, today’s PWI #500 guy- Gino Martino! A once-obese New York powerlifter takes on The Giant Pharaoh in a tiny hall with an insanely hard ring!

WCW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:
RIC FLAIR vs. SCOTT STEINER (w/ Rick Steiner):
(WCW Clash of the Champions XIV, Jan. 30th 1991)
* The WCW YouTube channel uploaded the famous Flair/Steiner match! This one is somewhat famous, especially these days, as Scott has accused Flair of “sandbagging” him during the match to make it worse and thus hold him down. As Scott was stuck in tag wrestling until 1998 or so, that’s a bit strange, but Lance Storm said watching the match with that accusation in mind, “I can kind of see it!”. Which isn’t really a corroboration exactly but Lance would know 100 times better than I would if a guy was actually trying to sandbag a match, so take that for what you will (it’s not a pure accusation, either). Scott has 4-5 years in the business at this point and minimal experience in singles, but got so much attention from fans that WCW basically HAD to push him. Flair is back then “only” 41, in yellow trunks with a terrible ’90s haircut, and Scott’s in a neon orange singlet. NJPW President Hiro Matsuda comes out before the match to hype Flair vs. Tatsumi Fujinami in a couple months, and then El Gigante comes out to hype up his WCW career, standing a full two heads taller than anyone else in the ring and high-fiving Scott.

Looks like Scott’s wearin’… NOTHIN’ AT ALL… NOTHIN’ AT ALL… NOTHIN’ AT ALL…

Flair plays evasion games to start, braying and taunting at Scott, who draws a pop by responding to Flair’s flexing with his own. Scott both blocks him from an International then does a fireman’s takeover, then overpowers Ric trying a top wristlock, Flair doing the standard “NWA Champ” bit of seeming outwrestled to start. Flair’s escape even sees him face to face with Rick, in a great bit of psychology and intimidation. Flair stares at him while Rick’s just amused like “you gonna get your ass kicked, boy”, then Flair eats a back body drop and gets side slammed- Scott was obivously thinking “tilt a whirl slam” but Flair was NOT, haha. That move really fucks with veterans especially. Flair begs off and takes a powder and makes sure to lure Scott into the corner where he can turn it around and chop him on a rope break. Scott wins another International with a hiptoss as Flair is moving a bit more slowly- he goes for a rope-break, then loses another grapple, getting tripped. Flair again backs into the corner for a knucklelock but suckers Scott into a kick to the gut, but ends up Steinerlined and bails AGAIN, but Scott suplexes him back into the ring. Flair kicks out at “1” and howls in another knucklelock, eating 7 punches in the corner before dropping Scott over his knee. Flair does it again and tosses him, then counters a sunset flip with a hairpull/punch combo & talks shit to Rick. Okay this is REALLY slow thus far, BUT to be fair it’s going long.

S-Tier “hide the spot-calling” here- most guys just lean in and turn their heads into the guy’s ear. Flair pulls the hair, which lets his forearm block his entire face to multiple angles when he leans his head in like that.

Flair does the “sucker him into a corner boot and pin with his feet on the ropes”, Rick catching him and calling it out– back from break with ANOTHER International, Flair getting drop-toeholded and put in his own Figure-Four. Flair howls but quickly makes the ropes (S-tier covering for spot-calling- forearm up to pull hair and doesn’t turn his head to chat), then misses a shot, ducks Scott’s clothesline, then they do a cross-body over the ropes shitcan spot but OH NOOOOOOOOO Scottie doesn’t make it all the way over so has to do the dreaded “Self Bump For No Reason”. Dude, just drop down if you fuck it up! That’s a dumb spot anyways- you can’t hold the ropes down to adjust your fall so I see so many “failed shitcans” off of that. Flair hits a kneecrusher out there and waits him out in the ring. Flair goes through the standard kneework in the ring, hitting the Figure-Four Leglock and repeatedly grabbing the ropes- this provokes Rick over and over again, allowing Flair MORE use of the ropes, but the ref finally forces Flair to break. Scott’s selling is okay but he’s more “grimace and sorta flop around” than bringing the fans into his pain. Flair hits a backdrop suplex and reapplies the Figure-Four, but Scott pumps his fist and finally powers him over- Flair hits the ropes. Flair throws boots but Scott ignores him and has to fight him into a neckbreaker (Flair actually escapes the facelock and Scott has to dive in to TELL HIM the spot so he goes back in). Shitty sell by Flair- he sells it like a slam and doesn’t once touch his neck.

hahah Nick Patrick workin’ hard to keep up with them, too.

Flair does the Flair Flip out of the corner, and Scott follows him outside with a love-tape Steinerline- Flair takes a shitty barely-bump into the guardrail but Flair Flops off of it as five minutes remain in TV time. Flair gets tossed in by Rick, but knees Scott & weirdly begs off right after even though Scott was still selling. Scott ends up pounding away in the corner but the ref grabs his arm to stop, allowing Flair a kick. Flair tries the Figure-Four, making sure to pause at a critical point so Scott remembers to small package him for two. Scott counters a whip with a sleeper, but it’s a sideways hold and Flair stuffs him to stop anything else. Running Steinerline over the top rope! Rick tosses Flair back in, but Flair keeps cutting him off and holds him down after a kneedrop, putting a foot on the ropes repeatedly to work counts. He kills time with a headlock into a trademark Flair series, ending with Scott bridging up and hitting the Tiger Driver! But Flair starts flailing around and spasms until he’s out of the ring rather than eat a pin off that. One minute remaining and Scott’s doing “should I kick this guy’s ass?” spots and waiting him out in the ring- Rick tosses Ric in again and Scott runs into ANOTHER boot, but wins an International with a Steinerline (Flair is way outta position- unusual for him), then its’ corner punches, a Flair Flip, then catching Ric coming off the top. “FIFTEEN SECONDS” as Scott is STANDING AROUND yelling to the fans, then takes forever to set up the Belly-To-Belly Suplex, hitting it as Time Expires at (20:00)- Ric kicking out anyways even as the bell is ringing, lol. Flair escapes another title defense, saved by the bell.

Okay. SO. Per the interwebs: Steiner has buried Flair in numerous interviews after this match, and of course cut an infamous shoot promo burying Flair on live TV. Flair has dismissed accusations that he was sand-bagging Steiner on purpose. Arn Anderson attributed the animosity to be about Flair being a booker back then, “making enemies in that position is nothing unusual”. Fans have come around to Scott’s line of thinking, and I’ve read stuff from people saying they were disappointed live. Would they have suspected Flair of making it lame on purpose if Scott hadn’t said anything, though? THAT’S the tricky part. Obviously the big thing here is that Scott didn’t do any of his cool, big moves until the very end. This was kind of the big thing with the Steiners- all the crazy shit they’d do to jobbers in matches. I’ve seen them pull off crazy shit in star vs. star bouts too. Flair, who has a shoot back injury (from years ago in a plane crash, but he consistently refused to take flush back-bumps for his entire career) and big matches coming up, AND is the company’s booker while also being Champion, is also probbbbbbbbbably gonna be less reckless than an up & comer as a matter of course. Could he have been threatened by the reactions a young Scott was getting? MAYBE- Flair was infamous for going right to Dave Meltzer and spreading his takes in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter so it’s not unlike him to bury someone. If threatened by Scott, he has the position in AND out of the ring to ensure that Scott is seen as a “good midcard guy” rathern that The Future Of Wrestling, especially as WCW’s owners/controllers (Jim Herd outranks him at this point and infamously wanted him out) are breathing down his neck.

BUT what I see here for a good 15 minutes is Flair more or less going out to have a “basic long TV match”. Not a “tear the house down” brawl or “eats a ton of moves and nearly loses” or any of that- it’s just a long, somewhat arduous TV bout. You can tell by how he bails to the floor like 6-8 times during the match. This DOES actually “put over” Scott as impressive given that Flair’s acting like he actually needs these breaks, but it does make for a more boring, less action-packed bout. But maybe this is for Scott’s benefit- how great is his gas tank? Flair’s is obviously top-tier but has Scott even done a lot of solo matches? The big smoking gun here is the lack of “Big Scott Moves”- by this point he was doing Blockbuster Slams, Frankensteiners, Superplexes, Release Germans and giant belly-to-bellies (overhead and turning). Flair didn’t take ANY of that until 19 minutes in, and he’s obviously calling the match. He was wrestling Scott like he was just some local guy on a territory show as NWA Champ, taking a single neckbreaker as a big move and that’s it for ages. And the fans aren’t really excited for much of this- they’re making noise but there’s no big “shine” spots for Scott where Flair looks in danger of losing. Moreover, as the match moves on you see Flair repeatedly cut him off, stopping any potential Scott offense by throwing intercepting knees or punches- this makes Scott stop and halts the momentum of the match, and is “Smother the Babyface 101”- you see Hollywood Hogan do this against Sting & Warrior in his infamous 1997-98 PPV series. And Flair keeps doing the “back into the corner to kick him” bit, which is good strategy in kayfabe BUT very same-y. Like 3-4 times he defaults to luring Scott in and kicking him, then starts working standard old NWA pin-reversal spots or slowdown stuff. At least he eats that Tiger Driver & Belly-To-Belly at the end, but he won’t even TRY and take a pin for the former, flopping out of the ring in a bizarre sell.

Honestly, if I HAVE to assess it with the evidence given, I can see Scott & Lance’s point. BUT if Scott was hoping Flair’s gonna be in “put him over and give him the best match of his life” mode, he’s naive- Flair was 41, had bigger stuff on the horizon, was in the middle of a house show series against Sting for all of January AND February (meaning 20-ish minute matches, probably) and probably wasn’t gonna eat a ton of huge bumps, especially across 20 minutes with a “rising star”. And like, I don’t think Flair woke up today and thought “lol I’m gonna tank today’s match and fuck up Scott’s push”. It was probably more like “UGGGGGGGHHHHH- a twenty minute TV broadway Mr. Flinging Back Bump while I gotta go around the horn in main events. Well I’m not taking any of that shit.”

I’d say Ric wasn’t trying to have a BAD match, but a “Just Okay” one- he definitely had the “go” to have a **** match with this era of Steiner, but he obviously wasn’t interested in it and indeed did a lot to slow down the match repeatedly, halted Scott’s momentum over and over again, and kept acting like they were speaking a whole different “mat language”. It was like 3/10 Okada, not Full Okada. THAT BEING SAID, Scott wasn’t exactly as full of babyface fire or sympathetic selling as he could have been- he completely ignores all that knee work Flair was doing after a point and at 19:20 of a WORLD TITLE MATCH he’s standing around like “yeah gonna wait him out in the ring- HEY FANS SHOULD I KICK THIS GUY’S ASS?” and fuckin’ around instead of acting like he has a Title to win. That ain’t on Ric.

Rating: **1/2 (mostly just okay- long match and not terribly interesting. No all-out efforts and some momentum-killing stuff)

EL DANDY vs. RICK FULLER:
(WCW Worldwide, Oct. 18th 1998)
* Hahahaha YES- from XQDad44 comes a bizarre mish-mash- the dumpy luchadore El Dandy vs. the “Rick Fuller Division” guy…. Rick Fuller! Fuller was like 6’5″ yet a total jobber, usually trotted out to job to DDP or Luger-type upper-midcard guys. Dandy has just joined the LWO and is in purple tights, while Fuller absolutely dwarfs him and looks a lot doughier than I usually see him, wearing a black singlet with more detail on it than normal.

Fuller overpowers Dandy easily to start, catching him with a boot off the ropes as commentary desperately acts like Dandy has this frightening, powerful right hand with TKO powers. He naturally uses it right away on Fuller, who absorbs it so easily he catches Dandy running at him and slams him down. Well, they tried. Fuller has no follow-up (THE MARK OF A JOBBER- hit an elbowdrop or somethin’!) and sorta messes about, then misses a Stinger Splash, but dodges a pescado (I wonder if Dandy was expecting to hit him and had to reposition, haha). He slugs away and resists a sunset flip, then slams him and… goes for an elbowdrop (hey, he heard me!). But that misses and Dandy hits a Japan-style missile kick off the 2nd-rope for two. Dandy throws chops but charges into a huge spinebuster, Fuller doing a weird sex pin for two. Oh come on, don’t pin him like THAT. And Fuller finishes with a monster Jumping Tombstone (!!) at (2:42). Yeah, I BET! So apparently Rick Fuller has a finisher!

Oh come on, don’t pin a guy like THAT!

Rating: *1/2 (It was an okay squash with some good bumps, though Dandy was having issues working with a dude this flat-out huge, kind of brushing against him when he wouldn’t be against a shorter, more agile guy… also Fuller is way worse a worker so that’s probably more his fault for being in the way, haha)

I was watching so little WCW by 1999 that guys like this completely eluded me.

RICK FULLER vs. HAIL (w/ Jimmy Hart):
(WCW Worldwide, April 22nd 2000)
* !?!? WHO THE FUCK IS HAIL!? This giant roided dude with fancy future tights and Goldberg’s hair & goatee flexes while Jimmy Hart starts talking about Hulk Hogan being awesome. Hart says he’s gonna go a long way. This is Emery Hale, which is a name I vaguely remember. So… his name is ACTUALLY Hail, just spelled different. Fuller’s now in a black & white much plainer singlet. Both dudes are about the same size.

Fuller pounces on Hail from behind and whups on him, but Hail annihilates him with a huge lariat as this is clearly a “Goldberg” situation. He follows with a Stinger Splash, but Fuller counters him with a spinkick (!). A legdrop gets only one, and Hail dodges a corner charge and IS ACTUALLY OVER? He hits Hail’s Bells (piledriver) for the three at (1:22). So apparently Hale was a Jimmy Hart find and was intended to be built up as a new opponent for babyface Hulk Hogan, but stuff happened and it didn’t work out. Also this is actually his last ever WCW match. He didn’t get signed by the WWF (looking like THAT!), and followed Jimmy & Hulk to the XFW, then messed around on the indies. A kidney transplant gave him pneumonia, costing him his career and he died of kidney failure in 2006.

Rating: 1/2* (actually a pretty energetic HOSS FIGHT while it was going- it got crazy over and someone suggested it was the first match in a taping… and indeed it looks like it!)

KURT ANGLE vs. GLENN KULKA:
(Power Pro-Wrestling, Memphis, 5/1/1999)
* !!!!!!!!!!! Glenn Kulka vs. ANGLE?! Completely wild. So you MIGHT remember Kulka from his occasional WWF appearance circa 1997- he wasn’t very memorable, but I remember him getting a bunch of hype in Canada (probably by TSN- he did an interview with Michael Landsberg) as he was wrestling’s favorite thing- A Failed Football Star. In his case, he was a journeyman CFL player who did a guest appearance teaming with Bret Hart against Ted DiBiase & Sid in a match for charity and decided to train to be a wrestler. Jim Ross was probably jizzing in his pants at the thought of a big, burly ex-footballer coming to the company, and he was made Ahmed Johnson’s backup against the Nation of Domination in a WWF show at the Skydome. He wrestled a variety of dark matches, beating guys like Sexton Hardcastle (Edge), Doug Furnas & Miguel Perez Jr.- a broken leg against Don Callis led to him missing tons of time and he was sent to Power Pro-Wrestling, a developmental territory. However, he retired in 1999. I feel that him never getting good broke a lot of hearts in the WWF, but maybe that’s just because here we heard a lot about him over here (he’s from Edmonton). The downtown Boston Pizza here has a picture of him along with other Edmonton athletes, and I stunned my friends by failing to recognize the wrestler in the pic- once I saw his name I was like “oh duh”. And of course here he is fighting Angle, who WAS going to work out in the long run. Kulka’s wearing jean shorts and acting like a heel. Angle’s in a grey singlet.

Kulka charges in repeatedly and misses, getting tripped up. He throws some bad shoulderblocks from the apron and hits a dropkick & side slam as heel Irish color commentator says “gobshite” repeatedly- I assume this Southern indie is unaware that’s vulgar slang. Kulka throws a powerslam & kicks, but misses a legdrop off the second rope. Angle fires off forearms and a leaping one & back body drops him, but Kulka begs off and gets a chain from the commentator (Mick Tierney). He goes for a swing with it, but the REF hooks his arm to stop it, and the squabble allows Angle to sneak in from behind with a rollup for the win (2:45). Tierney quickly jumps in and beats Angle down with Kulka, laying the Irish flag over his beaten body. A quick nothing match- Kulka seemed clunky but not actively bad. Angle already kinda moved like a natural but was obviously more hesitant than he’d later become.

Rating: 1/2* (a pretty quick nothing bout)

DANGEROUS DOUG GILBERT vs. GLENN KULKA (w/ Downtown Bruno & Mick Tierney):
(Power Pro-Wrestling, Memphis, Late July 1999)
* Babyface Gilbert comes out in 1992-era purple striped tights to take on Kulka. Gilbert cuts a long promo about how he’s a loose cannon & shit and Kulka comes out doing terrible “come on- cheer for me!” raised arm gestures- very rookie-ish.

Kulka bails immediately and Gilbert slugs Bruno (Harvey Wippleman) off the apron, allowing Kulka to pounce and whip him hard into the corner twice. Kulka does two “football tackles” to the shinbone, then that side slam of his for two. lmao Gilbert is supposed to be selling in the corner and looks right at the camera with a worried expression like he knows it saw him calling spots. Kulka charges into a superkick and eats ten punches in the corner, but Tierney gets up on the apron and readies a giant stick. But he of course looks to the fans like “Hey, look at this!” and makes a Babe Ruth swing… and nails Kulka when Gilbert reverses! That scores the pin at (2:12), Gilbert stealing one!

Rating: 3/4* (a bit of nothing still- Kulka is too clunky and muscular at this point still and never quite learned how to move around)

BEHOLD, the most amazing indie promo of all time. The accents are HILARIOUS- the most theatrical, over the top Noo Yawkuh accents imaginable, to the point where they come off as theatrical. Extra points of Muhammad the Butcher drooling on his shirt and immediately going “oh whoops” then playing it like he meant to do that, Gino getting caught up on his words, the bizarre inflections (“Who do we gaht hee-yuh? The DEEamned? OOOooooOOOOOOH!”), and more.

THIS WEEK’S PWI #500: GINO MARTINO (aka Muscles Martino):
#500 appearance: 2011 (#477 in 2001, #460 in 2002, #484 in 2003, #500 in 2011)

-A powerlifter from New York, Gino Martino has a SUPER thick accent and never got outta the Northeastern indies, wrestling from 2001-2013. He’s the only guy I can think of who made #500 in the PWI 500 while trending DOWNWARDS, as he debuted a bit higher than that (but never rose above #460). He looks to have wrestled from 1998-2013, per Cagematch, starting out fat but getting a lot skinnier.

GINO MARTINO vs. THE GIANT PHARAOH:
(IWE/NWA On Fire, 2008-2009?)
* !!!!!!!!!!! The Giant Pharaoh! A 6’11”-billed guy with Abdullah pants an Pharaoh Eyeshadow! What an indie gimmick!! He immediately attacks Martino from behind as he enters through the curtain, and we’re off. Martino is looking MUCH more svelte here compared to normal.

Pharaoh bashes Martino around and throws him into the ringpost (SAWFT bump), then into the wall, which Martino no-sells with a glower but a throat-thrust has him selling. Pharaoh makes a lot of hilariously goofy sounds as he’s trying to sound inhuman but it’s more gurgly, and then he does a weird “arms up” pose after some choking. Martino fires off a comeback that Pharaoh mistimes the selling on cuz the hits are very random and not timed right, then Pharaoh’s clotheslined over the top, landing on his feet in a typical “big man” spot. He pulls Martino to the floor but gets beat up after an eyepoke- Martino bites his ear and gestures to the fans, but leaves an old lady hanging when she goes for a high five (BASTARD!). Martino keeps throwing throat-thrusts as close-ups reveal poor Pharaoh has that tummy that’s in the liminal space between “skinny” and “gonna be fat soon” (not that I… have any experience with what that would look like…).

Pharaoh hits his own thrusts but hurts his hand bopping Martino on the head (is Marino half-Samoan or something?), but reverses a bad do-si-do whip and launches him over the merchandise table, ruining 35 cents worth of IWE merch. Martino leans against a laughing merch girl for stability. FINALLY they head back to the ring for a corner clothesline & “stomping” by Pharaoh. Man how hard is this ring? There’s zero give whatsoever in there. The one camera goes way up their noses for some corner offense, which is a BAD MOVE as it’s obvious they’re working light when it’s two friggin’ feet away. Pharaoh “hits” a headbutt but sells the pain and Martino hits a shitty “slap” lariat and jawbreaker as Pharaoh lumbers around unconvincingly, then Martino charges into a choke, but goes “NO WAY!” to a chokeslam and hits a terrible Running Nothing (I guess that was a headbutt?), but another guy runs into break up the pin and it’s a Disqualification at (4:27). Two goobers are in now, and they triple-team Martino into a Chokeslam, Gino jumping a whole foot off the ground to make the bump. Pharaoh even “nopes” out of trying a 2nd-rope move as we’re out.

TERRIBLE. Just weak, sloppy, non-contact indie offense but DATED stuff as it’s all Undertaker-style throat thrusts instead of punches as they do a “walk & brawl” instead of actually wrestle cuz either guy wants to bump in what looks like a murderous ring. So Martino does a “hard head” gimmick that repeatedly has the GIANT MONSTER selling while trying offense, then a simple running headbutt is his finisher, causing a run-in.

Rating: DUD (turrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible!)