Ric Flair vs Terry Funk (WCW - 7/23/1989)

Seconded. I could see this placing ahead of a couple Flair/Steamboat matches. I fucking love Flair/Funk. This is what I want wrestling to be.

WCW Great American Bash in Baltimore, MD. Ric Flair defended the World Heavyweight Championship. Gordon Solie interviewed Ric Flair before the match. Flair had turned babyface after Terry Funk had attacked him in May 1989. This match between Funk and Flair was a great fight. Both men juiced. Great brawling. After the match, Flair got beat up by Funk and Great Muta. WCW official Doug Dellinger came from backstage to break up the attack, but he got hit by Muta himself.
Jim Ross: “Dellinger is a civilian!”

When I first watched this, I didnt it touched the I Quit match. A couple more re-watches it got closer and closer. Now I just watched them back to back today and I gotta say I am sticking with the I Quit because of the finish but this is a gnarly match. The neck vs neck psychology is brutal and tremendous. As the American Dream would say "This is the lickin' you get for the lickin' you gave". Mortal lock for the list.

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Terry Funk - Great American Bash 1989

I have been blessed to have seen the best. Man alive, what the hell do you say about this match that has not already been said through the decades. I mean Goddamn. I love Flair's entrance reminds me a lot of Starrcade 1993. The way he clenches his fists and his face dripping with emotion. You know you were in for a treat. No wrestling, baby, this here is a fight to the death. Love the ringside brawling and love that Flair gets the lion share of this match. He has to earn it. Funk is ripping him with chops and punches, but to steal a phrase from the American Dream, "This is the lickin' you get for the lickin' you gave" and Flair opens a can of whoop ass on Funk. Funk gets a slight reprieve by pulling Flair into the post, but on this night Flair would not be denied. The vertical suplex from the apron to the floor was a spot you teased but these two deliver. Then there is the famous neck for neck psychology as Flair becomes an evil chiropractor trying to unscrew Terry Funk's head from his body. Everything Flair does directed at Funk's neck. Kneedrops and of course not one, but two piledrivers. Thats the lickin you get for the lickin you gave. Funk has been selling great from jump coming up with new ways to sell all this. We get the faces, the hands cramped and contorted, the spasms, the falling ass first out of the ring just every way Funk can put over that Flair has kicked ass and wrecked his neck. Here we go...after all this punishment doled out it is time for the Figure-4. Thats when Funk blasts Flair with the branding iron drawing blood. Now we kick it into the heat segment and that means going after Flair's injured neck (the famous piledriver on the table angle that set up this match). We get that very piledriver, but Flair is thankfully near the ropes. Funk gets the bright idea to really end Flair's career by piledriving him on exposed concrete. Talk about high drama. Flair backdrops out, phew. There is a great moment where Funk kinda just dives on Flair from the apron and nixes the head and neck. Flair just starts hollering and grabbing his ear. It is just classic awesome Flair selling. Here's a part I had forgotten. Funk refuses to win the match by pinfall. Instead, he repeatedly hits swinging neckbreakers on Flair, but is calling for him to submit. Gary Hart wants him to take the pinfall but he wont. It looks like they already knew they wanted to do the I Quit match. Flair finally breaks Funk's control by busting him open with the branding iron. Thats the lickin you get for the lickin you gave. Flair is rip roaring now. He comes in hot with a big high knee but misses. Up until Flair's branding iron shot, I remembered everything but I totally blanked on the finish. I thought Muta triggered a DQ. It is actually a clean finish. Funk goes for the spinning toehold, but Flair breaks free for the figure-4 and then Funk inside cradle and reversed for Flair to win. You couldnt go with a decisive blood feud finish, but it seems like an odd choice for the finish to be so technical. Still it was nice to Flair as a babyface get a win in his comeback match to a huge pop. So I am not going to decry the finish. Now Muta comes in and sprays Flair with the green mist. I am not going to go blow by blow but this may be the greatest post-match brawl in pro wrestling history Sting makes the save and it is just on like Donkey Kong. Flair looks like Father Christmas with the red blood and green mist as he cuts a killer promo to send us home. Easily a Top 100 match of all time. High energy, amazing selling, hard hitting, big time drama, huge babyface appeal of Flair making his comeback, this match has it all. *****

A great bloody grudge match, such a contrast to the technical classics with Steamboat earlier in the year. The two rings for Wargames made this interesting to watch and they made great use of brawling around ringside. Post-match brawl with Sting and Muta involved is great too. I love 1989.