1989 Ric Flair v Ricky Steamboat is a series looking at four of the matches Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat had in 1989 for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship. The graphic was made by the Wrestling With Wregret YouTube channel and can be found here.
The 1989 National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) feud over the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat is thought of as being one of the greatest series of matches in wrestling history. United States centric wrestling commentators, fans, and journalists often refuse to consider a series held outside the country possibly being better. Wrestling historians and those who consume wrestling from around the world often consider the matches to be of high quality.
The feud began with Ricky Steamboat returning to the NWA after spending several years in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment), where he famously defeated Randy Savage for the WWF Intercontinental Championship on March 29, 1987, at Wrestle Mania III. After a falling out with the WWF, Steamboat took time off from the before his NWA comeback in early 1989.
Steamboat appeared as the surprise partner for Eddie Gilbert on January 18, 1989, against Barry Windham and NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair. In what was a good tag team match, Steamboat would pin the champion after a Flying Crossbody from the top rope.
The ensuing build-up to their February 20, 1989 championship match at NWA Chi-Town Rumble focused on Flair’s party lifestyle, full of beautiful women against Steamboat’s family-focused approach. Steamboat wanted to bring respect back to the championship, while Flair wanted Steamboat to “loosen up” and not go home to the same woman each night. An ensuing slap by Steamboat to Flair during an in-ring altercation played a role throughout their series of matches.
The match in Chicago was in front of a raucous crowd, that was strongly behind Steamboat, but Flair did have his support after coming to the ring a group of eye-catching women. In contrast, Steamboat came out with his wife and son to play up the opposing paradigms within the program. This match had the loudest crowd and likely was the highest-grossing match in the series due to the 3.5 Pay Per View buy rate and lofty attendance figures for the Chi-Town Rumble.
Steamboat looked electric throughout the match, and the crowd erupted every time he gained the advantage over Flair, who was on day 452 of his reign as champion. Steamboat would use a Double Chickenwing during the contest, foreshadowing an important element for the other matches within the rivalry.
Flair played his role extremely well, doing enough to leave fans in doubt over the result of the match and getting himself over as ‘champion heel’ who could wrestle with anyone in the world. His attempts to slow down Steamboat were met with anticipation and intrigue from the live audience, building them towards the conclusion of the match.
Steamboat would hit Flair again with the Flying Cross Body, however, the referee would also get in the way — preventing Steamboat from capturing the fall. Shortly after, Steamboat countered the Figure Four by rolling the champion into a horizontal cradle (small package) and winning the match and beginning his first reign as NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion to the delight of the Chicago crowd.
