Welcome/Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich (12/25/82)

Hello, and welcome to my blog. I am an extremely bored person with too much time on my hands, too much knowledge about professional wrestling than is considered "socially acceptable", and too much enthusiasm over that fact. I'm going to be exploring matches throughout wrestling history, explaining the storylines behind them and offering my opinions on the match and why you should watch it if you haven't already. So without further ado, this is the first match I'll be reviewing.

Steel Cage Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair (c) vs Kerry Von Erich

WCCW Christmas Star Wars - December 25, 1982

In June of 1982, wrestling legend and 6 time world champion Harley Race was the clear number one contender for the world title. He came to Texas' WCCW to defend that claim against the young second generation Kerry Von Erich. In a fairly shocking upset Kerry defeated Race, thus cementing himself as number one contender and a definite star in the making.

The next challenge would be even tougher though, as the champion was arguably the greatest wrestler of all time, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Only in his first reign, Flair was only beginning to enter his prime and he was already the best wrestler in the world. The two finally faced off in August in a 2 out of 3 falls match for the title with a specially appointed NWA referee to prevent supposed "bias" from the local referees towards Kerry Von Erich. In the decisive fall of the match, Kerry accidentally struck the referee, resulting in a disqualification and a victory for Flair. Due to the controversy surrounding the match, Kerry's father Fritz lobbied for a rematch.

The match was finally signed for that December. And to avoid another controversy, the match was made to be contested in a Steel Cage. And to even further assure a fair match, Kerry's buddy Michael Hayes was appointed as special guest referee. Hayes also brought his Freebird tag team partner Terry Gordy to be a special outside enforcer and guard the cage door.

The match was a stark contrast to their technical match in the summer. It started that way, but it quickly devolved into a bloody war. At some point in the match, Hayes cheats on Kerry's behalf to ensure his victory. The straight laced, humble Von Erich doesn't take too kindly to that refuses to win the world title that way. Hayes doesn't take to kindly to that. And Gordy doesn't take too kindly to Von Erich not taking too kindly to that. And the Von Erich family doesn't take too kindly to that. And one slam of a cage door on Kerry's skull later, the most brutal blood feud in Texas history began.

If you like old school 'rasslin, you'll love this match. The best is yet to come, but I figured this was a good starting point. Plus you get to see the beginning of one of the greatest angles in wrestling history. And that's always fun.

WWE Network link: http://network.wwe.com/video/v31314737

Thanks for reading this blog. I've thought about doing it for a while and I finally got around to it. Spread the word. :)