Flair v Magnum

Ric Flair v Magnum TA (World Pro Wrestling, 2/23/86)

I haven't watched a Flair/Magnum singles match in forever. I couldn't even tell you at this point which ones I've seen. I know one of them made the AWA set but by the time I got to it the voting deadline had passed so I skipped over it. Maybe I should go back and give it a shot because this was pretty damn great. It was mostly your standard fare early, but Magnum looked really imposing in control. Flair tries a bunch of different things and all roads lead back to him being gorilla pressed or otherwise chucked about like a large child. The way he took over by using Magnum's own momentum to throw him out the ring was a nice bit of champion's smarts, and it led to a longer run of Flair in control than I'd have expected. His rabbit punches to open up the cut looked real nasty and he was super animated the whole time, jawing with folk in the crowd and looking about ready to punch Tommy Young in the mouth once or twice. Magnum's comeback ruled. He has this awesome quality during his comebacks where people truly buy his opponent being in deep shit. When he grabbed that chair leg from Tully you feared for Blanchard's life and when he roared like a big old lion here you knew Flair was in trouble. His slow turn to face up the champ, the way Flair backed into the corner, the look of horror as he knew he'd pissed off the wrong jeans- and leather-wearing biker, it was so great. Flair's going to do that against pretty much everybody anyway but this felt extra special. I dug Flair just trying to get himself disqualified by hurling Tommy Young by the shirt as soon as Magnum applied the figure four. Magnum pleads with him not to call for the bell, Tommy eventually acquiesces, and Flair realises that he's somehow only gone and made a bad situation even worse. Great spot where he's trying to crawl away after Magnum had pummeled him with a series of punches. Magnum stalks him down the whole time and Flair uses the turnbuckles to pull himself upright, then as Magnum grabs him by the trunks to drag him back into the middle Flair goes low with his heel. Ref bump at the end looked a bit crummy initially, but fair play to Tommy Young for producing a better sell job of the leg than most wrestlers. This also has one of my favourite dodgy Flair finishes and all in all I liked it a ton, despite it being something I wasn't massively excited for going in.