Sting vs. 'The Nature Boy' Ric Flair

A man that looks an awful lot like the Cryptkeeper dressed in a blue suit with wide, square shoulders holds a red-tipped microphone and stands in front of the camera introducing his guest… The man standing next to him wearing a smug smile… The World Heavyweight Champion… The Nature Boy… Ric Flair!

Woo!

“What I have on… Is a two-thousand-dollar custom-made suit ready for the victory celebration!

“Tonight, Gordan Sulley… Fifteen thousand strong… They’re gonna see the Nature Boy walk that aisle against Sting… The People’s Choice… A man who has come back from a career ending injury to challenge Ric Flair… Hatred in his heart… He wants to be the man…

“Well Sting, I’ve coined a phrase pal... It goes like this…

“To be the man, you gotta beat the man… And in Baltimore, Maryland… Tonight… Ric Flair live…

“I will be the man… “One more time! “Woo!”

To ringside…

Sting’s music hits… Those fifteen thousand strong Flair spoke of stand in anticipation of seeing the man called Sting… Tonight could be the night that championship belt changes hands… The Stinger wants his revenge…

“Ladies and gentleman… The following contest is for the World Heavyweight Championship…

“Introducing first, the challenger… From Venice Beach, California… Weighing two hundred and fiftyHone pounds… This… is… STING!”

The Stinger makes his way down the ramp… He’s dressed in red, white, and blue… It is hard to say which is more spectacular… The jacket this man is wearing, or his bleachedHblonde cropHtop haircut… Thanks to his hair, his head is nearly cubed… His finely chiseled jawline adds to the effect…

The jacket spoken of is primarily blue, the blue of Old Glory… Three white shooting stars with a rhinestone shimmer decorate the back... Red tassels hang from the arms of the jacket, which has a high, space-rockstar collar… The front of the jacket, as well as the sleeves, are adorned with stars and stripes…

The Stinger’s wearing blue full-length tights with white wrestling boots… The tights are decorated with the man called Sting’s signature scorpion, which is adorned with the red and white stripes of the American flag…

Sting enters the ring… It’s an old-style ring, the kind where the ramp is level with the mat and reaches all the way to the apron…

Ric Flair’s epic music hits… It’s the Naitch himself! Silver sparks fall from the ceiling behind the Nature Boy… It is all a real spectacle… Ric Flair certainly doesn’t disappoint…

The Naitch is dressed in a sky-blue robe, the entirety of which shimmers with rhinestone shine… The edges and embroidery are an ivory white, and these shimmer with far more intensity than the blue… Flair’s hair is a near match to the scripted text, which reads, “Nature Boy,” on his back… Underneath the robe Flair wears sky blue wrestling briefs with matching boots and kneepads…

The two men now in the ring… They circle around and rotate their arms about… Gotta limber up for what is certain to be a grueling technical match between these two greats… Can the up-and-coming Sting dethrone the legendary Nature Boy? We’re about to find out…

The referee holds the prize in the air… All that glittering gold…

The champion and the challenger stand in front of each other, eye each other down… The intensity of the Stinger’s gaze under that face paint mask of the American flag!

The timekeeper rings the bell, and this match has officially begun… Here we go folks…

The two men circle… Lock up… Sting shoves Flair to the ground… Flair quick to his feet… Another tie up… Sting again shoves Flair to the mat…

Flair’s angry, back on his feet… He does his trademark ‘Woo!’… A weak ‘Woo!’ if I ever heard one… The Sting stares at the Nature Boy… Sting bends back and lets out his howl… The crowd pops… The Stinger raises his arms in the air as the cheers grow louder and Flair’s face grows a deeper shade of crimson, colored by frustration…

Flair lunges forward… The two men lock up… Sting gets Flair’s head under his arm… The Nature Boy powers Sting toward the rope… With the momentum of the ropes, Flair sends the Stinger into the far ropes…

And the Stinger catches Flair with a stiff clothesline that sends the man to the mat…

Flair kneels, his hand on the rope… The referee keeps the challenger away from the champion… The Nature Boy slowly gets to his feet, not because he’s hurt, oh no, because he knows he can take his time, as long as his hand is on the rope, he can take his time…

Flair stands and smiles… The two men lock up… Sting grabs a big handful of that platinum hair… The Nature Boy powers the Stinger to the corner… Referee telling Sting to ease off the hair… Flair sees his opening… He lowers his body and sends a strong shoulder into the Stinger’s gut, crushing his body into the space between the turnbuckles…

Sting straightens his body… A big chop from the Nature Boy… Sting stares intensely at his opponent before looking out to the crowd… The crowd again pops— they love the Stinger!

Flair can’t stand it… Another big chop to the Stinger’s tanned chest… Flair grabs the Stinger’s face and a big blow to the chin follows… And Flair hits Sting with a third chop… One chop too many… Sting advances on Flair as the Nature Boy backs away… Perhaps Naitch is a little intimidated by that wild gaze? I certainly would be…

Naitch backed into the corner… The Stinger right on top of him… Flair sent to the far turnbuckle... He hits before stumbling forward… Sting in the center of the ring…

Oh my goodness! The power of the Stinger!

Sting military presses the Nature Boy over his head cleanly, holding the sky-blue briefed man over his head for at least a few seconds before tossing the champion to the mat to land flat on his back!

Ric Flair rolls across the ring, flailing about as he does so… He finds the corner and sits, leaning back to find the support of the bottom turnbuckle…

The Scorpion stalks his prey…

Sting grabs Flair by the hair and pulls him to his feet before hip tossing him out of the corner and down to the center of the mat… Nature Boy quick to his feet… Sting right behind the champion… And a drop kick sends Naitch down to the canvas a second time…

Flair rolls out of the ring and onto the outside ramp… Nature Boy on his hands and knees… Sting steps between the ropes, his feet now on the ramp… He circles around his opponent before pulling Flair up to his feet by that platinum mane…

Flair catches Sting with a weak knee to the gut… A small opening… Nature Boy with a chop to the Stinger’s chest…

Sting stares in reply… Smiles… Shakes his head…

The Nature Boy backs away, walking down the ramp and away from the ring… Sting follows, that smile still showing on his face… Naitch charges the Stinger… Hip toss down onto that unforgiving ramp before he heads back towards the ring!

Flair finds his feet with the help of the ropes… Sting quick with a follow up attack… And a huge clothesline sends the Nature Boy over the ropes and back into the ring!

Sting back in the ring… He pulls his opponent to his feet by the hair just above his forehead before bringing a bludgeoning fist right down onto the same spot… The Stinger follows it up with a big boot to the gut…

And again Flair on the retreat… He backs himself into the far corner… Sting follows… Flair puts his hand in front of him, a plea… He kneels in the corner and places his hand on the ropes…

The referee tells Sting he needs to back off…

Again Flair using and abusing his knowledge of the sport and its rules… The dirtiest player in the game indeed…

Flair stands… Sting nears… And there’s those dirty tactics of Ric Flair in action… A thumb finds the Stinger’s eye and he then stumbles away from the Nature Boy…

Ric Flair grabs his reeling opponent by the head… Flair turns his own body, the Stinger’s chin on his shoulder, before delivering a wicked snapmare… Flair off the ropes slowly before dropping a big knee right on the challenger’s forehead…

Sting tries to sit up as Flair slowly walks around, trying to regain his own composure from the earlier onslaught… The Stinger’s clearly been scrambled by the knee drop to the cranium and in his slow attempt to rise Flair is on him, ready with his next offensive maneuver…

The Nature Boy readies the suplex…

And there it is… Flair’s perfect form vertical suplex… The strength, the power, the grace of the Naitch!

Ric Flair sustains the suplex before falling backward, his opponent crashing hard on the canvas…

But what is this?!

Sting on his feet even quicker than the champion! The resiliency of the Stinger! He wants that championship gold! He wants his revenge! The Nature Boy better look out!

A big clothesline sends Naitch to his back on the mat… Sting off the ropes… Flair to his feet… Not long… A second clothesline by the Stinger!

Sting to the corner… Flair on the mat… Sting climbing to the top rope… What’s he gonna do here?

The Nature Boy stands…

High cross body by the Stinger! He catches Flair square and both fall to the mat, the challenger atop the champion…

Sting for the pin…

1… 2…

And Ric Flair manages to kick out!

Sting to his feet… Flair on his knees… Again, the Naitch raises his hands in front of him in pretend surrender...

The challenger approaches his platinum-crowned opponent… And Flair rolls under the bottom rope and out of the ring…

The referee puts his hand on the Stinger’s broad chest as he tries to walk toward the ropes and follow the champion to the outside… Flair struts around and catches his breath… Recovering while also managing to get at his opponent—a true master of the game…

Sting taunts the Nature Boy, tells him to get back in the ring, stop trying to prolong the inevitable… Flair climbs to the outside… Stinger backs off and lets his opponent reenter the ring without trouble…

The two men circle…

Flair puts his hand in the air, daring the Stinger to meet his grip… Sting takes Flair’s hand in his own… A mistake… A sky-blue boot catches the Stinger in the knee…

That’s the same knee the Horsemen injured before… Nature Boy sure showing his true colors now, trying to rework the injury that already threatened the Stinger’s career…

Sting stumbles away… He reaches down toward his knee… He could be injured again… He’s bent over… It’s looking grim, folks… He grips the ropes… Flair catches the back of the Stinger’s knee with another boot…

The Old Glory-clad man tries to make space… Flair follows behind his opponent but he doesn’t attack, only bides his time…

Sting limps across the ring… His knee gives out… Stinger to his knees for a moment but quick to his feet… He attempts to make distance between himself and the champion…

The challenger leans in the corner… The champion right on him… Flair with a big chop to the Stinger’s chest… Sting lurches forward but Naitch straightens him back up in the corner before sending him to the far corner with an Irish-whip…

Sting out of the corner to meet the Nature Boy head on… He attempts a drop kick but Flair reads him like a book… Naitch stops and the Stinger kicks nothing but air before crashing to the mat… Flair quick to follow up…

It looks like he might be going for it… Flair looks like he’s setting up the figure four…

No! A big boot to the face by the Stinger sends the Nature Boy back to the mat!

Sting stands… Flair stands… The two men stare each other down…

“Woo!” Flair calls out… The crowd pops…

“Whoooooo!” the Stinger howls—the sound of the crowd amplifies like the volume was turned from six to eleven…

The two men continue to stare each other down, study each other… The look on the Nature Boy’s face shows that he is both surprised and impressed, though also a bit worried…

Ric Flair raises both hands and motions for the Stinger to take them and lock up… Sting meets the challenge… Flair wrenches the wrist and follows it with a fist unto the Stinger’s skull… A second strike… Knuckles on bone for a third time…

Sting bends down, tries to protect his face, tries to recover… Flair straightens his opponent… And a big chop across the Stinger’s chest sends the Scorpion to the mat!

The fallen man attempts to sit up… Flair right on top of him with a sky-blue boot to the back…

Nature Boy circles around his now horizontal opponent before pulling the man in the trunks of red, white, and blue to his feet…

What does Flair have in mind now?

The champion pulls the challenger to his feet by the little tail/tuft of hair that decorates the back of the Stinger’s bleached-blonde hairline… The Nature Boy grabs the top of his opponent’s tights… Gets a running start…

Ric Flair throws the man called Sting through the ropes and back to the outside… The Stinger’s body crashes to the ramp and he tumbles across that unforgiving surface…

It looks as though the maneuver has further exacerbated that injured knee…

And the champion follows the challenger to the outside…

Sting struggles to his feet as the Nature Boy nears… Flair briefly grabs the Stinger’s head, but only to straighten him up… A powerful chop to the chest by the champion sends Sting to his back on the ramp…

The timekeeper’s voice sounds…

“Ten minutes gone by… Ten minutes gone by…”

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Thanks for reading! Don't forget to look for Part 2!