NWA Main Event, somewhere in the southeastern United States
Ace’s sole purpose in life, as was the case with every NWA babyface at the moment, was “avenging Sting,” so today it’s Johnny Ace going after Flair on the Main Event. Ace is one half of the Dynamic Dudes with Shane Douglas, a team that did not take off for many reasons, none to do with their ability as a tag team, they were fine. Ace is about two months from leaving the NWA and just focusing on Japan, which was smart of him.
We’ve got Bob Caudle on the match commentary here with Teddy Long. Woman is in Flair’s corner all sultry and Caudle has to admit, “I tell ya, Flair’s got good taste in everything, no doubt.”
Man Teddy should’ve done more commentary. He’s better at this than he was managing or refereeing, honestly. Flair works the leverage over Ace as they lock up early, but he gives it up with Ace being the taller, younger, stronger man on paper. Ric making yet another guy look as good as he can.
Flair takes a hiptoss from Ace and pops up looking at him, like, “You motherfucker.” Flair basically did the same kind of match with guys like this in matches like this all the time, but he had a few minor different flavors, like cranberry, cran-apple, and cran-grape versions of This Match.
They have called Johnny Ace “a buddy of Sting’s!” three times already, it rules. Flair does the flip in the corner out to the apron and then floor, and Teddy cracks me up going, “JEEEEE-sus!” Caudle continues with Johnny Ace: Sting’s Buddy. This commentary absolutely rules.
Flair takes a beating from Ace outside, and his eyepoke rally is cut off by Ace slamming him off the top. Now Flair loses a strike battle, starting with two chops but eating more shots in return. Clumsy bit in the corner after an Irish whip, then Ace hits a shitty springboard crossbody off the second rope, but follows up with a better dropkick to send Flair packing again.
Ace can’t really hang with Flair. It’s just clear as day. Ric wins this one clean with, as you surely would guess, a random swinging neckbreaker. You don’t see that every day, certainly not by 1990.
This is one of a handful of early ’90 Flair TV matches I’ve watched again recently. Two of them, this and Z-Man, are on one level, and another two, Brian Pillman and Tommy Rich, are on another. But the Zenk match was, again, mostly that both were babyface at that moment, and while the crowd didn’t dislike Zenk, they certainly weren’t cheering him over a good guy Flair. So the crowd just didn’t get that into it. Here, it’s just obvious that Ace can’t run with Flair. Even raggedy Tommy Rich was clearly better than John Boy.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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