Two-time WWE Hall of Famer and 16-time World Champion Ric Flair had a plethora of great matches during his career. However, fans and wrestlers alike commonly point to Flair's matches with Ricky Steamboat in WCW as being the best of his career. Flair's former Four Horsemen stablemate Arn Anderson gave his thoughts on "ARN" about what he believes "The Nature Boy's" best match is, and he echoed the sentiments of many others.
Advertisement"You have to go with Steamboat I guess," Anderson said "All those matches we never saw for Jim Crockett Promotions back in (the) early '80s... because Ricky's just — if anybody sold better than him I don't know who it was, maybe Ricky Morton but Steamboat had that real good physique, he had a million dollar look, and he's (a) tough babyface, you'd have to beat him down for him to stay down and he was never out of the fight. That would get my vote."
Although Flair fought Steamboat several times, their trilogy of matches in 1989 is where the two demonstrated their absolute best work. Steamboat first defeated Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at Chi-Town Rumble in a No Disqualification match, and retained the title against "The Nature Boy" in a two-out-three falls match at Clash of the Champions VI: Ragin' Cajun. However, he lost the title back to Flair at WrestleWar '89: Music City Showdown.
AdvertisementFlair has described Steamboat as his greatest opponent ever and has fond memories of wrestling "The Dragon." While they were rivals on the screen, the pair are long-time friends behind the scenes.