This is also for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but it is only one fall!
It’s even better than the 1981 match. In that one, Jumbo tried to be all fast and shit and it cost him, so he starts slower here. It’s both logical and shows his mental progression. He dominates Flair on the mat and there’s a real great struggle on everything. Comes off like Jumbo is winning because they’re just as good, but Jumbo has the size and strength and uses all holds based on that. Flair turns it into a slugfest when he can’t lure Jumbo into making any mistakes, because this is at least even. This being mislabeled as a 2/3 Falls match helps the nearfalls SO much because I kept expecting them earlier off of stuff, so I was biting on roll ups and trap pins. Great theme of Jumbo doing a lot of Flair stuff like Sleepers and chops and an Abdominal Stretch, so Flair got a little bit psyched out. He finally lured Jumbo in to knee work and the Figure Four struggle was great, BUT JUMBO THEN GOT HIS OWN ON AND DID IT EVEN BETTER AND FLAIR KEEPS SELLING IT AS TAKING AWAY HIS MOBILITY! YEAH! Flair got violent with some punches, and Jumbo connected with the big knee on the ropes that he missed in their last match to send Flair out over the top. Because of NWA’s penchant for over the top rope DQs and bad 80s finishes, I expected that to be it, but no! THEN FLAIR SHOVES JUMBO INTO THE POST ON THE FLOOR AND HE SLIDES IN! BUT JUMBO SLIDES IN AT NINE AND THEY DON’T DO A FUCK FINISH COUNT OUT OH MY GOD. Jumbo fights back, AND HE LANDS THE BRIDGING GERMAN, BUT HIS SHOULDERS ARE DOWN TOO, AND THE REF COUNTS THREE! IT’S A DRAW AND FLAIR RETAINS! Classic match that showed Jumbo’s incredible growth and maturing in the last eight months, subverted common tropes of the era, and then had a great fuck finish to show that you can be perfect, but sometimes things just don’t work out, and Jumbo will have to do better than he ever thought to be The Man.
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