Ric Flair Recalls Iconic WCW Clash Of The Champions Match Against Sting

Since they first faced each other at the inaugural Clash of the Champions in 1988, the careers of Sting and Ric Flair have largely been intertwined. The two would face each other countless times in the years after, trading the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and even having the final match in WCW history in March 2001. And after reunions in TNA and WWE since, the two have now reunited again in AEW, with Flair signing a multi-year deal as Sting heads towards his retirement, scheduled for March 2024.

Even still, it all goes back to that famous Clash of the Champions match, which Flair declared to be the greatest match he and Sting ever had during an appearance on "Gabby AF." But the match was no walk in the park according to Flair; not only were he and Sting competing against WWE, with Clash of the Champions airing at the same time as WrestleMania 4, but the length of their match was longer than any match Sting had wrestled up to that point.

"They wanted us to do an hour, and we did 56 minutes, and he'd never wrestled an hour," Flair said. "He'd probably never wrestled more than 10 minutes. And boy, he didn't take a deep breath. I was so impressed ... to go out and wrestle for [50-plus] minutes, like I said in my interview ... whether it's today or 30 years ago, it's hard. I was used to it, I'd been doing that for a long time prior to wrestling him. But he didn't take a deep breath, and his conditioning was phenomenal."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Gabby AF" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription