Steamboat looks back at his first NWA World Title win.
In 1989, Ric Flair and Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat had a series of singles match and their first match of that year saw Flair drop the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at Chi-Town Rumble.
That match was reflected on by Steamboat as he was doing a virtual signing for Captain’s Corner. He shared that he did not know he was beating Flair until intermission.
George Scott, who booked that show, told Flair he did not want to beat Steamboat so Flair could either drop the belt or do a one-hour draw. Steamboat says he was fine with the draw but Flair said he wanted to drop the title to Ricky.
You know, I didn’t know I was winning the (NWA World Heavyweight) championship until intermission. George Scott was the booker at the time and he was deciding and he came to me and (Ric) Flair and he said, ‘Look, we can’t beat Rick,’ Ricky. ‘We can’t beat him. So, it’s either Flair, you drop the belt to him or you guys wrestle a Broadway,’ a one-hour draw and I was good with the one hour because I’ve done a ton of them with Flair and he said, ‘No, let’s just make Ricky the champ.’ We didn’t know until intermission. You know how late in the show… oh God.
There have been 11 singles matches between Steamboat and Flair. Their first took place under the All Japan Pro Wrestling banner.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Captain’s Corner with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
