Jim Crockett Promotions Ric Flair's Last Match Review
By Alex Kalil
On July 31st, 2022 Ric Flair wrestled his last pro wrestling match. Smartly they decided to build a whole show around it and put together a hell of a card so I had to check this out. Unfortuniatly the pre-show featured Ren Narita vs. Yuya Uemura and the Bunkhouse Battle Royal. The NJPW Young Lions match was eh but I wanted to see the Bunkhouse match so I was kinda bummed to miss that. Especially after I heard some GCW guys invaded it. Oh well. Will just watch it later. On to the show!
The Motor City Machine Guns vs. The American Wolves: A good opening match up. These guys had to fight to get the crowd into though. Wolves played the heels nicely before the Guns made their big comeback and got the win. Both these teams are still fantastic in 2022. Kinda annoyed we don't get more American Wolves matches. Good way to start off the night. ***
Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Killer Kross: Davey Boy has a bone on his trunks and I thought it was a dick and balls. Oops. We get some mat wrestling to start off before both start throwing bombs and big moves. Crowd started to get into it before Kross nailed Davey Boy with an elbow to the back of the head. This was a TV style match. I really want to like both these guys but they keep underdelivering in every match they have. Pretty forgettable match overall. **
Four Corner #1 Contendership Match for the Progress World Championship: Jonathan Gresham vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Alan Angels vs. Nick Wayne: This was a ton of fun. All action as everyone just goes all out right at the bell. Everyone got a chance to shine, Takeshita most of all with his incredible power moves. Gresham is able to get a quick roll-up to win it. These four wanted to do all they could to get some eyes on them, especially Gresham who needs some rehabbing after all the bad press recently. Takeshita has everything to be a star in America while Nick Wayne has a ton of potential and even Alan Angels could do some good in wrestling. ***
Brian Pillman Jr. and Brock Anderson vs. Ricky Morton and Kerry Morton: Crowd finally wakes up for the Rock n Roll Express coming out... only to quiet down when the match starts. Anderson and Pillman work great as a team and Kerry handles his own very well. Ricky was the most over guy here. Distraction allows Pillman to kick Ricky into an Anderson suplex for the win? Not even an Anderson Spinebuster? Very flat finish. Absolutely love the team of Pillman and Anderson with Arn as the manager. This should be on AEW TV. Kerry has potential but didn't do much to shine here. Ricky Morton is still Ricky Morton even in 2022. **1/4
Four Way Match: Laredo Kid vs. Taurus vs. Rey Fenix vs. Bandido: A Lucha spot fest! These 4 went balls to the wall with insane spots and crazy high risk moves! The crowd finally woke up big time for this and were really into it. Fenix gets the win after picking up Taurus and hitting a driver-like move. This was a joy to watch! Match of the night easily! ****
Impact World Championship Match: Josh Alexander (c) vs. Jacob Fatu: Awesome match for a while with Fatu using his crazy athleticism while Alexander uses his power and wrestling to control. Lots of crazy action and near-falls to a pretty blah crowd which is a shame. Major Brothers (Matt Cardona and Brian Myers) run in for a No Contest. Fuck right off. Alexander and Fatu fight back to clear the ring before DDP runs in and hits a Diamond Cutter for an insane pop on Cardona. So this crowd does have the potential to cheer. Great showing from these two and I would love to see a rematch with a real finish and a real crowd. ***1/4
The Briscoes vs. The Von Erichs: Dem Boys enter to "Gimme Back My Bullets" so this is already awesome. A fun match up. Briscoes control most of the match before the Von Erichs get some offense in and show what they can do. Briscoes get the win with a neckbreaker and Froggy Bow. Very enjoyable match. Von Erichs continue to show promise but need more seasoning in a real promotion. The Briscoes are still a Top 5 tag team of all time and continue to be amazing. **3/4
Triple Threat Match for the Impact Knockouts Championship: Jordynne Grace (c) vs. Deonna Purrazzo vs. Rachael Ellering: Poor Rachael rolls her ankle in the first spot of the match. Going to suck tomorrow for her. Typical three way match stuff. All these women are very powerful and athletic. Purrazzo looks for submissions while Ellering uses her power and Grace with a nice combination of both. Grace takes out Purrazzo and then gets a choke and tap out on Ellering. Good showing. All three of these women should be bigger names in bigger promotions. **1/2
Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett vs. Ric Flair and Andrade El Idolo: Ric Flair's last match! Jarrett pisses off the crowd and really wants someone to jump the rail. Amazing. Flair enters with the classic WCW Big Gold belt. Lots of stalling with this match. Flair does a headlock takeover, throws some punches and chops and uses the Figure Four. That is all he does in this match. Andrade and Lethal do the working of the match before Flair gets the heat put on him including bleeding in front of his daughters, which causes one of his daughters to go after Karen Jarrett. Hilarious! Ric then fakes a heart attack to poke Lethal in the eye. Never change, Ric. Ref bump, guitar shot misses Flair and hits Lethal! Conrad Thompson throws brass knuckles to Andrade who gives them to Flair who barely hits Jarrett. Figure Four on Jarrett who is out and the referee counts a pin. I always hated that spot. And there it was. Flair's Last Match. It was exactly what I thought it would be. I hope Flair actually stays retired this time. **
Ric celebrates with his family as well as Undertaker, Mick Foley and Bret Hart in the front row. Tony Schiavone interviews Flair who says he is going to party with Kid Rock afterwards. Classy. Ric makes his way to the back and hugs Lethal as the PPV stream ends.
First things first, this crowd was dogshit! They barely cheered all night and only cared about Ricky Morton, the crazy lucha spots, DDP and Flair. You get a really great card and you sit on your hands? For shame. The show looked really nice and while I didn't love Schiavone and Crockett on commentary, they were fine. Having people come in for different matches to join them was a nice touch. The matches were all okay to good. Nothing was bad on this show. I would say go out of your way to see the lucha 4 way and maybe Alexander and Fatu. Flair's last match.... was something. It was hard to watch Flair try and work a match at his age. God bless Andrade, Lethal and Jarrett for working their asses off to make this match watchable. A lot of people will not like this match and I don't blame them one bit. For me, it was fine but sad. Ric Flair's true retirement match was him vs. Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24.
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