#120: Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk, NWA Clash of the Champions IX: New York Knock Out (11/15/1989).

11 Sep, 2024

This is an I Quit Match. Though it's a non title match, Flair has agreed to surrender the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship to Funk should he lose.

At WrestleWar in May of this year, Ric Flair regained the championship in the final match of the epic trilogy he had that year with Ricky Steamboat. While showing respect to his fallen opponent, Terry Funk – who was sitting ringside for the action – entered the ring and congratulated Flair on his win. He then made it known that he’d be the first one to challenge Flair for the title at a later date. This came as a surprise, as Funk seemingly was finishing up as a wrestler, due to the success he had as a guest role in the Patrick Swayze movie “Road House.”

Flair brought that up, and mentioned that in the NWA, he had a Top 10 to worry about first, not Funk. He took that as Flair saying he wasn’t good enough to be a contender, and Flair told him that Funk had been out in Hollywood, while Flair has been rubbing shoulders with the best contenders. While he tried to end the interview, Funk said that he was just kidding about challenging him, then decked him the face and assaulted him. He concluded the attack by hitting a piledriver on Flair onto a table, and smashing a chair into his head.

A match was made for The Great American Bash in July, and that night, Flair survived a bloody onslaught from Funk to retain the NWA Worlds Title. However, Funk’s obsession with becoming World Champion wouldn’t stop there, and things got so heated between the two that the only way for things to be settled would be at the 9th Clash of the Champions event – in an I Quit Match. The result of this match would be truly embarrassing for whomever lost. Whether Flair, arguably the best wrestler in the world at the time, or Funk, the toughest man in the business, said I Quit, neither would be the same again. But to settle the score, one would have to beat the other so badly, that uttering those words would save them from further damnation.

As an added twist, the match was a non-title match, meaning that Flair wouldn’t have to worry about defending against Funk. However, Flair promised to give the title to Funk if he somehow said I Quit. When two of wrestling’s all time greats clashed on the night of champions, fireworks were guaranteed to spark.

Funk grabs the mic and offers Flair a chance to back out before the match begins. Flair refuses, and the match begins. Flair gets Funk into the corner to start things out. They lock up, and Funk has Flair into the ropes, but Flair switches and chops Funk so hard, he goes over the top rope! Funk is back in the ring, and they lock up again. Flair chops away at the Funker, and sends him into the corners several times, before hitting one more hard chop.

Now on the outside, Flair chops away at Funk, who looks to be out of it as he rolls in and out of the ring. He walks back inside, and both men take a boxing stance briefly to throw some punches. Funk tackles Flair down, but the champion is quick to get on top. Funk rakes the eyes, and stomps away at Flair’s head on the apron. He hits a hard left hand to Flair’s face, and chops at his chest, and then follows with a headbutt.

Back in the ring, Funk is taking Flair’s chops, and responds with some nice elbows to the head. Funk sends Flair to the outside, and he toys with the crowd. He brings Flair up the ramp way, and sends him head first into the steel barricade. Funk grabs the microphone and asks if Flair is going to quit. The champion responds with more chops to the chest. They get back in the ring, and Funk continues to punch away at Flair with his left hand, which is taped for this match. He gets Flair in the corner, and scales the middle rope to punch away at Flair’s head. He grabs the mic again, and asks if Flair will quit.

Funk, in classic 1980s heel fashion, calls Flair an “egg sucking dog.”

Flair escapes and chops again at Funk’s chest. Funk is able to get back on the offensive and hits a swinging neckbreaker to the champion. He slaps Flair’s face, and Flair just grabs him by the throat and knees him in the gut. He hits three straight chops that send Funk to the outside, and Flair dives onto him from the apron. He sends Funk into the steel barricade. So many damn chops from Flair tonight. They go around the ringside area, as Flair continues to chop the shit out of the Funker.

Now Flair has the mic and asks if Funk will quit. He slaps him and attempts to choke him into submission. Funk is able to take advantage of Flair with a punch to the back of the head. Another swinging neckbreaker in the middle of the ring, and Funk asks once again. Funk brings up how he hurt Flair’s neck and asks him if he wants to quit. Flair doesn’t, and Funk attempts a piledriver – the same move that hurt his neck before – and Funk does it, dropping Flair on his head.

The ref asks Flair, and he says no to quitting. Funk hits a legdrop to Flair’s head, and he asks again if he wants to quit. He starts to hammer away at his head, and slapping him down. Funk sends Flair to the outside of the ring. He brings him back up the ramp way and he hits a piledriver on the concrete floor! Funk hits Flair in the head with the mic, and sends him back into the ring. Funk drives his elbow into the top of Flair’s head, and sends him back out of the ring. Funk slams Flair onto the ringside table, and now he’s dragging it around the ringside area. Flair looks to fight back with hard chops to the chest, and a punch to the face. Flair grabs Funk’s head and smashes it into the table! Funk walks away and Flair just jumps on his back, sending him into the barricade. Now he brings Funk up and sends him flying across the table.

Flair again with those chops to the chest. It’s repetitive, but that has to make breathing harder. Flair drops Funk ball first on the top of the steel barricade. Funk crawls into the ring, and Flair is right behind him. Flair drops a knee right on the head of Funk, and he hits an inverted atomic drop as well. Now Flair is targeting the leg for the first time all match, dropping all his weight on Funk’s leg while it hangs on the bottom rope.

Funk tries to walk it off, and Flair is right there with more chops and punches, as well as kicks to the leg. Funk is down, and he tries to crawl away, but Flair will not let him escape. Funk is in the aisle, and Flair jumps on his back. He drops Funk’s knee on his own knee. On the apron, Funk is suplexed back inside by Flair. The Nature Boy attempts the Figure Four Leglock, but Funk grabs the eyes of Flair to break it up.

They’re fighting near the apron, and Flair suplexes Funk out of the ring onto the apron! He swings the leg down on the apron and gets him back in the ring. Flair chops away some more, and drops Funk to the mat. Now Flair has the Figure Four locked in! The ref is asking if he’ll quit, and Funk says he’ll never do that. Flair adds more torque to the submission, and Funk is screaming that his leg is breaking. Funk finally screams I Quit, and Flair has won it!

Post match, Funk says that Flair is a hell of a man, and he keeps his word on shaking his hand.

This is one of the finest examples of the “less is more” approach that you’ll ever see in pro wrestling. By present day standards, this match could easily be viewed as tame. But in 1989, this match had to be viewed as one of the wildest matches of all time.

Ric Flair and Terry Funk did a fantastic job of telling this story of simple hatred for a crowd that loved every second of it. Flair was his usual self – doing the bare minimum and making it look good. Here, though, he was extra rowdy, flying all over the place at Funk, determined to keep him close by so that he could punish him even more.

Funk was very heelish in this, and it worked like a charm. He was cocky, full of himself, and completely psychotic as he looked to destroy Flair completely. The selling from both men on all sides was tremendous. Flair sold the beating like his life was almost over, and he sold the idea that he truly hated Funk. Meanwhile, the Funker sold Flair’s offense like his brain was getting splattered, while he also came off like a complete madman at times.

Having seen his matches with Funk – as well as the trilogy with Ricky Steamboat – I’m not super sold on Flair as an all time great. He’s good at what he does, but he doesn’t do much, and it makes you question whether Flair was an in ring master, or he just didn’t do a whole lot. Funk, on the other hand, is an undisputed legend of the business and one of the best to ever do it. The little things he adds to his matches – body movements, facials, the way he hits certain moves – help to create an environment that makes his matches extremely unique.

Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with my stances on both men, one thing is for sure: the NWA ended 1989 on a high note. Following the critically acclaimed series between Flair and Steamboat, Flair and Funk ended the year with another classic series, capped off by this amazing I Quit Match. By doing less, they achieved so much more: a realistic, simple tale of hatred and violence, told in a way that only these two could pull off.