TNA Impact spoilers: Ric Flair and Sting have a bizarre match

by Geno Mrosko on Sep 14, 2011 11:57 PM EDT in TNA

TNA taped its latest episode of Impact Wrestling this past Monday for the show that will air tomorrow night (Sept. 15) on Spike TV.

The majority of advertisement went to the first match since the last Monday Nitro in 2001 between Sting and Ric Flair with the stipulation that if the former wins, he would get a shot at Hulk Hogan at Bound for Glory.

Spoilers are making the rounds and they're interesting to say the least. For those that would rather wait until the broadcast, spoilers are posted after the jump.

Obviously a match between a 62-year-old man, Flair, and a 52-year-old man, Sting, is going to have its share of problems. One might contend that it shouldn't even be happening to begin with and one would find no argument here. Nonetheless, this is TNA we're talking about and well, these things happen in TNA.

As stated, multiple reports have surfaced online regarding the match and the many problems with it. The Wrestling Observer notes Flair suffered an injury to his left arm and Sting blew multiple spots:

Ric Flair suffered a left arm injury in his match with Sting at Monday night's tapings. Between the injury to Flair and Sting forgetting spots, this match is going to have to be cleaned up a lot in editing before it airs tomorrow night.

While that certainly sounds bad, it's not nearly the disaster a report from ProWrestling.net paints it out to be. Their report states that a correspondent claims there were fears that Flair was suffering from heart issues, which were apparently shared by folks backstage.

If this isn't enough to get you to want to tune in, then by god, what will it take?

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Poor Nat'ch

Isn’t Flair still suffering from a torn rotator cuff that he put off having surgery on for months because he couldn’t afford to be on the shelf? I think he did have the surgery, but recovery time can be as fast for him now that he’s almost 63.

by PhantomLord on Sep 15, 2011 1:34 AM EDT reply actions

Actually, Flair didn’t have that surgery in the end, so he was working on a bum shoulder and that might explain the arm injury. Often new injuries are caused by overcompensating for existing injuries and trying to work around them.

by Keith Harris on Sep 15, 2011 8:18 AM EDT up reply actions

I could of sworn I read Flair did have the surgery. I love Flair, but it scares me sometimes to see him continue to wrestle like this.

by PhantomLord on Sep 15, 2011 7:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Dave Meltzer on his message board insisted that there were no heart issues during the match and joked on his radio show that the only time he had a heart scare was when he saw the bill at the end of the night from buying everyones drinks at the bar. I suppose the proof will be in the pudding and we can make a judgement from what airs tonight.

by Keith Harris on Sep 15, 2011 8:13 AM EDT reply actions

Keep in mind

After the Jeff Hardy incident a few months back, the standard of what constitutes a “disaster” match for TNA is kind of high.

Writer (and a handsome one at that),
And the Valley Shook

by Billy Gomila on Sep 15, 2011 9:40 AM EDT reply actions

Well, in that match Sting pulled a veteran move and went for the quick pin with an actual pin.

I know he and Flair go back literally decades, but I have to think he’d audible the match if he felt the Nature Boy was in any way endangering his life (although it could be said you’d need to pull an audible on Flair’s whole career at this point).

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by Anthony Pace on Sep 15, 2011 9:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Maybe that's why they pulled the match from the PPV

Someone finally realized it wasn’t WCW Sting/Flair that was wrestling.

Seriously, what did they expect to happen? Sting has the belt because he’s the biggest name they have that can be counted on to show up for his matches, and do so sober. It sounds like he’s in pre-Oldtimers mode, which isn’t a shock considering he’s taken a few chair shots. And everyone knows Flair is about as broken as broken gets. The only match these two need to have is a “Wheelchairs and Canes” match. No disrespect-Flair is and always will be The Man, but he must stop embarrassing himself.

@Anthony Pace: With Sting outright forgetting spots, wouldn’t it be Flair who had more to worry about?

Release...the KITTIES!

by GoForthAndDie on Sep 15, 2011 3:39 PM EDT reply actions