WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson has weighed in on who he believes was the toughest and best opponent of Ric Flair’s legendary career.
Speaking on his ARN podcast, Anderson reflected on Flair’s greatest matches. While he didn’t pinpoint a specific bout, he had no doubt about which opponent brought out the best in “The Nature Boy.”
“You have to go with Steamboat, I guess. All those matches we never saw for Jim Crockett Promotions in the early ‘80s… Ricky’s just—if anybody sold better than him, I don’t know who it was. Maybe Ricky Morton, but Steamboat had that real good physique, he had a million-dollar look, and he was a tough babyface. You’d have to beat him down for him to stay down, and he was never out of the fight. That would get my vote.”
Flair and Steamboat’s rivalry dates back to the early 1980s when Flair held the NWA Worlds Championship. Their intense, technically sound battles set a standard for professional wrestling, with their feud being reignited multiple times over the years.
Their 1989 matches, in particular, are widely considered one of the greatest series of matches in wrestling history. On 18 March 1989, Flair and Steamboat delivered a match that became the first to ever receive more than a five-star rating from Dave Meltzer—earning an unprecedented six-star rating.
While Flair had countless classic matches throughout his decades-long career, Anderson’s pick reinforces what many fans and historians believe—Ricky Steamboat was Flair’s greatest rival and the perfect in-ring counterpart to “The Nature Boy.”
Which WWE Hall Of Famer Did Arn Anderson Say Made His Career?
Arn Anderson spoke about how fellow WWE Hall of Famer Junkyard Dog was responsible for him being moved to Jim Crockett Promotions to team with Ole Anderson to become Arn Anderson. Anderson said that if it weren’t for this suggestion by JYD, he would likely not have had the Hall of Fame worthy career that he went on to have.
If you use any of the quotes from this article please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Inside The Ropes.