“The Nature Boy” Ric Flair vs. “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig – Loser Leaves WWF Match – WWF Raw, January 25th, 1993

Though the now twenty-five year old Monday Night Raw was legitimately revolutionary, even revolutions don’t know where they will ultimately head. The WWF of 1993 was one of transition. Hulkamania, as it had been, was on its last legs, and though many of the players who would dominate the coming years were in place, The New Generation had not yet taken hold. The early episodes of Raw are typically well-booked, but the storylines are not as much of a focus as they would need to be in the coming years. This nascent Raw simply didn’t take advantage of its format and there are few matches that immediately come to mind because of that. This match is an exception.

The premise was simple, Mr. Perfect had been acting as an Executive Consultant to Flair since early in his WWF run. The previous night at the Royal Rumble, Mr. Perfect would affirm a face turn and partner with “Macho Man” Randy Savage to challenge Flair and Razor Ramon in a grudge match. But this match, as big as it was, was not the last word. A week prior to the Rumble, it was established that Perfect and Flair would face each other in a loser leaves the WWF match.

Now typically I don’t like to give away finishes in this column, but I’m going to make an exception here. This match is in many ways the first big moment for Monday Night Raw and even the coming Monday Night War. We get to see some really logical storytelling that pays off in a long, exciting contest. Raw would eventually be known for having all the stars all the time, and here we see the beginnings of that. I don’t really feel the need to talk much about the match itself, I’ll let that be one of the reasons for you to check it out. With who is featured, we all can guess how expertly it was executed. Perhaps the bigger point here is what it did for wrestling’s narrative. First, it is an affirmation of the collective continuity that wrestling often maintains. I doubt many fans that saw Flair lose thought he was done for good, but they knew that the WWF was no longer to be his home. It turned his reappearance in WCW into almost an acknowledgment of Raw. In only a few years time, both Raw and WCW Monday Nitro would thrive on this type of continuity, taking opportunities to slight the competition on a weekly basis. This match would even be addressed with Hennig defected to WCW, and was a point that put some logic behind his joining the nWo. Wrestling always works best this way, when the realities of the business are twisted into stories. This match stands as not only one of the greatest in the history of Raw, but as a textbook example of how the format can function. It was matches like this that allowed Raw to last this long and likely remain for years to come.

This match is most easily found on the WWE Network, though it also has had some releases on home video.