This Day In Wrestling History - March 6

Date: March 6, 1994 (20 years ago)

Feature: WCW and TBS ran an "up all night" TV stunt attempting to draw in lapsed wrestling fans. The six-hour block of programming centered on Ric Flair, featuring several of his legendary matches...

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Headline: WCW all nighter showcases Flair
Channel-flippers could turn into new or renewed fans

If newer WCW viewers caught onto what was happening Saturday night through Sunday morning on TBS and either watched the "WCW All Nighter" or taped it, they saw some great action. They also saw Ric Flair in some of the better matches of his career.

WCW aired top matches from midnight until 6 a.m. EST on Mar. 6, beginning with the Ric Flair-Sting 45 minute classic. Other Flair matches were the Flair-Rick Steamboat nearly 60-minute match, the underrated Flair-Luger Clash match-up, the Flair-Terry Funk I-quit match, Flair & Sting vs. Funk & Muta cage match, and Flair & Barry Windham vs. The Midnight Express.

More than any other match, Flair shined in the 45 minute draw against Sting. He showed so many subtle heel techniques that got the crowd going and put Sting over. It was that match that accelerated Sting's positioning from a mid-card babyface to an instant main event babyface.

There were other matches where Flair was strong, but the match benefited from its circumstances, time frame, build-up, and emotion, such as Flair vs. Funk's I-quit match and Flair & Windham vs. The Express. Matches that have held up through the test of time are Flair vs. Steamboat and Flair vs. Sting. Flair vs. Luger was even better this time around because when it originally aired, it was the last in a long series of Flair-Luger matches. Standing alone, it was a four-star-plus match.

Other non-Flair matches were: Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs. Steve Austin & Brian Pillman, Steve Austin vs. Brian Pillman, The SST vs. The Road Warriors, Larry Zbyszko & Arn Anderson vs. Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes, and Cactus Jack vs. Van Hammer joined in progress.

The other wrestler who shined more than anyone was Steamboat, who benefited from strong opponents, but also showed why he has been one of the more consistently great wrestlers in the last decade. The exposure Steamboat received in the match selections seemed deliberate in an attempt to build up Steamboat vs. Flair for the next pay-per-view.

The matches with one exception were all from Clash of the Champions specials, probably as not to give away too much from commercially released video tapes of pay-per-views.

The between match slumber party segments with Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Gene Okerlund, Chris Cruise, Gordon Solie, Eric Bischoff, and Larry Zbyszko were a nice touch.

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