- July 23rd - Funk’n Bashed!
On July 23rd, 1989 the NWA held The Great American Bash in Baltimore, Maryland. The event was promoted by WCW under the NWA banner, and headlined by the world title bout of Ric Flair against Terry Funk.
The main rivalry heading into the event was between Ric Flair and Terry Funk for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. At WrestleWar, Flair defeated Ricky Steamboat to win the title. After the match, Funk challenged Flair for the title but Flair refused to defend it because Funk was not ranked in the Top 10 contender’s list for the title. Funk proceeded to attack Flair and perform a piledriver on him through the table, thus making Flair a fan favorite. This also led to Funk winning matches against local competitors to improve his ranking into the top 10, all the while, making mentions of having injured Flair. On the July 1st edition of World Championship Wrestling Flair requested the WCW Executive Vice President, Jim Herd, to allow him to defend the title against Funk at The Great American Bash, which Herd accepted.
