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The following article was originally published a few years ago in the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter. With Flair's return to Raw tonight, we publishing it online for the first time ever. PWTorch VIP members can access the Ric Flair Special Section in the VIP Appendix featuring a collection of dozens of key articles, DVD reviews, awards, editorials, and a special 70 minute discussion with Bruce Mitchell and Wade Keller discussing Flair's career and autobiography.

Bruce Mitchell, columnist

Best: In 1980 Ric Flair was the U.S. Champion (the title that John Cena just held on Smackdown), having won it back from Jimmy Snuka, the most popular wrestler in the Mid-Atlantic area. He came out on the old NWA Worldwide Wrestling show to explain the footage of what had just happened the Sunday before in a tag match in the Greensboro Coliseum where he and his old tag team partner, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, reunited to face Jimmy Snuka and The Iron Sheik (managed by Gene Anderson).

Things didn't go well for our hero this night. Valentine was jealous of the newfound popularity of his old partner, so he refused to make the hot tag (probably the only time he was ever set up for one of those in his 30 year career) from a beaten down Nature Boy. Flair explained,"These guys are having a picnic and I'm the roast." After some taunting from Snuka and the Iron Sheik ("Get up, American Boy!"), Flair was pinned by a Superfly leap from the top turnbuckle. After the match was over Sheik & Snuka held Flair while Valentine used Anderson's cane to break Flair's large nose. (Roddy Piper called Flair "the Cyrano De Burgerac of professional wrestling" ten years before Terry Funk called him "banana nose.")

Ric Flair [artist Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]

After the tape finished, Flair showed the hockey-like nose guard he had been fitted with, quieting the studio audience. Then he launched into a teeth-gritting, intense diatribe about what he was going to do to his old partner for this betrayal. He started out quietly, built in anger, and ended quietly. That, to this day, was the best ticket-selling promo I've ever seen.

Worst: Ric Flair saved one great angle for the end of his career, figuring it was the one payday he could always count on. Early in his career he wrestled U.S. Champion Rick Steamboat and put his hair on the line. Oddly enough, he won those matches. Flair's golden blonde mullet was his trademark, and he didn't want to take a chance that would ruin it or keep him away from the pay window while he waited for it to grow back.

One day, though, Flair and some other big superstar would wrestle hair versus hair. The hype would last for months and months, Flair would finally be backed into a corner, the fans would know they were finally going to see this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, the shaving bald of an iconic symbol of pro wrestling itself. The superstar who accomplished this legendary feat would be made for the rest of his career. The Nature Boy could pitch the bitch of all fits, everyone could make the big money, and the feud could run another year beside.

Enter Vince "Shock TV" Russo. I was struck while reading the Russo/WCW segment in "To Be The Man" by how many horrible angles he wrote that I had blocked from my memory, and not just the ones involving Flair, either. (What, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, and Konnan buried Ric Flair in the desert. Oh yeah, I think I remember that.)

Vince Russo booked Ric Flair to shave his legendary blond mane on Nitro one night with no warning, no build-up, no nothing. He even shaved his teenage son Reid's hair too. Russo left decades of possible anticipation and who knows how much money on the table, to air one of the biggest anti-climaxes in television history. Oh, and what big wrestling superstar did Russo book to do the deed and get the rub?

Why, Vince Russo, of course. I still can't believe it.

Pat McNeill, columnist

There have been some great Ric Flair moments over the years. My personal favorite was Flair's victory at the Royal Rumble in 1992 in Albany, N.Y. Flair's WWF debut in 1991 didn't exactly set the world on fire. And Flair spent most of the previous months feuding with part timer Roddy Piper. When Flair went through the top wrestlers in the promotion in one match in one hour, and when the loyal WWF fans turned on Hulk Hogan at the end of the match, it was a sign that Vince McMahon and wrestling fans took Ric Flair seriously. It also proved that the Nature Boy was more than just a regional champion.

The worst Flair moment? The Nature Boy has been through a lot. The low point probably came at WCW's Clash of the Champions in November 1993. Due to WCW taping its television shows weeks in advance, Flair had to appear on the Clash to plug the fact that he was teaming with Sid Vicious on TBS that Saturday night. Trouble was, Sid had already been fired for stabbing Flair's best friend, Arn Anderson, the previous week in England. That was one of many times when the Nature Boy should have put his foot down and refused to do what the bookers wanted of him.

Jason Powell, columnist

Despite all of the great moments Ric Flair had in his illustrious NWA/WCW career, it's odd that one of his classic encounters with Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, or another one of his long-time rivals doesn't stand out as my favorite Flair memory. But I will never forget the day that Flair won the then-WWF Title by going the distance in the Royal Rumble. Like most people, I didn't expect Flair to win the match, so I spent the first part of the pay-per-view hoping that the WWF would have him be a late entrant in the Rumble so that I could get a rise out of my WWF-mark friends by teasing them with the thought of Nature Boy winning the match.

When Flair was the second man out, my friends teased me mercilessly because no one had even come close to going the distance before. As the match went on, we all assumed it would only be a matter of time before Flair was eliminated. With each near elimination that Flair survived, the taunts of my friends quieted. Eventually, I resumed my boasting that Flair would win the match, although I didn't believe my words. Even when Flair was among the last three wrestlers in the ring, I still didn't think Vince McMahon was going to put him over. Much to the horror of my friends, Flair won the match and became WWF Champion for the first time.

Honorable mention also goes to another match that Flair had while in the WWF. Flair worked Hulk Hogan in the main event of a house show held in Minneapolis. I believe it was the second or third match they had ever had. We didn't have the internet to supply us with immediate information back in those days, so I had no way of knowing how the first Flair vs. Hogan matches had played out. The Target Center crowd was pro-Hogan, but there were about 10 percent of us who were obnoxiously rooting for Flair. At one point, Curt Hennig tossed Flair a pair of brass knuckles, which Flair used to knock out Hogan. Flair covered the mighty Hulkster and scored the pinfall.

All of the Flair fans, including yours truly, rejoiced as we believed we had just witnessed an unexpected title change. We taunted the little Hulkamaniacs who were in the crowd to the point that I'm sure at least a couple of them cried. I knew enough about the business in those days to know that WWE didn't change title belts on house show events, but I rationalized it in my own mind by assuming they were breaking from the pattern by having Flair win the match in his hometown.

Unfortunately, the little Hulksters had the last laugh when a second referee ran out and informed the original referee that Flair had used a pair of brass knuckles. The ref took the belt away from Flair and restarted the match. It was the greatest Dusty Finish I ever witnessed, only Dusty Rhodes didn't book the match, and Flair actually came out on the losing end for a change.

Wade Keller, editor

The Ric Flair vs. Sting 45 minute draw on TBS head-to-head with Wrestlemania IV on March 27, 1988 was one of the peak moments of the NWA vs. WWF national feud before the birth of the Monday Night War. The WWF presented a tournament for the WWF Title coming down to Randy Savage beating Ted DiBiase in a nine minute barely above average match. Meanwhile, Flair was carrying young Steve Borden to a 45 minute draw, accentuating what NWA fans already knew - that the NWA offered superior in-ring athleticism and drama compared to the more nationally known WWF. It also showed Flair at his best, during his peak years in the ring where he could take advantage of the strengths of his opponent while hiding his weaknesses. The match gave a sense of momentum to WCW, that they had the best wrestler in the world in Flair and a great young charismatic superstar who at the time seemed to have the potential to become the biggest wrestling star of the '90s.

The low point of Flair's career was the entire 1998-2000 stretch in WCW. As Bruce Mitchell noted, during the Vince Russo-WCW era, and parts of the Eric Bischoff-WCW era, there were times where Flair was being demeaned as if his career were no more illustrious than Buddy Landell's.

Due to political influence by those jealous or threatened by Flair mixed with sheer ignorance on the part of those given power, Flair's legend was besmirched with one bad angle and humilation after another, including the point where management dictated that Flair wear a shirt in the ring because his physique was "embarassing." More than five years later in 2004, Vince McMahon, the king of the physique-fettish, finds Flair acceptable to be in his TV main events on the top rated weekly series on cable TV.

Perhaps the actual true lowpoint was Flair feeling the need to file a lawsuit against WCW in the summer of 1998 for intentional abuse of his character. Who would have ever thought that the wrestler who was responsible for WCW's existence would feel the need for that? And sadly, things got even worse on air after Russo arrived. He wasn't being malicious, just incompetent.



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