By James Caldwell, PWTorch.com assistant editor

Jim Ross defends the storyline of Chris Jericho decimating Ric Flair and Jerry Lawler not making the save on WWE Raw because of a built-in respect for Flair fighting his own battles.

In the opening segment of Raw, Flair was bloodied by Jericho in front of Raw announcer Jerry Lawler. Lawler was scripted not to make the save, then he challenged Jericho to a match on next week's Raw an hour after the beating on Flair.

"I am surprised that Jerry Lawler didn't intervene but King has so much respect for Flair that Lawler knew that if he did intervene on Ric's behalf that flair would have likely been offended," Ross said in storyline terms on his WWE Universe blog.

Ross says younger wrestlers wouldn't understand. "It's this thing called pride that so many of the old school guys have and that the younger generation in wrestling still doesn't 'get' yet," Ross said.

Link: Jim Ross blog on WWE Universe.

Caldwell's Analysis: Two things. When Jamie Penick and I discussed Raw in our VIP post-game show, I speculated this would lead to a heel turn for Lawler. Putting aside this "respect" business, it made no sense for Lawler to stand there and do nothing then be scripted to challenge Jericho to a match an hour later unless he's turning heel and aligning with Jericho for not getting the Legends respect he deserves. Lawler has been scripted to do nothing but talk on commentary against Jericho, but he could have saved Piper, Steamboat, or Snuka. He hasn't taken action, which could mean he finally gets his WrestleMania match by joining Jericho against the Legends at WrestleMania.

The other aspect of this is the "don't save someone because of pride" issue. I'll take it a step further that too many premature wrestler deaths have been a result of colleagues not wanting to step in and save another wrestler when it's obvious he or she is struggling. Look at Andrew "Test" Martin. According to Bret Hart and Jim Ross in their blogs, they realized they should have done something to help Martin, but only after he was dead. There's the old Proverb 16:18 about pride coming before the fall. There's a healthy pride, but there's also a deadly pride. Wrestlers being too prideful to admit they need help or wrestlers being too prideful to save someone because of "old-school" tradition - not just in a make-believe wrestling storyline - will be the ultimate downfall of the wrestling industry.

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