TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
MITCHELL'S TAKE
VIP - MITCHELL'S MEMO: Styling, Profiling, and Fading Into Legend Oct 23, 2007 - 9:46:41 PM
VIP EXCLUSIVE - Early-release article from PWTorch Newsletter #995...
BRUCE MITCHELL FEATURE
Original Headline: "Styling, Profiling, and Fading Into Legend"
Original Publish Date: October 25, 2007
Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter #995
No one imagined Ric Flair going out like this.
After more than 35 years of professional wrestling, of headlining and drawing in almost every promotion that could pay his price, of closing out the decades-long tradition of touring world champions who set up stars of every style and description, of being two or three decades of almost every pro wrestler's best match, of working for the best and worst bookers and the best and worst promoters, of lasting so long beyond that he became a legend just for being a legend among modern fans who only really got glimpses of the total package that made "The Nature Boy" the greatest wrestler in the history of the game, Ric Flair may already be done and we didn't even know it.
Ric Flair [photo Wade Keller (c) PWTorch]
Considering the political minefield WWE is these days, it's easy to see Ric Flair going out in any numbers of ways. He might have lost clean in the middle at WrestleMania a year late to Carlito after getting a bigger reception than Creative anticipated. He might have lost a world title challenge to ECW Champion The Mize (imagine the promos - I mean Miz's) after a couple of two-count teases so as to not upset the young champion's credibility.
No doubt he'd cry at the WWE Hall of Fame banquet and the standing ovation from everyone in the company, many of whom would be sincere in their applause.
And the Nature Boy is 58 years old, after all. As Gov. Ventura once pointed out, that means Ric Flair has probably taken more back drops than any man who ever lived. Flair may think more guys could have lasted if only they knew how to bump properly, but at this point even a professional who always paid the price to stay in shape could find that the next fall could be one too many.
So there was always the possibility that Flair might be hurt during a televised match and then, like his friend Arn Anderson, come back the next week or next month to give the emotional farewell speech (or have his other friend Triple H give it).
But this?
He may have had his last match, losing by submission to the second-oldest active wrestler on national television, Fit Finlay, on Smackdown a few months ago. It wasn't a bad match, even if it didn't seem to have much purpose beyond killing 20 minutes of TV time and setting up Finlay for whatever it was that set him up for Rey Mysterio Jr.
Ric Flair and Vince McMahon are at a quiet impasse after......
The rest of this article is available exclusively to PWTorch VIP Members as part of this week's new PWTorch Newsletter. The 16-page print newsletter is also published online at PWTorch.com's member's website each week featuring the VIP-exclusive Newswire, Wade Keller's cover story, Torch Talk interviews, other exclusive staff columns, Keller's VIP-exclusive PPV and TV reports with match star ratings, Wade Keller's End Notes, and more. VIP membership also includes:
-The Daily Keller Hotline and over 30 other VIP Audio Shows per month.
-Eight complete PWTorch Newsletter back issues from "Five Years Ago This Week" and "Ten Years Ago This Week" posted online for the first time ever, joining hundreds of other previously posted PWTorch Newsletter back issues dating back to the early 1990s through the early 2000s.
-Access to the PWTorch VIP Forum with daily interaction with the PWTorch staff and other well-informed PWTorch VIP members.
-Access to the PWTorch Appendix with a wide variety of reference articles and collections.
-Access to hundreds of previous audio updates, audio shows, and Torch Talk interview audio files.
-An ad-free version of the PWTorch.com Main Listing.
-VIP Email Express reports PPVs and TV shows by Wade Keller and VIP-exclusive Roundtables reviews PPVs and TV shows, plus occasional "Breaking News" emails for the biggest stories during the year.
For VIP subscription pricing info and to learn how to get Four-Days-Free of VIP membership, click here.
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
