Really sad that he completely destroyed the amazing, emotional send off that WWE did with Mania and Raw the next night......Its hard to look at that the same after he shit all over it with that stupid Australia tour wrestling Hogan and his time in TNA
When the NWA began being on TV in Pittsburgh, it was refreshing. I saw Flair in action, and I found him entaining. That was before I learned how awful Flair really is. He deserves his inner.demons.
Flair should've stopped over 20 year ago, it's just sad at this point. Nobody likes to see icons get old. He can't give up that power he still craves while in that ring and the presence of the audience. It's a high that no money can buy! Whoooooooooo!
He has said that in the ring. Pretty much. "When I die! it'll be right here, in a ring! or on top of a beautiful woman! I'll go either way... but I hope it's in here."
Well at least he could take a lot of bumps when he was out there, so I give Flair a lot of credit for doing what he did when he was wrestling into his early 60's, and is why I respect the guy so much. Not even Taker made it past his mid 50's, but still, 30 years was damn good, but Flair wrestled for 40 years, and I believe he had the longest in ring career. I could be wrong though.
@@trendmassacre8423 if it was up to Ric he would still be wrestling. I have Madd respect for the man too. Not too many wrestlers can stay relevant as long as flair did.
Wrestlemania 24 and the next night on Raw was the perfect send off for Ric Flair, he got had one of the best matches of his career with a very emotional payoff to a very emotionally charged storyline, he got a standing ovation with his family in the ring with him from Heels and Faces alike who all came out and stood on the ramp, the crowd gave him all the love possible and even the Undertaker broke character to say farewell, it was genuinely one of the most beautiful ends to a career you could imagine and then he pissed it all away for WCW 2000 2.0 and a quick buck.
He can hate the WWE and Vinnie Mac's guts, but they were the only ones who tried to do him justice despite his history of being on the other side of the fence.
One of the lessons of Flair in TNA is that context is everything. If Foley and Flair had that exact same Impact match at Summerslam 06, it would have been much more highly regarded IMO.
Tbh i kinda like this over their prime old guys still going. Shows a lot of heart for the business (or for their bankaccount). I dont like the matches but its just a guilty pleasure watching fe Dx vs BoD in Saudi or Ric flair vs Mick in tna.
When they got to his TNA run in "Nature Boy" for ESPN's 30 for 30... it was some of the most depressing shit. Seeing an old man, bloodied and stripped nearly naked in that Lethal Lockdown match wasn't what you would want to tell someone about how Ric Flair's legacy was going to end.
Unfortunately, Naitch's troubles with money and women are very well-known. Putting it in an abridged version, if Naitch wants money, he has to sing for his own supper. If not for that, I think this chapter of his career would have been non-existent.
People that saw Flair for the first time viewed him as a broken down old wrestler instead of being the best guy in the business for about 15 years 1978-1993 or so.
@@rolltide9547 A true sportsman doesn't need to play dirty or have backup to win yet he delighted in his own glory to being the "dirtiest player in the game". He was only somewhat in shape during his career. As far as talent goes when he wasn't having to bust someone in the nuts or using his closed fists to bash the other guys face out of sight from the ref, the only thing he could ever do was put the guy in a figure 4 leg lock
Man, I laughed so freakin' hard watching Flair's old man bumps and weak ass eye pokes -- lol. That being said, consider that Flair's last match was at 62 and you got Sting now in AEW at almost the same age (61). Hopefully his exit from wrestling is a wee bit more graceful.
@Jay Harv28 Passion, no plan B or C for a life outside of wrestling after their glory years and the money. As in this case for Flair in TNA was because he had financial problems
@@tjmckinley8208 no worries bro, i was agreeing with you. It just makes sense why he moved in that direction. He did give Foley a lot of shit for it though.
I think we can all agree an pretend this never happened an he went out in that amazing bout with shawn michaels and had that tearful goodbye the following raw tna never happened
Seeing as WWE pretends there is no wrestling outside of WWE, Ric Flair, in fact, did retire at Mania and only appeared later to be involved in a weird relationship angle with a woman ~50 years his junior! I love wrestling!!!
@@gamerfourlife64 I remember the ONE TIME they discussed someone's accolades outside of WWE since WCW folded and it was when Shinsuke debuted and they mentioned how many IWGP Championship reigns he had since WWE didn't loathe New Japan enough to outlaw their existence.
@Mad Man 1 True, but actually mentioning a wrestling title as prestigious as a WWE title as an actual accomplishment is a huge deal. Nicknames be damned.
Flair quite literally showing ass but the man was doing what he loved and even in his 60's he still had more charisma in his left untanned arse cheek than I'll ever show in my life. What a man and for better or worse he came to the end of his wrestling career in relatively good health. Also, no one does the J.O.B like the H.A.W...Z? I can't remember the rest
@@gregoryfuller9736 it can't get much worse than doing blade jobs while wrestling in his underwear and one sock on TNA, but AEW has proven many times to be a joke for a company, so we'll see.
@@billyjoe6787 I agree. Don't get me wrong, Jericho was always one of my favorite wrestlers, but the only thing he should be doing now at his age with the shape he's in, is commentary.
His run in TNA tarnished his career and legacy making his retirement match with HBK meaningless. The segment with Lethal was GOLDEN however. The Fortune stable COULD have worked but they found a way to screw it up.
His retirement match with HBK was meaningless. Had't HBK already had a retirement match himself prior to it? Retirement matches mean nothing. Especially when you're letting a part timer who is as old as you are go over.
The biggest thing I think you overlooked was Ric Flair had that wonderful retirement sendoff from WWE and then showed up in TNA and before he even did a thing in the ring it really tarnished how he could've ended his career. I don't know if the $$ issues he notoriously has had with overspending and debts and things was as widely known when he entered TNA too.
flair always was one of the most important guys in the industry. its fine having the monster heels or the feuds thst stem from a heel doing something evil but these usually fade away once that feud is over or the monster heel is finally beat in a main event. Flair always played the heel perfectly and made sure his opponents always had something to work with. wrestling wouldnt be what it is today without him
Lol not even close. Jordan became the first ever 40-year old to score 40+ points in NBA history and he did that several times. The Wizards weren't a great team but they also weren't that bad. They just barely missed the playoffs in those 2 years. People exaggerate how bad that Wizards team was.
I think those back body drops are more on Flair. Ever since he broke his back in a plane crash he's never taken a flat back bump and always lands on his side instead. You can see it well whenever he gets thrown of the top rope, he lands on his side.
It might surprise you but as a wrestler what i learned is the higher you elevate , less the pain you will receive. Look how he always land on his back from top ropes but on the mat he lands on his side
Two things I remember 1. Flair got fired from Tna because of the gut check incident were he went off script and said yes and had to give the kid a contract and pay his visa. 2. Wwe had to work out a deal with tna because flair was still under contract with tna. As the 4 horsemen we’re going into the hall of fame. So that’s why Christian appeared at slamaversary X even though he was under contracted for wwe and was ic champ
Call me selfish, but i loved Flair in TNA. I love everything Flair has ever done. No matter how bad the angle is, Flair made it watchable and enjoyable.
@@BrowSing-lp1xx I hated the way they treated him. But I love seeing him on TV. No one was aware of how they were treating him while he was there. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't enjoy his deal with Lethal. His match with Foley. Flair was literally the only reason I ever tuned in to TNA. And when he left, I never watched another episode. I loved Flairs work in WCW. Just because the company treated him like garbage doesn't negate the joy he brought me when he would be on.
@@StrifeSoul990 Literally every single eye witness, even guys who don't care much for him, said that Flair would have never done that to her in private. They made it clear that he has no problem or shame whipping it out in a croud of his peers. But they all denied that. RVD even released a statement saying that theproducers edited the show to where they could apply anything you said during the interview to any point of the show. Take your petty cancel culture BS somewhere else.
Only match I liked from Rick Flair in TNA was the last man standing match with Mick Foley then again I wasn't thinking of a 30 year old doing these matches I kept it realistic as they weren't young anymore
I knew he was in TNA and I figured he wrestled only a few times. I didn’t realize he wrestled that much after Wrestlemania 24. That’s depressing. Though I do guess it’s more fitting for him to have his last match with Sting.
His last match with HBK felt like watching a grandpa get beat-up by his depressed son. This was why I couldn't stand him TNA, like there was a superkick waiting to put him out of his misery.
If anybody is saying your channel is ripping people off, they're full of shite! I watch a lot of wrestling channels, and they tend to be a lot alike. Yours is the one I look forward to because you cover wrestlers, federations, and factions no one else will touch! And you make me laugh myself silly! You're the only one that does that! Keep on keeping on! I always get happy when I see you've posted!
"The skin on his forehead must barely exist" Well, considering he makes himself bleed by slapping his forehead during promos, that's a huge possibility.
The back body drop is how Flair takes it. When he broke his back in 78’ in a plane crash that should’ve killed him he changed his bump taking. So he doesn’t do a flat back that 99% of others do he takes a side bump.
I've been watching Flair since 85 when he was one of the original Horsemen at NWA regionals and I never knew he broke his back. I don't if I could have wrestled again because traveling by flight.
I liked Flair's TNA run. If nothing else he was able to work with young up and comers who benefited greatly from his advice and from working with him like AJ Styles. I greatly enjoyed the angle Flair worked with Jay Lethal.
He could have done same by just being a manager instead of being a wrestler, same goes for foley and hogan but these old guys thought new guys in tna are not going to draw and would overestimate their own name as no-one wants to see such respected and old guy to bleed and wark so hard as he did. Taking one or two bumps for a segment is ok but working a whole match like that is bad for any wrestler at his age, as a viewer i was concerned about their health more than the match
Can u guys stop fucking saying things like this. AJ didn't benefit one bit from Flair he was already over hell he was more over at that point than Flair had been in the past decade. Nobody who watched at the time tuned and stayed "Yeah Flair is giving this company some legitimacy" that fucking stupid
@@SnackmanPandahard agree. There's more to professional wrestling than in-ring work. Jerry Lawler is a very good example of a wrestler who transitioned from one role to another and being over with the crowd
Hands down Ric Flair is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time I have to respect him for the simple fact that he was wrestling all the way up into his 60s and still going hard taking bumps and on respect to Ric flair the nature boy WOOOOOOO
As for Flair in TNA, I’m actually grateful Flair went to TNA bc we got the great Jay Lethal Promo, what I don’t understand is why he wrestled and took ridiculous bumps. He shoulda played his 2002/3 role when he was managing Triple H, and Batista, right before Evolution properly were a group. Basically just took a manager role, and took some bumps here and there to pop the crowd
@@edwardclement102 I mean people cared more about Flair then Hogan and Eric because Flair will actually give his all in a attempt to the best he can Eric and Hogan always want the easy way
Scott Hall was always a victim of demons he couldn't fight fairly. The man lived through PTSD and alcoholism because he never expected to kill another man in self-defense. Flair on the other hand put himself in such a bad financial spot that he'd need to wrestle until he's close to 100 years old before clearing his account- from ex wives to unpaid lawyers and a lavish lifestyle he can't sustain.
The biggest difference though is that Scott Hall had the likes of DDP who helped him get a fair fight with his personal demons, and getting back 10 years of his life. Flair on the other hand is cursed to keep wrestling until he can't.
Im a tna/impact fan since 2007 but seeing flair like this was sad I'm not a fan of seeing old legends wrestle always think they going to have a heart attack
Flair's trunks we also pulled down in an outdoor match at Tom Landry stadium in Mission Texas in the mid 80's. I think he was wrestling one of the Von Erichs. So the story goes he and fellow wrestlers were stopped by the La Joya PD as they went to their next event.
As Cornette and HTM said - it is sad to look at Hogan and Flair's situations now. I don't even know who had it more miserable between them, though - both had problems with law, money and tons of crap in personal lives.
The reason Ric takes wierd back bumps was because of his back injury after the plane crash that's why Ric doesn't take flatback bumps and always lands on the side of the back.
That makes sense. He took so many of those tosses in his first few TNA ring moments. Was painful to watch. Say what you will of this run but he rolled up his sleeves and did whatever he needed to, including being thrown around and changing his hair color while donating pints of his own blood.
The retirement match against Shawn was the end of Flair as we knew him, but he just couldn't stay out of the ring it's all he knows, It was the same way for Terry Funk. They can't help it
Hate seeing Flair in some of these circumstances, but totally understand how hard it has to be for him to call it quits. The Jay Leathal feud was great! The streetfight I can do without but I digress. TNA was so all over the place it would of been hard for Flair not to get wrapped up in some dumb ass storylines
It's bad enough that he had to carry on wrestling after his incredible retirement match, but it seems like they tried to make his TNA run as undignified as possible. Seeing an old man bleeding profusely with his ass out is just sad.
