Ric Flair

[Ruddalin]

Hey everyone, I'm incredibly new to wrestling, never watched it as a child and I don't think I'm nearly old enough to have seen any of Ric Flair's earlier work, I started watching like a year after he retired from the WWE and have only see him briefly on TNA.

Everywhere on the internet people have been praising Flair as like, the best wrestler of all time and a wrestling god and what have you, now I dunno about them meaning his more recent stuff but from the few bits and pieces I have seen of him from past WMs and on TNA I can't say I'm all too impressed by him, Now I'm not picking holes in Flair but that's why I came to WZ, I was wondering if anyone could perhaps shed some light on the matter, link me to some of his better matches or promos from back in his prime as I really have no idea where to start looking, or maybe just explain to me some of his finer aspects or mannerisms that make him this ultimate in wrestling figure?

Oh the one thing that I would definitely acknowledge of him would be that he's still wrestling in his old age, and I saw him take an insane bump in a money in the bank ladder match at his ripe age, that was sick!!

Any help would be appreciated! And be nice haha I'm still relatively new to wrestling.

 

[The Brain]

Past WrestleManias and anything from TNA are not going to do Flair justice. You have to go much further back. Flair owned the 80s. This is a man who won his first world title in 1981. If you’re only going as far back as 2002 you’re not seeing Ric Flair in his prime. Not even close. Check out some of his matches in the NWA from the 80s and you’ll have more appreciation for him. Watch him against Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, Rickey Steamboat, and Sting just to name a few. If you want to see a great mania match involving Flair watch his match at WM8 against Randy Savage. Keep in mind it wasn’t only his ring work that made Flair one of the best. It was his mic work and his whole gimmick. Flair lived his gimmick. From the expensive clothes and watches, to the jets and limos, to the three babes on each arm Ric Flair personified a dream lifestyle that we all imagine a champion would live.

 

[wrestling89]

If you really want to know how great he was, first get the WWF DVDs with Flair or The Four Horsemen in it. I am not really sure how many there were, maybe 3 or 4 sets total. They won't cover EVERYTHING, but they will cover the bulk of his career. It is a good way to start.

Also go to youtube and search for anything with Flair, Horsemen, NWA, Dusty Rhodes, Sting, Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, Ricky Steamboat, Magnum TA, Nikita Kolloff, Tully Blanchard, Great American Bash, Starrcade, Wargames, or any single one of his promos.

Although most of his highlights come from the NWA/WCW era, he did have some great WWF moments.

My personal favorite Flair match of all time was the 1992 Royal Rumble match. The last great match he had (that I can remember) was with the Undertaker at (I think) Wrestlemania X8 (I could be wrong, that might have been WMX7.)

Anything with him in Evolution, the WWE, or TNA may have been entertaining, but none of them really show how great he was. Although the retirement match with HBK at WM24 was a good one.

 

[King Blitzkonic]

Past WrestleManias and anything from TNA are not going to do Flair justice. You have to go much further back. Flair owned the 80s. This is a man who won his first world title in 1981. If you’re only going as far back as 2002 you’re not seeing Ric Flair in his prime. Not even close. Check out some of his matches in the NWA from the 80s and you’ll have more appreciation for him. Watch him against Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, Rickey Steamboat, and Sting just to name a few. If you want to see a great mania match involving Flair watch his match at WM8 against Randy Savage. Keep in mind it wasn’t only his ring work that made Flair one of the best. It was his mic work and his whole gimmick. Flair lived his gimmick. From the expensive clothes and watches, to the jets and limos, to the three babes on each arm Ric Flair personified a dream lifestyle that we all imagine a champion would live.

Indeed Brain. I couldn't have said it better myself. I'll add this though for the original poster: Go on youtube or Dailymotion and you'll find some great Ric Flair matches. Look for the opponents that Brain suggested and also look for some matches from Japan. Those will be harder to find, but trust me, they're worth it. No matter who Flair faced, he made his opponent look good and looked good while doing it. It's really sad to see Flair in TNA trying to extend his legacy when he made it a long time ago.

 

[Psyclone]

I'm sorry but you're just not going to appreciate ric flair "classic" matches.. If you've become a fan of wrestling only recently, theres little to know chance you're going to go back and watch his matches with Terry Funk, Steamboat, Sting, or others and think they were anything but ordinary.... The matches from back then are not going to excite you compared to matches of today because those matches were longer, and also less flashy... Just trust us in the fact that Flair was one of (if not THE) greatest wrestlers of his era, and who kept his ability/work ethic up enough to still be able to compete into the 2000's unlike any other wrestler from his era....

 

[GameOver]

First off he broke his back within the first few years of active wrestling back in the 70's and yet he still kept going strong for another 30yrs b4 he really got too slow.

Flair got his legacy in the 80's-mid 90's and was considered a legend all over the world often competing for titles in different regions of the world. beyond that he was a legend and just didn't stop, despite the fact he should've along time ago

the differences as stated, matches for the past 10years have been more about spot fests , being told what to do every step of the way, flashy all storyline outside the ring but no story in the matches. Back in the day they wrestled slow, brutal matches that went on for 30mins as an average, more about strategy and a reason for each move, quite often 1hr time limits were reached and guys were working those every night of the week, there were no PPV's as such but alot of interpromotional matchups (supercards)

Get someone from today to wrestle a 1 hour match and have more then a few spots on a frequent basis and make every match unique in some way then you can compare them to the likes of Ric Flair. few could do it. Bret Hart vs HBK was a prime example of how it was done and still make it entertaining for the whole hour.

Ric Flair did it all the time, hence the title "The 60 minute man" and add ontop of that he was a master on the mic, not the screaming crap he's been doing the past 15years.

by the time the 90's were over, Flair was old and though he could still go it paled in comparison to the golden era.

Watch the stuff pre WCW to see him in his prime, with the 4 Horseman and matches against Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat and a young Sting, they were classics.

 

[yoshi_doce2006]

Dont forget when Ric Flair returned to WCW in the late 90's, with The Horsemen and Shot on Eric Bischoff on Nitro. Here is a clip that will help you a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2UqBvfIG3Q

 

[Kiefer-Zeus]

Not much more to say what already hasan't been said i have the 4 Horsemen DVD and its a great one to have in your collection i also have his book "To Be The Man" which was also worth the purchase but yes his fame comes from NWA/WCW and to his credit he is probablly the only top star of NWA/WCW to have had some great success in WWF/WWE to!! And as for living that lifestyle, me and a group of mates made up our own band of friends and called ourselves the 4 stallions, we hold up the 4 fingers anytime one of us was in a photo, we drank and had women at the weekends and stayed in BnBs and hotels! Believe me if there was any wrestler any man would wanna be it is "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair!!

 

[byrnside]

Oh, boy.. This is a fun post. Finally I've seen something in a "young fan" poster. Not a lot I can say that Brain or any of the aforementioned posters have said. Personally, I think there's a good deal of Flair's mic work from mid 90s WCW that was pretty good, maybe not to classic Flair standards, but still good none the less. As someone said the shooting on Bischoff stands out. I could easily spend hours watching Flair clips from the 80s on youtube. If you're a fan of Triple H or Shawn Michaels.. you have to research some Flair.

 

[Karilas]

Dont forget when Ric Flair returned to WCW in the late 90's, with The Horsemen and Shot on Eric Bischoff on Nitro. Here is a clip that will help you a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2UqBvfIG3Q

Been looking for a way to weigh into this, and that's the thing about Flair, I never really got it at the time I was really getting into wrestling in the late 90's, because by then he was just having the same match over and over. I never liked Ric Flair at the time, and I was always certain he was about to bust a damn blood vessel.

As I've aged I've come to respect more what Flair did for his opponents. The guy can make pretty much anyone look like a million bucks. That really says a helluva lot about the performer Ric Flair was, and in some respects, still is.

 

[reed214]

the difinitive collection dvd that the wwe put out is a good purchase for this type of situation. and the ric flair and the four horsemen dvd. both would help you see why ric flair is the greatest wrestler of all time!!

 

[yoshi_doce2006]

This thread got me to pull out "Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen" DVD Set. Not only was the Horsemen/Arn Anderson entrance my favorite of all time (And most recognizable EVER) but the mentality they all had back then. "It Was us against the world" and "Be whatever you want to be, but be the best", or "Diamonds are forever, and so are the Horsemen".

Imagine if all the Horseman contracts came up at once and they all (JJ Dillon included) jumped ship to Vince. Vince has already said he loved to watch the Horsemen even when competing against them. They all went over, same thing they had been doing in Crockette, Windham, Anderson, Blanchard, and Flair with JJ. At that time the WWF/E would have had a roster that would have destroyed EVERYone in their way.

Ric Flair and the Horsemen will forever be remembered as the greatest gang the sport has ever seen, hands down.