When Did Ric Flair Start Being Considered The Greatest World Champion Ever?

[Midnite Express 2009]

I was watching The Great American Bash 1990 today on WWE 24/7 and found it really interesting that by 1990 many of his peers were considering Ric Flair to be the greatest World Heavyweight Champion of all time. By 1990 I was 10 years old and had a pretty good hold on wrestling and a fair amount of understanding of the programming I was watching. I remember watching the Clash of the Champions in November 1989 when Flair won the Wrestler of the Decade of the 80s and how Jim Ross damn near lost his mind when Lex Luger destroyed his (and Sting's Most Popular Wrestler of the NWA) trophies after he, The Great Muta, The Dragon Master and Gart Hart attacked Flair and Sting after the I Quit match.

I think around the time he beat Ricky Steamboat for his 6th title reign (if you consider that to be his 6th) that everyone was always ga-ga over that particular reign, always saying while making his ring announcements "...and for the 6th time, the World Heavyweight Champion...") So here's my question, when did they really start to play up Flair being the greatest champion ever? I want to say it was around the end of 1989 and the beginning of 1990 as the company was positioning Sting to be the leader of the company going into the 90s. But I could be wrong, so what is your opinion? Earlier? Around the same time or later? Let me know, thanks.

 

[RicoLen]

I really couldn't say. I'm only a year-ish older than you, and I still didn't get WCW on any cable channel yet, so I couldn't watch. Your theory sounds solid to me though, but I can't say much else.