The SmarK DVD Rant for Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection

The SmarK DVD Rant for Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection

Charlie Reneke writes…

“I get the impression that you’re not big on writing up recaps for the feature part of wrestling DVDs, so I figured if you wanted, I had already wrote the recap for the new Flair set and if you want to use it, feel free to do so and add your match reviews or your own thoughts on the DVD or whatever. Personally, I didn’t like it myself. I think the better Flair documentary is the Horsemen one which covered all the bases already. But the ten matches they gave us are pretty good. Either way, enjoy.”

Thanks Charlie. Indeed I’m not big on the documentary recaps, so I’ll use yours and do the matches on discs two and three myself. 

 

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Nature Boy Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection

by Charlie Reneke

Disc One

Feature

-Flair talks about being a black-market baby. His biological parents were likely told he died. He never sought them out. He grew up as a wrestling fan in Minnesota. He was a wild child and was sent to a boarding school. Most of the kids were richer then him, and he thinks that contributed to the excesses of his adult life. He was a good athlete in high school. He wanted to play football. He sold life insurance for a year after doing two years of college football. He hooked up with Ken Patera, who then hooked him up with Verne Gagne.

-Jim Brunzell was in the same class, and he talks about the class of 1972 from the Verne Gagne school of wrestling. And damn, what a class! Greg Gagne, Ric Flair (looking at least 50 pounds heavier then he was most of his career), the Iron Sheik, Ken Patera, Bob Bruggers (a tag specialist you’ll hear about shortly), and Jim Brunzell. The camp was ten weeks long. Flair weighed about 300lbs and was ‘chunky’ in the words of Nick Bockwinkel. And that’s being nice. They had to run two miles, which took him a long time. 200 free squats, 200 pushups, 200 sit-ups, and Ric quit. Verne would drag him back, and that would go on for a week. By time they finished the camp, Flair lost 45 lbs, and Ken Patera 40.

-Flair’s first match (where he was still very puffy looking) was against Scrap Iron George Gadaski, a ten minute draw. “The longest ten minutes of my life” says Ric. Mean Gene Okerlund says that he knew the guy had the makings of a megastar. Baron Von Raschke agrees, saying you could tell he would get better and that he was smooth from the beginning.

-Flair calls his biggest influences Dusty Rhodes and Wahoo McDaniel. Wahoo convinces him to head to the Carolinas, where he would basically stay for the rest of his life. David Crockett says that you could see he was going to be good, that he had “the look”, and that he was humble. “If you can believe that… Ric Flair being humble.”

-To the airplane crash in October of 1975. David Crockett was there, along with Bob Bruggers, Ric Flair, Mr. Wrestling Tim Woods, Johnny Valentine, and the pilot. Of course, all these wrestlers mean things got too heavy, and the pilot being a dipshit decided “it’s an airplane, what could go wrong?” and dumped part of the fuel out. Seriously, it’s a miracle this wasn’t wrestling’s version of the Day the Music Died. The plane crashes of course, and we get pictures of the downed plane, and hearing the story doesn’t do it justice, because the plane is totally destroyed. The pilot died one year and one day later, having never woke from a coma. Johnny Valentine was paralyzed from the waist down, and that really sucked because he was an amazing wrestler in his day. Bob Bruggers broke his back and chose to retire despite being able to come back. David Crockett had internal injuries and a concussion. Mr. Wrestling Tim Woods was injured but managed to walk out on his own, and in fact returned to the ring because he was a babyface and everyone else were heels and that wasn’t cool in 1975. So two weeks later, he was wrestling again so that people would think he wasn’t really in the airplane, but that didn’t last long because he was clearly in pain. The fact that he didn’t rest and was taking bumps with the amount of damage he had forced him to retire. One of the many reasons that we should celebrate the death of kayfabe. Get over it old timers, your methods were silly anyway.

-Of course, Ric Flair broke his back. Harley Race says that when someone breaks their back, you automatically think that they’re finished. The doctors sure thought so, but Ric came back. Before the injury, Flair modeled himself more along the lines of Superstar Billy Graham, wearing skin tight tie-dyed clothing. Booker George Scott said that it was wrong because Flair wrestled nothing like Graham, and was more along the lines of Nature Boy Buddy Rogers. We get a video clip of Buddy Rogers strutting around the ring, then another video of Ric Flair doing the same thing. Pretty close. Jack Brisco stops short of calling Flair a Buddy Rogers rip-off, which is only half true in my opinion. His wrestling style and look were the same, but Rogers played a more of a fan-hating, generic wrestling villain. Very one-dimensional. Ric Flair’s gimmick, on the other hand, was more refined character. A type of aristocratic playboy. And so Nature Boy Ric Flair is born.

-Flair returns after six months and ten days. Jack Brisco says that everyone knew Flair was the future of the business. And he came back better then before. Greg Valentine and Ric form a tag team and won the Mid-Atlantic tag team championship. Shortly afterwards, Flair also won the US Championship from Bobo Brazil. Flair dominates the mid-card, feuding with Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, Wahoo McDaniel, and a really hot feud with Blackjack Mulligan. Sadly, those matches aren’t on the DVD, but from what I’ve seen, they were very good.

-Mid-Atlantic had never had a wrestler who came close to winning the NWA Championship vote from the board of governors. But with Ric Flair, they finally had a chance to make a serious play for it. Harley Race keeps it a bit kayfabe, saying they would choose who would ‘get a chance at it.’ This is the guy who did “Wrestling’s Greatest Secrets: Revealed” on NBC, mind you. Speaking of revealing secrets, the best kept secret in wrestling is how the WWE makes it’s most inhuman looking employees look so life-like on these DVDs. Case in point: Jim Ross talks about how Flair won the vote… and he looks about 10 years younger then now. It’s crazy. We get a video of Flair winning his first NWA Championship. Flair says the vote was 5 to 4. DVD doesn’t say who the votes came from, but I’m pretty sure they were from Jim Crockett (who’s vote would have been undone in the event of a tie), Bob Geigel of Kansas City, Vince McMahon Sr. of WWWF (the NWA in fact was cool with the WWWF’s split and more or less brokered the split themselves because it would knock the smaller Eastern territories out of business and consolidate their talent to move west. Man, the irony is so delicious there), Fritz Von Erich of Texas, and Jim Barnett of Alabama/Tennessee. The other four votes were to retain Dusty Rhodes as champion if I’m not mistaken.

-Flair says it wasn’t as big a moment for him as you would think. The title change was moved to a territory where neither guy was well known or popular, and so it was fairly meaningless to the fans. No doubt they felt cheated that a local star not getting a title shot. Dory Funk Jr. relates that Flair wouldn’t allow anyone to look bad on his watch. Like all NWA Champions, Flair had to travel the country and defend against all-comers. Flair notes that he was actually a bust during his first year as champion, not drawing outside of the Carolinas. Flair talks about his international travels in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

-Michaels Hayes shows up to note that Flair is more black then him. Actually, he was in awe of Flair. Steve Austin says he took to Flair instantly. So does John Cena, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Edge. Edge notes that he learned most of what he knew about Flair from the wrestling magazines. Hour long matches every day of the year, with double-duty on the weekends. His family talks about how tough this was on them, and how they never saw him. David Flair has gotten fat. We get this really wild, manic graphic while Flair promos are cut together to demonstrate how crazy his schedule was. David Flair says he would occasionally get upset about it. We actually get a clip of Ric Flair at home with his family and HOLY SHIT look at the head on young David Flair! I just saw George Carlin’s last comedy special on HBO and I’m telling you, his bit on funny looking children had to be inspired by young David. “Let me ask you a practical question… where do you find a hat to fit that type of head?”

-Flair loses the title to Harley Race, but the plan was to put the title back on him at the first Starrcade. The event was billed as “A Flair for the Gold.” We get clips of the match, which was insanely good, an easy five-stars despite guest referee Gene Kiniski blowing the finish. The full match is on the original Ric Flair DVD set, which everyone reading this likely owns.

-Into Flair’s catchphrases. He bought his own Limo and hired a kid working at a gas station to drive him around, giving him $25 a pop and, quote, “getting him fucked in every town.” The jet part comes from Flair chartering a plane to take to Greg Gagne’s wedding and back in time to wrestle at a show. The “son of a gun” part came from a song he heard on the radio. So did “Wooo!” which comes from the song “Great Balls of Fire” by certified nutcase Jerry Lee Lewis. Space Mountain he came up with during spring break, giving (on the air, mind you) the address of the hotel he was staying at and informing any girls on their way to Florida, they didn’t need to go to Disneyworld to get a thrill ride. They could show up to his hotel and ride Space Mountain all night long. Considering how protective Disney is of their trademarks, I’m half shocked that he didn’t sue him at any point.

-Jim Ross talks about Ric Flair’s image, which was always done in a way where he could look down on people. Flair credits image enhancement as his highest bar that he set. We get clips of some of Ric Flair’s most over-the-top promos, along with clips of women swooning over him in the audience. Jim Ross thinks he was best when he was talking about all the stuff he owned. We get the “my shoes cost more then your house” bit, which I love. Flair spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep his image up. We also get clips of his many robes, designed by the late Olivia Walker. David Crockett says that anyone who owns one of those robes today should value it because it’s part of wrestling history. Flair notes that he doesn’t regret spending all that money, but he could have been a little more careful from 10PM to 3AM… or 5AM depending on the city. Triple H notes that the Flair on TV wasn’t an act, but the real deal.

-Flair’s second reign as champion was better and he finally started to draw good outside the Carolinas as well. David Crockett calls him the greatest world heavyweight champion ever. Dusty Rhodes says the best week of his career was the seven days in a row he faced Flair, six of which were a one hour draw. I’m a big Flair fan, but I have to say that I think all of his matches with Dusty Rhodes are overrated. Then again, I don’t know too many people that rate them high. I’ve seen a bootleg of one of their hour-long draws, and it was painful to watch. Kevin Von Erich and Barry Windham also talk about Flair’s hour long matches. Harley Race calls him a ‘damn good champion’, while we get clips of Flair facing Sgt. Slaughter, Ronnie Garvin, Ricky Steamboat, and others. Harley Race talks about how good Flair was at making midcard nobodies look like they could beat the champion. Jim Ross notes that Flair would get stuck wrestling guys who didn’t deserve to with him, but they were the top stars in little territories. We get clips of the teases of his feud with Magnum TA, which obviously was never fully realized. Jim Ross notes that Ric would leave a territory better then he found it, and that’s the mark of a great NWA Champion.

-Onto the Four Horsemen, a story that’s been told dozens of times. The Andersons were uncle/nephew, and Flair was once billed as their cousin, and Tully Blanchard had tagged with Flair a couple times, so it made sense to pair them all up. Arn Anderson coins the name “Four Horsemen” on a fluke, and it caught on. Tully runs through a list of all the guys the Horsemen destroyed. We get clips of their various promos. I love Ole Anderson’s “Damn, I’m Good” shirt. That’s due for a comeback. Flair says they were the best four heels in the business at the time, all who could talk, wrestle, were unselfish, and were in it to make the whole business look good. Triple H and Randy Orton offer their kudos to the faction. And more clips of their four-on-one beatdowns.

-We move into his feud with Dusty Rhodes, which looked at first like they were going to do a full face-turn for Ric. Instead, the Horsemen come in, destroy Dusty, and a full scale riot breaks out. We get clips of the fans surrounding the cage, trying to break it down so they can come in and possibly kill the Horsemen. It took them one hour to get out of the ring. More clips of the Horsemen destroying Dusty. I’m not a big Dusty fan, but this angle was simply awesome. Flair calls Dusty his best opponent of the 80s. They did eight-man tags with the Road Warriors and Magnum TA teaming with Dusty, and sold out all over the country. Triple H notes that the Horsemen were like a band, where you could replace the bass player (Ole Anderson) but never the lead singer.

-Onto his feud with Sting, which was done at the first Clash of Champions against Wrestlemania IV… and HOLY SHIT, it’s Jim Cornette on a WWE DVD! Clearly an older clip, but still! Anyway, he introduces us to the famous match with Sting from the Clash. The match was advertised as having a sixty minute time limit, but Flair notes he was disappointed to have the match only go 45 minutes. Haven’t watched the match in years, so I’m curious to see if it holds up, but I remember liking it better then anything from Wrestlemania IV. My friends called the entire show marking out, while I watched Wrestlemania on pay-per-view while trying not to fall asleep. Everyone talks about how Sting was elevated by Flair and owes his career to him. Flair notes that the only mistake Sting ever made was not going to work for WWE over NWA. I actually have to disagree with him there. If Sting had gone to WWE, he would have already been beaten to the punch in the face-paint gimmick by Warrior and likely would have been stuck with some lame gimmick. It was a mistake for him to not go to WWE later in his career, but that’s a debate for another day.

-Onto his feud with Ricky Steamboat. Harley Race calls their series of every matches one of the best ever. Jim Ross and David Crockett are equally in awe of them. Race calls Steamboat the best of his era. Wow. That’s high praise from a guy like Race. Flair says he was his best opponent at the time, which he already said about Dusty Rhodes, but it’s his DVD and he’s free to put over people in anyway he wants. Jim Cornette says that the final match from Wrestle War was his favorite match ever. Flair notes that he had never watched the match since it happened, and he was impressed. Jim Ross also calls it the best match ever. Flair won the match and his sixth world title. This is the reason you should already own the original Ric Flair set.

-And this match leads straight into his feud with crazy old man Terry Funk. And calling Funk an old man when he’s in his 40s his downright strange. Funk piledrives Flair on a table, which doesn’t break in a sick spot. This leads to an I-Quit match at Clash of the Champions. Flair’s a babyface now, and this match is indeed a precursor to the modern hardcore match. There’s another Terry Funk match in this set, from the 1989 Great American Bash, which I can’t wait to watch because these two had such great chemistry.

-And now the death of Mid-Atlantic. Jim Crockett could never really compete with WWE. David Crockett and Ric Flair note that Jim’s ego was part of the reason why they were losing money, because they kept going outside of their normal territory and couldn’t draw there. Flair says if they had stayed between Chicago and Baltimore, they would still be in business. So, despite David Crockett and some of his other siblings not wanting to sell, they end up doing so to Ted Turner. Ric Flair notes that most of the Crockett family don’t speak to Jim anymore, and that’s sad. Flair says that Ted Turner owning WCW wasn’t bad in concept, but the problem was people in Turner’s company who had no business promoting wrestling pitched to Turner that they should be put in charge of it, the first of which was Jim Herd.

– Flair hates on Jim Herd, noting that his claim to fame was being the regional manager of a chain of Pizza Huts. David Crockett also hates on Herd, saying he had no idea what he was doing, without mentioning his name. Flair and Herd never got along, and after a contract dispute Herd calls Ric and tells him to show up and drop the belt to Lex Luger. Flair refuses and notes that he had promised to drop the belt to Sting. Herd accuses Flair of holding him up. Flair counters that he’s holding Herd to his word. Apparently someone in editing screwed up because they’re mixing the Sting/Luger stuff with the later Luger/Windham stuff. Flair offers to drop the belt to Barry Windham. They call him back and tell Flair that he’s fired and that Doug Dillinger is coming to get the title belt. Flair says the belt belongs to him because he never got his deposit paid back on it. Flair calls Vince and says he’s ready to jump ship, and by the way, he was bringing the belt too.

-Flair arrives in the WWE. Dusty Rhodes notes that WCW had lost it’s way and New York was the place to be. The Flair/McMahon contract negotiation was simple: Ric stated how much he stood to make in WCW, and McMahon promised he would make more then that. Done. Flair notes how much more business like the WWE was. And Flair also had the title belt with him, which he felt somewhat bad about, but then he remembered how much he hated Jim Herd. Herd was fired a month later from the fallout of this whole situation. Flair says he wishes they had e-mail or text messaging back then because he would have loved to have sent him a message that simply read “Nice knowing you, asshole.” God, how I love Ric Flair.

-Flair is billed as the “Real World Champion” which was just plain crazy back then. I mean it was a markout every time it happened. He is paired with Bobby Heenan at first, and basically kills him with his life style. Heenan goes to McMahon and tells him he can’t take it anymore, being stuck on the road with Larry Flint. He also attempted to curse Flair, wishing that his hair would fall out and come back orange. Flair actually wanted Heenan to get involved in the matches because he was a good worker and good bumper, but he had a bad neck and back at the time. So they gave him Mr. Perfect as a replacement, and that worked just as good.

-Everyone assumed that the plan was for the WWE to run with Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair at Wrestlemania VIII but for whatever reason, it never happened. Bruce Pritchard notes that everyone thought it was a shoe-in. The office decided they would save it for a later date, presumably Wrestlemania IX. Ric Flair wanted the match but doesn’t regret that it didn’t happen. I’ve heard a dozens of reasons why it didn’t happen, most of which I’m guessing is bullshit. The most credible one I’ve heard is they ran a houseshow with the two main-eventing against each other in Madison Square Garden which didn’t sell out, causing the WWE to abort the feud. I’ll go with that, along with Hulk Hogan wanting to become an actor.

-So instead, Ric Flair gets the WWE Championship at the 1992 Royal Rumble, entering at #3 and lasting the entire match. I would rank it the second best Rumble match, with 2004s #1. Of course, the 2004 version isn’t as fun to watch anymore, but I think it told a way better story from start to finish. Flair says that it was an awesome final shot to WCW, that Flair was getting pushed on a huge PPV in a sold out arena while they couldn’t draw 2,000 fans to their major shows. Flair also felt good that the WWE trusted him to carry the company. Flair’s maniacal promo when he won the Rumble is still one of my favorites. Jim Ross says that he thinks the WWE didn’t give it their all with Flair, and also notes that he doesn’t believe Flair’s heart was entirely in it either. I’ve felt that way about his first WWE run myself.

-We skip most of his WWE run and go straight back to WCW, with only a short clip of his loser-leaves-town match with Mr. Perfect. Flair is promised the world by Bill Watts, so he agrees to come back. And of course, Watts is fired the day after Flair returns. Ole Anderson becomes the new booker, and tells Flair that he has no value left because he dropped the match to Mr. Perfect. Flair is shocked at how big a dumbass Ole was. They’re weren’t friends anymore after that. So someone asks Flair about Ole. Flair says he sucks. So they ask him who should replace him. In a moment I’m sure Flair has nightmares about to this day, he recommends Eric Bischoff for the job. “Another screw-up on my part” says Flair. Jim Ross notes that Eric actually did do a good job.

-Ric Flair hooks Eric Bischoff up with Hulk Hogan, who signs the biggest deal in the history of professional wrestling, to this day. With inflation, I’m guessing Hogan’s WCW deal will never be topped, ever. Triple H notes how Ric Flair brokered the deal and it came back to bite him in the ass. WCW didn’t screw up like the WWE and ran Ric Flair vs. Hogan in his first match with the company, putting Hogan over for the WCW Championship. Hogan ended up making nearly ten times as much for that pay per view then Flair did in an entire year. Flair brings Randy Savage in as well, who proceeds to make Flair his whipping boy like Hogan before him. Flair notes that Hogan and Savage each beat Flair four times or more each before they ever faced another opponent. David Crockett says that Ric Flair was a doormat, and that he wasn’t lost in the shuffle… he was buried.

-And then, they set out to embarrass Ric some kind of attempt to devalue him. They put Flair in a cage match with Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1994, where the loser must retire. The retirement stipulation wasn’t originally the plan. Hogan was going to drop the WCW title to Flair at a Clash of the Champions show, but pulled out the Creative Control card for the first of many times in his WCW career, winning the match by DQ instead. With no other reason to do a third match, they retire Flair instead to get him out of the picture. Flair notes that everyone knew that Flair wouldn’t win the match and thus it didn’t draw. “Cage matches are designed for the bad guy to get beat” says Flair. It’s such basic logic that it doesn’t surprise me that wrestling bookers never understand it. Funny enough, even though this is supposed to be the “Ric Flair gets embarrassed” segment, we don’t get clips of Flair dressed like a woman and losing a match to Hogan that he wasn’t even in (taking the fall for Vader, who refused to put over Hogan in a strap match) or Flair dropping a match to Randy Savage’s father. Triple H notes how he wanted to slap Flair and tell him not to let people walk over him. Shawn Michaels says that he thinks Ric Flair knew deep down that nobody could really tarnish his image. I think Shawn might be a little wrong there, as it did get to Flair.

-David Crockett says that Flair had to be depressed because here’s the most talented guy on the roster seeing guys with no talent (as footage of Konnan and Diamond Dallas Page is shown… very tactful, WWE) get pushed while he was held down. Hall & Nash show up and Bischoff keeps them apart from each other in and out of the ring. J.J. Dillon recalls Bischoff calling a meeting with all the talent that was basically done so he would have an audience while he put down Flair. This is mixed with a clip of a kayfabe promo by Bischoff for Starrcade. Editing is just horrible for this feature, a big step down from what the WWE has been doing for years. Clearly this was a rush-job release. We get clips of Flair’s “Fire me? I’m already fired!” promo from his comeback. They don’t go into big detail with the firing, which is fine. We’ve all heard the story before. Flair notes that Bischoff called a meeting every week just to say that the WWE would fold anytime now. Flair doesn’t understand how all these guys who’s lives were made by the WWE could be so gung-ho to get it shut down.

-But of course, the WWE outlasts WCW and ultimately buys them out. Flair calls it the happiest day of his life. We get clips of Sting vs. Flair from the final Nitro, where both guys were out of shape, Flair so much so that he had to wear a T-Shirt for the match. Flair says he didn’t like anything about the final Nitro except the fact that it closed.

-Now for Ric Flair’s WWE comeback. Jim Ross says he had tears in his eyes when Flair returned. Flair comes in as the new co-owner of the WWE. Triple H thought it was very good angle. Shane McMahon pitched Flair to wrestle Vince at the Royal Rumble. He wasn’t even going to wrestle with his new WWE deal, and had self-confidence issues, made worse by the fact that he would be in the ring with a non-wrestler. Triple H says that Flair wasn’t quite there yet, even though the match was good. You know what, I actually liked the match a lot. It’s Vince McMahon’s best match, easy.

-Triple H informs Flair that Undertaker was asked to pick who he wanted to wrestle at Wrestlemania X8, and he chose Ric. Triple H says that this made his self-confidence problems even worse, because he didn’t feel like he was in that league anymore. They have a really good match, and it helped Ric Flair get his groove back. So he returns somewhat full time. Clips of Flair beating Chris Jericho at Summerslam, and Carlito for the IC Championship. Triple H says that he never gets sick or injured, and he’s the only guy who can go out there every night and perform at a top level. And he’s the only one who doesn’t know how good he is. Jim Ross says that guys would get excited over getting to wrestle Flair. He wrestled Steve Austin on Raw, a match I think only lasted like ten minutes and ended on a draw. We don’t get that match on the set, but they sure spend a lot of time talking about it. Austin says it was a big honor for him. Austin says he’s the best entertainer in the history of the business.

-Onto Evolution. It was a great idea to have a generational-based faction. Triple H had the idea, and he knew that Ric’s role of getting Randy Orton and Batista over would work. And it did. Batista says it was the turning point of his career, and that he had a small window to get over and if not for Flair, he wouldn’t have. Orton agrees, because having Ric Flair by his side upped his confidence level to the point where he knew he could go from an opening match guy to trashing Holiday Inn rooms with ease. OK, he didn’t really say that, but he does credit Flair with making his career. Batista says winning the tag titles with Ric Flair was his first career high. He’s in the record books forever with him. Randy says that it was great being in the main event of Taboo Tuesday with Flair in a cage as well. Wish we had gotten that match for the set instead of the promos that fill up most of the third disc.

-Onto his feud with Mick Foley. Flair says he never read Foley’s books but had tons of people tell him that Mick took a shot at him in them. Flair says that only a few people made him legitimately mad in the business, and Mick Foley is one of them. So Flair gives him a shot back, saying that Foley is nothing more then a glorified stuntman. This lead to a couple very shitty matches with the two on pay per view, which is more proof that putting two guys who hate each other in the ring together rarely works. For every Chris Benoit/Kevin Sullivan (which I don’t think was THAT good), there’s a Flair/Foley, a Batista/Booker, a Michaels/Hart, or a Matt Hardy/Edge. It’s one of those quirks of wrestling I never really got. I guess the reasoning for putting two guys who hate each other together in a program is the fans will buy it and the smart-marks will eat it up it. That may be true, but the matches almost always suck. Flair said that he had a really good match with Foley at Summerslam (that’s a stretch) and they’ve since become friends. Ahhh, makes you all warm inside.

-Flair and Triple H have a match on Raw, and it was good. Flair had given Triple H the belt that he held when he was the “Real World Champion”, with a note that said he wished he could give him this in the ring. After the show went off the air, everyone comes to the ring and throws a party for Flair. Randy Orton says that Flair doesn’t ask for respect, so he earns it more. That might have been a shot at the Undertaker. Flair tears up as he tells people how cool it is to have the respect of his peers. As Flair’s last few months of his career rolled around, we get backstage clips of wrestlers crying as they say their farewells to him. Flair cries thinking about it. It’s great. Flair wishes he had been there for his family, and notes that he was selfish when he was younger.

-Flair is inducted into the Hall of Fame. Flair called Triple H crying when he found out, and asked Triple H to be the one that inducted him. What a great moment that was too, with Flair pretty much ignoring the people telling him to wrap it up so that he could thank everyone he’s ever met or so it seemed. We then go to Flair’s final match. I wish he had entered via helicopter or something like that. Flair calls Shawn one of the best ever. It was a great match. A lot of people called it five-stars. I wouldn’t go that far, but it was certainly very entertaining.

-On Raw the next night, Flair says goodbye as an active wrestler in what was a cool moment. I’m not one of those types that was sad that they saved it for Raw. I mean, they couldn’t stop Wrestlemania in the middle of the show to do a thirty minute skit. At least one that doesn’t involve women from a beer commerical. And we get a final sendoff, with Steve Austin calling Flair the best ever. Bruce Pritchard says that Flair should have rightfully been finished with the plane crash, but he came back better than ever. Bob Orton says that Flair found the fountain of youth, “and the son of a bitch is keeping it a secret.” Triple H also calls him the greatest of all time. Gerald Brisco says that everyone is influenced by Ric Flair, while David Crockett says that he was one of the guys that made wrestling mainstream. Jim Cornette says that nobody was as good for as long as Flair was. Reid *GLUG* Flair says that he knows his dad wishes he could wrestle another twenty years. A final montage of Ric Flair closes the program.

That’s it for the main feature. At four minutes short of two hours, it’s pretty long, but not very well done. Many issues with editing make the narrative hard to follow, and many major sections of his career are left out. Granted, his career was so long and so more involved than most guys that it would likely take two discs just to do a fully realized biography on him and cover all the bases. That said, what they showed here felt more like a footnote version of his story, and because many parts are skipped or barely covered, it feels like an almost joyless version of his career. The WWE has done many great feature-length documentaries in recent years, but this wasn’t one of them. It felt rushed and unfinished.

Disc One has some bonus features.

“Too Many Distractions” runs a little over one minute, and talks about Flair’s final year of high school. He was bad at English and Math. He had signed a letter of intent to Michigan, but the athletic director rejected it because he felt that he wouldn’t be able to keep his GPA up. Flair notes that when he went to Minnesota, he ended up proving the athletic director right.

“Buying Boots” runs one minute or so. Flair tells a story on how Wahoo McDaniel got him into spending so much money on his gimmick. Flair ordered his boots from a guy who charged $800, when he only had $200 budgeted for it. Flair uses this to talk about how much he respected Wahoo.

“Bleaching His Hair” runs a minute and forty-five seconds. Flair always wanted to bleach his hair, but Verne Gagne shot him down. Flair also wanted his name to be “Rambling Ricky Rhodes” but Verne shot that down, noting that “Ric Flair” was a great name. Flair wanted to be Dusty Rhodes’ brother, and Dusty gave him the thumbs up to do it. Flair notes that he’s glad he didn’t change his name now. He says that he was a big Billy Graham fan (and a terrible mark), and drove him around. Flair talked Graham’s wife into bleaching his hair, and that’s how it started.

“Hanging with the Outlaws” lasts five minutes. Flair was a huge mark for the Texas Outlaws, Dick Murdoch & Dusty Rhodes. Flair didn’t get booked that much his first year, but he lied to his wife and said he was working. In fact, he was hanging out with the Outlaws. He started hanging with them when someone pulled out a tour of Japan, so Flair got picked to replace the guy on a three week stint. Flair had to carry the Outlaws’ bags, and they wouldn’t talk to him. So one day, Murdoch has a plate of fries in front of him. Dusty Rhodes and some other wrestler take one, so Flair reaches for one himself. Murdoch stabs him through the hand with a fork, through the table. I’ve heard that was one of Murdoch’s favorite things to do, the sick bastard. So Flair gets booked in a cage match and is told to bleed for the first time in his career. But Flair doesn’t end up bleeding and so the Outlaws mock him mercilessly. Flair gets ditched in the locker-room by the Americans and has to ride back to the hotel on the Japanese bus. When he gets to his room, the Outlaws had thrown everything of his out the window. He didn’t bitch about it and was in. Or not. Three weeks later, on the plane ride home, the wrestlers raise so much hell that the FBI is there to arrest someone when they land. They take Buddy Wolfe. Rhodes and Murdoch take Flair to the beach and get him stinky drunk. He passes out and the Outlaws ditch him there, catching a plane home.

“Ric’s Relationship with the Members of Evolution” runs under three minutes. Flair’s latest wife talks about his relationship with Evolution. She notes that they’re like a family. Mrs. Flair says that Triple H was like an older brother for him despite the age, and that Shawn Michaels was the voice of reason. Batista is the younger brother, and they all acted like little kids, pulling each other’s pants down during matches. She thinks it’s the most fun he had in his career.

“Key to the City” runs about ninety seconds. Ric is given the key to the city in Columbia, SC. March 24, 2008 was Ric Flair day there.

And we get a Ric Flair tribute video set to the music of “Leave the Memories Alone” by Fuel. It’s got that foggy effect they usually use for dead-wrestler tribute videos. Maybe they expected Flair to kick it and had this video on stand-by.

Disc Two

The Matches

Ric Flair v. Jack Brisco.

From Mid-Atlantic TV, August 1982. I have this one, on one of my many, many, Flair compilation tapes that I’ve accumulated over the years. This is a great bit of business, as Flair is scheduled to wrestle some jobber and he’s not happy about it. He goes to complain to Bob Caudle about the lack of competition, so Wahoo comes out and calls him a chicken for not facing him. Flair’s all “You want to see me go in there and beat up that guy in the ring? Fine!” and then he turns around and Jack Brisco is waiting in the ring for him instead of the jobber! Brisco almost immediately gets the abdominal stretch into the rollup for two, but Flair is in the ropes. Brisco goes to the arm and hiptosses him into another armdrag. Flair takes him to the corner for the chops, but Brisco whips him into the other corner and goes back to the arm again, dropping knees on it. Finally Flair gets him on the ropes and chops out, but Brisco hiptosses him back into the armbar again, and then a crazy rolling short-arm scissors, but Flair rolls his shoulders to the mat and gets two. Back to the corner and Flair starts chopping, but Brisco fires back and slugs Flair down. Cross body gets two and Flair puts him on the floor, then rams him into the turnbuckle to take over. Back in, slam and kneedrop set up the piledriver, which gets two. Back elbow sets up a suplex, but Jack reverses into a sleeper, which Flair reverses into a backdrop suplex. Flair presses the issue with the kenecrusher and it’s time for the figure-four, but Brisco instantly reverses it and Flair has to make the ropes. Brisco starts pounding on the knee, but Flair pokes him in the eye and goes up. And you know what comes next. Brisco follows with his own figure-four, but Flair counters into the cradle for two. Pinfall reversal sequence (he was doing that back in 82?) leads to Brisco getting the pin off a backslide at 10:32! Holy crap, I forgot that someone actually got a pin off that sequence. Good little chess match here. ***1/4

NWA World title, 2/3 Falls: Ric Flair v. Kerry Von Erich

And now a week later (August 24 1982) we’re in World Class, with the match that eventually leads to the explosion of the territory. I’ve only seen clips of the finishes before, so this is awesome. Kerry beat Harley Race in a match I just reviewed on 24/7 to earn this shot, and that was a hell of a deal in itself. So suffice it to say, Kerry was having a pretty good year in the ring. Flair takes him down with the headlock to start and Kerry reverses that into a headscissors. Flair counters back into the headlock, but Kerry puts him right back in the headscissors again. Flair makes the ropes, and then educates the ref about proper execution: The foot goes in the ropes, you start counting. Tell ’em, champ! Kerry applies the headlock this time and we get a small but important example of the camera revolution in World Class, as the in-ring guy gets a close-up shot of Kerry’s straining muscles. That’s the kind of stuff we take for granted now, but it really made the boys look like over-the-top superheroes at the time. Kerry works on the headlock and Flair powers out with a wristlock, but Kerry overpowers him right back into the headlock again. Next up, they do the test of strength and Kerry quickly takes him down and starts working the arm, and we get another great shot of Kerry looking like a greek good from the in-ring camera. No wonder they all became huge stars. The camera and sound work is very visceral and in-your-face, as opposed to the slick, fast-cut MTV editing that dominates today. No wonder people can’t get emotionally invested in matches or characters anymore.

Awkward sequence as they mess up a leapfrog spot and tussle into the corner, then Flair gets a cheapshot and starts chopping, but Kerry gets a sunset flip after some drama near the ropes. The crowd reaction to this little spot is something to behold. Kerry takes him down with the headlock again and Flair uses the tights to roll him over, and the crowd is just FREAKING. Just goes to show: Put two good workers in front of a jacked crowd and they can make reading the phone book into a ***1/2 match. Flair dumps Kerry to escape and hauls him back in for the chops, but Kerry slugs the shit out of him and Flair goes down. Kerry backdrops him out of the corner, but Flair gets another cheapshot and snapmares Kerry into a chinlock. The crowd is just going crazy for Von Erich and Flair must be having the time of his life out there. Kerry powers up and Flair takes him down by the hair, then makes sure to antagonize the front row in the process. They slug it out and Kerry walks into a back elbow, and Flair gets two. He misses an elbowdrop and Kerry wraps him up with the abdominal stretch…and then applies the stomach claw to really give it to him. Another tremendous shot from the camera crew tells that story without even needing the commentary. Flair pokes the eyes to escape, and gets a backdrop suplex for two. Dropkick and Flair is just bumping like crazy now to really get the crowd going, but another try misses. Flair drops him on the top rope to take over and methodically drops the knee for two. Piledriver gets two. Another one is reversed by Kerry and he slugs him down, but can’t get the claw. Flair just unloads with chops in the corner, but Kerry fires back with a discus punch that kills the ref dead. Kerry hammers away on Flair and gets a cross body, but there’s no ref. Flair tries a sleeper, but Kerry reverses to a sleeper with a new ref there to count…and the bell rings. Kerry thinks he’s won, but the original ref has revived and DQ’s him for the punch at 22:00. So Flair is up one fall and the crowd wants BLOOD.

Second fall and Flair is wisely begging for mercy, but Kerry just beats the hell out of him in the corner and goes right back to that sleeper. Flair dumps him in desperation, but Kerry pulls him down and starts hammering on the leg. Back in, lays into him with a chop and stomps him down in the corner, then chokes him out, but Kerry comes back with an elbow off the middle rope and we get a Flair Flip. Kerry tries the headlock, but Flair puts him down with the kneecrusher and starts stomping on the knee. Kerry sells it melodramatically because it’s that kind of match. Flair wraps the knee around the ropes and pounds on it, so Kerry rolls out and tries to shake it off. Flair suplexes him back in and drops the elbow, and now it’s figure-four time. Well that’s not going to make the crowd very happy. Flair gets a pair of two counts off that, but Kerry reverses it and Flair has to go to the ropes. Flair goes back to the knee again, but another try at the figure-four is blocked with the IRON CLAW. And in an awesome bit of business, Flair blades while in the move, showing that the power of the claw has busted his head open. You have to fucking love that. Flair is down and out for the pin 33:01 and the place just goes insane, as Kerry ties it up at one.

Back with the third fall and the ref wants to check Flair’s cut. Kerry beats on him in the corner, but Flair fires back and hammers the shit out of Kerry on the mat, but Kerry comes back with a discuss punch and works on the bloody head of Flair. Finally the ref rings the bell at 35:13 and it’s a double DQ, but they won’t stop brawling. Finish ended up being weak, but it was all done to protect Kerry, showing that Flair couldn’t beat him, and set up the cage match that changed wrestling in December of 82. Just the first all alone is a classic, as I thought I’d seen every **** Flair match and yet I keep finding new ones. Just tremendous stuff that made Kerry look like a world champion caliber star. ****1/2

NWA World title: Harley Race v. Ric Flair

This is actually from Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, August 31 1983, as they just keep pulling crazy shit out of the archives. Race immediately headbutts Flair down and drops a knee. Neckbreaker sets up another headbutt, but it misses. Flair chops him down and adds his own kneedrop, then chops him down for two. Race pounds him in the corner, but Flair comes back with a backdrop for two and goes to a facelock on the mat. Race fights up, so Flair slams him for two, only to get headbutted down again. Race tries the piledriver, but Flair backdrops out of it and then adds another backdrop. Abdominal stretch, but Race hiptosses out and drops an elbow for two. Clothesline and he drops a knee for two, but Flair is in the ropes. Flair fights back and reverses Race into the corner, then starts pounding the ribs. Big boot gets two. Flair takes him down and drops knees on the ribs, then cranks on an armbar. Race takes him into the corner and headbutts him to escape, but Flair chops him down again and follows with a sleeper. Race goes to the eyes to break, but Flair chops him down and goes up. Race slams him off, but Flair goes to the gut and tries the figure-four. Race goes to the eyes to prevent that and headbutts Flair to the gut, and a tombstone piledriver gets two. Race drops a headbutt and tosses Flair, but can’t get a piledriver on the concrete.

Back in, Flair suplexes Race into the ring and follows with a running elbow. And now, whoo, we go to school, but Race fights off the figure-four again. Race tries a headlock, but Flair suplexes out of it. Butterfly suplex gets two and Flair goes to a boston crab, but Race quickly powers out of it. Flair bails to the apron and Race headbutts him down to the floor, where they brawl again. Flair wins that one and hauls him back in, then pounds away on the mat until Race headbutts him to fight back. Flair Flip, but Flair goes up with a flying axehandle, which Race blocks with a shot to the gut. Race goes up himself, but misses a diving headbutt and now, finally, FIGURE-FOUR. Sadly, Flair stops to go after Dick Slater and releases, but hits Race wit a kneecrusher again and gets the figure-four, which draws Race’s henchmen Slater & Orton in for the DQ at 21:23. They destroy Flair with a spike piledriver so sick that it’s worth the price of the DVD alone, and collect Race’s $25,000 bounty, the only time I can remember a heel actually doing such a thing successfully outside of Batista a couple of years ago. Usual great Flair-Race match, on free TV no less! ****1/2

Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Ole Anderson v. Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA & Manny Fernandez

From World Wide Wrestling, December 1985. How can this be anything but awesome? Dusty gets in Flair’s face to start and the crowd is just coming apart at the seams. Finally we start for real with Arn and the Bull, and they criss-cross into a back elbow from Manny, which leads to the faces cleaning house and triple-teaming Ole. Arn tries again and he gets his ass kicked as well and backs off. Ole is nothing if not stubborn and he wants Manny again, and now Magnum comes in and starts working on his arm. Dusty elbows him down, but he wants Flair. The champ obliges and we get a strutting exhibition from Dusty, but Flair is no mood for it. They slug it out in the corner and Flair goes down via bionic elbow, and it’s over to Magnum. Hiptoss for Flair and the press slam and we’ve gotta take a break!

Back with the Horsemen working on TA in the corner as we’ve apparently missed a vital portion of the match, and they triple-team him while Tommy Young is busy with the faces. Magnum gets the tag to Manny and he fights off the Andersons and gets the Flying Burrito on Arn, then the faces abuse AA some more in the corner. Manny with a backdrop into the flying axehandle, but Arn sends him in the heel corner and it’s over to Flair. They exchange chops and Manny gets a cross body for two. Flair comes back with a piledriver attempt, but Manny backdrops out of it, so Arn tags in and elbows him down into a chinlock. The Andersons switch off and pound on Fernandez, and Flair gets a suplex before spitting on Dusty. Well can you blame him? Manny fights back with another Burrito on Arn, but the Horsemen break up the pin and it’s BONZO GONZO. Everyone is brawling on the floor and Arn hits Bull with a SICK chairshot from the floor, and Ole gets the pin at 11:50. I hate to see stuff like that given recent events in the business, but DAMN. ***1/2 The wusses in the production department blur out some kid giving the Horsemen the finger.

NWA World title: Ric Flair v. Sting

From the first Clash, a show I haven’t actually watched in a good long while and a match that is worth another look. I should note that the Turner home video version I’ve always had before is the clipped TV version, whereas the godlike WWE library version is the full and uncut version. So this is Sting’s first big shot at the title, with a 45-minute TV time limit and a panel of judges to make sure there’s a winner. Including Jason Hervey and Eddie Haskell, so you know they mean business. Sting grabs the headlock to start and powers Flair down off a wristlock. They do the test of strength and Flair opts to chop out of it, but Sting no-sells it and hiptosses him out of the ring. Back in, Sting controls with a hammerlock and they criss-cross into a press-slam from Sting. Sting takes him down with a flying headscissors into the hiptoss, and back to the headlock again. Flair fights up and hiptosses out of it, but Sting counters and goes right back to it again. Flair fights up and Sting hiptosses him and tries another dropkick, but Flair dodges him. Sting gets tossed but pops right back in and fires away in the corner, then right back to the headlock again. Flair chops out of it and they slug it out in the corner, and Sting gets another press slam, into the bearhug.

Flair makes it to the corner to escape and Sting tries to follow with the Stinger splash, but misses and hits his arm on the post. Flair is all over him, tossing him and running him into the railing. Back in, Flair throws the chops and Sting goes down, so Flair hammers on the back. Kneedrop times two and Flair rips at the face just to be a bastard. He rakes the face on the ropes and fires more chops in the corner, and Sting ends up on the floor again. Flair sends him into the railing again and they head back in so Flair can chop him again. Sting gets fired up, though, and slugs Flair right out of the ring, but charges at Flair and hits the post. So the arm is hurt again and Flair goes to town back in the ring, but Sting pops up and slugs away in the corner. Clothesline gets two. Flair tries to make a run for it, but Sting suplexes him back in and into the Scorpion Deathlock. Flair quickly makes the ropes, so Sting takes Flair to the corner again and shrugs off a chop. He slugs Flair down for two, but Ric is in the ropes again. Sting hiptosses him and tries a clothesline, but Flair moves and Sting hits the floor again. Flair takes a breather, but Sting comes in with a high cross for two. Flair catches him with the kneecrusher, however, and starts pounding on the knee. Another kneecrusher and Sting bails to the floor. Back in, Flair pounds on the knee again and adds a backdrop suplex, and now we go to school! Flair uses the ropes to assist as usual, but Sting powers into the reversal. Flair is up first, however, and goes after the knee again, then sets up on the apron for a suplex. Crowd freaks out, but Sting suplexes him back in instead, only to miss a big splash.

They fight for the abdominal stretch and Sting wins that, but Flair hiptosses out. Flair chops him down and goes up, but Sting slams him off for two. He pulls Flair into the corner and posts him, then gets his own figure-four. Flair escapes, so Sting stomps on the knee again and yanks him out of the corner to work on the leg again. Flair Flip and he hits the floor, but Sting follows and beats on him. Flair tries a sunset flip back in, but Sting slugs him down and rakes Flair’s face on the ropes. Sting fires away in the corner, then no-sells Flair’s atomic drop and clotheslines him for two. Stinger splash misses and Sting hits the floor in dramatic fashion. Back in, they slug it out and Flair goes down, but comes back with a sleeper, so Sting rams him into the turnbuckle to break. Flair tosses him in desperation, but Sting comes back in with a sunset flip, which Flair blocks for two. Young kicks him out of the ropes and Sting gets two. Flair begs off and Sting whips him out, but Flair comes in with a high cross, reversed by Sting for two. Sting no-sells all of Flair’s offense now, hammering him in the corner to set up the Stinger splash. Scorpion Deathlock with time running out, but Flair hangs on until the time limit. The decision: Two judges for Flair, two for Sting, one for a draw. Silly booking aside, I definitely gave this one short shrift on the original rant, as the full match flows much better and you can see the storyline of young and hungry Sting fighting for his life but not knowing how to finish. Definitely a modern classic. ****1/2

NWA World title: Ric Flair v. Terry Funk

And yet another of my favorite matches, as Flair defends in the main event of Great American Bash ’89. I did this one fairly recently, but it’s awesome so fuck it, let’s do it again. The fight begins on the floor and Jim Ross is all over the history here. Funk argues with the fans at ringside and Flair nails him with an axehandle off the apron. Funk tosses chairs into the ring to distract Flair, and starts throwing chops off the lockup. Flair fires back with fists in a nice bit of reversal, and Funk bumps to the floor. Flair hits him off the apron again, but Funk sends him into the railing and won’t let him into the ring. He finally suplexes Flair back into the ring for two. Flair blocks a second suplex and escapes to the floor, but Funk pounds on the neck. Flair tries a suplex to the floor from the apron, but they both fall to the floor as a result and start another brawl, with Funk going to the eyes to win that. Back in, Funk tries the piledriver, but Flair backdrops him out of the ring and then wrenches the neck to try and get revenge. Back in, Flair drops a knee on the back of the neck and gets two. Piledriver and Funk does his Three Stooges sell, so Flair gives him ANOTHER one. Funk bumps out of the ring this time and tries to crawl to the dressing room, but Flair drags him back in and slugs him down for two. Backdrop suplex sets up the figure-four, but Gary Hart hits Flair with the branding iron and the blood starts flowing.

Funk pounds on the cut in the corner and this time he’s able to get the piledriver, but Flair’s foot is on the ropes. Funk pulls up the mats on the floor and tries another one out there, but Flair backdrops out of it. Funk gets a weak shot off the apron, but Flair sells it like death anyway, and they head back into the ring. Funk with a pair of neckbreakers, but it only gets two and Flair takes him to the floor for more of a brawl. He runs Funk into the post to draw blood from THAT side of things, but he gets cocky and charges with a high knee that misses. Flair runs into the turnbuckles and Funk goes to work on the log with the spinning toehold, but Flair reverses to the figure-four, Funk reverses that to a cradle, and Flair reverses THAT for the pin at 16:10 to retain. Just a great fight to turn Flair into the big babyface champion again. ****1/4 Funk and Muta do the beatdown on Flair until Sting saves, and that’s another bonus brawl to really give you your money’s worth.

Disc Three

The Matches

Rowdy Roddy Piper v. Ric Flair

This is Flair’s MSG “debut” (actually not, but we’ll play along) and the reaction to his entrance is REALLY interesting, with pure WWF marks booing him, and everyone else giving him a crazy loud standing ovation. Piper also gets a mega-reaction so this will have heat if nothing else. They do the trash talk to start and Flair gives him a rare clean break, so Piper spits on him. Flair gives another clean break, and Piper bitchslaps him this time. Flair tries the headlock and Piper reverses out of it and smacks him down again. Piper knocks him down, so Flair comes back with the chop in the corner, but Piper slugs back and puts him down. We get a Flair Flop off that and he bails, so Piper chases and rams him into the railing. Back in, Piper knocks him down again and they criss-cross, but Piper wins that by punching him down and slugs away in the corner. Flair uses the ref to get a cheapshot in, however, and takes over. He works the headlock and they do the pinfall reversal sequence, as Piper gets a backslide for two. You don’t see that from Piper very often! Flair tosses him three times and he keeps popping back in, so Flair takes him to the floor and throws chops in the aisle to put him down. Back in, Flair gets the necksnap on the way in. Piper throws down with own chops, however, and puts Flair down with a huge kneelift, which sends them back to the floor again. Back in, Piper slugs him in the corner, but the ref gets bumped. Flair attacks from behind and gets rolled up as a result, but there’s no ref. Another ref comes in and Piper gets the rollup again, for two. Flair Flip and Piper clotheslines him on the apron, but Flair grabs a chair and clobbers Piper with it…for two. Piper comes back with the sleeper, but Flair quickly escapes with a backdrop suplex and goes up. Piper slams him off and fires away, then catches Flair with his down and gets a neckbreaker. He retrieves a chair of his own, but the ref prevents him and Flair takes him down and pins him with his feet on the ropes at 12:00. Wow, Piper does a semi-clean job? That’s pretty high praise from him. Tremendous stuff. ***1/2

WCW World title: Ric Flair v. Ricky Steamboat.

This didn’t really have any long-term storyline reasoning, it was just Flair wanting to put on a great match to highlight a PPV. Wacky concept, I know. It was also the subtle beginnings of Flair’s heel turn, as he attacked Steamboat leading up to this. Flair takes him down and we do a bit of mat wrestling. Stalemate results. Steamboat overpowers him and they do more mat wrestling and start with the fisticuffsmanship. Criss-cross and Flair gets pressed and headscissored, twice. Dropkick puts Flair on the floor, and back in Steamboat gets the FLYING KARATE CHOP OF DEATH for two. Flair bails and regroups. Back in, he starts chopping, and they do that thing they do as Flair slowly goes heel. Steamboat holds onto a headlock, confounding Flair. That goes on a while, until Flair escapes, but gets headscissored back into a headlock again. Steamboat overpowers him, and a rollup gets two. Back to the headlock, and Steamboat grinds it in. It’s little touches like that which keep the match interesting, as opposed to Austin and Muta laying around for five minutes. Flair chops out, but Steamboat goes back to it. Dropkick misses, however, and Flair is chopping again. Kneedrop and Flair pounds and chops, and drops another knee for two. Elbow gets two. They chops away and a crossbody puts both on the floor. Steamboat reverses a piledriver attempt, but charges and splats on the railing. Back in, Steamboat superplex gets two. Flair Flip and he walks into a chop and Steamboat follows with a flying chop to the floor. Back in, Steamboat pounds away in the corner with chops, and it’s a Flair Flop for two. Sunset flip is blocked by Flair, but Steamboat blocks a kneedrop and hooks a figure-four. He keeps pulling Flair into the middle of the ring. The old shot to the jaw breaks it up. Flair gets a suplex, but his knee buckles and Steamboat gets two. Into the pinfall reversal sequence. Small package gets two. Flair chops him again and Steamer returns fire. Flair bails to the ramp, but gets chopped back in. Flair Flip and out, and Steamboat follows him out again, but this time Flair is one step ahead and gets a foot up to block. Flair heads back in, but Steamboat stalls until they slug it out on the apron. Flying bodypress gets two for Steamboat. Flair lays him out again, and goes up, but you know what happens next. Steamboat goes back up, but misses the flying splash and hits his knee. CUE OMINOUS MUSIC HERE. Figure-four, but Steamboat eventually makes the ropes. Flair stays on the knee and goes back to the move, but Steamboat reverses for two. Backslide gets two. Superplex and both guys are dead. Rollup gets two. Double chickenwing looks to finish, but Flair falls back (ala Clash VI) and this time BOTH guys are pinned at 32:20. Tie goes to the champion, so Flair retains. This one was lacking a certain spark to it, and it hurt a lot. ****1/4

Intercontinental title, Steel cage match: Ric Flair v. HHH

From Taboo Tuesday in 2005. Another silly vote, as the choices were “1 fall to a finish”, submission, or steel cage. Well, duh. Flair gets the first chop and dares HHH to bring it on, and they slug it out in the corner. Flair actually wins that one pretty handily before HHH uses the knee and takes him down. Choking in the corner, but Flair is all about the chops, so HHH hits him with a spinebuster. Flair is already bleeding, so HHH introduces him to the cold, hard, unforgiving, yada yada, and makes it official. Very few people go into the cage face-first with the gusto that Flair has over the years. And of course we get the cheese grater action on Flair, because it just wouldn’t be Flair in a cage match without it. Nice, simple move from HHH, too, as he splashes Flair into the cage while he’s recovering. Flair’s bladejob is just gory.

HHH adds a little insult to injury, dropping a Flair-like knee on him before sending him back into the cage again. HHH casually climbs up and over, but Flair stops him and they slug it out on the top rope. No surprise what happens next, as Flair takes his patented crotch-first bump, but so does HHH. However, HHH finds a piece of chain left untied at top, only to jump onto Flair’s boot. See, that’s one time where the spot at least makes some sense — HHH was specifically trying a fistdrop off the top rather than some indeterminate move. Flair goes for the figure-four to capitalize, but HHH still has the chain on his fist, and he makes use of it to block. Good timing there.

HHH keeps slugging away and Flair keeps bleeding, setting up a Flair Flop and another kneedrop from HHH. Just for fun, HHH puts him in a figure-four, and Flair yelling “I’ll kill you!” while he fights it is tremendous stuff. Not quite Kurt Angle yelling “Tap or I’ll break your fucking ankle!” at the Rock in 2001, but up there nonetheless. Flair reverses it, but HHH makes the ropes. HHH makes another attempt at the figure-four, really rubbing it into the fans’ faces, but Flair shoves him into the cage and it’s double juice. Flair biting the cut like a maniac is great, and he pounds away on the cut, finally back in his element as a cheating bastard. HHH gets treated to payback for all the cage spots, and Flair even fish-hooks him, which is even illegal in the UFC! Now that’s cheating!

Flair gets a vertical suplex and his own kneedrops, as this is all setup and payoff, and Flair chops him to set up the chop block. Flair goes to work on the leg, literally smelling blood (I should write this stuff for these announcers…) and pounds the crap out of the leg. Figure-four follows, with a good visual of a bloody HHH screaming in pain. It doesn’t take much to entertain me sometimes. HHH finally nails the ref to break the move, but Flair goes right back to the leg again. Flair climbs, but suckers HHH into an axehandle off the top for two. Low blow follows. I always consider adding an extra star for every time HHH gets nailed in the junk. It just doesn’t get old.

Flair tries to walk out, but gets pulled in by HHH, bringing a chair in with him. HHH takes a swing with it, but Flair goes back to the babymaker again, thus adding another star. KICK WHAM PEDIGREE is reversed to a backdrop and Flair keeps it simple, clobbering him with the chair. THREE TIMES. It’s like my dream HHH match. And that’s enough to walk out at 23:45. This was some tremendous old-school stuff, with HHH doing all sorts of nasty stuff to Flair and then having it all done back to him again, and Flair the old dog using every cheap trick in the book to hold off the challenger. The ending was a bit weak, with a pinfall or submission really being needed here, but any match that has HHH getting abused to this degree earns my respect. ***3/4

And finally…

Ric Flair v. Shawn Michaels

From Wrestlemania 24, complete with the Fuel music video beforehand. I didn’t actually do a proper rant on the show the first time, so here you go. This is the panned and scanned version instead of the proper widescreen one, which will likely become more of an issue with these compilation DVDs as we proceed into the digital era. It doesn’t bug me so much here because I do these rants on my older tube TV in my office, but it’s nice to have the originally intended version. Shawn puts him down off a headlock and teases a strut, but thinks better of it. Flair tries a hammerlock and Shawn reverses, but Flair takes him down with a drop toehold. They continue with the hammerlock until Flair hiptosses out of it. Shoving match in the corner and Shawn gives him a slap for his troubles, so Ric fires back with the chops. They exchange those until Shawn puts his head down and gets booted, and Flair follows with the back elbow and drops the knee. Flair charges and gets elbowed down, but Shawn goes up and gets slammed off. Flair goes up as well and gets a high cross for two, then follows with a kneecrusher, but Shawn boots him out of the ring. He follows with a baseball slide and tries a moonsault press off the apron, but misses and takes out the announce table instead. Back in, Flair takes over and whips him into the corner and gets a backdrop suplex for two. Butterfly suplex gets two. Delayed vertical suplex gets two. Shawn fights back with chops and a neckbreaker, and he backdrops Flair onto the floor. He follows with a moonsault to the floor that misses by a foot, and back in Flair takes over.

They trade chops with the crowd clearly booing Shawn now, and Shawn gets the flying forearm and kips up. Flying elbow and Shawn sets up for the superkick, but hesitates and gets put in the figure-four as a result. Shawn reverses to escape and they try one last pinfall reversal sequence, but Flair just can’t do it anymore. To me, that was the saddest part. Shawn with a sunset flip for two. Flair whips him into the corner and clips the knee, but Shawn cradles off the figure-four attempt for two. Flair gets another one and pulls Shawn into the middle of the ring, but he fights and makes the ropes. Flair stops to style and profile, and walks into the superkick as a result. Shawn gets two off that. Shawn sets up again, but this time Flair goes low and gets two. Shawn comes back with an inverted figure-four, but Flair makes the ropes and thumbs him in the eye. Rollup gets two. Flair chops him again, but Shawn fires back with a superkick on instinct and Flair is done. But he sets up one more time and we get the now-famous “I’m sorry and I love you”, and the superkick ends Flair’s career at 20:23.

I still don’t think it’s that great of a match, although the storyline argument is an entirely different one. Outside of the obvious missed spots, the thing that really bugs about the match is that I didn’t ENJOY it. The best matches for me are joyous ones, with two guys beating each other up for a grudge or the joy of combat or a title. This was a sad occasion, the greatest wrestler in history being forced to go out on someone else’s terms long after he should have made that decision himself, and it brought me no joy. Yeah, it was good for the most part, but would 1989 Flair have watched this and wanted to go out in a match where he couldn’t even bridge up on the pinfall reversal spot? ***1/4

Bonus Features

– From RAW, March 31 2008, Flair says farewell. Your basic thank you message, and then HHH comes out to say that he loves Flair and thanks him right back. Aww. And then he brings out Tully Blanchard, JJ Dillon, Arn Anderson and Barry Windham, complete with classic WCW music. We also get Batista, Ricky Steamboat (with “Sirius” sadly changed to generic music for copyright reasons), Harley Race (who still looks like he did in the 80s despite needing help to get into the ring), Greg Valentine (apparently frozen in time in 1986 as well), Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, John Cena, the Flair family (rendering Flair into a total crying wreck), and of course Shawn Michaels. The last one provokes some tension from the crowd, but they hug it out. And then hey, let’s just bring out the entire roster to say thank you, why not? That’s the end of the show, but we continue on here on DVD with Undertaker also coming out and paying tribute. And of course Vince McMahon. Flair beats up his jacket for old time’s sake, and we’re done. I know they couldn’t have stopped Wrestlemania to give him this tribute, but I kind of wish they did. It also makes the mind boggle that they would take all this trouble to pay tribute to him upon his retirement and he would basically piss away the goodwill by leaving the company in a huff a few weeks later.

And now onto happier times…

– From the very early 80s, a quick vignette as Flair points out that he’s a jet-flyin’, limousine ridin’, real man who is fabulously wealthy and brings beautiful scantily clad women with him just in case he needs them around.

– From World Championship Wrestling, May 1985. Flair once again talks about how great it is to be him and how great it is to be World champion, and really that’s the only subject he needs to forge a promo.

– From World Championship Wrestling, June 1985. Flair’s gonna make Nikita into his personal gardener and David and Tony are both on the verge of cracking up on camera.

– From World Championship Wrestling, August 1985. As he left New York last night, all the women were hollering “There goes the boss!” and Bruce Springsteen was nowhere to be found. Another promo about how Dusty is an ignorant redneck and he’s the World champion. Ric goes off on Magnum’s lack of physique and it’s just hilarious.

– From World Championship Wrestling, September 1985. Back to the subject of Nikita Koloff, as he warns Dusty never to stick his nose in his business because he’ll deal with the Russians himself, thank you. He gets so wrapped up in his own promo that he has to tell the director to let him finish. What’s causing all of this? Why, Slick Ric, of course.

– From World Championship Wrestling, September 1985. Flair gets grilled by David Crockett about why he attacked Dusty Rhodes and broke his leg, which leads Flair onto another rant about his expensive suits and endless women in his limo.

– From World Championship Wrestling, December 1985. Ric Flair defends against Ron Garvin later in the show, but first he’s gotta cut a promo about it. He’s feeling so good he might just stick around for another 20 years. 23, to be exact.

– From World Championship Wrestling, April 1987. The Four Horsemen introduce the Space Mountainettes. He shares the wealth with Tony, who is clearly on the verge of losing it, and then moves onto his offer for Precious: A t-shirt with “I Want To Ride Space Mountain” for when he beats Jimmy Garvin and wins her services. She comes out and Flair gives her a fur coat, but then she turns her back on him and leaves with it.

– From World Championship Wrestling, November 1987. Flair does the go-home promo for Starrcade ’87, talking about how people don’t like his privileged upbringing and generally being better than everyone else in the world. He goes on another crazy rant about his Rolex and expensive shoes and how Starrcade is the only thing going on Thanksgiving night. That was a rare shot across the bow of the WWF.

The Pulse

Well, they call this one “Definitive” but really there’s STILL hours of great matches left untouched, as neither this nor the “Ultimate” set that was out previously touch on his WCW run from 94-2000 in any great detail. This is more like “The best of what we had left without overlapping” and it feels like a cash grab. A cash grab with multiple **** matches, sure, but one nonetheless. That being said, Flair DVD sets are no-brainers — just find a bunch of great matches that are unreleased, throw on 12 – 20 random promos from the 80s, and I’ll buy it. So they must be doing something right.

Strongly recommended despite all its weaknesses.