People Need To Shut Up About Ric Flair

With the announcement of Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan stepping into the ring March 8th, there has been a lot of negative press from the online community about these old men getting into the ring. While I do agree with most things said about Hogan, I do not fully agree with what people are saying about Flair, especially since they are calling him a sell out and a guy that is turning his back on the WWE.

I wrote an article a while back asking the question about Ric Flair being a sell out at this link:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/324512-ric-flair-selling-out

I didn't call into question his loyaty to WWE, but more about Ric Flair, the person. Not only did Flair bash the higher ups in TNA in that interview, but his book didn't have many nice things to say about the current powers that be in TNA either.

Altercation with Eric Bischoff

Flair described in his autobiography how he attacked Eric Bischoff backstage at a WWE house show, saying it was due to hating how Bischoff treated him in WCW. Flair stated that Arn Anderson kept watch while he tried to get Bischoff to fight him, but that the confrontation was interrupted by Sgt. Slaughter, who promptly informed Vince McMahon of the incident. McMahon then scolded Flair, telling him that his actions were unprofessional and that it couldn't happen again.

Tension with Hulk Hogan

In his book, Flair also touched on some real life tension between himself and Hulk Hogan which largely stemmed from an incident that followed the conclusion of a tag match between Flair and his son, David, and the team of Curt Hennig and Barry Windham at WCW's Souled Out pay-per-view on January 17, 1999, in Charleston, WV. Flair described Hogan and members of the New World Order coming out to attack them, as well as Hogan whipping an incapacitated David with a leather belt as Flair was forced to look on. "What no one had told me was that Hogan would try to be cute and whip David over and over again....there was Hogan -- with all his experience, and all his celebrity -- trying to be cute. He whipped David like a dog. It was sickening, and I'll never forgive him for it", Flair wrote of the incident.

It seems like there is legit heat with those guys. However, the book was written in 2004. I'm not 100% sure when that video interview happened. Maybe, they all patched things up. Foley and Flair patched things up and Hart is now with the WWE, so it could be possible that they patched things up. I'm not sold on the idea, though, and feel it is more than that.

Flair talked about wanting to be wanted. RVD feels the same way. Hogan is making quite the strong push to get RVD on TNA, even going so far as to call Rob on his own show and stay on the line for him for an hour. You won't see HHH do that to get RVD to come back with the WWE. Even JR said that a company would have to be dumb not to give RVD the schedule he wants as he is that high in demand.

WWE, well, Vince, has made no effort to get Flair on TV. Once he got destroyed by Randy Orton (the same man Hogan had his last WWE match with), he was never asked to come back and ignite the feud. We know he is retired, but why couldn't he be the manager of a wrestler to go against Legacy? The namesake alone is still a draw. You go to any wrestling show, you are bound to hear a WOO chant standing in line or before the show starts in the arena. I mean, if Austin called up Vince, you are damn right Vince would probably use him just because of his name. We also know that Austin can't put on a match to save his life now, but that doesn't make him any less valuable to a company.

Is it Flair's fault that he is "retired"? No. Is it his fault WWE didn't want to continue using him? Not at all. TNA did everything they could to get Flair to sign with them. They made him feel wanted and needed. WWE didn't do that to Flair.

Switch shoes for a second and picture yourself living the life of Flair right now. Vince basically forced you to retire so he could draw big money in the angle. And yes, WM 24 drew a LOT of money. It grossed 5.85 million dollars in ticket sells to make it the highest grossing WWE PPV in history as well as highest grossing event for the Citrus Bowl. 51.5 million dollars (they projected it would do 25 million) went into the local economy with 1.8 million dollars in local tax. The PPV had over 1 million buyrates which grossed 23.8 million dollars. You can bet that a lot of it had to do with watching Flair on TV.

But did he want to retire? Many people say he was pushed out. Flair even claims he wasn't ready to hang it up. But Vince, the man in power, wanted to do this angle and get him out. He cared about getting the money out of Flair and that's it. Hell, even Stone Cold came up with ideas for Flair, which I believe had him have one final run with the World Championship, but Vince shot that down and I believe we can all say during the course of this angle, it wasn't as great as it could have been.

The big issue, though, and which we have to look at it through the eyes of Ric Flair and not as fans, marks, whatever you want to call it is that he lived the life that he portrayed on TV. That life is very costly. He opened a business, Ric Flair Finance, and it closed down not even a year later. He has three ex wives in which he will be paying them for the rest of his life as well as his current wife. I don't know how many kids the man has, besides Reid, Ashley, and David. But if you were in Flair's shoes, you'd be wanting to get back into the business as you need that income.

The business is no doubt in his blood, he needs to be needed, but most importantly, he needs the money. Like many older wrestlers, he probably wasn't wise with his money. He needs the paycheck to support his needs as well as not getting thrown in jail for not making those payments to the ex's. He also has quite a lot to give back to the business. No doubt he is one of the best professional wrestlers/sports entertainment performers to ever step inside the squared circle. He can show the new guys the ropes, how to get over with the crowd, among countless other things.

So is Flair a sell out? I guess one could say so because he's after the money (though, let's be honest, each and every one of us would sell out for a price). Is he going back against his word for the money? Again, one could say so, given how he trashed the company and the boys (then again, how many wrestlers have done that before?). Did he turn his back on the WWE? No, Vince McMahon used him like a condom and once he got his use out of him, tossed him out like everyone else. I'm not bashing Vince for that because this is a business and it's all about making money. But one shouldn't say Flair is tarnishing his legacy or spitting in the face of the WWE when they themselves do not know the real story or even imagine walking a mile in Flair's shoes.

I know I'll probably get slammed for this article and be called a mark, but you know what, you damn right I am a mark. The term mark can also be applied to a fan who idolizes a particular wrestler, promotion, or style of wrestling to a point some might consider excessive. And yes, I am a big fan and view guys like Jericho, Flair, Hart, Hennig, and the like in a very high standard. But aren't we all marks? Don't we all view some wrestler in a higher than life standard and would freak out if we were to ever get a chance to hang out with the wrestler? I think so. There is a mark in each and every one of us. And I, for one, will mark out to see Flair give one more WOO and place Hogan in the Figure Four on March 8th.