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#01 RIC FLAIR

Ring Performance - 9
Mic/Charisma - 10
Overall Impact - 10

We finally have our greatest professional wrestler and as you may have guessed by now, it is the one and only, Ric Flair. You will notice that I do not believe that Flair had the impact on the sport that the Hulkster did and I will defend that to the death. Of course, I don't have to...after this is the definitive list of wrestlers in history. The reason I say that is that Ric Flair never attained the level of crossover appeal as many of the wrestlers previously featured here. Flair never appeared in TV shows, commercials or anything else commercial. Why? Because The Nature Boy now and for the last 30 years has ate, slept and breathed professional wrestling. Of course, part of this lack of national appeal was his clear preference to stay in the AWA/NWA/WCW which was a regional promotion for most of its history.

Ric is, without a doubt, the quintessential heel in the history of wrestling. There was no wrestler who had more of a love/hate relationship with the crowd. In his days in the WCW, there would be thousands of Sting fans wishing Flair would keel over and die during one of his heart attack inducing rants and yet you know that they were to see him.

Ric began his career in 1972 (He has been wrestling for 35 years! Holy Shit!) in the American Wrestling Association. He suffered a back injury in 1975 and had to change his wrestling style because of it. To compensate for his lack of athletic ability and limitations due to back injury he invented the “Nature Boy” character that would remain his signature gimmick throughout his entire career. I do feel like I have to explain the AWA and the NWA for my younger readers. Ric gained his notoriety in these leagues and yet they ceased to exist 15 years ago so a short history lesson is in order.

Prior to the 90s, wrestling was largely regional with a strong following in the South. The AWA and the NWA were basically competing organizations that were combined to create the WCW in 1986. That is the reason the WCW had a more Southern feel even in the late 90s. Flair was the centerpiece of this new conglomerate and the WCW would become a fixture on TBS in the mid 1980s..when I started watching wrestling. I actually watched the WCW much more as a kid than I did the WWF because TBS was more widely available.

Back to The Nature Boy and his great career. One of the major contributions that Flair made to the world of professional wrestling was the introduction of the faction. Of course, the faction that I speak of is The Four Horsemen. The Four Horseman came to be in 1986 with Flair as the leader. The original members were Flair, Ole and Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. This faction was the precursor for later factions like the N.W.O and DeGenerationX. The Horsemen reigned terror on the WCW by attacking people backstage and during matches. They also had incredible success with Flair as the Heavyweight Champion, Blanchard as the TV Champion and The Anderson Brothers holding the tag-team straps. They were also close out of the ring as they traveled around the circuit in jets and limos while banging chicks in every town they traveled to. I can just picture “Natch” sniffing coke off of some nasty 80s whore in preparation for a one of his cocaine-enhanced shit talk rampages...simply priceless. They were the ultimate heel faction, they were booed mercilessly at every arena and yet you could not help but think that the crowd loved them. This faction would live on until 1999 with many other members but Flair and Arn Anderson were the constant within The Horsemen. I was always bothered by the fact that losers like Dean Malenko and Steve “Mongo” McMichael were allowed to call themselves Horsemen. Nonetheless, The Four Horsemen invented the idea of a stable of wrestlers united for one cause and it was an important innovation that improved the sport immeasurably.

While Flair did most of his damage in the WCW he did have a stint in the WWF from 1991-1993. He was fired by the WCW when he refused to take a pay cut and change his gimmick. He joined the WWF while still holding the WCW title and he billed himself the “real title holder”. He gained the WWF title in the 1992 Royal Rumble defeating Sid Justice, the last man standing. His run in the WWF was helped by fellow legend, Curt “Mr. Perfect” Hennig who was posing as Flair's assistant while he recovered from a major back injury. He held the title until he dropped the title to Bret Hart in a loser leaves town match. He rejoined the WCW after losing the title and is one of the few truly great wrestlers to be primarily a non-WWF wrestler.

In 1993, Flair rejoined the WCW and beat Vader to regain the WCW Heavyweight Championship. In 1994 the WCW would sign Hulk Hogan and the inevitable Flair vs. Hogan match was set in which Hogan took the belt. He “retired” after losing a retirement match to Hogan and returned in a more limited role later in 1994. He reignited his WWF feud with The Macho Man in late 1994 the featured each of them winning and losing the belt to each other. Flair assaulted Savage's father and defeated Savage and more importantly he walked away with Elizabeth to conclude the feud.

Flair was the point man in the N.W.O vs. WCW war that began with The Outsiders declaring war on the WCW in 1996. As the N.W.O  became increasingly popular, Flair was reduced to feuding with Eric Bischoff and providing comic relief. It was sad to see the WCW lose sight of what made it a relevant organization and this type of incompetence led to its ultimate demise.

The Nature Boy was clearly an accomplished wrestler and had as much success within the sport as anyone but that is not why he is the greatest wrestler in history. Flair, for intents and purposes, invented the modern image of pro wrestling. While The Hulkster was the prototypical 80s wrestler, Flair was the prototype for the modern wrestler. He was brash, stylish and able to deliver world-class taglines without a hitch. His interviews are bar none the best ever..no one could excite and piss off a crowd with such ease. He was “Stylin and Profilin” all night long for 30 years. Of course, “Woooooooooooo” is the ultimate tagline in the history of wrestling...it will screamed every time a guy hits someone with the chop to the chest. The greatest Flair line was when he was talking about his cock which he called “Space Mountain” (naming your cock is most certainly manly)...”Space Mountain may be the oldest ride but its got the longest line baby..Woooooooo”..what could possibly be better than that.

In the ring Flair was no slouch. He was not an aerial guy or a power guy but what he did do was sell better than anyone in the history of the business. To me the ability to sell getting your ass kicked is more impressive than being able to powerbomb someone through the canvas. Most of the great starts are known for their no sells, look no further than #2 on this list. The Flair Flop may be the single greatest wrestling maneuver in history. For any idiot out there that does not know what the Flair Flop is I will attempt to explain this breathtaking maneuver. The Flop can be executed anywhere in the match but mostly it was done to signal the end of an opponent's offensive combination. He would take a punch, for example, take about four steps sometimes in a circle and then kick his legs out so that he was parallel to the ground and plant his head in the mat. It would bring the crowd to its feet and always give his foe a boost of confidence. Looking back, most of Flair's best in-ring performances were based on him getting his ass kicked. Another gem is the Flair Flip. When he is Irish whipped into the corner turn buckle he will run full speed at the buckle and then flip himself over the turn buckle. It looked painful and it was unique to The Nature Boy. His ability to sell a beating is part of his greatness in the ring but the way that he would win matches was equally as great.

Flair was the dirtiest wrestler in history. As we all know, there is no “cheating” in wrestling, in other words everything is allowed. That being said, there are certain “rules” that you are supposed to follow and most wrestlers generally do. A rake to the eyes is technically illegal and most wrestlers don't do it... Flair was the king of the rake to the eyes. Another no no is to beg out of a beating. In nearly every match Flair would be getting his ass kicked and he would cower in the corner begging for the beating to stop by shaking his hair around and putting his arms out as if to say “no more”. The best part of this begging is that it was always a ploy to draw his opponent in for a forearm shot to the nuts. It was pure genius. Flair was always able to gain the mental advantage using ploys like this and it served him well. Flair is the 16 time Heavyweight Champion of the World (although the record shows that he is, in fact, a 22 time Champion) making him the most decorated professional wrestler of all time.

His signature offensive moves were simple and effective. He pioneered the knife edge chop to the chest which to this day I have never seen another wrestler do with such ferocity. In all of Flair's matches you could see swelling and redness on his opponent's chest. This move was always followed by a Wooooooo to which the crowd would repeat. To this day, a knife edge chop in any wrestling match results in a collective Woooooo from the crowd. His finishing move the Figure Four submission hold. It was an ankle lock that very few ever escaped from. It was set up by Flair attacking the knee repeatedly and you could always feel the end coming when Flair would attack a knee. In the 1980s, wrestling matches were much longer than they are now so the momentum of a match was more important than it is now. Flair would turn the momentum of a match around with some sort of cheap shot to the knee. As soon as that happened the assault would commence and more often than not, the match would end in a submission to the Figure Four.

As great as Flair was talking and wrestling, he also had the look of a legend. His out of the ring attire was always a custom suit complete with aviator sunglasses. As he would say “He was custom made, head to toe”. He also had the greatest hair in history. His platinum blonde feathered mullet was simply the greatest hair style in wrestling. It served two purposes; one, it made him look like a million dollars and also was used to flail around to make the matches more believable. It is not a stretch to say that millions of southerners still see that hair as model for their own mullets, it was simply the best. His ring entrance was also head of the class. He would come out the music from the Space Odyssey...an eerie sounding ring entrance that always let you know that the man was on his way. When he would emerge from backstage he would be adorned in his legendary sequined robe with The Nature Boy written on the back. On his way to the ring he would mock fans, pretend to shake hands and then pull his hand back and fix his hair and let around a handful of Wooooo's to the usually booing crowd. In the early days he would have a woman remove his robe and tell her that she was coming backstage with him after the match.

Simply put, everything Flair did was the best. He was the best talker in history. His in-ring antics were hilarious, entertaining and amazing at creating a mood for the match. His character was the standard that all wrestlers try to emulate...and ultimately they fall short. Ric “The Nature Boy” Flair is the greatest wrestler in history..to this there can be no argument. I feel fortunate that I was able to see the greatest professional wrestler in history in his prime. I know that no wrestler will ever match him, I could write this list in 20 years and I know for a fact that Flair would still be #1. Ric Flair, thank you for being the greatest, thank you for not selling out wrestling, thank you for setting the standard of what a wrestler should be, thank you for being the best ever. To be the man, you have to beat the man, Woooooooooooooooo!

-arthur@arthurshall.com