Should Ric Flair retire or not?

[Guest gearhead]

I think that his time in wrestling business is almost coming to the end. But i still hope that he stays a while longer. In my opinion he could still do it, just remember the match vs HHH a while back on raw. It was amazing and ever since he's been wrestling on almost every raw ppv. What do you think..should Ric flair retire or should he stay?

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

Orton turns on him soon I'd guess. I think he should get one up on evolution with the rock saving him a few times then job to orton, and that's it for active wrestling. Mind you, he's probably gotta feud with Bischoff at some point.

[clean rob 0]

They should keep Flair as an on-air character in the background, but they seriously need to reduce the amount of matches he's having. Just as it looks like they may do with Angle, make a Flair match a 'special event', just once every so often. The more regular his matches are, the more identical they seem, and he's too old to be taking all those bumps.

[haVoc 0]

Clean Rob pretty much answered for most of us.

 

Besides, it's good to have Flair in the corner of these guys. I've been wanting male managers to return for a long time now and to be a male manager you have to understand the business, know how things work in the ring, cut promo's, have charisma, among other little things. Who could possibly be better then Flair in that role?

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

I've been really digging his tag stuff w/ Batista, however I wouldn't give him any kind of singles push/"final run". If he were to retire from active competition, I'd still keep him around as a manager/mouthpiece, since he's still good on the mic and can take bumps.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Should he retire? Yes, undoubtedly.

 

Do I want him to retire? No, not at all.

 

The guy's one of my favorites of all time, and even now that he's a shadow of his former self he's still one of the most fun to watch. But I agree with the others, a feud with Orton is inevitable, and that'll probably be his last hurrah*.

 

*until he comes out of retirement and wrestles in some pointless match.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

What was so "amazing" about the match? Flair is the most predictable worker in history and HHH ain't far behind. The only redeeming factor was the hot (allbeit stupid) crowd that actually thought Flair might've been winning.

[razazteca 0]

Retire from wrestling? Yes.

 

Flair as the manager is the perfect job right now.

[2GOLD 0]

Flair is nothing more than a drunk horny grandfather running around the ring wooing and rubbing the members of Evolution like he wants to have sex with them.

 

It's funny for all the wrong reasons now.

 

And for goodness sake, if he must wrestle then put him in a shirt.

[tbondrage99 0]

Should he retire? Yes, undoubtedly.

 

Do I want him to retire? No, not at all.

 

The guy's one of my favorites of all time, and even now that he's a shadow of his former self he's still one of the most fun to watch. But I agree with the others, a feud with Orton is inevitable, and that'll probably be his last hurrah*.

 

*until he comes out of retirement and wrestles in some pointless match.

I pretty much agree with all of that. Still before Flair retires from active wrestling I would love to see him with just one last title run, if anyone has ever deserved to win the title in one last run it should without a doubt in my mind be Ric Flair, He maybe the oldest guy on the roster by far but hes still better then at least 70% of the active roster.

[Guest Loss]

And that's more of a sad reflection on the roster than it is an endorsement of Flair.

 

He should have retired in 1993.

 

Ric is my favorite wrestler ever, but he's pissed on his legacy constantly since about 1990 or so.

 

I don't want to see him doing promos anymore even. I want him to go home and stay there. The temptation to get in the ring will always be strong, and I have this fear that taking those bumps at his age, he's going to drop dead on live TV one day, and that scares me.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Every single time Flair takes a back body drop I hold my breath because he comes about a quarter inch away from breaking his neck.

 

I agree w/ what Loss said. The dude is still over and a use is there for him as a manager but inside the ring he's lost and confused more often then not.

[cabbageboy 0]

I dunno, Flair has done plenty of quality stuff since 1993. I mean hell in 93 he had a great match with Vader at Starrcade, in 94 he was kinda embarrassed by Hogan but the matches were some of Hogan's best. In 95/96 he revived his feud with Macho and had some more quality matches. Admittedly the late 90s weren't all that kind to Flair as he was hurt or on suspension from WCW (or jobbing to Bischoff at Starrcade).

[Guest Loss]

Yes, but why can't someone like Flair, who had the legacy of being the best ever, whether he was or not, leave on top? Had Flair retired in '93, he'd be remembered as he deserves to be remembered instead of an old codger who hung on too long, embarrassed himself and didn't know when to quit.

 

Just because wrestlers *can* keep going doesn't mean they *should* keep going.

[dubq 0]

Flair should retire, IMO. He's better off as the manager for Evolution.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Loss, just because someone stayed on long after their best days were behind them, it doesn't mean that their legacy will be irrepably tarnished. To take it to 'real' sports, look at Willie Mays or Michael Jordan. Do people talk about Mays playing like shit as a Met, or his peak as a Giant? Who, in the future, will focus more on Jordan's very pedestrian days as a Bullet (or whatever Washington is called now) rather than as a Bull??

 

If Flair wants to be out there, let him. The only people who will really focus on the Flair of today are the new marks that don't bother to learn about the past, and thus only know him as a freaky looking old guy.

[Guest Loss]

And in that we have the majority of wrestling fans.

 

Real sports are a little different because there's much more respect for history.

[TheBigSwigg 0]

What was so "amazing" about the match? Flair is the most predictable worker in history and HHH ain't far behind.

Honestly, every single worker gets predictable after a while. Look at RVD, Edge, etc. Just because Flair is doesn't mean he should retire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He should, though. Really. No, REEAALLLY

[Guest Dids]

The problem with Flair is that he's got no offense beyond the chops and the figure 4, and he's so slow and stiff in the ring that there's no benefit to anybody in going over him. Sheldon gained nothing from beating him.

 

The only way he works is as the brains part of the Ric and Dave show, but that still dies once he's in the ring.

[Guest Coffey]

Flair should retire from the ring, but he should never get out of the business. He's too valuable. Make him a manager (which he sort of is now) or bring him in as a color commentator. We all know that Ric Flair can talk. We know that Flair was notorious for making his opponents look good in the ring. So what would happen when you put the two together? I'm thinking Flair would help get over the wrestling talent on color the way that Jesse Ventura did. It's not like Flair doesn't have the wrestling knowledge and know how to pull it off.

 

He has to be better than Lawler, and that would be out of the blocks. Imagine what Flair would be like once he became comfortable with the new position and had time to develop into the Flair that we all know and love.

[clean rob 0]

And in that we have the majority of wrestling fans.

 

Real sports are a little different because there's much more respect for history.

If wrestling fans have so little respect for history and don't bother to think about what happened before 12 months ago, and Flair hasn't done anything of note in 10 years, then how come he still gets one of the better reactions on Raw, the crowd 'woooo' along with him, and he just sold a ton of DVDs?

[Guest Coffey]

Nostalgia?

[clean rob 0]

Nostalgia?

Tch...if you go answering for him, then he'll never learn to think on his own Coffey. Let someone else put their hand up for a change.

 

Anyway, that's kind of my point - if the fans didn't remember (or at least know of) Flair's history, he'd be getting much less reaction, because he hasn't done much recently. Hell, Sgt. Slaughter's hardly ever mentioned on TV, but every time he makes an appearance the fans give him a 'Slaughter!' chant.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Flair will never retire.

[Guest Coffey]

Nostalgia?

Tch...if you go answering for him, then he'll never learn to think on his own Coffey. Let someone else put their hand up for a change.

 

Anyway, that's kind of my point - if the fans didn't remember (or at least know of) Flair's history, he'd be getting much less reaction, because he hasn't done much recently. Hell, Sgt. Slaughter's hardly ever mentioned on TV, but every time he makes an appearance the fans give him a 'Slaughter!' chant.

My bad.

 

I think you could chalk a lot of it up to the fans being...followers. Just a majority of people recreating something that they've witnessed before. For example, if they are watching Raw on television one week and see the crowd go bat shit insane for Flair, with tons of people chanting "woo" maybe it would entice them to do so themselves when they go to a show?

 

I know that when I go to live shows, there's always at least one person who screamed "woo" before anything is even taking place...before the Fink even comes out. It never fails that someone fires back with a "woo" of their own too. The "woo" is almost beyond Ric Flair at this point. It's like the DDT. It's been used and beaten down so much that now it's no longer a finisher, but a two count at best.

 

Remember in ECW when the crowd would chant "woo" thirty fucking times in a row during any random match that had a knife-edge chop? You can't tell me all of the people chanting that were thinking "Hey, knife-edge, Ric Flair!" each time that they said it. Maybe the first few times, but what about when it got into the twenties?

 

The same with Sgt. Slaughter. Sure, I bet there are at least a few people in the crowd that remember him when he was a wrestler. Probably a few more that remember him getting clowned on by Steve Austin and/or D-X. I bet the majority of the people that chant "Slaughter" however are just people joining in after they figure out what everyone else is saying.

 

The "long time fans" still exist, but they are a minority now. They've taken a back seat to the "attitude era" fanbase. That's why sports bars show PPV's. That's why when you go to a live show you can always run into that one redneck who likes to drink beer and ask "where's Stone Cold?"

 

Chalk some of it up to nostalgia. Chalk some of it up to respect. I'd chalk most of it up to mob mentality however.

[clean rob 0]

Hmmm, yeah - you're probably right about the woo-ing. Although I'd like to think that at least a large proportion of the crowd are actually cheering Flair for some reason, I suppose it may well be the case that an awful lot are just following along with everyone else. How sad.

[Guest Korgath]

I wish Flair wouldn't bump so much. It's crazy seeing someone his age climbing up to the top turnbuckle only to be thrown off over and over again.

[Guest Stunt Granny]

Am I the only one who thinks Flair ISN'T a good promo guy anymore. It's just a bunch of nonsensical rambling and rolling his head around until his face turns blue.

[Guest Coffey]

Yeah, but that's what all the greats do. Look at Hogan's promos. What the fuck was Hogan talking about? The Trump Plaza opening up from a big earthquake and everyone would fall into the center of the earth unless they grabbed onto the largest arms in the world? WTF?

 

Flair plays the crazy old veteran now, so it works. When he was the world champion, he played the dastardly heel whom was rich and all that. So it worked.

 

He gets into whatever he's around.

[AlaskanHero 0]

I like Flair's promos and antics. He's like the crazy, old grandfather guy. He brings the funny to the usually serious Evolution.