Ric Flair's first WWeF run

[Guest Razor Roman]

I was just thinking about Ric Flair's 91-92 run in the WWF.... and thinking about Vince's logn standing policy of not putting WCW guys over his WWF guys, and how (surely) Ric Flair could have been the exception to that rule, right?

 

Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Ric Flair really went over anyone during his WWF run.

 

1. Roddy Piper - the blowoff to this feud was a SurvivorSeries match which he was the sole winner of... not a decisive winner of a feud there.

 

2. Wins the title at the Royal Rumble... when Sid gets pulled out by Hogan.

 

3. Loses belt to Randy Savage

 

4. Wins belt back from Savage at... a house show?

 

5. Loses belt to Bret Hart at a house show.

 

6. Pointless Survivor Series match Flair & Ramon vs Mr. Perfect and Randy Savage... I think this one was mostly just to elevate Razor Ramon.

 

 

Am I wrong? My memory of this period is a little fuzzy.

 

How could Vince McMahon not put over Ric Flair bah god.

[Guest J*ingus]

I don't think he ever went over anyone clean, but he did still pin a whole lot of people with the standard Flair cheating ways: Bret Hart, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Shawn Michaels, and even Hogan once.

[Guest joshicho]

Vince believed that Flair was coming to the end of his career as a useful character, and so he wanted to tone down his in-ring presence. Thats why Flair went back to WCW i believe

[Guest Tony149]

Flair's second WWF title win was shown on Prime Time Wrestling as an exclusive.

 

I heard that Flair/Savage match had to be taped twice on the same night because their first match sucked due to Flair working over the knee. Does anybody know if that's true?

 

As for going over clean, I think you're both right. He really didn't go over clean, but won by cheating i.e. foot on the ropes, etc.

[Guest bob_barron]

Flair's second title win was also on Superstars.

[Guest papacita]

I dunno about the rest of you, but I think Flair owned that feud w/ Piper. Decisive win or not, that wasn't even close.

 

Flair and Savage morphed into the Perfect feud, which Flair eventually lost, but Savage kinda faded away after losing the Title so I'd give him that feud do to the 2nd title victory.

 

Flair DID beat the Anvil though. I'm sure that'll get him something.

[Guest dreamer420]

flair never really dominated or won any feuds. his feud with randy savage was probably his best in the wwf.

[Guest papacita]

I disagree. I don't think I can ever remember Piper beating Flair in the WWF, from the Superstars attack on. I'd definitely give the feud to Flair.

 

As for Flair never decisively winning a feud...I think that's more to do with the WWF's PPV schedule than anything else, because PPV's were spread so far apart in those days that I'd suspect that it'd be a little difficult to give a lot of programs a proper or memorable blow-off. For example, Warrior and Shango was a major feud post WM8. Warrior dominated Shango on house shows, but I don't think I ever remember seeing a televised blow-off. As a matter of fact...aside from the black ooze and the vomit incident, I don't remember anything televised between those 2. And then the Undertaker/Berserker feud. Last I remember, he tried to stab Taker with the sword, don't remember anything after that. Not the best examples, but the point I'm really trying to make is that for 92 WWF, you can't look at PPV matches alone when judging a wrestler's success, and a house show blow-off isn't necessarily a bad thing (IMO, having 2 World Title Changes on house shows was a good idea, because it added an element of unpredictability to the fed). And as for Flair never going over "cleanly" or w/o cheating, that really just went along with his "Dirtiest Player in the Game" gimmick, so it's not really a problem to me.

 

Ah...I'm tired and way overdue for my nightly Chyna dream...so if any of this doesn't make sense, like an ass!

[Guest Razor Roman]

Thanks for the info, guys... I was really into WWF from Wrestlemania 6 until Wrestlemania 8, then gradually lost interest, not ordering a PPV from SummerSlam 92 until WrestleMania 9... so I missed the whole "Flair - Perfect" feud, Savage fading out, etc... I do remember Mr. Perfect beat flair in a "retirement" match on Monday Night Raw very early on. And yeah, Flair did dominate Piper... but I don't recall him beating him one-on-one except in a Madison Square Garden house show... which used to get televised like a month later on MSG network back then... that was Super Cool! I got to see Ultimate Warrior - Undertaker in a body bag match...

 

 

And only now do I realize how scary that matchup must sound to most smarks. lol.

[Guest dreamer420]

i bet as a kid you were loving the feud but now it just sounds like a show killer.

[Guest Razor Roman]

i bet as a kid you were loving the feud but now it just sounds like a show killer.

heck yeah.. I loved watching the Hose Shows as a kid....

 

I got to see Hogan and Tugboat vs Earthquake and Dino Bravo live at MSG...

 

Then I got to see on TV

 

Warrior vs Savage Steel Cage,

Warrior vs UT Body Bag

Flair vs Piper

Flair vs Hogan

 

plus some great matches involving Ko Ko B. Ware!

[Guest dreamer420]

plus some great matches involving Ko Ko B. Ware!

when? where? how?

[Guest cabbageboy]

I think Flair got the better of Piper though I don't really recall a PPV blowoff match. The whole Rumble was designed so that Flair could win the title without having Hogan or UT jobbing to him. He lost to Savage but since he won it back later on (seems like Superstars, not Prime Time) I'd say he won that feud. The only one he decidedly lost was to Perfect.

[Guest wayzing]

1). It's true that they taped the match where Flair regained the title twice. They didn't even finish the first match. They just stopped it. Must have looked strange.

 

2). Flair (and other heel champions) don't hold that many clean victories from his heel days. That used to be reserved for the faces. Remember back in the 80's when he dominated the NWA world title the 4 Horsemen's main mission was to keep the title on Flair. This used to be a big issue among "smart fans" in the 80's; How would Flair be persieved if Dusty Rhodes, who was blamed for everything, including expensive gas, back then hadn't insisted on presenting him as a champ who always need to cheat against challengers such as Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, Sting, Nikita Koloff, Magnum TA and the list goes on and on.

 

Of course during his short face run in 1989 he scored clean victories when he regained the world title from Ricky Steamboat (at WrestleWar where his face run officially began) and then he beat Terry Funk clean. Well, holding a clean win over the Funker isn't exactly unique. He was also a face when he beat Vader for the title at Starrcade'93. He also pinned the Great Muta as a face at Starrcade'89 shortly before the Horsemen's turn on Sting in early 1990. And after that it was bye bye clean wins again.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

I think that Vince (and Flair) knew that he didn't need to go over in these feuds. He was already a legend at that point, moreso that Hennig, Savage, or Piper. Any of them had more to gain by beating Flair than he had to lose by losing to them (Did that make any sense?!?)