Shining a Spotlight 2.28.08: The Dark Side of Flair

My column this week is likely to make a few folks here in the IWC upset. I expect that. I am, after all, laying a few charges into a man who’s practically an elevated saint to online wrestling fans. I expect it and I’m ready for it. These are my own opinions, after all and I know everyone won’t agree but I’ve got a column, might as well use it.

A lot of talk has been about Ric Flair lately as it does seem like he’s finally going to be hanging it up soon for real. I know, it’s hard to believe but the fact is, the man is hurting and it’s clear his best days are long past him. WWE is building up to it with this thing that his next loss is his final match and it seems Wrestlemania will be a showdown with him and some major superstar to send him out big. It’s a nice build up and naturally guys all over and talking about how amazing Flair’s career has been and it’s good to see him go out on a high of sorts. So of course, most guys talk of the amazing job Flair has done over the years and his reputation are arguably the greatest wrestler of all time and all around great guy.

But does he deserve it?

Yes, in his prime, Ric Flair was a sensational worker capable of holding the heat of crowds all over and getting a great match out of most everyone. He helped keep Jim Crockett and WCW going for a while and fans loved him for it. His matches with the likes of Ricky Steamboat and Barry Windham remain classics and even his later stuff gets folks going. In terms of pure wrestling abilities and carrying crowd heat, Flair really may be the best the business has ever seen.

But I think, at this time, it’s important to realize that even the most respected guys often have a darker side. And with Flair, you have to recognize that as well. I’m not getting into any of his personal or marital issues, I’m talking about his behavior when he was champion, during those times when he was supposedly carrying NWA/WCW on his back. Because if you look back with a less opinionated eye, you might be able to tell that, in that time period, Flair was a spotlight-hogging politician desperate to keep onto his spot to the detriment of the company.

Again, I know that sounds bad and I know guys will rip into me about it. But I ask you at least hear me out. I think a lot of it is 20/20 hindsight, mostly from guys who loved NWA/WCW, preferring its more real approach to the circus of WWF. To them, Flair is an idol beyond reproach who always, always deserves respect above all others. That attitude has really grown since WCW went under and WWE remains on top as so many guys prefer back to when things were “better” with that old style of wrestling.

But the fact was, as someone who grew up watching wrestling in that time, the times weren’t as great as guys might think. Memory is a funny thing as we’ll always tend to remember things much better than they were. How many times have we clung to an old TV show or song from when were kids only to catch it recently and go “man, that sucked.” I remember a couple of episodes of The Twilight Zone where men go back in time to discover things weren’t as idyllic as they remember and realize time had made them fonder in their minds. It happens to all of us, we can’t deny it and it hits me that it really applies to wrestling a lot.

A lot of workers are remembered a bit more fondly than they really were because of their end fates. Brusier Brody is a good example. The guy is noted now as a legend for his brutal work, his wild brawls and drawing money. But the fact is, Brody would end up often doing a lot of damage by only hanging around a territory for a few weeks, burying talent as he went, his matches just mindless brawls for the majority and when he did leave, it would often leave the place worse than when he got there. That got him blackballed from a lot of places which is why he was in Puerto Rico when he was stabbed to death in a locker room. Because of that sudden death, a lot of guys are able to look at him with more of a kind light. On the opposite end, you’ve got Benoit, whose in-ring work will always be overshadowed by his horrible end actions.

So I believe a lot of the good feeling on Flair is by the die-hard lovers of WCW/NWA, the guys who held to it as being “pure” in contrast to WWF. However, they do overlook the problems of back then. A lot of people who pick up Tim Hornbaker’s excellent book on the NWA would probably be shocked at the fact that so many of these promoters make Vince look like the epitome of the caring and noble businessman. Say what you will about Vince but he hasn’t sunk as low as to commit class A felonies to keep himself going like a lot of those guys did.

The way the NWA worked was that the champion would go to the various territories to face the wrestlers and it really was a big deal then when the World champ came to town. So having a heel champion made some sense as fans would pay big money to see their local hero get a shot at winning the big belt. Of course, the majority of these fans didn’t know the deck was stacked as the NWA board had to vote on who would get the title and rarely did they want to give it to one of the smaller territories. That was very true when Flair dropped the belt to Kerry Von Erich in1984, as pretty much the only reason Kerry got the shot was because his brother David had died a few months earlier and Flair and the NWA recognized the box office of Kerry getting the win. However, there was never any plan to let Kerry be a long-term champion because a guy from a promotion like World Class just didn’t have the clout with the NWA board to have that big reign (Kerry’s personal problems hardly helped).

Make no mistake, from 1984 to 1987, Flair was a master of making contenders. He even managed to get title programs together with Ricky Morton or Road Warrior Hawk, letting himself get pinned in a tag team match to show he could be beat and thus leading to a series of fights where fans truly believed these tag team wrestlers could become World champion. The key to Flair’s success was that as good as he talked up the game and as skilled as he was, he always showed just enough weakness to make people believe he really could lose the belt any night and they wanted to be there if he did.

So that worked for quite a while and Flair’s two-year reign as champ from 84 to 86 proved that. But it also showed that the NWA was leaning on Flair and his star power a lot to keep them going, which wasn’t quite a smart move, for reasons I’ll get into in a bit. By the time 1987 began, things were changing as Vince was swallowing up the territories and so by this point, Crockett had basically become the public face and push for the NWA. As such, Flair’s challengers were limited to Crockett’s own, particularly Dusty Rhodes who soon got into using his infamous finish to make fans think a favorite had beaten Flair only to have it reversed. This constant bait and switch helped undermine the title’s standing while Flair himself remained on top.

Indeed, 1987 can be seen as the time when Flair started throwing some of his political weight around. Take the whole Ronnie Garvin debacle. Garvin was a good wrestler but had nowhere near the star power to be NWA champion so having him beat Flair for the title was a surprise. Of course, Garvin was never intended to be a long-term champion but merely a placeholder so Flair could get the belt back at Starrcade to a big pop. Garvin was never allowed to even defend it as the heels refused to lay down for such on obvious lame duck champion and as such Garvin’s reign is one of the worst ever. Garvin’s career never recovered as Flair continued to dominate.

1988 brought in one of the most obvious bits of Flair using his power, which was the feud with Lex Luger. Dusty wanted Luger to beat Flair at Crockett’s big “Great American Bash” PPV and be the company’s leader. Now, I know a lot of us run down Luger but if you look at his stuff from 1987-91, he wasn’t that bad, albeit often carried. A lot of guys use 20/20 hindsight and Luger’s failings as a champion in 1991 to show that Flair made the right move here. He refused to job the title to Luger which led to constant matches ending with DQs, countouts or other non-results like that. That constant stream of seeing Luger come so close but Flair remain champion burned crowds, leading to lower house show attendance and forcing Crockett to sell to Turner.

Yes, Luger was rough in the ring at that time. But, as someone watching back then, he was hugely over with the fans. Sure, he was no technical master but then again, neither was Hogan and he dominated as a major star. Luger had drive, charisma and the backing of the fans and in that time period, he really could have done well as the champion. Maybe it would have worked, maybe not but the fact was, the fans wanted Luger to win the belt. This wasn’t the usual formula of any old challenger against Flair, they were ready to see Luger headlining as champion and would have paid to see him defending against Flair and others. If that had happened, it might have let Crockett survive, if only for a while longer and would have been a good thing for the NWA as a whole, let a fresh new face rise at the top. But Flair vetoed it and you can see the lasting results.

I know a lot of folks in the IWC talk about the money being in the faces chasing the champion heels. As I pointed out, some of that is true. But eventually, you have to let the faces win at least once in a while. But Flair just kept onto the belt more and more and with the Four Horsemen at his side, that dominance continued. It made him look weak to constantly need three guys to run in and help him keep the belt, less of a worthy champion and more a coward ducking the inevitable. By mid 88, the Horsemen controlled the three major titles of the NWA, a true monopoly that put them on top. Yes, it was cool to see but it also leads to major issues with the fans and the other wrestlers. Everyone complains over how the NWO dominated and refused to give others room but if you look back, you can see the Horsemen were just as bad. When your heels are getting more heat and even cheers than your faces, that’s a problem, especially when it goes on for such a long time. Not to mention that all these hot young stars were being pushed down so much, made to look weaker by coming so close but failing. Everyone talks of how great it was for Flair to give guys the rub and make them stars but when you refuse to let those stars get the wins, it makes the whole process worthless. There was some great talent in 1989 in WCW but the main event was Flair against either Steamboat or Funk and others weren’t given the chance to break out as well as they could. That’s not good for the bottom line of a company as WCW proved a decade later.

One of the most brilliant observations I’ve ever seen about wrestling is simple: “Heels give great matches, faces sell tickets.” The fact is that it’s faces who move the most merchandise and keep fans going a lot and a face as a long-term champion can be just as money-making as a heel champ. Hogan proved that for years and Cena did as well. Also, the fact is, a long-time face has more appeal with fans than a long-time heel due to feelings of sympathy for that face in his prime years. Flair and Dusty may have had good chemistry but letting them battle for literally years wasn’t a good move to keep the company alive with younger fans. Yes, the Horsemen were hot but leaning on them so much was a detriment to the company which was proven when Blanchard and Anderson jumped ship. The loss of two of their best workers left the company in a lurch that hastened the Turner sale. Of course, they kept pushing the Two Horsemen with Flair continuing to refuse to do the job to Luger.

Moving onto 1989, we see a slight shift in Flair’s spotlight hogging. He brought in Ricky Steamboat, put him over by being pinned and set up a big match. Of course, having a guy who’d been with the WWF for several years come in, do one match and instantly be the number one contender was a bit off putting to the long-time vets of the NWA. But the build up was still good leading to their terrific match at Chi-Town Rumble where Steamboat won the belt. It was a great moment but would lead to problems almost immediately.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m one of the biggest Ricky Steamboat marks alive. Any time I watch a match with him leaves me happy to be a wrestling fan. So understand where I’m coming from when I say that, as amazing as he was in the ring, Steamboat was never the guy you would turn to really carry a company. He had charisma, yes, but not quite the major main event level to draw in crowds and get fans going. He was always a bit quiet on the mic and the reason he was a face for his entire career was that he never came off as that really brutal or edgy. Yes, the battles with him and Flair were classics to be sure but not the kind of thing to get some fans into the building. I know this will sound outrageous but some fans really could care less about seeing an hour long technical matchup, they want some great action with great characters in not that long a time. The other problem was that it was inevitable that Flair would get the belt back soon. Hell, even the Apter mags did an article saying that Steamboat should expect only a three-month or so reign. And when Flair did get it back, was what Steamboat’s reward for such a terrific series of battles that won Flair new respect? He was shoved aside immediately in favor of Terry Funk. Flair’s own autobiography quotes Steamboat saying he expected a new series of rematches and didn’t know Funk was going to attack Flair and set up an entire new program. It seems a bit much to just end it cold turkey in favor of something else. Unless you see the larger picture.

So after getting his “neck broken” by Funk, Flair sits out for three months. By the rules, he should have been stripped of the belt for not being able to defend it in 30 days but was kept as champion, a break of the rules never explained. When he did come back, he and Funk went at it in wild and amazing brawls which were good but had the same problem as the Steamboat matches. Even more than Steamboat, Funk was never a main event guy. Yes, he’d been NWA champion in the 1970’s but that was before the rise of national TV. He wasn’t going to win the title, he was just there to make Flair look good. That’s the key thing to think about watching those feuds, who came out better? Steamboat? All he did in his reign was defend against Flair and finally lose. Funk? Beaten down in bloody brawls and forced to say “I Quit” and attacked afterward. Flair was the champion, now a face with the fans and more over than ever. There was a lot of talent in WCW in 1989 but so few got a chance to break out becasue the focus was Flair with two men who had been with other compaines for years prior to being brought in and immediately put into main event programs. I hear so much of Flair willing to put the young guys over but this flies directly in the face of that mentality.

I do believe that Flair was going to get the belt over to Sting in Febuary of 1990 before Sting’s knee injury knocked him out. So you can’t blame Flair that much for refusing to job it to Luger or that Herd would give Ole Anderson the book and push Flair down. So when Flair finally did job it to Sting, he was placed aside. Problem being, the NWA had been built around Flair so long that they couldn’t find anyone else of such stardom to handle Sting so had to make up the Black Scorpion. And when that failed and attendance falling, they go to Flair and ask him to be the Scorpion which he does…on the provision he gets the belt back. Rather than try to build up Sting as a good champ with the feud denied them before, Flair instead becomes champion again, killing a lot of Sting’s momentum.

That brings us to the fallout with Herd and Flair leaving the company in 1991. Almost everyone has painted Flair as being right, that Herd was wrong to let go of the man who’d kept the company going and Flair was right to take the belt with him. But looking back at it with a more objective eye, maybe you can see it as more of the act of a prima donna. Flair had no real problem with Herd when he was given the book and allowed to do those programs that made him look great. It was when they tried to push Flair aside and try to build some other stars to take up the show that Flair got annoyed. Contrary to popular myth, Flair really didn’t own the belt, no matter the bonus stuff and such. It was the company’s, the company Flair has always talked of respecting so much. He may have been angry at Herd but telling the boss of your company to screw himself and then take the top trophy with you to another company is a slap in the face for fans. Harley Race was known for his ego and such but he respected the belt above all, always ready to do the job if need be, which he did for Flair. That belt was the company’s and should have stayed and for Flair to take it with him just to show up his bosses was a major act of selfish ego. That’s made even more striking as Flair refused to job the belt to Luger at the Bash and instead wanted to give it to Windham, one of his best buddies. Without that win over Flair, Luger was never going to get a fair shake as champion and the results speak for themselves.

Of course, Flair got some comeuppance while in WWF because he was in a company owned by a man who wasn’t going to let anyone walk over him. People so often forget that Vince did a lot with respect to Flair. He let him come out in his classic robes, his usual style and put immediately in a program with Hogan for the belt. Vince could easily have repackaged Flair as some character but let him keep his classic styles because that’s what fans knew him by so well. Still, Flair gets over huge, winning the Rumble and the belt and having great matches with Savage. He dropped the belt at Wrestlemania but ensured he was always around to cause trouble for Savage before winning it back in September. So things were good for Flair…until the fall when Vince decided to go in another direction for the company and Flair had to drop the title to Bret Hart. Suddenly, with Hart and Shawn Michaels getting pushes, Flair decides WWF isn’t for him and goes back to WCW.

He was welcomed as a conquering hero with lots of talk on his past exploits and a good program with the Hollywood Blondes. When WCW needed someone to face Vader at Starrcade, they went to Flair, making a huge deal out of his past with the stip he’d retire if he lost. Of course, he won and was given the book too, getting another program with Steamboat that did nothing for business. Everything changed when Hogan came in and was given power and Flair found himself forced to cede to Hogan for the belt but kept right around fighting, leading to his “retirement” match at Halloween Havoc.

He would come back, of course, still fighting with Hogan and Savage and winning the belt again. I don’t think I need to cover his exploits the last few years in WCW which are well documented except to note the irony of him being pushed back in lieu of the NWO dominating everything. He’d get more shots with the belt but was made to often look like a fool, something everyone throws their hands up over given all the good he did for the company…good that really may not exist if you look at it another way.

So despite the fact his best days are long past, Flair still found himself hired by WWF a few months after WCW went under, with runs as “co-manager” and some good matches like Undertaker at Wrestlemania. He even got a full circle bit with Evolution dominating so long and an IC title run but now has settled into this “living legend” status and ready to finally bid goodbye. And when he does, I’m sure we’ll see a huge ovation and everyone talking about him as a great guy who always did everything to help others out. But to look at it like that is to ignore all the evidence I just listed above.

I despise hypocrisy, I made that clear in my very first column. It’s prevalent in a lot of the IWC and Flair is a great example. How can so many people run down HHH, Michaels in the Clique days and Hogan for flexing political power and refusing to cede the spotlight when Flair is just as guilty as them? In some cases, you can argue he was even worse because he built himself up as utterly indispensable to NWA/WCW. No one man should be bigger than his company, no matter how great a worker he may be because when he leaves (and he will eventually, one way or the other), it’s way too big a hole to fill. That was true for smaller territories like World Class and it was true with WCW. Ric Flair, at the height of his career, constantly teased jobbing to others but always kept the belt around himself, always put himself in the spotlight and when he did drop it, would get it back in little to no time flat. He went against his bosses to get things his way and even ignored the good of the company as when he refused to give it to Luger despite the fact that fans would have paid to see the man as champion. And yet despite all that, fans still fall over themselves worshipping him.

“Ric Flair does whatever he wants but people let him get away with it because he’s Ric Flair.” Eric Bischoff said that to a WCW locker room and while it was out of his own ego, the fact is…he was right. People do bow to Flair, both fans and those in the business, they fall over themselves talking about him as a model for all wrestlers, the man who helped make the business what it was and kept his company going through good times and bad. They don’t mention his constant repeatings of moves and how so many of his matches look alike or how he just kept in the center of attention no matter what. No one wants to slam a living legend so they just talk of his great stuff and when someone does backtalk him like Bret Hart, they get ripped for it (ironic considering Bret had his own ego issues).

I like Ric Flair. I respect him immensely for his ring work and acknowledge that without him, wrestling today would be vastly different. He still turns in good battles and does deserve recognition for his past exploits. Whatever else, he is one of the best men to ever take up the mic and for that alone deserves respect. So I’m not trying to slam him really.

But you can’t always look at only the good in a man, you have to acknowledge his failings. And like it or not, Ric Flair could be an incredibly selfish man who needed to be in the spotlight constantly and couldn’t take the idea of ceding it to anyone else. Yes, he’d make guys look great in matches but very rarely would he put them over with wins and when he did, he’d make sure to get them back. Yet he still has that reputation as the greatest wrestler alive. Did he deserve it? Yes, his ring work, his charisma and his success show he was over. But again, you can’t be someone complaining over a guy like Cena dominating so much when Flair could be so worse keeping things on himself. There’s a difference between devotion and blind devotion. Respect “the Man” as he was in the ring. But don’t just blindly ignore the damage he did just because you don’t want to admit he could be as bad as Hogan. Doing that is to disrespect the business a lot and just feeds the beast of ego even more.

I’m ready for the backlash, let it ride.

Also around 411mania:

The Shimmy begins a history of the WWE’s World championship.

Seventh Dimension talks wrestling music.

Evolution Schematic takes on Umaga.

Don’t forget Column of Honor, Ask 411, Triple Threat, 3 R’s, Fact or Fiction, Way I C It and the rest.

For now the spotlight is off.