The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Ric Flair Matches in WWE

Most wrestling fans will agree that Ric Flair is one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time. Flair established so much of his legacy with the NWA and WCW—going the distance with Ricky Steamboat, feuding with Dusty Rhodes, going to war opposite Terry Funk, establishing Sting as a viable main eventer, etc. But if you take a careful look at Flair’s WWE/F legacy, his record may be a little less sterling, but he did deliver on his share of in-ring gems. So, this week I’m counting down Ric Flair’s top seven matches with WWE/F.

#7. Vs. Edge on Monday Night Raw, January 16, 2006

This match was Edge’s first ever world title defense, hot on the heels of unseating John Cena via the very first Money in the Bank cash in. The match was a brilliant showcase for Edge and everything that he was about—a next generation, innovative main event talent going against a former champion as traditional as WWE could possibly find. No, the match itself was not a masterpiece, but it was a fun TV main event, and the novelty of seeing Flair thrive so far out of his element in the TLC environment was a spectacle to behold. Better yet, it’s pretty remarkable to think of Flair helping to legitimize a new main event talent eighteen years after he’d done the very same favor for Sting in a 45-minute free TV time-limit draw.

#6. Vs. The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 18

From what I’ve read, Flair himself is pretty critical of his performance in this match, suggesting that he hadn’t yet recovered his confidence after the tumult that was the final days of WCW. Just the same, seeing scrappy face Ric Flair come at big bully Undertaker is a pretty fun dynamic, and one that both men played pretty brilliantly. Best of all, the match contains what, in my mind, is one of the most underrated Wrestlemania cameos ever, when Arn Anderson slips in the ring to drop The Dead Man with a spinebuster.

#5. Vs. Triple H on Monday Night Raw, May 19, 2003

This match tends to get forgotten because it, in many ways, falls outside the WWE storytelling continuity of the day. The match occurred in Greeville, South Carolina, and old stomping ground for Flair in his prime. The premise is that GM Steve Austin said that Triple H, fresh off getting beaten to a pulp by Kevin Nash the night before, needs to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against a former world champ. Helmesley picks Flair because he assumes his running buddy and kinda sorta manager will lay down for him. Instead, fueled by pride and a pep talk from Shawn Michaels. Flair decides to give the match his all. Though the encounter clocks it in at under ten minutes and probably could have gone fifteen to twenty, it nonetheless contains its share of false finishes, and dramatic peaks, including Flair nailing Trips with the strap when the ref is down, and Flair locking in the figure four in the middle of the ring.

Before and after this match, Flair and Triple H were allies, but for a one-night detour, fans were treated to the very same Ric Flair who dared challenge Big Van Vader for the WCW strap in 1993—fiery, relentless, and not above bending the rules to try and overcome long odds and deliver one of his very best WWE outings.

#4. Vs. Randy Savage at WrestleMania 8

This match was The Nature Boy’s one and only world title match at WrestleMania and it delivered. The match benefited from a heated program between him and The Macho Man, rooted—like most of Savage’s best feuds—on someone disrespecting Miss Elizabeth. The match ranged from white hot brawl to technical showcase, showing off the very best that both men had—marginally past their respective primes, but still two of the best in-ring workers in the world.

In addition to being a very good wrestling match and the unofficial climax of Flair’s first WWF run, it also feels emblematic of an era—1992’s WrestleMania featured the event’s last world title match in which a pair of big 80s stars would go head to head, giving way to newer stars like Yokozuna, Bret Hart, and Shawn Michaels.

#3. Vs. Mr. Perfect on Monday Night Raw on January 25, 1993

You don’t hear a ton about this match nowadays. It was a Loser Leaves WWF Match and as soon as Flair headed out—defecting to WCW—the WWF seemed content to pretend he had never existed—a fact that probably diminished the match’s legacy. That said, in the fledgling days of the show (this was only the third episode), Perfect-Flair had a big time feel and helped cement the show as something distinctively more important than Superstars, Wrestling Challenge, or Prime Time Wrestling had ever been.

And the match itself was excellent. It was a back and forth outing in which Perfect was still establishing himself in his very first WWF face run, and Flair still had all the legitimacy that came with having been a world champion just two months earlier. Chops were exchange. Flair bladed. The Perfect Plex won the day. The match was a fitting finale for a distinguished, if abbreviated run with the WWF.

#2. Versus Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24

As far as I’m concerned, there were only two matches in consideration for the top spot on this countdown, and it sort of pained me not to rank this one number one. It was the story of Ric Flair, battling in the face of Vince McMahon’s proclamation that the next time he lost a match he would be forced to retire, only to overcome a range of heel opponents, then succumb to the challenge of a real-life and kayfabe friend who had no desire to fight him, but just the same didn’t want to disrespect him by refusing the match.

The match itself is pure artistry, between two of wrestling’s all-time greats. The guys shrewdly worked an injury spot in which Michaels missed a moonsault to the outside and hit an announce table hard. The spot gave Flair a believable advantage over his younger foe and let him to go to work on the knee later in the match. Michaels did a brilliant job of selling that he was conflicted—hesitating to hit the superkick only to get trapped in a figure four, then iconically mouthing, “I’m sorry, I love you” before connecting with the move to finally win the match.

Flair’s WWE career suffered from a paucity of matches given enough time or featuring enough pure wrestling rather than sports entertainment to be called mat classics. This is the best pure example of a Ric Flair match—sans over-the-top gimmicks or outside interference—in a WWE ring.

#1. The Royal Rumble Match at Royal Rumble 1992

Every Royal Rumble match has (at least) one winner, but very few revolve purely around one wrestler. There was Chris Benoit in 2004 and there was Shawn Michaels in 1995 and 1996; the angle between Steve Austin and Vince McMahon dwarfs the 1999 edition; Rey Mysterio was largely the focal point in 2006. With all of that said 1992 was the original, and still the best “one-man show” Royal Rumble. Ric Flair entered at number three and went the distance. Yes, the Rumble gets boosted by a cast of major stars of the day, but it’s more so the story of introducing Flair to the WWF audience by having him go head to head with everyone they’ve got—most prominently, Davey Boy Smith, Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan, and Sid Justice. Flair’s then-unprecedented hour-long battle royal performance, paired with Bobby Heenan’s perfectly hyperbolic color commentary made Flair as a legit WWF main eventer, and set in motion the year to follow in WWF programming.

From my perspective, it’s the greatest battle royal of all time and Ric Flair’s single greatest performance under the WWF/E banner.

Which great Flair matches did I miss in your estimation? Let us know what you think in the comments section. See you in seven.

Read stories and miscellaneous criticism from Mike Chin at his website and his thoughts on a cappella music at The A Cappella Blog. Follow him on Twitter @miketchin.