The following is a reprint of the Torch Newsletter sidebar cover story from five years ago this week.

-Jason Powell, Torch assistant editor

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Torch Newsletter Archive
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
Sidebar cover story
Originally published: Pro Wrestling Torch Weekly newsletter #491
Cover dated: Apr. 25, 1998

World Championship Wrestling is suing Ric Flair for "breach of contract," based on his failure to appear for the Apr. 9 edition of Thunder, among other dates, as scheduled. The lawsuit, filed in Fulton County Superior Court on Friday, Apr. 17, effectively ends Flair's long-running association with WCW.

Flair may be stuck sitting at home while the legal situation works itself out, although until he resurfaces somewhere, he will be the subject of speculation. Jim Ross helped fuel that speculation when he mentioned Flair by name on the Apr. 20 edition of Raw, saying that the site of their pay-per-view on Sunday - Greensboro, N.C. - is "Ric Flair country." It seems highly unlikely, though, that Flair would be able to legally work for the WWF anytime soon unless an out of court settlement was quickly reached where Flair paid a lump sum of money to get WCW to drop the lawsuit and in exchange WCW would allow him to work for the WWF. Given Flair's proven ability to draw TV ratings and pay-per-view buyrates and the recent closing of the gap in the TV ratings race, it would be in WCW's best interest to keep Flair tied up for months. What is a possibility is that Flair will "buy a ticket" and be seen in the crowd and the WWF will acknowledge him on camera.

Wrestlers have often missed dates before, so the lawsuit seems on the surface to be more of a statement against Flair rather than just his missing a couple of scheduled appearances. Bischoff had said he planned to make an example out of Flair, and by suing him for no-showing two dates, more than keeping Flair from going to the WWF, he may be trying to put a scare into other disgruntled wrestlers who might be thinking of missing dates in order to try to escape their contracts.

Friends of Flair say he is not worried about the lawsuit in part because he didn't have written into his current contract, despite claims by WCW sources, that he had to be available for every Nitro and Thunder. Also, the final draft of his contract was never finalized and signed. WCW only gave Flair 24 hours notice to be at the Apr. 9 Thunder. For the past year Flair had been planning to attend his son Reid's wrestling tournament on Apr. 9, ever since one year ago at the same tournament, despite being underage, Reid finished in second place. This year, as Flair hoped, Reid finished in first place.

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