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CALDWELL'S TAKE
CORNER CUBE MONDAY 4/7: Post-Flair Farewell era begins tonight Apr 7, 2008 - 2:47:30 PM
Updated daily from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.
Updated Monday, April 7, 2008
A week after we said good-bye to Ric Flair, for now, it's tough to see where WWE goes from here. How do you follow the raw emotion and perfect ending to last Monday's show? Tonight will be the start of a new era in WWE, and it will be important to see how the main players are positioned.
We can expect more of Orton vs. JBL, but where does Hunter go? And Cena? WWE officially started the Michaels vs. Batista program on Smackdown, but I don't see how they get a wrestling match out of this program. "I can't ride around from town to town with Flair anymore, so I want to beat you up and score a pinfall or submission on you!" Eh.
One of the greatest ironies of the Flair Farewell and related celebration the past two weeks has been Vince McMahon placing his stamp of approval on Ric Flair as the greatest wrestler of all-time. Bruce Mitchell talked about this in this week's Mitchell audio that I special hosted (yes, this is a cheap plug), and it relates to where Hulk Hogan stands with WWE in April 2008.
The relationship between Hogan and McMahon can change on a moment's notice, but here was Vince presenting Ric Flair as the greatest ever. Since WWE practically owns the history of the wrestling business, it's worth nothing that an NWA-WCW/territory-era wrestler has been given the official Babe Ruth status in WWE. And his name isn't Hulk Hogan.
How they got to the point of giving Flair "the Farewell" is interesting. A year ago, Flair gave his notice to WWE when he was fodder to the monsters of Smackdown. It's amazing how things can change in a year. You have to consider the backstage influence of Triple H and Shawn Michaels in how that occurred.
Hunter and Michaels wanted to do things right for Flair, which was Michaels honoring Flair in his final match at WrestleMania and Hunter honoring Flair at the Hall of Fame and emceeing the Farewell on Raw.
Not all of this from Vince, Hunter, and Michaels was out of the goodness of their hearts, though. Specifically related to Hunter, there's that unofficial 16-time World champion number that is part of Ric Flair's legacy. I think it's the most misleading statistic every conceived, but it's a great marketing tool when pro wrestling doesn't have an official "champion" each year such as the NCAA Tournament champ or Super Bowl winner.
Eventually, Hunter is going to pass Flair's number if he stays healthy. Now, would passing that number mean anything if the final memory of Flair in the ring was Khali squeezing his head in the vice? Of course not, this is why Hunter recognized that if Flair goes out as the greatest of all-time, then when he breaks the imaginary 16-time number, WWE's history books will call Hunter the greatest ever. And when it's time for Hunter to take his place in WWE's history books, WWE will bring back Flair to return the favor by giving Hunter the stamp of approval.
Flair was given the proper send-off, but we have to remember this is the wrestling business. Flair's Farewell will sell DVDs and help sell Hunter's future title chases when he draws closer to 16. And Flair, being a businessman who saw every wrestling angle ever conceived during his career, probably wouldn't have it any other way.
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