KELLER'S TAKE KELLER: Disrespecting Flair, Disrespecting Fans (PWTorch Newsletter #1001) Dec 6, 2007 - 12:25:06 PM

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BBL editorial
Headline: Disrespecting Flair, Disrespecting Fans
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
Originally Published: December 8, 2007
PWTorch Newsletter #1001

Ask any wrestling fan who has followed more than just WWE over the past ten or twenty years if Ric Flair is one of the all-time greats; chances are, you'll get an affirmative answer. In fact, ask someone who has watched Raw every week for 15 years and nothing else, and they'll probably include Flair on their top ten list.

When Vince McMahon listed the big names who would be part of Raw next week, Eric Bischoff was included in his list, along with Hulk Hogan, Mick Foley, Steve Austin, and Trish Stratus. Those are all names who aren't technically weekly regulars on TV, thus Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Undertaker weren't mentioned. The same could be said about Ric Flair - that he was left off the list of dignitaries because he's part of the current roster. Unfortunately, history suggests otherwise.

Ric Flair [photo by Wade Keller (c) PWTorch]

Flair was the centerpiece of last week's Raw, then not mentioned once this week. He was shown briefly in the show-opening recap promoting the Randy Orton-Chris Jericho feud, but despite the previous week's show being built largely around him and his potential retirement, no follow-up was provided. He wasn't there. Fans weren't the only ones left wondering.

Flair himself didn't even receive a phone call from WWE about not being used at this week's TV tapings until Saturday. It would have been a basic professional courtesy to let him know with some notice that his storyline - the one he and Vince McMahon haggled over for months - would be put on hold for at least a few weeks. It seems Flair continues to pay the price for being the top rival star of McMahon's WWF during the expansion years. Or, perhaps to get Hulk Hogan to appear, Flair needed to be left off of it. It's tough to imagine, short of a Hogan powerplay, why Flair would be ignored a week later. But it fits a pattern.

Flair was not created by Vince McMahon. His act remains largely the same today as it was 20 years ago. That may be the problem. McMahon has not ever been one to truly get behind an act that didn't mature under a WWF/WWE banner with his guidance and oversight - with one big exception. Hulk Hogan's exact WWF act was honed and perfected in the AWA, yet Hogan has managed to avoid the fate of everyone else who "made it" before Vince created them.

Age is not an excuse, since if there is sensitivity to that, Flair could be recast differently, outside of the ring, as a three-piece-suit wearing dignitary on hand for the anniversary.

Maybe, despite the snub this week, he will be part of the Raw anniversary after all. Flair was a big part of the defining episode no. 2 of Raw, which aired Jan. 18, 1993, reviewed as "possibly the best hour-long wrestling program in years" at the time by this publication. He was gone after week three, losing a "loser leaves town" match to "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, but he left an early mark as one half of the main event of two of the first three editions of Raw.

From there, he'd spend years in WCW working as a top act on Nitro, often used to save sagging ratings whenever stale booking derailed the show. But after the WCW acquisition by WWE, Flair put in a lot of time on Raw, including in Evolution, a foursome that spawned two of the top acts on the two main brands today - Batista and Randy Orton. Flair has been as big a part of Raw as all but a handful of wrestlers, but the snub this week on Raw tends to indicate he is slotted a notch under his deserved place in WWE history.

Flair has always been a people-pleaser, rarely standing up for himself professionally when situations called for it, dating back to when he let the ego of booker Dusty Rhodes do great damage to him in Crockett Promotions. Flair could have stood up during the late-'80s and made a difference as a result, but he went along with things rather than create waves.

A couple weeks ago......

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