Is Ric Flair the next major name to sign with TNA? He's working with Hogan on an upcoming Australian tour. He's patched up past differences with Hogan. He's had a falling out with WWE and has felt disrespected by how he's been treated since his retirement. To put the Hogan-Flair relationship in perspective, we present an encore of a PWTorch senior columnist Bruce Mitchell article from last December in the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter. Late last year, Bruce attended an independent wrestling event featuring Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair in the ring together. This is the story of what happened...

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HEADLINE: Why Hulk Hogan did right by Ric Flair
From PWTorch Newsletter #1057/1058 - December 6, 2008
By Bruce Mitchell, PWTorch senior columnist

Here's some words I never thought I'd write, at least in this consecutive order:

Hulk Hogan worked a high school independent show, for free, as a favor to his biggest rival, the man WWE, the company he grew worldwide, just months ago proclaimed the greatest wrestler of all time. His generous gesture, which included bringing in his Hogan Knows Best/pro wrestling cronies The Mouth of the South Jimmy Hart and The Nasty Boys, made the show.

Hulk Hogan made an important show in Ric Flair's hometown, a show centered on Flair's legacy, both symbolically and literally. Reid Flair, the son whose potential in pro wrestling Ric has touted for years, was making his in-ring debut, and it was critical for both his career prospects and the Flair Father and Son reality show currently in development that Reid got off to an exciting start.

Without Hulk Hogan's help, that wouldn't have happened.

Whatever the reason - the recession, high ticket prices in a town rocked by a failing banking industry, anyone there who wanted to see Ric Flair not wrestle had plenty of opportunities to do that in the last three decades, the lack of WWE brand (and its powerful television) backing, ticket pre-sales for this show - even by 4A high school gym standards, weren't good.

Add to that, David Flair had retired some years ago from an unremarkable wrestling career, and Reid Flair, who is already The Nature Boy's Son in the night-time,was in his first ever wrestling match, were going to have to be carried by experienced wrestlers who had to do more than lead them to a decent match, they had to get the crowd excited.

Because not only were Reid's mother Beth, his sisters Megan and Ashley, and who knows how many other Flair family members at ringside in his hometown, so were cameras from the production crew of the Flairs' proposed reality show.

That may have been the key. Hogan and his guys were gracious and accessible to the fans attending, and clearly seemed to be enjoying being back in the ring in front of wrestling fans, particularly "Nasty Boy" Brian Knobs, whose stooging and showboating kept the main event between the ditches until the legends-fueled surefire triple figure-four happy ending. For that, they deserve real credit. Clearly, Reid's debut could have been a very different night with Hulk Hogan.

If Flair's reality show, whose first season will be built around Reid Flair entering the business, makes it to a major cable network, Hulk Hogan will find himself the cherry on the season-ending cake. Flair wants to use reality TV the way Hogan did, to extend his entertainment career past and beyond his wrestling career.

You wonder whether Flair sees what the constant camera coverage did to the Hogan family dynamic, and whether Reid will enjoy reality TV fame more than he will be inspired to put in the work it takes, no matter how athletically gifted you are, to become a star professional wrestler.

I still don't believe there's any Hogan-endorsed wrestling promotion cooking behind the scenes here. The economic reality still seems to be too large an obstacle to overcome.

The politics of reality TV, along with the chance to do something decent for a man who, at this point in their mutual careers Hulk Hogan has more in common than in conflict with, was the key to this surprising alliance. Ric Flair is the greatest professional wrestler ever, but Hulk Hogan is the greatest celebrity professional wrestler ever, and its his game Flair is now playing.

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Bruce Mitchell has been PWTorch columnist since September 1990. His feature-length columns occasionally appear in the pages of Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter in place of his shorter Mitchell's Memo columns. He and Torch editor Wade Keller discuss current events, wrestling history, and answer listener questions every weekend for about two hours at PWTorch.com/members in what is often referred to as the best wrestling audio show (podcast) in existence. He also posts VIP Raw commentaries every Monday night.

[Ric Flair art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]

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25 YEARS OF BRUCE MITCHELL - DAY 8 (1998): “Stolen Moments” - Bruce lays out case for Flair as Greatest of All-Time as he dealt with locker room politics in WCW Nitro era