Ric Flair - a wrestling great or an overrated spot artist?

Ric Flair was a giant during his time in the AWA

The collective gasp that was heard throughout the arena last monday night when Paige slapped Ric Flair while he was accompanying his daughter Charlotte during the Divas Championship facedown was monumental. What a show of disrespect by a Diva having barely two years experience on the main roster towards possibly the greatest World Champion in history!!!!

Wait a minute – There is that line again : one that commentators have used time and again while describing Flair. ‘The greatest of all time’. Is it really the case?

The easier solution is to take the oft used middle path and suggesting that Flair is definitely one of the greats of all time – Again, how can you choose among guys like Bruno Sammartino, Harley Race, Hulk Hogan, Nick Bockwinkel and countless legends? But adding another layer to the question – Is Ric Flair even ONE OF THE greats at least?

When Richard Morgan Fliehr, who was adopted by German American parents from an Orphanage that would eventually be closed down for adoption fraud, started wrestling in 1972 under Verne Gagne in the AWA, he wasn’t the lean slightly built ‘Nature boy’ who used the Figure Four to subdue his opponents.

In fact, Flair was a 300 pound giant of a man who predominantly used high impact power moves.

A plane crash that took place while he was working for NWA Mid Atlantic broke his back and Flair had no choice but to adapt his wrestling technique similar to a smaller wrestler to be able to continue in the ring.

There started the evolution of his Nature Boy gimmick and here also starts the argument against Flair.

Flair incorporated a lot of spots in to his character as Jim Crockett envisioned to build the company around him. His ‘Nature Boy’ strut, exaggerated bumps, the dead man walk before falling face first in to the mat, his patent ‘Wooooo’, and the adopted life of the ‘wheelin-dealin, jet-flyin,kiss-stealin’ Heavyweight champion of the world enthralled fans worldwide.

Stylin’ and profilin’

But the most important weapon in his arsenal was his highly entertaining promo skills.

Flair was a master on the microphone and his energetic interviews was what caught the public eye.

But despite all this, never was he regarded as the best in ring performer of his generation – He did not possess the mat skills of a Lou Thesz or a Kurt Angle. Sure,he could tell a great story in the ring – just like Shawn Michaels – but unlike Michaels, all his stories were the same.

While peers and later generation lauded him for all the forementioned spots that be brought in to his character, many were guarded about assessing Flair's legacy as a worker. Stu Hart called him a ‘routine guy’; Shane Douglas taked about how Flair would resort to politicking to safe guard his spot on the roster.

In fact Bret Hart was so critical of Flair’s in ring ability that he called Flair ‘a three dressed up as a nine’. Even Flair’s old Horsemen ally Ole Arnderson would denounce Flair for propogating the flashy side of the business in the place of wrestling holds.

Flair’s in ring deficiences would come to the forefront during the end of his final WCW run which would shed light on what kind of a wrestler Flair was. Having lost his confidence after continuous mistreatment at the hands of WCW top brass, Flair had become a shell of a man in 2002.

No longer could he display his charisma or the legendary promo skills – He had become so washed up that he was considered dangerous to work with – something that could have never happened had Flair been an in ring general.

In fact Chris Jericho mentions in his autobiography as to how he proposed that Flair beat him via the Figure Four during a WWE PPV match and Flair responded by saying that ‘You know I don’t deserve it’, fully aware of the loss of his mojo.

His limited in ring skills couldn’t help Ric without hs ‘flair’

Flair would eventually rediscover his true self and the ‘Naitch’ would be back to his old form during his days with Evolution a year later – but the fact is that Flair’s in ring skills were at the same level during the two instances.

The only difference was the re-emergence of his flamboyant spots and his confidence.

There might not be a definite answer to where history places Flair as an in ring talent – But it is safe to say that Flair would never have scaled the heights that he did if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a great spot artist and arguably, he wasn’t even the greatest spot artist in the world either.

Let me conclude this by quoting Scott Steiner’s words in WCW about how Flair was just one of the many guys who copied the ‘Nature Boy’ gimmick from the original ‘stylin and profilin’ Nature Boy Buddy Rogers :

“ If WCW was gonna hire the Nature Boy number two, why wouldn't the hire the original Nature Boy, Buddy Rogers?! Now I know Buddy Rogers is dead, God rest his soul, but Ric Flair, your career is dead! And I know as he lays six feet under, he's still stylin and profilin cuz when you used your little brain and stole his name, there's one thing you couldn't steal, and that was his class! “