Was Ric Flair's In-Ring Work Overrated?

[Pimpin]

I say Flair ain't overrated by miles cause if you go back & look at his match from like 20-25 years ago then the majority of people will think he was good. Sure in today's world his ring work ain't an A.J. Styles or a Shelton Benjamin but everybody's ring work diminishes sometime(unless your HBK who's gotten better since he returned). The thing is is that you shouldn't judge him based on what he ahs done over the last 5-10 years. No you should judge him based on when he was in his prime.

 

[wolvdog316]

And furthermore, who gives two shits if Flair could wrestle as good as AJ Styles? Or Benoit? or Shelton. Those three men can't SELL. They can't and haven't and won't, especialy Benoit, in the future. Flair was above decent in the ring and STILL made a lot of money. And Flair can't be overrated in the latter part of his career cause I NEVER heard anybody say Flair was still a top 3 performer 1995-Current.

Name another wrestler that MADE a company, WCW, then let that company just destroy them one match at a time. Flair jobbed to Hogan and Savage about 50 times each during the first 3 months they joined WCW. Hogan would never do that. Hell NOBODY would ever do that. Flair did.

Flair's ability was he made people give a shit. Either you wanted him to be beaten beyond belief, or you wanted him to rise above, and take the super heel's title. And because of that, he put asses in seats. And last time I checked thats what matters.

Hogan carried WWF. Flair carried Everything else. For a period of about 4 years.

Heres another guy that carried WWF besides Hogan. Honky Tonk Man. He was main eventing the B shows, and selling out against guys like Macho Man, Steamboat, Jake the Snake. Hogan was the MVP, but Honky was the sixth man. Why thats belongs in this thread, I will never know lol

 

[JerryvonKramer]

Going back to this. I happened to re-watch Great American Bash '89 last night, which, of course, was headlined by Flair-Funk.

A few things about that match:

- Flair was the babyface.

- He carried Funk, who was well past his prime to at least a ****, not the classic they would have later in the "I Quit" match but very good.

- Before this match Funk had injured Flair's neck with a piledriver through a table, so in the match the story was all about Funk working on the injured neck and Flair trying to injure Funk's neck for revenge. So Flair duly works with snapmares and gives Funk TWO piledrivers in a row which almost kills him. Funk replies by hammering on Flair's neck and giving him a piledriver of his own and THREE swinging neckbreakers, which Flair sells like a madman. Is that "psychology" Flair doubters or are you looking for something else?

- In this match Flair doesn't do: a Flair flop, a Flair flip, a stalling vertical suplex, a lowblow, or any of the moves he supposedly does every match.

This is just one example of why the people who have criticised Flair in this thread are wrong. Every time I see a Flair match from now on, I'm going to document it in here so test the analysis that "every Flair match is the same". Because this one is NOTHING like the Steamboat matches from earlier in 1989.

 

[Emmet]

The general consensus is that Maradonna was a great footballer, but a fucking loser. Same thing kinda applies here.

I agree with what you said other than this. Maradona wasn't a great footballer, he was a genuis of footballer (without doubt the greatest footballer to have ever played the game). As for him being a loser, if you define a loser who is someone who wins a World Cup single handedly and wins Napoli 2 league titles, 1 UEFA Cup and a Coppa Italia in over 7 years, then I would like to be your defintion of a loser!


As for Ric Flair. He was a good worker, but jesus was he not massively overhyped beyond the moon. Hes a routine man, same style of wrestling whether he was a face or heel, same tricks and stunts every match for years. His wrestling the last 10/15 has been shockingly bad. He should have retired with dignity a long time ago.

 

[waylonmercy]

Ric Flair is the most complete wrestler in wrestling history. He wasn't the best ever on the mic or the best ever in the ring or had the best ring psychology but he was the most complete wrestler. What adds to it is the fact that he remained on top for so long and was believable as a face or heel. I am sure many believe he was overrated but its probably true that most are basing his skills on the past 15 years of his career and not the 1st 15.

 

[ilapierre]

If one believes Ric Flair was one of the greatest 6 or 7 in the history of wrestling then I say NO he is not overrated. He was an amazing storyteller, had great entrance music, a great look and he was a great chicken sh*t heel. But those who believe Flair is unquestionably the greatest wrestler of all time and better than say Hogan or Savage are just plain wrong and overrating Flair because he happens to be their favourite. I see a lot of obsessed whiny Flair fanatics yapping about the obscure NWA, rookie Lex Luger (who has had decent matches with guys not named Flair) and everybody being idiots for being too young to remember the 1980s. But I'm old enough to remember the 1980s and I never gave a crap about the minor league NWA. And Hogan and Savage were by far the two greatest of that decade. And, yes, I realize Flair fanatics will argue that the NWA was just as important as WWF but it wasn't really and that's the truth. The NWA was a small little stage in the mid south. It was not televised to any extent in Canada or Europe or anywhere but in the United States of America. And their television and paying audiences were crap in comparison to WWF, Mexico, Japan etc. Flair was a big fish in a little pond where there was no competition blocking Ric from being on the top of a card or from controlling the booking.. He would not have remained in the main event world title picture in WWF had he stayed there for the remainder of his career in 1993. Because he could not control the booking and because there was legitimate competition. His apologists will argue he wrestled every legend and he won so many belts. First of all, he wasn't bound to a WWF contract so he was lucky enough to be able to wrestle anyone anywhere. That's a perk for being a big fish in a little pond. But Hogan or Savage would have had the same luxury in a little pond and they would have won twice the number of Flair's belts if they were in the minor leagues until the age of 41.. Flair wasn't even a main event draw when Hogan and Savage joined WCW. Flair was phased out and that was the moment NWA/WCW started to make a buck. Flair and his fanatics hate to hear this but Hogan, Macho, Bret and Shawn are IMO all arguably better and guys just below his level of storytelling: The Rock, Austin, Taker, Cena, Andre, Sting and Bruno were still all far bigger draws. And btw Flair's 30+ minute matches were all 20 minutes way too long. It's funny how Flair's fans always bring that up as some sort of badge of honor or proof that he was better than anybody else. First off, nobody in WWF at the time was allowed to go more than 20. WWE was a successful machine. NWA was mismanaged and run poorly and it was the inmates like Flair running the asylum. Flair essentially booked his own success. Anybody in Flair's position could book themselves into 60 minute matches every night if they were narcissistic enough to believe any audience would want to see the same old crap routine night in and night out. Bottom line a wrestler's job is to entertain fans and I'm sorry but NOBODY is entertaining people after an hour of rest holds and playing out the exact same routine night in and night out. A true entertainer realizes you can do everything that needs to be done in less than 20 minutes. So IMO all Flair's one hour matches prove is he had way too much control over creative decisions. Hogging an entire hour of spotlight tells me all I need to know about Flair. He's not much different than camera hogs Hogan or HHH..I didn't intend to be this critical of Flair going into my post because I do believe he was one of the greatest. I guess all the 'Flair is the greatest' comments just get under my skin because he's never made that 'best of all time' impact on me. He was simply one of the best but NOT the best IMO because he was way too afraid to not be in control of his legacy. In one sentence, he was too insecure to make a long run in the major leagues during his prime. So definitely one of the greatest but not the greatest. Could he have been one of the greatest? Sure. Imagine if he wrestled Steamboat at Wrestlemania? Or Hogan? Imagine if Flair played out his entire career from 1987 to say 2008 in WWF winning 17 world titles and main eventing 20 years of Wrestlemanias. Then there'd be a legitimate argument in his favour.