Breaking The Walls Down - Wooooo, Still The Man! Submitted by Chris Dailey on Tuesday, May 27, 2003 at 5:30 PM EST
Breaking The Walls Down
Hello and welcome back to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. Wow, wrestling news is seemingly at a standstill. With only but a small trickle of news recently, we’ll forgo Bits and Pieces this week and move onto the column.
Wooooo, Still The Man!
I’m not sure when my love / hate relationship began with Ric Flair. I first remember seeing Flair as The Black Scorpion. Then I remember seeing Flair wrestling with Sting to take on The Great Muta and Terry Funk (at least I believe those were the teams). No matter what it came down to, I always saw Flair at the top.
Now, unfortunately, I never got to see Flair in the early 80s or even the mid to late 80s for that matter. I only saw him wrestle on occasion, but one thing was for sure, I always booed him. I always hated him. I always despised him. But, when Flair wasn’t wrestling, I . . . missed him.
“Missed him”, you say? “Surely that can’t be right, judging by your animosity towards him.” Well, as a young teenager (barely in his teens) and still quite full of the Hogan propaganda, I did what any fan did, I booed the bad guys. Then, something strange happened.
The year was 1996, the fall of 1996 to be more specific, and I was in my freshmen year of college and Penn State Berks Campus. I walked into the computer lab and proceeded to discover the Internet on my own, for all intents and purposes, the first time. Once I discovered the plethora of information, I began to look up multiple subjects. These subjects ranged from Transformers and G.I. Joe to Professional Wrestling and my beloved Philadelphia Phillies. But, one day I came across a website called DDT Digest.
It was at this site that I began to become familiar with all the terms associated with professional wrestling behind the scenes. However, I wasn’t learning much about the backstage information that the site constantly hinted at. Enter Lords of Pain. I found Lords of Pain and started to become a regular reader of the news and information. Everyday I read Mr. Tito’s “Phat Daily Column”. I was in Heaven, I found my news source for a sport that I loved. But, that wasn’t all. It was on this site that I learned to appreciate professional wrestling for much more than good guys and bad guys. I learned to appreciate work ethic, spots, bumps, injuries, blood, sweat, and tears. I learned to appreciate what the wrestlers were doing in the ring on more than purely an aesthetic level.
And with this level, I understood why I was missing some of the bad guys so much, specifically Ric Flair. Ric Flair was a character in the ring that epitomizes hard work and dogged-determination. Find me one wrestler at Flair’s age who can still perform at his level or better? In fact, I can point out to you several wrestlers on the WWE roster right now who can’t hold a candle next to Flair and Flair is over 20 years older than them. Even at Flair’s age, he can still give it all in the ring and cut promos that give you goose bumps on your arms.
Case in point, last Monday night, May 19, 2003. On that particular night Flair gave one heck of an emotionally charged speech, one that reminded me of a Ric Flair prior to his most recent run in the WWE. Then, Flair followed it up with, in my humble opinion, a match of the year candidate with Triple H. He and Triple H wrestled an outstanding match that had me somewhat believing that the WWE would let Flair have the title for a bit. But then reality set in and Triple H won the match . . . again.
Aside from Triple H winning yet another match, something else came of this match for me personally. I was able to witness a rejuvenated Ric Flair. Maybe it was because Flair was in South Carolina. Maybe it was because Flair was wrestling for the World Title in the main event on a Monday Night RAW. Or, maybe it was a combination of both of them. Either way, something happened for me personally that night. Flair had me actually believing that he was going to pin Triple H or make Triple H submit for the World Title.
With the many months of Triple H as World Champion and seemingly a much worse champion in the midst (Kevin Nash), I was hoping The WWE saw the error of its ways and decided to put the title on Ric Flair for one more run. One more run as the champion, but this did not happen. Personally, I would like to see Ric go to Smackdown and win the WWE World Title (the real world title) and hold it for a bit. Putting on a clinic with the likes of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit for the World Title. That would make me buy a WWE Smackdown only PPV.
No matter how I look at it, we all must remember what we saw little over a week ago. We must all remember and never forget. We saw a true legend of the squared circle give us one hell of a match. Flair gave Triple H his best match in well over two years. That in itself is worth admiration and respect. However, what we witnessed throughout that match was a true legend performing like a man whose 35 instead of 55 (or whatever his real age is). That’s the sign of a true champion, a true icon, a true legend. Whether you boo him or cheer him, one thing must always be clear, you have to respect him. Without Flair, I shutter to think what this business would have been like.
