A look at the amazing career of the hall of fame inductee, and one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Ric Flair.
When a true legend of wrestling retires, it's truly a time to celebrate that legend's career, and to say that Ric Flair had a great career is an understatement.
The Beginning
Flair started his career in 1972 with the AWA (American Wrestling Association) and immediately began to attract the attention of crowds due to his charismatic personality. Two years later, he left the AWA and joined up with the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) and in 1975 won his first title.
Hardships
Months later, tragedy struck. Flair was in a plane crash which killed the pilot, paralyzed another man and broke Flair's back in 3 places. Doctors said he would never wrestle again. Only 6 months later, Ric Flair returned to the wrestling ring. Over the next 5 years, Flair has many legendary battles with other Hall of Fame members such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat.
Championship Material
On September 17th, 1981 Flair was elevated to "main even status" as he beat Dusty Rhodes for his very first reign as NWA World Heavyweight Champion.
Over the next few years Flair really developed himself as a wrestler and became famous for many of his trademarks. The figure-four leg lock, knife edge chops to the chest, chop blocks to back of the knee, the thumb to the eye, bleach blonde hair, extravagant robes, charismatic interviews and the infinitely famous sayings of "Woo!" and "The be the man, you gotta beat the man!"
The Horsemen Cometh
In 1985 Ric Flair formed one of the most influential, most popular and at times most hated factions of wrestling history, The Four Horsemen. The original group consisted of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard. However, over time the group would also see Barry Windham, Lex Luger, Curt Henig, Sting, Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit as members for a short time.
Federations
From 1986 to 1991 spent his career with WCW (Word Championship Wrestling), winning the Heavyweight Championship many times. In fact, he officially still had WCW title when he left the company and began wrestling for Vince McMahon in the WWF (World Wrestling Federation). He spent a year and half with the WWF before going back to working with WCW. He spent another 8 years with WCW, winning more and more championships. In March of 2001, WCW was bought out by Vince McMahon.
Flair showed up on WWF programming 6 months later and began what would be the last 7 years of his career. During his remaining time in the WWF, which in 2002 became the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), Ric Flair played a mentor to many younger wrestlers, and continued to be a mentor to many veterans.
Triple Crown
In 2005 Flair won the Intercontinental Champion which earned him the honour of becoming a triple crown champion, having previously held the World Championship and the Tag Team Championships. His final title reign would be the tag team titles with partner "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.
The Final Curtain
Flair's final match was on March 30, 2008. One night after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He was defeated, by one of his greatest friends, Shawn Michaels, at the biggest stage wrestling has to offer, Wrestlemania.
In the time of his career, Ric Flair accumulated 16 World Championship reigns. He is a legend to the legends of today and the legends of tomorrow. He might just go down in history as being the greatest wrestler to ever step into the ring.
