Ric Flair World Wrestling Entertainment
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After a brief hiatus from pro wrestling, Flair returned to the WWF in November 2001 as the on-camera co-owner of the company. He turned face by joining forces with Stone Cold Steve Austin. Flair later turned heel again by turning on Austin. When Austin walked out on the company, Flair turned face once again after an altercation with Vince McMahon. McMahon, who purportedly only had control of SmackDown! at the time, challenged Flair (the onscreen owner of RAW) to a match for exclusive ownership of WWE. Flair lost the match when Brock Lesnar charged the ring, knocking him "unconscious" and allowing McMahon to make the cover. Flair remained on RAW as an occasional wrestler and eventually turned heel by betraying Rob Van Dam and joining forces with WWE Champion Triple H, with whom he later formed the stable Evolution. The Taboo Tuesday cage match between Flair and Randy Orton was a bloody, competitive confrontationDuring 2003, Flair had a short-lived feud with Shawn Michaels which began when Michaels took Kevin Nash's side against Triple H, his archrival. The two would go at it whenever they were accompanying their friends to the ring, and this led to a legendary confrontation at Bad Blood 2003, which led to Flair winning thanks to Randy Orton's interference. In 2004, Flair lost to Shelton Benjamin at Backlash 2004, in an effort to avenge several losses by Triple H to Benjamin. Later that year, Flair lost to Randy Orton, who had been violently kicked out of Evolution, in a steel cage match at the first Taboo Tuesday event. Several months after Batista left Evolution, Flair returned to RAW on August 22, 2005. He was interviewed on "Carlito's Cabana" and turned face by attacking the host Carlito. Flair would align himself with Shawn Michaels in a feud with Carlito and Michaels's new rival Chris Masters. After Flair was brutally attacked by Carlito backstage, the two had a match at the 2005 WWE Unforgiven event for Carlito’s Intercontinental Championship, a belt Flair had never won. Ric Flair made Carlito tap out to the figure four and won his first Intercontinental Championship. With this win, he became the second wrestler to ever hold all six major titles from WCW and WWE. Several weeks after his title victory, Triple H turned on Flair after a victory in a tag match against Masters and Carlito. Triple H would later claim Flair was a shell of the wrestler he was once was and he wanted to put Flair out of his misery. At Taboo Tuesday 2005 Flair defeated Triple H to retain his Intercontinental Championship in a Steel Cage Match. The two met again at the 19th annual Survivor Series in a Last Man Standing match. This time, Triple H defeated Flair after three Pedigrees, a sledgehammer shot to the back, and a screwdriver in the face. Flair returned to the ring on the December 12th edition of RAW in Boston , wrestling Kurt Angle where the winner would earn a spot in the upcoming Elimination Chamber match at New Year's Revolution. Unfortunately for Flair, Angle nailed him with his gold medals and got the victory. Flair faced Edge for the Intercontinental Championship at New Year's Revolution which Flair won by DQ. On the January 9, 2006 episode of "RAW," Flair interrupted Edge's celebratory in-ring foreplay with Lita, calling him a "disgrace" before running into the ring. However, Edge quickly got the upper hand and deliver a conchairto shot on the announcer's table. John Cena later ran Edge off before giving Lita his signature finishing move, the F-U. This incident lead to a TLC match against Edge on the January 16 edition of RAW for the WWE Championship. Edge won the match and retained the title. Flair returned "home" to WCW in February 1993, feuding with the likes of Vader, Sting, Hulk Hogan, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Eric Bischoff, gaining the WCW Title 8 more times before the company was bought out by Vince McMahon's WWF. Ric Flair was also sued by WCW in 1998 for no-showing a wrestling event. Flair had been working without a contract since February of that year and had refused to sign a new one, citing differences between the document and the terms he had previously agreed to work under. Seeing that he wasn't needed for any WCW television tapings at the time, Flair decided not to show up at a particular WCW Thunder taping. He instead watched his son Reid's amateur wrestling tournament. WCW's booking committee decided out of nowhere to reform the Four Horsemen that particular night and announcers said he would be on the show over and over with a "big surprise." When Flair failed to show up, WCW management got upset and filed a $2 million dollar lawsuit against him for damages, saying he signed a letter of intent to re-sign with WCW. He later filed a suit of his own in response, but the matter was settled out of court. Ric Flair finally returned to television in September 1998. When WCW was purchased by the WWF, Flair was the leader of the heel group called The Magnificent Seven with Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, Road Warrior Animal, Rick Steiner, Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell. Flair lost WCW's final match on the March 26, 2001 edition of Nitro to his longtime rival Sting. Ric Flair World Wrestling Entertainment |
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