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Ric Flair's Famous Final Scene

Posted: Apr 1st 2008 By: CMBurnham

"Think of seasons that must end...
See the rivers rise and fall...They will rise and fall again
Everything must have an end
Like an ocean to a shore...Like a river to a stream
Like a river to a stream...Its the famous final scene...

Now its finally time to leave...yes, its finally time to leave
Take it calmly and serene...it's the famous final scene
It's been coming on so long....

Now the lines have all been read...and you knew them all by heart
Now you move toward the door...here it comes, the hardest part

Feeling different, feeling strange...this can never be arranged
As the light fades from the screen, from the famous final scene."

Bob Seger, The Famous Final Scene, Stranger in Town, 1978

I know I'm not the only person with tears in his eyes after Sunday night. Or the only person who felt a whole lot older.

Or the only person who was prouder of what the wrestling industry can do when it puts its mind to it, as we saw Monday night.

Monday night saw the reunion of the Four Horsemen for the first time since 1988, and seeing JJ Dillon, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, and Arn Anderson together was some really powerful stuff. Given all that's gone down in the wrestling with many of those four and Vince McMahon in those 20 years, it's probably only Ric Flair's retirement that could have gotten them assembled together on a WWE broadcast.

It saw an entire locker room come out, with no kayfabed restraints (OK, except for Undertaker, who came out after the show went dark), expressing their love for the man who turned most of them on to the artform called professional wrestling.

Not sports entertainment, but professional wrestling.

The era where there was a difference may well have ended last night.

Last night also took me back to WCW Monday Nitro, September 14, 1998, when Ric Flair returned to WCW TV after Eric Bischoff's legal and personal vendettas kept him off for all too long. Even 10 years before, it says things better than I'm capable of right now, and makes my feelings ten year later crystal clear:

Tony Schiavone said "One week ago, ladies and gentlemen, when Mark McGwire hit 62, you'd always know where you'd be on that day; well, at 10:38 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Sept. 14, you were a part of wrestling history. He is back!"...

After a long ovation, Ric Flair told the wildly cheering crowd "When I see this, I know that the 25 years that I spent trying to make you happy every night of your life was worth every damn minute of it."

Watching that moment when Ric Flair returned to the Carolinas to a thunderous ovation, the likes of which seldom been seen.....with Ric Flair coming out in tears....reminded me of the power that the art form we all call wrestling on our emotions....even more so when those moments aren't just "good TV"...but real life. Even though the business we follow is based on a work...the best, and the most moving are those that are moments from real-life.

Some of those moments that come to mind for me...

The Brian Pillman memorial on Monday Night RAW, watching the Titan Sports crew as the ten-bell salute was done that night..... Starrcade 1993, the night that Ric Flair took the WCW Title from Vader, and had to come out to a certain call from the fans of Charlotte...watching Brian (Mark Curtis) Hildebrand come back from stomach cancer to accept an award from Jim Cornette at the 1998 Eddie Gilbert Memorial Weekend....August 1995 and the Dean Malenko-Eddie Guerrero farewell match at the ECW Arena with the match and the whole evening having what was still (back then) the smartest audience in North America in tears....chanting "Please don't go".

Yes, it can move our emotions....and in those special moments, it should

On March 31, 2008, in Orlando, FL, it did once again.

Once more, thank you, Ric.

Until next time...

Tags: Ric Flair, Jim Cornette, ECW, Vader, Eddie Gilbert