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Please Stay Retired, Ric

Posted: Feb 5th 2009 By: CMBurnham

When you think of wrestling retirements, you often think of guys like Terry Funk that have "retired" countless times over the years, only to continue wrestling when the next opportunity came along. I was just watching "Beyond The Mat" again recently, and it struck me as funny that Funk was having his "retirement match" against Bret Hart in 1997. It's 2009, and he's still taking bookings. It's a familiar story to anyone that has followed the wrestling business for any length of time.

Wrestling is the one genre of sports and entertainment where when someone says they're retiring, they very rarely ever walk away for good. Whether it's the money, or the fact that they miss the spotlight, and the rush of working in front of a live wrestling crowd, something or another usually always ends up bringing them back. Roddy Piper called it "the sickness" where wrestling is forever in your blood, whether you like it or not.

Over a memorable weekend last April, Ric Flair had a storybook wrestling retirement. It was a fitting conclusion to the career of a guy that many people, myself included, consider the greatest wrestler of all-time. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, where he gave an emotional and memorable acceptance speech that could have gone on all night, and not one person in the building would have left. The following night at Wrestlemania 24, in front of a crowd of over 74,000 people, he had what was to be his final match with Shawn Michaels. The match finished second in the Match of the Year voting in the recent Wrestling Observer Year-End Awards.

Everyone remembers the climax of the match, where Flair was standing in the middle of the ring with tears in his eyes, begging Shawn Michaels to bring it, and the final touching scene where Michaels mouthed the words "I'm sorry. I love you" as he delivered the Superkick that would end the career of The Nature Boy. Flair got a standing ovation as he waved goodbye to the fans at the Citrus Bowl, and made the long and final walk up the aisle. Flair lost as he would say, "under the bright lights" and the grand stage of Wrestlemania, against an opponent he hand picked and a guy regarded as one of the best performers of his generation. You couldn't have scripted a better finale if you tried.

The next night on Raw was the tearful farewell ceremony where The Four Horsemen reunited for the first time since 1988, and Harley Race, Ricky Steamboat, and so many other wrestling greats past and present, along with Ric's family, and the entire WWE locker room came out to say goodbye, and pay tribute to the man that transcended and set the standard for an entire industry. I sat at home in tears, and watched the entire thing unfold. In my many years of watching wrestling, that was quite simply the best and most genuine thing I have ever seen. It was the true storybook ending, and I don't think anything will ever come close to duplicating it. Ric Flair couldn't have asked for a better send off, and he deserved and earned every damn minute of it.

Fast forward ahead one year later and something is happening that is threatening to tarnish and ruin everything that took place over Wrestlemania weekend last year. It's been reported that Ric Flair is in consideration to come out of retirement, and face Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania 25 in Houston. That is, if you believe the stories about Mickey Rourke pulling out of his planned match with Jericho. I'm suspicious of the whole thing. I'll get back to Ric Flair in a few moments But before I do, let me get into the background of everything that's happened in the past few weeks, and everything that has led up to Flair possibly coming out of retirement.

There was reportedly a deal made between Vince McMahon and Mickey Rourke to have him do a match with Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania, to mutually capitalize on the success and publicity of "The Wrestler" movie, for which Rourke received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Rourke went so far as to call out Jericho on the red carpet as The Screen Actor's Guild Awards a few weeks ago. A lot of eyebrows were raised at that both in the mainstream media, and in the wrestling world. It seemed bizarre that Rourke would mention Chris Jericho's name out of the clear blue. Details then began to emerge about the McMahon/Rourke deal, and after Vince McMahon had done a complete 180 on "The Wrestler." Going from reportedly despising the movie and wanting nothing to do with it, to wanting to have Rourke participate in a major angle and match at the company's biggest show of the year. It was certainly a newsworthy turn of events.

But there was one problem in all of this. Wrestling is one step above cock fighting in the minds of most members of the mainstream press, and that's a reputation that it's rightfully earned at times over the years. Once the media got a hold of this story, stories began to come out about how Rourke was flushing his chances at winning the Oscar, and ever being taken seriously in Hollywood again down the toilet by even associating with Vince McMahon and WWE. That's around the time that we started hearing that Mickey Rourke would not be involved in Wrestlemania after all, and there have been conflicting reports on that from his people and from WWE itself.

Personally, and this is just my own opinion, what I think happened is the deal was made with McMahon and Rourke, and Mickey was all gung ho about doing Wrestlemania. But then once the negative press starting coming out about his involvement in wrestling, and the talk about him ruining his Oscar chances, I think a decision was made to keep this scenario on the backburner until after the Oscars. The voting for the Oscars ends on Tuesday February 17th, and the awards show telecast is the following Sunday. I believe that once all of that stuff is over, that the storyline with Rourke will be back on. That will still leave WWE with more than a month to promote and hype whatever the final match ends up being.

The question then becomes, do they revert back to the original plan for Rourke to face Jericho in some type of match at Wrestlemania, or do they have a deal where Rourke appears at the event in the corner of another wrestler against Jericho, another wrestler say Ric Flair? And that's where I have the problem. I think it's great that they want to have Mickey Rourke at Wrestlemania, and for WWE, I can only see positive results for them. After everything that has happened over the past few years, they could use the positive publicity.

But not if it means Ric Flair has to bastardize everything that happened last year, and tarnish forever the moments of that wonderful night when the wrestling world stopped for a brief time to say goodbye to the best to ever lace up a pair of boots. Is it worth tainting the legacy he worked for 35 years to build just for one more moment in the spotlight, for one more main event pay day? I don't think so. If Flair is the one to face Jericho at Wrestlemania, sure it's a match that will get a lot of publicity, and it's something that people might remember at the end of the year. But will they remember it next year, or five years from now, or 20 years from now? I don't believe so.

What they will remember, however, is how Ric Flair had the storybook ending to his career, and the greatest send off in wrestling history, and it was all for nothing because he came out of retirement one year later for what will essentially be a meaningless match in his career in the grand scheme of things. People will remember how Flair was like all the others, all the wrestlers that said they were retiring and walking off into the sunset for good, but whored themselves out once again when the next wrestling promoter came along waving the next fist full of cash. They will remember him like all the other wrestlers that didn't know when to quit, and didn't know when enough was enough.

I don't want to see Ric Flair remembered that way. I don't want to see him piss all over the memories that were created on Wrestlemania Weekend last year. You will never be able to recreate those moments. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. Those were once in a lifetime moments. I'm all for Ric Flair returning to Raw, and cutting a promo as only he can on Chris Jericho, as he will be this Monday in Oakland, CA. He can cut a thousand promos if he wants. I'm all for Flair being involved in the storyline with Jericho in some way, and even appearing at Wrestlemania in the corner of whoever ends up facing Jericho. That stuff is all fine with me. You have a talent with as big a name as Ric Flair, and as incomparable on the mic as he is, and you can find any of number non-wrestling ways to use him if you think hard enough, and are creative enough.

But to put the tights back on and wrestle again one year later? No. That's not right. I can understand if Ric is having trouble adjusting to life away from wrestling, as he expressed in a recent interview he did with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez on this site. I can understand if he misses being on the road, and being with the boys, and being "The Naitch." I can totally get that. But as I said, there are countless ways that he can be involved in the current WWE product without getting back in the ring. That's why I hope I'm right about the Mickey Rourke situation, and that Ric stays retired, and "leaves the memories alone", to use the song title of his exceptional farewell last year. Who knew one year later those words would have to be used against Ric Flair himself?

One final note, a poll was conducted on this site earlier in the week, and the question was "Should Ric Flair Wrestle Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania?" An overwhelming and definitive 80.5 percent of the people voted no. I think that about sums up this entire column perfectly. Listen to the people, Vince. Listen to the people, Ric. Stay retired. Please.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, take care and be well.

Tags: Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, WWE