Retirements in wrestling are always taken with a grain of salt; even when wrestlers are sincere about hanging up the boots at the time, the urge to get back in the ring usually overpowers the promises they made to the fans (see: Funk, Terry). When wrestling promotions use fake retirements as storyline tools, though, it's especially tricky -- comebacks can do big business, but more often, fans don't buy into the angles and the law of diminishing returns ensures that each time they're repeated, it means less and less. Less than a year after he saved his career by beating Vader for the WCW Title, Ric Flair was forced to retire following a loss to Hulk Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1994. Keeping Flair out of action set the stage for the Hogan-Butcher (Brutus Beefcake) StarrCade main event we were all waiting to see, but Flair returned in 1995 to become WCW World Heavyweight Champion once more. In 2000, Flair was forced to retire yet again after losing to Vince Russo on Nitro. It was little wonder fans didn't seem to care -- they'd seen it so many times before. By early 2001, Flair was back in the ring, teaming with Jeff Jarrett to take on Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a "Kiss My Ass" match. Flair's most recent retirement (2008) was an emotional event, to be fair -- but the next year, he was wrestling yet again. Fool me thrice, shame on you.