One MIND-BLOWING Secret For Every WWE SummerSlam

38. 1988 | Ric Flair Nearly Debuted

Ric Flair, proving for the umpteenth time that you can never say never in pro wrestling, made the jump to the WWF in 1991. 

His presentation was fantastic. He very much looked like a different sort of wrestler to the bronzed, musclebound WWF archetype, and Vince McMahon was clever enough to further highlight this contrast. Flair, an elegant and well-dressed figure, walked into the WWF with his pixelated “real” World title. Who was this arrogant interloper, and who was he to think he was more authentic and better than the superstars of wrestling? Which, as far as most young fans knew, began and ended with the World Wrestling Federation? Flair revealed, on the 2020 Jericho Rock n’ Roll Rager at Sea cruise, that he almost made the move three years earlier. 

Flair claimed that Vince made him an offer. Vince wanted to book WWF World champion Randy Savage Vs. Ric Flair for the inaugural SummerSlam. (Other rumours suggest that Flair was to be introduced during the pay-per-view debut of ‘The Brother Love Show’). 

Flair declined. He said that, while he was interested in working with close friends Ted DiBiase and Roddy Piper, he was already selling out everywhere he went with his Four Horsemen buddies, who he couldn’t bring himself to leave behind. It’s very Flair to have made a key career decision on where the best party was. 

Dave Meltzer refuted this rumour in the July 8, 1991 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter however, writing ahead of Ric Flair’s imminent jump to the WWF that Flair “has never had his chance to go to the WWF”.