Ric Flair's 10 Greatest WWE Matches

10. Vs Vince McMahon (Royal Rumble 2002)

As a match, objectively, this is somewhat of a mess. Two men in their 50s ploddingly hammering one another until one of them finally catches the other in a submission hold to take the win - it’s a touch unbecoming.

As a spectacle, with the weight of the industry’s history behind it, though, this is the good stuff. There was a great storyline powering it, in which Flair had become the co-owner of WWE, but really this comes down to Mr WCW versus Mr WWF.

Vince gives himself a touch too much offence but the booking itself isn’t so important - for a longtime wrestling fan, seeing these two titans knock lumps out of each other was something we never thought we’d witness. There are some cool spots (Flair pulls a monitor out of the desk, which replays him beating Vince while he doles out further abuse in real time), and the right old man goes over.

This is probably the lowest time in Flair’s career, before impending retirement gave him fresh legs for a spell, but even at this time he’s able to put on an entertaining, reasonably compelling match with a non-wrestler, which is the measure of the man.