10 Best Ever Reasons For Wrestling Storyline Exits
4. Beating The Man To Be The Man
Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect were a priceless double act in the early 1990s.
The injured Perfect's endorsement of Flair put him over tacitly as an elite professional wrestler in a sports entertainment world. The chemistry they shared materialised as tremendous, sh*t-eating grin stuff at the expense of poor Miss Elizabeth, and Perfect's hilarious promo game put his man over even in defeat.
"Saskatoon?!" Perfect cried on Superstars, mourning the loss of Flair's WWF Heavyweight Title to Bret Hart, as if the town was such a hovel that it disrupted his man's preparations.
Enjoying sublime chemistry in partnership and in opposition, the characters fell out, in no small part as a result of Bobby Heenan's impeccable chicanery, leading to a Loser Leaves Town match. The objective was to both explain Flair's impending departure to WCW and create a platform on which to launch Perfect's twilight-years babyface run. The send-off remains a timeless classic; two charismatic peacocks flaunted their technical plumage in a match loaded with craft and character and intensity, in which Flair willingly absorbed a more brutal variation of his signature chop to present Perfect as the better man well before the finish formally announced it.
It didn't launch Perfect as a main event babyface - he had taken too many astonishing bumps as an all-time great heel to last in the role - but as a self-contained story, it remains one of the best WWE ever crafted.