In pro wrestling, there have been hundreds of world champions across dozens of organizations. Babyface or heel, though, none has the legacy of Ric Flair. Flair's first NWA World Heavyweight Championship came in 1981, and "The Nature Boy" quickly made it evident that he would take second place to none of his predecessors. Yes, he did the blond egomaniac gimmick that had been done before, but it never felt as real - or as entertaining - with anyone else as it did with Flair. While he dabbled in being a fan favorite (his second title win, over Harley Race at the first Starrcade, was met with a huge victory celebration), he would soon rewrite the heel template once more, starting the Four Horsemen stable to surround himself with an army of champions. At that point, Flair took on the role of "traveling champion" - he would travel to NWA affiliates throughout the country and take on local stars, making them look good, but retaining the title to keep the machine in motion. Flair continued to extend his legacy after that - 1989 was the best year of his career, seeing classic feuds with Ricky Steamboat and Terry Funk. In 1991, he jumped to WWE and held a pair of world championships in that organization (one memorably won with a marathon performance in the 1992 Royal Rumble), then returned to WCW to pick up several more. Even into 1999 - where Flair won his last Worl championship as a heel - "The Nature Boy" was doing it like no one else could. Over the past century, pro wrestling has produced a long list of all-time great heels, and a shorter - but significant - list of all-time great heel world champions. Atop both sits "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, a golden marker for eternity.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013