10 Greatest WCW Champions Ever
2. Ric Flair
'The Nature Boy' was to NWA, WCW and Southern wrestling in the 1980s what Hulk Hogan was to WWE and the North, in part due to his overt flamboyance in the face of the meanest and baddest below the Mason-Dixon line.
His value as a performer only ever remotely diminished because the company repeatedly tried to do it by design. His political battles to protect the integrity of the title he propelled to such heights made him something of a headache for several authority figures that considered him past his best before he'd yet again outshine the rest of a roster half his age with a majestic display.
A superlative 1989 series with Ricky Steamboat proved his apex, but 'Slick Ric' on a bad night was still better than most on their best. His wars with Randy Savage in 1996 drew honest-to-god real money away from the large shadow cast by Hulk Hogan's 1994 arrival, even if his final reigns with the strap are best left buried in the WWE Network's expansive archive.