9. Ric Flair Returns To WCW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Z2BQW-7iQ In one of those moves that showcased why WCW went out of business, Eric Bischoff's attempt to fire Ric Flair for missing an edition of Thunder because he had accompanied his son Reid to an amateur wrestling event actually became a storyline. Reality in wrestling works to a point. Worked shoots sometimes draw money. "Shoot" shoots are great to be a catalyst that adds fire to an angle, but should never made the basis of an angle. Ultimately, the draw of being sucked into a shoot is to see a legitimate fight, one that ends swiftly with a definitive winner. In all reality, when the Four Horsemen got back together when Flair returned to WCW on the September 14, 1998 edition of Nitro, Eric Bischoff should've been beaten in a one-off match. The shocking thing is that something so inside became a feud that WCW continuously revisited for the rest of 1998, with diminishing returns with each subsequent match. WCW violating the "laws" of pro wrestling booking shouldn't be shocking, but to do so in such a grandiose manner? That's actually quite galling.
Marcus K. Dowling
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Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
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