10 Things TNA Wants You To Forget
8. Bringing Naitch Out Of Retirement
When Ric Flair retired following a WrestleMania XXIV loss to Shawn Michaels, few could imagine a more perfect scenario.
The wrestling world stopped to pay tribute to the performer many consider the best to ever lace a pair of boots, and rightfully so. After a magnificent career, he was allowed the opportunity to walk away with all of the glitz, glamour and attention he deserved.
Unfortunately, he walked right into TNA in 2010 and everything about his ceremonial retirement was erased, courtesy of the company's desire to use him to put Jay Lethal over. It was a great idea and would have meant a lot to Lethal, who was rapidly developing into one of the better workers on the company's roster.
Except, you know, that part about Flair's enormous goodbye to the industry that took place two years earlier...
Flair did the honours for Lethal but the entire angle left a bitter taste in the mouths of fans who had just watched all of WWE's hard work to provide Flair with the retirement he warranted evaporate before their very eyes.
Today, some six years later, Flair's return to the ring in 2010 is rarely mentioned. Instead, fans look back with great satisfaction on the closing moments of his match with Michaels and the long walk to the locker room that signalled the end of one of wrestling's greatest careers.