10 Wrestlers Who Nearly Defected During The Monday Night Wars

1. Ric Flair

In 1998, Ric Flair was engaged in a heated battle of his own with WCW over missing a show to watch his late son Reid wrestle. He was kept off television for months and slapped with a lawsuit as WCW president Eric Bischoff pretty much decided to make it personal with Flair. This led to the Nature Boy countersuing and trying to get his WCW contract nullified so he could possibly return to WWF. Granted, the 1998 version of Ric Flair was nowhere near the man who made a splash in WWF in 1991. But next to Sting, no man during the Monday Night Wars signified WCW more than Naitch, and Vince McMahon would have loved to have had Flair show up on Raw. Remember that even in late 1998, WWF had just recently ended WCW€™s 84-week ratings dominance and was still see-sawing week to week. Big-time defections like Big Show, Chris Jericho and the Radicalz were still months (or more than a year) away. A Flair defection would have represented a major coup for WWF, much like Bret Hart was for WCW in late 1997. The difference was the Flair was a known commodity to WWF fans, a former two-time WWF champ and Royal Rumble winner. Losing one of the biggest stars in the company€™s history could very well have been the death knell for WCW, accelerating the end of the Monday Night Wars. Flair also might have brought some other talent along with him, such as Arn Anderson and others who felt that WCW could turn on anyone at any time for anything. In the end, it took an additional four years before Flair made his return to a WWE ring, which really is a shame, because a Flair/Rock feud in 99 would have been gold. But that€™s a story for another day€