10 Wrestling Secrets Hiding In Plain Sight
8. Red Flag
Ric Flair made a rather odd sartorial choice when on the losing end of his major matches (and on aeroplanes). He effectively gave away the game by wearing red trunks.
He wore red trunks at WrestleMania VIII, at which he relinquished the WWF Championship to Randy Savage in a quality sports entertainment layering of his pure wrestling JCP classics. On the subject of which, Flair raised another, literal red flag when putting over Ricky Steamboat in the first match of their classic, pulsating trilogy over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. When he reclaimed it, at WrestleWar, the Nature Boy was resplendent in baby blue: the colour of victory.
This formed a strange pattern throughout his legendary career.
What's odd about Flair's visual code is that his work rewarded a discerning set who paid strict attention to it; Flair sold with such flailing, pained conviction that his famed cheating doubled as both character work and unreal drama. He drew on his resolve and fiendish inspiration to build his matches in such a way that the result was always in cacophonous doubt, whereas the quality never was.
So why, in reality, would Flair risk this awesome balancing act in front of the mouth-breathing well-ackchyually crowd?
And why, in kayfabe, wouldn't he simply stop wearing red trunks?