10 WWE Superstars Who Recovered From Disgrace
9. Ric Flair
Ric Flair has dodged much of the retrospective heat those in Hollywood and beyond have since sustained for their distasteful acts towards the opposite sex during times such activities went unreported or unnoticed by wider society, but 'The Nature Boy' shamed his act on television nearly as much as he did himself during those blind-drunk days and nights.
WWE afforded him a beautiful pro wrestling retirement in 2008, going down to Shawn Michaels' lovelorn superkick at WrestleMania XXIV before receiving a standing ovation from an audience of his peers and the live Monday Night Raw crowd the following night. Flair just couldn't help himself though. When it became apparent WWE had no intention of going back on the stipulation had worked hard to craft, 'Slick Ric' took his business elsewhere - and 'elsewhere' (TNA) was only glad to make use of it.
His 2010-2011 matches for the Orlando outfit were almost all an embarrassment. A parade of cheap heat tricks, tired retreads of long-dead WWE/WCW programmes and an over-reliance on pantomime comedy all conspired to craft the most dispiriting in-ring period of his entire (theoretically concluded) career.
It was at least an advert for the company's relatively narrow reach. Virtually all of it was forgotten within weeks of it even happening, and his return to the WWE fold brought no mention of his bizarre sojourn in the Impact Zone. Now broadly on the mend after a near-fatal health scare in 2017, chances of him "walking that aisle" one more time are thankfully slim.