8 Best Excuses For Wrestlers Not Doing A Job

It's hard to imagine anyone telling Ric Flair, arguably professional wrestling's greatest ever exponent, that he needs to change his image - but that's exactly what happened in WCW during the early 1990s.

According to legend, Flair was asked by then-head honcho Jim Herd to shave his trademark blonde locks off and begin portraying a "gladiator" character known as Spartacus, in line with the kind of out-there gimmicks that had been making waves over in Vince McMahon's WWF.

The Nature Boy, believing that it was a terrible idea, responded with a resounding no, leading to stand-off that reportedly saw him refuse to drop his World Heavyweight Championship to Lex Luger, a stance for which he was eventually dismissed.

The great irony in all of this, of course, is that Flair signed with WWE soon after his release, and they decided to keep faith in the very character that his former employers had suggested was out of date.