How Good Was Ric Flair Actually?

Cultural significance is a tricky subject when WWE has had the liberty of essentially defining the story of pro wrestling up to this point. As such, they have a clear confirmation bias for their own product, and that chops out some of the most significant elements of Slick Ric's career. Until the reemergence of Cody Rhodes in WWE, Dusty Rhodes' legacy barely had a mention. They also bury the WCW legacy of Sting, and even their own megastars when they didn't dance to WWE's tune, in the cases of both Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage.

Perhaps the most egregious way that Ric Flair's legacy isn't upheld comes in the shape of The Four Horsemen. Not only did Flair write the book on being a heel, but his stable was the first to dominate the wrestling landscape via strength in numbers. WWE will eschew the qualities of DX, the nWo, and The Bloodline, but the Year Zero for the blueprint all of these factions came in the shape of The Four Horsemen. Hell, WWE even tried to recreate the suits, Learjets, and women feel of the Horsemen with Triple H, Randy Orton, Batista, and Flair in Evolution.

Flair isn't really mentioned when people talk about hardcore legends either, but Ric's penchant for bleeding like a stuck pig speaks for itself. He knew that audiences wanted to see him get his ass kicked for their pleasure, and he would regularly go to war and normalize blood in mainstream wrestling with his willingness to bleed for his art.

Again, it's important to ponder whether Ric is too problematic to be heralded as a cornerstone of wrestling in the current age. A significant portion of wrestling's modern audience was appalled by Flair's actions on The Plane Ride From Hell, as documented unflinchingly by the Dark Side of the Ring episode on the incident. In the same way Hulk Hogan's racist outburst undermined his legacy, Flair's behavior in this incident and beyond is a difficult thing for WWE to look past in an era where they are more corporate than ever before.

Flair is correctly put on a pedestal for his body of work and almost peerless influence on the industry he gave his life to. It's just increasingly hard not to also see him as a cautionary tale from wrestling's ugly past as he gets older.

8/10