Ranking EVERY WWE Champion From Worst To Best
25. Ric Flair
Ric Flair's legendary 1992 Royal Rumble victory was one of the most impressive crownings of anybody in company history, and served as a helpful way to express precisely just who 'The Nature Boy' really was to anybody who was still working out who had just rocked up in the company promising to take Hulk Hogan out.
Crazy as it might seem through a modern lens, for all that Hogan/Flair had been the inter-promotional dream match during the 1980s, there were plenty of WWE hardcores that didn't know too much about 'Slick Ric'. They did after the Rumble, and by the mere fact that he was given the gold, everybody could then infer that he was just as big as deal as he'd been saying since he'd arrived. Taking the title into WrestleMania then picking it back up shortly after SummerSlam, Flair's reigns weren't the longest nor did either make an appreciable difference at the box office, but he was absolutely the right guy to put in the mix during a challenging time.
Both promotion and performer have spoken politely but with an air of mild disappointment about the entire 1991-1993 run, but time has been kinder than they ever were. The matches hold up, Flair looks the business with the belt, and title losses to both Randy Savage and Bret Hart were hugely beneficial for the new Champions. Even outside of his typical surrounds and just past his peak, Flair knew how to put people over.