Alex Carson
At one point, Ric Flair was one of the biggest names in the WWE. However, a 2008 match against Shawn Michaels saw him fall from grace. Although Ric continued wrestling, his career hasn’t been the same since. Join Facts Verse as we take a look at the WWE match that ended Ric Flair’s career.
Longtime fans of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., or WWE, will likely have vivid memories of WrestleMania 24. The special featured multiple main events, including a highly anticipated match between Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels. Ric Flair had been a WWE superstar for three decades. And Shawn Michaels was part of a younger generation that looked up to the legendary wrestler. Many in the audience wondered if Shawn had what it took to beat his hero, and it turned out that he did! Shawn delivered a brutal finishing move to Ric, but not before breaking into tears.
The day before the event, Ric Flair had inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. A few years later, Ric would make history by becoming the first ever wrestler to inducted twice. inducted separately for his work with The Four Horsemen and the WCW. Fans couldn’t have predicted that Ric and Shawn’s fight during WrestleMania 24 was going to be the fight that finally put an end to Ric’s career.
Before going into the WrestleMania 24 fight against Shawn. Ric had promised Vince McMahon that he was going to retire if he lost the match. As it turns out, the wrestling legend did, in fact, take the loss. Shawn Michaels ended up delivering a devastating finishing blow to his idol. And Ric’s career was never going to be the same. Fans in the audience could see the emotion on Shawn’s face as he started crying just before delivering the final blow. Through his tears, Shawn apologized to Ric for what he was about to do. According to Ric, the moment was completely unscripted.
Ric may have promised Vince that he was going to retire from wrestling after WrestleMania 24, but that didn’t quite turn out to be the case. After the devastating loss, Ric went on to wrestle with a different promotion. However, his time in the ring after his loss at WrestleMania 24 proved incredibly underwhelming compared to what came before. Because of this, Ric came to regret his decision not to retire when he said he would. If Ric had made good on his promise to Vince, his career could’ve ended with a bang. As well, he could’ve cleanly passed the torch on to Shawn. Instead, Ric continued to ride it out as a shell of his former self.
After WrestleMania 24, Ric spent some time wrestling with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, or TNA. Of course, that promotion has since come to known by it’s new name, Impact Wrestling. While wrestling with TNA, Ric was able to reignite his old rivalry with fellow wrestling legend Sting. Of course, the two had become embroiled in an infamous rivalry decades previously, and fans were excited to see the two back together in the ring. Sadly, the two aging wrestlers weren’t able to give fans the high caliber of show that they had been hoping for. The chemistry between Ric and Sting in the ring considered incredibly disappointing. And their time in TNA dampened both of their legacies. Join Facts Verse as we take a look at the WWE match that ended Ric Flair’s career.
After his unsuccessful tenure with TNA, Ric returned to the WWE and began taking part in various storylines. However, he hasn’t returned to the ring since leaving TNA. Recently, it revealed that Ric’s contract with WWE has officially terminated. Ric’s contract meant to go on for at least a few more years. But Ric apparently able to work his way out of it after disagreeing with Vince about a creative decision. Many have speculated this creative decision revolved around a storyline involving Ric’s daughter. However, Ric has said that this was not the case. Instead, he says that him and Vince simply disagreed on the merits of a business opportunity that Vince wanted to pursue.
Some have speculated that Ric got out of his contract with WWE early because he’s planning on working with a new promotion called All Elite Wrestling, or AEW. AEW founded in 2019, and has since hired on Ric’s old rival, Sting. Many have theorized that AEW is attempting to reunite Ric and Sting once again. Perhaps so the aging wrestlers can undo the damage they did to their reputations while wrestling with TNA. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! As well, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way! Join Facts Verse as we take a look at the WWE match that ended Ric Flair’s career.
Ric Flair had apparently renewed his contract with WWE in 2020, which made many fans wonder why he decided to end his contract early just a year later. Ric had previously feuded with notoriously hotheaded WWE CEO Vince McMahon. However, both Ric and Vince claimed that they were on good terms after the termination of Ric’s contract. Vince had recently made Ric go through a storyline that he didn’t like involving the wrestling legend’s daughter. Ric went on to publicly express dissatisfaction with this storyline, though he has remained adamant that this storyline was not the reason that he wanted to get out of his contract early.
Ric’s daughter is Charlotte Flair, and she followed in her father’s footsteps by becoming a WWE star. The plot in question saw Ric begin sleeping with one of Charlotte’s rivals. Although Ric didn’t enjoying performing his way through the storyline, he did it to make Vince happy. Still, Ric has said time and time again that this didn’t cause any bad blood between him and the WWE CEO. Instead, he claims that he wanted to get out of his contract early to pursue a business opportunity that Vince wasn’t supportive of.
Of course, it would make a lot of sense if the business opportunity that Ric was referring to turned out to be an AEW wrestling match against Sting. Fans are anxiously awaiting a possible announcement that Ric has signed on with the up-and-coming promotion. If that turns out to be the case, we could be getting a lot more Ric Flair in the future! There’s even a chance that Ric could turn his career around once and for all after the devastating impact that his loss against Shawn Michaels had all the way back in 2008. Join Facts Verse as we take a look at the WWE match that ended Ric Flair’s career.
If Ric isn’t looking to jump ship to AEW, it could be that the aging wrestling legend is simply looking to retire. Ric is now 72 years old, and his last appearance in the ring indicated that he doesn’t have a whole lot of fight left in him. The reason that his time with TNA was so derided was because Ric could barely bring himself to perform the moves. And it’s possible that a new reunion match between the two stars could be even more pathetic. Still, there’s also the chance that AEW could whip the two aging wrestling legends into shape and create an event worth watching.
Ric was born on February 25, 1949. He has no idea what his birth name is because he never met his birth parents. When Ric was a baby, he was separated from his parents by a shady Tennessee orphanage. At the time, there was an orphanage in Tennessee called the Tennessee Home Children’s Society, or THCS. That orphanage was known to take babies away from impoverished parents and sell them off for exuberant sums to wealthy families.
Whenever the suspicious practices of this orphanage were called into question. THCS would call upon the numerous connections they held with judges and other authorities across the state. As a baby, Ric became one of the victims of THCS. THCS took Ric from his parents and subsequently sold him off to new ones. Although he went on to become a famous wrestler, Ric was never able to find his real parents. Join Facts Verse as we take a look at the WWE match that ended Ric Flair’s career.
Being kidnapped by a shady orphanage isn’t the only traumatic event that Ric has faced in his life. In the 1970s, Ric suffered an infamous near death experience will flying a plane to an upcoming wrestling match. The date was October 4, 1975, and Ric and several other popular wrestlers from back in the day were on their way to an event in a small private plane. Before the incident, the plane had been forced to dump some amount of fuel due to the combined weight of all the wrestlers on the plane being a little bit greater than expected. However, the pilot ended up dumping too much fuel. And the plane ran out of gas while it was still in the air.
The plane ran out of fuel only shortly before it would’ve reached it’s destination, and ended up falling out of the sky. The impact was devastating. The pilot died, and several of the wrestlers were gravely injured. Wrestler Johnny Valentine became paralyzed for life and was subsequently forced into retirement. Ric broke his back in three places, but was able to make a full recovery later on. Ric was in his 20s at the time, and was able to make his recovery in only four months. By February of 1976, he was back in the ring. Join Facts Verse as we take a look at the WWE match that ended Ric Flair’s career.
Only time will tell if Ric will ever step back into the ring after his official 2012 retirement. If the legendary wrestler could return to the ring only four months after breaking his back in three places. It stands to reason that he might also be able to make a comeback to the ring at the age of 72.
Before his retirement in 2012, Ric Flair was wrestling for nearly four decades. Comment down below to share how you best remember Ric Flair. Or if you think that the 72-year-old has what it takes to make it back into the ring. As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
