Matt Dawgs
Random Thoughts from Matt Dawgs: Ric Flair's Last WHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
By Matt Dawgs
Jan 26, 2008 - 9:54 AM

Random Thoughts, Opinions, Questions and Observations.

Happy New Years everyone. I am sure by now you have all been wondering where I have been and what’s going on in the world of Matt Dawgs. Ok, maybe not everyone has been wondering, probably a few of you have wondered. Well here is the deal. I was on strike.

Yes, I was on strike. But after James Guttman and I sat down with an arbitrator and he agreed to now only fix the men’s room at WWI Headquarters, but he also agreed to paint it a better shade of green, I agreed to come back and write for him. So now that we are settled, let’s get right down to it.

Greetings from under the New Blue and Grey Yankee cap I received for my Christmas.

To be the man, WHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, you’ve got to beat the man. And if you beat the man, you retire him.

WWE has recently embarked down a path that they now have no choice but to continue on. That story is the impending retirement of the real living legend of the wrestling business and by far, the greatest world champion of all time, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. The storyline however is far from perfect.

Actually, I take that statement back. The better phrase would have been, “The storyline however is far from GOOD.”

It isn’t good at all. Other than the end result of matches having fans glued to their seats with however Ric is going to win, nothing has been going right for this program. From the weak explanation for it to the latest stuff with MVP, this program has been nothing short of a failure and I’ll tell you why.

First off, why does Ric Flair have to retire the minute he loses a match? The answer is because Vince McMahon says so. That’s it. Did Ric get on Vince’s bad side? Maybe or maybe not; that wasn’t explained. What should have happened several weeks before the Ric/Vince segment was to have a “career threatening” angle with Flair where he got “injured” by the hands of a WWE Superstar. That way, Vince McMahon can claim that Flair is a liability to his company and that should he get injured, he knows Flair would sue him for it and thus, he needed to think of a way to get rid of Flair. Since (kayfabe) it states that he can’t fire Flair without cause, he was going to force Flair to retire the minute he loses his next match. With that, you have an explanation as to why Vince McMahon wants to rid the WWE of Flair.

If that wasn’t a good enough reason for you, let’s go with Vince McMahon feuding with Triple H. HHH has been tormenting him for lord knows how many years. We even had the angle where HHH embarrassed Vince at the RAW Family Portrait and made fun of him the following week. Vince McMahon knows how much Flair means to HHH so instead of taking his frustrations out on HHH, he decides to take it out on his friend and mentor, Ric Flair. He threatens to end Flair’s career with the WWE by firing him should he lose a match. The match with HHH and Flair that took place on New Years Eve could have meant much more and been hyped a ton more by having Vince announce it weeks in advance and they could have hyped it as they do pay per view main events. Vince should have been the one to announce that should HHH not compete and try to lay down for Flair, he would automatically be removed from the Royal Rumble and not have a shot at the Mania main event. That would have been the ultimate punishment for Triple H since he couldn’t lay down for his friend and save his career without sacrificing his possible title shot.

The other gaping hole in the storyline is the obvious lack of follow up. Flair has been sporadically used on television when in fact, he needs to be used every week for this angle to have full effect. I am not saying he should wrestle on TV every week. But he definitely should be ON TV every week and on all programs. Have him cut a promo on RAW and then wrestle on Smackdown and have a backstage segment on ECW. The following week, he can wrestle on RAW, promo on ECW and backstage segment on Smackdown. There is no excuse for him being completely off television for a week.

The bottom line is, WWE is seriously dropping the ball with this angle. Obviously it is going to culminate at Wrestlemania with Flair’s retirement match. WWE has a huge chance to make this memorable. They can have Flair lose to someone who is going to be a huge star in the company (the only safe bets are MVP or Ken Kennedy. Anyone else is a disappointment) Or surprise everyone and have Flair win his Mania match and then let him cut an unscripted promo (either at Mania or on RAW the following evening) where he states that the past few months have been hectic for him due to all the stress of not knowing what his last match is going to be and wanting to end his career on his own terms. Then have him announce that he is retiring on his own terms, right here tonight. And have an emotional scene with Flair’s family, longtime friends such as Arn Anderson, Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, Triple H, etc come out and support him. This of course only works if Flair is allowed to ad lib his promo without a script writer giving him lines to read.

By the way, that is the other factor playing it’s part in ruining what could have been one of the most memorable angles in WWE history, lack of Flair background. The Ric Flair I remember would not stay quiet while Vince McMahon is giving him a brow beating on RAW. The Four Horsemen Ric Flair wouldn’t be all humble before his big matches talking about how it might be his last match. He wouldn’t be having a face to face confrontation with MVP and talk about how if the Royal Rumble is his last match, he knows it is time to retire. NO WAY. The Ric Flair I remember would be talking down his opponents. He would be stating that he is going to beat them when he faces them and then go out and party all night long with several females. He would discuss how he was at the hotel dancing the night away and managed to tear himself away for a few hours to beat (insert name here) on (insert brand here) tonight. Basically, he wouldn’t be all humble and calm about this whole situation. Most importantly, WWE should be treating each match as if it were a big event. They had a decent promotional push for the Flair/HHH match but since then, everything else has seemed like an after thought. Even the MVP/Flair hype has been lackluster. Sure they had a good segment in MVP’s lounge. But a few seconds later, it was a forgotten memory as they moved past it at lightning speed.

Basically the gist of this is to state the obvious, WWE has a ***** angle on its hands and instead of blowing it by not putting in the attention it deserves. That’s a crying shame for a man who has basically given his entire life over the past 30+ years to this business.

Ok kiddies, classes are over for now. See you all next week in soon!!!!!!!!!!!

MATT NOTE: I just wanted to let you all know that I will be doing a Question and Answer column in the near future. I am taking all reader questions in regards to any subject. Nothing is taboo. So feel free to e-mail your questions to my e-mail address and I will address it. Just include your name and state/city that you are e-mailing from and I will post your question along with my answer in a future column.

Feel free to discuss whatever you’d like in the “ Anger Management” section of the message board or whichever section you see fit.

~Matt Dawgs  

World Wrestling Insanity writer Matt Dawgs is the bread and butter of the World Wrestling Insanity family. His future is bright and once James Guttman comes into a large sum of money, you can expect Matt will be getting tons of it thrown at him, at least half of it. Matt also moonlights as a professional wrestler/manager in the NY/NJ Indy scene. He is legit afraid of getting on Homicide’s bad side but thinks he is a cool dude in general. He also is a funny guy. If you have any questions, corrections, feedback, comments and ideas, he can be reached at Dawgs@worldwrestlinginsanity.com . If the feedback is negative, you can e-mail Matt at insanity @ worldwrestlinginsanity .com .

P.S. – In case you didn’t know, there is a WRESTLING BOOK that is out titled “World Wrestling Insanity”. It is a damn fun read so I suggest you run out and get it today. If you already have your copy, read it. If you already read your copy, read it again. It is funny; Like me.

Also, don’t forget to check out our new section, CLUB WWI . It can be found by clicking the banner at the top of this page. Check out all the new audio updates and features found there. Some good stuff including all of James Guttman’s past Radio Free Insanity broadcasts as well as all new, uncut interviews with some of wrestling past and present names. Good stuff people.