The CBS Evening News did a feature on
Ric Flair that aired Saturday night. That feature, which included
shots of Flair training with the Highspots.com crew, has just been
added to the CBS website. The unedited
interview with Ric conducted by CBS's Jeff Glor is also linked above.
In 1975, he was a little bit Joe Namath. In
2010 he's a lot of Jack Nicholson.
Harley Race, Ricky Steamboat, Greg
Valentine, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, James J. Dillon, Barry
Windham, and Dean Malenko came out to greet Ric Flair, plus his
closest friends in the WWE including Triple H, Shawn Michaels, John
Cena, Dave Batista, and Chris Jericho; plus his wife and children
all joined him in the ring tonight.
Dusty Rhodes said it earlier in the
night - Ric Flair is a national treasure.
The entire company then came out to
thank him as well.
When Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat
locked up on the stage at the WWE Hall of Fame Saturday 4/4/09, for
one brief moment it was 1977 again. Flair offered a tip of the hat
to the old Mid-Atlantic fans who were fortunate enough to see
thousands of Flair-Steamboat matches that very few saw because TV
cameras weren't there for those matches. I've edited a little of
that tribute and that magic lock-up to be relived here.
There are TONS of great Hall of Fame
photos and videos on the official WWE website at
WWE.com
An emotional send off for Flair;
Taker and Vince join after RAW ends
After
Monday
Night
RAW went off the air
yesterday night, Ric Flair and everyone else stayed there for a good
twenty more minutes as fans kept chanting 'Thank you Flair' and
woooing. When the
music stopped, Taker's
theme song kicked in as the sea of wrestlers in the ramp made way
for the new World Heavyweight champion. Taker stepped in
the
ring, removed his jacket
and hat, shook Flair's hand and hugged him for a big ovation from
the crowd. Afterwards Taker did his trademark pose on his knee
saluting the Nature Boy as Flair cried his eyes out. Taker left the
ring, and joined the rest of the crew on the ramp clapping.
Vince McMahon then rushed to the ring
and hugged Flair for a good two minutes for the largest ovation from
the crowd. Vince took Flair's hands and raised them up as the
emotional Flair kept crying. Most of the Superstars also had tears
in their eyes as Flair saluted the crowd for one last time. He did
the strut, removed the jacket and gave it an elbow drop and a knee
drop. Flair's family then joined him in the ring as the crowd
continued to clap without stopping for the whole segment since it
started on television.
All the Superstars then moved to the two
sides of the ramp as Flair - along with his family - walked in the
middle, shaking hands with everyone before turning around waving to
the crowd for one last time.
"The moon is high and here I am, Sittin'
here with this hammer in hand
One more drink oughta ease the pain, Starin' at that last link in
the chain
Well let's raise our glass and let this hammer fly,
Oh yeah, this is the long goodbye."