Ric Flair: The Final Match???

[AcidDragon]

So did any of you guys end up catching this event? I saw most of it. Not bad, over all. The main event was about what I thought it would be. Flair actually took a couple of bumps where I was like, "Yikes... That probably hurt." and

Spoiler:

I don't think he knew where he was by the time they did the finish. He couldn't really get the brass knux on. Overall, I was still entertained and you know, it's Flair. I had to cheer for him in the way you'd cheer for an elderly relative who you know someone is letting win at arm wrestling. LOL.

It's actually a lot more cheering for Flair than I'd ever done in the past because I always booed him except during his brief face turns after Terry Funk piledrove him through a table and the whole feud with Vader post Battlebowl. I did also briefly root for him during the Horseman/nWo feud. I didn't really follow wrestling as much after Vince bought out WCW.

[packerbacker180]

I actually forgot all about it, but we were driving to DC on Sunday. My friend actually texted me about it Monday and that's when I checked out the results. I'm going to probably watch it tomorrow.

[packerbacker180]

So I finally watched the match. I probably should watch the whole PPV but didn't have the time. It was fun. I think AD nailed it with the elderly arm wrestling comment, lol. It started out pretty cool with the entrances, Lethal was out first to his current theme. Then JJ came out to his TNA theme. JJ looks like he could still go regularly. Andrade was out next, and of course, Naitch was last and it was great seeing the purple attire one last time wearing the NWA title around his waist.

I didn't realize they actually built up a story going in to the match, with Flair telling Lethal he wasn't going to be a part of the show, then ragging on JJ offering him front row seats for him and his father, lol. This led to Lethal and JJ attacking Flair in a parking lot to set up the match which I think was a nice callback to when the Horsemen attacked Dusty. I couldn'tfind the prematch vignette anywhere, but here's the actual parking lot footage...



The match itself was ok. I mean, you have to set your expectations really low. It started out really slow as the heels used every old school delay tactic you could think of to prolong the match. They even eventually did some stuff outside the ring with Flair's family. By mid-match Flair looked completely gassed. That's not surprising for someone his age not named Action Mike Jackson, but his chops started out decent, but by the middle I don't think he could've knocked over a feather with his chops. Toward the end Flair was literally laying lifeless on the outside apron and Andrade had to reach over the ropes to tag him and then Flair very slowly rolled into the ring. Luckily the match didn't go much longer than that. The brass knucks kind of felt unnecessary, I would've thought they could've come up with something better, but then Flair slowly put the Figure Four on JJ and even though both their shoulders were down, because Flair looked like he could no longer legitimately move, the ref counted to three anyway.

So it was ok. It was fun for a bit, then a little awkward. I wasn't watching it live, so I knew Flair was fine. Had I been watching it live it may've been even more difficult to watch I might've been really concerned for Ric by the end. Afterward he cut a promo outside the ring, I couldn't really understand what he was saying to start, but in true Nature Boy fashion, he ended by saying he was going downtown with Kid Rock, who was ringside for the match (without the heavyset girl he was sitting with at SummerSlam, lol).

It's worth a watch just to say you've seen it, but temper expectations. Personally, if this is it, it wasn't bad. I'd always hoped we would've gotten Ric in AEW as Flair & Andrade vs Sting & Darby made a ton of sense the last year. I think the Darkside of the Ring Plane Ride from Hell episode sadly put the kibosh on that. But as cool as that would be, I'm not sure I'd want to see that now.

Ah, who am I kidding? I'd still mark out if Sting and Flair were in the ring again one last time.

Here's a highlight reel, but they weirdly don't show the finish. Ric actually said in the post match promo that he hoped everyone enjoyed the match, because he didn't remember a lot of it.



Here's the actual finish

[AcidDragon]

I think the finish COULD have worked but Ric was so gassed and mentally out of it by then, I don't think he knew what Andrade put into his hand because at some point, I recall he was fighting it and then he actually removed it from his fingers altogether and then I think he had a brief moment of clarity and remembered the finish. He awkwardly clutched the knux in his hand and punched JJ. I think the idea was that Ric is a dirty fighter, he didn't want to go out looking like he put himself over someone who like you said still had a few good years in him with a clean win. Flair is one of those guys who can sometimes get the fans to cheer him even with a dirty win depending on the storyline of the match so he doesn't need a clean win to get a response. On the other hand, it might look selfish or even less believable and maybe evening damaging to the one losing to Flair if it was clean (at Flair's age and performance level). It's just one of those things, I guess. They took a risk and unfortunately, the finish was a little wonky, but I think the energy was overall positive and we all really wanted to root for grandpa and it was really good seeing Taker, Bret, Mick, DDP, etc, some of whom had legit beef with Flair at one point but were at ringside to support him. The only crazier thing would have been to see Scott Steiner there (and to a lesser extent, Steve Austin). LOL.

Great write up and thanks for sharing the pics and videos!!!

[packerbacker180]

You might be right. I guess I would've just preferred a low blow and a tap out to the F4, but at that point Flair was so gassed, I guess it wouldn't have worked. They were in kind of a rough spot making it a main event of a PPV because they couldn't just go with five minutes of greatest hits and send everyone home happy. Maybe that was part of the problem. I think the issue was Andrade put the knucks on Flair's left hand instead of the right. I will say this, lucid or not, that punched looked good, and JJ sold it like a pro.

It is good to see Flair finally taking it easy now....



BTW, I don't know if it was nerves or whatever, but he looks 100x better in this vid then he did at any point in that Last Match. Maybe he was stylin' and profilin' a bit too much the night before.

[AcidDragon]

Haha what the heck? Carlos Colon?

[BrandonDaCollector]

I wasn't ignoring this topic, I never ignore peoples topics or being a spectator, I just haven't been into other wrestling other than WWE & classic WWF but I'm trying to build Myself back up to AEW this week for the PPV so...

This event looked cool with all the bonus stuff. Amazing that David Penzar who was WCW's old ring announcer is still at it. Flair looked OK. Not bad for a living legend. Jarrett looks great too, still got them big arms. The finish of this legends match was pretty cool. I was never a big Lethal fan and same goes for Andrade but they played their parts well here.

Oh man, Carlos Colon. Now there's another legend. I loved his WWC stuff from the 80s and 90s. That was ECW before ECW came to be. I would be astounded if they would get a "true 1 last match" together...I mean Flair vs. Colon...arguably then biggest dream match ever!