Former professional wrestler and semi-pro headline-maker Ric Flair has apologized after going viral for a number of complaints tied to his Cameo account. Flair, who is known for his wild endorsements and other antics, is now saying he'll make amends after one dissatisfied customer posted on line that they spent "nearly a grand" to give his brother what was inevitably "the worst thing he's ever been gifted." Ouch.

The message was meant to be a special wedding gift for the accuser's brother, who apparently has Flair tattooed on his body in some way. Instead, the user claims that Flair appeared to be drunk while awkwardly reading off the pre-written message while inside a crowded bar or other establishment. It's also clear that Flair's additional F-bomb commentary was not part of the Cameo request, and came across as rude and offensive. Check out the video below to see it in full:

Flair's random aside stating a lot of women also have Ric Flair tattoos, perhaps suggesting he finds it strange another man would have such body art, might already be enough to irk me as the gift giver. But I think Flair really crossed the line by a mile when he criticized the bachelor-for-now's decision to get married, rather than just wishing him well and ending the video.

I get why the person who bought it was upset, though I'm unsure why they then proceeded to give it to their sibling and taint their fandom for The Nature Boy. I mean, spending upwards of $1,000 on a celeb Cameo pretty much guarantees everyone and their mother will see it to justify the cost. But hopefully the brother was primed to be disappointed.

It wasn't noted if the matter was privately resolved, but Flair spoke about the issue publicly on X. He apologized to anyone upset with his Cameo videos, and offered reimbursement if they contacted his law firm:

Ric Flair was known for many great moments throughout his career, and while he's not perfect, this was a good move by the legend. Owning up to a mistake, especially a viral one on the internet, is never easy, so I give him all credit in the world for going out of his way to make it known he wants to make amends.

Speaking specifically to the message he sent, I feel like I can understand what Ric Flair was going for. I won't speculate on whether or not he was drinking, but I will say it did seem like he was acting with his usual persona he'd use at a wrestling show. The fictional Ric Flair is bold enough to call out John Cena at 76-years-old, and cut a promo disparaging Becky Lynch when she can easily fire back on Monday Night Raw any time that she chooses. Given that, I am hardly surprised he'd tell some random person he doesn't know they shouldn't get married.

There are a lot of times when the fictional Ric Flair feels like the real Richard Fliehr, and maybe the person who paid for a Cameo was hoping they'd get more of an out-of-character response from the professional wrestler. Let this be a story of caution for all those who try to buy a Cameo from him in the future, especially since there are other videos on his account similar to the viral one.

Perhaps the smarter use of money would be to relive Flair's greatest moments with a Netflix subscription, as the bulk of past WWE content recently arrived on the platform and is now available to stream. I recently watched his retirement match with Shawn Michaels (not to be confused with his final match a few years back) and it holds up. Check it out on Netflix by searching for WrestleMania 24, and enjoy!

Ric Flair is a name synonymous with pro wrestling though, with the greatest moments in his career behind him, he's more known for his presence on social media. Whether it's calling out wrestlers like Becky Lynch or collaborating with brands on new products to endorse, he's on X and Instagram quite often. As Flair continues to promote merchandise, I think I've just witnessed his most outrageous product partnership yet.

An ad popped up on my timeline that was so ridiculous I assumed it was a parody. It turns out, however, that Ric Flair's endorsement of Horn Blasters, a product that allows for train horns to be attached to cars, is very real. Check out the ad via the Instagram post below, which features Flair enthusiastically giving his personal stamp of approval:

I feel like this video is the modern equivalent of Dusty Rhodes doing car commercials back in the day. That's not so much in the way that Rhodes had to do it for financial security, but in that Ric Flair was likely offered a sum of money to promote this product. I'd imagine that money was good enough that the Nature Boy ultimately decided to do what he does best, promote!

If there's one thing I'll say about Ric Flair, it's that one can never accuse him of never giving everything he's a part of his absolute best. Like how Nicolas Cage goes bananas in every role he plays, it's a joy to see Flair ham it up in this video and shake along to the noise of the truck horns despite wearing protective headphones.

At first, I honestly wanted to criticize Ric Flair for being linked to this product, but in all honesty, this is how he keeps the spirit of his classic character alive. His days of calling out John Cena and others in a wrestling ring are over, or at least they should be. One can never rule out Flair attempting yet another retirement match, despite the bout he had a few years back.

Wrestling is off the table, but there's nothing that prevents Ric Flair from being the kiss-stealing, wheeling and dealing, limousine-riding, jet-flying son of a gun he's been for decades. Brand deals keep that persona alive and allow people to enjoy The Nature Boy at a time when we've recently said goodbye to past icons like Hulk Hogan.

Although truck train horns might not be everyone's cup of tea, there's no shortage of Ric Flair-centric merchandise that's been sold over the years. I think my personal favorite product of his has to be Wooooo! Energy Drink, which feels like the best brand collaboration I can imagine. Who wouldn't want the energy of Flair inside a can?

Ric Flair may not be on WWE TV anytime soon, but wrestling fans can enjoy watching his daughter Charlotte over on SmackDown on USA Network on Fridays at 8:00 p.m. ET. In the meantime, the holiday season is around the corner, so maybe look into buying your loved one a truck horn as a stocking sufferthat would scare the living daylights out of a residential city block.

John Cena's shocking heel turn just hit another level after his latest Monday Night Raw appearance, where the legend threatened to "ruin wrestling" for fans of the WWE. The Champ said he intends to beat Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 and ensure wrestling history remembers his name and Ric Flair fades to obscurity after his title championship record is overtaken. The Nature Boy was listening to Cena's latest promo and, as he often does, had thoughts to share.

Flair hopped on an interview with TMZ following the callout and responded to being namechecked on Monday Night Raw. The wrestling legend may have retired from in-ring action following a much-publicized comeback in 2022, but one might think he's gearing up for upcoming WWE events with this response he gave in regards to potentially being made "irrelevant" by John Cena:

As usual, Ric Flair is as cool as a cucumber and brimming with confidence that John Cena won't end up dethroning his record before retiring from the WWE at the end of the year. I like his conviction, and I expect nothing less from him, though it's hard to imagine the WWE won't send out Cena with that record as his own. I'm sure Naitch knows this, but ever the showman, he has to stay in character and give the fans what they want with his ever-present arrogance.

Speaking on a more personal level about the WWE's booking decision, Ric Flair had nothing but praise for the decision to turn John Cena heel. While Flair said he didn't want Cena to beat his record, his follow-up comment could suggest he is rooting for him

I wonder if Ric Flair was also upset when Jey Uso ended up beating John Cena, which stings a lot less now that wrestling fans have seen the latter win at Elimination Chamber. Interest in Cena winning has only escalated in light of his heel turn, as seeing the veteran "ruin" wrestling feels like a more interesting storyline than Cody Rhodes retaining his WWE title and knocking his opponent down a peg.

Ric Flair is the latest WWE legend to show love for what John Cena is doing in the WWE, but not the only one. Hulk Hogan was thrilled to see the heel turn and thinks it has the potential to create one of the more memorable WrestleMania matches in recent memory. Expectations are high from wrestlers and fans alike for this match, so I do hope both Cena and Cody Rhodes can rise to the challenge and give us quite a show.

WrestleMania 41 is set for Las Vegas on Saturday, April 19th and Sunday, April 20th. CinemaBlend will continue to track all the fun happening on the way to the big event, and we'll have no shortage of reactions to all that happens after it all goes down.

Did you know that WWE has a YouTube channel dedicated to sharing old matches, Coliseum Video releases, awesome behind-the-scenes videos, and so many other great and random clips? I recently found out about the WWE Vault, and over the past few weeks, I’ve spent a ton of time watching some of my favorite WWE moments of the New Generation and Attitude Era, as well as things I never knew existed.

Seriously, if you’re a wrestling fan and want to check out stuff you’d expect on the old WWE Network that’s not available with a Peacock subscription or with a Netflix subscription, this channel is going to scratch that itch. Here are five things I cannot recommend enough for die-hard wrestling fans or those just now getting into the product since the start of the Triple H Era!

So Many Classic Matches Are In The Vault And Easy To Watch

Don’t get me wrong, I love watching classic pay-per-view events and random episodes of WCW Monday Nitro on Peacock, but sometimes I just want to go back and revisit a one-off match without having to skip two hours into a show and end up in the middle of the bout. While the WWE Vault YouTube channel doesn’t have every single match of all time, there are some absolute bangers in the vast collection of over 1,000 videos. Here’s one particular match I had a lot of fun revisiting:

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Triple H – Three Stages of Hell at No Way Out 2001

I recently went back and watched the 2001 Royal Rumble match, and couldn’t get enough of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s brawl with Triple H as the Texas Rattlesnake was trying to enter the match (he would eventually win and headline WrestleMania X-7). Not long after, the WWE Vault shared their brutal “Three Stages of Hell” match (Fall 1 - Singles, Fall 2 - Street Fight, Fall 3 - Steel Cage). I immediately watched the grueling affair in all its bloody glory.

Watch Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H’s Three Stages of Hell Match on YouTube.

These Old Coliseum Video Home Releases Are Are Great

Some of my favorite childhood memories involved going to Blockbuster with my dad to pick up wrestling tapes from the surprisingly stacked collection. Over the years, I had hoped the now-defunct WWE Network or current WWE Network on Peacock would host these old pay-per-view releases and Coliseum Video compilations, but they never showed up or were removed before I knew better. However, that all changed with the Vault, as the channel continues to upload several old VHS tapes each month. But there’s one old compilation tape from what appears to be 1993 that I can’t stop thinking about:

Smack ‘Em Whack ‘Em

I never knew the Smack ‘Em Whack ‘Em tape existed until a few weeks ago, but I’m so glad I found this gem. Not only does it showcase Bret Hart defeating Ric Flair for the WWE Championship (The Hitman’s first WWE Title), but also features Razor Ramon vs. The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels vs. Hart for the WWE strap, and some hilarious segments with The Bushwhackers and Lord Alfred Hayes. Seriously, this was an unexpected and amazing trip down memory lane.

Watch Smack ‘Em Whack ‘Em on YouTube.

The Must-See Dark Matches Compilation Is Full Of Forgotten And Random Matches

There is something about watching dark matches that has always felt so intriguing and wrong, like I wasn’t supposed to see these clips or something. Over the years, videos of tryout matches and pre-show bouts to get the crowd hot for Raw, SmackDown, or ppvs have leaked online, but the Vault has now put out a 34-minute compilation featuring everyone from Paul London and Brian Kendrick to Justin Credible to PCO. But there’s one that particularly caught my attention:

Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. 2 Cold Scorpio

It’s a shame Dr. Death Steve Williams never got a decent run in WWE, because he was an absolute legend in WCW, AJPW, and pretty much everywhere else he wrestled (including the time I saw him tag with Hacksaw Jim Duggan at a Boat Show in high school). Well, this compilation features a great dark match between the late wrestler and 2 Cold Scorpio from what looks like early 1998 (WWE was still using the pre-Attitude Era font at the time). I’m not kidding you, go watch this match!

Watch Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. 2 Cold Scorpio

There's A 4.5-Hour Terry Funk Mixtape Full Of Great Promos, Matches, And Horse Farts

The world of professional wrestling lost one of its toughest, craziest, and most prolific figures in August 2023 when Terry Funk died at 79. From his days as NWA Champion to his resurgence as one of the industry’s premier deathmatch wrestlers, and everything that happened in between, the Funkster was a legend among legends. The Vault recently put out a massive four-and-a-half-hour compilation featuring all sorts of matches, promos, and random shots of Funk with a farting horse. But there’s one section that I’ve loved the most:

Terry Funk and Jerry “The King” Lawler’s Empty Arena Match

In the midst of an epic feud, Terry Funk challenged Jerry “The King” Lawler to an empty arena match at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee, back in June 1981. Nearly 20 years before The Rock and Mankind duked it out during the Super Bowl halftime show, these two bitter rivals went to war in front of a cameraman and commentator Lance Russell (who kept trying to get Funk to quit cussing). It’s epic, it’s iconic, and it’s so much fun to watch.

Watch Terry Funk and Jerry “The King” Lawler’s Empty Arena Match on YouTube.

The WWE Vault Will Randomly Release Behind-The-Scenes Videos From Past Royal Rumbles And Other Iconic Moments

Much like the compilations of dark matches, the Vault also releases random behind-the-scenes videos that show everything from “found footage” from ECW and WWE shows to the recording of the 1995 Monday Night Raw intro atop Titan Towers in Stamford, Connecticut. Speaking of which:

The Raw Rooftop Open BTS Video

If you want a throwback to the New Generation and see how one of the most iconic (and certainly the most ambitous) wrestling intros came to be, then check out this behind-the-scenes video. Though I had seen the hilarious clip of The Undertaker giving Hunter Hearst Helmsely and Goldust some serious side-eye as they played the WrestleMania arcade game, a lot of this was new to me.

Watch the Raw Rooftop Open BTS video on YouTube.

But, this is barely scratching the surface of the WWE Vault, as the channel continues to add more and more matches, shows, and random videos each and every day.

Saturday Night’s Main Event is back, and I’m so stoked I want to throw on polka dots and dance like an aging Dusty Rhodes or maybe have a snack of turnbuckle stuffing in honor of George The Animal Steele. I love The Golden Age Of Wrestling. There's something about it that makes me want to sprint to the ring Ultimate Warrior style and give a Hacksaw Jim Duggan thumbs up. Fortunately, now is the chance for all of us to relive those glory days alongside Jesse The Body Ventura.

That’s right. The beloved 80s commentator is back in the broadcasting booth (RIP Gorilla Monsoon), and he’s not the only thing about the show reportedly going retro. We’ve already seen throwback graphics, but rumors are swirling that we’ll also get retro entrances, appearances from 80s legends and maybe even a throwback ring. I can’t wait. So, hide your prized bulldog from Bobby Heenan, pull out your loudest Jimmy Hart megaphone and drop the elbow from the top ropes like Macho Man Randy Savage. We're in for some rockin' wrestling!

And what a night of wrestling it should be. WWE is giving fans a card worthy of a major PPV. Four championships are going to be on the line, and the fifth match features former WrestleMania main eventers. I have theories I want to Perfect Plex into your brains, but before I read from my scroll in the middle of the ring like a prime Genius, here’s a quick look at how my predictions have been going…

Not exactly a 15 year undefeated streak like Andre The Giant, but I'll still take it. Hopefully I can use Main Event to put a few more wins onto the board this weekend and emerge as ripped as Ravishing Rick Rude or as glowed up as Miss Elizabeth.

Sami Zayn Vs Drew McIntyre

It’s a good thing I decided to party Ric Flair style this past weekend and put off my predictions til Tuesday because this match was a last second addition to the card. I’m here for it though. McIntyre is ready for his first in-ring action since his match with CM Punk at Hell In A Cell ended that feud, which was so good Rowdy Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan would have been proud. Now he’s ready to take out that anger on poor Sami Zayn, who is stepping up here to defend the honor of his fallen comrade Jey Uso, who McIntyre attacked.

Zayn is obviously super over with the crowd and continues to be involved in huge storylines. It’s a testament to his popularity that he continually gets booked for major shows like this, but he’s almost certainly going to lose here. McIntyre needs to reassert himself as a main event player after his loss to Punk, and by declaring war on The Bloodline, he’s promising a series of interactions and potentially matches against different players. If he loses here, the feud is over. He’s not going to advance to Jey Uso if he already lost to Sami Zayn. So, yeah, I expect Drew to win here in pretty dominating fashion, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll ask for a King Kong Bundy style 5 count.

Predicted Winner: Drew McIntyre

Liv Morgan (Champion) Vs Iyo Sky For The Women’s World Championship

I hope WWE is paying attention to these crowd reactions Iyo Sky is getting because she’s one of the most over women on the entire roster. Crowds are erupting like she's a lost member of The Bushwhackers, and it’s easy to see why. She’s fantastic in the ring. Her personality is really vibrant and fun, and she’s got her own pace and style that feel different from what we get from everyone else. I would love to see her win The Women’s World Championship again.

But is this the moment where she gets pushed back to the top? That all depends on what WWE wants to do with Rhea Ripley. Like a mid-to-late-80s Hulk Hogan during the height of Hulkamania, Ripley is by a large margin the most popular woman on WWE’s roster. She is going to win the title back at some point because the biggest star should hold the belt most of the time, but she also has a lot of unfinished business with Morgan, who stole her mustached man candy Dirty Dom Mysterio and now holds her gold.

WWE probably wants Ripley to win her feud with Morgan and get her Women’s World Championship back at the same time, but there’s also a possibility that Triple H and company will want to split her objectives. If Morgan loses the title here, Ripley can finish her business with Morgan over the next month or two and then set her eyes on winning a World Championship back at WrestleMania. My guess is WWE keeps the title on Liv Morgan for now and has her beat Iyo Sky here, but I’m not 100% sure.

Predicted Winner: Liv Morgan

Gunther (Champion) Vs Damian Priest Vs Finn Bálor For The World Heavyweight Championship

The most famous Saturday Night’s Main Event episode is definitely Hulk Hogan vs Andre The Giant II, but the sneaky truth is, a lot of the time, the Hulkster wasn’t exactly defending his title against people with a compelling shot of winning. A lot of times he was wrestling superstars like Big Boss Man or Harley Race. Now, both of those guys are Hall of Famers, but they were not beating Hogan on network TV. Likewise, Finn Bálor was not beating Gunther in a 1v1 scenario. He hasn’t won a singles match on PPV since he beat Edge at Extreme Rules in October of 2022.

But it’s not just Finn Bálor vs Gunther anymore. Damian Priest was added to the match after some shenanigans on Monday, and now, all possibilities are in play. Gunther could lose his World Heavyweight Championship without even getting pinned, and while both Priest and Bálor would be underdogs in a match with Gunther, each has been a World Champion before and would be a credible World Champion again.

I think the decision here comes down to what WWE wants to do the World Heavyweight Championship. There’s a scenario in which they simply keep it on Gunther all the way to WrestleMania. Perhaps John Cena tries to win another Championship, and the unstoppable Gunther is in his way. That sounds like a possible ‘Mania Main Event to me. Or there’s a chance they want the belt off Gunther and will perhaps give it to CM Punk or Seth Rollins to make their upcoming feud even more exciting. If that’s the case, maybe Finn or Damian will be a transitional champion. Or there’s a chance they just want to go back to Priest as World Champion. He’s getting the best crowd reactions of his career and gave us an all-time WrestleMania moment last year when he cashed in to win the same belt.

There are so many options in play, but there are none I like better than Gunther continuing to look dominant and beating the hell out of both guys like he's Haku in a bar fight. So, I say he gets the win here, and in classic 80s style, he'll do it via Brutus The Barber Beefcake’s finishing move: The Sleeper.

Predicted Winner: Gunther

Chelsea Green Vs Michin For The Women's United States Championship

It's Saturday morning, and I'm jumping back into these predictions to give my final take on The Women's United States Championship match. We now know the finalists are Chelsea Green and Michin, and while I was confident Green was going to win before, I'm even more confident now that I know her opponent.

With all due respect to Michin, who is good in the ring and could build into something down the line, she's not very over with the crowd right now. Green, on the other hand, is super over with the crowd in an off-beat midcard kind of way. She's aspirationaly compared herself to The Miz in the past, and while I think that's a great goal for her, since we're talking about 80s wrestling, I'll compare her to The Honky Tonk Man. She's an attraction unto herself, and her goofy presence helps the show hit different emotional notes.

Green has surpassed every expectation fans had for her when she returned at The 2013 Royal Rumble. Her good work has been rewarded with consistent screentime. Now it's time to reward it with a championship.

Predicted Winner: Chelsea Green

Cody Rhodes (Champion) Vs Kevin Owens For The WWE Championship

Look: Kevin Owens has been fantastic in this program with Cody Rhodes. I went from thinking he was a throwaway opponent to fill some time for Cody to thinking this needs to go on a lot longer because this feud rules. We sometimes take KO for granted and forget how good he is. He’s got a Ted Dibiase-like quality where whatever he’s doing feels relevant, and he’s able to step up to a main event program when needed and feel like he belongs there.

The Internet has been arguing pretty relentlessly that it would be a good move for WWE to let Owens win here. It would add an element of surprise to the card, and it would give Owens a chance to hold The WWE Championship, which he’s never done before. I agree. I’d absolutely love to see Triple H get bold and put the title on Owens, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s going to happen because I don’t.

WWE has given us the occasional shock over the last few years (see Shinsuke Nakamura beating LA Knight at Survivor Series), but in general, the bookers have valued stability and common sense over chaos. That’s mostly been a good thing. That allowed Roman Reigns to have an all-time fantastic title run, and it has allowed Gunther to look like a nearly unbeatable menace for years. In general, it’s a good thing to keep the top guys on top, and Cody has been the top pure babyface for awhile. So, as much as I hear all the arguments for Owens and would love to see it myself, I have to predict what I think is most likely to happen and that’s Cody winning.

Predicted Winner: Cody Rhodes

Saturday Night’s Main Event will air on NBC on Saturday evening. You can watch it there or on Peacock or via other streaming options. Wind back the clock and check it out. You won’t be disappointed!

Though World Championship Wrestling (WCW) has been dead for the better part of the past quarter century, the blame game surrounding who’s ultimately responsible for its demise seems to never stop. With the June 2024 premiere of Vice TV's Who Killed WCW? series once again picking at the scab of a wound that has never properly healed, everyone is stepping in to point the finger and play the blame game. Now it appears that wrestling legend Ric Flair is pointing that finger.

In a blistering diatribe on X (formerly known as Twitter), “The Nature Boy” took a scorched Earth approach to the seemingly unanswerable question of “Who killed WCW?” and specifically named several former high-ranking WCW officials – Jim Herd, Eric Bischoff, and Vince Russo – who he referred to as “A Three-Headed Monster:”

Flair, who "retired" from wrestling in 2022, had beef with all three men named in the above quote throughout different portions of his run in WCW during much of the promotion’s existence. It didn’t stop when WCW was purchased by WWE (known as WWF at the time) in March 2001. In fact, it looks like these grudges won’t be coming to an end anytime soon.

Jim Herd and Flair butted heads throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s when the former was named Executive Vice President of WCW. Herd famously stripped Flair of his WCW World Heavyweight Championship and fired the NWA mainstay in July 1991, which led to Flair showing up on WWF programming with the “Big Gold” belt and ultimately winning the WWF Championship at the 1992 Royal Rumble.

Flair pointing out Herd felt a little random, especially since the executive wasn’t part of the company when it took its death spiral just after the turn of the 21st century. Still, hos comments about Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo are pretty standard among wrestlers and wrestling fans, as both men have been the scapegoats for the company’s shuttering in 2001. I previously wrote that while it makes sense for Bischoff and Russo to be blamed for WCW’s downfall, the AOL Time Warner merger did just as much damage to the company, if not more.

If you want to know more about World Championship Wrestling and everything that led to its downfall, check out Who Killed WCW? Tuesday nights on Vice TV, one of the most exciting and enlightening wrestling shows on the 2024 TV calendar.

Between 1998 and 2001, some of the most well-known wrestlers of all time called Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling home at one point or another. Icons like Sting, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, and countless others made the promotion one of the top two companies in the industry and allowed it to go head-to-head with Vince McMahon’s WWF.

Years before WCW branched out on its own and became a standalone wrestling promotion, it was known under various other names like Jim Crockett Promotions and was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance, a vast network of territories in every corner of the United States (and abroad). And just like wrestlers who found success in both WWE and WCW, dozens of greats kicked all kinds of butt in both eras, including these guys… 

Sting

Few wrestlers are as tied to the WCW brand as Sting, a man with his fair share of career highlights over the years. Years before Ted Turner took his company out of the NWA’s network, Sting found success wrestling all over the territory system including Jim Crockett Promotions, where he took on the likes of Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen.

Ric Flair

Ric Flair, considered to be one of the four faces on the Mount Rushmore of Wrestling, was a mainstay of both the NWA and WCW after the company branched out on its own. With multiple championship reigns, historic feuds, and some of the best promos of the ‘80s, Flair was the top dog of the NWA. After a short stint in the WWF, Flair returned to WCW in the mid-1990s where he stayed until the promotion’s final days in March 2001.

Dusty Rhodes

Though he never won the WWE Championship, the late, great Dusty Rhodes etched out a great legacy for himself thanks to his work in both the NWA and WCW. A workhorse of the territory system, “The American Dream” would find similar success in WCW throughout the 1990s, as a wrestler, manager, and even commentator for a time.

Arn Anderson

Arn Anderson, one of the greatest minds in the history of the sport and a core member of the Four Horsemen, was a killer in the NWA’s different territories throughout the early-to-mid-1980s, including Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. After a short stint in WWF near the end of the decade, Anderson went to WCW, where he remained a fixture until the company’s 2001 demise.

Tully Blanchard

Though he wouldn’t have a long run in WCW like his fellow Four Horsemen Arn Anderson and Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard did wrestle the late Terry Funk in a 1994 match. That came after nearly a half-decade of dominance in the NWA alongside Anderson, where the two won multiple tag championships.

Scott Hall

Long before the late Scott Hall came to WCW in 1996 and changed the trajectory of the company, he got his start in Championship Wrestling from Florida, the NWA’s territory in the Sunshine State. After a four-year run in the American Wrestling Association, Hall would go to WCW for a cup of coffee a couple of times before breaking out as Razor Ramon in WWF.

Barry Windham

Barry Windham, who would later go on to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the U.S. Express, found success in WCW, both when it was a member of the NWA system and after its departure. Windham famously wrestled as part of Sting’s Squadron in the WarGames match against The Dangerous Alliance at WrestleWar ‘92.

Mike Rotunda

Mike Rotunda, the father of the late Bray Wyatt, has had runs in just about every wrestling promotion of prominence throughout his career. A fixture of Championship Wrestling from Florida, Rotunda would leave the NWA system for WWF in 1984 and later returned to WCW on multiple occasions in the final decade or so of the 20th century. 

Rick Rude

Rick Rude went just about everywhere throughout his relatively brief career, including multiple stints in WCW. Jim Crocket Promotions, Championship Wrestling from Florida, WWF, and even the Von Erichs’ World Class Championship Wrestling were some of the places this ravishing wrestler called home over the years.

Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat

Even if you take out all the great things Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat did in the WWF, he still had a remarkable career that included some of the best matches in NWA history. From his days in Championship Wrestling from Florida to his long tenure in Jim Crockett Promotions before leaving to put on possibly the best WrestleMania match of all time to return to WCW in the early ‘90s, he did it all.

Terry Funk

Considering he only stopped wrestling a little more than a half-decade before he passed away in August 2023, it should be no surprise that Terry Funk wrestled at least one match in every major promotion. This includes iconic runs in All Japan Pro Wrestling, the WWF, and of course multiple stints in WCW and various NWA territories. He was simply one of the best and hardest-working names in the business. 

Dory Funk Jr.

Dory Funk Jr. spent the better part of three decades going from territory to territory in the NWA system starting back in 1963. He continued to wrestle all over the world throughout his career and even showed up in WCW on a handful of occasions.

Cactus Jack

Cactus Jack, the hardcore persona adopted by Mick Foley in promotions like WWE, ECW, and various Japanese companies, was one of the most extreme members of the WCW roster in the early 1990s. But the man out of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, also technically wrested for NWA, as WCW was still part of the territory system when he went down south in 1989.

Butch Reed

When the name Butch Reed comes up, it’s hard to think back to his days in Mid-South Wrestling or the WWF, but the brawler out of Kansas City, Missouri, also had some memorable days in both the NWA and WCW. From his days of running around the territories to a short stint in Ted Turner’s company, Reed had some memorable matches against the sport’s biggest stars.

Magnum T.A.

Magnum T.A., whose in-ring career was cut short after a 1986 car accident, was one of the go-to hands in the NWA’s territory system throughout much of the ‘80s, wrestling on pretty much every corner of the country. Even after the accident that led to his early retirement, Magnum was a prominent figure in the business and worked various angles in WCW up until the mid-1990s.

Harley Race

Harley Race, the man who once put a $25,000 bounty on Ric Flair’s head to prevent the “Nature Boy” from taking his NWA Championship, is one of the toughest wrestlers to ever step into the ring. In addition to spending decades in the territory system, Race also spent some time in WCW, where he was a jack of all trades.

Curt Henning

Curt Henning, one of the best to ever do it, was a staple of AWA, the WWF, and WCW at various points in his career. He also had a short stint working in NWA territories like NWA St. Louis, Central States Wrestling, and various others throughout his time in the ring. Henning wrestled what would be his final match before his 2003 passing with NWA Total Nonstop Action.

'Rowdy' Roddy Piper

If you want to see Roddy Piper put on one of the best matches of all time, go back and watch his bloody Dog Collar match against Greg Valentine at NWA’s Starrcade ‘83. Though Piper would leave the territory not long after and join the WWF, he would later return in sorts during the twilight of his career when he joined WCW.

'Dr. Death' Steve Williams

You can put “Dr. Death” Steve Williams on the list of toughest wrestlers, as his beast of a man ran roughshod on everyone who came in his path in various territories, international promotions, and even WCW. Near the end of his career, Williams returned to WCW where he oddly enough wrestled Jerry Only from the Misfits.

The Road Warriors

Stars wherever they went, the Road Warriors, will forever be remembered as one of the most iconic tag teams in wrestling history. Hawk (Michael Hegstrand) and Animals (Joe Laurinaitis), with their signature facepaint biker gang look, pulled off their feared Doomsday Device in various NWA territories, WCW, WWF (as the Legion of Doom), and the AWA throughout their time together.

'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan

“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, the first man to win the Royal Rumble in WWF, was an icon of Mid-South Wrestling, WCW, and other promotions throughout the final decades of the 20th century, but he didn’t technically work for the NWA until his time with TNA back in 2003. 

The Fabulous Freebirds

The Fabulous Freebirds, a game-changing stable that dominated the wrestling scene throughout the 1980s, made an impact in several NWA-controlled territories and WCW, among other promotions. Pretty much, if there was a hot promotion anywhere in the continental United States, Michael P.S. Hayes, Buddy Roberts, and Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy were going to turn it into Badstreet, U.S.A.

The Great Muta

The Great Muta, the legendary Japanese wrestler who was inducted into the 2023 WWE Hall of Fame, is one of the most recognizable figures in all of wrestling. Though he’s mostly remembered for his work in NJPW and AJPW, Muta was one of the most exciting imports to the NWA territory system in the 1980s. He would also make various appearances in WCW throughout the 1990s, where he took on the likes of Ric Flair, Larry Zybysko, and his longtime rival, Sting.

Junkyard Dog

Junkyard Dog, also known as the King of New Orleans, was one of those wrestlers that could make the Irish McNeil Boys Club feel like the Louisiana Superdome while also making Texas Stadium feel as intimate as the Sportatorium, he was that good. JYD had a few stints in NWA territories before and after his WWF run in the mid-’80s, and he would also wrestle for WCW up until the early ‘90s.

The Midnight Express

The Midnight Express, which consisted of the likes of Dennis Condrey, Randy Rose, Norvell Austin, and Bobby Eaton over the years, was a group that found success all over the country. With runs in various NWA territories, WCW, WWF, and beyond, this Jim Cornette-led tag team was a sight to see.

Nikita Koloff

Nikita Koloff, one of the greatest “Russian” wrestlers (he was from Minnesota), was a staple of the NWA through his work with Jim Crockett Promotions throughout much of the 1980s, so it wasn’t surprising when he showed up in WCW several years later.

The Rock 'N' Roll Express

The Rock 'N' Roll Express, which consists of Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton, is one of those tag teams that just screams “1980s,” with their signature glam-rock attire. This successful duo has pretty much wrestled everywhere from NWA territories to the WWF to state fairs and indie promotions around the country dating back more than 40 years.

Ron Simmons

Before he went to WWE and created the Nation of Domination and APA as Farooq, Ron Simmons established himself as one of the most dominant and successful names in the NWA system. A fixture of Jim Crockett Promotions (and later WCW), Simmons made history in 1992 when he became the first African-American World Heavyweight Champion by defeating Vader.

Stan Hansen

Stan “The Lariat” Hansen, often considered the most successful gaijin in Japanese wrestling history, is someone you definitely wouldn’t want to face in a fight. This tough-as-nails, no-nonsense butt-kicker killed it in NJPW, AWA, WCW, WWF, and AJPW, which was recognized as a member of the NWA system. Basically, he made men cry in just about every timezone on the planet.

Ted DiBiase

Ted DiBiase, aka, “The Million Dollar Man,” is mostly associated with his legendary WWF run, but that’s just a part of his story. A fixture of Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling, a prominent figure in various NWA territories, and a steady hand in Japan, DiBiase was no chump. And though he didn’t wrestle for WCW, his work as a manager, commentator, and fourth member of the NWO added to the product.

Big Van Vader

Big Van Vader, who was surprisingly agile despite his massive size, was one of the most dominant and athletic big men in the history of the sport. Before going to WWF, Vader made a name for himself both in Japan and with WCW, where he took on everyone from Sting to Ric Flair and other top-tier talent. The late icon would later work with NWA Total Nonstop Action for a short time in 2003.

Lex Luger

A prominent figure in Championship Wrestling from Florida and Jim Crockett Promotions, Lex Luger was one of the most promising up-and-coming stars of 1980s wrestling. Luger, who would go on to have a great run in WWF, returned to WCW in 1995 in one of the most consequential moments of the Monday Night War and ‘90s wrestling history when he popped up in the first episode of Monday Nitro.

Honestly, this list could have kept going and going, but we had to stop it somewhere. 

Ric Flair's days in the ring are likely over, but it seems that the wrestling legend is now embroiled in a feud of sorts outside of it. That's because he and the owner of a restaurant have apparently taken issue with each other. This reportedly stems from the two parties getting into an altercation that involved a bathroom, which ended in Flair getting kicked out of the man's establishmnt. Now, a number of allegations are flying on social media.

The wrestling legend, known for big moments in WCW and WWE, took to X recently to air out some grievances in regard to Piesanos Stone Fired Pizza, a chain restaurant located in central Florida. "The Man" was unhappy with how he was treated and alleged that he was 86'd from the establishment following an argument with the staff over a manager taking too long in the restroom: 

It's unclear what the problem was with the kitchen manager taking too long in the bathroom, specifically whether Ric Flair wished to speak with them or needed to take a stall that was being occupied. The Piesanos Stone Fired Pizza manager, Jerry Roberts, sent a prepared statement to the Gainesville Sun about the situation. While it doesn't give details on the alleged bathroom incident that had the star so worked up, it does credit the staff for appropriately handling the situation and imply that the wrestler's removal was justified:

This isn't the first time Ric Flair has been engaged in an online feud, as wrestling fans have seen him take on sports commentators and even current WWE star Becky Lynch and more. Fans have also seen instances like the above, in which there are two sides to the story. 

A video has made its way to TikTok (via Wrestling News' X account) and shows some of the incident between Ric Flair and the restaurant staff. The former champion can be heard swearing at employees and disputing the claims made. At one point, he even asks one of the workers to "step outside" and stars calling him names. Take a look at the video below: 

At first glance, many probably won't view this as one of The Nature Boy's greatest moments. But, in fairness, we're only seeing a part of what happened and don't have  complete context.

Additional rumors of Ric Flair's behavior at the restaurant are making rounds, though there's currently no official proof to back them up. An X user claiming to be a manager at a sister location of the pizza chain purported to have additional information on what went down, and the alleged details are wild: 

Since the user provided no proof to back up the comments, readers should take the account with a grain of salt. Ric Flair has been implicated in some wild situations over the course of his career, and "Woo'ing" in the face of a blind grandmother is just about as wild as the disproven claim he received oral sex on a public train. 

For those wondering if this incident will impact the star's relationship with the WWE, be aware that he was Ric Flair was released by the company a few years back. For now, his only association with the company is that his daughter, Charlotte, and son-in-law, Andrade, remain on the roster. (Those who want to look back on Flair's most iconic matches may still do so with the use of a Peacock subscription.) 

Time will tell if this incident between Ric Flair and the pizza chain goes any further. In the meantime, stay plugged into everything that's going on with upcoming WWE events and fare from other corners of the professional wrestling world.

I grew up in the South (American by birth, Southern by the grace of God) and a massive wrestling fan. I liked WWF during my childhood, but I was obsessed with legends like Sting, Ric Flair, and all those cruiserweights. So much so, that the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro is engrained in my memory like two other major events from 2001 (Dale Earnhardt’s death in the final lap of the Daytona 500 and the September 11th attacks being the others). 

When I heard that Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks was producing a new Vice docuseries titled Who Killed WCW?, I was immediately taken back to March 26, 2001, when my favorite wrestling show aired its final match. I also started going down memory lane to try and figure out who was responsible for bringing an end to what was at one time the biggest and most successful wrestling company on the planet. Let’s talk it out.

Vince Russo Catches A Lot Of Heat, But He Wasn't Fully To Blame For WCW's Demise

Vince Russo, the long-time WWF writer and producer many consider responsible for those ridiculous Attitude Era moments (both good and bad), jumped over to rival WCW in October 1999 and immediately took the company in a different and edgier direction. During Russo’s tenure with WCW, he adopted some strategies that made WWF must-watch TV throughout the late 1990s, but a lot of it just didn’t work and fans (myself included) were not down with all the quick title changes, “edgy for the sake of being edgy” storylines, and less of a focus on the in-ring product.

But, was Russo responsible for WCW’s ultimate demise? While his changes didn’t work and certainly didn’t help steer the ship from the incoming storm, the truth is that WCW was already falling off before he took over as booker. The infamous “put some butts in the seats” incident where WCW revealed Mick Foley’s WWF Championship victory on a pre-taped episode of Monday Night Raw that helped turn the tide in favor of the competition happened months earlier, and the cracks were already showing by that point, anyway.  

Hulk Hogan And Other Veterans With 'Creative Control' Didn't Help The Death Spiral

While WWF was building massive stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock in the late ‘90s, flipping over to WCW during the final years of the company’s existence you’d find icons like Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair dominating the main event scene, while up-and-comers were relegated to Nitro’s opening hour or WCW’s less-prominent shows. See, the problem was that Hogan, Flair, and other former WWF wrestlers like Kevin Nash and Scott Hall had creative control, meaning they could refuse any storyline, any loss, title change, and any opportunity for a youngster to beat them in a passing of the torch moment.

Even with the “creative control” held by the biggest stars in the company, there’s no denying Hogan, who finally turned heel a few years earlier, and other main event players, got people watching week after week. That said, I can’t put the blame fully on the wrestlers themselves, even if they didn’t help make the situation any better.

Eric Bischoff's Habit Of Handing Out Massive Guaranteed Contracts Was One Of The Major Factors

As pointed out in the Monday Night War series, one of the best wrestling documentaries on Peacock, WCW, and WWF did everything to get the upper hand in the mid-to-late ‘90s, including massive guaranteed contracts for their top stars (and to keep talent from jumping ship to the competition). These hefty contracts kept the likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper and others with WCW, Eric Bischoff’s habit of spending money like it was going out of style was one of the major factors of the company’s demise.

Again, the expenditures weren’t the only reason WCW ultimately went the way of the dodo bird, they certainly didn’t help. With so much money going to a select group, it makes sense why so many of the undercard wrestlers left for WWF in 1999 and 2000.

Vince McMahon's 2001 Acquisition Of WCW All But Killed The Company

While it is true that there was an attempt by WWF to turn WCW into a brand after the purchase of its rival in March 2001 (WWE would do this when it split the Raw and SmackDown rosters in March 2002), Vince McMahon’s roughly $4.5 million acquisition of the promotion, per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, was the final nail in the coffin of the once-promising wrestling company. 

McMahon’s WWF owned not only the WCW promotion and brand, but also the vast tape library, the championships, and several wrestlers’ contracts (though not some of the bigger names with guaranteed deals with AOL Time Warner), which meant that the victor in the Monday Night War didn’t really need to keep the show running any longer. That said, WWF essentially came in after the kill and robbed the grave, so to speak. 

So, who do I think killed WCW? 

But It All Comes Down To Jamie Kellner, The Turner Executive Who Cancelled All WCW Programming 

Though WCW was plagued with a myriad of issues in the last stages of its life, many of which the promotion either overcame or could have pushed through with some support, there was one problem that left no chance for survival: an uninterested corporate executive. That man was none other than Jamie Kellner. 

In March 2001, when Kellner became the head of TBS following the AOL Time Warner merger, one of his first decisions was to cancel wrestling on both TNT and TBS, the respective homes of Monday Nitro and Thunder. In a statement to the New York Times, a TBS spokesperson said the corporation decided that professional wrestling was “not consistent with the upscale brands” built with the two networks, so they would no longer be carrying it. Several days later, Vince McMahon was able to purchase the company for essentially nothing, bringing an end to the Monday Night War.

I don’t know what would have happened if WCW survived the tumultuous situation at the turn of the century, but the wrestling world would have looked a lot different decades later.  Overall, Who Killed WCW? is one of my most anticipated shows on the 2024 TV schedule, and I can’t wait to dive in and check it out. If you want to relive WCW’s glory days, you can do so with a Peacock subscription, which gives you access to the full WWE Network library.

With all due respect to AEW, TNA and others, the biggest competition WWE has had since it went national in the '80s was from WCW. The Ted Turner backed promotion sprung out of the old NWA in 1988 and within a decade, it was attracting some of Vince McMahon’s biggest stars and beating his flagship show, Monday Night Raw, in the ratings.

Thanks to Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and some terrible booking decisions from WCW, WWE eventually won the war. The half decade or so before McMahon finally bought out the competition, however, is still looked on by many wrestling fans as the greatest the sport has ever been.

So, let’s take a look back at some of those superstars who worked for both companies. Let’s celebrate some of those guys who had huge moments in both WWE and WCW. Just one small caveat. My original list here included like 50 guys. I’ve had to trim it down and remove people like Bam Bam Bigelow, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Paul Roma and Alundra Blayze/ Madusa. I’d love to celebrate all their careers and the joy they gave me, but for the purposes of this list, we’re only going to focus on people who made a big moment in both.

Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan was far and away the biggest star in professional wrestling during the 1980s, but by the early 1990s WWE's audiences were growing tired of his one-note take-your-vitamins character. So, in a move that was good for everyone, he fled to WCW and in '96, reinvented himself as Hollywood Hulk Hogan, a despicable villain fans loved to boo. His stable, the nWo, took off almost immediately and suddenly, the war was on. 

Ric Flair

Ric Flair is remembered by many fans as one of the faces of WCW, but most wrestlers would commit multiple felonies to just have the career he did in WWE. He won the WWE Championship in what some consider to be the greatest Royal Rumble in '92, and he had some WrestleMania bangers, both during that early '90s run and much later. Don't sleep on those years of great work in WCW though. That's the Nature Boy's Prime. Woooooooooo!

Kevin Nash

Kevin Nash had a fantastic run in the mid '90s in WWE as Diesel, but his work under his own name alongside Scott Hall in WCW is what actually paved the way for the Monday Night Wars. He made Nitro feel dangerous and cool, and has to be on any short list of most important WCW performers during its absolute apex. 

Scott Hall

You can't put Kevin Nash on any wrestling list and not put Scott Hall right beside him. As Razor Ramon, his battles over the Intercontinental Championship with Shawn Michaels were some of the best content WWE produced in the mid-'90s, and those early promos/ surveys during his time in WCW were integral to the nWo blowing up in popularity. 

Chris Jericho

I don't know how WCW ever let Chris Jericho get away. It was obvious he was an all-time talent, even in his mid-20s, while coming up with WCW. He got himself and his security guard Ralphus over in a big way, but after head booker Eric Bischoff refused to elevate him above the mid-card (specifically into a program with Goldberg), he decided to leave. He eventually made his way to WWE and had a Hall of Fame career. 

Lex Luger

A lot of WWE fans are still furious at Vince McMahon and company for not putting the WWE Championship on Luger when he was mega-hot ahead of the '93 Survivor Series. Fortunately, he got a chance to win the WCW Championship later when he got Hulk Hogan to tap out in one of the most famous moments in Nitro history. 

Big Show/ The Giant

Paul Wight could have signed with WWE, but after an audition tape miscommunication, he went with WCW. He won all the major titles and fought in all the biggest PPVs first with and later against the nWo, but he left for WWE in 1999. There, he had a fantastic run that included winning The WWE Championship and having one of the most outrageous feuds ever with The Big Boss Man.

Bret Hart

We all know what Bret Hart accomplished in WWE, from his work with The Hart Foundation to his feuds with Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin and many more. It's that work that leads many to consider him one of the greatest ever, but he also had some big moments in WCW. He won huge PPV matches against the likes of Ric Flair and Goldberg, plus all the major belts, but curious booking decisions and an injury that forced an early retirement will always put his time there in the what-if category. 

Booker T

Both as a member of the tag team Harlem Heat and as a singles wrestler, Booker T found incredible success in WCW. You won't find many guys who spent more time on WCW TV than him, but after McMahon acquired WCW, Booker T carved out a fantastic second career there, first as a main event guy and later as a commentator and beloved personality. 

Chris Benoit

Chris Benoit isn't referenced in wrestling circles very often because of his crimes, but his work was a key part of both WCW and WWE. He won the WCW Heavyweight Championship, then left the company the next day, causing all kinds of chaos. His subsequent time in WWE featured a ton of huge moments including a wire-to-wire Royal Rumble win. 

Ron Simmons

Simmons is definitely better remembered for his time in WWE, both for his work with tag team partner Bradshaw and for his time later as a comedic character, but prior to all that, he had a fantastic run in WCW that saw him become the first Black superstar ever to win the WCW Heavyweight Championship.

Eddie Guerrero

Another ultra-talented superstar that WCW never pushed hard enough, Eddie Guerrero very publicly feuded with management before leaving the promotion in 2000. He then proceeded to turn himself into one of the biggest stars in WWE, winning The WWE Championship and tons of other accolades before his shocking death at just 38.

Dusty Rhodes

The prime of Dusty Rhodes' career occured prior to The Monday Night Wars, but he's still a really important figure to the story. He was basically a beloved and very famous mid-carder in the late '80s and early 1990s in WWE before he went to WCW as the organization's booker. Creative differences with Ric Flair led to Flair going to WWE long enough to win the '92 Rumble. His run in WCW included some matches but mostly work on commentary and behind the scenes. He later returned to WWE and was a major force in the early days of NXT.

Goldberg

Apart from the nWo, Goldberg's streak is probably the WCW storyline still talked about the most often. If you weren't there, it's impossible to explain just how imposing and unbeatable he seemed at the time. He later went on to have multiple title-winning runs in WWE, but nothing came close to the magic he captured in the late '90s. 

Randy Savage

Hulk Hogan may have been the face of WWE in the 1980s, but Randy Savage was a key part of the organization's popularity too. He main evented multiple WrestleManias and put on many of its best matches. Eventually, however, he ran out of momentum and moved to WCW, where he was a key part of the Monday Night Wars and won a ton of huge matches. 

Scott Steiner

Scott Steiner had great runs in both WWE and WCW in a tag team alongside his brother Rick. In both spots, they won the organization's tag titles. His solo work as Big Poppa Pump is also very well remembered and earned him a WCW Heavyweight Championship. He also once brought a live tiger to the ring, which is my personal favorite moment. 

Sting

With all due respect to Ric Flair, Sting is Mr. WCW. No one will ever be more associated with the company than he was. He held all the belts and wrestled in all the biggest matches (most prominently Starrcade '97), but he also had a late career run in WWE that saw him fight in a big spot at WrestleMania and more.

Sid

Sid bounced around a lot during his career, never staying in one place for too long, but despite that, he still found success almost everywhere he went. He main evented WrestleMania 8 with Hulk Hogan and won the WWE Championship. In WCW, he won the Heavyweight Championship and also, in less exciting news, suffered one of the most uncomfortable injuries in wrestling history when he fractured his leg.

Jeff Jarrett

Jarrett had some success in WWE at the top of the mid-card during the mid-'90s. He then hopped to WCW, back to WWE and back to WCW again just in time to be involved in one of the worst moments in WCW history. After a backstage fight over booking, Jarrett was told to quite literally lay down for Hulk Hogan at Bash Of The Beach 2000 in a moment many disillusioned fans saw as the last straw. 

Vader

Vader was a monster for WCW in the early '90s. He main evented a ton of PPVs and was often a champion or leading contender. His run in WWE when he was hired in '96 should have been easy, but terrible booking decisions and a match that didn't go as planned in the main event of SummerSlam '96 against Shawn Michaels conspired to keep him away from The WWE Championship. Even so, he did some tremendous work for both companies.

Curt Hennig

Mr. Perfect is, in the eyes of many, one of WWE's greatest Intercontinental champions ever. His early '90s work with WWE lived up to the character's name. His time in WCW did not, but that was mostly the fault of him not being used properly because if you go back and watch some of those matches he put on, they were bangers. 

Steve Austin

Austin is always going to be remembered for his time as Stone Cold in WWE. The company went public on the back of his success, and decades later, he main evented WrestleMania again in a glorified retirement match that over-delivered and was beloved by fans. But he was a very solid performer in WCW too. He made the most of US Championship runs and tag team partnerships, most prominently with Brian Pillman as Hollywood Blonds. 

Rey Mysterio

WCW's cruiserweight division was fantastic. If it wasn't for those matches, I'm not sure smaller guys would have ever been seen as legitimate title contenders in WWE. Much of that success is owed to Rey Mysterio, whose fast-paced, high-flying maneuvers got over with fans. Unfortunately, he still ran into a ceiling in WCW and was even forced to compete without his trademark mask. He later made his way to WWE and was a beloved babyface who had runs as a main eventer. 

Rick Rude

Rude is definitely best remembered for his incredible work in the late '80s and early '90s in WWE. He beat The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania V and did some great work with the Intercontinental Championship. He spent most of the early '90s in WCW and had a good US Championship run before later returning to WWE and leaving alongside Bret Hart after the Montreal Screwjob. 

Mick Foley

Foley is, of course, beloved for his run as Mankind in WWE during the Attitude Era, but his work in early '90s WCW is also must-see. His matches against Vader were so vicious and featured so much real violence that WCW had to stop booking them together for fear they'd have issues with parents. 

Haku/ Meng

No wrestler was tougher in real life than Haku. So many wrestlers have stories have their own stories about seeing him fight someone. Inside the ring, he had solid runs with both companies. He partnered with Andre The Giant in the late '80s to win the tag team titles off Demolition and was a key part of Dungeon Of Doom, Faces Of Fear and the hardcore scene in WCW.

Ricky Steamboat

Steamboat is most famous in WWE for his spectacular match with Randy Savage at WrestleMania III, but he was used more consistently in high profile moments in WCW. His matches with Ric Flair are still raved about today, and he had a few good runs with various titles. 

X-Pac

There aren't many wrestlers who have had more success while also changing characters as often as Sean Waltman. He was a solid mid-carder in WWE as 1-2-3 Kid. Then he went to WCW and became one of the first members of the nWo as Syxx. Then he went back to WWE and had the best run of his career in DX as X-Pac. 

Lance Storm

Lance Storm was such a huge part of WCW programming during its last few years that he was actually the first wrestler to technically appear in WWE during the Invasion angle. He had a great half decade or so run after the companies merged before stepping away to focus on behind the scenes work and training new wrestlers. 

Raven

Raven's Flock is one of my favorite WCW storylines. It's hard to tell the history of Nitro without including Raven, and while it's not quite as famous, he did some good work in WWE too. He first played manager Johnny Polo and later returned as the Raven character, making a name for himself in the hardcore division and appearing in a key match on maybe the most beloved wrestling PPV of all-time: WrestleMania X-Seven.

William Regal/ Steven Regal

Regal bounced back and forth between WWE and WCW during the '90s and early '00s, and in both places, he found big midcard success as a heel you loved to hate. A good worker who could lean into his character well, he never quite rose to the top of the industry, but he was usually a key part of the show wherever he went. 

The Ultimate Warrior

Some people may not even remember The Ultimate Warrior in WCW. His work in the late '80s and early '90s in WWE, including his championship run, is far and away his most positively received run, but Warrior was in line for a big push in 1998 when he unexpectedly signed with WCW. It did not go well. Highlights included a 27-minute live TV promo and a terrible PPV match with Hulk Hogan. 

The Road Warriors / Legion Of Doom

Very few tag teams were hotter in the 1980s than The Road Warriors. They found a ton of success in WCW before heading to WWE after some disagreements over booking. They won a ton of matches in WWE and had a run with the titles, but eventually left after being forced to add a ventriloquist dummy to their gimmick. 

The wrestling world said goodbye to another legend in 2023, just a couple of months after mourning The Iron Sheik. Terry Funk, one of the toughest wrestlers to ever step into the squared circle, passed away at the age of 79. The wrestling pioneer had a massive impact on the industry at large and as such was remembered by many. Some big names talking about the legend following his death included Triple H and Ric Flair, among others. 

Terry Funk, who was reported to be in poor health a couple of years ago, worked in many notable pro wrestling promotions throughout his career, including the WWE. Though he only held one title, which was a tag-team championship with his brother Dory Funk, Funk is a Hall of Famer and was remembered by Triple H in a short but perfect statement: 

Triple H spoke about Terry Funk's gift as an entertainer and his willingness to put it all on the line for fans around the world. Funk worked for many promotions over the course of a 50-year career and notably was a pioneer of the hardcore style. His matches had an edge of violence that would make even the most mature audiences cringe, and it was always impressive to see the amount of hurt he'd put himself through for an entertaining match. 

Few can better speak on Terry Funk's commitment to his craft than some of his biggest rivals. It's a good thing then that Ric Flair took a break from planning another retirement match and memorialized Funk and all he brought to wrestling in his life: 

Mick Foley was another wrestler who loved Terry Funk, and they clearly understood the entertainment value of putting oneself through punishment to make for a good match. Foley, who might be one of the few wrestlers who can speak to the level of punishment required to do a Terry Funk hardcore match, honored the wrestler with a brief statement on what he meant to him: 

Kevin Owens popped up on social media to make a surprising remark, mainly because he doesn't frequent it too often. The WWE tag-team champion said that he once shared a ring with Terry Funk and remembered it as one of the best times of his long and successful career: 

Even AEW, a promotion that Terry Funk never worked in, paid its respects to the legend. After a lengthy obituary detailing his storied career and high-profile feuds with AEW talent like Sting, the wrestling promotion touched on some of the notable impact he had outside of the ring: 

Terry Funk is a wrestler who, quite frankly, words don't do justice. Fortunately, there's no shortage of his matches available with a Peacock Premium subscription for pro wrestling fans to see just what a talent he was. And, of course, he'll always live on through the various wrestlers in the industry influenced by his hardcore style and always have a massive impact on the industry for the road he paved. 

CinemaBlend would like to offer its condolences to the family and friends of Terry Funk and wish them well during this difficult time. Here's hoping he'll be honored at future upcoming WWE events, as well as other big events in the wrestling world. 

Anyone who has sat down to watch wrestling in the past 40 years or so, whether they realized it or not, has been privy to the wildly influential career of Eldridge Wayne Coleman, better known to fans and athletes around the world as “Superstar” Billy Graham. A muscle-bound badass who changed the interview game with his microphone skills, Graham had a huge impact on pro wrestling’s rise in popularity throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. Sadly, while his influence will live on for many more decades, the WWE Hall of Famer passed away this week at the age of 79, just a few weeks ahead of his 80th birthday.

Having dealt with liver problems back in 2002, for which he received a transplant, Graham had multiple health scares in the years since, from pneumonia to potential heart failiure to internal bleeding. He was hospitalized in January 2023 over an ear infection and organ failure that required emergency surgery, and his condition worsened as the months went by and more medical issues piled up. He was placed on life support in the days ahead of his death, having lost a lot of weight amidst further heart, lung, and kidney problems.

Understandably, Superstar Billy Graham’s death sent shock waves throughout the wrestling community at large, and many of his friends, protégés, and superfans within the business took to social media to share praise and respect for the inspirational wrestler. Ric Flair gave Graham props for being such an influence, and it’s hard to imagine the Nature Boy becoming the smooth-talking icon he is today without Graham laying down the foundation.

Taking on a similar tone is fellow Hall of Famer Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who famously starred in Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was himself a good friend of Superstar Billy Graham, as well as one of his bodybuilding training partners. (I’ve always wondered how the late athlete would have himself fared as a wrestler-turned-actor.) Here’s how Ventura mourned his former mentor:

While never a brawler himself, Paul Heyman knows the wrestling world arguably better than anyone, having served as a manager and creative for decades. And he invoked Vince McMahon's name when praising Billy Graham on Twitter, saying:

Superstar Billy Graham famously became a thorn in the McMahon family’s side at several points throughout the ‘90s and 2000s, by way of lawsuits and disturbing accusations about the WWE that he later recanted. It was years later when he formally apologized (more than once) to the company’s head honcho, after also having declared he wanted out of the Hall of Fame over the inclusion of Abdullah the Butcher. Even when he brought his heel energy into real life situations that weren't under the best circumstances, Graham still knew how to keep all eyes on him.

Mark LaMonaco, who broke out as the Dudley Boyz teammate Bubba Ray (and currently fights as Bully Ray), shared a video clip to honor Superstar Billy Graham that highlights just how loud and into his matches wrestling crowds were during that era.

Someone who knows a thing or two about making crowds pop, whether it's in wrestling arenas or just walking down the street, the Iron Sheik had nothing but kind words to share for Graham.

Current WWE superstar Zelina Vega was born in 1990, more than a decade after Superstar Billy Graham became a household name for wrestling fans, but he still had an impact on her when they met a year after she made her debut. 

Marc Mero, who wrestled for years as the glammed up Johnny B. Badd, shared a personal story about Graham on Twitter, along with a couple of pics of a painting that the late superstar gave him, with an inspirational message.

Another athlete who likely wouldn't have fared nearly as well on the microphone in his career without Graham's influence, Sgt. Slaughter gave props where props were due, saying:

Sean Waltman, better knows as XPac and the 1-2-3 Kid, also spoke to Billy Graham setting the bar for future athletes, even if his entrance music wasn't quite as hardcore as he was.

It's likely that more and more tributes will roll in as the hours go by and more top talents from the WWE and beyond learn the sad news. 

For everyone who wants to check out Graham's talents in a fuller capacity, the documentary 20 Years Too Soon: The Superstar Billy Graham Story is available to stream now with a Peacock subscription.  

We at CinemaBlend share our thoughts and condolences to the family and friends of Billy Graham during their time of mourning. 

Ric Flair once again let some juicy info slip out when speaking on his podcast, but this latest instance had nothing to do with Hulk Hogan's health or a feud with a top WWE superstar. The wrestling legend has now revealed that he might be coming back to TV in the near future, though not necessarily via the wrestling ring, as he claims Netflix and more are interested in teaming up on a new show featuring the significant others of WWE and AEW superstars that should appeal to fans of the Real Housewives shows and similar fare.

Flair talked about the potential new series on his To Be The Man podcast with Conrad Thompson. The wrestler prefaced the statement by saying he hoped he wasn't "breaking news," but that Netflix and Fox were among interested parties in potentially picking up a reality series he's a part of that follows the wives of WWE and AEW superstars. And it sounds like they've already put together some footage to show off.

Flair mentioned the project would invovle his wife, Wendy Barlow, as well as the wives of WWE superstars Randy Orton and Kurt Angle, Kim Orton and Giovanna Yannotti, respectively. AEW superstar Jack Hager's wife, Catalina White, was also mentioned as a participant, while Jeff Jarrett's wife, whom Flair referred to as "Karen Angle" due to her former marriage to the Olympian, may or may not be involved. But it looks like the footage has been seen and shown, and here's all Ric Flair had to say about it: 

According to Ric Flair, this wrestling reality show would follow all of the aforementioned women, but it's obviously possible-going-on-likely that all of their pro-wrestler hubbies would also pop up. Not to mention their children, depending on what the scope of the show is. It seems as though everyone mentioned would be the core lineup if the show went to series, though the lineup of participants could always change if Netflix, Fox, or any other studio would order it to series and want to make alterations.

Right now, there's no official word on whether or not this project will get picked up by Netflix, Fox, or any other interested party. It's fair to say that there is an audience that enjoys the Real Housewives franchise, however, as well as an audience that enjoys wrestling reality shows, with Netflix now fully engulfed in cranking out unscripted content. It only seems natural to blend these elements together, even if it lands somewhere else.

Nikki and Brie Bella have proven wrestling reality shows work with their prolonged reality television careers on Total Bellas and other shows, and USA Network still continues to air Miz & Mrs. The WWE has helped produce these shows and will likely continue to do so as long as there's an audience that will tune in and continue to watch it. 

With that being said, it doesn't appear as though the project Ric Flair and his wife are involved in has any affiliation with the WWE or the AEW proper, or else it likely wouldn't involve cross-branding in such a way. It also speaks to why Netflix and Fox are reportedly involved instead of an NBCU platform (where WWE is licensed) or a Warner Bros. Discovery platform (which is tied to AEW). NBCU also has Bravo's Real Housewives franchise under its umbrella, so this would be somewhat competitive programming in more than one way.

Should this "Housewives of Wrestling" project get a series order, one can only imagine how it may differ from other Housewives shows on the market. So many wrestling stories are centered around the wild things that happen to wrestlers while they're traveling on the road or flying in a plane. We don't hear a ton about their wives or the families that remain at home or behind the scenes, so this could be a great peek behind the curtain at the fun and stress that they all endure. And if it ends up being a parody like Kevin Hart's Real Husbands of Hollywood, that'd be fun, too.

Wrestling fans will no doubt be using their Peacock Premium subscriptions to stream the WWE's Elimination Chamber on Saturday, February 18th. Tune in for what should be a great pay-per-view, and keep an ear out for any "housewives" chatter relating to WWE and AEW superstars. 

Jerry Lawler was rushed to a Florida hospital on Tuesday, according to various reports, and was treated for what's said to be a stroke. As more details about the WWE legend's condition surface, Ric Flair, Matt Hardy, and many more have taken to social media to share their well wishes for "The King." 

Reports of Jerry Lawler's hospitalization were first spread by Action News 5, which reported Lawler suffered a stroke at his Fort Meyers home in Florida. Lawler was taken to a hospital where he underwent surgery and is reportedly in stable condition. Wrestling legend Dutch Mantel provided an update based on conversations he'd presumably had with Lawler's son, Kevin. Mantel shared what he learned with fans on Twitter: 

Ric Flair, who has suffered medical scares in the past but has since bounced back, was one of the first in the wrestling community to send out positive vibes to Jerry Lawler. Flair, who squared off against Lawler in the ring at various points during their long careers, wished his colleague the best:

Matt Hardy hasn't had a lot of on-camera interaction with Jerry Lawler since he's joined AEW, but he obviously knows the wrestler and always quotable commentator from his various runs within the WWE. Hardy shared a picture with Lawler and a message hoping that he's on the mend:

Jerry Lawler has a history of medical issues, including a heart attack that occurred back in 2012 while he was appearing on Monday Night Raw. Ryback, a former WWE wrestler who was a rising star on the roster at that time, shared a picture of Lawler and wished him well: 

Ricky Morton, a friend of the King as well as one-half of the iconic tag team the Rock n' Roll Express, asked the wrestling community to send good vibes Jerry Lawler's way in light of the incident: 

Dustin Rhodes, son of the great Dusty Rhodes and brother of the alleged 2023 Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes, also took to the internet to send well wishes to his friend and colleague. No doubt Jerry Lawler made a few disparaging remarks about his controversial character Goldust back in the day, but that didn't stop Rhodes from wishing his colleague well:  

There are a lot of wrestlers across the industry sending their best for Jerry Lawler and wishing for the former Monday Night Raw commentator to make a full recovery. Here's hoping for more positive updates as the situation develops and that he'll find his way back in front of wrestling fans after time to recover. Lawler recently appeared as a guest both at Raw XXX and the Royal Rumble, so one would imagine he will find his way back to upcoming WWE events, assuming his recovery goes well. 

CinemaBlend wishes Jerry Lawler well during his recovery and the best for his friends and family during this trying time. 

With all due respect to Dusty Rhodes, Bobby Heenan, The Rock and a handful of other legends blessed with all-time promo abilities, most people would say Ric Flair is the greatest wrestler on the microphone ever. I’d tend to agree. He’s a riveting storyteller and a born showman. What he’s not, however, is the greatest keeper of secrets, which he once again proved this week when he seemingly blurted out what could be a pretty major spoiler for WWE Raw’s upcoming 30th anniversary show. 

If you want to go in completely fresh on Monday, now is your chance to bail on this article. Stay off Twitter and get through the weekend without conversing with any other wrestling fans. For everyone else, let’s get to it…

Flair was on his podcast To Be The Man alongside Conrad Thompson when he was asked about his upcoming appearance at Raw 30 on Monday. Thompson read off a list of names that are expected to be there, which included Flair, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, Ron Simmons, X-Pac, The Bella Twins, Road Dogg, Teddy Long and Jerry “The King” Lawler and asked The Nature Boy if he expected any additional surprises. Here’s what he said…

The big name there, of course, is Hulk Hogan. The red and yellow megastar has, of course, an extremely complicated history with WWE. He was unquestionably the biggest star in the entire industry in the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s, but after fans started to tire a bit of his character, WWE tried putting the big belt on several other people before he ultimately left for WCW in 1994. He went on to be a major part of the incredibly popular nWo stable and eventually returned to WWE in 2002. He’s done some short runs and sporadic appearances in the time since.

Obviously, WWE has not confirmed Hogan’s appearance, and until they do, this rumor should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. That being said, Flair and Hogan are known to be friendly and certainly have a long history of working together, both inside and outside the WWE. Flair has offered plenty of updates on the Hulkster’s recent health. Not all have been the most accurate, but there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t know if he was coming.

On another note, happy 30th anniversary to Monday Night Raw. With the exception of a few years where it went over to Spike, it’s been running on USA Network the entire time and remains one of the more popular shows on cable. And what a run it has been. The show looks almost nothing like it did when it first premiered, either from a tone or a production standpoint, but the show’s continuous evolution and willingness to change has more often than not, been a tremendous strength.

I can’t wait to see what’s in store for fans on Monday, and whether The Hulkster ultimately shows up or not, I hope the entire three hours is filled with fun little winks at the past and a steady stream of beloved superstars who contributed over the years. 

You can catch Raw on Monday on USA at 9 ET. You can also catch WWE's next premium live event The Royal Rumble on January 28th, which is streaming for free if you have a Peacock subscription. You can also check out our breakdown of who we think is going to win The Rumble.

Ric Flair is enjoying retirement following his (latest) final match ever and, when he’s not performing in the ring, he uses his time to consistently discuss his opinions on what’s happening in the wrestling industry. From time to time, Flair has even shared news regarding what’s happening with other wrestlers. Most notably, in 2021, his allegation about Hulk Hogan being in poor health caused quite a stir. Nearly a year after Flair gave that update, he’s back again with another report on what’s allegedly happening with Hogan’s back issues, since that's just what he does now. 

Fortunately, Ric Flair had some positive news to share regarding Hulk Hogan’s health, during a recent edition of the To Be The Man podcast. Flair revealed that he recently spoke to Hogan, and it sounds like the veteran wrestler is making some progress:

He didn’t specify whether or not The Hulkster’s “new girl” was the one fans saw him with ahead of the surprise reveal that he got divorced, but he did confirm that the WWE legend's back pain is a little bit better. Ric Flair followed up that statement by reminding listeners that his old friend had somewhere around ten back surgeries over the past five years, so even a little bit of progress has to give him some measure of relief. 

It does seem like Hulk Hogan is doing better than he might’ve been a year ago, based on his activity on social media as of late. Hogan recently posted a video on Instagram, which showed patrons performing karaoke at his business, Hogan’s Hangout, he could be seen in the background, watching and interacting with the performers:

This might serve as more concrete evidence that Hulk Hogan is on the mend compared to the time that he posted a picture of himself flexing -- a snapshot that dropped shortly after Ric Flair spoke about his health. In either case, it appears that Hogan is able to enjoy life and carry on with extracurricular activities, which is what I’d think most retired wrestlers can hope for. 

As for whether or not he would ever improve enough to have another match like Ric Flair, that seems unlikely. While there were once rumors that Hogan could be Flair’s opponent for his retirement match, it didn’t happen. Before that speculation began, Hogan mentioned in an interview with TMZ Sports that he wasn’t interested in any final matches due to the sheer amount of medical procedures he’s had in recent years. 

Surgeries aren’t uncommon for professional wrestlers, as the bumps, bruises, and tears suffered while performing do start to add up. In fact, the WWE has been without superstar Randy Orton for quite some time now due to a reported back injury, which he underwent surgery for. If a younger guy like Orton can struggle to come back after back surgery, it’s hard to imagine a retired veteran like Hogan would suddenly be eager to jump into a ring after a number of operations. That aside, I’m sure there are plenty who are happy to hear that Hogan’s health is improving, which could, at the very least, make him available for more appearances at pro wrestling and upcoming WWE events in the future. 

Thankfully, anyone looking to relive some of Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair’s greatest matches can do so using a Peacock subscription. Seeing as the WWE seemingly finished with main roster pay-per-view events for the season, now may be the best time to revisit some classic moments and get hyped for big-time matches ahead of WrestleMania season. 

Ric Flair’s Last Match has been promoted by the man himself for some time now and, finally, it's just around the corner. And what's even more exciting is the roster of wrestlers who'll be joining him during the event. Flair will team up with Andrade El Idolo to take on Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal, and it’s possible that one other major WWE superstar might be competing as well. At least, that’s what some are thinking after Flair hinted that Charlotte Flair could potentially throw hands during his big night. 

During a recent episode of Ric Flair’s To Be The Man podcast, the host was made aware of disparaging comments that Jeff Jarrett made about his wrestling partner, Andrade El Idolo. Jarrett insulted Andrade’s skills as a performer and suggested that his success in wrestling is largely tied to his connection to his wife, Charlotte Flair. The Nature Boy laughed at the claim and sometime after, noted that his daughter wouldn't take too kindly to those remarks. From there, he mused that she may try to insert herself into the action on his big night:

That’s quite a tease, and I’m sure many wrestling fans would go bonkers if Charlotte Flair had any kind of backstage scuffle with Jeff and Karen Jarrett or even participated in her dad’s match in some way. It’s fairly rare to see a WWE performer of her caliber participate in independent events, especially when they're under an active contract. 

Ric Flair is a legend with plenty of iconic career moments and is still a major figure in the industry. So one would think that that status paired with his major retirement match could grant some exception to any clauses in Charlotte Flair's WWE contract that would prevent her from participating. On the other hand, Charlotte is one of the organization's biggest superstars, so I could also see the top brass not wanting to risk her injuring herself in an event the company won't benefit from. That said, it is worth mentioning that Jeff Jarrett will be a special guest referee the night before the event during SummerSlam (which is on the full list of upcoming WWE events). WWE is allowing Jarrett to wrestle despite rejoining the WWE as an employee in May, so does this mean Charlotte could participate in Ric Flair's Last Match? 

If Charlotte Flair does appear in Last Match, it’ll be the first time she’s wrestled since she lost her SmackDown women’s title to Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania Backlash. As we previously reported, Flair's absence was planned and not a cause for concern, and she married husband Andrade El Idolo shortly after (it was quite a twist given she she and El Idolo broke up briefly in 2021). Flair is expected to return to the WWE, though it’s not entirely clear when that will happen. If she doesn’t return at SummerSlam, it’d certainly be exciting to see her perform at her father's event the following night. I’d be up for seeing her two nights in a row but, of course, all of this should be taken with a grain of salt for now.

Ric Flair’s Last Match, will take place on Sunday, July 31st, and wrestling fans can check out the event and get streaming information on the official website. WWE fans with a Peacock premium subscription will likely tune in for SummerSlam the day prior on July 30th and see a night full of exciting matches kick off at 8:00 p.m. ET. 

Ric Flair is set to have his last wrestling match ever in July, and after Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat revealed that he turned down an opportunity to be a part of the match, rumors swirled about who Flair will square off against on the big night. Shortly after, rumors began circulating and alleged that Hulk Hogan might be his opponent. While that sounds great, what does the Nature Boy have to say about that rumor? 

It didn’t take long at all for Ric Flair to respond to rumors about Hulk Hogan’s purported involvement in Starrcast V, the event at which Flair will wrestle at in Nashville this summer. The 73-year-old spoke discussed the matter on his podcast, To Be The Man (via Fightful), and revealed what’s going on with his friend: 

So according to the star himself, there are seemingly no plans for the polarizing superstar Hulk Hogan (who's had some very wild wrestling moments over the years) to participate in a match against Ric Flair when he has his last match ever on July 31st. That seems easy to believe, especially since the rumor about Hogan having a match originated from a conversation with Brian Blair of The Killer Bees tag-team (via Wrestling Shoot Interviews), who seemingly has no ties to the event. Blair even admitted during the chat that he read a rumor on the Internet regarding a Hogan and Flair face-off, but fans wondered if perhaps he was doing so to save face after accidentally revealing some inside information. 

Though Hollywood Hogan is only attending the match as a spectator at the moment, I wouldn’t be surprised if that changes in some way. After all, it wouldn’t take much for a plan to materialize on the day of the event. Hogan could leave his seat to participate in the match briefly when Slick Ric is most in need. Those things happen in wrestling all the time, so I would rule out any surprises if the actor/wrestler does indeed show up to Starrcast V. 

One thing to note, however, is that Hulk Hogan himself said earlier this year that he wasn’t considering having a farewell match of any sort. Hogan told TMZ Sports that he’s had 23 surgeries in the past decade and wouldn’t step into a ring unless he were absolutely healthy. Hogan did post a picture showing that he was in shape around the time that Ric Flair indicated earlier this year that Hogan was in bad health, though, so who knows what to believe? If nothing else, at least a Peacock premium subscription will provide you with no shortage of great Hogan matches to revisit should he never have another match. 

Ultimately, the speculation regarding Ric Flair will only continue for now. Previous rumors stated that Flair would participate in a six-man tag match with tag-teams FTR and the Rock 'n’ Roll Express and an unnamed sixth person. I don't know about you, but I'm eager to get more details on the final match, including Flair's mysterious opponent. 

Tickets for Starrcast V will go on sale Friday, May 27th at 12 pm ET at a website dedicated to the event, and pre-orders for the pay-per-view will be available at the same time on FITE. We’ll see if The Nature Boy's opponent for the match is announced before that, or if fans will just go in blind and hope that the wrestler will deliver another great moment regardless of who his in-ring foe is. 

Not long after rumors first surfaced indicating that Ric Flair was planning another retirement match, the WWE Hall of Famer and wrestling legend confirmed the news himself. The 73-year-old icon is indeed set to climb back into the ring for what’s being billed as his “last match,” and we know exactly when it’s happening, even if we can't guarantee he won't return for another last match in three years. 

Ric Flair shared the news of his official pro wrestling return on Twitter, where he has been quite vocal about rumors in the past.  The two-time Hall-of-Famer confirmed he’d be returning to the ring for what will be his final in-ring match, while also sharing some details as well as a small trailer hyping the upcoming performance. Check it out below!

To be the man, you have to beat the man and to see the man perform in person one more time, you’ll have to be at the Nashville Fairgrounds on Sunday, July 31st. Anyone who can’t make that date shouldn’t worry too much about missing the fun, however, because FITE will be offering the event on pay-per-view for any wrestling fans who wish to check it out from the comfort of their own homes. 

Tickets for Ric Flair’s final match will go on sale Friday, May 27th at 12 pm EDT at a website dedicated to the event, and pre-orders for the pay-per-view will be available at the same time on FITE. At this time, Ric Flair’s opponent, as well as the rest of the card for the pay-per-view is up in the air, though it was noted he’ll be sporting a custom-made robe. 

When Flair’s return was first teased, the rumors circled around him potentially joining the AEW's top tag-team FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) in a match against fellow Hall-of-Famers the Rock n’ Roll Express (Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton) and an unnamed opponent. The whole event is being run by Jim Crockett Promotions, so it’s obviously harder to guess who he’ll be facing, as compared to if this were a WWE- or AEW-sanctioned event. 

Anyone making a return to active wrestling at Ric Flair's age is rare, but it's not entirely unprecedented. While most wrestlers stay retired once they hit north of 60, there are a few who have continued to take on in-ring action for smaller independent wrestling promotions, whether it be for the love of the sport or the love of the paychecks. I’d say Flair is certainly one of the biggest superstars to ever do it, and it would be amazing if the event found another wrestling legend of such high caliber to take him on in the ring. 

Sting is working over in AEW at 63, and someone on that level would certainly be a big draw for the event. His involvement feels more likely than someone like Hulk Hogan, who openly admitted during an interview on the Two Man Power Trip podcast (via TMZ) that there’s no way he’d be able to compete in that kind of capacity after 23 surgeries in the past decade. So, for anyone hoping for Flair’s good friend Hogan to come out of retirement for one final match, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Hopefully, whoever is selected is a worthy opponent and maybe someone with ties to some of Flair’s past great moments in wrestling. Can somebody get Ricky Steamboat involved?

Ric Flair’s final match will take place on Sunday, July 31st, so there’s still some time to wait. Anyone with a Peacock premium subscription can revisit the wrestler's greatest past matches in the meantime and get ready for one of the biggest wrestling events of 2022. 

Retirement is a big thing for professional athletes and, while a vast majority of them leave their respective sports and move on to post-career activities, a few great ones can’t hang it up and have to return. Tom Brady has unretired to football, Michael Jordan returned to basketball and, now apparently, Ric Flair is training for an in-ring return to wrestling -- because of course he would. 

Rumors claim that The Nature Boy, Ric Flair, is currently training to return to action in pro wrestling at the age of 73. Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer alleges that the whispers of Flair circling a comeback of sorts are true (via F4online.com). Meltzer also alleged that Flair is to join FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) in a match against The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton) and another opponent. 

The iconic wrestler's last match of substance occurred back in 2011 when Sting beat him on an episode of TNA Impact. As for the WWE, the hall of famer was officially retired from in-ring action there after a match with Shawn Michaels in 2008 during WrestleMania 24. The news that any wrestler north of 70-years-old wants to have an actual match is surprising, though if anyone were to guess a legend who would try to do just that, it’d be Slick Ric. 

The big question surrounding these rumors, however, is which wrestling organization would allow Ric Flair a chance to wrestle in their organization. While there’s no denying he’s one of the biggest names to ever appear on the pro-wrestling circuit, he’s suffered health issues (which he's opened up about along with his regrets) in past years that could make a return a bit difficult. Flair was placed in a medically-induced coma in 2017 to remove part of his bowel and unfortunately suffered many other complications. Of course, that was years ago, and he's looking good in this training session with wrestling star Jay Lethal: 

It’s hard not to be impressed by that footage, especially when seeing Ric Flair taking bumps in practice that folks were stunned to see a younger Steve Austin take at WrestleMania not that long ago. Again though, we’re not just talking about an older wrestler hoping to return to the ring, we’re talking about one of the most charismatic and chaotic wrestlers of all time.

One other thing worth mentioning is that the man still knows how to draw a crowd even at his current He's kept himself relevant as of late with fans with surprising reveals about friend Hulk Hogan and even had a mini feud with Becky Lynch over his nickname. In short, he’s one of the few wrestlers who could step in the ring at his age and fans get excited, and it's definitely not surprising that he's looking to kick off a new stint. But we’ll still have to wait and see if it actually happens. 

Until then, anyone with a Peacock premium subscription can check out some of Ric Flair’s greatest moments within the WWE, WCW, and other organizations.

There are few things that make wrestling fans more excited than seeing their favorite wrestlers (or at least actors portraying them) in anything outside of the squared circle. And of all the shows to do this, few compare to Young Rock and the large number of WWE superstars who were portrayed in the show’s first season on NBC. Over the course of the first chapter of the show’s run, Andre the Giant, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Rocky Johnson were just a few of the heavyweights who played large and impactful roles.

Before we jump into the action once again with Young Rock Season 2, now seems like the right time to go back through the first 11 episodes (12 if you count the holiday special) and break down all the WWE wrestlers who have popped up so far. 

Rocky Johnson - Joseph Lee Anderson (Season 1, 'Working The Gimmick')

No professional wrestler plays a bigger role in Young Rock than Rocky Johnson (as portrayed by Joseph Lee Anderson) Dwayne Johnson’s father. Starting with the debut episode, “Working the Gimmick,” we see Johnson in various stages of his career — working for WWF in 1982, wrestling random matches in 1987, working odd jobs and training new wrestlers in 1990 — as he tries to provide for his family while chasing the glory of yesterday.

Andre The Giant - Matthew Willig (Season 1, ‘Working The Gimmick’)

Outside of Rocky Johnson, Matthew Willig's version of Andre the Giant has the closest bond with the 10-year-old Dwayne Johnson (Adrian Groulx) and helps the former WWE superstar with a couple of life lessons throughout the show’s first season. This includes teaching Dwayne why you should never call wrestling “fake” and how to find happiness through life’s simpler moments like feeding birds in the park. He’s also at the center of some of the show’s best wrestling moments as well, including the Island Battle Royale.

Junkyard Dog - Nate Jackson (Season 1, ‘Working The Gimmick’)

Junkyard Dog (who's played by Nate Jackson) was a trailblazer in professional wrestling who opened the doors for future African American champions, shows up sporadically throughout Young Rock Season 1, though he’s not always on the right side of Dwayne Johnson’s grandmother’s promotion. We see him in action a few times, but we also see the “King of New Orleans” helping Ata Johnson (Stacy Leilua) find ways to make a 15-year-old Dwayne (Bradley Constant) listen to his mom.

The Iron Sheik - Brett Azar (Season 1, ‘Working The Gimmick’)

One of the most high-profile wrestlers to be depicted on Young Rock, The Iron Sheik is portrayed as a fun-loving and loyal friend of Dwayne Johnson’s family and remains so in all three of the show’s timelines. Brett Azar's work as the foul-mouthed wrestler, who has one of the craziest Twitter accounts in real life, provides a lot of laughs throughout, including an interaction with Lia Maivia (Ana Tuisila) where she tells him he has to tone down his language for a family-friendly event.

The Wild Samoans - Fasitua Amosa And John Tui (Season 1, ‘Working The Gimmick’)

Fasitua Amosa and John Tui's take on Sika and Afa Anoa’i, a.k.a. The Wild Samoans, appearing throughout the first season of Young Rock, providing great action in the ring and laughs when outside the squared circle. Members of the Anoa’i Family wrestling dynasty, these two are prominent figures in some of the show’s best moments so far.

‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage - Kevin Makely (Season 1, ‘Forward, Together’)

The late great “Macho Man” Randy Savage shows up multiple times throughout Young Rock Season 1, and makes sure to say all his famous catchphrases and bring up everything from his relationship with Miss Elizabeth to his popular Slim Jim ads. We also get to see Macho Man in action, both in the ring and in the squared circle of love, including his famous elbow drop, which is pulled off masterfully by actor Kevin Makely.

Vince McMahon - Adam Ray (Season 1, ‘Forward, Together’)

Though he only appears briefly and is technically not a wrestler (though he did win the WWF Championship at one point in his career), we can’t have this list without including Adam Ray's work as Vince McMahon, right? The show’s version of the over-the-top wrestling promoter billionaire is charming and comforting in his phone conversation with Lia Maivia when her big show starts to fall apart.

Ric Flair - Matthew Farrelly (Season 1, ‘On The Road Again’)

In the the second episode of Young Rock Season 1, “On the Road Again,”  Rocky Johnson is shown taking on two wrestlers in a series of flashbacks. The first of those opponents is none other than the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, portrayed by Matthew Farrelly, in a match that is made to look like Johnson defeated the future two-time WWE Hall of Famer.

‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper - Jade Drane (Season 1, ‘On The The Road Again’)

Later on in “On the Road Again,” Rocky Johnson recalls having a match with the late “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, portrayed by Jade Drane, in the Soulman’s heyday. Like the match with Ric Flair earlier in the episode, Johnson makes it seem as if he defeated the wrestler-turned-actor.

King Kong Bundy - Alexander Board (Season 1, ‘Forward, Together’)

King Kong Bundy appears briefly on the Island Battle Royale poster, being brought to life by Alexander Board, in the Young Rock Season 1 episode “Forward, Together,” but despite that, he makes a big impact on the rest of the season. Just days before the big show, Bundy pulls out, saying his mom his sick, but he actually is working a different show for a rival promoter.

Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine - Toby Kiddle (Season 1, ‘Forward, Together’)

Toby Kiddle takes on the role of Greg "The Hammer" Valentine for the Island Battle Royale poster brought to life in the episode “Forward, Together,” but he is not seen in the final match itself.

Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat - Ivan So (Season 1, ‘My Day With Andre’)

WWE Hall of Famer Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat is portrayed by Ivan So in the episode, “My Day with Andre,” as one of the final competitors in the Island Battle Royale, eliminating Sgt. Slaughter with a flying crossbody from the turnbuckle.

Sgt. Slaughter - Wayne Mattei (Season 1, ‘My Day With Andre’) 

Wayne Mattei shows up briefly as Sgt. Slaughter in “My Day with Andre” as one of the big-name wrestlers in the Island Battle Royale, being one of the first of the marquee stars to be eliminated in a match that would eventually end with a major swerve that saw The Iron Sheik sneak in and steal a victory from Rocky Johnson.

If Young Rock Season 2 is anything like the first chapter of the hit NBC comedy series, we can expect to see plenty of other great WWE superstars from yesterday and today portrayed on the show. If you want more info on Young Rock and other new and returning shows, check out CinemaBlend's 2022 TV schedule.

With more mutually exclusive Batman properties in the pop culture zeitgeist than ever - from live-action films to animated projects to comic book series - there are seemingly no limits to where the DC vigilante can go in the future. As Matt Reeves’ The Batman set to take over the box office, there's arguably no better time to whip up a cocktail of Joker and Scarecrow toxins and let one's imagination wander. In this case, we're climbing through the ropes of a wrestling ring to spend some quality time thinking about classic WWE and WCW icons that would have been perfectly fitting Batman villains.

Considering just how wide and far-flung the Dark Knight’s rogues gallery is after 80 years, something Matt Reeves is fully aware of, I think everyone will agree there are quite a few pro wrestling superstars who would make superb criminal masterminds within Gotham City, even if they weren’t necessarily villainous during their runs in the WWE and WCW (and beyond). Let’s start off with someone whose darkness could very well rival that of the Caped Crusader. 

The Undertaker

To be clear, I’m definitely talking about the Deadman character’s earliest years here, when the whole “urn gives him his powers” gimmick was going strong, and Paul Bearer was at his Paul Bearer-est. I always enjoy when Batman faces off against supernatural beings, especially ones whose backstories are also haunted by their parents’ deaths. (Which may have been The Undertaker’s fault in his case, but still.) And while it’s not my main reason for including the Phenom on here, I’d be interested to see what happens if that urn was placed into one of Ra’s al Ghul’s Lazarus Pits. 

Al Snow and Head

With his oddball persona and mannequin head gimmick, Al Snow is basically one Gotham City bank heist away from becoming a B-tier Batman villain. Whenever the Ventriloquist and Scarface are out of town on business (clearly a metaphor for “serving time in Arkham”), that’s when Al Snow and Head get called up from the bullpen. Of course, they’d definitely make more sense and be more at home in the 1960s TV series or in Fox’s Gotham than Matthew Reeves’ film universe.

Goldust

Dustin Rhodes tapped into one of the all-time strangest pro wrestling personas with...[inhales breath through pursed lips]...Goldusssst. His color-forward costuming and sexual sadism, mixed with everything else crawling inside his bag of tricks, would make Goldust a great baddie whose crimes might be a bit too adult for Bruce Wayne’s youngest wards to help tackle. Plus, there’s already some loose connective canon in this case, since the athlete’s half-brother Cody Rhodes (as Stardust) had a short-term feud going with Arrow star Stephen Amell regarding the latter’s CW superhero. The path has been laid out, people!

The Great Muta

A wrestling legend across the entire planet, Keiji Muto is arguably best known (especially here in the U.S.) for his Great Muta character. The wrestler pulled off moves in his early career that no one had seen before — though many have since copied — and he utilized unsettling facepaint, abstract mysticism and his dreaded Green and Red Mists to strike fear and confusion in his opponents (and fans). Plus, his matches were bloody enough to inspire an unofficial scale of measurement to quantify such splatterdom. I feel like anyone jotting those qualities down onto an application to be the Dark Knight’s next nemesis would get hired on the spot. 

Bam Bam Bigelow (With Luna Vachon)

To say nothing of their stellar talents and athleticism in the ring, Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon made it onto this list largely because their looks and attitudes exude pure badassery, and they would look outstanding in comic book form with the right artist. Who needs mystical powers or an imaginative arsenal of weaponry when you have a flame tattoo across your big bald head, and shit-talking skills that are just as fiery? Bam Bam and Luna would beat the shit out of Sal Maroni and take his piece of the underworld kingdom, easy-peasy Robin-squeezy.

Jimmy Hart

Inarguably one of the greatest managers and hypemen within any industry, “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart always boasted a scene-stealing personality, and the verbal skills to justify using something as innocuous as a megaphone as his personal prop. Hart probably wouldn’t be a major crime figure in Gotham City, to be sure, so much as a loud-mouthed nuisance with his fingers in all kinds of activities legal and otherwise, and one that would take pride and glee in getting under Batman’s kevlar-protected skin. 

Mankind

As interesting as it would be to have Cactus Jack or Dude Love mixing it up with the Dynamic Duo, Mankind is the the Mick Foley persona most apropos for Batman’s world. For one, he looks like the kind of lunatic that they would have built Arkham Asylum around, and for another, Mankind comes equipped with his own sidekick: Socko! I think the best part of picturing Mankind in Gotham City is knowing that his brawls with Bruce would be the most epic fights in DC history, and would probably involve the biggest cages anyone has ever conceived.

Mr. Perfect

Curt Henning’s know-it-all wrestler was best known for two things: his game-changing technical work in the ring, and his endless braggadociousness on the mic. Who better to try and thwart the Caped Crusader’s efforts than someone whose entire persona was built around thinking a few steps ahead? I also think that the Batman in this reality would be unwittingly bothered by all Mr. Perfect’s head of curls unconsciously reminding him of Superman’s trademark forehead curl, and that Henning would have known that would happen.

George The Animal Steele

As possibly the oldest wrestler on the list, George “The Animal” Steele has one of the simplest gimmicks here, in that he’s pretty much just a wild and crazy guy on a slightly different scale from Steve Martin. Yet that approach was no less effective than others’, and the Animal’s reign of terror in Gotham City would probably be likened to that of Solomon Grundy, where there’s the potential for something non-villainous to happen amidst all the chaos, but definitely lots of chaos.

Demolition

Upon their pro wrestling formation in the late 1980s, Demolition’s members Ax and Smash were a freaky amalgam of KISS makeup, Hellraiser-friendly leather attire, and violence-embracing personalities akin to those of slasher movie baddies. All those inspirations added up in a most menacing way, and Demolition often brutalized their opponents with ease. I have a feeling they would give the Joker a run for his funny money, even if they’re not quite as good with groan-worthy puns.

Koko B. Ware

Okay, I’ll be honest with everyone here… The reason Koko B. Ware is on this list is because it would be the smoothest shit possible for a Batman villain to always have a colorful macaw on his arm. He could be an absolute embarrassment as an actual criminal, but that macaw would convince everyone otherwise. I bet even Bruce Wayne would be jealous of someone thinking to use the word “beware” within their alter ego’s name.

Gangrel

James Tynion IV, Matthew Rosenberg and Otto Schmidt’s comic DC vs. Vampires is currently pitting the Dark Knight in a plot involving actual bloodsuckers, so there can’t possibly be a more fitting time to envision a storyline in which Batman stumbles across a vampy character originally inspired by a role-playing game. I don’t feel like Gangrel would be a very heavy challenge for the vigilante, don’t get me wrong, even if the rest of the Brood was around to pitch in their efforts. But it  always fun to see Bruce Wayne deal with such dilemmas as “does eliminating the undead go against my no-kill code?”

Andre The Giant

Arguably the most physically imposing pro wrestler in history, Andre the Giant is quite possibly too much of a sweetheart to truly consider as a Batman villain. But because he’s that big, it’s hard not to think about him furiously attempting to break the Dark Knight’s bones, a la Bane. This would probably be one of those situations where Andre the Giant thinks Batman is responsible for something that some other criminal did, and after everything is explained in full, the wrestler and vigilante are cool with each other and, like, hang out on the weekends and stuff while Alfred brings them ice-cold brewskies.

Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake

Consider this scenario: Bruce Wayne finds that a nice and approachable new barber has moved to Gotham City, and quickly befriends the man, only to later discover he’s going out after dark and stealing the hair of Gotham City’s citizens in order to clone them or some shit! Fine, I really just want to see a giant pair of scissors on display in the Batcave, similar to the Penny Plunderer’s oversized coin. This is not a shameful admission. 

The Dungeon Of Doom

For a spell, Edward Leslie dropped his Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake persona to join the WCW, where he was known for a short span as The Zodiac, one such bizarrely conceived member of the Dungeon of Doom. Of any pro wrestling stable, the sprawling number of weirdos that made up the Dungeon of Doom felt the most like a comic book clan. And yes, one big reason is having a shark-themed member blatantly named The Shark. With the Cobblepot-esque Kevin Sullivan as its Taskmaster, the group featured such baffling alum as the moon-bellied Kamala, the Bane-adjacent Big Van Vader, the Riddler-lite Hugh Morrus, the Giant (before he became Big Show), the schizophrenic One Man Gang, and a mummy-like behemoth dubbed The Yeti. Not to mention a few others already mentioned on this list, including Gangrel, Jimmy Hart, and Luna Vachon. Sounds like prime crossover potential to me!

Randy "Macho Man" Savage

In the annals of entertainers known for punishing vocal work, Christian Bale is certainly present for his Dark Knight trilogy Batman’s much-parodied gruffness. Somewhere in that same area is the “Macho Man,” Randy Savage, a performer whose legacy extends far beyond his gifted athleticism and work in the wrestling ring. The name Macho Man doesn’t bring to mind perfect suplexes and aerial agility. It brings to mind those mega-sunglasses, his day-glo jackets and frills, the hats, his grating voice, and his incomparable peak-amphetamine energy. And as amazing as it would be to watch Macho Man and Batman duking it out, I think we all know the best thing about this idea would be the WWE superstar delivering big comic book villain speeches, presumably after taking over all the TV signals in Gotham City from his secret lair inside the abandoned Slim Jim factory.

Bobby Heenan

While my imagined version of Gotham City’s Mr. Perfect is the kind of brainiac always looking to pull off a spotless crime, my idea of DC’s Bobby “The Brain” Heenan is more like a Lex Luthor figure who is always looking to pull off at least a dozen perfect crimes, all at once, across various dimensions and timelines. But also someone whose pride comes before everything else, with an ongoing mission to truly stump and stamp out the World’s Greatest Detective. Like, you’d be 15 issues into a comic series thinking that The Joker was responsible for pulling off the crime of the century, and then boom, #16 comes out and of course it was Bobby Heenan pulling the strings all along. And he deserves at least half of the issue to flawlessly talk his plans out while expertly trolling Batman in the process.

Oz

We all know Kevin Nash rules, both for his wrestling career and for playing Super Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze. But for a short while in 1991, he was granted what has since been widely considered to be one of the worst gimmicks of all time, and one whose existence is based on Turner Broadcasting purchasing the rights to MGM’s film library, including The Wizard of Oz. We don’t really need to lay out all the issues with Nash’s heavily hyped Oz, who was inexplicably named after the location and not an actual character, but I think the capitalistic origin story, the theatrical makeup and costuming, and the fairy tale nature of it all would feel far, far more at home within a Batman tale than it did within WCW lore. 

Sting

This list has obviously featured a number of wrestlers serving as analogous surrogates for Gotham City’s most dangerous criminals, and I think the most apt parallel for Sting would be Harvey “Two-Face” Dent. If things go one way, he’s just a spiky-haired surfer badass who loves rocking colorful makeup and scorpion-adorned pants. But if things go the other way, he’s a brooding, bat-wielding, Crow-esque spectre waiting for just the right moment to spring from the shadows and attack. And in case it wasn’t clear, I’m fully into the idea of half his body being Surfer Sting and the other half being a trenchcoat-wearing goth. And it’s perfectly in line with Batman’s foes for the nWo’s Sting decoys to be part of the fun as well.

Ric Flair (With Charlotte Flair)

As if there could be any form of discussion about wrestling and villains without Ric Flair’s name taking over. I’ve always felt like Flair is essentially a version of The Joker whose body metabolized everything as if it was cocaine, in that he enjoys making other people look lesser than just as much as he enjoys actually hurting them. And if the Nature Boy Prince of Crime wasn’t enough, he would also be accompanied by his daughter Charlotte Flair, who would be like a straight-laced Harley Quinn (and without any weird sexual energy), with his son David also out there. And when the shit really needs to hit the fan, Flair can bring out his own villain supergroup in the Four Horsemen and its rotating list of members. 

Perhaps one day, when licensing rights aren’t held so preciously, we’ll be able to see Batman and Mankind squaring off in Arkham’s common room on the big screen. Okay, that will never actually happen, and it probably wouldn’t be that great if it did, but at least no one in Hollywood can limit our imaginations, right?

Non-WWE veteran Robert Pattinson will push the envelope of heroism when The Batman hits theaters on March 4, 2022. While waiting to watch the three-hour quasi-epic, check out how we’ve ranked all the previous live-action films, and peep out our 2022 movie premiere schedule to see what else will be soaring to screens big and small in the coming months.

WWE is finally inducting The Undertaker into the Hall of Fame later this year. The long-rumored announcement was made official this morning, much to the delight of everyone. The Dead Man was at or near the top of the card basically since his debut in WWE at Survivor Series 1990, and he’s been over with fans the whole time. As such, the induction news has generated a ton of enthusiastic comments, none more positive than those coming from his fellow wrestlers.

Given the grind, the fight to get to the top of the card and the physical nature of the sport, wrestling can often lead to grudges and negative feelings. YouTube is filled with shoot interviews featuring former wrestlers complaining about people, but I’m not sure anyone in the business has ever been as widely liked and respected as The Undertaker. For long portions of his WWE career, he was considered the locker room leader and a guy who was always reliable and easy to work with. So, it’s not surprising the tributes pouring in today have been glowing and over the top.

There are way too many to put in a single story, but let’s start with this one from Kane, who arguably worked more storylines, as brothers, friends and foes, with him than anyone else. Here’s what he posted to Twitter…

Kane got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last year, and he was actually told the good news by The Undertaker. The emotional video is still really touching, but as I said, he’s not the only one with a deep personal connection to The Reaper. WWE legend and soon to be fellow Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels was also effusive in his praise for The Undertaker earlier today. The two shared some epic, well-remembered matches over the years. He referenced that in his tribute, which he also dropped on Twitter…

Even wrestlers who started their careers well before The Undertaker respected what he did inside and outside the squared circle. Ric Flair, who for my money is the greatest wrestler of all-time, dropped some over the top praise, as well. He said the upcoming Hall of Fame induction will be as big as the day Stone Cold Steve Austin went in. That’s high praise given a strong case could be made that no one was ever as over with fans as Stone Cold was during the red hot wrestling boom of the late 90s and early 00s. Here’s the comment he posted to Twitter…

For those of you who may not be as plugged into wrestling, this isn’t a case of The Undertaker getting some lofty and exaggerated compliments because there’s a lot of good will right now. He was legitimately over with fans for thirty years. That’s unheard of in the industry. Most people get hot for awhile, and fans eventually get bored and move on. Not The Undertaker. Sure, he switched things up a bit in terms of costuming or in terms of creative choices. There were times in which he was busier on the mic than others, but for the most part, pretty much everything he did worked. Fans wanted to see him. They wanted him to be involved in big matches, and you can’t say that about many people.

The Undertaker also bridged the gap between a lot of different eras of wrestling and somehow he found a way to thrive in each of them. He fit in perfectly with the more cartoonish Hulk Hogan era. He was the top guy or at least right there with Michaels and Bret Hart during the mid-90s bridge years. He stayed very relevant and involved in key storylines during the Attitude era with Stone Cold, The Rock and others, and he came out the otherside into the more modern WWE era. No one else did that as well, which HHH pointed out in his praise of ‘Taker that he dropped on Twitter…

I join everyone here, along with quite a few current WWE stars who posted too, in celebrating everything The Undertaker did over his historic career. He’s an all-time, first ballot figure in the history of wrestling, and he did it the right way. He put other people over at the expense of himself. He cared about fans and putting on a good show each and every night, often interacting (sometimes hilariously) with fans outside the arena. He pushed the creative boundaries of what wrestling could be, and he did it all with, by all accounts, a positive and likeable attitude. So, congratulations, Dead Man. Thanks for all the memories. It was an honor to watch you. Go take your place in the Hall of Fame where you belong.

One can never really tell what is about to happen in the wrestling world, as it’s an industry based on shock and awe. However, we have come to expect a certain level of kinship between certain former WWE superstars. Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair are two of the biggest WWE champions to ever enter the ring, and though they've battled each other lots of times back in the day, they are actually pretty close in real life presently. Flair recently shared an update on Hogan's health and said he was going through some pretty serious health issues. Apparently Hogan didn’t get that memo, considering he just revealed some serious muscles and weight loss for fans to see. 

As fans were wondering what was actually happening with Hulk Hogan's possible health issues, he took to his Instagram to display some seriously impressive biceps and announce he is now down to his 9th grade weight of 275 pounds. You can check him out in his post below:

Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan seem to have a pretty close friendship as fellow WWE vets, and Hogan even flew to visit Flair when he was in a medically induced coma a few years ago. Recently Flair revealed that his friend was having some health issues of his own and explained that Hogan’s wrestling career has led to a wild amount of surgeries in the last 10 years. The exact nature of the current health issues Flair referred to isn’t clear, but he does give Hogan the credit of saying that the former wrestler is staying in shape and is still able to work out 2 hours a day - a feat that not many people can claim for themselves, healthy or not. And it appears obvious in the pic above.

While we really won’t be able to tell what kind of health issues Hulk Hogan is facing until he comes forward with it himself or there is a major development in his health, we can certainly see that Ric Flair was accurate in saying that Hogan is still keeping up with his workout routines. 

As impressive as this picture and the news of the 68-year-old former wrestler’s physical health is, I’m honestly more caught up in the fact that Hulk Hogan was one giant 14-year-old. For reference, Dwayne “The Rock" Johnson is built like, well, a rock, and weighs in around 270, but he hasn't been in high school in quite some time. 

What makes all the difference, though, is that Hulk Hogan is an absolute beast in the height department. While you’d never guess from many of his pictures without comparative context, Hogan stands at a whopping 6 feet, 7 inches, which puts him almost a foot over the male average for height. This could also help fans understand just how a post-pubescent teen could be that massive.

Fans don’t seem too phased by the idea of such a massive freshman, because they’re all hyping Hulk Hogan up in the comment section of his post. People are assuring the former wrestler that he certainly has still got it, and is still their Hulk. 

Hopefully this new update from Hulk Hogan is proof that his health really isn’t as bad as Ric Flair made it out to be, and that he'll be around and working those arm muscles out a lot longer. As pleased as fans are to see Hogan seemingly in great shape, they may be even more pleased to know that a new biopic of Hogan has been announced with Marvel star Chris Hemsworth taking the lead, especially since Hemsworth has the seal of approval from Hogan himself. There is no release date for the project yet or news on whether what we want to see in the film is going to actually happen, but stay tuned for updates.

Ric Flair is no longer working with the WWE in any official capacity after requesting a release, but that hasn’t stopped him from talking about his former employer, their wrestlers, and other notable alumni of the brand. Flair had quite a week after calling out Raw Women’s champion Becky Lynch and chased it with the surprising reveal that Hulk Hogan has “really bad’ health issues. 

Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair go head-to-head at WWE’s Survivor Series pay-per-view on Sunday, November 21. Many are invested in the storyline because of the real-life drama attached to the match, which came from a botched segment on SmackDown weeks ago that led to an actual confrontation between Lynch and Flair backstage. Now, Ric Flair is involved in the drama, in a situation that could make the upcoming match all the more personal.

Ric Flair Calls Out Becky Lynch 

Earlier in the week, Ric Flair saw a promo of Becky Lynch on WWE’s Monday Night Raw in which Lynch said she’d “beat the ever-loving piss” out of Charlotte Flair. Ric Flair, father to Charlotte, apparently had some thoughts about that, and whether it was working an angle or actual anger, he decided to tweet at the superstar for her comments.

Becky Lynch responded but decided to do so in an interview with The MMA Hour rather than Twitter. Lynch acknowledged she’d seen the tweet but opted not to respond because she found it “sad” that the legend was jealous of her. Flair didn’t take too kindly to that and sent a tweet expressing disappointment, especially after he'd reportedly sold the rights to his popular nickname “The Man” to WWE for Lynch to use for her character. 

Wrestling fans could interpret this exchange as a means of heightening the drama further ahead of Survivor Series, but there’s reason to be skeptical. To start, Ric Flair is no longer working with the WWE, so starting a fight with Becky Lynch doesn’t really benefit him. It seems weird he’d openly promote for the WWE given that, though perhaps he’s just trying to help Charlotte Flair as she’s still under contract. In either case, the line is blurred between reality and fiction here, and it’s hard to make any assumptions about what’s going on.

Ric Flair Mentions Hulk Hogan Has Bad Health Issues

Ric Flair is known for his speaking ability, so it’s no surprise he’s someone who can do a riveting podcast. Flair talked on Ric Flair Wooooo Nation Uncensored this week, and in the episode, shared some truly unexpected information regarding Hulk Hogan’s health. 

Hulk Hogan, according to Ric Flair, is currently experiencing some “bad health issues.” Flair brought the WWE Legend up during the podcast and talked about Hogan’s health and their relationship.

Ric Flair went on to say that Hulk Hogan’s had 25 surgeries in the past ten years due to the number of injuries he sustained throughout his wrestling career. Flair did cap off the news with the fact that Hogan is still exercising around two hours a day and “feeling great,” so it’s hard to tell what Flair meant by these health issues. Luckily, this podcast is going to be a recurring thing, so it’s possible fans get more details in time. 

One never knows what Ric Flair will or won’t do, so it’ll be interesting to see if he’ll make an appearance in the stands at WWE’s Survivor Series on Sunday, November 21 on Peacock at 8:00 p.m. ET. CinemaBlend will be watching and keeping an eye out on what could happen in Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair’s big match.

For any wrestling fans who enjoy taking looks behind the kayfabe curtain, Vice's Dark Side of the Ring docu-series is a treasure trove of scandals and accusations from all across the world of pro wrestling. The most recent Season 3 episode centered on the infamous "Plane Ride From Hell" that followed the WWE's UK-set pay-per-view event Insurrextion in 2002, and which led to several wrestlers losing their jobs, while others (such as former WWE superstar and exec Ric Flair) facing other consequences for their actions. While much of the information in the Dark Side episode wasn't new or groundbreaking, Flair once again came under fire for sexual misconduct allegations made at the time.

To briefly sum up Ric Flair's reported involvement in the exceedingly drunken plane ride, the wrestling icon allegedly walked around wearing just his signature in-ring robe, which wasn't noted for being tightly closed. Two flight attendants claimed that Flair grabbed each of the women's hands and made them touch his genitals, while one further alleged that he forcibly restrained her in the back of the airplane and sexually assaulted her. While Flair denied the claims at the time, the women eventually filed a lawsuit that was settled out of court by the WWE, without any of those details going public.

Following a weekend full of wrestler-fueled commentary about the Dark Side of the Ring episode, Ric Flair took to social media with quite a lengthy statement, although it was one that curiously changed a couple of times through deleted posts. In his words:

While it arguably makes circumstantial sense to point to the life-spanning 30 for 30 docu-series installment "Nature Boy" as a defense, neither the installment nor filmmaker Rory Karpf's discretion hold much water as legitimate proof of anything. And it's also a strange move for Flair to imply Karpf is a liar except for when he's talking about not finding other incidents of alleged sexual misconduct, since that just inspires further scrutiny. It probably also doesn't help that Ric Flair's pro wrestling persona was glorified for being god's gift to womankind, and that recognition hasn't exactly worn off.

Still, Ric Flair went on to defend himself by pointing to all of the past indiscretions that he has owned up to, including his battles with substance abuse, as well as making quite a few regretful choices that affected his family and relationships.

Following his Twitter response  Ric Flair then released another statement to Wrestling Inc., providing some clarification regarding accusations about him swinging his penis around on the plane ride. In his words:

It remains to be seen if anything further will come from this. It's possible the Dark Side of the Ring co-creators could provide further commentary or evidence of what went on in that infamous trip that ended Curt Henning and Scott Hall's then-current stints with the WWE. Or maybe the upcoming episodes about Chris Kanyon and the XPW will have fans taking the conversation elsewhere.

Dark Side of the Ring airs new episodes on Vice on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. Be sure to keep up with all the other big shows hitting the small screen soon with our 2021 Fall TV schedule.

Ric Flair is a free man after the WWE released him from his contract, but perhaps not quite as free-living as some fans apparently thought he was. The wrestler was a trending topic on Twitter following a NSFW picture that many alleged to be Flair, and the comments got so rampant The Nature Boy had to speak out.

For those who haven't seen the photo, the picture in question featured a man and a woman on a train. The woman was on the seat of the train, nude from the waist down and legs up in the air. Anything graphic was covered by a man's head, which was between the woman's legs and appeared he was in the midst of performing oral sex. The man in the picture's hair was white and slicked back, which led many to the conclusion he could only be Ric Flair.

Ric Flair has professed to be a limousine-riding, jet-flying, and kiss-stealing son of a gun, but he's not claiming responsibility for the viral picture. The legendary wrestler took to social media and hilariously responded to the accusation that he got down and dirty in public on a train.

It wasn't immediately clear what other photo was floating around that Ric Flair disputed the legitimacy of, but I think some fans are better off not knowing. Of course, wrestling fans aren't quite as convinced that Flair isn't the man in the picture, likely because the meme isn't as funny if it's just some random older gentleman with slicked-back hair.

It also doesn't help that Ric Flair's main gimmick for decades is that he was this womanizer who did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. The train picture certainly falls in line with the Ric Flair persona, but obviously, the character is different (even if the difference is slight in some cases) than the man. Ric Flair has tried to put his past persona behind him and even recently admitted he was uncomfortable when the WWE utilized that persona in a storyline months before his requested release.

Ric Flair's future in wrestling is still up in the air, though he did recently make an appearance at AAA's Triplemanía. There has been lots of speculation that Flair would be one of the many former WWE wrestlers to join rising competitor AEW, which wouldn't be at all surprising given Flair has joined popular WWE competitors in the past. The only thing I feel certain of is that the pro wrestler may try to steer clear of trains for a while, even if he wasn't the man in the viral photo.

It's going to be a big weekend for wrestling as major events are set for the WWE and AEW this weekend. For more on WWE, read up on the latest about SummerSlam and one of the major stars appearing that just got blasted by a former colleague for a past incident.

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To the shock and dismay of wrestling fans around the world, WWE came to terms with the release of Ric Flair in August 2021, bringing an end to one of the greatest chapters, not only in the Nature Boy’s career but also the history of the sport. Since jumping ship from NWA and signing with WWE (then-WWF) in 1991, Flair spent large periods of time over the past 30 years stylin’ and profilin’ as he transitioned from a full-time wrestlers to one of the ambassadors of the company and wrestling as a whole.

So, in honor of the Nature Boy’s legendary career and his departure from WWE, we’ve put together a list of Ric Flair’s best moments from his tenure at Vince McMahon’s world of wrestling. With everything from his shocking debut to his final match at WrestleMania 24, here are Naitch’s best moments

Ric Flair Makes His Debut As The ‘Real World’s Heavyweight Champion’ In September 1991

Throughout the 1980s, Ric Flair was the biggest name in professional wrestling. With monumental runs in Jim Crockett Promotions (which would become World Championship Wrestling), World Class Championship Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association, and other promotions that were part of the National Wrestling Alliance (not to mention his work in various Japanese promotions), Flair was the face of wrestling during the height of the territory days. So, just imagine how big of a moment it was when Flair made his on-screen WWF debut in the early 1990s.

During a September 1991 episode of Prime Time Wrestling, Ric Flair made his first televised WWF appearance following quite an introduction from his “financial advisor” Bobby Heenan and the draping of a red carpet. Proclaiming himself “The Real World’s Heavyweight Champion,” Flair went on to run down the WWF roster, specifically “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan in one of the most epic promos of his career. This appearance would set the stage for things to come…

Ric Flair Wins The 1992 Royal Rumble

There are Royal Rumbles and there is the 1992 Royal Rumble, which saw Ric Flair enter as the third of 30 wrestlers competing for the vacated WWF Championship. Everything about this match (including his iconic entrance) is legendary and will forever be considered one of the greatest nights in professional wrestling. Throughout the match, Flair fought off everyone from Hulk Hogan to The Undertaker and Sgt. Slaughter to Randy Savage, and was ultimately the last man standing when the final bell rang through the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York.

Following the match, Ric Flair, with a tear in his eye, told Gene Okerlund that it was the greatest moment of his life. What follows is Flair’s greatest promo (including his amazingly subtle “Woo”) where he essentially challenges the rest of the roster to come at him and his gold belt. All of this is going down with Bobby Heenan and Mr. Perfect building him up like a bully’s goons. It’s amazing. It’s classic. It’s the Nature Boy in peak form

Ric Flair Returns As ‘Co-Owner Of The WWF’ In November 2001

Ric Flair’s first run with WWF would only last one year from the night of his Royal Rumble 1992 victory and he would head back to WCW after being defeated by Mr. Perfect in a Loser Leaves the WWF match in January 1993. He would go on to add a few more titles to his collection before WCW was bought by Vince McMahon in March 2001. Later that year, the Nature Boy finally made his return to the WWF in spectacular fashion the night after Survivor Series.

The previous night, Team WWF had defeated Team WCW/ECW in a winner-takes-all match that ended the months-long “Invasion” angle involving WCW and ECW. When Vince McMahon was gloating on Raw about winning the war, he was interrupted by Ric Flair’s iconic music and Naitch himself who said he became co-owner when Vince’s children sold their shares to purchase WCW and ECW (part of the storyline). The amazing segment would end with Flair and new WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin sharing a beer.

Ric Flair Forms Evolution With Triple H, Batista And Randy Orton In 2003

While Ric Flair had one of the greatest careers of any singles wrestler the industry has ever known, he has also been a part of some of the most formidable factions in the sport’s storied history, the biggest being the Four Horsemen. But, long after the Horsemen disbanded, reformed, and disbanded again, Flair became one of the founding members of Evolution, which is arguably the most consequential foursome of WWE’s “Ruthless Aggression” era.

By the time late 2002 came around, Ric Flair had already started to appear in the corner of Triple H, and would do the same with Batista a few months later. The group was finalized and given its official name in January 2003 when Randy Orton joined, creating Evolution. Over the course of the next two years, the group, which represented the past, present, and future of professional wrestling, dominated the WWE landscape and collected multiple titles in the process.

Ric Flair Finally Captures The Intercontinental Championship At Unforgiven 2005

In 2005, the chink in the armor began to show for Evolution and the heel supergroup slowly began to break apart before finally disbanding later in the year. That September at the Unforgiven pay-per-view event, Ric Flair (a babyface at this point) challenged Intercontinental Champion Carlito for the one strap he had never secured in his WWE tenure. That all changed in their opening match which saw Flair defeat the IC Champion, becoming the oldest person to hold the title at 56 years of age and WWE’s 13th Triple Crown Champion (winning all three major titles).

Ric Flair’s career could have ended here, but the Nature Boy went on to successfully defend his title multiple times before finally losing the belt 155 days later in February 2006. The following month, Naitch would participate in the second Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania 22.

Ric Flair Wrestles His Final WWE Match At WrestleMania 24 In 2008

In early 2008, when Ric Flair was nearly 60 years old, he began what would be his final angle as a WWE wrestler when he was put in a series of matches where his career was on the line. Over the course of several months he defeated Triple H, Umaga, and even Vince McMahon before finally challenging Shawn Michaels, who reluctantly accepted the offer.

On March 30, 2008, in front of 74,000 fans and millions more watching on pay-per-view around the world, Ric Flair walked to the ring for what would be the final time (at least in WWE). The match, which started off with a beautiful series of back-and-forth maneuvers from the two competitors slowly turned into a very emotional tale of a worn out warrior wanting to go out in glory at the hands of someone who didn’t want to do what they had to do. In the final moments, with Flair begging for Shawn Michaels to put him down, the Heartbreak Kid looks at his idol, says “I’m sorry, I love you,” and performs his finishing move, Sweet Chin Music, and gets the pin.

Ric Flair had plenty of great moments in the years after he retired from in-ring action, including all the times he helped his daughter, Charlotte Flair, follow in her father’s footsteps. And, who knows, maybe we’ll see the Nature Boy return at an upcoming WWE event somewhere down the road, because if we’ve learned one thing over the years it is that we should never say never when it comes to Ric Flair.

The WWE has been culling talent from its roster at a relatively fast clip lately, dropping a lot of names that fans haven't expected. Ric Flair is arguably the most iconic pro wrestling vet to be released yet, but unlike Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, and many others, Flair specifically requested to exit his WWE deal. Now that his contract is officially a thing of the past, the wrestler has broken his silence on the release.

The Nature Boy took to social media to confirm the reports that he did indeed request a release from the WWE, and to clear the air regarding some of the other rumors floating around about his relationship with the company. In a short statement, Ric Flair made a couple of things clear so that fans would know more about why he left the organization.

While maintaining that there isn't any overarching bad blood, Ric Flair's statement does seemingly still indicate that the rumors about him being disgruntled by the WWE's creative decisions were true. Flair was part of a storyline in early 2021 in which he played the love interest of superstar Lacey Evans, who is about four decades younger than Flair and 4 years younger than his own daughter and WWE superstar Charlotte Flair. Flair tried to advocate against his role in the storyline, but said he was unable to ever get a direct conversation with Vince McMahon, so he weathered the storm until the arc circumstantially ended with Evans' real-life pregnancy.

Other rumors alleged that Ric Flair was upset with how Charlotte Flair's storyline has been handled, though that feels more like a questionable claim as far as how it relates to his release request. Charlotte only recently lost her women's title in a surprise loss to Nikki A.S.H., and it's looking like the two will soon face-off in a title match at SummerSlam 2021. Even before that, the younger Flair has remained one of the top women in the WWE organization, so it would seem doubtful that her situation was a major factor. Charlotte Flair has not publicly commented on her father's release from the WWE, but given his positive statement, it's hard to imagine she will have anything different to say if she does.

As far as what's next for Ric Flair, it sounds like he still has creative decisions in mind and other things he wants to do in the wrestling world. This could be good news for rival organizations like AEW, who would undoubtedly appreciate a legend like Flair offering input or making television appearances. We'll just have to wait and see what his next move is and see if the wrestling legend has something up his furry, sequin-covered sleeve for fans.

CinemaBlend will continue to keep an eye on the WWE and report on other big releases, plans for SummerSlam 2021, and all the fun in between. For more on that, read up on the upcoming Vince McMahon series and why we're excited for it.

The WWE is having a wild and unpredictable 2021, with lots of big changes happening both behind the scenes and in the ring. The company is still coping with financial losses suffered due to COVID-related setbacks, and has released a wide swath of superstars so far, including Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman and more. The latest superstar to reportedly make a WWE exit is one of pro wrestling's most iconic names: Ric Flair.

While one's instinct may be to immediately get buck about the WWE cannibalizing its talent-filled roster just as it's getting back to live shows and in-person pay-per-views, this doesn't appear to be one of the many cases where Vince McMahon & Co. come off as monstrous. According to WrestlingInc, the reason Ric Flair was released is because he specifically requested the exit at some undisclosed point, and it has reportedly now been made official.

Practically speaking, it's not necessarily a massive surprise that Ric Flair is bidding the WWE farewell for one reason or another. The last time he was part of a proper storyline was back in the first months of 2021 as part of a lurid romance with Lacey Evans, who took leave in February after announcing she was pregnant in real life, though not for Flair's love child. It was odd for Flair to bow out at that point, though he later spoke out against that particular story arc while talking with ESPN's Ariel Helwani back in May, saying:

Considering how Ric Flair has been in the business, if he still can't finagle his way out of an unwanted storyline, does anyone really have a shot at it? In any case, Flair is also 72 years old, and obviously doesn't have the ring presence and brawling skills he used to, though it's still fun to watch him take a few licks when the occasion calls for it. But if he's not being utilized for his stylin' and profilin' talents, then that's as good a sign as any that it was time for him to strut on out the door.

At the time of this writing, the WWE has yet to publicly announce Ric Flair's release similar to how it has announced other exits in the past. I doubt anybody out there had any big theories for how Flair was going to make a big splash at SummerSlam 2021 in the way that people theorized about John Cena's return, as well as that of The Rock, but I guess now we know that won't be happening. While waiting to see where Flair will pop up next, stay tuned to our 2021 Fall TV schedule to see what's coming around the bend.

Sebastian Stan might be best known for playing The Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he also has a long history of choosing exciting non-superhero projects. In the past, he’s played everyone from police officers to NASCAR drivers to Tonya Harding’s infamous boyfriend Jeff Gillooly. Next he’s set to play Tommy Lee in a Hulu show, and if fans are lucky, they could get to see him play wrestling legend Ric Flair afterwards. Now if that doesn’t deserve a loud and pompous WOOOOOOOO I don’t know what does.

The idea came up in a recent interview thanks to Sebastian Stan’s former co-star Paul Walter Hauser. Hauser is a huge wrestling guy and tweets about it frequently. He’s also buddies with Stan. The two have apparently talked about doing a biopic about Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, and the subject came up during Stan’s recent interview with Frosty from Collider. You can check out a portion of the quote below...

Playing Ric Flair is a tall order. The history of wrestling has been built by men and women with over-abundances of charisma, and with all apologies to The Rock and other legends on the microphone, I’m not sure anyone in the squared circle has ever had more charisma than Flair. The limousine ridin’, jet flyin’ son of a gun was able to draw unreal fan response, especially as a heel and is responsible for some of the best performances in wrestling history including in the greatest Royal Rumble of all-time in 1992. I mean look at this victory face...

Arn Anderson doesn’t have any of the same pop culture pull as Ric Flair, but the brilliant in-ring tactician and workhorse heel was a longtime partner of Flair’s. The men predominantly worked together in a stable called The Four Horseman that’s widely considered to be either the best or second best wrestling faction of all-time (depending on how one feels about the recently enshrined nWo or I guess DX). The group’s primary run was in the late 1980s and included Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard, but they got back together in various forms over the years, and Flair and Anderson also joined forces for non-Horseman storylines in a variety of promotions including WWE.

Obviously Paul Hauser has already put a lot of thought into fantasy casting the other primary members of the Four Horseman too. He recently dropped his ideal picks on social media, and his choices are quite good. You can check out his tweet below…

I’m not going to get too excited yet considering actors have 50 ideas in Hollywood for every one that actually gets made, but at the same time, the world could really use a Ric Flair movie. The casting choices are also spot-on, as Ben Foster is great in every single thing he's in and Ethan Suplee is a great comedic support and is now jacked. Flair's name also still means something to people, and with a Hulk Hogan movie on the way with Chris Hemsworth and a recent popular documentary on Andre The Giant, I can’t think of a better person to get his due next. And if we can get Sebastian Stan and Paul Walter Hauser, all the better.

I don’t know why, but I’m obsessed with Cameo. For those who don’t know, Cameo is a site where you can hire all sorts of famous people to deliver personal messages to somebody you love (or maybe just yourself. Nobody has to know). What’s cool about Cameo is that it’s broken down into categories. Do you want Hodor (Kristian Nairn) from Game of Thrones to say “Hodor” to your fiancé? Well, that can be arranged. For a price. But say your fiancé or friend is more into old school WWE wrestlers like Bret Hart and Kurt Angle. Well, that can also be arranged, too. Again, for a price.

But while some celebrities and athletes will cost you an arm and both legs (“Money” Mayweather is charging $999 for a personal message), the wrestlers are usually a lot more affordable. I’ve scrolled through a number of them, but these are the 8 wrestlers I wouldn’t envy you for if you somehow got a personalized message from them. Whoo!

Bret Hart

Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart started wrestling back in 1976 for Canada’s Stampede Wrestling. He then made his way to the WWE (then the WWF) in 1984 where he became a member of The Hart Foundation. He was the WWF champion in the mid-'90s, got screwed over in the infamous Montreal Screwjob in 1997, and then went to WCW, before he came back home again to WWE. His signature move is the Sharpshooter, and nobody looks better in pink. Nobody.

Bret Hart was a legend on the mic, so it makes sense that he’d be good at doing Cameos, too. If you want “The Hitman” to wish your child a happy birthday and then tell her or him that they’re “the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be,” then he’ll do it. Because he’s the man.

Get a Cameo from Bret Hart here for $150

Kurt Angle

Olympic gold medalist, Kurt Angle, didn’t just claim to be a gold medalist as a gimmick. He legit won the gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He signed on to the WWE (Then WWF) in 1998, where he got a huge push and won the King of the Ring in 2000. He was the WWE champion four times and eventually made his way to TNA where he became a 6-time Heavyweight Champion. Plus, he’s actually been inducted into both the WWE and TNA Hall of Fame. The illustrious Wrestling Observer Newsletter once called him the wrestler of the decade. I mean, yeah. You just don’t get better than Kurt Angle.

Kurt is a funny guy, but also gracious. If you’re his biggest fan, then he’ll thank you profusely… that is, before he tells you that you suck, and that it’s true. “It’s damn true.”

Get a Cameo from Kurt Angle here for $100

Mick Foley

You may know Mick Foley as Mankind. Or Dude Love. Or Cactus Jack. Or just Mick Foley. Honestly, when you think of extreme wrestling, it’s hard to picture anybody more hardcore than Foley. And the thing is, it doesn’t really matter what brand you liked growing up. If you enjoyed wrestling, then Mick Foley was likely in that promotion. WWE? Of course. WCW? Check. TNA? Yep. NWA? Yep. ECW? Hell yes! But his most recognizably brutal match was his Hell in the Cell with the Undertaker, where even fans had to avert their eyes at all the punishment he endured. But he survived it. And do you know why? Because Foley is Good!

Mick Foley will wear the mask and bring out Socko while singing you Happy Birthday if you’re into that sort of thing. If that’s not worth the meager price he’s asking for, then I don’t know what is.

Get a Cameo from Mick Foley here for $99

Tommy Dreamer

The “Innovator of Violence” Tommy Dreamer spent time in the WWE, and yeah, he was good. But if you love Tommy Dreamer’s work, then you must love him for being hardcore! And if you’re into hardcore wrestling, then you must have been a huge fan of ECW (EC-DUB! EC-DUB!) back in the ‘90s. He’s the founder of House of Hardcore, but again… EC-DUB! EC-DUB!

For somebody as hardcore as Dreamer, he does a pretty sweet Cameo. He’ll thank you for being a fan of his and talk you through these Covid times. Because he’s awesome.

Get a Cameo from Tommy Dreamer here for $45

Kevin Nash

Kevin Nash has had an illustrious career. Formerly Shawn Michael’s bodyguard and tag partner by the name of Diesel, in the WWE, he had an even bigger career under his real name in WCW (New World Order!) and TNA.

Kevin Nash might just call you from his car and wish you a happy anniversary or a happy birthday. And for somebody who was so tough in the business, he’s pretty much the kindest guy with the nicest smile. You can’t go wrong with Big Daddy Cool.

Get a Cameo from Kevin Nash here for $105

New Jack

The original gangster, New Jack was way too hardcore for the WWE, so he made a name for himself in ECW, where he would sometimes “shoot” on other wrestlers (meaning, he’d hit people for real), making him legit feel like the most dangerous wrestler in the business. And he probably was.

Like he would do during his matches, New Jack will have the Dr. Dre and Ice Cube song “Natural Born Killaz” playing in the background while he gives you a shoutout. Oh, and he might also ask you for a free tattoo if you’re a tattoo artist, so be prepared for that.

Get a Cameo from New Jack here for $75

Ted DiBiase

The “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase is one of wrestling’s greatest heels. He was huge in the WWE, where he tag-teamed with I.R.S. He also ran his Million Dollar Corporation stable, pushing other heels like Bam Bam Bigelow and Sycho Sid. Because everybody can be bought for a price.

Thankfully, it won’t cost you a million dollars to get the “Million Dollar Man” to wish you a happy birthday or even give you life lessons about slowing down and appreciating life. He’ll tell you that wrestling is a gimmick, and family is what matters most.

Get a Cameo from Ted DiBiase here for $75

Ric Flair

Last but not least, “The Nature Boy,” Ric Flair is freaking on Cameo! Whoo! Quite possibly the greatest wrestler of all time, Ric Flair has been wrestling since the '70s. He was in the Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the WWE, multiple times, the WCW, and spent some time in TNA, chugging Smirnoff Ice and shouting, “I’m God! I’m God!” before making his way back to the WWE, where his daughter, Charlotte, wrestles. You want a legend? You’ve got one.

Ric Flair is the most expensive wrestler on this list, but I mean, it’s Ric Flair. If you want him to talk to your sales team about how great your product is and how much your boss appreciates them, then pay up for the Naaaaature Boy. Whoo Whoo!

Get a Cameo from Ric Flair here for $500

So, yeah, I’m obsessed with Cameo, and I’m obsessed with pro-wrestling. So, it’s a match made in wrestle heaven. But what do you think? If you could get a Cameo from any of these wrestlers above, who would you want it from? Sound off in the poll below!

This poll is no longer available.

Kevin Hart and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have what is easily one of the most entertaining relationships in all of Hollywood. While the frequent co-stars are firm friends off camera, they have no problem making fun of each other when the opportunity presents itself. One is always looking to one up the other and, recently, Hart got to do just that. The actor and comedian caught up with wrestling legend Ric Flair and managed to get in a few verbal jabs at The Rock.

During their conversation, Kevin Hart and Ric Flair discussed a number of topics and, of course, the comedian wanted to get the veteran wrestler’s views on how the industry runs today. Flair also gave his thoughts on The Rock, but not before Hart gave his own hilariously brutal assessment of the entertainer:

Ric Flair showered praise on Dwayne Johnson during his interview for Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud Network. Kevin Hart tried his best, but he was unsuccessful in getting The Nature Boy to say anything negative about The Rock.

While talking about The Rock, Flair talked about the wrestler’s abilities, noting the changes that have been made in the industry since he himself was in the ring. Kevin Hart managed to use this as an opening to throw more shade at The Rock:

Like his father before him, Dwayne Johnson really was a trailblazer in the world of professional wrestling. Not only did he possess the physique and skills to compete but, through his antics, he also upped the ante in terms of the wow factor. This may be part of the reason why Johnson was a natural fit for the movie world.

Kevin Hart and The Rock’s burns are legendary at this point, and it’s always funny to see how they troll each other. But at the end of the day, the two are close friends and love working together. Anyone who’s seen their films knows their chemistry is off the charts and has led to some very entertaining flicks.

The two may have a few more projects on the way, including another Jumanji movie. But until those happen, we’ll be content with Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson’s back-and-forths over social media.

What do Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Becky Lynch, and Daniel Bryan have in common? Well, besides being some of the most highly decorated wrestlers in WWE, these four superstars have given fans some of the most stunning and mesmerizing entrances in WrestleMania history. From Stone Cold breaking through the glass at WrestleMania 13 to "The Man" Becky Lynch holding an entire football stadium in the palms of her hands, there have been memorable and star-making entrances at the "Showcase Of The immortals" over the years.

For the first time in the event's storied history, WrestleMania 36 will not be held in an arena, a stadium, or even outdoor pavilion in Las Vegas. Instead, it will be held in the confines of WWE's Performance Center (and other locations) over the course of two nights (another first). No one really knows what the entrance situation will be like this year since the event is being broadcast from what is essentially a closed studio set, so now is a better time than ever to look back at some of the best wrestler entrances from the previous 35 events.

Coming up with such a list is no easy task, but after much deliberation and hours of scouring the WWE Network, I have come up with a list of 10 of the greatest entrances in WrestleMania history.

Triple H - WrestleMania 30

If you looked at Triple H's WrestleMania entrances alone, you'd probably think he's the biggest and most highly decorated performer in WWE history. And while he doesn't have the best record at WrestleMania, "The Game" has gone all out for each and every one of his entrances, at least in the past 10 years or so.

This is most notably seen at WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans, where Triple H, decked out in a golden crown, skull mask, and chain mail sat atop a throne flanked by some of WWE's up-and-coming female superstars, prepared for battle against the underdog Daniel Bryan. Serving as the gatekeeper between Bryan and a championship match later in the night, Triple H looked more like a mad king than a wrestler and WWE executive. Add a ton of smoke, more lasers than a Pink Floyd concert, and mood lighting, and you have yourself one hell of a way to start a show.

Daniel Bryan - WrestleMania 30

Triple H's opponent that night, Daniel Bryan, came out in a manner that held off on the theatrics of the "Cerebral Assassin" but provided for one of the most satisfying and epic moments in WrestleMania history. Leading up to their opening match, Triple H, and the Authority, had put Bryan through the wringer time and time again starting with a heel turn at SummerSlam the previous year.

As soon as Bryan's music hit and the undersized "B+ Player" started up with his signature "YES! YES! YES!" chant, the entire Superdome was on his side. You could barely hear his music as he marched down the ramp, with the crowd chanting "YES!" in unison. This entrance, the match, and everything that led to it and followed make this my favorite WrestleMania match and moment.

Becky Lynch - WrestleMania 35

Similar to Daniel Bryan five years earlier, Becky Lynch spent the better part of a year becoming a fan favorite while being forced to overcome setbacks and betrayals by her fellow wrestlers and some pretty gnarly injuries. Developing "The Man" persona, Lynch became not just everyone's female wrestler, but everyone's favorite wrestler in general.

This all led to Lynch (along with Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey) being involved in the first women's match to headline a WrestleMania for a triple threat contest for both women's titles. Flair flew in via helicopter and Rousey's entrance featured Joan Jett performing "Bad Reputation," but Lynch stole the show with her simple, yet highly contagious theme song playing over a stripped down entrance. The way Lynch confidently makes her way down the long ramp at MetLife Stadium made for an instant classic.

Stone Cold Steve Austin - WrestleMania 13

Why the five-star classic between Stone Cold Steven Austin and Bret "The Hitman" Hart didn't close out WrestleMania 13 will always be a mystery to me. This submission match which featured a star-making performance from longtime journeyman Steve Austin against the fed up and out of touch Bret Hart in the Rosemont Horizon, one of the greatest wrestling venues in the history of the sport.

Going into the match, Austin had won that year's Royal Rumble match and had been on a tear for the better part of a year following his "Austin 3:16" promo after winning the 1996 King of the Ring tournament. As Austin breaks through the glass of the WrestleMania 13 entryway, his head is bopping, he's cussing up a storm, and ready for a fight. The "Texas Rattlesnake" got his fight and then some and became a fan favorite in the process. Seriously, they pulled off the "double switch," which has never looked any better.

Ric Flair - WrestleMania 24

I've talked a lot about star-making entrances and performances from up-and-coming wrestlers so far, but the annual event has also featured some of the greatest swan songs in the history of the sport. Case in point, Ric Flair's retirement match at WrestleMania 24 at the Florida Citrus Bowl. In the months leading up to the match, Flair was told that the next match he lost would be his last. Flair came up victorious in multiple "career threatening" matches before he challenged Shawn Michaels to a bout at WrestleMania.

The writing was on the wall that this was going to be Flair's final match, and his entrance essentially plays off that assumption with a large firework display going off high above the elaborate stage, Flair's iconic robe, and a mixture of emotions all while "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss plays throughout the stadium.

Charlotte Flair - WrestleMania 33

Nearly a decade after Ric Flair wrestled his final WWE match, his daughter, Charlotte Flair, followed in her father's footsteps in the same exact stadium where he hung up his boots. After becoming the inaugural WWE Women's Champion at WrestleMania 32, Charlotte Flair had become a bona fide superstar leading up to the fatal-4-way Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 33.

Much like her father did almost 10 years earlier, Charlotte came out for a career-defining entrance that included all the fireworks, charisma, and robe that her father brought to the stage throughout his career. Charlotte Flair looked and acted like the queen of the division as she confidently and arrogantly made her way down the ridiculously long entrance ramp. And while she didn't capture the gold that night, Charlotte proved that she could make an entrance like the best of them, her father included.

Hollywood Hulk Hogan - WrestleMania 18

Prior to returning to the WWF 2002, Hulk Hogan, now going by Hollywood Hulk Hogan, hadn't been had a match at "The Show Of Shows" since the much-maligned WrestleMania 9 back in 1993. For this reason, among others, Hogan's one-on-one match against The Rock in the Toronto SkyDome at WrestleMania 18 such a momentous occasion.

Leading up to the event, Hogan was still a major part of the NWO heel stable, so you'd think that the capacity crowd would boo him for leaving all those years ago and coming back as the villain, but no, the crowd lost their minds upon seeing Hogan come back home, so to speak. With his signature NWO theme, the customary black and white filter, and a new boa, Hogan set up the "Icon Vs. Icon" match better than anyone expected.

Shawn Michaels - WrestleMania 12

You'll never see anything like Shawn Michaels' WrestleMania 12 entrance, at least not in WWE. Three years before Owen Hart fell to his death in a similar stunt, Michaels made his way to the ring against Bret Hart for a 60-minute Iron Man match main event not by entering through the stage, but on a zipline high above Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

Zipping from one side of the arena to the other, Michaels looked down on thousands of fans screaming his name in this insane and extremely risky entrance. Love him or hate him, Shawn Michaels will remain as not only the "Heartbreak Kid" but also "Mr. WrestleMania" after this stunt.

The Undertaker - WrestleMania 30

Going into his match against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 30, The Undertaker was undefeated in previous years and had a record of 21-0. At this point, "The Streak" had become one of the star attractions of each year's Mania after The Undertaker built up a list of victories over the likes of Ric Flair, CM Punk, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and more than a dozen other wrestlers. Going by the lead up to the match, no one thought it would be any different. How wrong we were.

Looking back on the entrance six years later, there are a plenty of signs that this was going to be it for "The Streak," as Taker walked by a casket representing each of his opponents in a cloud of smoke, lasers, and his iconic funeral hymn. There's not much difference between this entrance and the 21 that came before it, but knowing the outcome of the match makes it that more ominous.

Andre The Giant - WrestleMania 3

Long before WWE invested millions of dollars in to pyrotechnics, elaborate stages, and videoboards, the company put on one of the greatest achievements in sports entertainment. After the previous two events were held in sports arenas, the WWF went all out and booked the Pontiac Superdome, the home of the Detroit Lions, for WrestleMania 3, which was needed for a main event as historic as Hulk Hogan going up against Andre The Giant.

With all the lights in the stadium shut off except for a few spotlights pointed towards Andre and manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan on a motorized cart meant to look like a small wrestling ring, the aged and fragile wrestler was pelted with cups, wrappers, and all other sorts of trash from the record-breaking crowd. Seeing the massive giant being sprayed with trash and debris to a chorus of boos is not only one of the greatest entrances, but one of the greatest WrestleMania moments.

These are just 10 of the greatest entrances in the 35-year history of WrestleMania. Do you agree with my list or do you think I should have included The Ultimate Warrior, Macho King Randy Savage, or John Cena on the list? Do what any good wrestling fan does online, and tell me what I did wrong.

As Fighting With My Family appears in theaters and Chris Hemsworth signs on for a Hulk Hogan biopic, it's clear pro-wrestling films may be on the rise. If that is indeed the case and there's a Hollywood producer or screenwriter looking for the next big wrestler to do a feature, then feel free to browse this list of wrestlers that led lives we think could make for a truly bonkers biopic.

Randy Savage

The Macho Man Randy Savage has become one of wrestling's most revered personalities thanks to his knack for high energy wrestling promos and flamboyant costumes. There was once a time where he could've been Hulk Hogan, but he largely played second banana to the wrestler as Hulkamania ran wild throughout the '80s. Is it finally time the Macho Man gets the recognition he deserves?

America would say so, but it stands to question whether or not the WWE would cooperate in such an endeavor without heavy oversight. Vince McMahon's relationship with Macho Man was incredibly strained throughout much of the wrestler's later years, and the reasons behind why aren't explicitly clear. Whatever those reasons were, it kept the WWE from inducting him into its Hall of Fame until several years after his death in 2011. Perhaps that's the story a film should cover.

Ric Flair

He's already got a pretty extensive documentary about him, but who's going to tell Ric Flair he doesn't deserve a biopic of his own? The Nature Boy's larger than life persona and antics have solidified him as one of the most iconic wrestlers of all-time. The question is, is there someone in Hollywood that can do enough justice to the way he says "Woo"?

That parts kind of important, but it's about embodying the swagger of the stylin', profilin', limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' n' dealin' son of a gun. Luckily, Ric Flair is still around to give tons of insight on how to do that, which would make the process easier on the actor to portray him. Perhaps this is the role Chris Evans was destined to play post-Captain America.

Brock Lesnar

When it comes to the most mythical figures of WWE history, few measure up to the accolades of Brock Lesnar. His seemingly inhumane physique and monstrous persona have served him well in the wrestling world, and at one time made him a dominant force from within the world of the UFC as well. That's only further solidified his status as a dominant champion in the WWE, and made for some crazy story lines over the years.

Lesnar is such a high profile figure, yet quite the enigma in private. He's said he doesn't own a phone or computer, and only watches television to watch hunting and fishing shows. Wrestling is a big part of his life and has given him much fame over the years. Fame, it would appear, he doesn't care much for unless the appearance is getting him paid. What makes a guy like that tick? I'd love to know the answer.

Vince McMahon

If there was a biopic to be made about the evolution of pro-wrestling, it would have to revolve around Vince McMahon. McMahon took his father's business and turned a regional wrestling circuit into the most dominant wrestling organization in the USA. What he did was unheard of and seemed impossible, but with a little business savvy, Hulk Hogan and American pop stars, he ended up drawing enough attention to make the first Wrestlemania a huge success.

There's so much more to Vince McMahon as a person though, it's hard to highlight it all in even a film. A biopic would have to detail his whole life, or at least start at age 12, where he met his always busy father for the first time. The aversion to sneezing, painting himself to be a villain on national television, XFL run and wrestling feud with the President could all come after.

Stone Cold Steve Austin

An Attitude Era WWE film in general would be incredible, but why not focus on the man who ushered professional wrestling into its wildest and raunchiest era to date? Stone Cold Steve Austin was and still is a legend in the wrestling community, and his appearance at any wrestling event is still met with deafening cheers from fans of all ages. With a fanbase that wide, a biopic about him has huge box office potential.

Ironically, the best story to chronicle from Austin's career might revolve around his eventual falling out with the WWE. Stone Cold's relationship with Vince McMahon deteriorated to the point behind the scenes that it almost seemed as bad as the feuds they had for television. It all boiled over to the point that Austin walked out of live events, which was followed by Vince McMahon burying him on live television and announcing his firing.

Haku/Meng/King Tonga

Pro-wrestling is a performance art, and while the fighting is choreographed, that doesn't mean there aren't some tough guys who hang with the company. Of the many stories that have been shared over the years, there's one name that consistently comes up as one of the toughest of the tough outside the ring. Haku may have been a middling wrestler throughout his in-ring career, but by all accounts, no one should test him in a fight.

There's numerous stories of folks foolish enough to pick a fight with Haku in the real world, and most all end with the fighters wishing they never messed with him. That's likely due to the Tongan wrestler's large size, as well as his past experience as a sumo wrestler in Japan. It would all make for a great movie, as well as follow a wrestler who's been in a bulk of the major wrestling organizations of the past few decades.

Fighting With My Family is making a run in theaters, and CinemaBlend will be keeping tabs on Chris Hemsworth's Hulk Hogan biopic as more details come to light. For more wrestling related news, check out our review of Fighting With My Family, or check out what beloved game show John Cena just signed on for.

If you're looking to take your virtual wrestling up to the next level, then WWE 2K19 has a special edition that should probably be on your radar. It's themed after icon Ric Flair, and it's actually called the Wooooo! Edition.

Just revealed on the WWE 2K19 website, the Wooooo! Edition pays homage to the Golden Boy of the squared circle, Ric Flair. We'll get to the finer details in just a moment but, for folks who are running out of patience and just want to get their hands on the game, we figure the first highlight is that this version of the game will get you in the door as part of the Early Access program that begins on Oct. 5. If you don't have a calendar handy, that's four days before the rest of the world gets to play the game.

As for Ric Flair's special outing, the game and various physical goodies will come packaged in a special box boasting images of the Nature Boy himself. As for the game, you'll get a physical copy of the Deluxe Edition of WWE 2K19, which comes packed with a bunch of digital extras including access to the upcoming season pass of DLC, Rey Mysterio and Ronda Rousey as playable characters, playable WWE Hall-of-Famers Rowdy Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, as well as a playable historical version of Macho Man Randy Savage and Undertaker.

Also included in that pile of in-game content is a playable Starcade 1983 arena and special in-game attire that lets you dress up Ric Flair in his Wrestlemania 24 robe and daughter Charlotte Flair in her Wrestlemania 32 robe.

Along with the game and all of that content, this souped-up package comes with a Hall of Fame replica ring, a "Nature Boy"-inspired Funko Pop figure, a commemorative plaque featuring a piece of fabric from Ric's pink and purple robe and a couple limited edition WWE SuperCards boasting both Ric and Charlotte Flair.

While the standard version of WWE 2K19 will set you back the usual 60 bucks and the Deluxe Edition is going for $90, the Wooooo! Edition is going for $129.99. That's a hefty price tag, but there's quite a bit of content crammed into the box and, barring a foot-tall Ric Flair statue, it still doesn't compete with Capcom's recently revealed Resident Evil 2 package.

The game proper launches for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on Oct. 9 but, again, if you buy either of those enhanced versions, you'll get to start playing a few days early. Sadly, no images of the Pop toy are available yet, so you'll just have to use your imagination when it comes to how glorious that wobbly-headed desk ornament must be.

HBO's documentary Andre the Giant was packed with interesting stories about the wrestler, and each one confirmed the man was just as entertaining and impressive as the character he played in the ring. Wrestlers had so many stories to share about Andre that some inevitably were cut from the film due to time. Luckily HBO has uploaded one of those stories told by Ric Flair, which features the wrestler spinning an epic yarn about Andre, a fight, and a possible attempted murder:

Ric Flair's story is hilarious and slightly horrifying, and while he told the tale to HBO in a way few others could, Andre's feat is even more impressive than Flair made it sound. Andre the Giant was big, but so were Dick Murdoch and Blackjack Mulligan. Both men had billed heights of over 6'0, and supposedly weighed a combined 595 pounds. Needless to say, a normal man wouldn't have been able to handle both in a 2-on-1 fight, let alone almost drown both of them!

Ric Flair's unwillingness to get involved means Andre could've handled all three if he wanted to, and given Flair was about the same size as both men, it's a true testament to the wrestler's strength. Flair started off the story aggressively but backpedaled things a bit to make it sound as though Andre wasn't actually trying to kill either man, which is probably true. After all, if Andre really wanted to drown both men in the ocean that day, it sounds like he really could've!

There's no word on whether or not Dick Murdoch and Andre the Giant patched up their relationship following that incident, but history would indicate Blackjack Mulligan and Andre got along fine after. Mulligan would wrestle alongside Andre in the mid-80s as part of the wrestling faction The Machines back in the WWF. Of course, being a part of a faction together doesn't necessarily mean two wrestlers are friends, but the two were able to maintain a stable enough working relationship despite the fact that one almost killed the other, so that's a win. Whether that's just the magic of working in wrestling or the knowledge that messing with someone like Andre the Giant twice will probably get you killed, who's to say?

HBO's Andre the Giant documentary is currently airing on HBO and is available to stream on HBO Go and On-Demand services. Lots of new shows are popping up on television each and every day, so be sure to stay in the loop by visiting our midseason premiere guide and summer premiere guide. For more on Andre the Giant, be sure to read about the time he passed out drunk in a hotel lobby and the staff had to figure out what to do with him.

When filmmaker Rory Karpf was given the green light by ESPN to make a 30 For 30 on one of wrestling's biggest superstars Ric Flair, he knew it wouldn't be an easy task. Beyond the fact that Flair's documentary would be the first of its kind that the network aired, Karpf was tasked with dissecting 40 years of The Nature Boy's career into a digestible format ESPN, WWE, and a general audience would enjoy. Karpf says the task was so difficult, that it resulted in three versions of the documentary being made:

So Rory Karpf went back to Ric Flair and did just that. 30 For 30 "Nature Boy" features a back and forth between Karpf and Flair as the stylin', profilin', limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' n' dealin' son of a gun gives an honest telling of the man he was back in the day, and is today. As Karpf tells ESPN, these conversations include cuts to animated sequences which recreate the stories Flair is telling. Karpf says he felt the animation route was better than cuts to photographs, as he says 80s wrestling (which is viewed as Flair's prime) was a bit cartoonish as well.

Unfortunately, condensing Ric Flair's career wasn't the only stumble 30 For 30 "Nature Boy" had along the way. Flair was placed in a medically induced coma in August, and there were concerns about whether or not the documentary could end the way they originally intended-- with Flair living vicariously through his current WWE Superstar daughter, Charlotte Flair. A small change was made to the presentation to discuss the incident, although Rory Karpf says the doc remains unchanged:

30 For 30 "Nature Boy" will air November 7th at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN. The documentary has been said to be a very "raw" look into the life of the wrestler, and even Ric Flair is a bit embarrassed at the things he admitted. For more on Flair, read about the time he predicted he'd win an Oscar for his cameo in Magic Mike XXL, only to have his scene cut from the film. For more on other upcoming fall shows, visit our fall premiere guide.

When you're in the business of speaking loudly and proudly for as long as pro wrestling legend Ric Flair has been, it's sometimes not so easy to keep quiet about certain things, such as a decades-spanning sex life that would cause night terrors for prudish fans. For the upcoming 30 for 30 mini-documentary that's focused on Flair, titled "Nature Boy," the athlete made the on-camera admission that over the course of his life and career, he's slept with around 10,000 women, Wilt Chamberlain-style. But here's why he regrets 'fessing up about that side of his past.

Having been married at four different points in his life, Ric Flair has fathered four different children (not with all four ex-wives), with three of them having followed in his pro wrestling boot-steps. And so he's got some grandchildren that likely know quite a bit about how one side of business works, if not exactly how things go outside of the squared circle and in the bedroom. (I'd be more jealous than surprised if Flair or other WWE greats didn't have a big plush bed designed to look like a wrestling ring.)

For what it's worth, though, Ric Flair probably doesn't need to regret his comments too much. I have a feeling that as soon as any of his grandchildren watch that special and hear him talk about the staggering number of women he's slept with, they will immediately banish that thought from their heads with the suppressive force of a black hole. So perhaps they will be affected in that they'll just forever have a blank spot in their minds during that specific portion of the 30 for 30 installment.

Ric Flair recently went through a major health scare, as he was put into a medically induced coma for a surgery, and complications occurred, causing kidney failure. Everything is on the up-and-up now though, thankfully, and he's very glad to be by the side of his fiancée Wendy Barlow, who is one big reason why he isn't doing all the styling and profiling that he was known for during his sexified heyday. Not that the spark isn't still there in him somewhere. Here's what else he told People during their interview.

ESPN has found itself consistently in the hot-seat in the recent past, whether it's dealing with major layoffs, drooping ratings (that don't quite affect its financial bottom line), or people getting pissed off about the channel's advertising and on-air coverage. And, of course, there was all that stuff going on with the also outspoken Jemele Hill. But hey, whenever the Nature Boy is coming -- pun not intended -- there's only one possible way to react. Like this:

Fans of both Ric Flair and ESPN's award-winning documentary series should be sure to tune into the channel on November 7, when the 30 for 30 installment "Nature Boy" will air at 10:00 p.m. ET. Let's all put our collective thoughts together in the hope that a similar story about Vince McMahon's sex life never arrives, and head to our fall premiere schedule to see when all the rest of the season's most gripping shows will put us all in a mental figure-four.

During his years as host on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart often took mental jabs at those he was talking about and interacting with. But on Sunday night, when he took over hosting duties for WWE’s SummerSlam pay-per-view, things definitely got physical as he blasted John Cena in the stomach with a chair. As you might have imagined, Cena didn’t take too kindly to this, and got a small slice of revenge the next night on Raw. Check it out!

When Jon Stewart hopped into the ring and allowed his previous “enemy” Seth Rollins to not only retain the WWE Heavyweight Championship belt, but also to win the U.S. belt, it seemed like a left-field writers room decision that was only meant to infuriate fans and confuse casual viewers. And while that probably was the case in more ways than not, at least Stewart himself had a solid enough reason for it: he didn’t want to see John Cena tying Ric Flair’s record of winning the Heavyweight belt 16 times in his career. Hell, there’s a part of me that feels the same way, not wanting to see the old guard get matched by the modern guard. (Cena isn’t exactly new.)

That said, you won’t find me saying that out loud in front of an audience in the same building where Cena is in attendance. Sure, it’s all “fake” and everything, but I’m still far too out of shape to properly survive Cena’s Attitude Adjustment without feeling the need to call for all the stretchers. I wonder if Rob Riggle and John Hodgman were waiting around backstage to take Stewart to the hospital if he needed it. Or at least to offer advice on shaving his stomach the next time he gets tossed around on live TV.

It still feels weird to see Stewart getting caught up in the world of the WWE, and I’m anxious to see just how long he continues to pop up. Sure, if he wants to go off and create some important films revolving around politics or other global affairs, that’d be fine. But if he wants to stick around and become Sting’s manager, now that the face-painted icon is back, we’d be perfectly okay with that, too. Maybe Stephen Amell could give him some pointers in the meantime.

Some days the world can seem like a rather dull place. Then there are those that are infinitely livened up by Ric Flair talking about the Oscars in a way that only a professional wrestler can. Ladies and Gentlemen, today is one of those days, and we should all be extremely thankful for it. The Nature Boy Ric Flair has guaran-damn-teed that he’s going to win an Academy Award for his performance in Magic Mike XXL.

It’s not really known how big a role the 66-year-old, 16-time world heavyweight champion has in the scantily clad sequel to 2012's Magic Mike. However, he’s obviously confident that it’s going to make an impact, because during his discussion with Stone Cold Steve Austin on the Unleashed! Podcast, via Uproxx, late last year, Flair confirmed that his performance is going to be one for the ages. Flair explained to the Texas Rattlesnake:

Unfortunately though, we’re still not completely sure what Ric Flair’s role in Magic Mike XXL actually entails. From his chat with Stone Cold, it sounds as if he plays a character that is more than a little bit similar to his wrestling persona. Hopefully Ric Flair is just playing himself. I’m not sure how that would fit into the story, but Flair did admit that he was given "a minute-and-a-half to talk in promo form" as his character. Which is something that he always excelled with when we wrestled.

Flair also boasted that he did it in one take, and after he’d completed his effort, Magic Mike XXLs lead Channing Tatum turned to him and "said it was the greatest thing he ever saw in his life." What was the secret to Flair’s dynamic performance though? He revealed, "I had about 35 cups of Starbucks coffee, so I was ready."

Just because Ric Flair is making a presumptive Oscar-winning performance in Magic Mike XXL doesn’t mean that he’s a fan of the original though. In fact, Flair admitted to his wrestling peer, "I had never seen the movie, I didn’t know much about it." And I am just going to put it out there and say that Ric Flair probably won’t be a fan when he actually does gaze upon either Magic Mike or its impending sequel. Because the tale of a group of Florida male strippers trying to live, profit, and be hunky just doesn’t sound like his cup of tea.

We’ll see if Ric Flair’s inspired addition to Magic Mike XXL’s already impressive ensemble, which includes fellow wrestler Kevin Nash, Jada Pinkett Smith, Michael Strahan, Donald Glover, Joe Manganiello, and, of course, Tatum, is truly Oscar worthy when the raunchy drama hits on July 1, 2015.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising isn't just some simple Red Alert 3 mission pack. It'll have its own storyline and a new lovable-but-bizarre cast of live actors. They've even got a classic pro wrestler this time:

• Jamie Chung - Dragonball Evolution
• Ric Flair - 16-time world heavyweight wrestling champion
• Malcolm McDowell - Heroes, Clockwork Orange, Wing Commander
• Jodi Lyn O'Keefe - Prison Break, She's All That
• Holly Valance - Neighbours, DOA: Dead or Alive

The five new actors will be joined by returning RA3 cast members Gemma Atkinson and Ivana Milicevic. The press release notes that some of the stars, including Flair, will be opponents in Uprising's new Commander's Challenge mode. The Commander's Challenge features fifty scenarios that players must battle through in order to unlock powerful new units added in Uprising.

Uprising will be released for the PC this March for $20. It's a standalone game so you won't need to have Red Alert 3 installed to play.