This was very emotional. It was great to see the 4 Horsemen, Ricky Steamboat, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Harley Race, HHH, Batista, Cena and Y2J and the wrestlers from all 3 brands come to honor Ric. There will NEVER be another wrestler like The Nature Boy.
 
I actually cried during this. It really got to me. Seeing Ric cry and all of the people from his career come to honor him really got me emotional.
 
 
 
 
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not a dry eye on this end either.  I'm not a fan of WWE, but when they do things right I give them their due.  And you know what also came to my mind?  Nobody, not even Hogan, has gotten respect like that on their way out.  This is one of the classiest things I have ever seen the WWE offer.

Count me in as having to buy a new box of Kleenex today!  It was FANTASTIC!  Well worth having to sit through all the preliminaries on Raw to get to the MAIN EVENT.  Ric deserved every bit of the accolades, and I'm glad the WWE actually, for once, gave us fans what we wanted - a first class sendoff for the Naitch.

Raw is gonna be in Flair's home state of North Carolina on July 14th.
 
Maybe this will be the return of Naitch ?

Quote from CaptainKangaroo77 on Apr 1^st, 2008, 10:30am:

i didn't see that as ruining the moment.

Quote from badstreetusa on Apr 1^st, 2008, 12:13pm:

 
Ruined it for me, more so Cena being there than Jericho.  It was like Vince's way of saying, "Hey you, Old School Wrestling Fans.  Yeah, you people who grew up watching Flair in the NWA and WCW.  You can't have a full-fledged tribute to Ric Flair without including some of my sucky homegrown talent."

Another sad fact Flair has the adulation of the fans Benoit doesn't
 
Jeff

BULL. you can't change history. and to deny that history is foolish.
i don't condone what Benoit is blamed for. but i am smart enough to realize that he did have a career and that career touched the lives of hundreds in the ring and millions outside of the ring. to pretend he never existed is not just foolish (regardless of actions outside of the ring) it's downright stupid.
 
WHAT IF..someone else you claim to love so much..(let's use Flair for instance, or Michael Jordan..or Tiger Woods..) next week did the same thing Benoit is blamed for...how would you look at either man then?? or anyone else?? really, think about it in that perspective and give me an honest answer. and don't say you don't think they would ever do it. nobody woulda thought Benoit woulda done it either.
now don't think i'm trying to make Flair, Jordan, or Woods in a bad light here, cause i am not. Flair has most total respect. i'm just using them as examples to TRY to illustrate to you and everyone else that thinks pretending Chris Benoit never existed does not makes sense. it doesn't make sense, it's stupid.
 
back to Flair...it was great last night. let's not trash that memory. i didn't see the point with Dave Bautista, Jericho, or Cena either, but let's just be glad the moment did in fact happen.

I hope Bobby that one day you have a child, so that you can see how idiotic you are being when it comes to Benoit. He did it, he killed his child and anyone ANYONE who kills a defenseless child deserves to be forgotten. They deserve to be thrown out with the trash like the human refuse they are. At least an adult can fight back. A child can not. Anyone who kills a child, I don't care if it was my cousin Mario or the freaking Pope. You kill a kid you are worse then scum. To try and say what Benoit did in an entertainment company somehow outweighs killing his kid is insane. And if you can't see that, then I don't know what to say. Some things in life are more important then wrestling.

guys i NEVER said that Benoit should be praised. i just said that we can't change history and shouldn't try to. i wish you guys would open your eyes and see what i am saying before you trash me over this.

Wrestling is just not what it used to be. Until last night.
 
When I was a kid, I used to stay awake in my bed until 11:30 and sneak into the living room to watch TV5 when Mid-Atlantic Wrestling changed from 5 PM on Saturday.
 
Now, at fifty-one, and after twenty-eight years of teaching elementary school, I can barely get past 9:00 on Monday without falling asleep in the recliner in my den.
 
Last night, I didn't even rest the eyes. Saw the prelims and stayed up for the main event. For the record, everything was prelim until the Nature Boy hit the ring.
 
When Triple H came out, I was just praying this would not be a WWE commercial. I appreciate that Vince McMahon decided to let Ric be the show.
 
I wish Ole would have been there. But I can't have everything.
 
Once again, I don't know the out of ring relationship Flair has with Cena and Jericho. I just wish that there had been more of the NWA that did not work with WWE included rather than them. IMO.
 
Classy spot to focus on Ric while Harley was getting in the ring. I appreciated that.
 
I noticed something, though, that no one has mentioned. Flair balled up his fist several times  as he was clapping and hit the top of the fist as he applauded. Does he have some problem with his hand?
 
A great ending to a great wrestling career. Moments I will never forget.

I will give Vince & Co. credit here for finally doing something right. I was in tears the entire segment. It looks like Ric really is going to give retirement a try. He certainly has earned it and deserves it. We all know that he can always make the occasional "Foley-type" re-appearance, and I'm sure there will be some sort of involvement for him whenever Reid finally gets called up to WWE.
 
These last few days have been tough for me. I took my family down to Orlando for the Hall of Fame ceremony.  The kids thought it was so cool. They said they even felt like a wrestling family after spending so much time on the road. We left Cary, NC at 1:40 am Saturday morning... arrived in Orlando @11:30 am... went to the ceremony Saturday night... left Orlando @ 11:30 Sunday morning... finally got home Sunday night @ 11 pm... and I had to be at work Monday morning at 5! But it was worth it. I've had plenty of people say we were crazy, but I would not trade this past weekend for anything. My only regret is that we weren't there in person for his farewell Monday night. I told my wife that if I had known they were doing that, we would have stayed and gone to Raw, even if it meant sleeping in the van. My family probably doesn't fully understand how much of a big deal this is to me, but they were thrilled to be a part of it. My wife teases me about how she had never heard of Ric Flair until we met in 1999. But there she was with tears in her eyes, too, right by my side. I love her.  
I'll be 32 this year, and I've spent 23 of those 32 years with Ric Flair. I was glued to my tv every Sat morning and night. I used to think that WRAL's 11:00 news on Saturday nights was the LONGEST 30 minutes in the history of television. I think about how much I hated him as a kid, but loving to watch him at the same time. I wanted to see the good guys kick his a$$. His babyface turn in '89 against Funk blew me away. I remember during his injury angle wondering who I was supposed to cheer for, since I had wanted for so long to see Flair "get what we had coming to him." But I figured out as soon as they faced each other the first time who to cheer for. Wooooooooo!!! When he left for the wwf in '91 it sucked. I watched every week waiting for him to dominate like he did in the nwa but it never happened. I was thrilled when he returned to wcw in '93 and I've loved the man ever since. Whether he was a face or a heel didn't matter anymore, he was THE MAN. I watched Starrcade '93 at my grandmother's house with my best friend because we still didn't have cable out where we lived. I thought it was going to be over that night. Vader had been built up as this unbeatable monster who had dominated wcw for a year and a half... I didn't think Ric could do it. When he won, my friend and I were jumping up & down in my grandparent's living room... screaming and hugging each other with tears in our eyes. Ric has had many moments since then that have brought tears to my eyes, but nothing like this past weekend. I cried every time he did Saturday night. I cried when they showed the clips from Wrestlemania on Raw. And I cried during his farewell at the end of the show. I've even tried to think of other things the past couple of days because every time I think about him I start tearing up again. Like right now as I'm typing this. He is and will always be the man in my eyes. Wrestling has not the been the way many of us remember it for years now, but as long as we had Ric we still had that link to the past. Wrestling now officially sucks. I think from now on I'll pop in a different tape or dvd every Monday night and reminisce.  
 
I've been fortunate enough to meet Ric 4 different times. He has been first class all the way each time I met him. The last time I saw him was back in '04 during his book signings. He came to a Super Wal-Mart in North Raleigh. I took the kids with me, but my wife got stuck at work and couldn't come. She's the only one still waiting to get meet him, shake his hand, and tell him thank you. I hope she gets that chance soon.
 
Sorry for the rambling. Like many of you I could talk about Ric and the "good old days" forever. But for now, I think I'll go pop in one of those old tapes. Who says I only have to watch them on Mondays?  

great write up Todd. i was thinking of you guys all weekeneed, wishing i was with you and all my other firends, down in Orlando. it was either WRESTLEMANIA or japan. i chose japan so, i had to stay home and missed what appears to be the biggest weekend, the biggest event, and the biggest moment in modern day pro wrestling of our lifetime. i'm glad you all got to be a part of it.
Todd, family is the biggest thing any of us can have. i know that you know fully, just how fortunate you are that not only do you have maybe one child to love this business as you do, but you have four kids (of varying ages) and a wife that that all five of them can AND do love wrestling. you are so, so, so fortunate to have such a family. because they and you are so connected by sharing something between you all.  
i hated that 11pm news on WRAL as well.  
my first live show was on 7/2/78 with Flair vs Mulligan on top. a real bloodbath.
later on, i was at  
the Final Conflict (3/12/83 show with Flair going 60 minutes with Greg Valentine)
live at STARRCADE's '83, '84, and '93
the Boogie Man Jam (3/17/87 in greensboro, what i feel was the best match i saw him in against Ricky Steamboat)
SILVERSTAR '85
the first few Great American Bashes in Charlotte and Greensboro
the first Crockett Cup
the first Clash of Champions
i saw Flair win the NWA title from Harley Race and Vader
i saw Flair lose the NWA title to Dusty Rhodes and Sting
 
all those BIG shows i was at..he may not have been on the main event for all of them, but he sure was major part of each of them. and not not only a major part of what shows i attended, but also a major part of my life as well.
that last link to the past may be gone now from an active career, but we have seen an entire lifetime of greatness from the man we call Ric Flair.
we should all be greatful.