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Post by JerryvonKramer on May 1, 2009 10:12:17 GMT -5
Its not often remarked upon but it seems to me that "Ric Flair" was a slightly different character during his WWF run from his 80s Four Horsemen incarnation.
NWA/ WCW Ric Flair was the "limousine ridin', jet flyin', kiss stealing, wheelin' deelin' son of a gun". He wore shades and expensive suits. He was "slick rick" -- an 80s yuppie with a bit of money who thought he had style and class but, who was in reality, quite a crass and vulgar character. This was a sly comment on 80s yuppiedom, the excesses of the Regan and Thatcher era.
When he went "up North", Flair was the slightly more "legendary" figure in the robe who carried "the real World title". Gone were the shades, the suits, the jets, the girls, the rolex watches and so on. I guess WWF had the Million Dollar Man character to represent all that. This Nature Boy was more interested in antagonising faces: first Piper, then Hogan, then Savage. This Flair was allied with Bobby Heenan and Mr. Perfect, who were more about getting down to business and winning things than showing off.
Am I making more of this than necessary, was Flair basically the same guy in WWF as he was in NWA/ WCW, or are there real differences there?
Also, feel free to comment on the versions of Flair we got after 1993. Of which, I'd say, there are at least 3 different characters, if not four or five.
Such is wrestling that unless a guy comes out wearing a shirt and tie and claims he is a tax-man or dons a mask and carries a swag bag, people assume there is no change in the character. I'm quite interested with "soft" gimmick changes.
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Post by johnnyk9 on May 1, 2009 10:33:24 GMT -5
Flair still wore suits in first WWE run
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Starlight Starbright
Don Corleone
Suffers From Macho Madness.
?Literary, intelligent, yet capable of great savagery. A terrifying genius.?
Posts: 1,969
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Post by Starlight Starbright on May 1, 2009 10:34:37 GMT -5
Of course there were differences, he was playing to a different crowd in a different region of the country. The ones you listed are the ones that stood out to me as well.
That punk-job on Piper was classic.
Ric Flair gave us so many great punk jobs.
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Post by JerryvonKramer on May 1, 2009 10:35:26 GMT -5
Can you do me a massive favour? When referring to the WWF before 2002, please just call it the WWF. Just in threads in which you're talking to me. Just a little pet hate of mine.
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Post by alanguitar1 on May 1, 2009 13:54:57 GMT -5
After wwf got rid of the primetime set with the audience, the only place for character promos were the green screen ones or the ones on the little stage, where nwa/wcw could always have them whenever, so he the chance for the little character touches like that after wm 8, he was the same wrestler, just the focus changed a little bit in his presentation. He was still awesome though and I love either one.,
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Beans
Team Rocket
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Post by Beans on May 1, 2009 14:03:42 GMT -5
Can you do me a massive favour? When referring to the WWF before 2002, please just call it the WWF. Just in threads in which you're talking to me. Just a little pet hate of mine. Why? If your neighbour changed her name to Bertha would you not refer to her retrospectively as "I remember a few years ago when Bertha got nekkid and wet in the street" rather than call her by her previous name for all events that happened up until the name change and her new name when refering to stuff that happene since her name change? |
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Post by George Harrison on May 1, 2009 14:30:11 GMT -5
Its not often remarked upon but it seems to me that "Ric Flair" was a slightly different character during his WWF run from his 80s Four Horsemen incarnation. NWA/ WCW Ric Flair was the "limousine ridin', jet flyin', kiss stealing, wheelin' deelin' son of a gun". He wore shades and expensive suits. He was "slick rick" -- an 80s yuppie with a bit of money who thought he had style and class but, who was in reality, quite a crass and vulgar character. This was a sly comment on 80s yuppiedom, the excesses of the Regan and Thatcher era. When he went "up North", Flair was the slightly more "legendary" figure in the robe who carried "the real World title". Gone were the shades, the suits, the jets, the girls, the rolex watches and so on. I guess WWF had the Million Dollar Man character to represent all that. This Nature Boy was more interested in antagonising faces: first Piper, then Hogan, then Savage. This Flair was allied with Bobby Heenan and Mr. Perfect, who were more about getting down to business and winning things than showing off. Am I making more of this than necessary, was Flair basically the same guy in WWF as he was in NWA/ WCW, or are there real differences there? Also, feel free to comment on the versions of Flair we got after 1993. Of which, I'd say, there are at least 3 different characters, if not four or five. Such is wrestling that unless a guy comes out wearing a shirt and tie and claims he is a tax-man or dons a mask and carries a swag bag, people assume there is no change in the character. I'm quite interested with "soft" gimmick changes. wasn't a big part of his major fued to do with being with Elizibeth, & having pictures of her? |
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Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on May 1, 2009 14:44:36 GMT -5
The 91-93 WWF Flair is actually my favorite incarnation of him.
The egomaniac playboy was fine and all, but in the WWF his character became one who felt that he was the man through divine right because of his accomplishments elsewhere- which turned me onto him at the time because of his audacity (for the record, I was 7).
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Post by johnnyk9 on May 1, 2009 16:28:04 GMT -5
Can you do me a massive favour? When referring to the WWF before 2002, please just call it the WWF. Just in threads in which you're talking to me. Just a little pet hate of mine. If your talking to me the anwser is no, I will not violate The World Wildlife Fund tradmark just to please you, your not the boss of me, nor does the world revolve around you thank you. |
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Post by JerryvonKramer on May 1, 2009 16:32:39 GMT -5
I can't tell if you're being serious there or not. If you are, congratulations for having made one of the most po-faced and earnest posts in forum history. If not, ha ha, that was quite funny. Also:   I got way too much heel heat for this. |
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Post by toodarkmark on May 2, 2009 13:21:17 GMT -5
I would say by 1990, when he turned heel on Sting, he had already abandoned the "wealthy evil yuppie" character. He was just a heel with the Horsemen, and Ole had him Black Scorpioning. I dont recall in his and Arn's feud with Doom if they were anything but the Horsemen. Jim Herd had basically gutted his character before he was forced out to the WWF.
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Post by JerryvonKramer on Aug 3, 2009 17:23:03 GMT -5
Bit of a mega-bump, but it would be great if we could talk about more incarnations of Flair. How did his character develop post-93? When did we first get "Hyper-Emotional Flair", for example?
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Post by Youngie on Aug 3, 2009 17:25:27 GMT -5
Fliar was doing Hyper promos in '91 WWF
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Post by JerryvonKramer on Aug 3, 2009 17:28:21 GMT -5
No, I mean when he started doing that insane jiving and semi-shoot style promos. I remember him being in that mode around the time of the take over in 2001, for example.
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Post by Youngie on Aug 3, 2009 17:31:55 GMT -5
Very late 90's WCW maybe.
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Post by Sad sack ass fruitbooty on Aug 3, 2009 18:21:13 GMT -5
I remember he wasn't referred to as "Nature boy" much in the WWF.
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Post by romafan87 on Aug 3, 2009 18:47:13 GMT -5
Can you do me a massive favour? When referring to the WWF before 2002, please just call it the WWF. Just in threads in which you're talking to me. Just a little pet hate of mine. WWE! WWE! WWE! |
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Mac
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
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Post by Mac on Aug 3, 2009 18:51:21 GMT -5
I thought he was somewhat simular in his early WWE run compared to what he was as a heel in NWA. Only difference was he was established in NWA and still had to get over with an almost completely new set of fans. Fans that were used to a face-centric show with a good guy at the top of the card 90% of the time. It was a promotion where the face was fending off the heels. Not a heel fending off faces. NWA mixed the formula up a bit, WWF was pretty standard for the past 2 decades with the exception of Grahams run. Flair got immediatly thrown in the mix with the lead faces on the show as they tip toed around the Hulk/Flair thing and within what 4 months he was champ? standard NWA fare more than WWF at the time.
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Post by JerryvonKramer on Aug 4, 2009 13:28:14 GMT -5
Can you do me a massive favour? When referring to the WWF before 2002, please just call it the WWF. Just in threads in which you're talking to me. Just a little pet hate of mine. WWE! WWE! WWE! *delivers a reverse knife edge to Riccaboni* |
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Post by mauled on Aug 4, 2009 13:41:22 GMT -5
I thought he was somewhat simular in his early WWE run compared to what he was as a heel in NWA. Only difference was he was established in NWA and still had to get over with an almost completely new set of fans. Fans that were used to a face-centric show with a good guy at the top of the card 90% of the time. It was a promotion where the face was fending off the heels. Not a heel fending off faces. NWA mixed the formula up a bit, WWF was pretty standard for the past 2 decades with the exception of Grahams run. Flair got immediatly thrown in the mix with the lead faces on the show as they tip toed around the Hulk/Flair thing and within what 4 months he was champ? standard NWA fare more than WWF at the time. I dont think thats quite fair. Perfect was the heel and was IC champ through most of that run. And Savage turned heel during his WWF champ run. It was just guys like Hogan and Warrior were the ones selling the tickets so they were champion. |
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