Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: becky lynch, dark side of the ring, nwa, NWA Championship, ric flair, The Nature Boy, The Nature Boy Ric Flair, wrestling, wwe, WWF Championship

Ric Flair Continues To Destroy His Own Legacy By Blaming Others

A couple of years ago, if you asked wrestlers and wrestling fans who is the greatest of all time, there was often the same answer: "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair.  Since then, Flair has done an almost awe-inspiring job of destroying his own reputation and legacy, often exposing not only his own personal vices and awful behavior and with it, his incredibly fragile ego.  It is a sad turn of events for a man who if we're judging solely by his career and accomplishments, we should be celebrating, but instead, due to his continuing public outbursts and inability to hold himself accountable, we are now faced with all but ignoring entirely.

Ric Flair's latest episode of blaming the world for his own problems was played out on his Twitter, where he now accuses WWE of trying to erase his legacy and is demanding the return of the two belts that define his career: the classic NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt and the iconic "winged eagle" WWF World Heavyweight Championship belt.

This is another befuddling public tantrum from Ric Flair, but made even worse here because of his odd demands with those two belts.  I find it very hard to believe that Flair doesn't understand that he has zero ownership claim to an item that is quite literally stamped as property of a promotion.  And while the ownership of the NWA belt could be argued due to the varied claims of different parties as to who truly carries on that promotion now, the WWF belt is completely out of the question.

Even more than that though, why does Ric Flair think the WWF belt defines his legacy in some way?  His saying it about the NWA belt makes some sense, as he held it more than anyone in history.  But he was only a one-time WWF Champion in 1992 and while he did have a nice long 10-month run with it, he's hardly the wrestler most associated with that particular belt (Bret Hart says hi!)

But let's not play this game.  Let's not fall into Ric Flair's trap here, which is to constantly put on public spectacles like this, usually to distract attention away from the very serious issues he's become known for.

And even if WWE is consciously trying to "erase" Ric Flair from their product, can you blame them?  He sued the company two years ago over Becky Lynch's calling herself "The Man", he became public enemy number one after this season's Dark Side of the Ring episode about the infamous "Plane Ride From Hell" detailing his alleged sexual harassment and assault of a flight attendant, and now he's again publicly attacking the company for no apparent reason.

As much as we all question WWE's decision-making (especially when it comes to dealing with talents), when discussing Ric Flair, maybe we should actually empathize with the company for stepping away from him.

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