Something I’ve been thinking about in regards to the Ric Flair retirement match is: Why not do it later in the year? Flair debuted in December 1972 as Rice Lake—a great decision to keep trying new names. Rice Lake sounds like someone who gets clapped in matches where the commentators just talk about upcoming events instead of the action.
Should Ric Flair Have Scheduled His Retirement Match in December to Make It 50 Years?
In December, he would’ve been in the business for 50 years. That’s a huge career milestone. Also, it doesn’t mean that this is it for Flair in the business. As if he’ll just fade away from any relevance in wrestling after his final match.
At 73 years old, Flair is really up there in age to be competing in the ring. Being a manager might be a bit perilous as well considering managers have to take bumps eventually. Mind you, Flair’s been taking bumps when many of us following wrestling were still just gleams in our dads’ eyes.
The point is, Flair will still be involved after this match but couldn’t the match have been moved to match up with his debut? It’s not unusual for people to have their retirement match on every date but the Xth-decade of their career. Injury, prison, a bad diagnosis, or simply feeling “Eh, that’s enough of that” can put a button on any career.
However, I always felt: round it out. Flair announced it this year and sold a bunch of tickets for the event. While the date wasn’t that important and everyone involved fixed their schedules at the end of July, announcing it when he did demanded that he do the match while interest is still high.
If he announced it in the spring and scheduled it for the end of the year, that’s enough time for tickets to be canceled. Hell, anything could’ve happened in that time.
Plus, imagine the money that would’ve gone into keeping the buzz up for that long. In the days of four PPVs a year, creative teams had to keep feuds buzzing for months between big seasonal events. For one show announced in May to take place in December, that’s too much time for things to go wrong.
What do you think? Is now the time for the retirement match? Could Ric Flair have announced it in October or November and held it in December? Should Flair have left well enough alone and not stepped back into the ring?
Let us know down below!
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