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Ric Flair's WCW walk out in 97-98

2K views 9 replies 10 participants last post by  "Discus" Lariat Tubman 
#1 ·
Why does this never get talked about as much as Austin or Punk? I always hear about Austin walking out of Punk walking out but this never seems to get brought up. You would think this walk out would be more meaningful than those two considering what Flair represented in WCW. I was watching old WCW shows and all I heard was crowds chanting we want Flair. I found an interview of Flair saying he walked out because he was getting his time off revoked so he would have to work Thunder and he didn't want to do that. His walk out seems similar to Austin's to me seeing as how he was frustrated with creative at the time.


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#2 ·
According to Ric from when he had his podcasts, WCW was a complete hell for him and he left off of a compilation of things. Flair had already had a very worn history with Jim Herd (who Im pretty sure Ric has said was his least favorite person in the biz), and then initially an awful relationship with Eric Bischoff, who Flair claims once threatened Ric that Bischoff was going to "starve him and his family", sitting Flair out for a year (and Flair couldn't cash or it would acknowledge he is under WCW contract).

Performance-wise, Flair has also said his confidence as a performance was completely shot until Taker requested the program at WM 18.
 
#3 ·
I think it's also because Ric's leaving didn't lasted long.
I wasn't able to watch WCW shows in my country back in the nineties, but when I played the WCW Mayhem game in 1999 Ric was there, so he surely returned soon, uh?

Unlike Steve Austin and CM, which also is safe to say they must left with a way badder attitude...
 
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#4 ·


All I know is that it resulted in one of the greatest segments in rasslin' history.

:lmao FIRE ME, I'M ALREADY FIRED :lmao
 
#6 ·
So honored to be able to say I was there at the show that night.


I think Ric gets a little slack on both of his walkouts because fans were in a position to clearly see that he had legit reasons. Since this is aboutnthe second one I will stick to it. He's Ric Flair. This is the company that he kept afloat against all of these WWF guys that were brought over only to booked to embarrass him. Bischoff was treating hismas a jobber to the mid card NWO guys, booking him in the ridiculous retirement angle with Hogan only to pretend like it never happened.
 
#5 ·
It wasn't really that meaningful, when compared to Austin or Punk, because his absence didn't have any noticeable effects, due to how infrequently & poorly he was being used prior to his walk-out. By that point, Flair was being treated as just another guy. And once he left, nothing really changed, as far as the trajectory of the company went.

With Austin, he was a much bigger star when he walked out than Flair was and had been treated as such. With Punk, the how & why of his walk-out was a lot more interesting. Plus, it created a major shake-up in the plans going forward, resulting in, arguably, the best Road To Wrestlemania of all-time.
 
#7 · (Edited)
The NWO vs. Sting feud and Goldberg's rise was just way too hot at that point, that his walkout didn't really have any effect on the company nor was it that noticeable. Honestly, I didn't even know about the situation until the night Flair returned.

He was feuding with Hennig then Hart and even Hart wasn't treated as a big deal compared to those guys.
 
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