So, I just got through reading Bret Hart's (excellent) autobiograpy, and there's one thing I wanted to get your opinion on. Bret doesn't think much of Flair as a worker (and vice versa). What is your stance on that? I dunno, Flair's losing luster in my eyes. I was a huge fan of his back in the day (I was an NWA fan more than the WWF) and felt he was the greatest of all time, until recently. If a career is measured by the entire body of work, does his post 1995 work diminish what he accomplished up to that point? It's like he became a complete caricature of himself. As much criticism as Hart got for the "Five Moves of Doom", is it really as bad as Flair's matches being cookie-cutter? Flair was great in the sense that he could, as the saying goes, carry a broomstick to a *** match. However, was it Flair who was great, or rather just the formula? Hypothecially speaking, what if it was Bret Hart who was in the NWA and Flair was in the WWF during the same time period? Would Flair have managed to be as successful? I'm interested in getting your views on this as well as the folks on the blog.
Man, there’s a loaded question.
I do think that his continued insistence on wrestling when he’s clearly not capable any more is hurting his legacy in the long run, yeah. I do tend to think of his career in two phases, however: The prime run from the 80s-2001, and then the WWE phase from 2002-present, which is like two different wrestlers. Had he just stopped with the end of Nitro, he’d be the greatest of all time without any question.
Anyway, I can say without any hesitation that it wasn’t the formula in the 80s that carried the matches, it was Flair. He had the natural charisma and storytelling ability that you can’t boil down to a simple formula. Bret mainly got flack for the Five Moves of Doom from me because it was accompanied by his general lack of enthusiasm for the business in general and it was just representative of a bigger problem with his work. I mean look at how bad he got in his WCW run when he was literally just cashing a paycheque.
As for Flair and Hart switching places, Bret didn’t break out until the 90s, so it’s not really a fair comparison.
Loading ...
