Tag: wwe wrestlemania 24

“If you leave this business with one person having a tear in their eye, you are a lucky man.”

Ric Flair – September 1997 in a promo after the NWO angle where they did a parody of the Arn Anderson retirement speech

The most spectacular finish of what can be argued is the career of the greatest wrestler in history ended up as, the greatest television moment in wrestling history.

The day after Wrestlemania, in Orlando, FL, on Raw, Ric Flair was honored in a way no wrestler ever has been.

“I will never wrestle in this ring again,” said Flair, who was crying all day, but completely composed for his farewell promo. But after HHH came out, he broke down in the most emotional moment that didn’t involve a death in many years.

Flair thanked the fans, saying he’s in a good place now, he’s not sad, and that he can rejoice because he had the greatest career of any wrestler in history. He noted he lost to a great wrestler and an even better man. There were “Thank you Ric” chants even as this just got going.

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The $20 million figure for Floyd Mayweather has pretty well been debunked at this point, even from inside the company, but not before wrestlers both past and present were very upset at the idea.

It’s understandable, because Ric Flair, who is finishing a 35 plus year career in just a few weeks (and boy is that a weird thought) likely made in the range of $13-16 million (and spent most of it) over the course of his career. He not only was one of the all-time greatest performers, with three decades plus as one of the game’s biggest stars, its record setting world champion, but during the course of his career, only one pro wrestler in history, Hulk Hogan, ever headlined more live events that drew in excess of 10,000 fans. Wrestling isn’t about being fair and Flair would have earned a lot more than that if he was born 25 years later, but that really put the $20 million figure into perspective.

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