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“Walking the Aisle”
How apropos. With bated breath I’ve waited to write my debut column for Xtra and the time has come. How apropos that the title of my weekly column goes hand in hand with the topic of my first contribution. The man has walked the aisle for over thirty years and is regarded as the best to have ever worked in the ring. How apropos, the first “Walking the Aisle” will be about “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
How disappointing, however, it’s not about Flair once again grabbing the mike or wrestling his butt off and stealing the show on a Monday night. You see it’s kind of hard to steal a show that you’re not on. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the issue at hand.
It’s not often that a storyline has me childishly giddy to see what would happen the next week, but that was the exact feeling that Flair’s lose or you’re retired storyline had on me during the November 26th Raw. After six months away from the business, the best was back. It began with a promo with Vince McMahon, followed by some good backstage segments, and finished with the future Hall of Fame inductee going over the current WWE Champion Randy Orton with the help of Chris Jericho. It was done almost perfectly and I couldn’t wait to see where it was going next.
Well, obviously, WWE creative didn’t have the same giddiness or anticipation over writing the next Flair moment that I had seeing it. Instead, they decided to sit on one of their more interesting ideas in recent memory by not doing a damn thing. Or maybe it was Vince who decided to do so, but either way, the decision was made to my utter disappointment.
Not a promo, not a match, nothing. Other than a recap or two about what happened the week prior, the Legend was MIA. To me, it was inexcusable. There was a bevy of things that should’ve been below a Flair segment/mention on the list of priorities. Did we really need a women’s match that made the #1 Contender look like a jobber to the champion two weeks before Armageddon? Was it necessary for Kennedy’s segment to run seemingly forever?
So, Randy Orton doesn’t have much to say to Flair, like maybe, “Flair you got me last week by luck and the help of Chris Jericho, but rest assured, your career will end sooner rather than later,” during the show? Flair doesn’t have anything to say about beating the WWE Champion in “Flair Country”? How about a quick segment of “The Nature Boy” thanking Jericho in the back for his help the week before to extend the storyline and put Jericho over that much more? Something, anything, would have been good.
This Flair angle has a ton of potential, but only if it is continuously built upon. Only if Flair is on a Raw segment every week. I don’t think he should wrestle anywhere near every week, but he is one of the best, if not thee best, promo guys in the business and needs mike time to get the idea over. The lack of continuity, consistency, or build in storylines has hurt WWE for the past several years, as they shoot themselves in the foot one too many times by starting, dropping, starting, and dropping stories.
By not having Flair on this week’s show was a disservice to the man, the story, and the fans. Creative needs to do something somewhat important with Flair during this week’s fifteenth anniversary of Raw. If not, they’ll be in danger of losing fan interest in an intriguing storyline before it ever had a chance to result in good business. The career of the best wrestler to ever lace up the boots hangs in the balance every time he steps into a WWE ring, but how important does it seem if a Leprechaun, ogre, and four weak impressions, instead get the time? Hopefully WWE doesn’t make the same mistake twice. That wouldn’t be so apropos for the best this business has had to offer.
-Nick Cattles
You can write Nick at nacfresh@hotmail.com.
