Before I get to talk about the match itself, I first have to talk about the build for this match. Let’s rewind the clock back to 2007. Ric Flair came back to RAW on November 26th from Smackdown! (remember when he was on Smackdown because I sure didn't) after a 3-month hiatus due to him entering into the political game in his home state of North Carolina, starting his own marketing company and pursued opportunities for investment.
In that segment, Ric Flair announced to the world that he will never retire because he loves this business so much. Out came Vince McMahon and the chairman of the board said that if Flair doesn't win a match then his career is over basically stating that Ric Flair is dead weight and doesn't draw in WWE anymore. Flair then went on to win many "career ending" matches including his match with MVP at the Royal Rumble PPV in 2008 (which was an awful match by the way) which led to Flair challenging Shawn Micheals to a match at Wrestlemania 24 on the February 25th 2008 episode of Monday Night RAW.
Shawn Michaels at first didn’t want to do this because he doesn’t wanna be known as somebody that ended his best friend’s career. Shawn then accepted the offer because Ric Flair told him that all of the compliments Ric Flair got from Shawn would mean nothing if he challenges Flair.
The tension between those two men increased as the weeks go by. A great example of that would be when Ric Flair faced Vince McMahon in a street fight on the March 17th episode of RAW (which it was a decent match surprisingly). In it, Vince McMahon was this close on winning this match until Shawn Michaels showed up and pulled the referee to the outside.
Ric Flair ended up winning the match but that bothered him not because he pinned the chairman of WWE but rather it was because Shawn Michaels interfered in the match. Making him feel like he can’t beat an opponent all by himself. That led to Ric putting his frustrations onto Shawn Michaels in a segment on RAW 6 days before Wrestlemania 24.
Boy, that was a long summary. Now, we get to the match itself and as the celebrities would say on MTV cribs “this is where the magic happens” (okay that sentence sounded so weird). Both of those men ABSOLUTELY beat the crap out of each other and Shawn Michaels’ moonsaults still were tough to watch but he did make Ric Flair look like he could still wrestle for another 5 years or so (which that’s kind of what he did after leaving WWE as an in-ring performer).
However, the closing moments was more than just something else to me. Shawn Michaels delivered Ric Flair the second Superkick and when he’s trying to prepare for the third one, you could see and imagine the regret look on his face. Ric Flair with tears in his eyes, wanted Shawn Michaels to bring it as The Rock would say. Shawn then said……
My words wouldn’t do justice. Go out to your living room or a comfortable area of your house with a nice cold drink of your choice and WATCH THIS MATCH. If you saw it once years ago then see it again, again, again, again.
I hope you have enjoyed my piece and if you did, please share it. Follow the blog for honest pro wrestling opinions, follow me on the tweets @omar_playa and stay safe smarks.
Additional sources: http://bit.ly/2Wm9eIu
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_Flair
http://www.espn.com/espn/e60/news/story?id=4050550
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