The legacy of Ric Flair featured most of his biggest success coming in WCW. Fans viewed Flair as the face of WCW when Hulk Hogan was the top star in WWE. Flair remained in WCW for the entire Monday Night Wars era when bigger names joined him. The mixed results of opponents saw Flair having some great rivalries and some disappointing ones.
We will look back at the best and worst overall feuds to come from Flair. The better ones laid the foundation for WCW in many ways. There are also the worst ones that proved even the all-time greats couldn’t have spotless records. Flair clearly tried his best to become a WCW icon. Find out which wrestlers delivered strong or weak results with him. These are the five best and five worst feuds of Ric Flair in WCW.
10 Best: Hulk Hogan
The first feud for Hulk Hogan in WCW saw him finally facing off against Ric Flair. WWE avoided this dream feud when Flair joined the company in the early 90s, and fans always regretted not having the chance to witness the two icons facing off.
WCW went with it right away by having Hogan defeat Flair to win the WCW Championship. Many diehard WCW fans were upset at the results, but Flair led Hogan to some of his best matches. Both legends worked quite well together in this feud.
9 Worst: Roddy Piper
WCW tried to utilize two legends like Ric Flair and Roddy Piper in a feud during the Monday Night Wars. Piper needed a new opponent after his rivalry with Hulk Hogan ended. Flair and Piper were close friends behind the scenes, but they lacked chemistry in the ring.
Both legends were a bit past their prime with the inability to have a great match together. Even some of the promos disappointed, as WCW didn’t do the best job adding excitement to this program. Piper and Flair were better off staying away from each other on television.
8 Best: Syxx
An extremely underrated feud for Ric Flair in WCW took place against Syxx aka X-Pac. The disrespect of Syxx towards Flair on television made the fan base wanted to see Flair get his revenge on the younger and arrogant wrestler.
Their matches were some of the rare good ones to feature a New World Order wrestler. Syxx often pushed the envelope with his comments about Flair, but it made for fun matches. Flair showed more fire against Syxx than he did against most others during this time.
7 Worst: Eric Bischoff
The worst New World Order related rivalry for Ric Flair came against non-wrestler Eric Bischoff. There was a real issue between Bischoff and Flair that started when Flair no-showed Nitro to attend his son’s amateur wrestling competition.
Bischoff was livid and tried to punish Flair by sending him home and suing him. WCW eventually brought Flair back to make the issue a storyline. The fact that Bischoff defeated Flair at Starrcade 1998 showed how poorly the program was booked to make Flair look bad.
6 Best: Lex Luger
Ric Flair was tasked with trying to help Lex Luger get over with the WCW audience in the early 90s. The legend of Flair already featured the reputation that he could make other wrestlers look great to become a major superstar moving forward.
Luger’s in-ring limitations would see Flair working overtime to create great matches. A few stand out matches with Flair were enough for Luger to develop the main event reputation. Luger was still a huge star for WCW when returning years later after a failed WWE run thanks to Flair’s work.
5 Worst: Diamond Dallas Page
One of the last feuds for Ric Flair in WCW came against a heel Diamond Dallas Page character in 1999. Things started to escalate when Page had a few brutal attacks on Ric’s son David Flair to create a bigger storyline with all parties.
Ric tried to make a move on DDP’s wife Kimberly Page to make it more personal. Most of the segments and matches would see disappointing television. WCW was at the point of no return where even an angle between two legends would miss the mark.
4 Best: Ricky Steamboat
The legendary matches between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat still get treated with respect and admiration today. Steamboat leaving WWE for WCW allowed him to get a main event run along with more times to succeed.
Flair and Steamboat had a few classic matches that saw them keep fans invested into the longer main events. The art of wrestling was on display with these masterpieces. Even though WWE was the top promotion, WCW started to break out due to having matches like this.
3 Worst: Bret Hart
The first feud for Bret Hart in WCW came against Ric Flair in early 1998. It seemed like a great idea on paper to have two of the all-time great in-ring workers facing off. WCW didn’t treat it like a big deal and even had a lackluster Randy Savage vs Lex Luger match main event over it.
Flair and Hart used to have issues with each other’s wrestling style in the 90s, leading to public interviews criticizing each other. Part of the reason for this was that they just didn’t have much chemistry in the ring. Their WCW feud saw Bret losing a lot of momentum after coming in following the Montreal Screwjob.
2 Best: Sting
Ric Flair and Sting will always see their careers linked together for the work they put out. Both icons helped make WCW a thriving promotion in the late 80s and early 90s. Flair’s credibility helped make Sting look like a huge star when the two faced off for their first angle.
Sting would challenge Flair many more times throughout WCW’s history with fans always showing interest. WWE went out of their way to ensure that Flair vs Sting was the final match in WCW history when gaining control due to having respect for the two legends.
1 Worst: Curt Hennig
The idea of Ric Flair and Curt Hennig having a long feud seemed perfect on paper, but the execution missed the mark. Hennig looked at his best in WCW when joining Flair in the Four Horsemen by accepting Arn Anderson’s spot after retirement.
The time in the stable ended after a few weeks with Hennig turning on Flair to join the New World Order. It led to Flair and Henning having a feud that lasted many months. Despite both men being all-time great workers, their matches were just fine and hurt Flair’s star power for always taking the big losses.