15 Times Ric Flair Went Too Far
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Ric Flair is a former 16-time World Champion in WWE, he is the only two-time Hall of Famer in the history of the company, and it seems that when it comes to retirement, Flair just can't seem to give up the only sport he has ever had a passion for.
Flair has even managed to play his part in his daughter Charlotte's incredible career over the past few years since he once worked as her manager and has always been on hand to help out the former Raw Women's Champion whenever he has been needed.
Flair hasn't been seen on WWE TV over the past year ever since his daughter decided that she no longer needed his assistance, but Flair has been struggling with a number of health issues in recent weeks after it was revealed that Flair has been taken into hospital a few weeks ago. The WWE Universe has been praying for Flair's recovery and it seems that The Dirtiest Player In The Game's most recent update on his condition is promising.
Ric's name is synonymous with WWE and he will always be seen as one of the biggest legends in the company, but there are some instances where even Ric Flair stepped over the limit of what was socially deemed to be acceptable.
The following list looks at just 15 of the times that The Styling and Profiling Superstar was seen to have gone too far by the WWE Universe and the reasons why this was seen as unacceptable.
Ric Flair And Elizabeth Harrell: "Cruel And Barbarous"
Ric hasn't had the best of luck when it comes to his personal life, being married and divorced four times over the past few years, and a number of those divorce settlements have revealed the kind of man that Flair really is behind closed doors.
It was his divorce from Elizabeth Harrell back in 2006 that revealed the most about Flair when she accused Flair of "cruel and barbarous treatment." These claims later went into detail and claimed that Flair had abandoned his family, slapped, kicked and choked her, verbally and physically abused her as well as exposing his genitalia to her friends, to the public and even to complete strangers. She also claimed that his use of prescription drugs and alcohol often led to bouts of violence and rage and on more than one occasion actually forced her to have sex with him. The divorce finally reached a settlement after the couple went back and forth with their accusations for a number of months.
Ric Flair And Becky Lynch
Back at The Royal Rumble in 2016, Ric Flair was still managing his daughter Charlotte as she continued to successfully defend her Divas Championship. Charlotte took on fellow Four Horsewoman Becky Lynch in the first pay-per-view event of the year and once again her father had to help her to retain her Championship.
Becky seemingly had the upper-hand at one point in the match and while she was on the outside Flair decided to add his own unique version of a distraction when he grabbed Becky and kissed her. It was seen as one of the creepiest things that Flair had ever done to help his daughter. He later threw his jacket into the ring and this distraction led to Charlotte hitting a spear and retaining her Championship, something that became a regular thing while Ric was at ringside helping his daughter before she decided to turn on him as well.
Ric's Public Brawl With His Daughter's Boyfriend
There are a number of lengthy records when it comes to Ric's brushes with the police over the past few decades, but one of the most interesting occasions where Flair was arrested was back in 2008. His daughter Ashley, who is known to the WWE Universe as Charlotte, was dating Riki Johnson at the time, a man she would go on to marry, but it seems that he and Flair had something of an altercation.
Flair and Johnson got into a fistfight outside a nightclub and had to be split up by police. Ashley was obviously present at the time and was also arrested, but she was arrested because she decided to kick one of the police officers who was trying to split up the fight between her boyfriend and father. It seems that Ric hasn't been setting the greatest of examples for his children over the past few years.
The Plane Ride From Hell
The plane ride from hell has become one of the best-known stories in wrestling history, but while many of the WWE Universe is focused on the details that included Brock Lesnar and the reason Mr. Perfect was released from WWE, it seems that Ric Flair played quite a big role in the events as well.
Flair was reported to have walked around the plane wearing just his robe and flashed himself at the stewardesses on the flight. He was also said to have forced the women to put their hands on his crotch, while detaining one of them in the back gallery of the airplane while he sexually assaulted her. Both women filed lawsuits against Flair following the incident that sent shockwaves through WWE. The case was later settled between the women and WWE out of court even though Flair claimed that all of the allegations against him were false.
Ric's Fist Fight With His Own Son
Ric never had a great relationship with his son Reid, who was training to be a wrestler just like his father, but one of the biggest stories when it comes to the father-son relationship between Flair and Reid was the fact that the duo apparently got into a full blown fist fight at a friend's wedding reception.
There are also reports that Flair once passed out after he attacked his youngest son because his son had pushed his mother out of an elevator and broke her arm. Flair once sported a black eye for a family photo as well after an altercation with his son and even though it is reported that Reid and Flair managed to patch up their differences before his death in 2013, it is thought that Flair now regrets a lot of the physicality that he opened his children up to when they were much younger.
The 2k14 Panel
Ric Flair likes to drink, so much so that he made it part of his character to love to party but it seems that this could be one of his downfalls and actually managed to get him into a lot of trouble with WWE officials when he attended the panel for WWE 2K14 back in 2013 while he was drunk.
Flair seemingly took over the panel and began to tell stories about wrestlers who weren't even there, he talked to Mick Foley about their match in TNA as well as ripping the likes of Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart because Hulk had too many back surgeries and Bret refused to take his chops. He then got really emotional about his son Reid Flair who had only recently died at the time and basically told Daniel Bryan that he didn't belong on the panel with the legends like Steve Austin and Jim Ross.
Taking His Own Son To A Strip Club
It's probably not the kind of activity that jumps into your mind when you think of ways for fathers and sons to bond, but it seems that Ric decided that he and Reid should take a trip to a strip club and he even brought his son alcohol while he was there, at which point it was questionable as to whether or not he was old enough to drink at the time.
Elizabeth brought this up as part of their divorce proceedings making it clear that Flair had problems when it came to his parenting skills. Add this to the regular fist fights that he had with Reid and the fact that he even managed to get into a punch up with Ashley's boyfriend and you have to kind of agree with Elizabeth that Ric's parenting skills are definitely on the verge of being what normal people would consider to be at least questionable.
When He Got Jim Ross Fired
As already mentioned, Ric Flair turned up to the WWE2k14 event drunk and managed to make the show much more interesting when he decided to talk about whatever he wanted and even mentioned TNA, which WWE officials would not have been happy about.
Shockingly though, it wasn't Ric Flair who faced punishment for the events that unfolded on this day, it was Jim Ross. Because Ric Flair made comments about John Cena being "a hardcore drinker" and a number of other accusations throughout, the sponsors were not happy about the event and WWE then took this out on JR who they thought, as the host, should have stepped in and managed to restrain Flair in some way. WWE decided not to renew Ross's contract after this and he was effectively fired from the company for something that he had absolutely no control over. Luckily it seems that WWE and Ross have recently managed to patch things up.
"No Hair, No Flair"
There are many stories about Ric Flair and his early career in WWE where he would literally be the man seen on screen in real life. These stories also talk about the fact that Flair obviously had very little respect for women in those days as well because he thought it was acceptable to approach waitresses and stewardesses who were complete strangers to him and lift up their skirts before proclaiming: "Just checking baby! You know what they say: No Hair, No Flair! Whoo!"
Missy Hyatt backed up many of these stories stating that Flair would expose himself to women for no reason and think it was ok to sexually harass them as well. There are also stories of a drunk Flair approaching women and shouting about how much he wanted them, which must have been a sight to see. It seems that Ric really did enjoy his early days as a star.
Real Life Feuds
Over the course of his career, Ric Flair managed to have more real life feuds than anyone in the history of the company. It seems that he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and went on lengthy rants about the likes of Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Shane Douglas, Mick Foley, and Bret Hart in the years that followed.
It seems that most of these problems were put behind him and he managed to reconcile with some of his former rivals while he was still contracted to WWE, but one of the rivalries that stands out would be the one with Bret Hart where he actually accused Bret of exploiting Owen Hart's death in his autobiography, which many of the WWE Universe thought was a step too far. Bret and Ric did manage to work out their differences in the end, but it was seemingly a deeply personal issue between them.
Flair And His Money Problems
You would think that someone who had been part of the wrestling business for as long as Ric Flair would have a lot of money saved up in the bank, it seems that the four divorces and many IRS problems that Ric has had over the years have mounted up to the point where Flair has become well-known for his debt.
One of Flair's biggest problems could be the fact that he would spend so much money on clothes and more than $8,000 on his designer robes that he later became infamous for. Flair would have been able to retire from wrestling completely a number of years ago if it wasn't for his mounting debts and tax bills. It seems that the dirtiest player in the game wasn't the smartest player in the game when it came to spending his money wisely when he was younger.
Purposely Holding Back Other Wrestlers
The wrestling business is about politics, it seems that Flair knew this and he liked to always ensure that everything worked out in his favor. That's why many stars have commented on their hatred of Flair over the past few years and the fact that he purposely did things in matches with them to ensure that they wouldn't be pushed above him.
Scott Steiner was a star who hated Flair because he faced him in a one-on-one match and many stars pointed out that Flair was purposely doing things in the ring like sandbagging him to make him look weak and to effect his singles push. Bret Hart even commented in his autobiography that Flair did the same thing to him in his first singles title run. It was seemingly the norm for Flair to make other wrestlers look bad and this is the reason why he was so disliked in the WWE locker room.
Does Ric Flair Have Another Daughter?
It is quite well-known that Flair has four children, Megan and David from is first marriage to Leslie Goodman and Reid and Ashley from his marriage to Elizabeth Harrell. But it seems that a woman called DeAnn Siden went on to claim that the daughter she gave birth to in 1992 was also Ric Flair's.
Siden apparently began stalking Flair in 1990 and would follow him from city to city, trying to contact him and even alleged that the duo had an affair. Flair was later granted a restraining order against her. Siden has always claimed that her daughter that she called Tiffany was Ric's and this claim has never been proved to be false. Siden did go on to stalk current Raw General Manager Kurt Angle a few years later though, so perhaps her word isn't the most factual piece of evidence in this case, even though Tiffany's father is still yet to be revealed more than 20 years later.
Ric Flair And Ring Of Honor
Ric Flair retired from WWE following his impressive WrestleMania bout with Shawn Michaels. There was a touching tribute to Ric on the episode of Raw that followed and it was thought that he would finally be allowed to enjoy his retirement.
Flair obviously had such a passion for the business that he couldn't just walk away and so instead he decided to move over to TNA and Ring of Honor. While Flair was with ROH he apparently caused a lot of problems. Flair was seen as an Ambassador of ROH and he not only failed to show for a number of appearances but at one point even walked out of a show part way through. ROH owner Cary Silkin attempted to sue Flair for the $41,000 that he had earned and not appeared for. The lawsuit was eventually dropped when Ring of Honor was sold to new owners, but it seems that Silkin still holds a grudge.
Road Rage
Ric Flair has been reported to have had a number of incidents outside of the WWE ring where he seems to think it is acceptable to get into fights with civilians. One of these events was back in December 2005 when Flair was alleged to have gotten out of his car, grabbed a motorist by the neck and then kicked the door off his vehicle.
This scene was later parodied on WWE TV by former WWE Champion Edge while the duo was enrolled in a feud, but Flair himself was charged for the incident. He was charged with assault and battery as well as injury to personal property. It is unknown why the incident itself actually occurred and what the motorist did to anger Ric to the extent where he felt the need to physically attack him, but it seems that all parties managed to move on following the whole affair.
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