Major Story on How the Flair Retirement Angle Came About
From: Wrestleattitude.com
During WrestleMania weekend last year, Steve Austin pitched a retirement angle for Ric Flair to Vince McMahon. Although the story line that WWE eventually went with has some similarities, Austin’s version of the story line called for Flair to grow frustrated with a big loss or a losing streak and then place the retirement stipulation on himself.
Austin’s version of the story called for Flair to go on a big winning streak that would conclude at WrestleMania 24, but he did not have an opponent in mind for Flair’s final match. He also did not pitch himself as being involved in any part of the story line. Austin made a few additional suggestions, but he primarily came up with the general idea and did not have a detailed idea for pay-per-view matches or feuds.
McMahon loved the idea. He was initially very excited about it and instructed Raw head writer Brian Gewirtz to get started on it immediately.
Unfortunately, Gewirtz is not a Flair fan. He grew up a fan of the old WWF product and never developed an appreciation for Flair’s work during his formative years. Gewirtz pushed the project to the back burner until Austin contacted McMahon and asked for an update. Vince checked with Gewirtz and was upset when he learned that the project hadn’t received much attention, because it embarrassed him with Austin when he had to pass along an update.
It’s also worth noting that Gewirtz and Austin do not have a good rapport, which led to speculation within the company that Gewirtz was in no rush to put the story line in motion because it was Austin’s idea.
The angle became completely derailed when Flair left the company out of frustration with his push and being moved to Smackdown. One source speculates that Flair may have been told about the angle in the early stages and may have been frustrated because the story line had not been launched by the time he went on hiatus.
Labels: brian gewirtz, ric flair, steve austin, vince mcmahon
