[.ca] WWE: Ric Flair Ultimate Collection

wow:
All I can say is WOW. 3 DVDs a lot of good matches and promos. If you're not sure about buying it....hey it's Ric Flair!! Even if you don't like the guy is one of the best of all-time. Younger fans will get the idea of the matches in the 80s too.

Stylin' and profilin' with almost 11 hours of great memories:
In the long, proud annals of professional wrestling, one name stands alone. One man walked that aisle thousands of times to give the fans, whether they loved him or hated him, everything he had. One man fought them all and beat them all. One man could stay all night, and stay a little longer, take all the ladies for rides on Space Mountain and then make them cry, and still get in that ring night in and night out and be the man. When you say "Champ," you can only be referring to the 16-time heavyweight champion of the world, the Nature Boy Ric Flair. This is a fantastic collection that all Ric Flair fans must own. Three DVDs is not enough to even begin to cover his illustrious career, of course, so every fan will have loads of matches that are not included in this collection. Still, there's a ton of great stuff here, 11 hours worth of wrestling matches, interviews, and classic Flair moments. From his first televised match to his final appearances on Nitro and Raw, this is a wonderful tribute to a man who meant more to his sport than any other athlete ever will. I was fortunate enough to grow up right here in Ric Flair country - I have many wonderful memories of the old NWA days with Ric, Valentine, the Andersons, Steamboat, and all the other greats. Ric Flair was unique, maintaining a core set of fans regardless of whether he was a good guy or a bad guy. When it comes to being bad, of course, he was the best - the dirtiest player in the game. All those fans up north thought Hulk Hogan was the man, but that was only because they didn't get a chance to really see Flair until the advent of cable television. I'll admit Hogan and his kind are big and bad, but they aren't really wrestlers in the true sense of the word. Flair knew how to wrestle, and that made him the ultimate paragon of wrestling tradition. So what all do you get here? You get Flair's emotional, hard-fought victory over Harley Race at Starrcade '83 (this was back in the day when bleeding was not only allowed, it was encouraged) - this is one of the longest, most physical matches I've ever seen. You get two of Flair's fights against former Four Horseman Barry Windham, as well. Then there's Dusty Rhodes, the American Dream; he and Flair had a heated rivalry back in the '80s. Now you can relive some of that belligerent fun with Flair's matchup against Rhodes in Starrcade '85. Best of all, though, is the footage of the Four Horsemen breaking Dusty's ankle after Dusty came into the steel cage to help Flair after a match. It's one of my favorite wrestling memories of all time, and now I can relive the fun of Dusty's agony over and over again. Moving on to Disc 2, the main focus is on Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat was right there supporting Ric after he beat Harley Race in '83, but there was no love lost between these two incredible competitors a few short years later. You get two Flair-Steamboat matchups in this collection: Clash of the Champions VI (2 out of 3 falls) and WrestleWar 1989. Flair's fight against the despicable Terry Funk at Clash of the Champions IX closes out the disc. Disc 3 is truly special. First off, you get to watch Flair do the impossible at the WWF 1992 Royal Rumble: outlast the best wrestlers in WWF for an incredible 62 minutes, having been the third man to enter the ring. Bobby Heenan is beside himself throughout the entire match because no one had ever even thought of the third man in a rumble actually winning the group melee. That night, Flair showed WWF what many of us already knew - the Nature Boy was the greatest wrestler the world will ever see. You also get Flair's matchup against Sting, the man he considers his toughest opponent of them all, at Clash of the Champions XXVII. Then, after watching Flair bid farewell to WCW Monday Nitro, you get to see Flair's final moment in the sun as he takes on Triple HHH, live on Raw, for the world championship belt. Flair shows the world what a 54-year-old man can do. After the show went off the air, the crowd got to witness a very special tribute to the Nature Boy - the respect they show this greatest of all champions is incredibly moving, especially for those of us who grew up watching and supporting Ric Flair. I haven't even mentioned all of the extras and Easter eggs - there are tons of them. Ric talks about the plane crash that almost killed him early in his career, his opponents, and his career; there are a number of vintage interviews with Flair going back all the way to the mid-70s, there are pre- and post-match interviews for most of the matches included in the collection, and there is even the tape of Ric Flair's first televised wrestling match back on March 1, 1976 against Pete Sanchez in Madison Square Garden. Whatever you think of Vince McMahon and WWE, it is important to know that McMahon allowed Flair to go out in style. Eric Bischoff and WCW treated Flair horribly in the later years of his career, despite the fact that Ric Flair essentially was WCW. We would have none of the tributes included on this collection (heck, we wouldn't even have this Ultimate Ric Flair Collection) were it not for McMahon's efforts to treat the Nature Boy like the champion he was.