Ric Flair's Son Reid Dead at 25

Shocking and sad news to report today as Ric Flair's 25 year old son Reid was found dead this

morning at the age of 25.  Reid is known to many wrestling fans for being involved on WCW Nitro in the late 90s as a kid at his dad's side.  Reid had since become a pro wrestler himself and was actively competing on the independent scene as well as in Japan.

There are no details as of yet on Reid Flair's cause death as of this writing, and we are all in hopes there is no connection to his 2009 arrest for drug possession therefore we won't speculate.

Reid was always talked about as a great amateur who had the ability to make it in pro wrestling, unlike his brother David who obviously didn't inherit his father's skill.  Reid debuted in 2008 in a much talked about match where he teamed with his brother against the Nasty Boys, with very special referee Hulk Hogan.  Since then it had been expected that it was only a matter of time before Reid popped up in TNA or WWE. 

This is without a doubt a devastating day for Ric Flair who as we all have seen is always highly emotional about his family.  Our condolences are with the Nature Boy as are those of the entire wrestling community.  Below is a match featuring Reid Flair from Japan that happened less than 2 weeks ago, and shows what a promising young talent he was.

 

Who will topple Immortal?

In the past few months, since their formation at last October's "Bound for Glory" PPV, Immortal has dominated TNA both in and out of the ring. Despite Mr Anderson's unexpected world title triumph over "The Anti-Christ" Jeff Hardy at this month's "Genesis" PPV, the huge heel stable holds the TV, Tag Team and X Division belts.

With most of TNA's gold around the waists of Immortal and with Bischoff stacking the odds against Mr Anderson, in order to ensure a speedy transition of the World Title back to Jeff Hardy, who will rise up and topple the despotic supergroup?

The first option I would instigate to garner fan interest would be to have cracks emerge between Hogan's boys (Bischoff, the Hardy Brothers, Jeff Jarrett, Abyss) and Flair's Fortune (AJ Styles, Kaz, Beer Money). With Fortune now holding all of Immortal's gold and with Styles clearly begging for a chance to be the "top dog" in the company once more, a division would be easy to accomplish storyline wise and could be further fuelled by Flair and Hogan's long standing bad blood. This option would accomplish many things in TNA: elevating Fortune to be THE dominant group in the company; prove the younger guys have the edge on the relative veterans of Immortal; and a great way to remove Hogan/Bischoff from the company (at least from an on-screen role).

The second option I could see TNA more likely to go with would be the return of another powerful group: Main Event Mafia. With the brilliant storyline that is straying between real life/fiction between Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett, TNA seems to be edging towards a full blown war between Angle and Jarrett's "security blanket" Immortal. As Kurt is heavily outgunned at the moment, it would make sense for him to call on people he trusts to have his back and assist in the destruction of Jarrett/Immortal. Who better to fit this criteria than Scott Steiner, Sting, Booker T, Kevin Nash (?) and maybe even Samoa Joe? With this option TNA does run the risk of undermining the abilities of its younger stars like Styles, Matt Morgan and the MCMG, but the stable battle would be extremely entertaining and could open the door for Samoa Joe to return to the main event scene and even for Fortune to assist in Immortal's downfall, maybe at this year's "Lockdown".

One thing about the Immortal formation however, is that TNA has given itself a plethora of story strands it could choose and a mulitude of "dream" matches/mic showdowns that could occur (Steiner/Flair "shoot" promo anyone?!).

Can Shawn Michaels and Batista Be the Best WWE Feud in Years?

Coming off the HUGE Wrestlemania 24 week, and probably the single best moment on RAW ever with Ric Flair's retirement ceremony, WWE has a much needed shot in the arm, that will maybe at least temporarily bring back some interest in WWE, which has failed miserably in the past year at least in my eyes, besides a few bright points. The Ric Flair Hall of Fame induction was great, his match at Wrestlemania with Shawn Michaels was great, and the RAW ceremony was top notch....but that leaves 1 big problem, Ric Flair is now gone, and him being gone takes away a top level wrestler, and maybe the most interesting storyline WWE had going, which was Flairs "Career threatening match" angle. One thing that caught my interest, for NO real reason, but it just caught my attention, was on RAW when Michaels was walking backstage, and looked over his shoulder, to see Batista staring him down. Now HBK has been pretty bland for quite awhile now, and Batista has been very boring as well in my eyes, up to his meaningless match with Umaga at Mania. But something ignited in the few seconds where Batista gave a cold stare to Michaels. Maybe it was the fact that it was a real STORY, and a GOOD story. Batista considers Flair a mentor, much like Michaels, and is in SHOCK that Michaels could be the guy to end Flair's career...makes perfect sense. Then during the ceremony, Michaels comes out, and we get just a SMALL little hint as the camera pans to Batista, who's in the ring, once again staring down Michaels JUST for a brief second before the camera pans away, but it's all just subtle hints, rather than the HORRIBLY TIRED method of "Wrestle A goes to ring, Wrestler B comes out, a challenge is made, and a match is set for "X" event."

Then tonight on Smackdown, the feud was set in motion, as HBK came out to do another sad interview about Flair.....until Batista's music hit, and he hit the ring with a purpose. Now in the Evolution days, I think Batista was a bad son of a bitch, and tonight, that was the Batista I saw once again. When he turned into the guy that was more about shooting guns during his entrance, and pumping up the crowd, he lost his purpose in my eyes. But tonight, we saw the Evolution Batista, who looked like he wanted to kill someone, and was sporting a sleeveless black shirt, which suited his gimmick and personality a LOT better than his suit look, went face to face with Batista, who was sporting some sort of sport coat over a tank top look....hmm, these 2 looked about as opposite as it gets. Anyway, Batista cut the most believable and realistic interview he's ever done....pointing out that all Michaels had to do was lay down, this ONE time, and Flair would still be here, but Michaels ego got in the way. And in a WELCOME return of REALITY to WWE, Michaels claimed that "he had a job to do, I did it".....then Batista shot back with "You had a job to do, and you DIDN'T do it......because you don't do "jobs." Wow, a shoot reference on WWE TV, its been years. Just kind of one of those things, if you're in the know, then cool, you get it, and gives the angle a LOT of heat when they walk the line of reality by throwing a term like that in. Batista really made HBK come off as an asshole who could have kept Flair in wrestling. It's a great story that fans can take in, then choose their own path as to who's side their on. No need to have a forced "good guy" and "bad guy" here. Just simply, do you agree with Batista? That Michaels could have laid down ONE time to save Flair, or do you agree with Michaels, that he did what Flair wanted, plain and simple. The other factor here is that I don't recall a Michaels-Batista program ever....which is a rarity, in today's wrestling where every guy has feuded with every other guy at LEAST once, and they've had at least 4-5 PPV matches.

I'm going to enjoy following this feud, as it takes me back to the good 'ol days of STORIES driving wrestling. Guys feuding over a specific incident or reason, not just a guy hating another because he has a belt. I think belts are great, they really drive the competition aspect of wrestling, but the stories have a huge place as well, and I think this feud will catapult both guys out of their stagnant phase, and will hopefully deliver a story that will give us tons of entertainment, and I believe Shawn Michaels can pull some great matches out Batista, and improve his skills greatly. Two thumbs up to WWE for the entire past weeks events, I'm enjoying the product for the time being, and look forward to having a renewed interest in both Shawn Michaels and Batista!

Heat and RAW Spoilers for 12/31/07

RAW and Heat Spoilers

Dark Match:

Brian Kendrick vs "The Natural" Nick Nameth w/ ???
Nick come out with some muscular dude that I did not reckonize and I couldnt catch his name. Brian Kendrick wins with a Small Package. Im still wondering who Paul London pissed off, he hasnt been seen on TV in a long while.

Heat Matches:

Snisky vs Super Crazy
Snisky wins with a pumphandle slam, typical jobber match.

D.H. Smith vs Jobber
D.H. Smith wins with a Back Suplex.

Charlie Haas vs Drew McEntyre
Drew wins with a Northern Lights Suplex. Charlie Haas has a new gimmick where he goes under the ring and puts on a luchadore mask for some reason.

RAW:
No Opening Pyro
RAW starts off with Randy Orton in the ring talking about how 2007 is the best year of his career and how 2008 will be even better. Jeff Hardy comes out to shut him up and cuts a pretty decent promo. Orton tries to give Jeff an RKO but Jeff reverses it into a Twist of Fate.

Backstage Segment
Matt and Jeff Hardy talking about how Jeff is going to win at the Rumble and when he does he will give Matt the first title match.

Kennedy vs HBK
Kennedy wins after he reverses the Superkick into a Complete Shot, or as I like to call it, the Kenplete Shot.

Backstage Segment
Vince makes a match for later, Regal vs Hornswoggle.

Umaga vs Hacksaw - Royal Rumble Qualifier
Umaga win in 2 mintues after the Samoan Spike

Backstage Segment
HHH is interviewed by Todd Grisham, Vince interupts and says if HHH loses in any way, he will not be in the Royal Rumble match.

JBL Returns
He comes to the ring and three HUGE sets of pryo goes off after he gets into the ring. He cuts a promo on how he is better and richer than everyone, Jericho interrupts and they have a good old fashioned brawl.

Mickie James vs Melina vs Beth Phoenix - Womens Title Match
Beth retains after giving Melina the Fishermans suplex.

Jeff Hardy vs Santino Marella w/ Maria and Carlito
Match ends in a No Contest after Randy Orton comes on the Titantron from backstage, he shows Jeff that he has beaten up Matt, and then gives Matt the concussion kick.

Backstage Segment
Jeff rushes to his brother side, and Orton has run from sight.

Hornswoggle vs William Regal
The match ends in a no contest after Vince hands Regal his brass knucks, but he cant hit Hornswoggle. Vince barraids Regal in the ring and Regal just walks away.

Backstage Segment
HHH and Flair have a discussion about their upcoming match.

HHH vs Ric Flair
Ric Flair wins via DQ after Regal comes down and punches Flair after HHH pedigrees the Nature Boy.

Biggest Pops
1. Ric Flair
2. Jeff Hardy
3. Chris Jericho

Biggest Heat
1. JBL
2. Randy Orton
3. HHH (While Attacking Flair in their match)

Ric Flair sues Car Dealership!

According to a lawsuit filed in federal court, which you can read here, Freedom Suzuki is using a character named Captain Freedom, who bears a resemblance to Flair (real name Richard Fliehr) and even mentions him by name. The character uses two of Flair's signature slogans -- "Whoeee!" (which sounds like his "Woooo!") and "to be the man, you have to beat the man." Flair has been using those lines both in and out of the ring for years.

The lawsuit goes on to say that the company approached Flair earlier this year about a deal to use his name and likeness in advertising, but an agreement was never reached -- and Flair never agreed to have his name or image used. Flair is now asking for the dealership to pull the ads and is seeking unspecified damages.

Timothy St. Clair, a lawyer for dealership, tells reporters, "The complaint was just filed Thursday and we are reviewing it and we will respond on the merits in the lawsuit."

Newswire: Booker T to stay with WWE, Trish Stratus Returning?, Ric Flair/Nascar Incident

Sources: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, PWInsider.com

- Despite speculation over the past month, the word going around backstage in WWE is that King Booker will be back with the company after he serves his sixty day suspension. As of the time of this writing, Booker has not accepted any outside bookings and is able too since he does not have a new WWE contract in place. We are, however, able to confirm that Booker is in the process of negotiating a new contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.

- The official WWE web site has a “where are they now” interview with former WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus. In the interview Trish reveals that it was Paul Heyman that recommended her to the producers of “Armed and Famous”, the reality show that aired on CBS where celebrities became police officers in Indiana. WWE.com is teasing a third part to the interview where she will discuss a potential return to the company. While that is the teaser for the interview it is highly unlikely that she’ll end up back in WWE anytime soon.

- NASCAR drivers Kyle Petty and Denny Hamlin got into an altercation over the weekend at the Dover International Speedway in Delaware. The Associated Press covered the squabble and wrote, "With all the finger pointing and trash talking, it's too bad Ric Flair didn't stick around after his Busch Series appearance a day earlier to watch this skirmish."

WWE: Ric Flair says he's still an employee, never left, and wants to retire in a year!

The following article appeared in the Long Island Press:

Ric Flair didn't say he's back with World Wrestling Entertainment.

According to the 16-time World Heavyweight Champion, he never left.

On Saturday, Flair was at Dover International Speedway as a guest of Roadloans.com, the title sponsor for the day's NASCAR Busch Series race.

During a press conference, Flair announced that he is working a limited schedule with WWE, and never gave notice that he was leaving the company.

"Those reports were totally incorrect," said Flair.

But curiously, the press release from the track that preceded Flair's appearances described him as "currently retired" from the wrestling business.

Flair spoke in glowing terms about WWE, noting that Chairman Vince McMahon could run NASCAR if he had a month to get up to speed. Those comments stand in stark contrast to Internet rumors that he was leaving the company due to dissatisfaction with the storylines he's been offered.

Flair did say that he plans to retire from wrestling within the next year, as he wants to spend more time with his family, including playing with his kids.

"I have a new, beautiful young wife. She's very rewarding. I like playing with her, too," Flair said of wife Tiffany, who was sitting 20 feet away. Flair's quip was one of many that had the media in stitches.

Fans hope Flair's WWE work can be similarly entertaining as he winds up his career. But Flair added that he has been given no assurances about creative direction.

"They don't do that," Flair said of WWE. "And I wouldn't expect them to. I've earned the right to retire on my own terms, but I don't see myself as bigger than the WWE. If it works into a storyline that works with the program, then I'm happy with it. If not, we just walk away one day and say goodbye."

That said, Flair has an idea of how he would like things to go.

"If I could write that script, I would just say that I would be in a marquee position...I would like to wrestle a marquee guy, a big name, in my last match," Flair said. "Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, John Cena...I would love to wrestle in a marquee position in a marquee match and just have my finest hour."