Ric Flair's Horrible Tenure With TNA Wrestling, Explained
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After thrilling fans for decades, Ric Flair would officially retire from wrestling at WrestleMania XXIV after being defeated by Shawn Michaels in a marquee match with Flair's career on the line. After sporadically appearing for WWE afterwards, The Nature Boy took some time to appear in Ring of Honor during 2009, before briefly returning to WWE in order to be punt kicked by Randy Orton. After screwing ROH out of a decent chunk of change, Flair moved onto his next venture, as he signed with TNA, debuting for the company in 2010 as TNA hoped to become true competition for WWE. How would Ric Flair's time in TNA go? Not great, to put it lightly.
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Ric Flair's Arrival In TNA Was A Messy One
After returning to WWE in 2001, Ric Flair remained with the company past his retirement in 2008 before officially making his final appearance in 2009, ending an 8-year stint with Vince McMahon. Following his retirement, things would get a bit messy, as Ric debuted in Ring of Honor with the goal of getting his son, Reid Flair, signed with the indie promotion. The Nature Boy served as an on-screen authority figure, getting paid $35,000 up front for his role, with $10,000 per appearance, a big chunk of change for the niche promotion. Shortly into his run with ROH, Flair would ghost the company in favor of returning to WWE TV briefly during the Summer of 2009, ending his run with Ring of Honor and picking up a lawsuit from the company.
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Following Flair's return to WWE in 2009, he would then, according to himself, wait around to be called back full-time by Vince. That day never came, and instead, he took part in Hulk Hogan's Hulkamania World Tour, coming out of retirement for a number of matches. Flair opted to sign with TNA in 2010 because he said he was tired of waiting for WWE to call him. On January 4, 2010, Ric Flair made his on-screen debut for the company, arriving during a main event between AJ Styles and Kurt Angle.
Ric Flair Created A Faction Called Fortune, A New Generation Of The Four Horsemen
Shortly after his debut with TNA, Flair fully aligned with AJ Styles, as during the Genesis PPV that year, Flair cheated to help AJ Styles retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Kurt Angle. After this, Ric Flair also began working with a number of other stars on the TNA roster, serving as a manager for Beer Money, James Storm and Robert Roode, and Desmond Wolfe, known by many fans as Nigel McGuinness. During that year's Lockdown event, Flair wrestled his first match for TNA, with Team Flair taking on Team Hogan, though Flair's unit would be defeated.
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Things would get somewhat crazy from there, as Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair literally put their WWE Hall of Fame Rings on the line in a match with Ric Flair taking on Abyss. The Nature Boy would be defeated by Abyss, with him losing his WWE Hall of Fame Ring in storyline. After AJ Styles failed to get the ring back, Flair introduced Kazarian as his new protégé. Weeks later, Ric officially debuted his new stable, dubbing the group Fortune as they would be the next generation of the Four Horsemen. The group consisted of Ric Flair, AJ Styles, Kazarian, James Storm, Robert Roode, Douglas Williams, Matt Morgan, and Desmond Wolfe.
Ric Flair's TNA Run Had Bad Booking, A Strange Finale, & Contract Tampering
Fortune would be a memorable group in TNA's history, though the booking went off the rails as the group eventually aligned with another heel faction, Immortal, led by Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. During a European tour, Flair and TNA got into a dispute over money, though things would be hashed out. Unfortunately, Flair suffered a torn rotator cuff during the tour, putting him on the shelf for some time. Upon his return, Fortune turned on Immortal, and Flair himself would later turn on Fortune to join Immortal, just making a mess of a storyline.
Flair continued to wrestle in TNA, picking up a number of injuries that he chose to ignore for sometime before facing Sting in 2011. During that match, Flair tore his triceps. Shortly after, Flair asked for his contract to be terminated, with TNA filing a lawsuit for Contract Tampering against WWE. Flair would be fired, stating that he was fully retired. He then returned to WWE at the end of 2012, ending his strange career with TNA.
