Who Is Better? Shawn Michaels or Ric Flair - January 28, 2011

Who is the greatest in ring performer ever? There are so many names that could be thrown in that and everyone has their opinions. I want to discuss and debate two names. Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair. For decades, Flair's name has been mentioned as the greatest ever. When you look at rankings such as these kind of deals, eras and time are often used to compare this. I know I am biased but I really feel that Shawn has jumped over Flair in this category. How do you compare these two? Do you compare them in the prime of their careers? Overall careers? This is an interesting topic that I've wanted to type for a List for probably a year now. Let's look at Flair first. Keep in mind that a lot of Flair's stuff is not out there as far as his early career. Flair boomed huge in the 80's. He had legendary matches and feuds with so many people in that era including Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Terry Funk, Harley Race, and the list goes on and on. When I look at Flair's career, I look at 1989 as his best year in wrestling. He had an incredible year. The three match series with Steamboat which has went down as some of the greatest matches of all time. From there, the face turn against Terry Funk which main evented what many consider to be the best NWA/WCW PPV of all time, the Great American Bash 1989. The Flair/Funk feud brought Sting and Muta into the equation. The 90's had Flair continue his greatness over to WWF and also back to WCW. He had rivalries with Sting, Luger, Piper, Hogan, and more in that decade. When you get the 2000 era, Flair had some great matches but started to fall off. He did have some very entertaining matches in this era upon his early WWE run including Undertaker and even a match with McMahon. Flair got the great sendoff after WrestleMania against Shawn Michaels. Financial troubles have plagued Flair putting him back in the ring in TNA. Has the fact that Flair stuck around too long hurt his legacy? I absolutely think so. Let's flip the coin and look at Shawn Michaels. Flair's potentially last match was against Shawn and Shawn was that go to guy determined to bring the best out of Flair for that last match. Shawn has had the opposite sendoff so far. Shawn had his plan in place on when to bow out. He had his last match and gave it all he had and then said that's it. Shawn has not backed off his statements of that he is done in the ring. Shawn now has had a great sendoff as well and another upcoming with the Hall Of Fame. Shawn's career has seen him in all sorts of different roles. Tag team wrestler, mid card show stealer, and on up to the main event. Shawn has always been the guy that you knew was going to steal that show. As a tag team star with Marty Jannetty, the two were often put toward the end of the cards knowing that the show would close strong with them in the match. The 90's saw Shawn launch to the top level. Was he a pain to deal with at times? Of course. He fully admits it. However, the comeback of Shawn's from 2002 to 2010 puts him in a whole different level. He proved himself to not just be a great wrestler but to be one of, if not the, greatest of all time. Remember that Shawn came back in 2002 after a four year layoff and wrestled an insane match where it looked like he had never left. WrestleMania 14 in his final match before his then retirement in 1998 is still one of the gutsiest performances that I've ever seen in my life. Shawn was the guy that you knew could have a good match with anyone. I saw Shawn matched up with Khali one night and my first thought was, well, we're about to see what he can get out of him. He got as good of a match out of him as you're going to get. Shawn has been that go to guy. You know he's going to give you all that he has. He can bring someone up to the next level. He has that incredible way of connecting to the crowd. Shawn has had his battles over the years including having a tough time winning over some of the hardcore audience. Remember Survivor Series in 1996 when Shawn was getting booed by that MSG crowd. Years later, Shawn blew the roof off of that place every time he came out. He won that crowd over by his work and work ethic. In the last couple of years for sure, Shawn became that match on the card where you were guaranteed to have one really good match on the show. He knew how to work that crowd and get them to feed into everything. The proof of it that I would argue to anybody is to let them watch the Undertaker matches from WrestleMania 25 and 26. Those two guys had the crowd there and the fans watching at home in the palm of their hands. Two of the best performances that I've ever seen from those guys. Shawn and Flair both had that talking ability and great personalties. Both were revolutionary. Flair had his style and made the Horsemen a staple in wrestling history. Shawn took the business to a different level in the 90's during the Monday Night Wars including his time as champion and a member of DX. Shawn had that attitude in the mid 90's against WCW where he was the smaller guy that was determined to prove everyone wrong. He did and proved everyone wrong to the point where people quit arguing. It's an interesting argument. Who is the better of the two? Everyone will have an opinion. Me? I'm going with Shawn. I think Shawn is better than Flair. I don't doubt my decision because I think he has had a better overall resume of work. Some of you may argue Flair against me and that is fine of course. We all have our different opinions but I'm going with Shawn. We've been very blessed to watch these performers all these years. The topic of who is/was better is going to go on for a long time to come.

New Legends Roundtable shows are being recorded this week for WWE Classics On Demand. Very interesting panel as Bret Hart will make his debut on the panel along with Jim Ross, Michael Hayes, and Pat Patterson. Mean Gene has been doing the hosting duties on the programs. I really look forward to watching this panel. JR did say something in a recent post on his website that one of the topics would be best rivalries. On a side note, I have really enjoyed the back and forth between Jim Ross and JJ Dillon on the recent roundtables. Dillon had the role of head of talent relations and then JR had the job after him. It made for some great conversation to see these two guys debate on overrated/underrated superstars. You had two guys that were in the same position but had two different view on how they went about hiring talent including what they were looking for. I have to say that I agreed with JR more than I did JJ on their opinions on guys. It was just a really fun debate among the two of them on various superstars.

The Royal Rumble is this Sunday. I'm not sure what to make of this year's Rumble match. Here is my thinking on it. I think a Smackdown guy will win this year. I think it would be more unpredictable that way and you aren't pinned into something on that brand as far as matches. When you get to the Raw brand, you're pinned. I tend to think we're going to see Cena/Miz at Mania. If it's a Raw win at the Rumble, I keep thinking that we may see something like Cena winning cause it does not have that excitement to it like years past. Just kind of an easy give the fans a happy ending kind of a win. Which fans? Well, that is the question. LOL. Now, I say that going with the thoughts of that we don't have these great storyline builds like previous years. Putting 40 guys into the match obviously increases excitement. I think that was why it was done. If Cena wins, it just seems like they are pinned on the Raw brand with what to do unless you have something happen at the Chamber PPV. You could have an upset win over on the Smackdown brand. I just don't see Raw upset win kind of deals with the build up from the Raw brand. Raw just feels like it would be an established star getting a win such as Cena or even Orton. I do think we'll see Triple H return. I think we'll see some legends make a fun surprise. The Rumble is always a fun match despite the build to it. It is hard to follow that great story last year of Shawn's determination to win the Rumble so he could get that Mania rematch showdown with Undertaker. Then, seeing him go nuts and losing his mind afterwards was fun. There just isn't that kind of exciting story going on with this year's Rumble. We'll see what happens.

That is it for today. Take care and God bless!!