Conrad Thompson says the “Ric Flair’s Last Match” event will be a one-off.
On July 31, Ric Flair will return to the ring at the show, which is being held alongside Starrcast V. Thompson, the promoter of the event and the driving force behind Starrcast, has been focused on ensuring that the legend’s legacy is properly recognized throughout the special weekend leading up to the match.
During a media call ahead of “Ric Flair’s Last Match”, WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard asked whether there had been a conversation about using a different name for the show that would leave the door open for another event in the future. Thompson responded by describing how Flair’s return to the ring isn’t like rock bands who have multiple farewell tours. He emphasized that “The Nature Boy” has had the itch to wrestle again because his in-ring career ended in a disappointing fashion in 2011, three years after his legendary send-off against Shawn Michaels.
“Bands have farewell tours over and over and over,” said Thompson. “That’s not what we’re doing here. I want to be clear, Ric Flair’s Last Match is happening in conjunction with Starrcast because I saw an opportunity on that Sunday. Had SummerSlam been on the Sunday, I can’t say that there would have been a Ric Flair’s Last Match. As an entrepreneur, I just look for opportunities. As a friend of mine said, I just look for open doors and walk through them. That’s what this was for me. This was a one-off and it’s always been a one-off, but I know that Ric has had that bug for a long time. I’ve been close to Ric for nine years now, and occasionally, I mean every few months, we’d be hanging out, and it would just randomly come up. ‘Hey, what if?’ I knew he had that itch. He’s been open about this, he regrets wrestling after WrestleMania 24.
“What a perfect send-off WWE gave him with that Shawn Michaels match and then the next night on Monday Night RAW. I mean that’s a send-off that nobody, not just in wrestling, but in sports gets. So it was really special. But for a variety of reasons, he did wrestle after that. Unfortunately, his last match was on a soundstage in Orlando, and that’s not to disparage anything, but it was just a random TV show. It wasn’t a celebration that could anywhere mirror or rival what happened in 2008. I’m not saying that we’re going to be able to, either. But it does feel like there will be more of an effort to celebrate his legacy with the Roast of Ric Flair and that Horsemen panel that we’re calling One Last Ride for the Horsemen. And then why not one last match? But in all honesty, I also knew [it probably] shouldn’t be a singles match. We wanna make sure that Ric Flair looks and feels as close to ‘The Nature Boy’ of old as he can, and the way to properly frame that is with a tag match.
Thompson made it clear that “Ric Flair’s Last Match” will not have a sequel. He stated that the legend wants to perform in front of a crowd that paid to see him one last time.
“To answer your question, no, I’m not planning to do a tour, and I know that there’s lots of memes out there and there’s some fun social media accounts that have fun with, ‘Oh, this is the first of many tours of Ric Flair’s Last Match’ or his last-er match or his last-est match. That’s all funny stuff, and I understand that, and I love that fans are having fun with it. But the reality is, there will not be another Ric Flair match with me promoting it. This is Ric Flair’s last match. I know that he has been training and putting so much pressure on himself that he’s probably realistically not ever going to want to do this again.
“Ric does not want to get in there and do what a lot of fans probably expect, which is to chop and strut and ‘Woo’. He wants to be Ric Flair, and I can’t think of a better way to do that with a tag team with his son-in-law Andrade. This is Ric Flair’s last match, guys. There are no grandiose plans of, in a post-match press conference, we announce we’re doing it again next year. That’s just not reality. This is Ric Flair’s last match, this Sunday, July 31, Municipal Auditorium, the same building where he beat Randy Savage and the same building where he ended his trilogy with Steamboat and won the world title. He’ll walk that aisle one more time this Sunday night.”
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