Ric Flair

Ric Flair: 2022 Biography, Net Worth, Family, Income

Richard Morgan Fliehr, better known as Ric Flair, is a retired professional wrestler with a storied career in the WWE, WCW and NWA. He was born on February 25, 1949, and after a short stint as an amateur wrestler, he made his pro wrestling debut for the AWA in 1972 at age 23.

By 1974, Flair was wrestling for Jim Crockett’s Mid-Atlantic region in the National Wrestling Alliance. One year later, Ric Flair was seriously injured in a plane crash, which broke his back in three places and prompted medical professionals to comment that he would never wrestle again. After three months of physical therapy, Flair returned to wrestling and continued his career as an active wrestler for a further 36 years.

Ric Flair won his first World Heavyweight Championship in 1981 while competing for the NWA, defeating Dusty Rhodes at a house show in Kansas City. He established himself as one of wrestling’s premiere stars, helping the NWA provide serious competition to Vince McMahon’s WWF during the 80s. Never straying too far from the main event scene, Flair won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship another eight times in this period, beating names such as Carlos Colon, Harley Race and Kerry Von Erich for the strap.

During this period, Flair formed the famous faction known as the Four Horsemen with Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard. In 1987, Ric Flair defeated Ronny Garvin for the WCW World Heavyweight Title at WCW’s first ever Pay-Per-View: Starrcade ’87.

Flair continued to wrestle for WCW until 1991, until getting into a contractual dispute with WCW president Jim Herd, when Herd had requested that Flair take a pay cut. Due to the disagreement, Flair left WCW, signing for the WWF in August of that year.

His WWF Pay-Per-View debut came at Survivor Series 1991, where he defeated a team led by Roddy Piper in a traditional Survivor Series match. Later that night, he helped The Undertaker defeat Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship. Flair would go on to win the 1992 Royal Rumble from the #3 position, lasting more than an hour in the match. As the WWF Championship was vacant at the time, the winner of the Royal Rumble would become the new WWF Championship, giving Ric Flair his first WWF title belt. Flair lost the championship to “Macho Man” Randy Savage at WrestleMania 8 a few months later.

Randy Savage dropped the title to Ric Flair on an episode of Prime Time Wrestling later that year, with Flair ultimately dropping his final WWF championship to Bret Hart at a house show in Saskatoon, Canada. After failing to win the 1993 Royal Rumble, Flair competed in a “Loser Leaves WWF” match against Mr Perfect, which he lost, spelling the end of his first WWF run.

He returned to WCW in 1993, hosting a talk show, A Flair For The Gold, where his current-day wife would appear as “Fifi The French Maid.” When his no-compete clause with WWF ran out, he captured the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the tenth time before WCW severed ties with the NWA later that year. When Hulk Hogan arrived in WCW in 1994, he feuded with Ric Flair, who was now the company’s top heel. The feud involved several matches and culminated inside a Steel Cage in a bout dubbed a “retirement match” at Halloween Havoc ’94. Flair lost the match, but after begging Hogan to let him wrestle again, he un-retired and continued as an active wrestler.

At the infamous Collision in Korea event in 1995, Ric Flair lost to Antonio Inoki in front of 190,000 attendees, considered the largest crowd in pro wrestling history. Towards the end of 1995, Ric Flair reformed the Four Horsemen with Arn Anderson, Brian Pillman and Chris Benoit as the updated members. Now with the Four Horsemen at his side, Flair went on to capture the WCW Heavyweight Title on a further two occasions among feuds with Sting, Lex Luger and Randy Savage.

When the nWo (New World Order) formed in 1996, Ric Flair, now a babyface, became one of their top rivals. Flair teamed with Arn Anderson, Sting and Lex Luger to face the nWo (Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and a “fake Sting”) in a War Games match at Fall Brawl. Flair’s team lost this bout. In 1997, Ric Flair allowed Jeff Jarrett to join the Four Horsemen, much to the chagrin of other members. Jarrett was kicked out of the Horsemen by Flair himself. Flair also allowed former nemesis Curt Hennig to join the faction, which backfired on him when Hennig turned on the Horsemen during a War Games match at Fall Brawl ’97.

Flair disappeared from television for a substantial amount of time in 1998 after a legal dispute with WCW Senior Vice President Eric Bischoff, returning in September of that year to reform the Four Horsemen again. The Four Horsemen now consisted of Steve McMichael, Dean Malenko, and Chris Benoit. In kayfabe, Flair became the president of WCW after defeating Eric Bischoff in a match on the December 28th, 1998 edition of WCW Nitro.

In 1999, Flair entered a feud with his son, David Flair, due to David screwing his father out of a World Title match against Hulk Hogan at SuperBrawl IX. With Ric Flair’s standing as on-air WCW president, he became a heel, abusing his power and favouring villains over babyfaces in several segments. He eventually lost his WCW presidency to long-time rival Sting, who gave it up upon defeating Flair.

His last World Championship reign came in May of 2000, when Kevin Nash handed him the title on an episode of Nitro. He lost this to Jeff Jarrett on the same night. From this point forward, WCW saw a steep decline and was eventually purchased by the WWF in March 2001. Ric Flair competed in the last match in WCW history on the final episode of Nitro, losing to Sting in the show’s main event.

Ric Flair took a brief break from wrestling after WCW’s closure and returned to the WWF after the 2001 Invasion angle. On his return, he confronted Vince McMahon, revealing that he was now the co-owner of WWF. This led to a feud with McMahon, which ended in a brand split between Raw and SmackDown in 2002, with Flair taking control of Raw and McMahon taking control of SmackDown.

As the owner of Raw, Ric Flair entered a rivalry with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, which ended abruptly due to Austin’s real-life exit from WWE. Flair then reignited his feud with Mr McMahon, leading to a match for “sole ownership of WWE,” which Flair lost due to interference from Brock Lesnar. Flair played the role of babyface for much of 2002 before helping top heel Triple H defeat crowd favourite Rob Van Dam at Unforgiven in September. This heel turn resulted in the union of “Evolution,” one of the 2000’s more well-known factions. Randy Orton and Dave Batista soon completed the group.

Evolution would, at one point, control all championships on the Raw brand. Ric Flair held the Tag Titles with Batista, Randy Orton held the Intercontinental Title and Triple H had the World Title. At WrestleMania 20 in 2004, Ric Flair, Batista and Randy Orton defeated The Rock and Mick Foley (known as the “Rock-and-Sock Connection”) in a 3-on-2 handicap match. The rest of 2004 and 2005 saw Randy Orton and Batista leave Evolution to pursue solo careers. Both exits resulted in a main event feud with Triple H, with Ric Flair in the corner of “The Game” each time.

Triple H went on a hiatus after he feuded with Batista, which gave Ric Flair a chance to go on a solo run. He made this run successful by capturing the Intercontinental Championship from Carlito at Unforgiven 2005. Flair later entered a feud with a returning Triple H, whom he successfully defended the Intercontinental Championship against, but eventually lost to Triple H in a non-title affair at Survivor Series 2005.

After a feud with Mick Foley, spurred by real-life degrading comments that Flair made about Foley in his autobiography, Flair got involved in a rivalry with the Spirit Squad. This feud saw Ric Flair capture his final championship in WWE, securing a victory for the Tag Team Championships while teaming with Roddy Piper.

In 2007, after Ric Flair that he would “never retire,” Mr McMahon declared that the next singles match Flair lost would result in a forced retirement. With this stipulation in mind, Flair went on a lengthy singles winning streak, defeating names such as Mark Henry, MVP, William Regal and even Mr McMahon himself. Then, at WrestleMania 24 in 2008, Ric Flair lost to Shawn Michaels, resulting in the official end of his career in WWE.

Flair made a handful of cameos and guest appearances on WWE programming before leaving the company in 2009. Though the Shawn Michaels match was supposed to be Ric Flair’s in-ring retirement, Flair stepped back in the ring after his WWE contract ended, losing to Hulk Hogan four times on Hogan’s “Hulkamania Let The Battle Begin” tour.

He then signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2010, aligning himself with AJ Styles, Beer Money Inc and Desmond Wolfe. Flair continued to compete in-ring in TNA, his first match for the company being a tag match, where he teamed with AJ Styles to take on Hulk Hogan and Abyss in a no-contest.

In July 2010, Ric Flair announced that he would be reforming the Four Horsemen under the new name “Fourtune ” because WWE owned the trademark for “Four Horsemen.” The group members would be AJ Styles, Robert Roode, James Storm, Kazarian and Desmond Wolfe. Douglas Williams and Matt Morgan later joined the group, changing the faction’s name to “Fortune” due to the many members for a group based around the number four.

Fortune joined forces with Immortal, another TNA faction which Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff led. His final ever singles victory was against Doug Williams on a TNA house show in London, England. Flair tore his rotator cuff in this match, keeping him off television for a while. When he returned, Flair turned on Fortune in favour of Immortal, with whom Fortune had a falling out during Flair’s absence. Ric Flair’s final match with TNA was a losing effort to Sting on Impact’s September 12th, 2011 edition. He would not wrestle again for another eleven years.

Ric Flair left TNA in 2012 after a contractual dispute, re-joining WWE the following year. He was strictly a part-time performer for the nine years he was employed by WWE. Over the years, he would appear as the mentor of The Miz and be involved in short storylines with The Shield, CM Punk and Batista, among others. Flair’s time on-screen would mostly be spent accompanying his daughter Charlotte who won several championships with her father in her corner. In 2021, Flair was involved in a bizarre storyline which insinuated that he got Charlotte’s rival, Lacey Evans, pregnant. The storyline ended up being dropped when Ric Flair asked for and received his WWE release in August of 2021.

In May of 2022, Flair announced that he would compete in his final ever match at an event dubbed “Ric Flair’s Final Match” on July 31st, 2022. At the event, Ric Flair teamed with his son-in-law Andrade El Idolo to defeat the team of Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett. Since then, Ric Flair has announced that he will never retire.

Net Worth

As of December 2022, Ric Flair has an estimated net worth of $500,000.

Family

Ric Flair has been married five times, his most recent marriage to Wendy Barlow, who once played Flair’s maid “Fifi” in WCW in 1993. The couple married on September 12, 2018.

Flair has four children; David, Reid, Ashley & Megan. David Flair was part of the WCW roster from 1998 until 2001 and had a brief run in TNA afterwards. Reid wrestled for the NWA and AJPW before his death in 2013. Ashley, better known as Charlotte Flair, is an active wrestler in WWE with many accolades and accomplishments. Megan has not entered the pro wrestling business except for occasional cameos at events.

Income

Ric Flair’s income is unknown, with no active roles in wrestling. However, being one of the more popular wrestlers of all time, it can be assumed that he still collects multiple royalties from merchandise, video game appearances, DVD sales and more to this day.

Record

According to Cagematch.net, throughout his 50-year career, Ric Flair has competed in 4,938 matches. He has won 2,526, lost 1,944 and drawn 468, putting his winning percentage at 51.2%.,

Figures are correct as of December 11 2022.

WCW/NWA Career

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion- 7 times
• NWA World Heavyweight Champion – 10 times
• WCW International World Heavyweight Champion- 2 times
• NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion – 3 times
• NWA (Mid Atlantic)/NWA Television Champion – 2 times
• NWA (Mid Atlantic)/WCW United States Heavyweight Champion – 6 times
• NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champion – 3 times
• NWA World Tag Team Champion (Mid-Atlantic version) – 3 times
• NWA Hall of Fame Inductee – 2008

WWF/E Career

• WWF World Heavyweight Champion – 2 times
• World Tag Team Champion – 3 times
• WWE Intercontinental Champion – 1 time
• Royal Rumble Winner – 1992
• WWE Hall of Fame Inductee – 2008 (solo), 2012 (as part of the Four Horsemen)

Charity

In 2012, Ric Flair worked with The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar to raise money for the Make-a-Wish charity.

Flair would also help raise money for charity in 2022, where he auctioned off a “night out” to aid battles against the COVID-19 pandemic.