Jim Cornette and Stan Lane also left the organization in October 1990, breaking up the Midnight Express and leaving Bobby Eaton on his own, after Herd would blame his many failures on Cornette and others. However, Flair reached elite status when he began referring to himself as "The Nature Boy" in order to incite a 1978 feud with the original "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, who put Flair over in one encounter. [145] On July 17, 2010, Flair made a special appearance at Scotland Motors in Laurinburg, North Carolina and received the key to that city, as well. Flair married his fifth wife, Wendy Barlow (known as "Fifi the Maid" in WCW), on September 12, 2018, at a resort in Florida. -, VerticalScope Inc., 111 Peter Street, Suite 901, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2H1, Canada. [184] In 2008, Tiffany filed for divorce from Flair, which was finalized in 2009. He didn't just use Rogers' nickname, either — like Flair, Rogers was a flamboyant, braggadocious, arrogant ladies' man with bleach-blonde hair, a mastery of a figure-four leglock, and a habit of strutting more than he walked. [78][79], On the January 4, 2010 episode of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's (TNA) Impact!, Flair made his debut appearance for the company arriving via limo and later observing the main event between A.J. Flair returned to podcasting on MLW Radio with a new show called The Ric Flair Show in July 2016. By 2005, it was seizing his WWE pay to cover his debts. [26] The crash did force Flair to alter his wrestling technique away from the power brawling style he had used early on to one more focused on grappling, which led him to adopt the "Nature Boy" gimmick he would use throughout his career. Herd was not a very popular man and seemed to almost revel in undermining Flair. The induction ceremony took place on March 29, 2008, with Triple H inducting him. This event represented a rare moment in WWE as both the heels and the faces broke character and came out to the ring together. According to Flair's autobiography, Herd wanted to be like Vince McMahon, only McMahon has been in wrestling for decades and actually understands it. but they lost the titles to World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit and Edge on the April 19 episode of Raw. As Canoe recounted, on October 4, 1975, Flair and several other wrestlers were flying to a show in a small Cessna plane. Would Turner allow it? [36] Flair's feud with Vince McMahon led them to a match at the Royal Rumble in January 2002 in a Street Fight, where Flair defeated McMahon. [28] Flair appeared in the Royal Rumble in January 1993, then lost a Loser Leaves the WWF match to Mr. WWE.com has published contradictory information on Flair's reigns – recognizing five reigns in one article, but describing him as a six-time champion in another article. WCW around that time just didn’t know how to do gimmicks. When he returned to the States, he had the belt and everyone pretended the Venano thing never happened. Wrestling fans and non-fans alike know the legendary Ric Flair as a 16-time world wrestling champion, a guy who rides limousines, flies Lear jets, steals kisses, wheels and deals, and is overall quite the son-of-a-gun.