Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
It was the Summer of 1988 and the National Wrestling Alliance (In particular, Jim Crockett Promotions) were in deep financial trouble. Word was getting around that many NWA stars were not getting paid on time and were looking for work elsewhere. Two of those stars were Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. They left Crockett to join the WWF as the Brainbusters.
Another wrestler with Jim Crockett Promotions that was not happy was their World Heavyweight Champion ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair. It wasn’t just about money with Flair, but he was starting to have a fall out with NWA booker Dusty Rhodes. Add to that, with two of Flair’s best friends and biggest allies in Arn and Tully gone from the NWA….Ric Flair wasn’t happy.
Word got back to WWF owner Vince McMahon, that his company’s biggest rival’s top star was disenchanted with Crockett Promotions. McMahon saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to snag him away from the competition, thus putting another nail in the NWA’s coffin. The timing was almost perfect, considering the WWF had a big pay per view coming up in New York City’s Madison Square Garden called SummerSlam.
McMahon and Flair began talking about Flair jumping ship and joining the World Wrestling Federation. Vince’s big idea was to have Flair be the surprise, special guest on the Brother Love talk show at SummerSlam. McMahon also told Flair that he would immediately challenge then WWF world champion ‘The Macho Man’ Randy Savage. Vince was so confident that he had landed Flair, several promos were aired that built up a huge surprise guest on a live edition of the Brother Love Show at MSG.
According to Ric Flair however, he couldn’t make the commitment to join the WWF. He said he was the NWA world champion and it meant a lot to him to represent the NWA as the top guy. Not only that, but Crockett and Ted Turner were in negotiations for Turner to purchase Crockett’s promotion. One of the caveat’s to a deal taking place, was Turner insisted on having Ric Flair with the company. No Flair meant no sale for Ted Turner.
The end result was Flair remaining with the NWA and not taking McMahon’s lucrative offer. That also left Vince with a bit of egg on his face as he was promoting a big surprise for the SummerSlam event. Instead of dropping the angle and hoping fans would simply forget about it….McMahon went ahead with the live broadcast of the Brother Love Show. Instead of getting Ric Flair, McMahon chose ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan to be the surprise guest.
If you watch this show, you can hear some boos, moans and groans during this segment. Many WWF fans didn’t realize how close they were to having three out of the Four Horsemen in the WWF not including manager JJ Dillon who was now a WWF executive. In any event, as things turned out…Flair would have an eventual falling out with Ted Turner’s WCW in 1991 and call Vince and ask….’If that offer was still on the table.’ The rest is history.
