Flair jumps to WWF in 1988

Hi Scott,

In you recap of Wrestling Observers from August 1988, you mentioned that Dave mentioned a rumor that Ric Flair was jumping to the WWF as Brother Love’s surprise guest at Summerslam. With the Crocketts’ ownership of WCW legitimately up in the air at the time, I can see this as a definite possibility.

Is it safe to say that we dodged a bullet when this didn’t come to fruition? Flair in the WWF’s main event scene means Hogan-Savage and Flair-Steamboat headlining their respective promotions doesn’t happen in 1989. Those were some of the best matches/angles in all of the 1980’s.

To play Devil’s Advocate, though, Arn and Tully were obviously jumping to the WWF during this same time. If Flair had joined them, I could easily see them adding the newly debuting Curt Hennig as the fourth Horseman and making Bobby Heenan their manager. Then have the Megapowers (and friends) duke it out with the Horsemen for all of 1989.

So, take Hogan-Savage and Flair Steamboat in the hand and don’t worry about Megapowers vs. Horsemen in the bush? Or roll the dice and see what could have been?

​Just to clarify for the sake of clarity, I should point out that Dave did NOT speculate on Flair being the one to jump in these issues. Dave was completely in the dark on the subject at that time, and it was years later that it came out that Flair was the one who was being alluded to. I try to make sure that Dave’s notes and my own are distinct as much as possible, but I can see where that would be confusing. Much like trying to figure out Samoan family trees.
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And as noted in tonight’s Observer thread, the Crockett buyout by Turner was contingent on Flair being part of the deal, and later one of the breaking points for Dusty’s job as booker was when he was trying to job out Flair at Starrcade. The Turner suits definitively sided with Flair (ironic considering how that relationship would end up), and basically made it known that they no interest in him going to the competition.

​By 1991, they were like "Hahaha, fuck off and save us a million per year, see if we care", but that’s a different story.​