Robbie's Top 10 WrestleMania Video Packages Of All Time - 10. Shawn Michaels vs Ric Flair (WrestleMania 24)
It’s WrestleMania Season, folks, and I couldn’t be more excited. Pat McAfee and I are gonna be making content surrounding the “Showcase of the Immortals” all week long next week from the Heartland office, then we’re flying down to the Big Easy and taking over ‘Mania weekend like only Barstool can. Last year, I ran a countdown series of my 20 Favorite WrestleMania moments of all time, culminating in a 6000+ word blog on Daniel Bryan winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 30, so this year I decided I’d shake things up a bit and give you my Top 10 WrestleMania video packages of all time. If you’re a wrestling fan, you probably know that the pre-match promos WWE makes are bar-none the most hype shit of all time, so I’ve complied my favorite ones to share with you every day leading into April 8th.
10. Shawn Michaels vs Ric Flair (WrestleMania 24)
Today’s video package is a timely one, as it was ten years ago to the day since this match happened. Ric Flair’s retirement match at WrestleMania 24 is remembered most for its picture-perfect finish, but what shouldn’t be lost in the shuffle is the brilliant storytelling that brought us there. Ric Flair had been on a hot streak back in 2008, solidifying his status as one of the GOATs and really just putting icing on the cake of his legacy when it was announced that he’d be the first ever active WWE superstar to be inducted into the Hall of Fame before WrestleMania 24. In a promo Naitch cut following the announcement, he gleefully remarked, “I love this business and I will NEVER retire!”, and the Chairman of the Board got involved, and Vince McMahon came down the aisle to inform Ric that he would, in fact retire…the next time he lost a match. A series a tough opponents were thrown in Flair’s way over the course of the next few weeks, and he overcame all of them and decided to challenge Shawn Michaels to a match at WrestleMania because, well, if he was gonna go out, he was goin’ out with pride against the greatest wrestler of the generation. So the stage was set…