Wrestling has started to do the same thing, especially the WWE. Sometime in 2002, they came to the opinion that buying every single collection of wrestling that might be salable would be a good idea. This gathering of materials just bumped up the strength of their already huge archive of footage. The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection DVD is one of the many things that will be made possible by the gathering.

Us fans should be glad Vince did it.

The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection DVD is about as good as a wrestling DVD can be. There are matches from 1976 and 2003 and most of the significant years in-between. Looking at Flair's career is like looking at half of the history of wrestling in the 1980s and early 90s. Flair was NWA champion, off and on, from 1981 to 1991, and the WWF champion in 1992. All of the reigns are represented. He is shown as a huge star, which is more than the WWE has done for Ric ever. The three disks are a huge treasury of wrestling of the 1980s, especially the years 1983 and 1989.

The first disk is a great introduction to the old Mid Atlantic and World Championship Wrestling shows that ruled Saturday nights. Flair's Starrcade 83 match cage match with Harley Race is shown, along with a ton of pre- and post-match interviews. Flair was a young buck, a little past thirty, and as a guy who saw him a few times back in the old days, it's good to revisit. The Starrcade 1985 match against Dusty Rhodes is also shown. Listening to Flair say that Dusty "could go sixty minutes" was a little laughable, but it's obvious that Flair has big respect for Rhodes. A mostly forgotten feud between Flair and Barry Windham is shown. It's not the best match between the two of them, as there was a classic 60 minute draw in 1986 that won Match of the Year. This was a damn good match, but I would have rather seen one of the earlier classics that actually made Windham a star.

There are a bunch of great interviews and a few amazing angles on this disk, too. They spend a lot of time talking about the controversy around the Starrcade 1985 match, which seemed like it took forever when it was going on, but here, wrapped up in one little section, was fantastic. They show the legendary angle where they break Dusty's leg. All of this adds up to a great disk.

Disk Two is my favorite, covering the greatest year in the history of the NWA: 1989.

Opening with Flair vs. Steamboat was the right way to go. They show the classic match from the 21st of January, 1989, where Eddie Gilbert was feuding with Flair and Windham and brought in Steamboat as his ringer to take on the Horsemen in the TBS studio. The match was great, as the audience was hot as any of them from that era. The two different Steamboat matches they show are both classics: the legendary 2 of 3 falls match from the Clash of the Champions and the WrestleWar match which signified the introduction of the hard core style into the NWA. The Terry Funk piledriver on a table led right into the section dealing with their great feud.

The interviews from this period were great, as Funk and Flair were both talking at the top of their game. The New York Knock-Out Match between Flair and Funk is my favorite match of all time. I hadn't seen it since it was first on the air, and it was amazing. It's always nice to see that the wonders of your childhood hold up to the test of time.

Since there is so much wrestling on this disk, 5 full matches at around 3 hours, they put a few of the better Confidential pieces in to round out the disk. The one on the plane crash that broke Flair's back is great, as is the A Day In The Life of the Horsemen. This disk alone would be the best DVD the WWE has put out ever.

The third disk focuses on his WWF stint in the early 1990s, the 1988 feud with Sting, and his recent WWE stuff. The WWF stuff is great, though they only show the Royal Rumble match.

It would have been nice to see his WrestleMania match with Randy Savage, his title change with Bret Hart, or one of the Hogan matches. Those last ones were truly historic. They should have been on a disk of matches from Ric's career. The Sting match from the first Clash of the Champions is great. So is the short featurette. The HHH match from May 2003 was really good, and the clipped version of the post-match celebration of Flair's career was perfect. The additional stuff, like Flair's first match at Madison Square Garden against Pete Sanchez in 1976 and the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Wrestler of the Decade presentation by Bill Apter.

The single segment highlight of the whole set is the Ric Flair workout from 1982. Roddy Piper was commentating as Flair took on two chumps. Piper then challenges Flair, and escapes his amateur moves and then Flair turns it into a pro style match, and Piper pins him. It was an awesome segment.

Regular readers of Falls Count Anywhere will know my love of wrestling history. I've been watching since the early 1980s and for a long while all I had of my favorite matches from the NWA were either cheap dubs from tape traders or hazy memories. This DVD set has brought back so much of my childhood favorites. The Mick Foley DVD set will be the same for the kids who grew up with the wrestling of the 1990s. It's a grand time to be a fan of history, and an even better time to become a fan of wrestling history.

WWE - The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection

Chris Garcia