WWE Legend Ric Flair Thanks Ted Turner For Wrestling Opportunities
While media moguls and TV journalists are mourning the loss today of their colleague Ted Turner, pro wrestling icon Ric Flair is paying tribute to the late entrepreneur for their shared love of the enduringly popular ready-made-for-TV sport.
In a post on X today, Flair wrote, “So Sorry To Hear About The Passing Of The Great Ted Turner! The Man That Created Cable Before Cable Was Cool! He Created CNN And Look At It Now! He Rolled The Dice And Wasn’t Afraid Of Taking Risks. He Won The America’s Cup For Sailing! His Office Looked Like The Hall Of Fame Which Included A Picture Of Him And Khrushchev. On Top Of All Of That, He Created So Many Opportunities For So Many Wrestlers Because Of His Love For Wrestling. Rest In Peace My Friend! Thank You For The Memorable Personal Times That We Spent Together.”
See the post below.
Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988, renaming it World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which soon was the main competitor to Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The rivalry between the two wrestling organizations would become known as the Monday Night War, a particularly intensive popularity contest through the 1990s.
Under AOL Time Warner in 2001, the WCW was sold to the WWF.
Flair was the WCW World Heavyweight Champion multiple times between 1991 and 2000. As the inaugural WCW World Heavyweight Champion, he became the first person to complete the WCW Triple Crown, having already held the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and WCW World Tag Team Championship. He then completed the WWE Triple Crown when he won the WWE Intercontinental Championship, after already holding the WWF World Heavyweight Championship and the original World Tag Team Championship.
In all, Flair is a 16-time world champion – eight-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, eight-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, and two-time WWF World Heavyweight Champion. Flair himself has said he won 21 championships in all, while Turner is generally credited with being a significant factor in revitalizing interest in profession wrestling in the late 1980s and 1990s through the WCW.
Deadline will add other tributes to Turner as they arrive today.
