Dot Net Exclusive: What went wrong with the idea Steve Austin pitched to Vince McMahon for Ric Flair’s retirement

Regarding the Dot Net story earlier today on the idea Steve Austin pitched to Vince McMahon for Ric Flair’s retirement, McMahon loved the idea. He was initially very excited about it and instructed Raw head writer Brian Gewirtz to get started on it immediately.

Unfortuantely, Gewirtz is not a Flair fan. He grew up a fan of the old WWF product and never developed an appreciation for Flair’s work during his formative years. Gewirtz pushed the project to the back burner until Austin contacted McMahon and asked for an update. Vince checked with Gewirtz and was upset when he learned that the project hadn’t received much attention, because it embarrassed him with Austin when he had to pass along an update.

It’s also worth noting that Gewirtz and Austin do not have a good rapport, which led to speculation within the company that Gewirtz was in no rush to put the story line in motion because it was Austin’s idea.

The angle became completely derailed when Flair left the company out of frustration with his push and being moved to Smackdown. One source speculates that Flair may have been told about the angle in the early stages and may have been frustrated because the story line had not been launched by the time he went on hiatus.

Powell’s POV: It’s a shame this angle was never given the treatment it deserved and we can only wonder how good it could have been if the all the power brokers would have supported it.