Ric Flair Thinks This Wrestler Is The Greatest In-Ring Worker In WWE History

When "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair (WOOOO!) sings the praises of his fellow wrestling veterans or even a modern-day star like Kevin Owens, it is often considered the highest compliment a performer can get from one of the greatest workers in wrestling history in Flair.

However, Flair was posed with a question in a December 2020 interview with WWE UK (h/t Inside The Ropes) about who he himself considered to be the greatest in-ring worker in WWE's history. 

"The Nature Boy" wasted no time in giving two succinct answers. The first? "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels: "It's not arguable anymore, Shawn is the greatest worker in the history of our business. I think everybody would give that to him. He carried me in my farewell retirement match, no matter how many people want to think I was holding up my end of it, I was trying to get through it."

Flair considered his retirement match at WrestleMania 24 to not be one of his best, but rather he considered it to be his most humbling.

"At that point in my career I did not have the self-confidence that I needed to have to rise to the occasion and he made it look like I did. I've looked back...had time in the past couple of years to watch some of Shawn's matches that he had while I was at WCW and Shawn is just a class act."

Another man who Flair believed should belong in that upper echelon alongside Michaels is his legendary rival, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, with whom Flair had an amazing trilogy of matches in 1989 that stand the test of time as absolute classics: "For my money, in the ring, I'd put him (Shawn) and Ricky Steamboat in a class by themselves. I always liked being around Shawn. As far as a guy in the ring I don't think I've ever seen anybody better."