Just in case you have missed the past couple of month’s worth of WWE programming, this will be billed as a “Career Threatening Match”, just like Flair’s previous pay-per-view bouts opposite MVP & Mr.Kennedy were. And while there has been much conjecture over who will actually be the man to retire The Nature Boy, bookmakers have now shortened their odds that HBK could be the man to do the deed following the announcement of this match-up last Monday on Raw.

So why do I have no issues with this face vs face match-up…??? It just seems like a sufficiently extraordinary circumstance to me. I mean, it’s got a 50-50 probability of being the final match of arguably the best wrestler ever. And even if you are one of those fans that don’t hold Flair anywhere near that esteem, then the fact that he has been wrestling for several decades cannot be ignored & is special itself.

In truth, as soon as Vince McMahon announced on an episode of Raw late last year that Flair would be forced to retire the next time he lost a singles bout, the angle has been booked rather disappointingly. As I just stated, this is something extraordinary… Something special. Yet some of the matches that Flair has been involved with of late have not had a special feel to them. There has not been the deserved anticipation existent in the match-ups. And while Mr.Kennedy & MVP aren’t exactly John Cena & Triple H, they are high enough on the pecking order to have such feuds be treated a lot better than they were.

Who knows… WWE may treat the lead-in to this Flair vs Michaels showdown disappointingly as well. It’s not a foregone conclusion that they will amp up the booking of it since there are so many other big match-ups scheduled for the same card. But in my opinion, no matter what the result, this match does deserve the time to set it up as a genuinely special attraction on the biggest card of the year. I have no idea if that should include some dissension between the 2, a short-term heel turn of sorts, or anything else that could spice up the feud… I’ll leave that to the writers who get paid to think up these things.

Furthermore, the WWE bookers along with Michaels & Flair themselves need to give the actual match every opportunity to be something special in the ring come the night. It cannot be a lazily booked 7 minute encounter similar to Flair’s last 2 ppv bouts. Everyone needs to pull out all the stops to make this a genuine attraction on the card. And all this is no matter what the result.

And what of the result…??? Should this be Flair’s final wrestling match…??? That’s a tough one to call & it wouldn’t surprise me either way. The only opinion that I am fairly strong on is that I believe Flair should be retired no earlier than WrestleMania & no later than the end of April. This leaves the door open for a Flair win here & a subsequent retiring by someone possibly more appropriate either on the night or weeks following the Orlando spectacle. Whether or not there is someone more appropriate is doubtful & I myself am not too sure of my own opinion here.