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Wooo! You knew he was coming back eventually. Ric Flair finally made his long awaited return to the WWE at the 2012 Slammy Awards and immediately jumped back into the action.

Flair made a surprise appearance on Monday when he was announced as a presenter of the Superstar of the Year Slammy award. Flair gave the award to John Cena who returned the favor and gave the award to Flair. CM Punk interrupted the love fest and gave fans a memorable confrontation between the greatest talker of his generation and arguably the greatest talker of this generation of pro wrestlers. But it didn’t end there.

Flair wound up getting into the action on his first night back. Flair wound up brawling with CM Punk and putting Paul Heyman in the figure four leg lock. Flair then wound up in a brawl with Team Hell No against The Shield. Ryback appeared to save Flair from The Shield and ensure that the WWE Universe will see a lot more of Flair in the near future.

Flair’s return was not a surprise. Most expected Flair to be back at some point, although recent negative press certainly worked against him. Flair left TNA Wrestling in May and was ready to come back immediately. A lawsuit filed by TNA against the WWE held this up. According to Dave Meltzer on his F4Wonline.com podcast, the WWE felt that the lawsuit didn’t have merit and that TNA had not moved on it in awhile, thus the decision was made to bring Flair back now.

The biggest surprise to me was seeing Flair in action. Flair just recently said in an interview that after seeing what happened to Jerry Lawler, he would not be wrestlingl in the WWE.

“ I like Jerry very much. What happened to Jerry was terrible, and thank God he’s OK. But I wish people wouldn’t gauge me by what happened to him. Everybody’s an individual. But I think it kind of put a decision on my future in the ring, you know what I mean? And that’s fine, because I went back to the ring in TNA, and that will never happen again.”

To be fair he didn’t wrestle, but he may as well have. It also contradicts an edict by Vince McMahon that Meltzer reported on after Lawler’s heart attack. Meltzer reported that McMahon would no longer allow older wrestlers/legends to wrestle or get physical anymore. Of course since that edit, McMahon and now Flair have both gotten physical on television.

It was great seeing Flair back in the WWE. Flair is still one of the very few wrestlers I’ll go out of my way to watch. I think he could do a lot as either a G.M. or manager. I think him and Dolph Ziggler as a pair is money in the bank (no pun intended). He and Daniel Bryan could also be an interesting pair.

Before you get too excited it should be noted that Flair was reportedly making a guest appearance. That isn’t to say that the former champion won’t be signing a long term deal shortly but at the moment he is still a free agent.

[amazon_link id=”B0000DIJOW” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]WWE: The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection[/amazon_link]

[amazon_link id=”B0016MJ6LA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]WWE: Nature Boy Ric Flair – The Definitive Collection[/amazon_link]

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