There’s a exchange of lines that Flair says to Taker the very moment this whole feud starts to unfold, when Flair initially declines the match. Undertaker prompts back to flair with the classic tough guy response of, “Are you saying you don’t want to fight me?”

“No, I don’t want to wrestle you.”

Of course, as time would go on, Taker would attack Arn Anderson on Flair’s birthday, beginning a series of actions to get under Flair’s skin and goad him into accepting the match. There’s more that breaks down as this thing backtracks into Flair getting kicked off the ownership group and having to grovel at the feet of Vince for the match. Through all those hoops, sure enough, the build to this has actually aged pretty damn well. Hell, most of it was great. There’s a mean (and partially funny) beatdown of David Flair that delivers a couple appreciable one-liners from Taker, including “Hey Flair! Your boy’s a bleeder just like Arn Anderson!” as well as some expected greatness in the form of Flair’s promo work. You can throw in what might just be the best David Flair match ever too, as his shortened pseduo-squash at the hands of Undertaker isn’t half bad for what it is. But it always goes back to that line.

“No, I don’t want to wrestle you.”

Unlike his numerous attempts at retirement, the Nature boy holds true to his word. The way this one plays out is about as good as a bloody brawl can get on a stage like WrestleMania. It places both men into their best roles, and asks nothing else of them. Of little surprise, all the best parts of this are Ric Flair. Present are, naturally, the usual suspects of Flair’s A+ game. Some beautiful snap on Taker’s punches, fantastic babyface desperation, and another example of being one of the best bleeders in the business and everything that comes with it. Tack on some of the more specific and memorable moments like the all-time sell on the early superplex, the way his arms go stiff at the heights of Taker’s heat segment, and I’m going to give him all the credit for the Arn Anderson run-in as well. It’s a shame that he’s demanded to lose clean because of the growing obsession with Undertaker’s streak, not only because this whole program was trending towards the cathartic babyface win, but because it’s Undertaker who lets his end of the bargain down.

It’s not a bad performance per se. It’s more than any reasonable person can expect out of Taker, but with how stellar he was leading into this, the hatred and evil never comes across like it could. The good-not-great punches are likely the main culprit, but it does feel like Taker misses the mark with some of the stooging and with his general gameplan as well. There are opportunities he misses to attack the cut of Flair, and he forgoes any kind of creativity with the no DQ stip too. For someone who’s about to pick up his tenth straight victory on the most important show the promotion runs, he’s very much a passenger in this one.

Still, as a complete product this is great. You truly can’t go wrong with pitting someone likeable versus someone who isn’t, and having them brawl. It’s not the works, but the fundamentals shine when you plug an legend in alongside someone who’s at least smart enough to not mess it up. Is it a little too long? Does it feel like the wrong man wins? You bet. Even the energy this deserved isn’t really there either. If only it had a quarter of the energy the more appreciated and overrated match that happened later in the night.

But I’ll avoid ruffling those feathers for another time.

I guess the Nature Boy was right when he said, “Your trophy case isn’t big enough to hold Ric Flair, the wrestler.”

Rating: ****