Ric Flair has named The Undertaker as the WWE Superstar who meant the most to WWE, owing to his part in changing the perception of professional wrestling.
Both Ric Flair and The Undertaker are regarded as two of WWE’s most prolific Superstars, with a multitude of World Championships and pay-per-view main events between them, but ‘The Nature Boy’ has outright stated he believes The Undertaker is the WWE Superstar who means the most to the company.
The two-time WWE Hall of Famer discussed this on the latest edition of Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson, acknowledging how the landscape changes yearly within Vince McMahon’s sports entertainment giant. Despite this, only a handful of WWE legends have ever reached the same level as The Undertaker (h/t Sportskeeda Wrestling):
“[The Undertaker’s induction] is special to me. I’ve known him for a long time and I don’t think there could be anybody that has had more recognition than him or anybody has meant more to the WWE than ‘Taker. He’s right there with Steve Austin in terms of where I am.
When I think of WWE, there’s a landscape of changes yearly, but if you go from Hogan, you take Taker, and you take Steve Austin, and The Rock, so few people have ever attained that level, and for him to retire and the fact that Vince is inducting him, you know, the induction is pretty cool, but to have Vince do it? The only other person I remember Vince inducting was Stone Cold.”
The Undertaker was recently inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Vince McMahon, making him just the second inductee in history to receive the accolade (the other being ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin in 2009). Amongst other achievements, ‘The Deadman’ is a former seven-time World Champion and has had numerous Matches of the Year, as voted by Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Together, Ric Flair and The Undertaker have been involved in eight televised matches together. Only one of those was a singles encounter, though, as ‘Taker pinned Ric Flair at WrestleMania X8 to bring his ‘Mania undefeated streak to 10-0.
Officially retiring from in-ring competition at the 2020 Survivor Series pay-per-view, The Undertaker was announced as the headline act for the 2022 Hall of Fame class on 18 February. His final match was against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36, which was contested as the famed Boneyard match.
