Ric Flair Talks About Scrapped Plans For The First SummerSlam Main Event in 1988

SummerSlam is WWE’s second-biggest PPV of the year and over the years it has pretty much become a brand in itself, much like the biggest yearly event of company WrestleMania.

Though when WWE held its first SummerSlam back in 1988, nobody knew how big it would get and so the people who were part of it and especially Main Evented it had no idea that they were becoming a part of what would become a show with a long and coveted history.

However, in a recent interview of Ric Flair which he gave to Sports Illustrated before being hospitalized, the WWE Hall Of Famer revealed that the original SummerSlam Plans were very different.

According to Ric, he was originally supposed to challenge the then WWF Champion Randy Savage in the main event of the show.

Although Flair decided not to sign with the company and stay with NWA because he was attached to his friends there and as a result, the planned match was scrapped:

“It’s true, I was on my way to work for Vince [McMahon] and wrestle Savage at the Garden. My contract was up and Vince McMahon had been in touch with me. But I decided my best move was to remain in the NWA because I was so attached to my friends in the Four Horsemen. I thanked McMahon for the offer. I just couldn’t get myself to leave.”

After Ric Flair declined WWE’s offer, the main event of the first edition of the PPV saw Randy Savage teaming up with a returning Hulk Hogan to defeat the team of Andre the Giant and Ted Dibiase.

While Flair ended up joining WWF three years later in 1991, one can only imagine how different his WWE career would have been if he had signed earlier and Main Evented the first ever WWE SummerSlam.