In case you haven't heard, Ric Flair is set to wrestle a match later this month featuring more than a few interesting performers spanning the histories of AEW, NJPW, Impact, and even WWE also on the card.

… yup, you read that correctly, we're talking about the ‘Rolex wearing, diamond ring wearing, kiss stealing, wheeling dealing, limousine riding, Jet Flying, son of a gun' who just turned 73 back in February having a real-life wrestling match in the year 2022 in front of a paying crowd and broadcast live on Pay-Per-View for the world to watch in amazement.

Will he die in the ring? Probably not. Will it be weird as all heck? Almost certainly. But one question that can't be answered, at least not yet, is who will be his foe when “Dawn” taken from “Also Sprach Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss plays out one final time over the loudspeakers of the Nashville Fairgrounds.

Will “The Painmaker” retire Ric Flair to the WWE Hall of Fame?

As any wrestling fan worth their salt will sure tell you, while an amazing performer can get a good match out of even a bad foe, for a match to truly transcend itself and deliver something truly special, it has to feature two performers with great in-ring chemistry and a shared vision for the outcome. When one of those performers is 73 and was diagnosed with alcoholic cardiomyopathy/severe kidney failure that resulted in a coma back in 2017, the prospect of securing another performer who can carry “The Nature Boy” in a match is arguably more important than any other aspect of the match.

But who will it be? Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat? Nope, he delivered the following quote from a recent Highspots virtual auction, as dictated by Cageside Seats.

“I was approached and [I’ve] given it some really serious thought. A lot of respect for the guy in the ring. Both of us are night and day when it comes to stuff out of the ring.

“I thought about it for a week and just recently declined on it. I know when I wrestled Jericho at WrestleMania 25 and then we had the return match at Backlash in a singles. At 69, and I know it’s a six man tag and I can get a little this and that in, but with all due respect to our fans, I want them to remember me that last time I was in there with Jericho when they chanted, ‘You still got it!’ I don’t want to scar that phrase.”

“It would be a great payday, sure, but I don’t want them thinking ‘maybe he should have stayed retired.”

How about Ricky Morton of The Rock and Roll Express? That was apparently part of the plan, but he is taking things in a different direction, wrestling instead with his son Kerry with Robert Gibson in their corner versus Brian Pillman Jr. and Brock Anderson with his father Arn at ringside. No, rumor has it the performer slated to take on Flair is none other than Chris Jericho, who Rick Flair took a shot at on Twitter for no reason in particular on Wednesday during AEW Dynamite.

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All things considered, that actually wouldn't be the worst outcome at all, as the two men have over 25 years of in-ring experience on their shared resume and have taken part in more than a few legendary matches together too.

You see, when Ric Flair and Chris Jericho first shared a wrestling ring in front of an audience, it wasn't a marquee match worthy of being remembered forever in the annals of wrestling history. No, the only real notable aspect of the match was Jericho's first-ever tag team match and first tag team loss in WCW.

While Jericho would meet Flair again on 37 more occasions, including a WWF Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship match versus Rob Van Dam where “Natch” served as the special referee, the duo wouldn't enter into a right proper feud until August of 2002, when Flair beat Jericho at SummerSlam and kicked off a months-spanning feud. Over the following weeks, Jericho beat Flair in a succession of street fights on house shows before getting his win back at Unforgiven 2002, where Jerico retained the Intercontinental Championship live from the venue then known as the Staples Center. They wrestled further when Flair was teaming up with Batista and Randy Orton in Evolution, even further when Orton split off from the faction to right alongside Jericho and Chris Benoit, and met one final time in 2014, when Flair again served as a special referee, this time at a house show in San Jose that saw Jericho beat Bray Wyatt.

Now granted, Chris Jericho isn't exactly a spring chicken himself, with his matches needing to be planned out a little bit more than in his past, but after shepherding more than a few legends through matches at the end of the career, see the aforementioned quote from Steamboat, giving La Champion a chance to retire “The Nature Boy” would be a big moment in both of their careers… assuming Ric Flair doesn't die in the ring.