CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: A FLAIR FOR CONFIDENCES



Monday night Raw is War the next night...

"...when Stephanie and Shane sold their WWF stock to the consortium, that the consortium was ME! WOOOO!"

Vince McMahon had just gotten the shock of his life - in public, no less - by finding out just now that he and Linda had a new business partner in Rick Flair, one of his retired wrestlers. Rick Flair owned half of the WWF corporation.

Strange. Flair had had that stock in his possession for many months now and this was the first time he'd done something about it. Amazing - the timing, that is. Flair had waited until they had come to his home town - where his popularity would be the greatest this long after his retirement from wrestling - to announce himself. So it was a lucky coincidence that Raw was in his hometown the night right after Survivor.


Rick Flair went backstage after his big announcement to look things over and meet some of the wrestlers. Sometimes he longed for the good old days when he used to wrestle with people like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and the other wrestlers that had been around at the same time as he had been. But then he reminded himself that things could never again be as they were. Besides, who would have ever dreamed - including himself - that one day he'd own a full half of the company he used to fight for?

"So they made it to the plane okay?"

"Yeah, barely. Dee started crying just before they were supposed to board and she didn't want to let me go."

Rick Flair's head turned at the sound of two women's voices. Seconds later, Lita and Eve came around a corner in the hallway. They stopped when they saw him.

"Ladies," Flair said in a friendly tone as he began to approach them. They met him half way.

"Mr. Flair," they both said in turn as each shook his hand.

"It sure is a pleasure to meet you two beautiful ladies," he began, stopping when he looked into Eve's eyes.

"Is there something wrong, sir?" Eve asked as he continued to stare at her.

"I apologize for my rude behaviour, Eve. It's just that, for a second, I thought I recognized you from somewhere. Have we met before?"

"I don't think so, sir, unless you watch wrestling indies. I've been through here before when I was still in them."

Eve came away from the encounter somewhat disturbed and trying her best to hide it. Flair recognized her? Not good.

"Well, that was strange," Lita said when their new boss was well out of ear-shot.

"Yeah, strange."


Eve thought hard for two days before making up her mind to go see Rick Flair. If he truly recognized her from where she thought he did, then she needed to find out now before he fully remembered where he'd seen her face before and possible blurted it out in front of someone else. That would be disastrous. So Wednesday afternoon found Eve standing outside Rick Flair's office. She raised her hand and knocked.

"Come in."

Eve opened the door and entered, closing the door behind her when she was inside.

"Ah, Miss Eve, what can I do for you?"

"Sir, we need to talk."


"So you understand my need for secrecy, then?" Eve asked a short time later.

"Of course. Don't worry, no one will hear about this from me," Rick Flair said.

"Thank you, sir. You don't know how much I appreciate this."