Ric Flair to Appear at ICP's "Gathering of the Juggalos"

Ric Flair is the most famous heel in professional wrestling history, but he's currently out of a job. TNA Wrestling recently parted ways with him.

At 63, his professional wrestling options are limited. WWE and TNA find themselves in the middle of a legal battle and WWE is currently staying away from "The Nature Boy" until that calms down.

In major need of a paycheck, Flair has agreed to appear at the Insane Clown Posse's yearly "Gathering of the Juggalos" from August 8th - 12th in Cave-in-Rock, Illinois.

Flair is an example of a professional wrestler falling from grace. What happened to the WWE Hall of Famer? I'll explain what has happened to Flair over the last decade and why he needs to find a new profession.

Before I go deep into the Flair's fall from grace, I need to give props to Shane Ryan at Grantland.com. I haven't been the biggest fan of the site, but his August 2011 piece on Ric Flair is the site's greatest work.

Ryan explains Flair's current financial woes, his failed marriages, and his erratic behavior that could be explained by multiple brain injuries. He is a mess, but he has to keep wrestling in order to pay multiple alimony payments and cover failed real estate deals.

An appearance at the "Gathering of the Juggalos" is a smart move for Flair. A large portion of ICP's fanbase are wrestling fans. The rap duo started Juggalo Championship Wrestling in 1999 and the promotion is still in business. They even had a short runs in ECW, WCW, and WWF at the peak of ICP's popularity.

Flair's current unemployment may only be short-term since WWE plans to launch the WWE Network at the end of the year. It is no secret that Triple H, Vince McMahon's son-in-law, is Flair's close friend. He would be the perfect host for the network's programming, since they will be featuring a lot of classic wrestling matches.WWE will not hire Flair until TNA's lawsuit is settled.

TNA Wrestling is claiming that a former WWE writer they hired leaked information that Flair would soon be released to his former employer. TNA even filed a restraining order against WWE when the rumored 'mole' was made public.

Flair's story is a cautionary tale of the life of an entertainer. Professional wrestling has many of these tales, but now with the big money that professional athletes are receiving, the stories of bankrupt players are becoming more and more common. You can only cash in on your past performance for so long. He is too old to perform in the ring and TNA realized that by letting him go. It was even rumored that Spike TV, the channel that broadcast's TNA programming, banned Flair from making himself bleed and made him wear a shirt while wrestling.

A lot of people will be attending ICP's festival and it isn't as embarrassing as wrestling in a high school gym for $50. I hope he gets an endorsement deal with Faygo out of this appearance.

For those who are not aware of Insane Clown Posse's music, here are the music videos for their songs "Miracles" and "Another Love Song".

Review: WWE Allied Powers DVD & Summer Slam Anthology DVD

We promised you plenty of reviews this week and here is a double dose for your eyes. WWE Entertainment recently provided us with a few DVDs to review and they were great. "Allied Powers: The World's Greatest Tag Teams" DVD set is full of nostalgic and current WWE tag teams. The commentary of the series was done by John Morrison and The Miz, and Bill Simmons was right, there is a lot of unintentional comedy.

The "Allied Powers" set is three-discs long and has so many good matches. You have matches by Degeneration X, The Hart Foundation, The Killer Bees, The Kozlov Brothers, Demolition, The Fabulous Freebirds, The Legion of Doom, The Smoking Gunns, The Dudley Boys, and many more. You have pretty much any notable tag team from AWA, WCW, WWE, ECW, and World Class Wrestling. There are plenty of matches and also a lot of highlights featuring certain tag teams. You can really get lost watching the matches, I wanted to go grab my WWF thumb-wrestlers and re-create a matches with my Hillbilly Jim and Junkyard Dog figures. Okay, not really, but it's a must-buy for any WWE fan that has watched wrestling for any amount of years.

WWE's Summerslam Anthology Vol. 3 & Vol. 4 contains every Summerslam from 1998 to 2007, each volume contains five years of Summerslam Pay-Per-Views. The entire Anthology was released last year, but by breaking it up into volumes, fans can save money and only get certain years without buying the entire 20 year anthology set.

As I stated before, I have watched the WWE since I was old enough to walk. I grew up with Hulk Hogan and Ivan Putski, I think of myself as a critic of the sport as well. The Summerslam series from 1998-2007 has some of the best matches from any Summerslam. Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels was probably my personal favorite. Summerslam has always been a staple of their Pay-Per-Views, but during 98-07, it became their #2 PPV, just behind Wrestlemania. The matches are great and worth the money by purchasing these volumes, because it also cheaper than buying each PPV on DVD individually.

You can buy these items at WWE Shop Zone or where WWE merchandise is sold.