Ric Flair - Ric Flair: To Be the Man

RIC FLAIR

TO BE THE MAN

Keith Elliot Greenberg

Mark Madden

Richard Oriolo

Ric Flair

Pro Wrestling Illustrated Photographs

POCKET BOOKS

POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Copyright 2004 by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

All Rights Reserved.

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Pages 37, 39, 80, 89,106, 108, 114-115, 141, 218, 277, 325, 327 Courtesy of Ric Flair. Pages ii, viii, 1, 12, 13, 21, 24, 28, 29, 31, 43, 48, 49, 56, 57, 59, 60, 67, 70, 71, 72, 73, 82, 84-5, 90, 91, 96, 98-9, 104, 105, 117, 118, 119, 123, 130, 131, 134, 136-7, 140, 148, 149, 151, 154-5, 156, 159, 160-1, 164, 166, 167, 175, 181, 182, 184, 187, 188, 190, 191, 199, 209 (right), 210, 225, 229, 236 (right), 237, 244, 248 (right), 249, 253, 255, 258, 259, 268, 269, 272-3, 282-3, 294, 296-7, 301, 307, 312 (right), 313 Courtesy Pro Wrestling Illustrated Photographs.

All other photos Copyright 2004World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 0-7434-5691-2

eISBN: 978-1-439-12174-0

First Pocket Books hardcover edition July 2004

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

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Designed by Richard Oriolo

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This book is dedicated to my fans.

The blood, sweat, and tears were all for you.

by Paul Levesque, aka Triple H

Theres a scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High where one guy is giving his friend advice on how to be cool, telling him to make wherever he is the place to be. Ric Flair did that naturally. Whether he was wrestling a sixty-minute match, dancing with a harem of women in a nightclub, or just telling stories in some shithole airport in the middle of nowhere, Flair transformed wherever he was into the only place to be on the planet.

Even as a kid, I could tell that there was a quality about Ric Flair that made the people around him look special. Hed get in the ring with somebody, and when the match was over, his opponent had become a star. Ric had greatness, and those who came close to him took some of it with them.

Even though he was a bad guymy dad hated himI just loved Ric Flair, with his stylin and profilin and his talk. To this day, I consider him the greatest interview in the wrestling business.

When I became a wrestler myself, I didnt want to be a guy who just got in the ring and earned a paycheck. I wanted wrestling to be my life. I wanted to be great. I wanted to be the Nature Boy.

No one ever could, of course. But Ive tried to emulate things that I saw in himhis work ethic as a wrestler, dressing the part of a champion, showing up on time no matter how much he had partied the night before. In every way, hes the supreme professional.

Let me state this categorically: Ric Flair is the greatest wrestler of all time. Hes spanned generations, wrestling everybody from the original Nature Boy, Buddy Rogers, to Dusty Rhodes, Hulk Hogan, Bob Backlund, Jack Brisco, Shohei Giant Baba, Harley Race, Roddy Piper, Antonio Inoki, Terry Funk, Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, Randy Macho Man Savage, Bret Hitman Hart, Bill Goldberg, Vince McMahon, and Undertaker. His personality and talent continue to endure. In the arena, at fifty-five years old, the Nature Boy gets one of the biggest reactions on our shownot because of what hes done in the past, but because hes still so entertaining today.

I laugh when Im driving with Ricwell enter some town and hell mention, almost wistfully, This is a great place. I used to have a lot of fun here. I can only look at him and say, Ric, did you ever not have fun in a town?

The man has so many stories to tell. If he were just talking about the part of his career that everyone saw on TV, it would be riveting. Then there are the backstage talesthe crazy things that people in our universe tend to do, Rics role at the center of that, and all the political intrigue that goes on in the wrestling business. After that, we have his private lifethe way he was allegedly stolen from his birth parents and put up for adoption; his inner torment as he saw his legacy demeaned and cheapened in World Championship Wrestling (WCW); and his struggle to reconcile his wild lifestyle with his quest to become the ultimate husband and father.

Despite his public persona, Ric has managed to keep so much of this stuff a secret from even his closest friends. Now, because of this book, its all out in the open.

Invariably, people become disappointed when they get to know their idol. Everyones human, and the image that you build up in your mind is often unachievable. Well, I put Ric Flair on a very high pedestal. Then I got to work side by side with him every day, hear him talking on the phone to his family, and become his friend. Today, Im one of the few people who can say that his hero exceeded the expectations.

I hope you feel the same way.

RIC FLAIR TO BE THE MAN

I dont remember crying much as a kid. But that was a long time ago, before I left Minnesota for Charlotte, bleached my brown hair blond, and became Nature Boy Ric Flair. Thats before I let my self-esteem depend on people with power in the wrestling business.

For the last fifteen years or so, Ive been told that Im the greatest professional wrestler who ever lived. Better than Frank Gotch or Lou Thesz, Bruno Sammartino or Verne Gagne, Gorgeous George or Hulk Hogan. Ric Flair can call himself a sixteen-time world champion. Ric Flair went on the road and wrestled every single daytwice on Saturday, twice on Sunday, every birthday, every holiday, every anniversaryfor twenty straight years. Ive spent more than thirty years of my lifesome days good, some badtrying to prove to myself, to my peers, and to the fans who paid anywhere from five to five hundred dollars that I could be the best at what I chose to do for a living.

When you have no equal in professional wrestling, you have no equal in the sports world. Becausedespite what outsiders may thinkwe are not ninjas or warriors. We are a special breed who can withstand pain, exhaustion, and injury without ever coming up for air. There is no off-season in our business, and were the toughest athletes alive.