Ric Flair

The "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (born February 25, 1949 in Memphis, Tennessee) is a professional wrestler currently with WWE on its Raw brand. He has been one of the leading personalities in professional wrestling since the 1970s. Considered by many to be the greatest professional wrestler in the history of the sport.

Early life

Flair played football at the University of Minnesota while in a pre-medical academic program, but he dropped out before receiving a degree. He then worked as a bouncer before meeting Ken Patera, a former Olympic weightlifter who had established himself in professional wrestling. Patera encouraged Flair to pursue a wrestling career, and Flair soon joined the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), working his first match for that promotion on December 10, 1972.

NWA/WCW Career

Flair recovered from the injury and won the United States Heavyweight Championship five times, then won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time by defeating Dusty Rhodes in 1981. Harley Race won the title from Flair in 1983. Flair regained the title at StarrCade '83 in Greensboro, North Carolina in a steel cage match. Flair would go one to win the NWA title 8 more times. As the NWA champion, he defended his belt around the world, including frequent stops in the Carolinas, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

Throughout the 1980s Flair became affiliated with The Four Horsemen stable, who in various incarnations consisted of manager James J. Dillon, Ole and Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Sid Vicious, Lex Luger and Barry Windham. Flair's main rivals for the NWA title were Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Lex Luger, and Sting. Flair also feuded with Magnum T.A., Nikita Koloff, Ricky Morton of the Rock n' Roll Express, and Kerry von Erich, among countless others.

After a contract dispute with WCW head Jim Herd, while still WCW/NWA champion, Flair left WCW (a group run by Ted Turner which had just abdicated from the NWA "alliance") in 1991 and had his first run in the WWF including winning the WWF Title in a 30-man Royal Rumble. Flair also won another WWF world title before leaving the company.

Flair returned to WCW in 1993, feuding with the likes of Vader, Sting, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Eric Bischoff, gaining the WCW world title 8 more times before the company was bought out by Vince McMahon's WWF. Ric Flair also was also sued by WCW in 1998 for failure to show for a wrestling event. Flair lost the WCW's final match on the March 26, 2001 edition of Nitro to his longtime rival Sting.

WWE Career

After a brief hiatus from pro wrestling Flair returned to the WWF in late 2001 as the on-camera "co-owner" of the company. Flair still wrestles in the WWE (the WWF's new name) and has joined forces with multi-time WWE Champion Triple H to form the stable Evolution. He engaged in a recent (as of 2004) off-screen feud with Bret Hart, in which both claimed to be the best wrestler of all time. Flair has also had issues with Mick Foley, who he derides as nothing more than "a stuntman."

To Be the Man

Despite his age and his less-than-chiseled physique, Ric Flair can still take on wrestlers half his age. Even though he is long past his prime as a "main-eventer," he still serves a purpose by getting in the ring and making the younger wrestlers look good. Flair is "over" in the ring due mostly to his in ring antics, such as his cheating ways (earning him the distinction of being "the dirtiest player in the game"), his trademark strut and his legendary shouting of "WOO!"

Note: In a tradition started by the very vocal fans of ECW, anytime a wrestler delivers a hard back hand chop to the chest of his opponent, fans yell "WOO!"; this is in tribute to Flair, whose stiff chops often made his opponent's chest raw or even bloody. This tradition has carried over to WWE and other North American promotions.

Since the late 70s, he has worn ornate, fur lined robes of many colors with sequins, and since the mid 80s, his approach to the ring was often heralded by the playing of the Richard Strauss composition Also sprach Zarathustra (the theme of the film ). The look and sound complement his cocky in-ring persona.

Late in 2003, WWE released a three-DVD retrospective of Flair's career (focusing mainly on his career prior to 1993), The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection. It became WWE's fastest-selling video package up to that time.

Flair released his autobiography, To Be the Man, in July 2004. The title is taken from one of his catchphrases, "To be the man, you gotta BEAT the man!" Flair is an icon in the Carolinas on a par with Michael Jordan and Richard Petty, and he has made the Charlotte, North Carolina area his home since the days of the Crockett promotion. His name has been mentioned from time to time as a possible candidate for governor of North Carolina.

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