One Year Ago Today I Spent A Surreal 45 Minutes With "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair

I’ve told the story before on my podcast, but it’s worth retelling on a lazy Friday, because it’s the one year anniversary of one of the most surreal 45 minutes of my life.

I used to lend a hand at WrestlePro, a New Jersey independent wrestling promotion run by my friend Pat Buck. I’d help set up the ring, entrance ramp, run the spotlight/social media during the show, and break down afterwards. I just loved being around the business, seeing how the sausage was made, and meeting the past, present, and future stars of professional wrestling. Pat, the promoter, is also a wrestler, and has a genuinely brilliant mind for the business, so I’d always get to pick his brain after the show as well.

On September 10th, 2016, WrestlePro put on it’s biggest show ever with Cody Rhodes in the main event and Ric Flair making an appearance. Flair was signing autographs in a private room before the show, and when it cleared out about 45 minutes prior to belltime, I asked the Pat if I could just hang there until it was time for the show to start. He said of course, and that’s what I did. I sat next to the 16x World Champion Ric Flair, and I just hung out. There was probably 5 or 6 other guys in the room, all huddled around a television playing some random NWA Flair matches from the 80s, all ears glued to whatever the Nature Boy had to say. He was in a great mood, telling road stories, commenting on the matches we were watching, burying Blackjack Mulligan, and giving us an inside look at 80s booking decisions. He told any guy that waltzed in that it’d cost them $500 for a picture, $500 for an autograph, and asked any girl that strolled by what their plans were later in the night. I was texting my older brother the whole time, marking out, and he was pretty upset that he couldn’t be there so he asked me to relay a message to Naitch. When I told Flair, “My brother couldn’t make it today, but he wanted me to let you know he thought it was really pimp when you kissed Miss Elizabeth at WrestleMania VIII even though you lost to Macho Man”, his response was perfect, and completely blurred the line between his character and his real life persona. He looked forward, and said, “So did I, brotha. So did I.”

When it was time for me to leave and work the show, I tried to give him the $50 he was charging for a picture, but he wouldn’t take my money. In some weird way, I felt like we bonded because of that. It was awesome.

Carrabis and I got to interview Ric’s daughter, Charlotte, for From The Top Rope yesterday (that’ll release on Wednesday), and she said he’s doing very well and is out of the hospital which was obviously fantastic news. Long live Ric Flair, the stylin’, profilin’, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’ n’ dealin’ son of a gun.