RIC FLAIR

Common misspelling: Rick Flair, Ric Flare

Ric Flair Biography

The following biography is from Wikipedia.org “The Free Encyclopedia.”

Richard Morgan Fliehr (born February 25, 1949 in Memphis, Tennessee), better known by his stage name "Nature Boy" Ric Flair is an American professional wrestler currently with WWE on its RAW brand. He has been one of the leading personalities in professional wrestling since the mid 1970s and is considered to be among the elite names in the history of the industry, having been a 16-time World Champion.

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Early life

His birth name, depending on the particular documents examined, was either Fred Phillips, Fred Demaree, or Fred Stewart. He was one of several thousand children adopted through the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an agency that was revealed in 1950 to have fraudulently induced numerous mothers to give up their children for adoption. His adoptive parents, who received him when he was less than a month old, were a physician (father) and a theater writer (mother) who named him Richard Morgan Fliehr. At the time of his adoption, his father was finishing his residency in gynecology in Detroit; soon afterwards, his parents settled with the young Richard in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, Minnesota.

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 pro wrestling career, and Flair soon joined the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), working his first match for that promotion on December 10, 1972.

Professional wrestling

NWA/WCW

After three years with AWA, Flair joined the NWA affiliated Jim Crockett Promotions based in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. On the rise, he suffered a severe back injury in a October 4, 1975 plane crash in Wilmington, North Carolina. Doctors told Flair that he would never wrestle again but Flair proved them wrong by returning to active wrestling the next year. Flair went as far as suing the estate of the pilot who caused his 1975 plane crash and actually won.

Ric Flair 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 on 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.. 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. He was constantly seen with various valets such as Woman, Miss Elizabeth, Fifi, Sherri Martel and Baby Doll.

World Wrestling Federation

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 July 1991. Flair was offered a 50% pay cut and no longer got the option of booking power. WCW officials wanted to make Lex Luger their top star and wanted to make Ric Flair a midcard star. Flair disagreed and a week before 1991 Great American Bash he either quit or was fired by WCW. According to Flair, Jim Herd wanted Flair to change his appearance (i.e. by cutting his hair and wearing a diamond earring) in order to "change with the times."

During Ric Flair's first run in the WWF, he took the WCW/NWA World title belt with him. This is because Herd refused to give Flair the $25,000 deposit he put down on the belt itself, plus interest. Back in the NWA days, the NWA World Champion required to place a $25,000 deposit on the belt to ensure that the champion wouldn't leave the NWA with the belt; he dropped the belt, the $25,000 would be returned to him, plus any interest that had accumulated over time. Eventually, WCW tried to sue the WWF to regain the belt, but the case was dropped, because the belt itself was still the property of the NWA. Eventually, when Flair returned to WCW, the company finally paid Flair $36,000 for the belt (the $25,000 deposit, plus $11,000 interest). In the meantime, Flair wore an old WWF World Tag Team belt that was blurred out on television, and he was billed as the "Real World Heavyweight Champion."

In January of 1992, Flair began his first run in the WWF including winning the WWF Title in a 30-man Royal Rumble. Flair also won another WWF Title before leaving the company. Vince McMahon and Flair himself simply felt that Flair was no longer needed in the WWF. McMahon thought Flair did everything he could in the WWF and Flair was ready to go back to WCW. McMahon and Flair amicably ended Flair's contract with Flair ultimately losing a "loser leaves town match" to Mr. Perfect on Monday Night Raw.

Second WCW run

Flair returned 'home' to WCW in February 1993, feuding with the likes of Vader, Sting, Hulk Hogan, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and Eric Bischoff, gaining the WCW Title 8 more times before the company was bought out by Vince McMahon's WWF.

Ric Flair was also sued by WCW in 1998 for failure to show for a wrestling event. Flair had been working without a contract since February and had refused to sign a new one, citing differences between the document and the terms he had previously agreed to work under. Seeing that he wasn't needed for any WCW television tapings at the time Flair he decided to not show up at a particular WCW Thunder taping. Flair was instead, busy watching his son Reid's amateur wrestling tournament.

WCW's booking committee decided out of nowhere to reform the Four Horsemen that particular night and announcers said he would be on the show over and over with a "big surprise." When Flair failed to show up, WCW got upset and filed a $2 million dollar lawsuit against him for damages, saying he signed a letter of intent to re-sign with WCW. He later filed a suit of his own in response, but the matter was settled out of court. Ric Flair finally returned to television in September of 1998.

When WCW was purchased by the WWF, Flair was the leader of the heel group called The Magnificent Seven with Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, Road Warrior Animal, Rick Steiner, Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell. Flair lost WCW's final match on the March 26, 2001 edition of Nitro to his longtime rival Sting.

Ric Flair was also the very first WCW Champion.

World Wrestling Entertainment

After a brief hiatus from pro wrestling Flair returned to the WWF in late 2001 as the on-camera "co-owner" of the company. He turned face by joining forces with Stone Cold Steve Austin. Flair later turned heel again by turning on Austin. When Austin walked out on the company, Flair turned face once again after an altercation with (then heel) Vince McMahon. McMahon, who purportedly only had control of SmackDown! at the time, challenged Flair (the onscreen owner of Raw) to a match. If Flair lost, he would surrender his ownership of to McMahon, giving him exclusive control of the WWE once more, whereas the opposite would apply if Flair was victorious. Flair lost the match when Brock Lesnar charged the ring, knocking him unconcious and allowing McMahon to make the cover.

Flair remained on Raw as an occasional wrestler, and eventually turned heel once more by betraying Rob Van Dam and joining forces with multi-time WWE Champion Triple H, with whom he later formed the stable Evolution.

Evolution disbanded in 2005 following weeks of in-fighting between HHH and Batista. After several months absence, Flair returned to RAW on August 22, 2005. He was interviewed on Carlito's Cabana, and eventually attacked the host, Carlito. As a result, Ric Flair has once more turned face.

On August 29, 2005, Ric Flair was assigned to a tag team match with Shawn Michaels against Carlito and Chris Masters. During the broadcast, Flair was brutally beaten and busted open by an unknown assailant in a backstage area, and thus the match was changed to a handicap match with Shawn Michaels against Carlito and Masters. Ric Flair (bandaged, with a bloodied face and shirt) did join Michaels as a much-needed tag partner near the end of the match, but was eventually rendered unable to continue by Chris Masters's finishing move, the Master Lock.

On Sept. 6, 2005 Carlito was the one who attacked and bloodied up Flair. Those two will meet at Unforgiven for the Intercontinentol Championship.

Legacy

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, including cheating ways (earning him the distinction of being "the dirtiest player in the game"), his trademark strut and his legendary shouting of "Wooo!"

In a tradition started by the vocal fans of ECW during a time when the WCW management was thought to be unjustly holding Flair down, anytime a wrestler delivers a hard back hand chop to the chest of his opponent, fans yell "Wooo!" in tribute to Flair, whose stiff chops often made his opponent's chest raw or even bloody. This tradition long outlived any controversy it was meant to protest and has carried over to WWE and almost all 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 2001: A Space Odyssey). The look and sound complements 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 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.

In 2004, Flair engaged in an off-screen rivalry 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 attacked in his autobiography, writing "I don’t care how many thumbtacks Mick Foley has fallen on, how many ladders he’s fallen off, how many continents he’s supposedly bled on, he’ll always be known as a glorified stuntman."

Profile

• Hometowns: Edina, Minnesota & Charlotte, North Carolina

• Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)

• Weight: 243 lbs

• Trained by: Verne Gagne

• Previous Gimmicks: "Ramblin" Ricky Rhodes, Black Scorpion (masked), CEO of WCW (storyline), GM of RAW (storyline)

• Factions: Four Horsemen, Evolution, Yamasaki Corporation, Alliance To End Hulkamania, Team Package, Millionaires Club, Magnificent Seven

Trademark quotes

• "To be the man, you've got to beat the man!"

• "Diamonds are forever, and so is Ric Flair!"

• "Hey baby! Do you want to ride Space Mountain?"

• "I'm a limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheeling-dealing son of a gun, who's kissed all the girls and made them cry."

• "Whether you like it, or you don't like it, learn to love it, because it's the best thing going today."

• "Space Mountain may be the oldest ride in the park, but it still has the longest line!"

• "Step back and see what's causin' all this!"

• "The ladies are always in line to ride Space Mountain all night long!"

• "Because I'm Ric Flair - and you're not!"

• "Wooo!"

• "This is Flair country!"

Finishing and signature moves

• Figure-Four Leglock

• Chop Block

• Backhand Chop

• Kick to Groin

• The Low Blow

• Thumb to the eye

• Knee Drop

• Stalling Butterfly Suplex

• Back Suplex

• Elbow Drop to the knee

Flair's "Dirty" Moves

Ric Flair has a history of using illegal techniques in order to gain the upper hand on his usually younger, more athletic opponents. When he is being physically outclassed by an adversary, Flair will usually cower in a ring corner, pleading his opponent for mercy, or he will back away from his opponent while waving his hands before him and pleading, "Nooooo!" As his opponent stands bewildered at the spectacle of watching a 55 year old man cringe and beg like a coward, Flair then stuns his opponent with one or more moves from his arsenal of illegal maneuvers, usually a thumb to the eye or low blow. As his opponent staggers around in pain from the unexpected attack, Flair then capitalizes on the tide of battle turning, and executes his famous figure-four leglock, or, if he is willing to toy with his opponent, some more entertaining chops to the enemy's chest.

Flair's "Failing" Moves

Ric Flair is perhaps as famous for the moves he doesn't perform as the moves he does. When Flair scales the turnbuckle, it's usually accompanied by a commentator stating that it never works... and it never does. Ric is certain to be punched, shoved, or slammed off that turnbuckle.

The "Flair Flop": Flair, after attempting but failing a strenuous move or because he's "tired", will execute a perfect flop right on his face. This is is often followed by his "pleading old man" set up and a cheap shot, but not always.

Title History

NWA World Title

01. Defeated Dusty Rhodes September 17, 1981 in Kansas City, Missouri

02. Defeated Harley Race November 24, 1983 in Greensboro, North Carolina

03. Defeated Harley Race March 23, 1984 in Kallang, Singapore

04. Defeated Kerry Von Erich in Yokosuka, Japan on May 24, 1984

05. Defeated Dusty Rhodes August 7, 1986 in St. Louis, Missouri

06. Defeated Ronnie Garvin November 26, 1987 in Chicago, Illinois

07. Defeated Ricky Steamboat May 7, 1989 in Nashville, Tennessee

08. Defeated Sting January 11, 1991 in East Rutherford, New Jersey

09. Defeated Tatsumi Fujinami May 19, 1991 in St. Petersburg, Florida--regains recognition as "NWA Champion" in Japan but never lost his status as WCW Champion in the U.S.; victory does not count towards World Title totals.

10. Defeated Barry Windham July 18, 1993 in Biloxi, Mississippi--title considered as the "NWA Heavyweight Title" at this point and not a World Title due to the existence of a WCW World Title at the same time--does not count towards the World Title totals.

WCW World Title

01. Defeated Sting January 11, 1991 in East Rutherford, New Jersey

02. Defeated Vader December 27, 1993 in Charlotte, North Carolina

03. Defeated Ricky Steamboat May 14, 1994 in Atlanta, Georgia (title had been held up)--this victory settles the disputed finish of their previous encounter, but does not count towards the World Title totals.

04. Defeated Randy Savage December 27, 1995 in Nashville, Tennessee

05. Defeated Randy Savage February 11, 1996 in St. Petersburg, Florida

06. Defeated Hulk Hogan March 14, 1999 in Louisville, Kentucky

07. Defeated Jeff Jarrett May 15, 2000 in Biloxi, Mississippi

08. Awarded the title on May 29, 2000 in Salt Lake City, Utah

WWE/WWF World Title

01. Won the Royal Rumble on January 19, 1992 in Albany, New York

02. Defeated Randy Savage September 1, 1992 in Hershey, Pennsylvania

WCW International Title

01. Defeated Sting June 23, 1994 in Charleston, South Carolina--not recognized as a World Title.

WCW/NWA/Mid-Atlantic United States Title

01. Defeated Bobo Brazil July 29, 1977 in Richmond, Virginia

02. Defeated Tim Woods April 9, 1978 in Charlotte, North Carolina

03. Defeated Ricky Steamboat April 1, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina

04. Defeated Jimmy Snuka April 19, 1980 in Greensboro, North Carolina

05. Defeated Greg Valentine November 24, 1980 in Greenville, North Carolina

06. Defeated Konnan July 7, 1996 in Daytona Beach, Florida

NWA United States Heavyweight Title (Toronto version)

01. Defeated Tim Woods May 1978 in Toronto, Ontario

02. Defeated Ricky Steamboat April 1, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina

NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title

01. Defeated Wahoo McDaniel September 20, 1975 in Hampton, Virginia

02. Defeated Wahoo McDaniel May 24, 1976 in Charlotte, North Carolina

03. Defeated Wahoo McDaniel October 16, 1976 in Greensboro, North Carolina

NWA/NWA Mid-Atlantic T.V. Title

01. Defeated Paul Jones June 3, 1975 in Raleigh, North Carolina

02. Defeated Rufus Jones May 1977

NWA Missouri Heavyweight Title

01. Defeated David Von Erich July 15, 1983

NWA World Tag Team Titles

01. Defeated Ole and Gene Anderson December 25, 1976 with partner Greg Valentine

02. Defeated Ole and Gene Anderson October 30, 1977 with partner Greg Valentine

03. Defeated Paul Jones and Baron Von Raschke August 8, 1979 with partner Blackjack Mulligan

NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles

01. Defeated Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers in 1974 with partner Rip Hawk

02. Defeated Dino Bravo and Tiger Conway Jr. in 1977 with partner Greg Valentine

03. Defeated Paul Jones and Ricky Steamboat October 30, 1978 Greenville, South Carolina with partner John Studd

WWE World Tag Team Titles

01. Defeated The Dudley Boyz December 14, 2003 in Orlando, Florida with partner Batista

02. Defeated Rob Van Dam and Booker T on March 22, 2004 in Detroit, Michigan with partner Batista

Awards

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked Flair # 2 out of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003.

• Flair won many PWI Awards over the years. He won Rookie of the Year in 1975. He won Most Hated in 1978 and 1987. He won Wrestler of the Year in 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1992. He was involved in the Match of the Year in 1983 (vs. Harley Race), 1984 (vs. Kerry Von Erich, 1986 (vs. Dusty Rhodes and 1989 (vs. Ricky Steamboat. He was involved in the Feud of the Year in 1987 (Four Horsemen vs. Super Powers & Road Warriors), 1988 (vs. Lex Luger), 1989 (vs. Terry Funk) and 1990 (vs. Lex Luger).

• He is a member of the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame (inducted in 1996) and the Wrestling Informer Hall of Fame (inducted in 2002).

Miscellaneous

• Ric's son David Flair is also a professional wrestler.

• Ric's youngest son Reid Fliehr is an accomplished high school wrestler and made a couple of appearances on WCW TV along with his sisters Ashley and Megan.

• Ric hosted a short-lived talk show in WCW called A Flair For the Gold in 1993 as a compromise to get around a no-compete clause in another contract. He could appear on TV, but not wrestle. Arn Anderson would sit at the bar and Flair's maid Fifi, would always be cleaning or bearing gifts.

• Ric has appeared in three movies, The Wrestler (1974), Body Slam (1987) and Sting: Moment of Truth (2004).

• Ric is not related to the Andersons. He has been called their cousin in the NWA and WCW.

• Ric is sometimes seen attending the Carolina Hurricanes NHL hockey games. At many home games when the Hurricanes score a goal, a trademark Ric Flair "Carolina Goal! Wooo! Wooo Wooo!" is played.

• Fez Whatley, cohost of the XM Satellite show, "The Ron and Fez Show," has been doing a funny impersonation of "The Nature Boy" since the mid-1980s.

• Flair has been active in North Carolina Republican politics, most notably supporting Jesse Helms.

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The above biography has been copied in part or in whole from an article on Wikipedia.org "The Free Encyclopedia."  It has been modified under the NGU Free Document License Section 5 in the following manner: (1) All links within the article have been removed, including text links such as "[#]"; (2) The "[Edit]" text and link have been removed [if you would like to update the article, you may do so from the original page]; (3) the table of Contents links and text have been removed; and (4) all of the sections of the original article have not been copied. All of the above text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Document License.

URL of Original Article:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_Flair

Date Article Copied: September 7, 2005

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