Sports: Ric Flair AKA The Nature Boy has retired

[Soulstation1]

I've been watching Slick Ric do his thing for almost 30 years

Woooooooo

[Dan Gould]

I stumbled across the "farewell speech" on RAW last night. Funny how JJ Dillon looks exactly the same but Barry Wyndham looked horrible (they couldn't find Ole Anderson?)* and if I were involved in a Death Pool, I'd pick Greg "The Hammer" Valentine posthaste. It was neat though to see Ricky Steamboat - his matches with Flair were legendary.

* Reading his Wikipedia page, its apparent he and Flair aren't too fond of each other - he wrote in his book that Flair has wrestled the same match for years. I guess the truth hurts.

[Quincy]

"Nature Boy" to me = Kirby. Fought the likes of Bulldog Bob Brown, Harley Race, Pat O'Conner (Airplane Spin), Bobo Brazil (Flying Headbutt), Danny Little Bear, Jack? Brisco (Figure 4 leg lock). Of course the Midwestern championship was considered 2nd only to the US one, or hell, maybe it was the other way around.

[BERIGAN]

"Nature Boy" to me = Kirby. Fought the likes of Bulldog Bob Brown, Harley Race, Pat O'Conner (Airplane Spin), Bobo Brazil (Flying Headbutt), Danny Little Bear, Jack? Brisco (Figure 4 leg lock). Of course the Midwestern championship was considered 2nd only to the US one, or hell, maybe it was the other way around.

Funny, didn't recognize any name except Harley Race. That sounds mighty familiar. Watched a lot of wrestling on St. Louis TV (Channel 11?) as a kid. I remember matches having time limits. 2 Minutes left, only 2 minutes left!!! Ric Flair was around when I was 8-9 years old, and is just NOW retiring????

Looked him up, he's 59!!!! Read this on the Wiki bio...

Flair’s career nearly ended when he was in a serious plane crash in Wilmington, North Carolina that took the life of the pilot and paralyzed Johnny Valentine (also on board were “Mr. Wrestling I” Tim Woods, Bob Bruggers, and promoter David Crockett).[7] Flair broke his back in three places; and at age 26, he was told by doctors that he would never wrestle again.[7] Flair conducted a rigorous physical therapy schedule, however, and he returned to the ring just six months later

So, I'm 18 years younger than him, never once broke my back, yet my back hurts if I stand too long, sit too long, , or lay in bed too long??? Meanwhile, he's been lifting 300 pound men up and throwing them out of the ring for as long as I've been alive???? That's it, I am going to start taking steroids, HGH, and whatever the hell else he uses!

[Swinging Swede]

Looked him up, he's 59!!!! Read this on the Wiki bio...

Meanwhile, Saoul Mamby, the 1980-82 WBC Light Welterweight Champion, has made a comeback at the tender age of 60! He said in an interview that his goal is to become World Champion once again. Good luck with that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saoul_Mamby

[Quincy]

"Nature Boy" to me = Kirby. Fought the likes of Bulldog Bob Brown, Harley Race, Pat O'Conner (Airplane Spin), Bobo Brazil (Flying Headbutt), Danny Little Bear, Jack? Brisco (Figure 4 leg lock). Of course the Midwestern championship was considered 2nd only to the US one, or hell, maybe it was the other way around.

Funny, didn't recognize any name except Harley Race. That sounds mighty familiar. Watched a lot of wrestling on St. Louis TV (Channel 11?) as a kid. I remember matches having time limits. 2 Minutes left, only 2 minutes left!!! Ric Flair was around when I was 8-9 years old, and is just NOW retiring????

Looked him up, he's 59!!!! Read this on the Wiki bio...

2 minutes left! I forgot about that! Thanks for the reminder.

Let's see, I mainly watched around 1972-4 or so. I then began to suspect that maybe all that was seeing wasn't uh, real shall we say. Oh yeah, there was Lord Alfred Hayes too. He was a favorite of my dad (who is from Northern Ireland) as he found the character and the idea of a wrasslin' lord to be hilarious. In fact I just found about a book that I bought for him as light reading for a break in-between all of the science & econ stuff he usually reads. I'm hoping to read the copy I gave as a gift when I go and visit.

It's called Wrestling At The Chase: The Inside Story of Sam Muchnick and the Legends of Professional Wrestling.

The reviews all say it's very well written. Not something one would necessarily expect in a wrestling book, eh? And one reviewer says (thankfully) it's not 300+ pages long but more like 230 or so. Muchnick - now there's a name for ya!

Edited April 3, 2008 by Quincy

[Soulstation1]

I started watching wrestling in the late 70's on WTBS with Gorden Solie

[GA Russell]

I watched every week in fourth and fifth grades. In fourth grade I lived in the DC area. The two I remember the best were Haystacks Calhoun (my favorite!) and Bearcat Wright.

The next year we lived in the Seattle area, and I had my choice of the Seattle station and the Tacoma station. The Seattle matches featured a bad guy named Kurt von Poppenheim. The Tacoma station's were better, with a bad guy named The Texan. A few years later I browsed through a wrestling magazine, and saw that The Texan had been unmasked (!), and had been revealed to be a fellow named Dory Funk.

I received for Christmas this year a book about the AFL called Going Long. It was revealed that in his best year playing football, Wahoo McDaniel earned $40,000+. In his best year wrestling, he earned $600,000.!!!

[Soulstation1]

RIP

Reid Flair only 25/26 Years Old

[Soulstation1]

Nature Boy has some serious health issues

He's in a medically induced coma 

Get well Slick Ric 

Edited August 14, 2017 by Soulstation1

[Soulstation1]

Flair invented swagger 

Edited November 9, 2017 by Soulstation1

[Soulstation1]

Naitch has multiple organ issues......

☹️

[Scott Dolan]

No surprise, really. The shit pro wrestlers put in their bodies would have left most of us dead long ago. 

[Soulstation1]

Space Mountain Is Open For Business 

?

[Soulstation1]

Looking forward to ESPN’s 30 for 30 special on the Nature Boy 

[Rabshakeh]

Going to watch the AEW All In show at Wembley this evening. It's a massive event. I can't believe the size of it or the quality of the card. I haven't been to see wrestling since my son was born (5 years ago) and that was small British promotions linked to NJPW, so this is a big deal. Very excited.

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

Going to watch the AEW All In show at Wembley this evening. It's a massive event. I can't believe the size of it or the quality of the card. I haven't been to see wrestling since my son was born (5 years ago) and that was small British promotions linked to NJPW, so this is a big deal. Very excited.

Ironic that this thread got revived this week when Terry Funk died at 70-something and a really talented guy named Wyndham Rotunda passed at just 36 ... and I think it was a year or so ago that Ric Flair had one final match, long after his retirement.

As far as AEW goes, I am glad there is a well-funded promotion to compete with WWE but the roster has too many interchangeable cruiserweights doing flippy/spinny shit and guys whose conception of a wrestling character is just ridiculous, like Orange Cassidy. It's also a kind of old-age home for former WWE stars as well as WWE talent that got raw deals from Vince but its those guys that make the product watchable, like Daniel Bryan and the former "Dean Ambrose".

And now that I've outted myself as a wrestling "fan" let me say I can't watch any of the shows from either promotion straight thru, but I will flip the station in and out on Mondays/Wednesdays.

 

[Rabshakeh]

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

 

And now that I've outted myself as a wrestling "fan" let me say I can't watch any of the shows from either promotion straight thru, but I will flip the station in and out on Mondays/Wednesdays.

 

That's fair.

I didn't realise Terry Funk just died. I had it in my head he had died a year ago or so. Maybe I had read a report of an illness or something. That's a shame. He was consistently my favourite wrestler across the ages.