The Post Flair Era is in full swing. I am sure many of us have our memories of Ric Flair. Of course the many great interviews on TBS each week will always live in our minds. The first time I really interacted with Flair was a fund raiser for Nikita Koloff’s wife at the time Mandy. She had been diagnosed with cancer and many of the NWA Stars gathered at Nikita’s Gym a gym that I would eventually become a partner in for a fund raiser. It was Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger, Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin and Precious, Ivan Koloff and others. When The Nature Boy walked in it wasn’t like the others, it was an event.
I can remember one night being in Norfolk, VA. I was rooming with Nikita and he very rarely ever went out. If he did it was for dinner. I told him I was going to go down to the bar. It wasn’t long after that I was back in the room. When I arrived Nikita said “I thought that you were going to the bar”. I answered and told him that Flair had a tray of drinks that he was handing out and I could see that I was next on the list. I am not and have all my life been a non drinker. I wasn’t sure how you tell the Nature Boy "no thanks", so with that I left. Isn’t it funny, but there are few other non drinkers in the business that I am aware of. One is Gene Ligon, the others are Jerry “The King” Lawler and “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart. You would have never thought two non-drinkers would get into a fight but yet somehow Lawler and I did it.
One night in Richmond, VA Mike Rotundo was the television champion and he was defending the title against Steve “Doctor Death” Williams. Well we were doing a Dusty finish that night. The referee was Tommy Young, he was to take a bump down when he did Rotundo was to dump Williams over the top rope which was a disqualification. Well, all I knew was that I was supposed to look for a suplex and when that came I was to run down and make a three count and declare Williams the new champion. Well I did my job but the DQ apparently never happened. Well the people booed the hell out of the whole thing when we tried to take the belt off of Williams. The thing I remember the most was when we got behind the curtain Flair was livid, screaming about how we killed the whole club. I had never seen Flair so upset but he was right what had just happened was terrible. I always made sure after that I knew everything that was to be going on whether it was my job or not. This came in handy years later in Winston-Salem NC when I had to step into a match with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and Robert Fuller. I will tell that story in another article
How about the time that Ric Flair went two segments with George South on TBS. He let George throw him all over the place to make a point. George is one of the Carolina’s most famous enhancement talents and member of The Cruel Connection and The Gladiator's. Flair’s point was you don’t ask the World Champion to go two segments with an enhancement talent.
Another story was told to me by David Isley. He was working in an enhancement role for the NWA, He was wrestling Chris Champion who by this time was doing his Karate Kid gimmick. Well, it seems that Chris really nailed David with the kick. When they got in the back Flair got on the headset and was screaming at Chris for what he had done being so sloppy. It was never considered a good thing to hurt solid enhancement talent. The really cool thing was Flair gave David a one hundred dollar bill to go to the doctor. Of course that money should have come from Jim Crockett but it was Flair stepped up and isn’t that why he is The Nature Boy.
Another story I always got a kick out of was told to me by Gene Ligon who was sitting next to Flair when this happened. It was during the time that Flair was running a program with Jimmy Garvin. Week after week Flair would be out there talking about Precious riding Space Mountain. Well finally Garvin came back at him and said , You know Space Mountain is the shortest ride in the park and did you ever notice when you get off of it you always feel just a little bit sick? Gene told me that Flair said "that son or a bitch". I know it was quite a while before Flair spoke of Space Mountain again on television
There are other story’s that will get told over time but these are some of the memories I will have of Ric Flair as the years go by.
The picture with this article comes from a recent wrestling convention in Pennsylvania. This photo was taken by my fried Bob Mulrenin and sent to me by Tammy Sytch. It is Road Warrior Animal, Tammy “Sunny” Sytch and Scott Steiner.
This has been a piece of my mind
