The Fantasy Book on The Nature Boy (~10 Thoughts on the Ric Flair 30 for 30)

10 Thoughts, Columns, Reviews, Top Story

Good day. Today’s Fantasy Book has been pre-empted this week. I watched the Ric Flair 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN last night and decided I would like to offer a quick ~10 thoughts on the program. Please watch it if you haven’t already. It is pretty good.

  1. Ric Flair is the living embodiment of “living his gimmick” and really should be well dead by now. No one should be able to handle that much alcohol abuse, travel, and physical wear and tear for so long. He’s a freaking magic man.
  2. I realize this documentary was not meant to cater to wrestling fans necessarily, but I would have liked a little more detail about certain things. But that would entail a multi-disc DVD release, so no biggie really.
  3. I mean, we all know it, but it was pretty darn satisfying to hear Hulk Hogan say that Flair is 10 times better than him in the ring. That may be underestimating it a bit, but 12 year old me who used to argue with so many people over this very topic finally feels vindicated.
  4. I am a little surprised Vince McMahon didn’t do an interview for this. He obviously didn’t object to it being done as they used the WWE video library and had many former and current employees interviewed. I would have liked to hear Vince’s thoughts about the recruitment of Flair to the WWE and his eventual entrance to the company.
  5. I know Shawn Michaels has found God and is happy now and stuff, but he comes across as a bit of a self-righteous jerk sometimes, doesn’t he?
  6. Yes, I admit it, the retirement portion of the program still makes me tear up a little.
  7. The stuff about Reid’s death was particularly hard to watch. You can still see the pain in Ric and Ashley’s faces so clearly. And that quote from Ric when asked if he could say something to Reid now, “God, I wish you were here. I had so much fun with you. And I regret the fact that I sometimes was your best friend instead of your dad.” Damn, that hits so fucking hard. As a father, I can not imagine the pain he lives with over that.
  8. And no offense to Reid, but where was the mention of David’s time in wrestling? He and Crowbar and Daffney were awesome in WCW.
  9. I like Triple H much more when he is the patient, reserved, level-headed regular business guy. That persona is much more enjoyable and likable than any of his in-ring personas. I would have believed that guy as a face in the ring.
  10. The Undertaker interview portions were not that crazy or anything, but it is nice to see him step out of character to do something for someone he obviously respects.
  11. Watching the old NWA footage really made me miss those shows. Maybe that is why I like Ring of Honor so much more than WWE now. It reminds me more of the old NWA programs.
  12. Man, I never knew Verne Gagne was such a hard-ass. Those stair drills sounded brutal and then his assaulting of Flair after he quit was pretty surprising.
  13. We only got a brief mention by the director about the medical issues Flair suffered recently. The documentary was in post-production, so that was the best they could do. I really wish they could have done a follow-up interview with Ric now. I am wondering how this brush with death has changed his thinking.
  14. I don’t think I knew Ashley started wrestling as a way to fulfill Reid’s dreams. That is almost too much. And it makes me feel 100 times worse knowing they used Reid’s death in her heel turn on Ric.
  15. I really liked the section about how he practiced punching a string hanging off a doorway for three years until he could punch it without it moving. I’d never heard that before and was pretty cool.
  16. 10,000? Really, Ric?
  17. The documentary was much, much sadder than I thought it would be. I mean, I wasn’t expecting a laugh-a-minute, but I wasn’t expecting the last half-hour to bum me out as much as it did.
  18. Still worth watching though.
  19. Flair’s final quote about how he wants to be thought of when he is gone was telling, “It’s easy to say you want to be thought of as the best father that ever lived, but I wasn’t. And I certainly wasn’t the best husband. So I guess I’ll just have to settle for wanting to be thought of as the greatest wrestler and the most entertaining wrestler that ever lived.”

Thanks, all. I will be back next week with a regular Fantasy Book. Have a week!

Human. I think.