With last Monday’s announcement that Ric Flair will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, it’s time to look back at the incredible career of “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.   Flair’s accomplishments in the ring are legendary.   With 16 world championships to his credit (including the NWA and WWE) and multiple regional singles and tag team titles, Flair’s importance as a top draw is irrefutable.  Equally important is his in-ring ability which made Flair’s name synonymous with the phrase “able to carry a broomstick to a five star match”.

After dropping out of college, Flair began working as an insurance salesman.   Although he was successful selling insurance, his attention turned to the sport of professional wrestling.   While moonlighting as a bouncer at an upscale restaurant, Flair befriended Olympic weigh-lifting hopeful Ken Patera and began training with Patera.   In his autobiography To Be the Man, Flair joked about the differing results from their training:

Before the Olympics, he was trying to become as big as possible.   I began eating like him.   We’d drink two gallons of milk and eat two dozen eggs-yolks and all-then go to Burger King for five Whoppers.   He transformed everything into muscle.   In my case, 40 percent of what I ate became fat.   (Flair, 2003, p. 15) [1] .

Flair’s friendship with Patera saw both men try out for AWA promoter Verne Gagne’s wrestling camp .   The training was brutal with Flair running miles in sub-zero temperatures and performing hundreds of free squats, push-ups, and sit-ups.   Factor in the torturous training of wrestler Billy Robinson and it’s little surprise that Flair quit the camp twice before Verne Gagne talked him back into it.   Flair graduated the camp (along with future stars such as Greg Gagne and the Iron Sheik) and began working in Gagne’s AWA promotion with his first match taking place on December 10, 1972.

As a rookie learning the ropes in the AWA, Flair experienced the hazing that was common to anyone entering the business at this time.   Flair had all of his clothes thrown out of buildings, was abandoned on the side of roadways by his traveling companions, and found himself serving as a bellhop for the promotion’s top stars.   Like his colleagues before him, Flair toughed things out and proved himself to the veteran wrestlers, eventually earning their acceptance as a fellow wrestler.

Although Flair only worked in the AWA from 1972 to 1974, the time there was invaluable both in terms of learning the ropes and making friends.   Working in the AWA, Flair learned from some of the all-time greats including Dick Murdoch, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race,   Ray Stevens, and Wahoo McDaniel.   These men would cross paths in the ring with Flair over the next two decades, both as teammates and opponents.   They would dispense advice to Flair that would last him a lifetime and shape his storied career [2] .   Few could have imagined just how far the young wrestler would eventually go.

When Wahoo McDaniel left the AWA for the Charlotte based Jim Crockett Promotions, he told Flair he’d put in a good word for him with his friend, booker George Scott.   Not long after, Flair received word that the promotion was interested in him and he prepared to leave the AWA.   While he was extremely grateful to promoter Verne Gagne for his big break into the business, he had no idea how much Gagne expected from him until he was ready to leave.   As Flair prepared to leave the AWA, Gagne handed him a contract he asked Flair to sign which would send ten percent of his future earnings over the next five years to Gagne.   Flair was ready to sign the contract but eventually declined after speaking with his new boss Jim Crockett Jr [3] .

In 1974, Flair entered Jim Crockett Promotions (better known to some fans as Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling), a promotion that would become his home for much of his career.   Here, Flair would slowly evolve into the “Nature Boy” persona he is forever known by, dropping the “k” in Rick to become Ric Flair, and adopting the “Nature Boy” nickname at the suggestion of booker George Scott.

To help him get over in his new home, George Scott paired Flair with veteran wrestler Rip Hawk, creating a storyline blood relationship with Flair being the nephew of Hawk.   Their pairing led to Flair’s first championship belt as the two won the area’s Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship.   Working as a heel, Flair quickly became known for his bigger than life promos.   Although his actions in the ring earned him the boos of the fans, his interviews between matches entertained the fans nonetheless.

With ever-growing skills in the ring and a knack for talking, it didn’t take Flair long before he became one of the promotion’s top heels.   Whether he was billed in six-man tag matches with the promotion’s top heel team, Gene and Ole Anderson (Flair was billed as the storyline cousin of the equally storyline Anderson brothers) or competition in singles matches, Flair worked with the promotion’s top stars.   It was clear to everyone watching that Flair was on the fast track to the top [4] .   Before long, Flair would see another title added to his list of accomplishments as he won the Mid-Atlantic Television championship from popular wrestler Paul Jones on February 8, 1975 (Wrestling Title Histories N.W.A Mid-Altantic Television Title, 2003) .     Later on that year, Flair won the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship from Wahoo McDaniel (Flair’s on-screen rival but good friend backstage)in July, another sign of the promotion’s faith in Flair’s drawing ability.  

While 1975 began well for Flair, the latter part of the year nearly saw the end of Flair’s career.  On October 4, 1975, Flair (along with fellow wrestlers Bob Bruggers, Mr. Wrestling II, Johnny Valentine and announcer David Crockett) flew on a twin-engine Cessna 310 from Charlotte, North Carolina to Wilmington, North Carolina where he was booked to wrestle in a stadium show.    According to accounts from those involved in the accident, the plane crashed after stalling from lack of fuel, crashing into trees not far from the landing strip they were headed for.   Everyone involved in the crash suffered injuries with Bob Bruggers and Johnny Valentine seeing their careers ended (Valentine sustained a   broken back that led to partial paralysis for the rest of his life while Bruggers fared somewhat better despite also having his back broken), pilot Mike Sarkas plunging into a coma and eventually dying, Mr. Wrestling II and David Crockett hurt, and Ric Flair’s career left in doubt.

 After the crash, Flair was told by doctors that his back had been broken in three places.   They weren’t sure if he would ever wrestle again but Flair was determined to try.   Six months later, Flair would return to JCP to the cheers of the Mid-Atlantic fans.   As much as they had hated him, Flair’s accident led to an outpouring of emotion from the territory’s fans as they sent him get-well cards and other well wishes.   Upon his return to the promotion, Flair made it clear that he had no use for the fans’ sentiments and discarded the stack of cards and letters, quickly turning the fans’ love into hate.   Ric Flair was back and he was aiming for the top.

The accident saw a physical transformation in Flair as he dropped from 255 pounds to 180 (Flair, 2003, p. 54) morphing into the lean, mean wrestling machine forever known as “The Nature Boy”.    Despite a potentially career-ending injury, Flair was ready to reach new heights of greatness.   As the United States celebrated its Bicentennial, Ric Flair too would celebrate as his career soared as it had never done before.

REFERENCES:

Flair, R. &. (2004). Ric Flair: To Be the Man. New York: Pocket Books.

Race, H. &. (2004). King of the Ring: The Harley Race Story. Champaign: Sports Publishing, L.L.C.

WWE Home Video. (2003) The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection Volume One

WWE Home Video. (2005). WWE Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 80's.

 WWE Home Video. (2006). The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA