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Presented by Mini.

Nature Boy is the story of Ric Flair, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.

But this is really a human interest story, whether you like wrestling or not.

He was sort of this flamboyant,

cocky, arrogant guy

that, you know, every guy wanted to be and every girl wanted to be with.

The film is really book-ended between two interviews that I did with Ric Flair that were 16 months apart.

The very first interview we did for the film and the very last interview we did for the film,

Ric kind of opens up in a way that he's never opened up before.

He's willing to show all of his warts, the good, the bad, and the ugly of being the nature boy Ric Flair.

The 1980s was the perfect time for wrestling, and I was the perfect wrestler for the 1980s.

Wrestling was my love.

No one has ever done it better than a nature boy.

Right life, big cities, pretty ladies, nature boys.

The nature boy wasn't a wrestling character, the nature boy wasn't fake, the nature boy was me.

I've sacrificed everything for wrestling.

It's my life, it's my heart, it's my soul.

To be the man, you gotta beat the man.

And I'm saying, woo, I'm the man.

I always wanted to be the man.

I could never live just being a man.

I gave my entire life to the wrestling business.

I paid the price.

I am the Nature Boy.

Oh, no. Thank you. Thank you. It's an honor.

So, I'm talking to the lens.

You're talking to me. You see my face in the lens.

Yeah, okay.

Cool. Good to go?

Yes, we are.

Rolling?

Everybody rolling.

You had mentioned, like, the first time we talked, like, you grew up...

Love and wrestling right like when did you first become a fan of wrestling as a kid always a kid? Yeah, I couldn't wait for it

to come on

Saturday night six o'clock I

Grew up on the crusher and the bruiser and growing onion all these characters and I was on for an hour

Saturday night channel 11 in Minneapolis, but I couldn't wait for it to come on

I'd holler to my dad come on now watch this my dad could

My dad could have nothing to do with it, you know?

What can you tell me about your parents? Like, who were they?

She's just two poor souls that adopted me.

They lost a daughter.

A year before they adopted me, my mom was not able to have children again.

So they adopted me.

They had, they had my birthday, and then they had what's called my anniversary every year.

Like I was born February 25th, and my anniversary was March 18th, the day they adopted me.

I was about 10 years old, they told me.

And when they told me, I didn't care.

My dad was a medical doctor, and they just, they just both wore it.

in the theater and drama and my dad was the national director of the American

Community Theater Association and my mom and dad traveled on the weekends and I

was running around and liking sports. They couldn't never relate to me and I

couldn't relate to the community theater. I'm sure that I on a regular basis

The big one was I was trying to buy liquor at Van Hall's liquor store in Minneapolis.

It had a phony ID from Wisconsin.

And the cops came and got me and arrested me. It was the eve of Father's Day.

So my dad had to come down and get me to the Dyna Police Department. That wasn't cool.

They just sat me down at the kitchen table and said, why?

And I said, I don't know. I don't have the answer.

I got enough trouble to be sent to a private school.

My parents shipped me out of public school to a boarding school in Wisconsin.

And, I mean, you were big into sports like in high school, right?

What sports did you play?

Football, wrestling, and track and field.

He did really well in wrestling and in football in high school.

And I don't know if his parents ever came to any of his games.

They didn't have time to see Rick, and I guess they didn't want to be bothered.

And why did they send Rick away? I guess they didn't want to be bothered.

Were you recruited, like by colleges?

Yeah.

Who recruited you?

Michigan, Lawrence, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska.

Just about seven schools

Why did you choose Minnesota?

Because Michigan would let me in

We met at the University of Minnesota, and his mother says he's yours

Little did I know

I never saw my practice and I said,

where the heck is Flarewell?

I said, he had practice.

Well, his grades weren't good enough.

They had a big party one night,

fraternities, they'd have the sororities come over.

And in the old house that Rick looked in,

there was this window up over the sidewalk.

And the story goes as the girls walked up.

The light goes on, there's a light bulb above the window,

and there's Rick standing up there, star cast naked.

Welcome, ladies, to the Delta House.

I don't know if his parents gave him a lot of attention when he was younger.

You know, he seemed like he was always looking for that.

I had to go to summer school for two months.

I went two days.

got my car, and drove to Chicago.

Never been told my mom and dad.

Did you always know that's what you're going to be, a wrestler?

No, I, uh, my father's a physician, uh, in Minneapolis, and, uh,

at one time I wanted to be a dentist, and, uh,

I got into school and got so wrapped up in, uh,

the fast lane and the fraternity life and you know all the good things that college represents

except for the academic part of it that I didn't achieve academically as well as I probably should have

and wrestling is something that I always watched and I always had a lot of admiration for people like

My father, Vern, had this open wrestling camp.

I called Rick. He was playing semi-pro football.

I think he had an opportunity here to, you know, do well in wrestling.

He said, well, I don't know how to wrestle.

Well, we're all going to learn how.

He loved the sport. He loved watching it.

He wanted to be a part of it.

So here was his chance.

When I went to Vern Janya's camp, late 74,

and it was the hardest, hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

We went over to this stairwell, and it was a fire escape stairwell cement cement floors

And he had us running

So we'd run all the way up to the top turn around and come back down

Fireman carry another was get a guy up in the shoulders and walk him up 21 flights of stairs

You just got finished running them and now you're carrying a guy and of course

You know make it up three or four flights and you're leaning against the wall taking breath

You know and then go up to a treatment like that and some guys were dropping guys some guys were falling over and

Then we get to the top drop them come back down. Then he carries you up

Now you drop down on all fours and he grabs your ankles and you wheelbarrow on your hands up 21 flights

I had so many bruises on my face because my arms would start shaking and my triceps shoulders and my traps would just start burning and collapse and I'd catch myself on the edge of a stair, boom, boom, boom, like that.

We go in the ring for another hour. An old bar, no windows and one light bulb above the ring. We learn how to hit the ropes and when you first start hitting the ropes it tears all the skin off underneath your arms.

We would do bumps.

Probably a thousand bumps each a day, first you'll learn how to fall and then your feet hit the floor, your butt up,

shin tucked in, so your whole body absorbs the shot.

And it was amazing the way your body reacts to it because the first six weeks everything's black and blue and there's skin off

and you get matte burns all over.

Rick actually quit.

So Vern said, where's Flair? I said, well, he quit.

Then he got in the car, and he came, and he called Rick.

Rick came outside, and he said, what are you doing?

He said, I'm quitting.

I can't make it.

Vern open-handed him, knocked him right on his ass.

He said, you're not quitting.

Get your stuff.

Get in my car.

We're going out to the camp now.

You're not a quitter.

He saw the talent that Rick had, and there was no way

he was going to let him quit that sport.

I didn't argue with them, and I went back, but I wanted to quit three more times, it was so tough.

I wasn't prepared for it, I weighed 300 pounds, I was in terrible cardiovascular shape.

Did you know what pro wrestling like really was when you went to his camp? Did you think it was a hundred percent legit?

Oh, yeah, and after there, I thought I even thought it was more but we didn't we don't we never

When I had my first match nobody said a word to me

Just saying that Rick flair was coached by Vern Ghani and Billy Robinson both of them are probably considered some of the

Leading technical wrestlers in the sport of professional wrestling. They said you're gonna wrestle ten minutes

Nobody told me anything not able to get Taylor off his feet and that should be it for the nature boy Rick flair

How did you learn that wrestling was predetermined?

Well, I found out, you know good. I was in the locker room listening to him talk

I'm wrestling mostly fake moves. It's wrestling. I'm sorry fake moves. You know, none of wrestling is fake

You know, I hear a lot of booze out there, but I don't see anybody qualified to say booze.

Would it anger you, especially when you were younger, when people would say wrestling is fake?

Yes.

Can you explain that to me? Why that?

Because it's not fake, it's choreographed.

And we started using the word choreographed probably in the past 15 years.

What did your parents think of you getting involved in this like crazy all they thought it was insanity?

Yeah, I tried to borrow four hundred dollars for my dad when I was leaving to come down. He said you're crazy

He said he'll be back and I'm not I won't get the money back

I don't think they ever got it

You see would you say you were kind of boring when you first started as a wrestler

Boring

You mean my character? Yeah. Oh, yeah, my character was terrible.

I just Rick Fleer. I wanted to change my name and God yes, that Rick Fleer is a cool name.

It wasn't until when I crashed in the airplane that I found my character.

We were flying to Wilmington, North Carolina.

We all got to the airport, and there were six of us

coming into pilot, and unbeknownst to us,

the guy was only carrying half a tank of gas.

Six thousand feet, five miles from the runway,

it went boom, pinned, and he reached down

the pool for the reserve, there wasn't a reserve.

Ten seconds later, the next one pinned,

and off we went.

We stuck in the ground at 230 miles an hour.

We just tore the whole road trees down.

Wrote my back in three places.

I had what they call compression fractures of T-10, 11, and 12,

where they were, they're normally about this far apart.

They were all smashed together.

I went from 255 pounds down to 180 pounds.

I mean, I was just horrific.

I had to start working out again.

It's a lot of due diligence to get myself back in shape for it.

How did you become the nature boy?

There was a nature boy, Buddy Rogers, who was, you know, concerned at one time,

the greatest champion in the NBA.

He had that great look, tan, always dressed nice, hair slick back, blonde, great physique, great body, and when I crashed in the airplane with, you know, healing and if I was going to make it back, I wanted to be blonde and be a bad guy.

Well, where did that woo come from?

I love Jerry Lee Lewis.

He was a great ball to fire a woo.

Oh, I give him the woo!

Or the woo!

Or the woo!

Woo!

Woo!

Woo!

I had a really cool gimmick.

The ropes and everything.

That was the modern day Buddy Rogers.

But I took buddy Roger's stuff to a holder's level.

Sixty feet of the finest jet money can buy.

And it doesn't belong to Bert Reynolds.

And it doesn't belong to John Drovolta.

It doesn't belong to President Ford.

Woo!

It belongs to the one and the only Nature Boy Ric Flair.

So you invented a Ric Flair. Now, there are people in the world who invent themselves.

They, I guess they sit around one day, maybe as a child, and they fantasize what they'd like to be.

And then, you know, they work it up and they change it and modify it.

And of course they have to dress it. A whole lot is the clothes.

And then they turn into this very different person.

He changed. I saw a change in him and you know, he wouldn't come home more and more and

when he started making more money, he bought a limousine,

his own limousine.

And he started having the robes made for himself, the big robes with the feathers.

He just got bigger and bigger.

More women would be attracted to him, and I guess it just he just couldn't

Stop it

I think he got really wound up in it and it was like two separate lives

He could have his fantasy world of wrestling and the craziness of that

And he could have his little family on the side

until it got more of the fantasy that took over.

Rick Flair's coming to town!

Woo! And he's gonna do what he does best!

And that's take care of business! Woo!

I knew him before he was Rick Flair.

He was Rick Flair.

Richard Flair was just someone that

I made it through one year of college, and after that it was an age.

I love to come out here and tell these people, weekend and week out, that I'm the greatest athlete alive.

It was something I was really good at, and once I realized how good I was at it, then it became a disease.

What about wrestling led you to do this? It has to go beyond just a paycheck, right?

Well, what it gave me was

The opportunity to do anything I wanted to do basically in life

Pulling up the arena having 1500 people out there howling and screaming at you and then walking down that aisle

Knowing that you own the crowd

They're there because of you

It was a rush. I loved it

He didn't just start out doing all that stuff at one time

Over a period of time in those days in the 70s, especially when his career was really forming you wrestled literally every night of the week

In the NWA, Ric Flair was natural pretty early.

The NWA in the 80s was the Boston Celtics, the WWF was the Harlem Globetrotters.

It was two separate styles of wrestling.

The promoters saw something special in him.

He was being taken to St. Louis, down to Florida, Madison Square Garden.

There he goes very effectively into that figure four over a period of time as he was really getting his style together

He would do certain things

Just on a spur of the moment and the people would war

And he would make a mental note I got to do that again and over a period of time he built his repertoire

And then it became his trademark

When did you win your first world title in 1981 September 17th, so like what was it like like would take you take me through it a little bit

Florida Kansas City. I'm as wrestling Dusty Rhodes. They barely even knew me in Dusty

and Kansas City. Look out, the knees give way, the knees give way, and Rhodes falls

beneath Ric Flair and Flair covers Rhodes. Ric Flair has captured the world

heavyweight title.

That's the most thrilling moment in professional sports when you take the title that makes you the greatest at what you do

Bar none. There's no other title and right now Ric Flair has that title and

Someday Dusty Rhodes wants that title back

Why did your guys rivalry work so good chemistry?

Dusty was a genius

He's just who he was. He was just a phenomenal guy.

He's a good wrestler and he was smart as hell.

How did you make people believe that you guys hated each other?

Well, we just, that's the way we portrayed it, you know?

Is that goofing look?

People believed it back then.

With your head, I'm tired of looking at that head.

I'll just go slip it out.

Back then back in the 80s

People kind of knew but they didn't know

That was the magic of

You couldn't have put two people in the ring that were so opposite, but yet worked so well together

It's a dance it's magical

It's violent theater

trying to grind the head into the cage.

Look at Babydoll, she knows what can happen.

If Dusty can't make it to the road.

When we could make you believe that we hated each other

and that we were beating the crap out of each other,

we made you believe it was real.

And Ric Flair, you put hard times on this country

by taking Dusty Rhodes out.

That's hard time.

Dusty was the son of a plumber, he came from Nothal, Flair had everything, Flair had money, he had prestige, he had the girls.

The working man against the elite and who doesn't want to go see the big man get knocked down?

I got a big house on the big side of town!

pretty much the way I want it.

You understand that?

You know why?

Because I'm the champ.

I'm the world's heavyweight champion.

He just had sort of the quality that we look for, that it

thing.

I think what most of us want is somebody

who doesn't look like us, who speaks better than all of us,

who is charming, has personality.

Seemingly has the life that I'd watch at the time and be like,

Man, that looks really fun, he's really doing it.

I think Ric Flair and then the rise of one whole Kogan,

for me is what 80s wrestling was.

You had a guy like Vince McMahon enter the picture, who really got it,

who really understood how to market this thing and how to drive characters.

When Hulkamania rules, when Hulkamania lives forever, when Hulkamania puts you down on your knees.

The whole country got exposed to it because of cable television.

You're either watching WWF or WCW.

Our product was directed at male blue collars guys that wanted to see a fight

And you've got the other company their target audience is kids you get the kids mom and dad will bring them

When Rick flair comes to your town, you know, you're going to see the greatest

What he was doing was more regional

It wasn't a national phenomenon until far later in his career, but he was famous.

I don't mean well-known, I mean famous.

I didn't feel Hulk Hogan, man.

I felt Ric Flair.

I felt an authenticity in Ric Flair that he was really living what he was saying.

You're God! You want to believe in something, believe in me!

Between the space odyssey, theme music, and the robes, and the hair, and whoo!

Like, he had such a unique thing, and back then he was in a WA and WCW,

so he wasn't even kind of participating in the boom of the WWF at that time.

But that's just how impactful he was, that he still was regarded as one of the best.

You can buy these any time you want for about $10,000, $11,000.

I got 15 of them, you know why?

Because I'm the World Heavyweight Champion.

I will!

A $15,000 Rolex!

These $600!

Custom made!

For some reason, coming from Ric Flair, it all worked.

We were like, yeah, the shoes did cost more than everything

you made last month, and that's awesome.

I think as a kid, you know, it's just one of those guys you love to love to hate

Riding in private jets surrounded by beautiful women

Riding in limousines

Every night are not things that are you know, they're not accustomed to every you know, Joe blow on the street

So here we go!

You either admired that or you despised that because he's rubbing it in your face, you know?

And that's what Rick did, he rubbed it in your face.

They all want to be like the nature boy, but there can only be one.

And on top of all that, oh yeah.

on the champ.

We are the Hearthsmen, and the bottom line is,

we are, whoo-hoo!

All night long!

The height of the four Hearthsmen.

When I grew up, I remember that was kind of like

the first group that I remember.

Tell me about that and like,

why did it catch on and how did it come about?

It was four guys that could really perform at a high level and four guys that could really talk.

And that's never been seen before, or ever duplicated.

And there's a woman out there!

What the find out?

Just where she stands in the world of femininity, shot by the horseman, one-time baby.

It caught on, we came back to TV the next week and everybody was going like this, right?

We were kind of the first cool bad guys.

It was okay to like us.

It was something wild that was going on.

It became okay to be a wrestling fan.

I mean we were at the nicest hotels going to the nicest restaurants wherever you saw us we always dressed nice

We always looked good

When you're sitting in with your buddies you're like man, wouldn't that be cool if we all just travel together and

You know we rode in limousines and we all had all these these hot chicks with us all the time

And when our lurch yet takes us everywhere, it's pretty cool to think of and

These guys are doing it

Do you think like in the 80s there are people living vicariously through you in the 80s? Oh, most definitely

Everybody wanted to be me every man because I had the nicest clothes the biggest cars the biggest house and the more women

And I was the best wrestler I

Mean why do people like Ali?

No one has marketed themselves in boxing like Ali

No special training, just be at the fight.

I'm ready to back up everything I'm saying and I'm through talk.

Whether you like it or don't like it, learn to love it

because it is the best thing going today.

He is the idol of a lot of big name athletes.

A lot of their swag came from watching Rick Flair do promos.

You're talking to the Rolex!

Yeah!

We're in China!

Diamond ring, where?

He was like the Pied Piper to defiant young athletes.

Being that cool, crazy, say what you want, do what you want, live this lifestyle.

And believe me, he was living the lifestyle.

As a kid growing up watching Ric Flair, he was very inspirational to myself and a lot of other hip hop artists.

Because he represented what we wanted to be.

We wanted to be Ric Flair, we wanted to be flamboyant and, you know, to kiss Dylan Willen and Dylan.

We wanted to be all of that.

He was a part of our culture in our life.

That's why we love him and we cherish him.

We've always held him high in the black community because Ric is one of us.

Back then, especially in the early 80s, it was a new thing to be telling how much money you had.

You would brag about how many women you had.

I mean, you were really groundbreaking doing that, right?

Where did that come from?

The night before.

If I sat in on TV, I did it.

I lived my gimmick.

I'm going to ease across the street to the high regency!

And drinks, all the champagne, anything you want, is on the World Shack.

With the women and drinking and partying, and that took over.

Because it was more fun, and that was his personality.

Why are you telling everybody you're going to beat the man?

I don't know. Nobody believes in Tony. You don't worry. Nobody comes over.

Why aren't you wearing your wedding ring on TV?

I don't know.

Let me tell you something. If you're wrestling and you're in Hutchison in Kansas, and you're going to spend the night there, I'm going to find something to do.

I'm not going through that night by myself.

How many women do you think you've been with?

Ah, realistically?

Ten thousand, maybe.

Um...

Not terrible.

We heard you're gonna wrestle in New York in May,

and we're gonna hope you're gonna take us with you.

Well, and I'm here to tell every woman in the South,

I'm gonna have a limousine for every good-luckin' woman.

And we're gonna take them all the way to these coasts

If we're going to Dallas, it makes no difference.

I just, what I was doing, I mean, I didn't give a s***, you know?

When I kick five girls out of bed, I go,

woo!

And they go, woo, woo, woo,

because they know they've been with the world champion.

Woo!

Why do you think you couldn't be monogamous?

Did you try to be monogamous and you just couldn't do it?

Like, did you ever say to yourself,

this is it, I am gonna be married, I'm not gonna cheat?

No, I didn't. I probably took it real serious for about a day.

Yeah, I just, there's no way.

I mean, I've tried, but it just was miserable.

I guess I kind of resolved myself to the fact that I was going to work as hard as I was going to have fun.

I'm going from Puerto Rico to Portland, Oregon. Big, 747.

He goes in the bathroom, comes out, he's got nothing on, but his alligator shoes, his dress socks, and the robe.

Comes out of the bathroom, goes, woo! Woo!

And he said, Sting, how can you deal with this?

And he opened up and he was completely naked. Woo!

And he was like, really a wreck.

I mean, I've never seen a guy...

Have his pants pulled down more than Ric Flair

Wrestling was fun for me. I couldn't wait to be on the road. It couldn't be to be with the guys

Especially in the 80s when the horseman allowed and I couldn't I went home. I was bored

He's truly a wrestler

He's not a family man

He loves his kids, but don't trust him.

You know, I can't badmouth him because I love my kids.

But they know him too. He's Rick Flair.

I do get angry when I do think about it, like, what are you doing?

Why would you do that? I want to live like that.

I think you could be great at what you do and they're a good husband and a good father.

How could you ever neglect your kids like that and having kids now that's tough?

I don't want my kids to grow up the way I did, that's for sure.

Most of the time I would get things from my dad instead of time.

He would bring me back like 16 to 20 cabbage patch kids at a time

He would say I'm gonna come to your basketball game next Friday, and he wouldn't come

Things like that so I know you're after as a kid. That's disappointing

Well, it wasn't wanting to be away from my family, I just went to the world champion

What else is there for you? What are you going to do?

He would come home and then he'd say,

I can't stand this.

And then he'd leave.

And then I'd find out later that he would go over to

Greg Valentine's house, who lived a couple miles away from us.

And that's where Beth was staying.

I married my second wife Beth in 1983.

We had two children together, Reid and Ashley.

Richard Reid, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I had anything and everything. I didn't go without. That wasn't the issue. It was just so much dysfunction.

Not knowing, you know, what's normal.

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you.

The common denominator is, I was a never home.

From 1972 till 1999, I was never home.

I am the first to admit,

I was pretty selfish, I just wanted to be Rick Flair.

And I'll tell you honest, I'm not changing my lifestyle.

I'm four or five women every day of my life.

Do you think your parents were proud of you?

They didn't get it.

I, you know, I bought a two million dollar house.

And my mom and dad were coming to town, and I was so proud to show them.

And my mom and dad walked in and looked around and said,

my dad goes, what the hell have you done?

And I'm thinking he'd go, God, this is really cool.

You know, I just said, who needs all this in their life?

They actually only saw me wrestle three times in my whole career.

My dad could have nothing to do with it.

For someone that doesn't understand wrestling, what makes a good, like, in-ring wrestler?

Well, technique, agility, skill.

Being able to think on your feet real fast.

How does such a good, like, punch or kick, how do you do it while making it look real?

Because I hung a string in the doorway.

And I hit that string as hard as I could for three years.

Until it didn't move.

You were one of the best sellers.

I mean, I made it, I enhanced other people's offensive skills.

Every guy takes you over in the headlock, right?

If you just lay there, nobody gives a s***, but if you're kicking your feet, your body's moving, just people in the audience, they follow the action, right?

They think it hurts. You got to make them believe it hurts.

You're twisting your arm in real life, it hurts.

Most champions dominate, but you would spend most of your matches like getting beat up. Yeah.

And that's why they came back the next time because I would just get out of that ring just barely as a champion and

They thought the guy was gonna beat me and we could come next week and sell again

Biggest screamer and squealer and and whiner in the ring

Something as simple as test of strength, you know

In the ring, it's Rick saying, okay, let's do this, let's do that.

You know, after he'd shot me in the chest over and over, he'd have me, you know, no sell it.

Sting, beat your chest.

I mean, he'd make you look like King Kong.

He was grooming me.

He didn't have to do this.

He didn't have to go so over the top

and be so gracious to me

and teach me in the ring the way he did.

Who would you say was your favorite opponent

if you had to pick one?

Well, when I was at my best,

my favorite opponent was

Ricky steamboat

We didn't do what's called rest holds we didn't stop we didn't breathe we just

Pound and pound and pound and worked and bumped and worked and bumped and never slowed down

It was the ultimate in stamina conditioning.

He says he's the dirtiest player in the game!

Wow!

I hit him so damn hard that I wanted the people in the front row to hear it.

Where the crowd is going, holy s***, you know, this guy is getting a zast kick.

You can hear the flash smacking.

When he's chopping me and I'm chopping him, we're not holding back.

I'm actually throwing that chop on his chest as hard as I could bring it.

He would say something with his eyes, just like, it was almost like telepathy in the

ring.

We would bring the best out of each other.

I thought it was an art form. The way they could do that, the way they could work a match.

You couldn't see him talk. They really knew how to cover it up.

An hour match, you're thinking, man, that's a long time.

Ricky Steamboat or Rick Flair could make it exciting the entire hour.

Flair's career is just a marvelous

documentation of tenacity.

He broke his back in a plane crash

in 1975.

He came back six years later.

Six years of training and effort.

Flair swept in tears to win

his first world's title here in the NWA.

He won it in Kansas City.

And he has controlled the 80s since that time.

Stingbos got him up.

A clamp.

Where did you get this work ethic?

I have to say I got that from the day I started with Guania.

I mean, it's just something I did.

I did 500 free squats every day of my life.

If I didn't go to bed, I didn't miss a workout.

I was really driven to be the most fit guy physically,

maybe not appearance-wise, but in terms of my endurance.

It's amazing how much you drank and how good you looked.

Yeah, can you imagine if I didn't drink like that

Well, I'll tell you this is a great story I

Go to the sports psychologist and so you do the initial paperwork and all that you know how many times you masturbate a day

twice

Every day? Yeah, depending on where I am. Yeah, okay, and then that's the first question and then so how much you drink a day?

I said I'll drink at least ten beers and probably five mixed drinks. He said well how many days a week do that?

I said every day. He said how do you mean every day? I said I work every day. I drink the beer in a car

I get the little tellin' I drink vodka

He came out of a chair like that. You drink every day

Seven days a week 365 days a year and you've been doing that for how long I said

Well, let me say it's 1989. I started in 72

You do the math almost 20 years

He said that's not possible

Oh, yeah, it is

By the time I got through with that summer bitch

He was laying in the couch and I was in the chair talking to him. That's the way it is doc

Come travel me for a week

You still have a good time in social lives without drinking?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I've never tried it.

Why would I?

If I couldn't go out, I was miserable.

When I was in, like, working an area where there was no nightlife, like, when I used

to have to go to Kansas City and go to Wichita and all those little sh** towns, man, I was

miserable.

You know what I mean? I like to go out and have fun. You have to do something after you wrestle in a hour in front of 200 people.

That's not easy. You know what I mean?

Why can't you just go back to your room and watch TV and hang out by yourself?

I don't know. That's a good question.

You know, we were in a simple town and we were staying at a holiday inn.

And we went to the bar after the show at the TV taping in the hotel.

There might have been ten people in the bar.

At one server, he ordered 137 kamikazis.

Couldn't be serious, could he? I mean, 137 kamikazis, there's ten people here.

Then he got the trade, he was serving drinks and flirting with all the women.

Next thing you know, he's on the bar and he's dancing and he's having a great time and they're loving it because they're actually

partying with the Nature Boy Ric Flair

Can't we just go in and order a couple of drinks you buy around I'll buy around and

Have a little conversation call tonight, but it's got to turn into a party

But more I got to know him I it was just that he needed companionship and needed somebody with him

Even if it was another guy just shoot the breeze

So he wouldn't be isolated

I don't know how you drink every day for years and not be considered at least a problem drinker.

There was hardly a day that he went without having at least several drinks.

You can be an alcoholic and be fully functional.

I never saw him show up at the show, inebriated, but Flair could drink.

How he still has a liver, I don't know.

I have done everything wrong to myself.

You know, I went back and forth to Japan three times in two and a half days.

And I drank all the way, 13 hours, all three ways.

Got off the plane, got the ring and had to rest an hour.

Are you surprised you're alive?

You know, that's funny. I think about that every day now. And that's not a happy thought.

Yeah, I mean, there's no way I should be alive after some of the stuff I've done.

What was the main difference between you and Hulk Hoganit?

Well, you know, Hulk was just his ultimate physical specimen, you know, that I never have been.

The prayers to train another vitamins, the symbolic belt that unites me and all my Hulkamaniacs.

He was selling vitamins and milk, and I was selling sex and booze.

Hulk Hogan kind of is a comic book character in a way and this this

caricature larger-than-life guy and kind of captured everybody's imagination

because it was fantastical and superior and then you have this guy who's real

life real gritty little dirty but a little bit like you know just fine boy

in an arrogant

He was the NWA and Hogan was the WWF.

Rick and I lived in two different worlds for so many years.

It was like the fans dreamed to have these two champion guys fight.

Ric Flair has had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of one-hour matches.

I've never had one.

The bell has sounded one hour.

He's ten times better than I am. I mean, it's like it's a no-brainer

I got a certain thing that works and I got different varieties of it and I used to joke

I've got plant A, B, C, and D which match you want to do, you know

And there's millions of ways to have matches with millions of wrestlers, but Rick's just so much better

You know and some people point to me go, oh my god, you changed the business you did this you did that

But no, I said you guys you mean the guy next to me Rick Flair

When I used to watch Flair I was hoping we could steal him from the NWA

But I think there was a real loyalty there with Rick.

He would have never left those guys,

because all those guys that were his friends and all those guys that had houses and cars

and their kids were in school because Rick,

Rick that trickled down economics, affects everybody.

And Rick knew if he walked away from all those guys,

probably would have destroyed a lot of lives back then.

Are you ever thinking like you'd want to go to the WWF?

No, no, I had two opportunities to go and I didn't go.

I could have gone in 86 and I could have gone in 88, but I didn't.

When Turner bought Crockett out, Jim heard of the guy that they brought in to run WCW.

He had promised me a new contract.

He calls me and says, I need you to be in the ball tomorrow.

And I said, well, that's nice, but I'm not budgeting

to keep your word and giving a contract.

You don't tell me what to do.

I said, well, you promised me something.

You're going to keep your word.

And when he said, screw you, I said, I don't think so.

Stick it up your ass.

So I'm signed to give you the contract.

Flare going to WWF the time was huge. He was the most recognized name

Nobody bigger in the entire company than Rick Flare and now he's gone to the enemy. He's gone to the other league

And then when they put the belt on me, the Royal Rumble puts, you know, everybody thinks

it's the greatest thing that ever happened in wrestling.

It was the greatest moment of my life at that point.

When Rick did come in, you know, he he took over man he you'd have to bring him up to speed

Rick and I were getting ready to blow WrestleMania off the map.

The company needed to put some money in the bank fast, so they put us in house shows,

which would have diluted the fact.

We wrestled probably ten times before WrestleMania.

Last minute they put us in two different matches and it was okay. Yeah, was it safe? Okay. Yeah, it was a good WrestleMania

Yeah, but it wasn't a history-changing WrestleMania, which if Flaren I would have wrestled it would have changed the whole course of everything

Were you disappointed that you guys never had this? No, I'm shocked that you're not disappointed. No

The people talk like he's your biggest rival sometimes. I realize that but I did wrestle him a lot and I got to wrestle a lot of WCW

Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you the biggest match in the history of our sport,

Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan.

It was ten years past what it should have been, right?

They were the two franchise players five years ago, or ten years ago.

They were, but, man, I wonder what would have happened in the heyday.

He never wanted to win, unless there was no ego involved with him because he knew he

could go out and wrestle Hulk Hogan or anybody and make me look so great with

the ability that I would have and let me beat him.

He never left and took anything from anybody when he left he left his heart and his talent and he'd leave stuff behind and make everybody better

And that's just how he was

He's very very giving to a fault

And Claire is the man alone

At the mercy of the Wolfpack

Jim Hurd had started trying to retire Flair in 1990. They thought he was too old.

And, you know, ten years later, he was still the guy they were going back to.

Whenever they needed a rating, whenever they needed a great match, they'd still go to Flair.

This could be the last time he walks the aisle to the beat.

And they just, they just used me.

I was just like, what are you doing?

I'm miserable.

While we were in post-production on the film, Rick Flair had a major health crisis where his body actually shut down from years and years of hard living.

Rick Flair was going through a scary situation. He was admitted into the hospital this weekend. Flair had been placed into a medically induced coma while he awaited surgery.

The doctors gave him a very slim chance of actually pulling through.

Rick Beattie is a consummate fighter and he did pull through.

And it's really just a testament to this guy's will to live.

When Rick went through his health crisis, his fiancé, Wendy Barlow, was there every step

of the way.

He actually was Rick's ballet Fifi the Maid in the early 1990s, and then they kind of

lost touch and reconnected in the last couple of years.

She's really a stabilizing force in Rick's life.

For Rick Flair, wrestling is life, and life is wrestling.

They're really one and the same.

I sat at home for a year, and then they brought me back and I had another seven years up there with the WWE.

And all of my 50s, so I was wrestling every day.

I know I'm putting a curious to you, right?

You know, I would kind of see him and he was kind of a shell of himself.

You know, he had, his confidence was gone.

And I would try to talk to him a lot and pull him aside and try to build him back up.

The nature boy, the greatest professional wrestler!

They always kept my, you know, my self-confidence level.

They would never let it drop.

They said, you know who you are.

You know who you are.

Don't let me, and then I got comfortable with myself.

The last thing Rick would want to do is disappoint me

or feel like he let me down or feel like that in some way

I saw him as a failure, right?

Would destroy him.

We're on the right stop for less.

The chance, the passion, the will.

this amazing career.

You got to have one of the best retirement.

That was crazy what they did to you.

Yeah, I know.

It's the greatest retirement, not just in wrestling,

in the history of sports.

59 when they retired.

78,000 people,

wrestling Sean Michaels.

What was important to me was to make that match special and to treat it like what I believed

it was, which was his last match in the WWE.

Wait a minute, look out here, look out, look out, look out, look out, look out, look out,

look out, look out, look out, look out, look out.

If you could script out and write a perfect retirement for Michael Jordan or Joe Namath,

a sports figure, that's the way you would do it.

You know, Rick is my friend for better or worse.

I knew he couldn't stay away from this stuff.

And again, I knew when they wanted him to go

that he didn't want to go.

RICK RICKS

RICK RICKS

RICK RICKS

RICK RICKS

RICK RICKS

RICK RICKS

Rick doesn't love Richard Fleer.

I don't know that he's ever taken the time to get to know him

or to find out who in the world he is.

He only knows who he is through the image and gimmick of Ric Flair because when everything's said and done, you know, the nature boy Ric Flair is just a myth, you know, Richard Flair is the real guy.

I missed the day I retired.

I was sick the next day.

I got it.

So what are you doing?

I am Rick Flair!

16 times the greatest world champion of all time!

He needs the money.

He didn't save.

You know, he forget little things like paying his taxes

Not gonna say I may really love the nature boy, but he really wants Richard Fleer to pay his taxes

Flair's got an expression

To be the man you've got to beat the man and I love it and it's powerful when he says it but the question is

what is a man and

You know part of being a man and arguably the biggest part is someday you got to grow up

And you've got to make your choice. Do I want to step away from this fame and have balance in my life?

Or do I want to just keep absorbing this drug that is fame sometimes the man

Isn't always a man

There's a real psychology there that's tough to deal with

Clearly, your love is the wrestling business.

And your son gets into it, and then he learns to live a lifestyle.

It's a detriment to him.

Reed, my youngest son, he was an amateur wrestler.

We went everywhere from the All Kids Nationals in Tokyo

to Tulsa, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New York,

and then I took him everywhere.

You're doing so good.

It's your birthday, son, so blow out the candles.

It's your natural birthday.

Blow out the candles.

Reed, since he's been the center of all this controversy,

would like to tell you why we're here.

Tell him, Reed.

Me?

Woo!

Gee.

Ha ha.

Kids, I heard you been cracking up my dad.

Me and my uncle Aaron came down here

so I can hit on my dad's light work.

You want him gone?

What?

He was just, he was in Gorge.

Well, I just couldn't, you couldn't,

we'd have a, I mean, I came home one day

and the neighbor, the dentist said,

hey, I got to hang with your son yesterday

and I had a couple of beers with him.

He said he was drinking out at the bar

with his friends outside of the pool.

So I went over and had a couple of beers with him.

We just invited him over, 16 years old.

Drinking with my neighbor, he was just too much.

He really idolized my father.

They were buddies.

He wanted to be in that life.

It'd be such an honor to me to be able to work

alongside my father.

You know, I only was my best friend.

You know, I did it here as well.

I took him to Japan, and he got off to a fabulous start.

His own expenses would make 8,000 U.S. a week.

If that worked out for that three months, he'd go up to like 10,000.

So that's big money to work part-time and do something you like, and Japan's fun.

Thank you, thank you so much.

He's a good boy.

Reed wanted to be my dad.

And, you know, in wrestling, Reed was taunted a lot.

Never feeling good enough.

Reed I don't know was continuing to mask problems. Maybe he was masking more than I was

My mom was in the other wing dealing with whatever she you know, my dad leaving

My dad moved out literally the week before I graduated high school

So I had this whole summer in this million dollar house

We read and I just partied every single night. It was just not normal.

Reed was like, you know, he was just one of the guys, you know.

I mean, you know, 21 years old, what are you telling me? Can't hang out?

What, did they stay home or not? You can't tell you wanted to come? Who did, you know?

Rick is a consummate liar, he only will tell you what he wants you to hear.

Reed was trying to come in to work for us and I would be like Rick, so here's what came up on

Reed's test. Oh, that's impossible. I asked him, he said this is not true. Well, Rick,

The test doesn't lie. Here's what it is.

Because it's you, I'll retest him.

And you can, you know, tell him, you know, like,

so I'm telling you I'm gonna retest him

so he knows it's coming now.

Right?

Here it comes again, worse than it was the first time.

Rick.

I don't know, I think he might have something from GNC, or I don't know, you know, like no, you're lying to yourself.

The night I was supposed to see Reed when he came back from Japan, and he was already drunk off the plane, I was like, what the hell is wrong with you?

I could tell he had taken some pills, but I'd seen it a thousand times.

I just put him in bed and said, you know, Jesus, why do you keep doing this?

And I had no idea that he was going to get hooked up later on that night with the black tire heroin.

Hello.

Hi, sir.

Hello.

I'm from the Charlotte Police Department.

Did you need the police up here?

Yeah.

What's going on with him?

He don't call me.

He don't call me.

It's purple, please.

Sir, we did a police somewhere.

Let me get you over to the medics as well.

Hang on one second.

No, no.

I understand it, so when you go to the medic so they can try to give you some help, all right?

Please. Yes, sir. Hang on, we'll see you.

Jesus, what? Why? Why? Again, right?

And they went in there for five minutes, they came out, and the same guy, the same ambulance crew,

and they said he didn't make it. I said, what?

And they said he didn't make it, Rick.

And I was like, when it was a joke.

A professional wrestling legend's world shattered today after police confirmed

Ric Flair's 25 year old son was found dead at this South Park hotel.

Reed Flair was found dead inside a room at the residence in around 10 30 this morning.

If he was here, was there anything you would want to say to him?

Was there anything left unsaid?

I say it every day.

Thank God I was here.

I had so much fun with you.

And I regret the fact that I...

...sometimes was here.

best friend instead of your dad.

How did you find joy again?

How did you find just to be able to enjoy life?

I didn't drink myself to death for a year.

Ten o'clock in the morning to two o'clock at night.

It's the only way I could get away from it.

I had to get on the phone with him and like literally say,

just shut the f**k up.

Like, you're gonna f***** do what I'm telling you,

or I will come down there and make you f***** do

what I am telling you.

Against his will.

in some ways, Reed's passing helped them all.

It made Ashley change path in her life.

And along the way of trying to do it for him,

found herself and found what her life

was supposed to be about.

I know for a fact I wouldn't be where I am today if he hadn't died.

I know that sounds really messed up, but because that was his dream, not mine.

I just made a promise that I'd carry out his dream.

Charlotte is the daughter of the Hall of Famer, the Nature Boy, Rick Flair.

Have you been able to get some joy in watching her success?

Oh my God.

You have no idea how much joy I've ever had, you know.

I'm living vicariously through her as we speak right now.

Just like her dad in the Hall of Famer, the Nature Boy.

The greatest moment of my wrestling career was as she went in that title.

Nothing in my career ever gave me that feeling.

I was so proud of her.

I don't know if he ever saw it coming with Ashley.

I think she kind of came out of nowhere for Rick too.

And he's blown away by her.

And he is so proud of her.

Thank you.

I love you.

You want to get a hug?

Yes.

Thank you.

Man, you don't let your dad over here at all.

With Ashley getting involved, watching her develop into the champion she is, it's just

made his world, like he just shines.

Rick Flair!

I think wrestling was his escape.

That was his love.

That was his life.

That's all he ever wanted to do.

He's just one of a kind, and I don't think there will ever be anybody like him ever.

You know, in some ways he transcends the business.

His legacy will also be probably what not to do with the business in some ways, right?

I use Rick as an example, sometimes with a young talent of like, well, you can have it all.

in a really precarious spot.

He sacrificed friends, family, you know,

and made people's careers.

Wrestling was his lady, wrestling was his love.

That was his number one love.

And I might be out of line saying this,

but in my opinion it still is.

Living, being, riding.

Whoo!

Just flying.

Settled again.

Then fall.

Whoo!

The nature of life.

How do you want people to remember you when you're gone?

Um, I'm gone.

You know, it's easy to say you want to be

thought of as the best father that I've 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 I've ever lived.