All language subtitles for Evil - EP-07 - Ric Flair

- The most prestigious
champion in the world,

Nature Boy Ric Flair!

[tense music]

- They all want to be--whoo!

Like the Nature Boy,

but there can only be one.

[upbeat music]

- Ric Flair,

the self-professed
dirtiest player in the game.

A villainous playboy...

- Whoo!

- Who openly
displayed attributes

that the modern society
viewed as evil.

- He was cocky.
He was arrogant.

- I'm not like every other
Tom, Dick, and Harry

that walks on your program.

- And he was great
at making me hate his guts.

- When I'm in that ring,

I don't care
about anybody but me.

- He'd use every
dirty trick in the book.

He's the dirtiest player
in the game.

- I'm the dirtiest player
in the game.

- Oh, my God!
Right across his knee!

- He could be
incredibly vicious.

- There's your pretty boy.
Now he's ugly!

- Ric is a Scarface-like
figure.

- Gold around my neck.

Rolex watch around my wrist
looking so fine.

- He had everything
that you wanted,

and he reminded you.

- I spent more money
on spilled booze

than you made
in the last six months.

- His brand wasn't always
family-friendly.

- I have four or five women
every day of my life.

- Ric Flair--whoo!

was selling sex, drugs,
and rock and roll.

- Beautiful women,
bright lights,

the big city, limousine rides,
jet flying son of a gun.

- Nature was really
living all of that.

There was no pretend
in any of it.

- You got to be bored to death.
The same woman every night?

- Paying alimony to three women
at one time was a lot of dough.

As a matter of fact,
that's got to be

some kind of record, right?

I'm not changing my lifestyle.

- It was weird because
you kind of hated him,

but you loved hating him.

- He appeals to what
human beings want.

We wanna be the Man.

- Post Malone, my man. Whoo!

all: Whoo!

- To this day,
if you say Ric Flair,

the whole audience will go,
"Whoo!"

crowd: Whoo!

- Diamond Ric Flair.
all: Whoo!

- Everything was just
so over the top with him.

He loved the glamorous life,
and who doesn't?

- Whether you like it--whoo!

Or don't like it,
learn to love it!

To be the man, daddy,
you got beat the Man.

[chuckles]

[dramatic music]

* *

- When you're Ric Flair,

when you're
the world champion--whoo!

When you're all there is!

I mean,
let's show them one time.

Put that camera on this.
Can you get something

to show them
what's happening right here?

- Why are we
so captivated by villains?

- Villains are the people
that drive stories.

- You need people like me.

- Essentially, if you think
about any great movie or story

that's ever been told,
there can't be a great hero...

- Is he talking to me?
- Without a great villain.

- Target zero, right...

here.

- The best villains
are the ones

who know
what they have to offer

and they're not afraid
to talk about it.

- I want you to deal with
your problems by becoming rich!

all: Yeah!

- In an era defined by excess,

Flair stole the spotlight.

- The Man.

- You gotta understand
I'm a hip-hop child, right?

So seeing somebody like that

wear jewelry,
and had all the women,

and had all the cars,

it's like
that's right up my alley.

- He's not a demon.

He's not a monster.
He's a very real man.

- Whoo!

- A man
who is better than you.

- Every great villain
has an origin story.

- Wanna know
how I got these scars?

- And Ric Flair
is no different.

- They all wanna be--whoo!
Like the Nature Boy.

But there can only be one.

- So just how
did he become the Nature Boy?

- I think I was born
the Nature Boy,

much to the dismay
of my parents.

I grew up
in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

And I can remember as a kid,

I liked watching wrestling
on Saturday night.

My birthday present every year

was to take me
to wrestling matches.

I'm adopted,
and couldn't have been adopted

by two finer people.

Parents were both so smart.

My dad a double doctorate,
my mom a master's.

But I didn't inherit
any of their genes.

To say that I was difficult
would be an understatement.

I can remember, one night,
when I was in seventh grade,

I tied the sheets together,

just like you see
in the movies,

got into my friend's Pontiac,
who had borrowed it

from his dad, who didn't have
a driver's license.

Then we headed over
to a girl's slumber party.

This ended up with me in jail

6:00 a.m. on Father's Day.

It was an experience,
but you grow up fast.

Got me to a place where
the judge said to my parents

it's either military school
or boarding school.

So my parents found
a real nice boarding school.

There's a lot to be said
for going to boarding school

in terms of the responsibility

that you have to carry
on your shoulders to grow up.

Either make it or you don't.

And I mean, a lot of kids
just rely, go back,

and fall down
on your family's name.

All the people in that school,

90% of them came
from very wealthy families.

So I saw the lifestyle
I wanted.

I just had to figure out
how to afford it.

Wasn't really much
to fall back on.

I wasn't gonna be a doctor.

So I just found
another way to make it,

and I'm--I'm just happy
and lucky

that I wound up in wrestling.

- In 1972,
Flair was a far cry

from becoming the Nature Boy.

- I met Verne, Verne Gagne,
AWA champion,

and the promoter
and the owner of AWA,

the American Wrestling
Alliance,

who I'd met before

because his son and I
were friends in high school.

Looked at me and said, "Yeah,
we'll see what you got."

That's how it all started.

- You gotta know how to fall.
If you don't know how to fall,

you're going to get hurt.

And if you're hurt,
you can't wrestle.

And if you can't wrestle,

you don't eat.

It's that simple.

- During the era in which
Ric Flair came into wrestling,

there weren't a lot of trainers
better than Verne Gagne.

- We had to run 2 miles
the first day

and then 500 free squats,
200 crunches.

- 200.

- In 30-degree weather
in a barn.

Once I got through that,
I felt I could do anything.

You've got Mr. Charisma,
Mr. Excitement, Ric Flair,

and you know
who I got in my mind?

I got the boy, Conway,
with the funny-looking hairdo.

- Everything we know
about Ric Flair growing up

is that he did
get into trouble.

And I think it was realizing
that the stuff he did

that got people so riled up
had a real purpose

in the world
of professional wrestling.

[bell dings]
- Ric Flair...

- Ric had been wrestling
for a couple of years,

and he was still
figuring out who he was.

- Nothing stood out
about Ric Flair.

And you got to stand out
to make money.

You got to stand out
to have some kind of character

that people
are going to remember.

He was kind of unspectacular.

- We're driving 3,000 miles
a week back then.

I'd met this guy in a bar--

shocker, right?

That told me he had a plane.
He could fly us.

So we'd been flying
with the guy for about a month.

The plane crash came
in '75, October 4th.

[dramatic music]

We ran out of gas
at 6,000 feet

about a mile and a half
from the runaway.

The first engine pinned.

He reached down
to pull reserve.

There was always reserve gas.

Second engine pinned.

[high-pitched ringing]

[siren wailing]

The next thing I knew,
I was getting put

in one of these
old military ambulances.

I just remember them saying,

"I think we're gonna lose
this one."

I thought
they were talking about me.

Pilot died.

Valentine and Bob Bruggers
were paralyzed.

I broke my back
in three places.

[machines beeping]

I didn't think I'd ever
be able to wrestle again.

[siren wailing]

- He has
this horrible plane crash

that he's somehow
able to survive.

And while
he's in the hospital,

it forces him
to take a step back

early in his career

and to think about what it is

that he wants to do
with this thing.

- I had lost a lot of weight.

I went from 255 to 180

while I was with a broken back.

- Ric probably sitting there

knowing,
"I can't be in the ring.

"I can't go out and be myself.

"How do I turn this
into a positive?

What can I change?"

- That's when he starts
thinking about

the Nature Boy Buddy Rogers.

- Buddy "Nature Boy" Rogers
strutting around the ring.

- In the '60s, Nature Boy
Buddy Rogers had a strut.

But he had great promos,
especially for the day.

He was cocky, arrogant.

- To a nicer guy
it couldn't happen.

- He had his shiny, sequined
ring gear and jackets

and things like that.

- Ric Flair,
who was a big fan of his

and a student of the game,
probably took that

and was like, "Man, I could
make this 100 times better."

- And that's how it all started
with Nature Boy.

- I don't think that you could
have a better example

of a phoenix rising from the
literal ashes of an airplane.

- Nature Boy, Ric Flair!

- The uncrowned world champion,
the U.S. belt,

the World Tag belt,
doesn't make any difference.

The new Ric Flair.

- He almost died.
He broke his back.

He came back.

And he said, "It's not enough
for me to be Ric Flair.

I have to become
the Nature Boy."

- Here I am, looking better
than any man alive.

The most gorgeous human being
on the face of this Earth.

- In 1978, I felt
pretty comfortable with myself.

The Nature Boy thing
was kicking in.

- Once he realized
he was "the Man,"

I think that's where that
evil persona really took over.

- One of the biggest stars
in wrestling today.

He knows it.

He's probably
one of the biggest egotists.

- And the presentation
was all part of the package.

- Ric walked in dressed
to the nines, hair perfect,

and had a swagger about him
and a strut about him.

- You can see that slightly
cocky walk that he has.

- Prior to Ric Flair,

professional wrestling
wasn't the sort of job

that you showed up to
in a suit.

When you see somebody
getting off of a team bus

and for those,
like, 90 seconds

that they're being trailed
by a camera,

they have put on
a three-piece suit

and a nice watch
and a pair of sunglasses,

there's a little bit
of Ric Flair in all that.

- We're talking
about stylin' and profilin'.

The most expensive stuff
available.

I saw Joe Namath,
and I was gonna be better.

Diamond ring wearing,
kiss-stealing--whoo!

Wheeling, dealing,
limousine-riding,

jet-flying son of a gun.

- He had everything
that you wanted,

and he reminded you

that he had everything
that you wanted.

- Ric stood out
and was different

than everybody else
every single night.

- I dress myself
in alligator shoes.

I wear a $15,000 Rolex.

Rolex owes me
a commercial, man.

A free one. [chuckles]

Rolex, when?

- Ric Flair's full of himself,

and that's what makes it easy
to boo him.

But when he says, like, "You
wish you had what I have,"

he's not wrong.

- Whoo!
Setting the world on fire.

- Private jets?

You didn't know of people
who flew in private airplanes,

and Ric Flair
did this on the regular.

- He was simply
the personification of excess

in a decade defined
by materialism and greed.

- I think the '80s were
an ideal time for Ric.

- "Lifestyles of the Rich
and Famous" on TV,

shows like "Dynasty"
and greed is good, right?

- Greed, for lack
of a better word, is good.

- Ric Flair was
the Gordon Gekko of wrestling.

- This is
what all of them are wearing

on Wall Street, Danny, huh?

- If you had Michael Jordans,
you were Ric Flair life.

If you were wearing PRO-keds
or Converses,

you were just some wrestler

he was gonna beat up
that night.

- When I'm in that ring,

I don't care about anybody

in the whole world but me.

- He understood what a villain
is supposed to do in the ring.

The villain getting his butt
kicked in the right spots

is what makes a match work.

- I can't help but feel that
Dusty has it right here now.

- You have to make a guy
look like he's a guy

that can beat you
for that world championship.

- Oh, he's upside down!

- The toss
into the turnbuckle,

grab the bottom buckle,
flip over,

and run down the side
of the ring

is one of the most classic

"watch the bad guy get
what he deserves" moves.

- And he brings him up
very unceremoniously

right off the top.

- The Flair on his knees,
when he do like that

and that hair be shaking.

- And Flair cowering
in the corner.

- He was begging him,
"Please, please don't do it."

And the referee goes,
"Oh come on."

And then the guy
turns his back,

and then Flair jumps up
and punches him.

- Flair,
thumb to the eye of Sting.

- Would really make you say,
"Wait a minute, man.

You can't be doing that
to the good guys."

- And there's his
play-it-again slam.

- There's your pretty boy.
Now he's ugly.

- When he got on
your good guy,

he could do it
and be incredibly vicious.

- Flair's got a chair!

Oh, my God!
Right across his knees.

- I'm the dirtiest player
in the game!

- He calls himself the dirtiest
player in the game.

When you say that out loud,

it takes a little bit
of the sting off of it, right?

It's like he's telling you
who he is.

- He's cheating.
- Yes, he's cheating.

- Hey, shut up!

- He was leaving
with that title,

and that's
what made him a great villain.

- I am still the world
heavyweight wrestling champion.

- My dad being able to take
you on this roller coaster

and look like
he was about to lose,

but being the dirtiest player
in the game,

he was able to sneak one out,
just makes you hate him more.

Like you weren't
even gonna win.

- To be the man, daddy,
you gotta beat the Man.

- Being a man
was about conquering.

Ric Flair represented
everybody's bully.

- Sting.
Oh, it's great.

The first thing I wanna do

when I get up in the morning
is paint my face.

- His ability to talk [...]
is unparalleled.

- He knew the buttons
to push on people.

- You got to be bored to death.

The same woman every night?

- It's kinda like
that Floyd Mayweather disease

where people pay a lot of money
to watch this guy lose.

- The whole world

wants to shut Slick Ric up,
bottom line.

- Flair's obnoxious
flaunting of wealth and status

made for a perfect rivalry

with the blue-collar
working man.

- Oh, oh. Here he comes!
The American Dream.

- Dusty Rhodes, also known
as the American Dream,

was a working-class guy who
dared to stand up to the Man.

- Get a dream, hold on to it,
and shoot for the sky.

- I wanted to see Dusty Rhodes
beat the tar out him.

Dusty Rhodes
was the everyday working man,

the son of a plumber.

- Who's your favorite wrestler?
- Dusty Rhodes.

- He represented
the average guy.

That's why they loved him.

That's why they connected
with them.

They felt like they were him.

- Dusty Rhodes, the man
who has caught the heart

and the fancy in the minds
of people everywhere.

- If you were the regular fan,

rooting for the son of
a plumber like Dusty Rhodes,

there was no one worse
than Ric Flair.

He embodied all of this
capitalistic greed.

- This wasn't just a rivalry.

This was class warfare,

the working-class hero taking
on the loud-mouth rich guy

flaunting his spoils.

- I want you to jump
out of that TV.

Yeah, you bad.
Yeah, you bad, Ric.

- Big Dust, you got no belt.
You got no life.

You got nothing to brag about.

Nothing to stand on.

- Don't talk about the
American Dream, Dusty Rhodes.

I am the best, daddy.
There is no other.

- It was
the guy on the pedestal

against the common man.

- I'm tired of looking at hat.

I'm just gonna slip it off
and throw it out to the fans.

Yeah, yeah!

- He would talk about
what a disgusting slob

Dusty Rhodes was.

- Dusty Rhodes,
you're a country-talking fool.

- But he knew that that was
going to get under fans' skin.

- I'm gonna beat you half
to death because I have to.

- He was the guy living
in the biggest house

in the biggest side of town.

The other guy was
the son of a plumber.

Blue collar, white collar.
It was classic.

- Now is the time

that the talking stops
and the fighting begins.

- A battle of two giants

in the wrestling world
here tonight.

- The war
between Flair and Dusty

set a new standard

for what an epic rivalry
could become.

- I wrestled Dusty
in the Orange Bowl,

and we had,
like, 40,000 people.

We did huge business.

- While Flair and Rhodes

were in all-out conflict,

the U.S. was waging a cold war
against the Soviet Union...

- Soviets have been building
their military strength.

The Cold War went right on.

- A real-life issue

that was playing out
in the ring.

- Sports entertainment 101 is

who was the U.S.'s enemy
at this time?

- Russia, number one.
Iran, number one.

USA--[spits]

- You just plug that in.
It's very easy.

There's that sense of pride
and nationalism.

And if you have somebody
that's representing that,

people are gonna cheer
for that person.

- So fast forward
to Nikita Koloff

taking on a Ric Flair.

And Ric Flair,
even though we hated him

and he was this evil guy,
he was our evil guy.

- And as we have seen
so many times, a double-team.

- Flair is locked in a cage.
He's in peril.

- And here's
the American Dream

as he got into the ring.

- In comes Dusty Rhodes,
the American Dream.

- Coming to the aid of
the world heavyweight champion

is Dusty Rhodes,
the world television champion.

- Dusty comes out,
and he helps Ric Flair.

- And right now,
Dusty has cleared the ring,

and there they stand.

And now we're going to see,
Bob, look here, from behind,

both the Andersons
working over Dusty Rhodes.

- And he turns on Dusty Rhodes.

- Ric is not worried
about red, white, and blue.

Ric is worried about green
at the end of the day.

- And now it's a three on one.

- Attacking Dusty,
breaking his leg,

beating on Dusty Rhodes.

- The violence seemed real.

You thought, "Man, Ric
really wants to kill Dusty."

- All of us
sitting there like,

how can we have been so stupid

as to trust the dirtiest player
in the game?

- Fans were trying to climb
the cage

to get inside
to help Dusty Rhodes.

- Took us an hour
to get out of the ring.

We had heat, man,

and it drove people crazy.

- That face
sure tells it all, Tony.

- I'm the man

that put Dusty Rhodes
in a knee-high cast.

Dusty Rhodes.

- Get him, Ric!

- It's only just begun.

- With the sabotage on Dusty,

Flair was a marked man.

He needed reinforcements,

so he created
a faction of henchmen.

- The Four Horsemen!
That's what it's all about!

The mastermind
and all the talent.

The new world
Tag Team champions

Ole and Arn Anderson.

The new world TV champion
Tully Blanchard.

Four guys
that could work and talk.

Real simple.

We are the studs
in professional wrestling.

- Obviously, Ric being
the leader of the group.

JJ Dillon, a manager
of the Four Horsemen.

Arn Anderson
being that enforcer.

And then you have someone
like Ole Anderson,

who was mean as can be.

- How about it now,
Rhodes, huh? How about it now?

- And Tully Blanchard,
he was smooth.

He was the guy in the ring

that maybe was
the closest to Ric.

- The Horsemen
were sitting around

having a little brewski,

looking at a few ladies
on the beach.

- All you have to do is go
like this, and everybody knows

what you're talking about.

- We talking Horsemen.

- Ric Flair elevated every
other member of that team.

all: Whoo-hoo!

- The group embodied

everything
that Flair stood for:

money, women,
and, of course, dirty deeds.

- He's doing it again
like before!

- They weren't the biggest.
They weren't the strongest.

They weren't the fastest,

but they were
the most tight-knit.

- There's Tully Blanchard
and the Andersons

and the Four Horsemen
together.

- If I was a wrestler,
I'd be Killer Mike,

and I'd be the fifth Horseman.

- All for one, Horsemen,
and one for all.

[dramatic music]

- The Four Horsemen
became the blueprint

to every faction to follow
from that point forward.

- They were the first.

I was so influenced by it

that I went off the rails
of my career.

- We are the D-Generation X.
- D-Generation.

- You made your rules,
and we will break them.

- Before DX, the nWo,

and every iconic group
that would follow,

the Horseman
revolutionized the industry.

- Traveling from town to town,
kicking butt.

- We beat up who we want
to beat up,

when we wanna beat them up.

- They just went around saying
they were the best,

and they were.

- There is no greater faction
in the history of pro wrestling

than the Four Horsemen.

- With the Horsemen
by his side,

Flair was unbeatable,

winning championship
after championship.

- Ric Flair
is the champion again!

- You're history, Luger!
Whoo!

- So by the late '80s,

Ric Flair sorta starts
to distance himself

from the Four Horsemen.

As he distanced himself
from the Four Horsemen,

he kind of got back
into his craft,

which is being
an incredible wrestler.

And that kind of started
this rivalry

with Ricky
"the Dragon" Steamboat.

- You're gonna be mine.
Don't make a mistake.

- One-hour time limit

for the heavyweight
championship of the world.

And now Flair,
double arm suplex.

Great move!

- His working the ring
was insane.

- Flair, great movement.

Oh, busts him--my God--
on the top.

- Flair was going 60 minutes
a night.

60 minutes in the main event.

- I am, and you ask
the female audience,

the 60-minute man, pal.

So if you can hang in there,
think about it.

- People start to look
at Ric Flair, like "Huh.

"I know this guy cheats a lot,

"but he really wrestles
his ass off.

He can go." You know?

- It showed the world

that once you put
the microphone down,

Ric Flair is every bit as good
a wrestler as he says he is.

- A slam.

But Flair inside. One, two--

- He did it!
- He did it!

[cheers and applause]

And Flair has done it.
Flair has done it.

- As his fame
and fortune continued to grow,

so did his arrogance.

- Take a look at that, huh?

Arnold Schwarzenegger,
be glad you're making movies.

- But the manner
in which he did it

made his presence undeniable.

- Ric
is a Scarface-like figure...

- Say good night
to the bad guy.

- Because he appeals
to what human beings want.

We wanna be the Man.

- I'm rich. I'm famous.

I'm unparalleled
in sports today.

I'm the Man.

- Ric Flair is the reason
I sit here right now

with a Rolex on my arm
and $150,000 Mercedes outside.

It's not that I thought

that that's what I needed
to be cool.

He was cool,
and that was everything he had.

- I think, secretly,
deep down inside,

we all wanted to be that guy.

But Ric Flair
was the epitome of that.

- A part of us is like, wow.

It's flash, right?
It's wealth.

It's all of the things
that a lot of people

would aspire to in real life.

- The girls over here
are hollering.

[cheering]

Slick Ric, you know. Hey.

- He wanted to be the guy
that got all the girls.

When you think of him,
that's just the thing

that is attached.

- I tell you, the lifestyle
of this man

never ceases to amaze.

- Hulk was selling milk
and cookies.

- These are the very best
vitamins on the market.

- Ric Flair--whoo!

Was selling sex, drugs,
and rock and roll.

- Hulk Hogan had cartoons,
but what he didn't have

was the ability
to walk into any club

and every woman in that club

instantly think "I wanna ride
Space Mountain tonight."

- You don't have to go
to Disney World

to find Space Mountain.

It's right here.

I just made it up one day.
[laughs]

One night, a woman--whoo!
Just screamed out,

"It's like--it's like--whoo!
Space Mountain."

And next thing I knew,
it was, like, national news.

And I got news for you.

When you get on Space Mountain,
you'll be like this--

Drinks on the Nature Boy.
[laughs]

[dramatic music]

I spent more money
on spilled booze

than you made
in the last six months.

- The Nature Boy's
avarice lifestyle

wasn't an act.

He lived it 24/7.

- Where does
that character end,

and where does
the real guy begin?

We don't really
know that at all.

- It's who he truly was.

The Ric Flair character
was so strong

that I think
it overtook his life.

- No, this is the WWE.

- By 1992, Flair had yet

to style and profile
his way through the WWE.

- There he is
in all his regal-ness.

- At WWE's
Royal Rumble event,

Flair outlasted
29 other superstars

to win the WWE championship.

- It's Flair from behind.
Oh, yes. Yes!

- It was the pinnacle
of his career and his life.

- The promo that Ric Flair
cut after winning

the 1992 Royal Rumble
and becoming the WWE champion

is the most important
Ric Flair promo there is.

- I'm gonna tell y'all
with a tear in my eye,

this is the greatest moment
in my life.

- 'Cause he says,
"With a tear in my eye,

this is the greatest moment
of my life."

He doesn't say, "This is
the greatest moment

of my professional life."

He says, "This is the greatest
moment of my life."

- It's the greatest moment
of my life.

- It is a real acknowledgment

that there is nothing
more important to him

than being at the top
of his industry.

And that includes family,
and that includes friends,

and that includes anything

that might happen
outside of this universe.

- Whoo! [laughs]

- That was his life.
That's who he was.

I think Ric Flair was 100%
committed to pro wrestling.

- I live and die

and breathe each day
of my life for this business.

- For 15 years,

Flair's deviant actions
in the ring

fueled his lavish lifestyle
outside of it.

Everything I have is because
my name is Ric Flair.

- But it was getting
out of control.

The line between the character
and the man was gone.

- I mean, it wasn't a gimmick.

This was the life
that he ended up leading.

- Come on up here, ladies.

Let this camera get
a little bit of look at you.

Jan, darlin',

I didn't expect to see you
for another week or two.

- Nature was really
living all of that.

There was no pretend
in any of it.

- Can you believe these women?

Now you know why I come
into this television station

a little weary once in a while.

I have to fulfill
all the dreams, the desires,

the wishes, and the lusts
of thousands of young women

all throughout
this great country.

- The best was in Baltimore,
when I woke up in the morning,

and there were two chicks,
and she said,

"You threw your Rolex
in a bowl of spaghetti

"last night at Sabatino's

and said you had
11 other ones."

- His occupation has made it
difficult at times

to have a family.

Now he is in the final weeks
of an expensive divorce.

- Paying alimony
to three women at one time

was a lot of dough.

As a matter of fact,

that's got to be
some kind of record, right?

Three women, same family,
alimony.

Good Lord.

I am so high on being Ric Flair
each day of my life.

- You play that role enough,

that's like
a cop going undercover,

and sometimes they get
so lost in it,

they never come back.

- I probably neglected
my family a little bit,

but it's been successful for me
in promoting myself

and making me successful
in professional wrestling.

- He doesn't apologize
for being who he is.

The Nature Boy is Ric Flair.
Ric Flair is the Nature Boy.

- The womanizer, the king,

the man that makes wrestling
go round and round.

- I think
I was very naive to it.

Just like, this is my dad.
He has bleached blonde hair.

He brings his big gold belt
to show and tell,

and that was normal for me.

- Are you okay?
- Mm-hmm.

- I'm gonna miss you both.

The WWE
isn't big enough for me.

[emotional music]

Vince came to me and said,
"I'm going to start

"going with youth.

And I know they want you
back,"

'cause WCW never stopped
calling from the day I left.

"You can stay, and I'll have
to push you down the card,

or you can leave on top."
And I said, "I'll go back."

WCW, the Nature Boy
is back to rock and roll.

Whoo!

- In 1993,
Flair returned to WCW,

but times were changing.

- Thanks again, Ric.

I know you're on your way
back to Charlotte.

- Thank you.

- In an era of grunge,

darker and edgier villains
were in the spotlight.

Suddenly
the flamboyant Nature Boy

wasn't the Man
like he used to be.

- WCW had started the nWo,
whose entire cause for being

was to strip down anything

and everyone
that WCW ever held dear.

- By the time the NWO
started emerging

and really blowing up

and overshadowing so much
of the other talent,

I probably didn't look
at guys like Ric Flair

the way a lot
of other people did.

the Man is more of a coward
than he is a fossil.

And that was my mistake.

And that hurt Ric.

- You suck.
You, I hate your guts.

It's natural to say something
if your feelings are hurt

or you think that you've
been under-recognized

or you haven't
been appreciated.

Bischoff, I ain't leaving.

- Wait a minute!

- When Ric was
in the character

of the Nature Boy,
he could do no wrong

and was the most
confident person in the world.

But the human behind that
was much more insecure.

- Ric Flair was put
in positions

where he was shown
as inferior.

- Now they're shaving
Ric Flair's head!

- You don't change Ric Flair.

You don't move Tom Brady
from quarterback to tight end.

Guy's winning you Super Bowls.

It's the same thing
with Ric Flair.

Guy's
a 16-time world champion.

- Whoo!

- When you allow the glory
that a character receives

to become
your own personal glory,

then any tragedy that
that character receives

also has to become
your personal tragedy.

And that's a trap that I think
Ric Flair found himself in.

- I was broken.

I don't think
but a few people understand

how much
that impacted my life.

You know,
trying to be written off.

- This is the last Nitro
on the Turner Network,

and we're going out
with a bang.

- As the doors of WCW
closed in 2001,

the question remained.

Was this the end
for the Nature Boy Ric Flair?

- Forever their names will be
linked to greatness in WCW.

- And tonight,
he and Ric Flair

are gonna finish off Nitro.

- I remember the night
of the last WCW Nitro.

It was weird.

Seeing him come out
in just a black t-shirt

and a short mom cut

just kind of threw me
for a loop for a little bit.

I was like, "Oh."

You can kind of see
in his face that, like,

this isn't the Ric Flair
I kinda grew up with.

He just almost looked like
a shell of his former self.

- Sting defeats Ric Flair
here on the final telecast

on WCW Monday Nitro.

- There was a small part of me
thinking like,

"Damn, this might be
the last time

we ever see Ric Flair wrestle."

- I don't like anything
about that last Nitro

except that it closed.

Vince called me
about a year later and said,

"What are you gonna do?"

I said, "I don't know."
I hadn't thought about it.

Right now, I'm just going out
to the country club at 5:00.

Depending on what kind of mood
I'm in, sometimes at 4:00.

He said, "You want
to come back to work?"

and I said,
"Yeah, I'd love to."

- In 2002,
Ric Flair returned to WWE,

but his trademark swagger

that made the Nature Boy
so iconic was gone,

and his confidence was shot.

- I was down on myself.
I just walked away, saying,

"God, you could do
so much better.

Why don't you get it, Ric?"

And it hurt. No pain.

Just anxiety, right?

I've wrestled
a couple of matches

where I couldn't feel
my hands from anxiety.

I'd pinch myself.

- When you no longer think
that you're the Man,

then the very building blocks
that created the Nature Boy

kinda ceased to exist.

- A villain needs to have
self-confidence.

A villain needs to know
that he could do anything

and beat anyone.

Once you take that away,
the villain becomes vulnerable,

and now it's not
a villain anymore.

Now that villain
is just like you and me.

- What Flair needed
was inspiration.

- You see, in this industry,
just like in life,

everything evolves.

And what you see in this ring
before you

is the greatest example
of evolution you will ever see.

- Evolution was
a new four-man faction,

including main event stalwart
Triple H,

legendary icon Ric Flair,

and newcomers
Batista and Randy Orton.

- Evolution was based kinda
on the Four Horsemen.

- So whether you like it
or not, learn to love it.

- Four guys dress nice.
The ladies love them.

- What made the dynamic
of Evolution so special

is that they weren't all
on the same plane.

You had Ric Flair.
He's kind of the mentor.

He's kind of looking out
for everybody.

- That was
one of the luckiest things

I had early in my career
was him.

Took me under his wing.
I learned a lot from Ric.

- I was all for it, but it
took me a while to figure out.

Self-confidence issues.

- He didn't have
the confidence in himself,

but Batista, myself, and Hunter

had the confidence for him.

- And standing before you,
Evolution with all the gold.

- And Ric
was a part of something

that was the top
of the business,

so Ric felt big.

- Whoo! It's LA, bitch.

We're going down to the Strip
to party--whoo!

With a champ.

- Ric felt like,
"Okay, this is on me.

I'm the top dog again."

- Ric played the part.
Ric was the part

and never forgot it.

- All night long!
Whoo!

- In Evolution,
Flair found new life

doing what he did best:

breaking the rules.

- And a low blow.

- It was a huge plus
in my life,

you know, to kind of be
where I was a year ago

and kind of down
on the business

and, you know, not really happy
with myself and my role,

and now things
just keep getting

bigger and better for me.

- When he got
that groove back,

look out, man.

- Flair's done it!
Flair's done it!

The Nature Boy is the
intercontinental champion!

- It brought new life into him.

- Whoo.
- Whoo!

- Whoo!
- Whoo!

- We're having a whoo fest.
- Oh, my gosh.

- Whoo! Whoo!

Whoo!

I was back here, wrestling
full time, and it was fun.

- The maestro,
the Man for four decades.

- He's been in our lives
for so long,

but he's been
remarkably consistent.

- 16-time
world heavyweight champion.

- With Ric Flair now
in the twilight of his career,

something unexpected happened.

The bad guy
had become beloved.

- The level of respect that you
have paid me is unbelievable.

- My dad has always been
a bad guy.

The difference is,
now he's beloved

because he's that respected,
because he is the industry.

- So when it got to the end
and you went,

"Oh, he may not get
to be that guy

I loved to boo anymore."

- And I love being
the Nature Boy!

- Nobody really wants
to let that go.

- To appreciate him now
so much just

for everything that he's done.

- It no longer became
about hero-villain.

It just became
about contribution,

which was as much, if not more

than any other name
that you could mention.

- The chairman of the WWE,
Mr. McMahon, made the mandate

that the next match
that Flair lost,

he would retire.

- The next match
that you lose, Ric,

will be your last.

And Ric insisted that
he needed to beat the best,

because to be the man,
you've got to beat the Man.

- Shawn Michaels,

I want to wrestle you
at WrestleMania.

- And if Ric couldn't beat
Shawn Michaels,

then Ric didn't want
to do this anymore.

- From my standpoint,

it was something
that I really took seriously.

I can show the love
and appreciation

that I had for the guy
that I watched growing up.

It would be my honor
to wrestle you at WrestleMania.

- In 2008,
Ric Flair's farewell match

was a fitting celebration
of an epic career.

- Tonight, we celebrate
Nature Boy Ric Flair.

- Whoo!

- The look on Shawn Michael's
face tells a story.

Flair wants to fight.

- My God, what a shot!

all: One, two, three.

[match bell chimes]

- It's one
of my fondest memories.

- Over 70,000 fans
paying their respects

to the greatest
to ever lace a pair of boots.

- I was blown away, like,
to see the respect,

and have the farewell
that he did.

It was incredible.

[emotional music]

- To have that reception

was really
the ultimate achievement.

- The WrestleMania farewell

closed an important chapter
in the book of Ric Flair.

But the Nature Boy
wasn't done just yet.

- Last night, I wrestled

my very last match
at WrestleMania.

You shouldn't be sad
about the fact

that you're not gonna see me
out here.

You should really rejoice
in the fact

that I have had
the greatest wrestling career

in the history
of pro wrestling!

[cheers and applause]

- Ric Flair's
one-of-a-kind personality

is still influencing society.

- Stylin' and profilin'.

- Perhaps
no superstar in history

has more influence
on pop culture than Ric Flair.

- Can I get two claps
and a Ric Flair?

all: Whoo!

- Whoo!
- Whoo!

- He is so influential, people
doing the Ric Flair strut

and whooing during games.

all: Whoo!

- I don't think I ever
would have realized

how much that would
have transcended

and become such an amazing
part of pop culture.

- Whoo!
To be the man,

you've got to beat
the Man, okay?

- Rolex-wearin'...
all: Whoo!

- Kiss-stealing...
all: Whoo!

- Wheeling, dealing...
all: Whoo!

- Limousine-riding...
all: Whoo!

- Ric Flair.
all: Whoo!

- Son of a gun.
all: Whoo!

- It endeared him
to many people.

Post Malone wanted to meet him.
[laughs]

- Post Malone, my man.
Whoo!

all: Whoo!

- * Whoo! I got the Ric Flair *

* Limousine-riding, jet-flying,
kiss-stealing *

* Wheeling, dealing
son of a gun *

- All those records are dope.

All of those can be
directly attributed

to how Flair made us feel.

His relevancy is unmatched.

There has never been
someone as loved or hated

but followed as Ric Flair.

- Whoo! Whoo!

- He's such a GOAT
that he was relevant to me

when I was 5;
he's relevant to me at 45.

That's a 40-year span of being

one of the absolute
best villainous characters

in a sports
and entertainment world.

- I love women.

I'll take that as a compliment.
Whoo!

- He appealed to the different
senses of entertainers

and athletes that made you
continually like him.

- Whoo!

I influenced culture. [laughs]

- * Heyo *

[dramatic music]

* *

- A two-time hall of famer,

the Nature Boy's incredible
legacy inside the ring

shines through a new Flair
these days.

- Charlotte Flair was built
for the grand stage.

- Bow down to the Queen.

- Known as the Queen,
his daughter, Charlotte Flair,

possesses the same
narcissistic traits

as her father.

- No one compares to me.

Whoo!

- Whoo!

- As good as Ric Flair was,

how head and shoulders he was
above everybody at his time,

I think the same
goes to Charlotte.

- My daughter does stuff now
that nobody can do.

- This is incredible!

- The best female athlete
in the history of our business.

- When you talk about the pride
that Ric Flair has had...

- $1,000 shoes,
big Rolex watches.

- Now we realize
that he's showing pride

in what may be
his greatest creation.

And it wasn't
the alligator shoes.

It was Charlotte.

- A 12-time women's champion.

- Well, I'm like, I'm 5'10",

I'm blonde,
and I'm super athletic.

What is there not to like?

Oh, yeah,
but my last name's Flair.

I am a franchise player.

- Custom-made
from head to toe.

- A genuine superstar.

- The greatest wrestler
of all time.

- That's what
he always told me.

You have to be unapologetic.

Long live the Queen!

- Whoo! The Nature Boy is here
to stay forever and ever.

Whoo!

- So what are we to make

of the Nature Boy Ric Flair?

- You pattern your life
after Ric Flair,

and you'll be someone.

- He believed he was the best
'cause he was the best.

I believe he was the best

'cause he told me
he was the best.

It's a circle like that.
It's weird.

- Really hard to believe
that so much man

could be wrapped
in such a good-looking package.

- He was cocky.
He was arrogant.

And he was great
at making me hate his guts.

- If you're a lawyer

who wishes he was making
the money I'm making,

you better sit down
and shut up!

- He insulted us.
He made us jealous.

- My shoes cost more
than your house.

- But above all,
he always entertained us.

- Bright lights, big city,
it is Nature Boy!

- It doesn't matter

if he's the dirtiest player
in the game.

It doesn't matter
how full of himself he is.

It doesn't matter
if you want what he has.

- [laughing]

- He's Ric Flair.

- I'm a kiss-stealing,
wheeling, dealing,

limousine-riding,

jet-flying son of a gun.

With me,
what you see is what you get.

Hasn't changed in 72 years.

[laughing]

- He didn't think about it.
He just did it.

I'm gonna make you hate me,

and I'm gonna do it
every single night.

Was my dad justified?

He's a 16-time
world heavyweight champion.

You tell me.

- Diamonds are forever,

and so is Ric Flair.

[echoing] Whoo!