411’s ESPN 30 for 30: Nature Boy Report

411’s ESPN 30 for 30: Nature Boy Report

-Before getting to this highly anticipated documentary, I have to mention that it is a glorious day as AJ Styles is once again your WWE Champion.

-Now on to the newest movie released under the ESPN 30 for 30 banner. For those who don’t know ESPN released 30 documentaries to celebrate 30 years on the air and they were so well received, they decided to do more. I have seen every one of them and they are all tremendous to varying degrees. For whatever reason it seems I have seen the one about the rise and fall of SMU football (Pony Excess) the most and ESPNU shows it quite often. The WWE is no stranger to this series as one was shown earlier in the year about Vince McMahon’s failed XFL and it was great as well.

-The director of this one is Rory Karpf, who has a history of doing sports documentaries (did one on Dale Earnhardt and Herschel Walker). He also did a previous 30 for 30 on NASCAR driver, Tim Richmond.

-We start out with Kopf giving his thoughts on the film and he says it is a human interest story whether you like wrestling or not. He hits the nail on the head that Flair was the guy everyone man wanted to be and every woman wanted to date. The film is book ended by 2 interviews, 16 months apart, he did with Flair and in the second one Flair opened up and showed all the good and bad.

-Flair talks over the opening saying the 80s was a great time for wrestling and he was the best wrestler in the 80s. The Nature Boy wasn’t a wrestling character and he wasn’t fake. He was the Nature Boy and he sacrificed everything for wrestling. Poignant moment already as Flair says he always wanted to be The Man and could never live being just A man. Fantastic opening!

-Oct 29, 2015 is the first interview and the last one is Feb 21, 2017. They show the setup of both interviews and they start with the later one. Flair says he grew up a fan of wrestling and he couldn’t wait for it to come on at 6 PM on Saturday night. His father wanted nothing to do with wrestling and that leads to a discussion about his parents. He says his parents were 2 poor souls that adopted him. They lost a daughter and couldn’t have children so they adopted Ric. He was born Feb 25, but his anniversary was March 18 (the day he was adopted). He found out he was adopted at 10 years of age and Ric says he didn’t care. He gives a history of what his parents did and he says they never could relate to him and vice versa. He is sure on a regular basis that he disappointed them everyday. He tells a story of trying to buy liquor with a fake ID the day before Father’s Day and he was arrested. He got into enough trouble to get sent to a boarding school in Wisconsin.

-They talk about Ric Flair: The Athlete. He was big in football, wrestling, and track & field. His parents never came to see him compete in anything and they go over the big time schools that were recruiting Ric (basically Big 10 schools) and he opted for Minnesota. He chose Minnesota because Michigan wouldn’t take him.

-First talking head of note is Greg Gagne who played football with Flair at Minnesota. He always wondered why Ric wasn’t at practice and says it was because his grades weren’t good enough. He tells a story of Ric being the big frat guy on campus and how he would walk around naked to get the attention of woman at the Delta House. Greg’s not sure if Ric got enough attention from his parents and if that is the reason he acted out so much.

-They show some old footage of Ric on a talk show discussing becoming a pro-wrestler. In the interview he puts over Verne Gagne, and that leads to Flair getting invited to Verne’s camp. Ricky Steamboat pops up to discuss the first camp. He talks about having to carry guys on your shoulders while going up flights of stairs and then switching roles once got to the bottom floor. They also had to walk on their hands up the stairs while their partner held their legs. Greg goes over the in ring work and how for 6 weeks it is was 1000 bumps a day as they had to learn to fall and absorb the impact over their entire body. Ric quit and Verne chased him down, slapped him in the face, and told him he wasn’t a quitter. Ric says he didn’t argue with him, but he wanted to quit at least 3 more times. He admits to being in terrible cardiovascular shape.

-They have footage from the WWE of what is apparently Flair’s first ever match which is pretty awesome. Flair says he learned that wrestling was a work while in the locker room. They talk about the elephant in the room about wrestling being fake and Flair says it drove him nuts when people would say that to him. He says wrestling isn’t fake and he would label it is as being choreographed.

-Ric calls his early character boring and says he wanted to change his name, but Verne told him Ric Flair was a great wrestling name. Flair says that it wasn’t until the plane crash that he was able to find his character.

-Oct 4, 1975: Flair was on a flight with 5 other people including the pilot and nobody knew they were only flying with half a tank of gas. They struck the ground at 230 miler per hour. Flair had a compression fracture in his back and he went from 255 lbs to 185 lbs during the time he was in the hospital. It took a lot of work to get himself back in shape.

-They discuss the nickname “Nature Boy” and Flair puts over Buddy Rogers. He says while he was healing from the back injury he made the decision he wanted to be a heel and he wanted to be blonde. Flair is asked where he got the “Woo” from and he says he was a fan of Jerry Lewis and “Great Balls of Fire.” We get a “woo” montage and then Flair talks about how he took what Buddy Rogers did and took it to the next level with the robes, money, and jets.

-They studio interview they keep cutting to is from Sally Jessy Raphael. I should also mention one of the talking heads so far is his first wife, Leslie Jacobs. She started seeing a change in him as she saw less of him with the more money he started making. He bought his own limo and as he got bigger, more woman started getting attracted to him. She says Flair lived 2 lives: his family and his fantasy and the fantasy side started to win out. She knew Ric Flair before he was Ric Flair and when he was Richard Fliehr. Flair breaks down as he says it became a disease once he realized he was good at pro-wrestling.

-We take our first commercial break.

-The director asks Ric what it was that drew him to wrestling as it had to be about more than just a paycheck. Flair says it was a rush and it allowed him to do pretty much anything he wanted. Jim Cornette talks about the grueling schedule Flair had in the 70s and 80s. He takes a shot at the WWE in the 80s as he calls the NWA the Boston Celtics while the WWE was the Harlem Globetrotters. They do a split screen with NWA/WCW on one side and WWE on the other showing the differences between the two. Cornette says that promoters saw a lot in Flair and why he was in high demand all over the country and then the world.

-Flair won the NWA World Title for the first time on Sept 17, 1981 (for point of reference I wasn’t even 4 months old yet). He pinned Dusty Rhodes for the Title and yes, they have footage from the ending of the match. They talk about the Flair/Rhodes rivalry and Flair calls him a genius. The director asks how they were able to make people think they hated each other and Flair says it was part of the game and people bought it back then. Lots of good video of the Flair/Rhodes rivalry here while Baby Doll (wow) talks about the magic they had with each other. She calls wrestling violent theater and that is a tremendous description. We get the tail end of Dusty’s famous “hard times” promo. It was the working man vs the elite according to Baby Doll. Some great Flair soundbites from his interviews during that time.

-Michelle Beadle (you knew she had to be in this as she is the most outspoken WWE fan ESPN has now that Simmons is gone) says that you want to see someone who is better than you out there and says that 80s wrestling was built on Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. That gives us some Hogan sound bites and Tully Blanchard pops up to say that cable made wrestling explode and while WCW/NWA was geared towards blue collar guys who wanted to see a fight, the WWE was geared towards kids. Once you hooked the kids then the parents had to come along and that meant more money.

-Flair was famous even if what he was doing was on a regional level and didn’t go worldwide until later in his career. Marty Smith, ESPN reporter, says that what Flair was doing seemed real and he didn’t feel Hulk Hogan, but he felt Ric Flair was living what he was saying. Maria Menounos next as he talks about how Flair was great and made an impact even though he wasn’t part of the WWE and the machine their wrestlers had behind them.

-The Undertaker shows up and it is very weird seeing him in just sitting in a living room shooting the breeze. He talks about how Ric always had women around and would rub it in your face while also being the World Champion.

-That leads to discussion of the 4 Horsemen, and Flair says it was 4 guys that could perform at a high level and could talk. Arn Anderson says they were the first cool bad guys as it was ok to like them. Tully says that it was ok to be a wrestling fan at that time. The Undertaker says that it was cool to think you could be like the Horsemen with all the women, money, fame while traveling around the world in jets.

-Flair is asked if people were living through him in the 80s and he says without a doubt. He had the biggest house, all the woman, and was the best in the world so every man wanted to be him. He compares himself to Muhammad Ali in that they both made themselves famous with their charisma while also being the best in their sport. Jim Ross talks about how a generation of athletes have grown up watching Flair and we get a montage of football players cutting promos like Flair before and after games. “Give me 2 claps and a Ric Flair….WOO!”

-SNOOP DOGG in the house as he talks about growing up wanting to be Ric Flair. Snoop says that Flair is a big part of the black community as he essentially had swag before people used the term. The director talks about Flair being groundbreaking as he talked about all the money he had and the women he had and asks Flair where that came from. “The night before” Ric responds with a laugh. Awesome!

-Ric says that whatever he said on TV, he did as he lived the gimmick. His first wife talks about the drinking, women, and partying and how it took over. Ric talks about saying on TV what hotel he was staying and he would tell her it was just for show and nobody would really show up. Flair says that if he was stuck in town he was going to find something to do. He’s not going through that night by himself and that leads to the director asking how many women he’s had. Flair says realistically it is probably around 10,000 and that leaves the director speechless. Flair laughs, but also says he knows that is terrible. Flair says that he took his vows serious for about a day and realized soon he couldn’t stay loyal. He would try, but he just had to be with someone.

-We get some classic Flair stories from Sting and Schiavone as it seems Flair loved to be naked on airplanes.

-Back to his first wife who says that Flair is a wrestler first and foremost. She says that Flair does love his kids and for that she can’t bad mouth him as she also loves her kids. David Fliehr and Megan Fliehr talk about how hard it was to grow up with their dad not being around. David says he doesn’t want his kids growing up without a dad like he had to and Megan talks about Ric missing things he promised he would go to, and trying to make it up with gifts as he would bring her 20 Cabbage Patch Kids at a time. Damn! Do you know how hard it was to get those things in the 80s?

-Flair says it wasn’t about not wanting to see his kids, but he was the World Champion. His first wife tells a story of Ric coming home and saying he couldn’t stand it and he would go to Greg Valentine’s house (a few miles down the road) and that’s where Beth was. In 1983 Ric married Beth and she became wife #2. From that marriage Flair got 2 more children: Reid and Ashley. They show home videos of Reid being baptized and this is going to get heavy. Ashley (Charlotte) shows up next and we get more home videos of her birthday. Flair says from 1972-1999 he was never home and he is the first to admit he was very selfish about wanting to be Ric Flair.

-They go back to his parents and Flair says they never got it. He bought them a house for $2 million and his dad didn’t know why someone needed a house so big. Ric says they only saw him wrestle 3 times in his life, and his dad just wanted nothing to do with it.

-Commercial break and of note they preview the next 30 for 30 which is called “The Two Bills.” It will detail the relationship and career paths of Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. Yeah, I am sucker for these so I will check that one out as well.

-The director wants to know what makes a good wrestler. Flair says technique, agility, skill, and being able to think on your feet. Flair talks about working on his punches by hitting a string over a period of three years as hard as he could until he could do it without making the string move. He talks about the art of selling and how he made people look good. He says that if you are in a headlock and not doing anything, nobody will give a shit, but if you are kicking and fighting then you can make the people believe you are hurt.

-They talk about how most champions dominate while Flair would get his ass beat and win by the skin of his teeth and Flair says that’s why people would keep paying to see him. Sting talks about how great Flair was for him and breaks down all the ways Flair helped him and groomed him.

-Flair says when he was at his best, his favorite opponent was Ricky Steamboat. Yeah this is going to be fantastic. Flair says Steamboat was the ultimate in conditioning and stamina. He wanted to hit Ricky so hard that the people in the first few rows could hear it. Ricky says the same as he was chopping Flair as hard as he possibly could. They were always on the same page and would bring the best out of each other. Schiavone calls it an art form and that they would go an hour in a heart beat without having to say a word to each other. They show Flair winning the final match in their holy trinity of matches.

-Flair says he got his work ethic from Gagne’s camp and jokes about how great he would have looked had he not drank and partied. Flair talks about going to a psychologist and the first question he was asked was how often he masturbated and Flair says about twice a day. Yeah, I didn’t need to know that. The next question was how much do you drink and Flair says about 10 beers and 5 mixed drinks ever day. The psychologist says to do that for as long as Flair did every day wasn’t possible. He laughs about how the doctor reacted and Flair told him to come travel with him for a week to see for himself.

-He never tried to go out without drinking. He was miserable in the small towns in Kansas, and says that he couldn’t just go back to his room and watch TV. He wishes he knew the answer. Jim Ross talks about a time they were in a small bar after TV and Flair ordered 137 kamikaze for all of 10 people in the bar. Flair started passing out drinks and flirting with the women. The people loved it as they were partying with Ric Flair. JR says Flair always needed companionship so he wouldn’t be isolated. He doesn’t know how people didn’t see Flair as a problem drinker. Baby Doll says that she never saw Flair show up drunk at a show, but he was definitely a drinker and she isn’t sure how he still has a liver. Flair talks about the flights to Japan and how much he would drink and he does think now about how is he still alive. He admits it isn’t a happy thought either. He knows there is no way he should still be alive after some of the things he has done.

-Commercial break.

-Flair is asked the main differences between himself and Hulk Hogan. Flair says Hogan was a physical specimen he could never be and then gets a great line as he says “Hogan was selling vitamins and milk, while I was selling sex and booze.” Triple H says Hogan is a comic book character that captured everyone’s attention while Flair was a real person that was gritty. Hogan was the WWF and Flair was the NWA. Hogan says they lived in different worlds and it was always a dream match for fans. Hogan says that Flair has had hundreds of 1 hours matches while he has never had one. Hogan admits that Flair is 10 times better than he is. He has a certain thing that works for him and jokes that he had plans A, B, C, and D and asked the guys to pick one for their match. Flair could do more than him and that is why Flair is the one that changed the business. Hogan says he used to watch Flair and he wished the WWE could have stolen him in the 80s. He felt Ric was too loyal to the boys he worked with and didn’t want to do anything that may hurt them financially.

-Ric says he had a chance to go in 1986 and 1988, but he didn’t. He talks about Turner buying Crockett and them putting Jim Herd in a position of power. That leads to a fight between the two and Flair telling Herd to stick it up his ass. That leads him to jumping to the WWE in 1991 and they cover him winning the WWE Title at the 92 Royal Rumble. Hearing Bobby Heenan on commentary is just so right. Flair calls it the greatest moment in his life at that point. Hogan says that when Flair made the jump he took over as he didn’t need to be brought up to speed.

-They show part of an episode of the Funeral Parlor where Hogan and Flair went face to face for the first time. Flair says that company needed quick money and put them against each other on house shows way before any proper build to a money match at WrestleMania. Hogan mentions at the last minute things were changed and they were put in separate matches at Mania and while it was ok, it wasn’t the huge, massive deal it should have been with them against each other. Hogan thinks it would have changed the history of everything. Flair says he was never disappointed as he got to wrestle Hogan a lot in WCW.

-That leads to WCW doing the match on PPV as soon as Hogan made the jump and HHH dumps on it a little as he says it should have happened 5-10 years earlier. That’s a fair point, but it still did pretty strong business for WCW. Hogan says Flair never wanted to win as there was never any ego with Flair. Hogan takes a shot at himself again as he talks about his limited ability, yet Flair would give everything. He calls Flair too giving to a fault.

-Cornette talks about Herd wanting to retire Flair in the early 90s and then a decade later they still needed Flair to pop a rating or a PPV buy. Flair says they used him and it made him miserable.

-Commercial break

-Quick insert put in to discuss Flair’s recent health scare. Karpf says it is a testament to Ric and the fighter that he is. He mentions that by his side is his fiance, Wendy, who was Fifi the Maid in WCW.

-Flair talks about wrestling in his 50s while back in the WWE. HHH says that Flair’s confidence was gone and he did whatever he could to keep it up. Flair says that he started to get comfortable with himself again as HHH kept telling him “you know who you are.”

-The director talks about his retirement and Flair calls it the greatest retirement in the history of sports. He got to go out at Mania in front of a massive crowd against Shawn Michaels. Shawn says it was important to him to make the match memorable as it was Flair’s last match “in the WWE.” HHH says that if you could script out a perfect retirement for a sports figure that is the way you would do it. Shawn said Ric is his friend for better or worse and he knew he wouldn’t stay away as he didn’t want to retire. Shawn is quite blunt here as he says Ric doesn’t love being Richard Fliehr. Ric says he hated being retired and was sick about it the next day.

-Holy crap they even got TNA footage for this thing which should be the first time TNA and WWE footage have showed up on the same project. The talking heads talk over footage of Flair putting his body through all kinds of crap for TNA including showing his ass while getting whipped and being slammed in tacks.

-Shawn says that Flair loves the wrestling business and then his son, Reid, got into the business and learned the lifestyle. Flair talks about his son being an amateur wrestler and how he would take him all over the world. We get more home videos and this is getting sad. They show the WCW footage of Reid taking down Bischoff on Nitro. Flair says that Reid was too much as he would be drinking beers with the neighbor at 16 years old. They have a voice mail from Reid saying he wanted to work with his father and that his father was his best friend. Ric took him to Japan and that is where Reid started wrestling. Ashley says that Reid was often taunted and they all tried to mask things. Her dad moved out the week before she graduated so her and Reid were left in a million dollar house so they partied every day.

-HHH says that Ric is a chronic liar, and talks about trying to get Reid in to the WWE. HHH had to tell Ric that Reid failed the drug test, and Ric said that was impossible. HHH told him the test doesn’t lie, but for Ric, he will test him again and even says they would give Reid a heads up when the test would be. The next test was even worse than the first one. Ric continued to lie and try to cover for his son.

-Ric says that he knew Reid had taken some pills as he had seen it a thousand times. He put him to bed and didn’t know that later that night Reid would be messing with black tar heroin. They play the 911 call and it is chilling to hear. Flair breaks down as he talk about the ambulance crew telling him that Reid didn’t make it. This is heartbreaking! They show Flair celebrating with Reid as a boy and yeah, this is tough to watch. Ric loses it as he talks to his son and tells him that he is sorry for being his best friend instead of his dad. As a father of a 6 month old these are things that cross my mind that I never thought about even a few years ago.

-Ric says he didn’t find joy in his life so he just drank himself to near death for the years following. HHH says he would often call Ric and curse him out to get him to get help. He says that in some ways Reid’s passing helped them all. It changed the course of Ashley’s life as she decided to live Reid’s dream and become a WWE superstar. That gave more purpose to Ric’s life and he is living through her now. It brings him more than joy to see her inside a wrestling ring. A great package of Ric, Reid, and Charlotte all doing the Figure 4 culminates in them showing Charlotte winning the Divas Title. Ric says that is the greatest moment in his profession career. Stephanie McMahon says she Charlotte taking to wrestling as naturally as she did caught Ric by surprise.

-HHH says Flair is a tale of the good and the bad of the business. Hogan calls wrestling Flair’s number 1 love and thinks it still is.

-The director asks Flair how he wants people to remember him. He says he knows he isn’t the best father or best husband so he can’t ask to be remembered like that, so he will settle for being remembered as the greatest and most entertaining wrestler ever.

-Just fantastic. We got some great insight from those that know Ric the best and I was blown away by the blunt honesty from Shawn Michaels. I am going to have to watch this a few more times to take it all in, but this is great for any wrestling fan and as noted even those who don’t watch wrestling can get into this as it us a cautionary tale about fame and the toll it can take on not only the main person, but his family and friends. The parts with his kids and obviously, Reid was very tough to watch, but needed to be covered. I just wish now I could see what hit the cutting room floor. Highest recommendations and try to catch it as it replayed on the various ESPN channels.