Ric Flair (sigh)

[Tim Evans]

I highly doubt it. Now if TMZ did this, probably so.

[rovert]

Dave Meltzer:

 

Flair's heart condition was first reported in his autobiography.

 

He had to take several months off, got medication and got a clean bill of health and has wrestled with it for many years.

 

The doctor told him there was no problem as long as he stayed away from drinking and didn't do steroids.

 

Knowing he didn't stay away from A and you can think what you want about B, probably not the wisest life moves. However, there have been no heart issues that I'm aware of dating back 6-7 years.

 

This is not any revelation. I've written about it and Bryan and I have brought up the story about the doctor telling him to stop drinking and doing steroids before as well. I don't know how serious WWE was monitoring health of its performers but Flair was there for many years after this.

[sek69]

I'm probably naive on this, but Flair never struck me as a steroid guy. He seemed to be rocking the stereotypical roid bloat prior to the plane crash but not so much after, learning what HBK would discover 25 years later that bad backs do better when you drop 30-40 pounds of excess weight.

 

Also, anyone else surprised that for a guy so obsessed with being 1985 Ric Flair forever, he would let himself go on TV in 2011 with Arn Anderson hair and a melted candle face? I know not even Flair can fight being in his 60s, but wasn't the angle with Curt Hennig bashing his face in the cage door in WCW a cover story for him getting a facelift? I guess I'm just kind of surprised he never used his scamming/grifting powers to score free hair plugs or plastic surgery.

[Loss]

I suspect Flair was an occasional steroid guy at his peak, and probably a regular user as he got older and needed to maintain a certain look for television. Dave has hinted around before that he does what he has to do to be on television.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

What was the point of the article?

 

 

Eh.

 

Obviously, my question wasn't, "WHAT was the article ABOUT?"

 

My question was, "What was the point of the article?"

 

As in, "What am I supposed to learn from this?"

 

Which was, "Ric Flair is a scummy, irresponsible, cheating, money-stealing low life."

 

Thing is, I already knew that. Just sounds like someone found some new information and decided to compile it a little bit more, which is why I am questioning it. What is the point of making an already horrible person look even worse when the facts he added only added up to something Ric had done before and was pretty much common knowledge to people that 1. know him and 2. know about him. I mean, I knew as far back as 2003 (1 year after I got online) that it would be behoove of me to avoid financial interactions with Ric Flair.

 

Is it to protect the general public who don't know who Ric Flair is? I kinda doubt it.

 

You might have already known about all of this stuff, but few others do. If Flair was just another washed out 80s wrestler, nobody would care and nobody would bother writing a story like this one. But Flair's a local celeb in the Carolinas and other places. Like Slickster highlighted, he's involved in local politics, promotions, and other activities. He should be held accountable the same way prominent businessmen or community leaders are held accountable if they fuck people over.

 

And even if it was "common knowledge" that Flair was a scumbag, does that mean we should just look the other way? I compare this story to the Miami football program expose from a few weeks ago. Yeah, most people that follow college football had a pretty good idea that Miami was shady, but that doesn't mean we should look the other way and never acknowledge or confront the issue.

[Hollinger.]

What was the point of the article?

I thought the intro summed up the point of it:

 

The story of Ric Flair was once about a college dropout who rose through the ranks of professional wrestling to become a legend. It was about his nickname, "The Nature Boy," and his signature figure four leglock, both lifted from an older wrestler named Buddy Rogers. It was about his multiple championships, his bleach-blond hair, his fast-talking patter (by his own reckoning, Flair was a "stylin', profilin', limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin'-n'-dealin' son of a gun!"), and his signature, trademarked cry: "WOOO!"

 

Today the story is about a man known in the court system as Richard Morgan Fliehr, 62, born in 1949 and adopted by parents who raised him in Minnesota. That's what he was called this past April, when a judge ejected Fliehr from his Charlotte home because he couldn't pay his rent. That's what he was called in May, when he faced an arrest order for an unpaid $35,000 loan. That's what he's called on the paychecks from Total Nonstop Action, a second-tier outfit where he's still compelled to perform despite suffering from alcoholic cardiomyopathy, and where almost everything he earns goes toward old debts: lawyers, ex-wives, the IRS, former business partners, and anyone who made the mistake of lending him money.

 

[...]

 

The Mecklenburg County courthouse in Charlotte contains thousands of pages documenting Fliehr's legal adventures.

 

[...]

 

Taken together, the information produces a rough timeline that illustrates Fliehr's self-destructive impulses. It includes excesses that Hollywood screenwriters wouldn't have the audacity to invent, and yet it follows its own logic — one bad decision comes after another, each magnifying the damage of the one to follow.

John

 

Eh.

 

Obviously, my question wasn't, "WHAT was the article ABOUT?"

 

My question was, "What was the point of the article?"

 

As in, "What am I supposed to learn from this?"

 

Which was, "Ric Flair is a scummy, irresponsible, cheating, money-stealing low life."

 

Thing is, I already knew that. Just sounds like someone found some new information and decided to compile it a little bit more, which is why I am questioning it. What is the point of making an already horrible person look even worse when the facts he added only added up to something Ric had done before and was pretty much common knowledge to people that 1. know him and 2. know about him. I mean, I knew as far back as 2003 (1 year after I got online) that it would be behoove of me to avoid financial interactions with Ric Flair.

 

Is it to protect the general public who don't know who Ric Flair is? I kinda doubt it.

 

 

WE know most of this stuff, because we read the sheets and follow that kind of thing. Your casual wrestling fan legitimately thinks that Flair is a jet flyin, limousine ridin playboy. And he is. What most people don't realize is HOW he's been doing it. That makes for an interesting story. This wasn't some wrestling site, it was a very mainstream sports web site, and one designed around provocative articles. This was definitely something their reader base would be interested in.

[tigerpride]

Are Triple H and Flair still best friends?

[Matt D]

I want them to make an episode of Leverage about Ric Flair.

 

I'm going to try to forward that article to John Rogers.

[Victator]

Flair said he did steroids regularly til 1990 and stopped.

[jdw]

I want them to make an episode of Leverage about Ric Flair.

 

I'm going to try to forward that article to John Rogers.

That would be fucking awesome.

 

John

[Bix]

I don't know how serious WWE was monitoring health of its performers but Flair was there for many years after this.

Big Show's enlarged heart says hi.

[jdw]

In the book, was it clear that the Doctors said the heart problems were due to alcoholic cardiomyopathy? Did Dave ever report that on the WON?

 

I'm just not remembering either.

 

John

[Bix]

Looks like he did admit it in the book.

 

I only read it once via the library and didn't remember that part.

[jdw]

I remember the heart issues, didn't remember the alcoholic part being directly tied to the heart, though probably should have. I think a lot of us know that Ric is an alcoholic.

 

I do recall that when people have pointed out that Ric is an addict of booze (at the very least), there was some resistance:

 

As for "addict", if he's an alcoholic, he's a highly functional one. One incident related to alcohol in Chapel Hill over a year ago, one that may or may not have been last week, and if it was the police didn't seem to think so. By the way, if the police were covering for Flair, why didn't they just go home? It's because they weren't covering for him. The damage was in the incident getting in the paper and sponsors not being happy, and that happened. THere are millions of people in this world who go to bars on a weekly basis, drink alcohol regularly, and take care of themselves and their families. Are they all alcoholics? Maybe you know more about Flair's drinking than I do, but I don't see it.

That was about a year and a half ago.

 

John

[smkelly]

Alcoholism - continued excessive or compulsive use of alcoholic drinks -- a chronic disorder marked by excessive and usually compulsive drinking of alcohol leading to psychological and physical dependence or addiction.

 

Maybe Mitchell should use a dictionary or Google for references other than his presumably biased opinion. Nevertheless, I don't understand how Bruce wouldn't think that Flair was/is an alcoholic.

 

Should a guy like this have state governments paying him to promote lottery tickets?

They're called background checks for a reason.

So the state is the victim here? Who runs the courts in the US, Mexico?

 

Should Republican political candidates be associating themselves with an alleged rapist?

They're called background checks for a reason.

Dunno. Should State Senators be soliciting sex in airport bathrooms? Should the President of the United States get blowjobs from women that are not his wife? Should the current Presidential candidate even be a candidate (since he was making business deals for Texas as the governor IN Afghanistan which = "a no-no" because he didn't have the authority to do so and, it cost taxpayers to have an armed escort(s) 24/7 for the guy)?

 

Should Carolina sports teams really be paying this career con man to give pep talks and say his catchphrases?

They're called background checks for a reason.

Again, whose fault is it? I mean, I understand what you're getting at, but I don't think you quite understand. Flair, as you say, = money in the Carolina's. The obviousness of how Flair "gets to do things" is right in front of your face. He makes people money - and - "making money"

 

The state/local governments are not victims here. And I'm not going to sit here and pretend that they are. I mean, if one man, Ric Flair, if he can swindle state governments and political candidates for the Presidency after everything that he has done (which the governments (state and local) know about)...then holy shit.

 

The same applies to the innocent civilian sector as well. It's called the Internet and Google is the #1 website for a fucking reason. Type in 'Ric Flair' and do some research. I don't know about broadcasts in the Carolina's, but here in Michigan, there is a commercial for an Internet service called BeenVerified...and it plays all the fucking time on local channels. Maybe people are still dumb and naive and want to believe that they can trust people?

 

At any rate, all this shows is that Flair was given "leniency" (in terms of money crimes) probably because he is worth more to the government paying back taxes than being incarcerated for tax evasion. I mean, rich men have gotten away with lots of shit in the court system because they were rich men.

[Victator]

Should Republican political candidates be associating themselves with an alleged rapist?

They don't do that for the candidates so why should Ric be any different.

 

But seriously the key word is alleged. People gloss over that word too often.

[WrestlingPower]

With all the road stories you hear from the 80s of guys getting away with stuff due to giving cops autographs, pictures, tickets, whatever, of all people I'm sure this article could be three times as long with the stuff he never got charged with. A friend of mine was a cop in Chapel Hill within the last 5 years & says they would routinely get calls to haul Flair out of a bar & tell him to go home.

[rovert]

Wrestling icon Ric Flair is FURIOUS over an article which claims the Nature Boy is suffering from a serious medical condition caused by years of hardcore boozing ... because Ric claims it's NOT TRUE and now he's threatening to sue.

 

The unflattering article -- which paints Flair as a troubled, irresponsible mess of a person -- ran on an ESPN affiliated website called Grantland.com ... and the report is mostly based on court documents.

 

But Flair is particularly pissed about the reporter's claim that he suffers from Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy -- a disease caused by years of alcohol abuse which often leads to heart failure.

 

A rep for Flair -- -- whose real name is Richard Fliehr -- tells TMZ, "While the information gleaned from courthouse records may be credible, Mr. Fliehr is currently evaluating his legal options with respect to falsehoods in the story, specifically the untrue statement that he suffers from alcoholic cardiomyopathy."

 

The rep adds, "Our client understands that these allegations are part of the territory when you are not only famous, but a living legend."

 

http://www.tmz.com/2011/08/26/ric-flair-wr...nd-bill-simmons

[Dooley]

It just keeps getting funnier.

[jdw]

Looking at the book Bix cited:

 

Ric Flair: To be the Man, by Ric Flair, Keith Elliot Greenberg, Mark Madden (page 427)

 

"Through my many years of partying, I also developed something called "alcoholic cardiomyopathy", a weakening of the heart muscles. [...] Initially, I thought that steroids might be responsible, but the doctor dismissed this theory. My heart was fluttering from thirty-five years of hitting it hard."

-Ric Flair

 

Ric may want to tell his reps about this.

 

John

[rovert]

I heard drinking causes memory loss

 

I guess Flair will blame that passage on Keith Elliot Greenberg

[jdw]

I hope someone tweets that Flair book link to the Author, Simmons and TMZ so they can all have a good laugh.

 

It's long been a little secret that Ric's become sad and pathetic: we know it, his friends who give a shit know it, people in NC close to him or following the stories know it. But now Ric's become nationally sad and pathetic, and his response to it was to contradict his own autobiography. Anymore pathetic than that?

 

John

[jdw]

I guess Flair will blame that passage on Keith Elliot Greenberg

Can't be his homeboy Mark Madden's fault, and Ric would never have intentionally lied in his book (the best wrestling book of all-time up to that point)... so it has to be Greenberg. Ric never wanted him on the project anyway.

 

John

[rovert]

kjh chooses a great accompanying picture:

http://www.cagesideseats.com/2011/8/26/238...made-in-his-own

[jdw]

Good piece, Keith.

 

John