When did Ric Flair start to "Wooooooo!"?

[Wolfman]

I've seen footage from the late 70's/early 80's where he doesn't do it. When did he start?

[BruiserBrody]

n/m I mixed up stuff

[ohtani's jacket]

According to Flair, he did it first in 1974 and got it from the Jerry Lee Lewis song Great Balls of Fire, and as we all know Flair is never wrong about these things.

[Loss]

There is footage of Flair doing it as early as 1974.

[JerryvonKramer]

I saw a match of him doing it in 1978 recently vs. Pat o'Conner. In fact, I was struck by just how much like mid-80s Flair he was in that match.

[Wolfman]

Cool. Thanks!

[Ricky Jackson]

1974 promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ANKDVFxkbo

[Dooley]

When did he go from the short 'Woo!" to the longer, more orgasmic 'Wooooooooooooo'?

[JerryvonKramer]

Well Dooley, here's that O'Connor match from 1978:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOEfnNhB6vM

 

1:42 in while he's in the figure four he gives us a woo. Judge for yourself how orgasmic it is though. In addition, after the match he gets into a bit of a scuffle with DiBiase and calls his old man a "nothing". He's clearly more the Nature Boy we know and love.

 

In that clip with Rip Hawk, he still seems to be channeling Dusty Rhodes to me.

 

What I find quite interesting about this is that at some point in 82 or 83 in the lead in to Starrcade 83, Flair seems to flip his character again and becomes the babyface "Minnesota Flair". I'm interested to know how often he used that version of the character before then. Watching the NWA shows from 83 on, it felt like Slick Ric doesn't debut properly until late 84/5. Even at Starrcade 84 he's not as stylin' and profilin' as we're used to. That's why that 78 match struck me so much because there's the character seemingly fully formed.

[Badlittlekitten]

I suppose the question I have after watching that O 'Conner clip is when did Ted go from being DEEBY ARSE to DEEBY ASS SEE?

[JerryvonKramer]

They seemed to mix that up right through the 80s in Mid-South. Sometimes Watts switches between the two in the space of a few minutes.

[jdw]

1974 promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ANKDVFxkbo

 

Cool!

[Matt D]

You get the sense Rip Hawk was just groaning and thinking "Calm down you little puke."

[El-P]

1974 promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ANKDVFxkbo

 

Cool!

 

Indeed.

[flyonthewall2983]

I seem to remember that he did it in his MSG match from '76 too.

[conker8]

Another question : when did the crowd start doing "Woooo" for a chop ?

[flyonthewall2983]

I think it started in ECW and carried over when he came back to WWE.