Ric Flair: The End of An Era

Last night on RAW, it was the Ric Flair show. Just an incredible, classy night from an industry where the word "class" generally is never associated with it.

They teased the Ric Flair farewell address all show. Even had a pre-tape with Dusty Rhodes who talked about what it was like to be Flair's most famous rival and whatnot. Big Dust even dropped the jive accent he's been using on us for years. Well done.

The Nature Boy came out to a standing ovation and a chant of "Thank you, Ric" from the crowd. He strutted as he walked down the aisle. Once in the ring, he let out a "Woooo!" and said, "Last night, I wrestled my last match at Wrestlemania. I will never wrestle another match in this ring again. I'm not sad about not wrestling. You shouldn't be sad about the fact that you're not going to see me out here. You should rejoice in the fact that I have had the greatest career in the history of pro wrestling. And last night, even though I lost, I lost to a great, great, great wrestler and a better man."

He was surprisingly composed considering how he emotional this angle has been and let's face it, Ric is an emotional guy. He has emotional kids, too. They cried at the Hall of Fame ceremony and during Wrestlemania. So even though Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler speculated on what The Man was going to say, Flair pretty much came out and admitted that he had been crying all day and that he was out of tears. He thanked the crowd and was, of course, failingly polite in doing so.

Then, HHH's music hit. That brought the water works. Trust me, I am guessing that everything after this moment was not planned--or, at least, Flair didn't know about it--because he was breaking down the whole time. It was just a super-amazing thing.

So, Trips comes out and Flair begins to cry knowing that his buddy is going to pay homage to him. Hunter says, "From the bottom of my heart, I love you, man. Thank you. Thank you." Hunter teared up and got down on his knees bowing and Flair looked so embarrassed and asked him to get up. HHH is saying how Flair is busy thanking the fans and everyone else but that he is here to thank the man who did so much for the industry. Then he leans in toward Ric and says that he had talked to some other guys and ever since, his hand had been cramping up holds up four fingers to Flair's face. I FREAKING STOOD UP AND POPPED AT THIS POINT. KEEP IN MIND I AM WATCHING THIS AT 4 IN THE MORNING ON TIVO! The Horsemen music hits and the tears stream down The Nature Boy's face. HHH announces Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, JJ Dillon, and Barry Windham to a huge ovation. I mean, this was just off-the-charts unbelievable. Flair, Windham, and Arn work for Vince now but you could see that Ric was really surprised to see Tully and JJ there. Outstanding.

The next guy announced is Batista. He gets a great pop from the crowd and give Flair the biggest bearhug I've ever seen since Ken Patera was around.

Then begins a parade of former opponents. Harley Race. Greg Valentine. Rick Steamboat. "Another Horseman, Dean Malenko". Finally, Ric's family came out and were introduced one by one by Hunter. Simply amazing class here. The camera pulled tight as Flair hugged and kissed all of his kids and his wife.

Cena came out too. He wasn't booed. He saluted Flair and joined the crowd. HBK's music played and he walked out with his head down and his cowboy hat pulled tight over his face. Once he made it to the ring, he smiled and they hugged, but the camera inexplicably missed it! They exchanged words and hugged again as Flair thanked Michaels. Hunter stepped in and made mention of the matching Rolex watches Flair and Shawn were wearing that HBK gave to Flair to mark the final match in The Nature Boy's illustrious career.

Finally, HHH asked anyone in the back to come out if they wanted to pay respects to Flair and the locker room emptied out. Eventually the whole roster is out there clapping and chanting "Thank you, Ric".

It was truly the end of an era. The whole spectacle has changed so much over the post-Nitro era and the sport has watched fans of our age group leave and move on to something else. Well, after last night's RAW, I can say that for me, the end has come. The one guy I followed as a little kid and through my adulthood is gone and in many ways, the last link to the old school has retired. It was time, for sure, but after seeing the Wrestlemania match, I can say for sure that The Man went out in style (would there be another way for Flair to go out?) and he proved that even at age 59, when he needed to, he still could put on one hellof a match and give his fans that last goosebump moment in a career filled with them.

The Nature Boy: An Appreciation

There are going to be lots and lots of bloggers and writers who feel the need to tell everyone they can about Ric Flair and what the Nature Boy has meant to them. So, yeah. I feel like I can write an appreciation for Ric Flair too.

Wrestling began for me during the WWF and MTV era. I first got a kick out of Hulkamania (there, I said it) but that quickly faded and I wanted more than anything for Roddy Piper to beat Hulk Hogan badly and put the end to ludicrous Rock-n-Wrestling Connection. (Like we were supposed to believe in that!)

But that faded quickly too. It all changed in late 1984 when I saw Ric Flair on the Superstation.

Growing up, there were two distinct camps of wrestling fans. You were either a Flair guy or a Hogan guy. It was like Yankees-Red Sox and Islanders-Rangers, 100%. I, obviously, was a Flair fan and a big mark for the Horsemen. Still am. The difference between Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair has never been about the WWF vs. the NWA or any of that crap. It's always been about believability--or, as Jim Ross says, the sizzle versus the steak. Hulk Hogan was all sizzle. The WWF had the market cornered on sizzle. Ric Flair had a fair amount of sizzle too, but he also had the ability to make you care and make you think what you were seeing was real. He gave the wrestling business an air of legitimacy because he projected an image that he really mattered. Nobody could dream of "24 inch pythons" and being big and thick like Hogan was...but you still could dream of being the coolest guy in the neighborhood who ran around with the tough dudes like Arn Anderson and kissed all the women and made them cry. It was just more realistic. You could almost see yourself custom made from head to toe in that suit from "Michaels of Kansas City". Hell, I wore a suit to school every day and hated it. This guy loved it. Changed my opinion about the dress code immediately. Probably walked a little taller that Monday when I went back to school, too. My tie was much tighter around my neck and my shoes were polished, for sure. That much I remember.

If Hulk Hogan allowed the fan to make the leap from comic books to wrestling, then Ric Flair facilitated the jump from real sports to wrestling. Again, he looked the part of what a champion should look like. A "real" champion wouldn't hesitate to tell you how good he was and a real champion simply wouldn't walk around town in a ripped up red t-shirt with his name on it and a stupid brown leather weight belt. He'd style and profile from city to city as a jet-flying, limousine-riding, kiss-stealing son of a gun.

Hulk Hogan just dusted off monster opponents left and right and the whole match was just getting in the way of the presentation and the pose-down. You knew that was how everything was going to end. With Ric Flair, the gimmick was often turned on it's side. You never really knew--even if you thought you knew--whether he was going to escape with that belt or not. He made a star out of the opponent and believers of the audience and raised the whole thing to a higher plane of performance. While Hogan sold t-shirts, Ric Flair sold legitimacy. We cared because he made us care about the gold around his waist. It was all out there on TV or in the ring or in the bar after the matches. Ric Flair lived his gimmick because he was his gimmick...and in the semi-serious performance art that is professional wrestling, the legitimacy holds sway over the audience who wants to suspend their disbelief.

Everyone has their stories about meeting people they admire and I am no different. I've never been one to get starstruck or too interested in saying I have seen or met famous people, but there's always an exception.

In 1989, Flair had wrestled Terry Funk all over the New Haven Coliseum and afterward, we went to a bar across the street where a lot of the wrestlers went after the matches. The whole scene was really strange with the wrestlers on one side and the majority of the fans on the other side acting like too-shy teenagers at their first school dance. I was sitting chatting with Jim Cornette and Rick Steiner (Steiner mostly grunted) when The Nature Boy walked into the bar. It sounds almost like a cliché to say that the bar went quiet, but it did, until Terry Funk yelled out to Flair that he didn't want to be in the same bar with "no banana-nose puke who made me bleed in this God-forsaken shit-hole". Flair laughed it off and stopped in front of us. He leaned over and said something to Cornette about "staying off the hard stuff" (Cornette was drinking Sprite) and I introduced myself by saying it was a pleasure to meet the greatest wrestler of all-time. Flair smiled and said that the pleasure was all his. He asked me how I enjoyed the show and we ended up making small talk about The Great Muta while he waited for his drink. He got his drink, shook my hand again, and excused himself because he had business to talk over with Gary Hart. Smooth as hell and total class. Guy even called me "Sir". I was barely out of my teens!

I guess the highest compliment you can give someone in the public eye is that when you've met them, the person you looked up to wasn't a total jerk and made the whole thing worthwhile. I don't think any fan who has interacted with Ric Flair has felt disappointed. He is, as Gordon Solie used to say, "the personification of class".

So, it feels kind of strange writing an appreciation for a pro wrestler; but Ric Flair wasn't (isn't) just a pro wrestler. He has, through all of the ups and downs of his career, been a constant in the lives of many of us who feel that we grew up with Ric Flair as a hero; someone to emulate. His matches with Ricky Steamboat and Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes still hold up today as well as any emotional movies or stories or plays that have endured through time. Yes, I mean Shakespeare and I mean Hitchcock and I mean whomever you want to throw in there. They are timeless classics that were able to control and manipulate the emotions of the people who watched them even though we all were in on the big secret. Doing it without the modern nod-and-a-wink obliterization of kayfabe made it all the more better. It's what's missing today in the WWE, people.

The career indignities of the nineties humanized The Nature Boy for us, somewhat painfully. And a lot of his WWE tenure was akin to giving a teenager the keys to a classic Oldsmobile, only to restrict the kid to only driving to the grocery store and other crappy trips around town. But it doesn't matter. No matter how many times they tried, it was true. Management couldn't kill Ric Flair. Again, that was because we cared.

With Ric Flair's expected retirement this Sunday after his match with Shawn Michaels, the last link to the wrestling I enjoyed growing up will be gone. And with it, my interest in the mat game itself. To that end, I thank Ric Flair for the many, many years of vicarious enjoyment and fun. Many people are going to say you hung on too long but you know what? You deserve to go out on your own terms when you're ready. You've earned it. Thank you, sir.

Panthers 4, Islanders 2

The lineup was depleted but our boys put up a fight last night. Still came up short, though, 4-2. The Islanders were missing a total of ten regulars from their lineup due to injuries and sickness so the Isles had to dip into the system and dress defenseman Matthew Spiller and forwards Steve Regier and Tim Jackman. The Islanders were without Ruslan Fedotenko (sprained knee suffered against Tampa), Brendan Witt (sprained MCL) and Andy Hilbert. Good news is that Bruno Gervais might be ready to go for Saturday's game in Montreal at the Bell Centre. We really need some help here as the Isles ride out the season.

Islanders goals were scored by captain Bill Guerin and Blake Comeau. Comeau also had a chance to tie the game late but his shot went just over the net. Florida added an empty-netter by Brett McLean shortly thereafter.

How'd you like to work in the front office of the Islanders last night? Think about this one. Because of injuries and illness, the Islanders called up Matthew Spiller, Steve Regier, and Tim Jackman. Ben Walter had gone up Tuesday and scored against the Lightning. They sent Jeremy Colliton back to Bridgeport but he didn't arrive in time for the Sound Tigers game last night so they had to scramble to field a team last night. The Tigers called up Jeff Dwyer and Olivier Labelle from Utah and signed two players from outside the system to pro tryout contracts just to field enough players to lose to Binghamton 6-3. Not a great night all around for the Islander organization.

I got a bit of an interesting question this morning from a friend who is a regular reader. He asked me what I am going to write about now that the Islanders are just about eliminated from the playoffs. Well, I guess I'll be writing about the Islanders for the most part. I'll still be here to talk about my feelings on the playoffs. I just don't stop watching hockey because my team is out of it. My fandom is not as (shall we say) fervent, but I am along for the ride just the same.

We also have the big Ric Flair retirement parade pulling into Florida this month. I'm guessing that I will have something on that. So far, from what I have seen, this whole "riding into the sunset" angle has been butchered and not given the treatment many think it should have. I am sure that Flair's match at Wrestlemania against Shawn Michaels is going to be the most memorable and emotional ride of both men's careers. I won't be seeing it live because I am just morally against shelling out $54.95 to see one match.

We also will have a series of columns about hockey cards that my wife has been after me to write for years. Look for that sometime in April.