Once Great, Now Tarnished.

"The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. A name once synonymous with Wrestling Greatness, quickly becoming synonymous with Wrestling Sadness. Almost two years ago when Ric Flair lost his retirement match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XXIV, I was glad to see him bow out, even if he was at least a good ten years past his prime. The goodbye ceremony the night after was the way a true legend in the sport should go out, while maybe not on top anymore, he did enjoy one last decent storyline, a reunion of the Four Horsemen, and heartfelt good byes. What more could a legend want?

Recently with Ric Flair's return to TNA it made me think back fondly and not so fondly on my favorite wrestler, Richard Morgan Fliehr, the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. When I was young I watched wrestling and cheered the good guys, the "faces". Blackjack Mulligan, Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, Paul Jones, "The Mighty" Igor, and Rufus R. Jones. I remember cheering on Piper's Pit as he went up against the House of Humperdink. I remember feeling betrayed when Paul Jones went bad, went "heel" to become "Number One" Paul Jones. When I finally started to get into wrestling Ric Flair was the first wrestler that I really got into. Heel, face, it didn't matter, Ric Flair was the man.

The guy to the left looks nothing like the Ric Flair we all know. Hell, he looks nothing like the Ric Flair I originally cheered. Trained by the Vachon Brothers and later Verne Gagne, Ric Flair started out at nearly 300 pounds, but he was charismatic and had lots of endurance regardless of his size. In the AWA he would first fued with two long running rivals, Dusty Rhodes and Wahoo McDaniels.

Shortly after leaving the AWA, moving on to Jim Crocket's Mid-Atlantic Wrestling he would win the TV Championship and not long after his career would be threatened by a plane crash that broke Flair's back in three places. After being told that he would never wrestle again he returned to the ring, just six months after the crash. The plane crash could be credited with giving us the "Nature Boy" we would all come to know. After his injuries he was forced to change his power brawling style to a more technical style that he would keep for the remainder of his career. Flair would go on to hold the United States Championship five times over the next three years, but it was in 1978 that Flair hit Main Event status once he began refering to himself as "The Nature Boy" inciting a fued with the original "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, who put Flair over in the encounter.

In the early eighties Flair would hold his first of sixteen, or twenty-one depending on who you ask, World Titles. From that point on there was no looking back as Flair fought every big name in the industry at the time, with a few exceptions. In 1985, Ole and Arn Anderson, with their "cousin" Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and manager J.J. Dillion would forever change things with the formation of the Four Horsemen. This is where I really started to get into Ric Flair. I loved the Horsemen and to me the ultimate incarnation of this group was Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and Barry Windham. In late 1988 Flair would embark on a series of matches with Ricky Steamboat that many people consider his greatest matches ever. This led to a fued with Terry Funk that was brutal and violent. Flair then went on to fued with Sting and a match at the first Clash of the Champions that I consider one of both men's best matches.

Shortly after Flair left for the WWF for the first time and while he always held a special place for me, I don't think I ever looked at him the same way again. I wasn't into the WWF at that time. I thought they were cartoony and childish, I always remembered Hogan's Rocking Wrestling cartoon and that was the first thing that popped in my head. Even when Flair returned to the WCW things just weren't the same. Before long he started to go on long wild tangent filled promos that often left me confused at the end of them. He started dropping elbows on the empty ring and he could no longer perform his patented flip over the corner post run down the apron climb up the other side for a high risk manuever but get flipped to the mat instead routine. Every time he did that move you held out hope that just once he would actually be able to get away with that move, and every once in a while he did.

When Vince McMahon bought out the WCW and Flair returned as a part owner of the company, I was happy because by that time, that was where Flair should have been. It was time for him to move out of the ring, into a General Manager or Management role. When he joined Evolution I was hoping it would be as a Manager for the group. I want to have my memories of Flair on top. I wanted to remember him with the big gold belt around his waist, being the man.

This is the Ric Flair that I choose to remember. Top of his game, promos like no other, taking every opponent to the limit. Instead, with every passing year my memories became more and more tarnished as I watched this true legend of the sport start to waste away. Even though Hogan and Piper are near his age they both look well younger because they, unlike Flair, took time off from the sport. They allowed their bodies to rest. I see Ric Flair and it breaks my heart that either he loves the sport so much that he can't walk away, or he owes so much money to repay loans and alimony that he has to wrestle. It won't be long and he will be just like Terry Funk, staying in the game well past his prime, not knowing when to walk away and it will be too late.

It almost makes me feel like crying.