| | | Did Ric Flair really say that?
16 of the most provocative lines from ESPN’s new documentary
BY THÉODEN JANES
NOVEMBER 06, 2017 2:17 PM
charlotteobserver.com
Is Ric Flair the greatest and most entertaining wrestler of all time?
“Nature Boy” – the “30 for 30” documentary that premieres 10-11:30 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN – certainly makes that argument, while also depicting him as deeply flawed in his personal life.
“In some ways, he transcends the business,” says friend and colleague “Triple H” (aka Paul Levesque, a top WWE executive) late in the film. “His legacy will also be probably what notto do in the business, in some ways. Right? I use Ric as an example sometimes with young talent – of ‘You can have it all and end up in a really precarious spot.’ ”
Triple H was among a group of 46 wrestling personalities, family members, friends and pop-culture pundits who were interviewed for the film by Rory Karpf, the Charlotte resident who directed “Nature Boy”; arguably the most surprising gets were Flair’s first wife, Leslie Jacobs (who had never done an on-camera interview) and Mark “The Undertaker” Calaway (who very rarely breaks character in public). ...
8. Flair, on his initial visit to a sports psychologist, back in the 1980s: “(He asked) ‘How much do you drink a day?’ I said, ‘I’ll drink at least 10 beers, and probably five mixed drinks.’ He said, ‘Well, how many days a week do you do that?’ I said, ‘Every day.’ He said, ‘Well, how do you mean every day?’ I said, ‘I work every day. I drink a beer in the car, I get to the hotel and I drink vodka.’ He came out of his chair and (he said), ‘You drink every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and you’ve been doing that for how long?’ I said, ‘Well, let me see. It’s 1989, I started in ’72, you do the math. Almost 20 years.’ He said, ‘That’s not possible.’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, it is.’ By the time I got through with that son of a b----, he was laying on the couch and I was on the chair talking to him.”
9. Former wrestler “Baby Doll” (Nickla Roberts), on Flair’s drinking: “There was hardly a day that he went without having at least several drinks. You can be an alcoholic and be fully functional. I never saw him show up at the show inebriated, but Flair could drink. How he still has a liver, I don’t know.”
... |
|
