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I just finished watching the Ultimate Ric Flair Collection DVD. One of
the things I used to wonder about was why Ric cut all his hair off in
'90 (I think). That bugged the hell out of me & it never dawned on me
that it was Jim Herd's doing. Another thing that used to get me going
whenever I would watch that cage match with Harley Race was Gene
Kiniski's performance as special referee. I think Kiniski was
portraying the enforcer referee role at the expense of both the match
& the two wrestlers competing for the world title. He was way over
board on putting his hands on those two & his counts were so slow that
dramatic near falls were almost impossible. I just know how I feel if
the referee is not flowing with the match or worse, he is screwing
things up outright. I used to jump on that referee's ass right there &
then. If a wrestler was out of place I would bark at them in the
middle of the ring to. I believe that when you are in the biggest
wrestling show in the world that it's not too much to ask for people
to "know their part". Ric Flair always knew his part & his opponent's
part. Ric had excellent 60 minute mathces with all the top guys in all
the promotions around the world. Believe me when I tell you that they
werent all Ricky Steamboats or Fujinamis or Terry Funks. Ric had
excellent 60 minute matches with some of the worst wrestlers in the
business. To me that is as impressive as the the list of great matches
he's had with other great workers. A person can be great in the ring
but not be able to elevate a lesser opponent into having a great
match. Ric Flair was the last real world champion.

He would fight being a babyface because he loved being a heel so much.
I remeber wrestling Ric at the Spectrum in Philly & we jus called it
out there. People loved Ric & hated me, but Ric tried to shine me up
like I was Ricky Steamboat. He didn't want to just beat me in the
middle with the figure 4, but I thought it was wrong for him not to.
Plus I will promise you that their are way worse things in the world
than to have Ric Flair put you in the figure 4 leglock in front of
thousands of people.

I had a feud with the Nature Boy Ric Flair. That's one of the things I
am most grateful for . I kind of had to shoot my own angle with him &
I ended up being disrespectful to Ric a few times because, at the
time, I thought I had to do it to take respect that I thought I wasn't
getting. Looking back I totally understand the feeling that I wasn't a
big enough name to be in the main event with himself, Piper , & Kevin
Greene. I wasn't if you looked at it strictly on paper. But things got
heated up personally & it came through on TV. Those were the start of
the trend of the "shooting" promo. The people wanted to see Ric beat
the living shit out of me by the time the match came.

When we did the parody of the 4 Horsemen Arn Anderson retirement
speech, I played the roll of Ric & Kevin Nash played Arn. I did Ric in
an "over the top" manner & Kevin played Arn's roll in the same manner.
The thing was that Ric portrayed his own self in an over the top way
to begin with, but Arn did not. I'm not sure if we got more heat from
them for desicrating such a truly real & special moment ( in a not so
real world) or for as Arn put it , portraying him as Otis the Town
Drunk with the foam cooler and beer. We never thought about the fact
that we might hurt feelings over what we were going to do. I remember
having mixed feelings because I was happy that people thought it was
well done, but at the expense of Arn & Ric's feelings. I don't mean to
come off sounding corny, but those two guys are legends & even if they
weren't I'd feel the same, just no one would have really cared.

If you want to read a good review of the DVD read Bruce Mitchell's in
the Torch. I'm just bringing up things that pop into my mind after
watching it. Watching the Sting stuff makes me remember when Sting was
hungry & his promos weren's clever, but came off so genuine & full of
excitment that you had to like him. I wish they would have shown the
Nashville Steamboat Flair Match where Flair won & Terry Funk attacked
Flair afterwards. and the match with Barry Windham from Battle of the
Belts 2 in Orlando from 1986. I loved to hear Gordon Solie on there. I
love Ric Flair. He is 1st Class all the way. The Classiest of them all
& the greatest of them all.
Thanks Naitch. 

DEFINITION: Naitchin' (verb) The act of picking up the tab for
everyone in the bar as The Nature Boy would do. Or treating yourself
to the finest hotels, cars, clothes, meals while on the road- as The
Nature Boy Ric Flair would do. Whoooo.

PS) Please excuse the mispellings and errorsof grammar. or if I put
the comma in the wrong spot as I often do.


--- Internet Rex 2.29