Where were you when Ric Flair took his final bow?

Monday, MARCH 31 - 11:21 P.M.

When I was a kid, I always begged my parents to take me to the AWA shows at the St. Paul Civic Center (the Xcel Energy Center is located on the old Civic Center site). It was a bit of a trek from our house to St. Paul and my parents weren't wrestling fans, so I didn't get to go to very many shows.

I remember sitting home those Sunday nights imagining what I was missing out on. At 10:25, I'd manually flip (no remote control in those days) through the channels on the television just hoping that one of the local news stations would air highlights from the AWA show.

I remember seeing the footage and being envious of the fans who were lucky enough to see those shows in person. On Monday morning, I'd race to the newspaper box in hopes that the results of the show were published in the sports section. Sometimes they were and other times I had to wait until the weekend to find out the results on the television show. Well, unless one of my classmates happened to go to the show and then I as beyond envious.

I'm a spoiled fan compared to those days. I've been to countless shows, I have access to thousands of hours of matches on DVD, and now people send the results of the shows to me sometimes just minutes after they occur. Oh, and I own about a dozen remote controls now.

Still, this is one of the first times since I was a live wrestling depraved kid that I feel truly envious of other wrestling fans.

I watched the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, I ordered WrestleMania 24, and I watched tonight's Raw, yet I'm still envious of the fans who were lucky enough to attend those events in person and see the end of Ric Flair's career as an active wrestler.

These have been three amazing nights and I really wish I could tell my grandchildren someday that I was there to see the greatest wrestler of all time take his final bow.