I am not sure what to say about Ric Flair that hasn't been said by everyone else. Growing up for me the world of wrestling wasn't as sharply divided as it obviously was for some. I watched both the WWF/WWE and the NWA/WCW. There were aspects to both that I appreciated and I was a fan of both Hulk Hogan and Flair, actually probably more of Hogan at the time. 

Slowly though Flair started to become my favorite wrestler of the two and I am not sure exactly when, but I definately remember why. The first time I ever truly found myself in just awe of Ric Flair was in the famous Terry Funk I quit match. I vividly remember watching the angle leading up to it, and then the match itself.  It was just fantastic.

Another Flair match that captured my attention was the 45 minute draw at the first class of the champions against Sting. I remembering watching this match and just realizing that something special was happening. While Hogan was able to get great ovations from the crowd with his short dominate matches, Flair was painting masterpieces right before our eyes. Again everything that can be said probably has been said, but there is one thing that just shows how big a fan of Ric Flair I became. 

On May 3, 1999 there was the largest tornado ever measured at the time coming through my state. I was at home with my nephew who was young at the time, we kept one eye on the weather watching the storm and tornado move towards us, while at the same time flipping to Nitro. I stayed in the house until the storm was just several miles away in the vain hope that I would find out what the hell Scott Hall and Ric Flair were doing in the same mental hospital.

Something I am still trying to figure out to this very day by the way. I grabbed my nephew and we took shelter at the local junior high locker room. When I looked at him to see what he had packed in his backpack to save, he pulled out his wrestling action figures, out of everything in the world it was wrestling action figures. It was at this time that I realized that the obsession I guess with professional wrestling had been passed down to another generation of my family. 

Zachary Heath

***

I remember sitting at the kitchen table, my hands shaking as Ric Flair was trying to defeat 27 other wrestlers in the '92 WWE Royal Rumble. Looking at the television was to scary so I relied on play-by-play from my mother. I was only a 9-year-old little girl but knew from the first time I saw him he would be my hero. Hulkamania was an after thought and Flair was now the man in the WWE to beat. As he walked down the aisle with Mr. Perfect to claim his Real World Title my heart then and still does belong to the Nature Boy.
   
Ric Flair is so much more then what most wrestlers are. The humbleness he has shown in his career should be bottled and given to those who are not thankful for the position they have in life thanks to their fans.
   
I have had the chance to see so much of what Flair did before I born and it's so rich with passion it puts others to shame. I have always been so proud to stand up and say I'm a Flair fan. He has fought so hard and for so long there is not enough we can do to thank him.
   
Without Flair wrestling it will be hard to stomach the WWE. I will never stop watching wrestling, and though Flair cannot wrestle forever, it hurts to know the Flair era is over. I never thought Flair would age or ever retire. He just seemed timeless. However, WrestleMania was done with such respect and grace I have no complaints about seeing Flair walk. Tears rolled down my face through the whole match because Flair is poetry in motion. He is wrestling.

Ric Flair I love you and all you have done. We now are left with sports entertainment but when Flair was in the mix it was always pro-wrestling. And that is what I will always remember.

Alexious Cardamone

***

I met Ric Flair at a bar after a show in Pensacola, FL, and he bought me a beer, along with about half a dozen other folks around us. Strangely enough, the first thing I noticed that I was taller than he was (I'm 5'10"), but he was an awesomely nice person. 

And on another front, my wife actually grew up living across the street from him in Charlotte, N.C.  She said Ric used to take her and his daughter Megan to get ice cream, and my wife's older sister used to babysit David Flair from time to time. Her mom said she always knew when he had a "bad night" because she'd be walking around the neighborhood and see him walking very slowly and gingerly up his driveway to pick up the paper. 

I watched TBS religiously and loved to hate the Four Horsemen, but always loved Flair. I actually hated when he would become a face, as I always loved him better as a heel, and loved his promos, which my friends and I would recite over and over again. Here's to the real Space Mountain, Ric Flair.

Tom
Atlanta, Ga.

***

Needless to say, I am a huge Ric Flair fan. I first became a fan when he was on his way back to WCW from his short WWF stint and they played about four weeks of Ric Flair matches and promos during WCW Saturday to prepare people for his return.  I went to the ECW show in Minneapolis and saw him wrestle Big Show.  

I left with the same feeling I had after watching Michael Jordan play live for the first time.  I was also in Charlotte for the beginning of his retirement angle. Once again, I felt like I was at a monumental event.

I am writing because I am also a writer for a pretty popular Hip Hop site, The Smoking Section, and I wrote a few months ago about Ric Flair's huge impact on Hip-Hop.  Here is the link...

SmokingSection.com.

David

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