Hack-Man Pro-Wrestling Ric Flair interview

Last updated 24 July 2004


As much as "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and all of his many accomplishments belong to the professional wrestling world at large, the fans of Jim Crockett Promotions and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling to this day still like to claim him as one of our own. And our claim is not without merit. Ric came onto the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling scene in 1974, and was a fixture in the territory until the area became extinct, merging into a larger Jim Crockett Promotions amalgamation of wrestling promotions in the mid-1980s.

cover As the years have passed, Ric's legend had grown. But his love for the old Crockett territory, and his fans for him, has remained strong. While not visiting the Mid-Atlantic towns nearly as frequently as he did in the Crockett days, even the relatively rare Ric Flair appearances of the last 20 years or so in the Mid-Atlantic towns turn the respective arenas into Ric Flair love fests. Two of the most emotion filled evenings in Ric's wrestling life in recent years occurred in Greenville, South Carolina, a true hotbed of wrestling during the Crockett years....on September 14, 1998 when he returned to WCW after a bitter absence, and at the WWE RAW tribute to him on May 19, 2003.

To the delight of his legions of fans from the old Mid-Atlantic area, Ric has written and just recently released his autobiography, Ric Flair: To Be the Manbuy. True to his roots embedded in the Carolinas and Virginia, Ric has devoted considerable time in the book to his wrestling days in the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling territory. Ric's book is a must read for any Mid-Atlantic fan who remembers when Saturday afternoons with Ric Flair on TV and seeing him in person the next week in your local arena was a routine that couldn't be broken...and a part of your life that could never be forgotten.

The Mid-Atlantic Gateway would like to express our gratitude to Ric's co-author, Keith Elliot Greenberg, for his assistance with setting up this interview, along with World Wrestling Entertainment's Vice President of Publicity, Neil Lawi, and his Assistant Mary Ringwood. Without the help of the folks at World Wrestling Entertainment, this Gateway get together with the former 16-time World Champion would not have occurred.

And special thanks are reserved to the man himself, Ric Flair, for including the Mid-Atlantic Gateway as part of his publicity appearances for his new book. In our 25 minute interview, Ric not only talks about his book, but also reminisces about the Mid-Atlantic days and all the great persons and events that made that time so special. Ric...your book and this conversation shows your continuing love for the Mid-Atlantic area and your fans here, and know that we feel the same way about you. To us, you've been 'The Man' since 1974...and always will be.

- David Chappell

Question: Good afternoon Ric. Thank you so much for giving [the Mid-Atlantic Gateway] a little bit of time to talk about your new book, Ric Flair: To Be the Manbuy, and to do a little reminiscing about Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.

Ric Flair: Hi David ...thank you very much.

Question: I think I speak for your many Mid-Atlantic fans, in that we're all thrilled at long last you've written a book!

Ric Flair: Thank you again. Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling is where I started...that's where I got my beginning. And that's something that will always be part of my life. It's something that I'll always remember.

Question: By my count, there are ten chapters in your book that are devoted strictly to the Mid-Atlantic area and Jim Crockett Promotions. And there are many references to those early days in other parts of the book as well. Tell us about your start in the Crockett territory.

Ric Flair: You know, I was fortunate enough to come there at the right time. I was fortunate enough to be under the tutelage of both Wahoo McDaniel and George Scott.

And I was fortunate enough to stay for a long time, which was another unusual situation...to stay in one place for a long time and enjoy that level and quality of life.

Question: Back in those days, that was extremely unusual.

Ric Flair: A lot of guys at that time, almost everybody, was moving around from territory to territory. I was able to stay in one city, one area, my entire career.

So, I was pretty fortunate. And when I look back on it...it was pretty unusual.

Question: When you look back at the Mid-Atlantic years, what jumps out at you? You were certainly maturing as a wrestler; you had many a great match in the ring; you had a lot of good times; you went to a lot of great places and towns; you made many great friends. What stands out?

Ric Flair: (pauses) I think the friendships I developed there. And the fact that the territory was growing, and I was fortunate enough to be part of the branch that it grew on.

I became kind of a fixture because, as I said before, I was in the right place at the right time.

Question: When I looked at the Acknowledgements section in the book, Ric, I couldn't help but notice how many Mid-Atlantic figures were mentioned there by name. To me, that says a lot about your feelings about the Mid-Atlantic area.

George Scott; Wahoo McDaniel, Ricky Steamboat; Bob Caudle, Arn Anderson...are all mentioned by name in the Acknowledgements. I'd like you to talk about each one of those persons, if you would.

Ric Flair: Of course...I'd be happy to.

Question: The first is George Scott, who you've already mentioned briefly. George was booking the Crockett territory when you first started.

In the Acknowledgments section, you said George Scott, 'took a kid who was rough around the edges and molded him into a champion.'

Ric Flair: Yeah...he really did. I mean, I came in there a green kid. And even though I was fortunate enough to be around Wahoo, who helped me develop as a wrestler, George helped me develop my personality and my persona. George helped me with those things a lot.

Question: I also heard George could be very tough on the wrestlers. Blackjack Mulligan called him affectionately to me...a 'taskmaster.'

There's a section in the book where you describe George making you take your back brace off soon after you returned after the 1975 Wilmington, North Carolina plane crash...

Ric Flair: Yeah...that's right.

Question: Then you mention later in the book, that in 1979 you asked George if you could miss a TV taping at the WRAL studios when your son David was born in Minneapolis. George basically told you that you could go up there, but when you came back you wouldn't have a job.

Ric Flair: Well, on that, nobody had time off. We didn't take time off. I just began to realize, that George actually made me tough to the business. He helped make me tough...which I had to be.

You had to be a pretty tough guy, and pretty insensitive, to survive back then.

Question: I can only imagine...

Ric Flair: It was a very insensitive, very hard, business. And if you didn't work...you didn't get paid.

Question: Bottom line business.

Ric Flair: If you missed a date...you lost your spot. That's just the way it was.

(laughs) You just couldn't call in and take two or three days off.

Question: In the book around the sections you talk about George Scott, you also mention the late Johnny Valentine. He was an early partner of yours. What a tough guy in the ring, and one that a lot of people who visit our website remember well.

Ric Flair: Yeah, Johnny was a good guy. Johnny was a strange guy, to be honest. I can't say that I didn't learn a little bit from him, because I did. But his style was totally different from what I wanted to do.

Question: Totally mat based, that's for sure!

Ric Flair: Well, yeah, his style didn't work with anything I really wanted to do.

I came into the business watching Ray Stevens and Pat Patterson, (Nick) Bockwinkle and Red Bastien...and all of a sudden I was down there watching John do his thing.

I really liked the Anderson's style...

Question: Really?

Ric Flair: Yeah, that worked a lot better for me than John's did.

But, I was with John then, and it worked out good. Because of the fact that I was a young guy, and he was older and more experienced.

It's kind of like what I'm doing now with Randy (Orton) and Dave (Batista), you know, in 'Evolution.'

Question: That's right...in a lot of ways you have come full-circle in your career now with the WWE.

Ric Flair: A little similar, in some ways.

But, I just wasn't that enamored with Johnny's style of work.

I mean, I appreciated how hard he and Wahoo fought. And they did fight...it was a fight, not a wrestling match.

Question: Oh boy...those were brutal!

Ric Flair: I appreciated all that, but I told myself that I needed to be a more colorful and more flamboyant guy that flew around a little more than Johnny did. He didn't believe in ANY kind of bumps at all...he didn't like going off his feet.

Question: With John, you pretty much got toe-to-toe slugfests...

Ric Flair: Yeah, you really did.

Question: We all remember that Valentine was in the plane with you that went down in Wilmington in October of 1975. Of course, Valentine was never able to wrestle again after that.

There is a whole chapter in the book devoted to the plane crash. I know I was riveted to that chapter, to the point that I felt that I was in that plane with you! That had to be terrifying beyond anything imaginable?

Ric Flair: Is was a really harrowing experience...thank you. It was a rough deal.

Question: Another wrestler you mention by name in your Acknowledgments section is the late Wahoo McDaniel. And, of course, you've already mentioned him several times this afternoon.

I guess what the book really impressed on me was how close you were to him...going far beyond what we fans saw and knew in the 70s...

Ric Flair: Yes, that's most definitely the truth.

Question: Please share some of your thoughts about the 'Chief' with us. I think one of your best stories in the book, is where Wahoo comes racing into the hospital in Wilmington to check on you after the 1975 plane crash, and the hospital personnel tried to restrain him, because you two were in a heated feud then! They thought Wahoo had come to the hospital to finish you off! (laughs)

Ric Flair: Yeah, exactly, that's how seriously they took it back then.

Wahoo was that kind of a guy; just a stand up guy...take no sh*t from anybody type of guy. And he lived that way every minute of his life.

(laughs) He didn't take sh*t from anybody...not the wrestlers, the wrestling promoters, women, wives, girlfriends...

Question: (laughing) It didn't matter...no one was immune!

[ PHOTO: Flair and Wahoo prepare to do battle in Richmond in 1976. ]

Ric Flair: You know, Wahoo was married six times. If he didn't like something his wife was saying...he didn't let the door hit her on the ass on the way out!

Question: (laughing)

Ric Flair: He didn't care...when he got up in the morning he was gonna play golf or he was gonna fish. He would do whatever he was doing that afternoon, and then he'd leave and go to work and then he was gonna drink that night, and come home late. He didn't care! (laughs)

But, I mean, he was one of the most competitive people I've ever known in my life...

Question: Interesting!

Ric Flair: He had to be the best at everything he ever did. He was a scratch golfer, and if they did that kind of stuff back then, a world class Bass fisherman. He loved all that stuff, you know what I mean?

Question: Yeah, I remember on some of his Mid-Atlantic interviews his love of golf and fishing would definitely come out at times.

Ric Flair: He slept on a real bear rug...and if you stayed in his apartment or his house it had to be 60 degrees---it was brutal!

Question: (laughing)

Ric Flair: He was just a real Jeremiah Johnson.

Question: Wahoo McDaniel...the 'Mountain Man!' Amazing!

Ric Flair: Yes...he really was.

Question: Another wrestler you mention in the book's Acknowledgements, and a great competitor in the ring, was Ricky Steamboat.

Ric Flair: Yes.

Question: I found it interesting in the book, to find out that you were actually the one that approached George Scott and pushed to start that program with Ricky in 1977. And we all know how phenomenal that turned out!

Ric Flair: And you know, the older guys, including Wahoo, weren't too excited about [Steamboat] coming along!

Question: I've always been curious about that. But, I can sort of see that being the case.

Ric Flair: Yeah...it was.

[ PHOTO: Ricky Steamboat holds Flair high overhead during a 1978 battle in Kingsport, TN ]


Question: In the book, I think you indicate that Steamboat was the best 'good guy' that you ever wrestled. And, of course, Steamboat stayed a good guy his entire career.

Ric Flair: In my entire life, he was...he was fabulous.

Question: And Steamboat ended up being your first tag team partner when you turned into a good guy yourself in 1979. Talk about a 'Dream Team' pairing!

Ric Flair: Oh yeah...he was off the charts.

Question: Another person you mention in your Acknowledgements was Mid-Atlantic announcer Bob Caudle . You said the 'golden voices' of Bob Caudle , along with Gordon Solie and current WWE announcer Jim Ross, 'helped provide the soundtrack of my life.'

Ric Flair: Yes...

Question: Your mention of Bob Caudle got me to thinking about all the great Mid-Atlantic television angles that took place at the WRAL studios in Raleigh, North Carolina, or wherever you all were taping TV.

[ PHOTO: Flair on the set of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling with Bob Caudle and girls in 1978 ]

A couple of great ones are mentioned in the book...one is from 1978 when you suckered Steamboat in the ring and rubbed his face raw on the mat and floor. Then he comes back on another show, and tears your clothes off you!

You also mentioned the angle from early 1981 where Roddy Piper comes out and presents you the NWA TV Title as a sort of consolation prize, after he's beaten you for the U.S. Title. You turn the interview around on him, exposing his winning the U.S. belt from you with a foreign object!

Ric Flair: (laughs)

Question: Any other Mid-Atlantic television memories stand out to you?

Ric Flair: We did a lot of great stuff at WRAL. The angle with Blackjack Mulligan was huge...where I took his Cowboy hat that Waylon Jennings had given him, and tore it up and stomped on it. And a little later on, I was wresting somebody and Mulligan comes out wearing my robe, and he tore up my robe in front of me...

Question: That was an unforgettable Mid-Atlantic moment, Ric!

Ric Flair: And then I put a bounty out on Mulligan. I left for Japan, and when I came back, we were selling out everywhere! (laughing)

Question: And of course back then, everything played off the weekly TV show in your market. And that got the fans out to their local arena. So those TV angles like the Hat and Robe were really, really important then. There was hardly any cable TV and certainly no satellite dishes in those days. And Pay Per View events were years off.

Ric Flair: Exactly. Oh yeah, they were big-time.

Question: You also mention in the book's Acknowledgements section Arn Anderson, who you referred to as your 'friend for life.'

Arn came in at the tail end of the Mid-Atlantic promotion, and has been closely associated with you through Crockett, WCW and now to the present with World Wrestling Entertainment.

Ric Flair: Arn came in during 1985, and was with me there for a lot of the Crockett days.

Question: That was around the time that the 'Four Horsemen' came into being. That time period is also well chronicled in the book. It certainly sounds like things with the Horsemen were every bit as wild as what you all were always telling us about on TV!

Ric Flair: (laughing) Yeah...they were! We really had a lot of fun.

Question: As the years go on, the book describes the disintegration of Jim Crockett Promotions in the late 1980s in a lot of detail. For most Mid-Atlantic fans, I think that portion of your book will be a fascinating, but a sad read.

You describe how your relationship with Jimmy Crockett, Jr. became more distant, and there were really two opposing camps...with Jimmy Crockett and Dusty (Rhodes) on one side, and you and David , Jackie and Frances Crockett on the other.

Ric Flair: Yeah...

Question: I think a lot of the fans that visit our site will be very interested in hearing how all that really did go down.

Ric Flair: Well, you know, it went down exactly the way that I wrote it!

I tell you, to this day, I don't know how Jimmy and I drifted apart. He went from being my best friend, a guy that I thought the world of, to a guy that I just couldn't talk to. He was out of control.

He was convinced that they could go to Dallas...which they lost a fortune. And make movies. You know, that story is very similar to the WCW story later in the book.

Question: How so?

Ric Flair: Well, not similar as to the way Jimmy treated me, of course. Jimmy Crockett never treated me badly at all. But Jimmy and Dusty had an obsession with trying to compete with Vince McMahon, and it overshadowed the importance of making the territory do well.

They were so consumed with becoming a national commodity, that they forgot about their back yard. They spent money they didn't have, continuously...which is very similar to the WCW story.

Question: And it sounded like by that time, Jimmy would only listen to Dusty?

Ric Flair: No matter how many of us told Jimmy that they were spending too much money, it didn't matter...

Question: He didn't want to hear it.

Ric Flair: Right. And we kept telling him he should stay east of the Mississippi...not go west of the Mississippi. If he had done that, he would have stayed in business.

But the minute we went west, we started losing big money.

Question: And that situation is addressed in depth in the book.

Ric Flair: (laughs) And you know who speaks out very candidly about it, is David (Crockett)! David verifies everything I'm saying.

Question: He does, and in fact David Crockett is quoted throughout the book. I thought his insight on a lot of subjects contributed significantly to the book.

Ric Flair: Don 't think that David didn't seize the opportunity to tell Dusty and Jimmy what he thinks of them...

Question: Oh yes!

Ric Flair: Until I read David 's quotes, I didn't realize how harsh he'd been either. He's harder on them than I am! And I'm not really hard on them...

Question: No, not to any great extent certainly....

Ric Flair: The things that I'm talking about there, probably hurt me more than the guys that are reading it now.

Question: Like any good book, Ric, yours is full of things that the reader would never know about unless you made the point of bringing them out and highlighting them for us. Just a couple come off of the top of my head.

Like, for instance, who would have ever known that Art Nelson was the wrestler that taught you the importance of bleeding during a match...

Ric Flair: (laughs)

Question: And that Tim Woods saved Mid-Atlantic Wrestling by his actions after the plane crash?

Ric Flair: And he never got paid a dime.

Question: He just went in there and gutted it out.

Ric Flair: That's right.

Question: Certainly, the book is illustrative of how important your family is to you.

Ric Flair: Yes...very much.

Question: And as fans, we knew virtually nothing about your family during the Mid-Atlantic years.

Ric Flair: I know.

Question: And you also talk about you and Blackjack Mulligan, one of your best friends, buying the Knoxville territory in 1981 and it failing...and that your relationship with Blackjack was never quite the same after that. And that to this day you miss Blackjack.

I'm proud to say that Blackjack is a good friend of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway...if we can link you all up down the road, we would be delighted!

Ric Flair: Do you ever talk to him?

Question: Yes, we're in touch frequently.

Ric Flair: Oh really? Please say 'hi' to him. I just miss that relationship.

[ PHOTO: Blackjack Mulligan and Ric Flair in the WRAL studio, Raleigh NC, 1976 ]

I just never saw Jack for so long, you know? It's funny, because I know I've been in towns and he's been there...but I got the impression he was just pretty much through with the business.

Question: Well, yes and no. I think Jack is comfortable now with his life outside of wrestling...but we did a nearly 50 page wrestling interview a couple of months ago! What a super guy...

Ric Flair: Let me tell you, Jack Mulligan and I...believe me, I wish I could have written about him and I all day long. Jack was the kind of guy; he was just so powerful. Personality wise...in every way. I could have told more stories...I could talk about Jack all day long.

Question: Having talked with Jack myself, I ABSOLUTELY believe that!

Ric Flair: We became best friends, we were neighbors...we did everything there was to do. Then all of a sudden, you know, some of the problems took place...which I didn't touch on a lot.

It hurt me, that a guy that was such a big part of my life...was gone. You know what I mean?

Question: I'm sure that had to be extremely tough.

Ric Flair: I had to go my way, and he had to go his, you know what I mean?

Question: Yeah, just sort of that fork in the road...

Ric Flair: Yes...and there were never any words between us, nothing like that.

He and I had nothing but fun!

Question: (laughs) And, apparently, a lot of it!

Ric Flair: I could write some fabulous stories about him!

Question: When I interviewed Blackjack, he had to cut me off after two Ric Flair stories...he said otherwise we'd be on the phone for days! (laughs)

Ric Flair: He's an awesome guy.

Question: Why did you write Ric Flair: To Be the Manbuy?

Ric Flair: Actually, I didn't really want to do it...they put a lot of pressure on me to do it.

Question: Oh really?

Ric Flair: Yep. And then they put even more pressure on me to be honest...

Question: I think it's important to say here that the book covers your whole life and career...and goes far beyond the Mid-Atlantic territory. And you don't pull any punches on a bunch of people you've dealt with over the years.

Ric Flair: There are no punches to pull...it's nothing I wouldn't, and haven't, said to them. And the thing of it is, it's all documented. It's just my opinion.

Question: I think a lot of people will be very surprised by much of what you write towards the end of the book, when you were having to endure the dying days of WCW and everything that was going on with that. You were having a real crisis of self-doubt...

Ric Flair: Yes, self-confidence...

Question: Seeing you in Richmond on RAW last Monday night, you had that same strut again coming down the aisle of the Coliseum just like you did in the Mid-Atlantic days!

Ric Flair: Thank you...

Question: But was it tough writing about those down times in the book?

Ric Flair: It was, because it was a very difficult period of my life.

But you know what, the problem with this is that when I look at people that have problems in life...I think of people that have children that are handicapped, people that have been in car wrecks and are paralyzed. There's a difference between having a hard time in life, and having some issues. Does that make sense?

Question: Without a doubt...sometimes we all have to keep things in perspective.

Ric Flair: I've had issues. But my life has never been hard from the standpoint that I've never lost a child; I've never had one of my children get real sick. You know, I had some rough times with my parents, but they were in their 80s...those things happen at that age.

I don't want anybody to think that I ever had a tough time, you know. I had some issues that I had a hard time dealing with...but in the realm of my life in terms of it ever being BAD, compared to people that really have problems, that's not what I was trying to say in the book.

Question: Yes...your book, in its essence, is a book about wrestling.

Ric Flair: I was merely telling wrestling stories. And telling about some of the things that I went through, both as a performer and as a person. And some of the things that got under my skin...which in a lot of cases I should have dealt with differently. If I'm mad at anybody about those things, I'm mad at myself.

Towards the end with WCW, I just didn't want to go through another lawsuit, spending more money on attorneys...I mean, otherwise, I would have left WCW long before.

Question: This is when Eric Bischoff fired you in 1998 for breach of contract, allegedly for your going to your son Reid's AAU wrestling tournament. And as you said in the book, at that point you didn't even have a contract with WCW! And then you counter sued him...and later you finally decided to settle it.

Ric Flair: I know they would have gone out of their way to make my life miserable...again. If I had been smart, really smart, and not wanted back in the business...like I said in the book, I should have keep my lawsuit in place and I would have been rich---rich beyond belief.

Question: Well, Ric, you were flat out in a tough position there. I mean, any decision you made, probably had some downsides for you.

Ric Flair: But resolving it any other way would have been a terrible way to end up my career. Being in a huge lawsuit with Time-Warner over somebody that treated me like sh*t. I mean, that would have been hardly the way, the last way, anybody would have wanted to end up their career. You know what I mean?

Question: Surely...that would have undoubtedly been even worse on you.

It's great to read in the book, how things have been so much more positive for you since you returned to WWE after WCW bit the dust in 2001.

Ric Flair: Yeah, that's entirely true. I had no idea that I still had that kind of respect from those kind of people. I had no idea that I had that kind of rapport with people.

I mean, when somebody has convinced you that you're not worth anything to anybody anymore, and they spend a lot of time doing it...you start believing it yourself. Does that make sense?

Question: Of course. And it's very clear from the book that Bischoff and those later years in WCW took quite a toll on you. Still, for all of us fans who always think of Ric Flair as the epitome of self-confidence, it's pretty amazing to now know that you battled that significant period of self-doubt. But I think it just goes to show that we're all human...even Ric Flair!

Ric Flair: Like I wrote in the book...the first time I talked to Vince about that I'm sure they were going, 'What???'

Question: Well, I think that's what makes the book so fascinating. Because people are going to see a side of you that they never knew existed. And very few people at the time knew about.

Ric Flair: Well, yes, and it's the truth. I'm not sure how it will all play out. None of this was written to hurt anybody's feelings.

Question: You mean your book as a whole?

Ric Flair: Yes. Anybody I said something about...said something about me. And if they're mad about it, then they're a hypocrite. Those people had no problems saying things about me.

Question: That's right...in the book your comments are almost always in direct response to what someone has already said about you.

Ric Flair: Like the stuff with Hulk Hogan. You know Hogan and I...the best thing about Hogan and I is that we agree to disagree.

And Hulk...I make no bones about Hulk Hogan---he always took care of himself. I mean, that's always the way he operated.

Question: No doubt about that.

Ric Flair: He was that way, always has been...and I'm sure he'll continue to be that way. But he doesn't care!

That's the difference between Hogan and I. When I leave, I'd rather have the respect of and the relationships I have with all these people...from the McMahons to the wrestlers. And have that level of respect and self-esteem...that I have for the conversation I'm having with you right now.

Rather than walking out the door, you know, angry or mad or upset over a payoff, or an amount of money, or a position, or a match I had to win or lose...it isn't worth that to me.

Question: The differences between you and Hogan are striking, to say the least...

Ric Flair: It isn't worth it...that's what I was trying to say. But, it wasn't that I was knocking Hulk. He's a businessman, and wrestling comes second to him.

Question: In the book, what really seems to have gotten to you on Hogan, is when Hogan got your son David in there in a NWO angle in WCW during 1999 and legitimately whipped the 'you know what' out of him with a belt. He just went too far with it. You were handcuffed to the ring ropes as part of the angle, and had to watch it.

Ric Flair: Yeah, and anybody that watched that, knows that too.

And I couldn't even say anything to Hogan after that. You'd be surprised how that would translate into, 'Oh, you're whining for your kid.'

Question: Yeah...pressing it too hard probably would have made things even worse for David. .

Ric Flair: Exactly.

Question: Well Ric, I know we need to wrap this up soon, you have another interview scheduled shortly...but I did want to ask you if you have any book signings lined up in Virginia and the Carolinas---the Mid-Atlantic area!

Ric Flair: (laughs) Can I tell you something?

Question: Of course.

Ric Flair: (laughs) This is a sad thing, but about half of the WWE staff here doesn't understand who I am.

Richmond, Norfolk, Charlotte, Columbia, Greenville, Charleston, Greensboro, Charleston, West Virginia...the staff doesn't know who I am!

Question: (laughing)

Ric Flair: Instead of having me in those towns, they have me going off to Podunk, Rhode Island, or somewhere, next week...

Question: (laughing hard)

Ric Flair: We could sell 100,000 books in Richmond if I go there...in one day! I keep trying to tell them that!

Question: You got that right!!

Well, I have seen a couple of your signings already set in North Carolina, including Charlotte...so I know the Mid-Atlantic area will be well represented! And the good folks at WWE got you into Richmond for RAW last Monday, and I saw the Smackdown Pay Per View the night before in Norfolk, so I'm confident they'll get you back down to Virginia!

I've talked to your publicity folks, and hopefully we'll be able to post your upcoming book signings, particularly in Virginia and the Carolinas, on our site.

Ric Flair: Very good.

Question: In closing Ric, could you give a shout-out to all of your old Crockett fans that we sort of cater to on our website?

Ric Flair: Through the Mid-Atlantic Gateway?

Question: Yes, that would be fantastic!

Ric Flair: (pauses) Hey, this is the Nature Boy Ric Flair and I'll never forget the 25 years I spent in the Mid-Atlantic. And thanks to all of you at the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, the memories will continue forever. Thank you. WOOO!

[ AUDIO CLIP ]


Question: Wow, I hope that recorded well! Because we can make that an audio clip that visitors to the site will hear when they access your interview. If that's permissible, we'll try to do that.

Ric Flair: Oh sure! No problem.

Question: I think that will be a great addition to your interview...an audio greeting from 'The Man' himself!

Ric Flair: Thank you, sir, very much. cover

Question: Ric, we are honored that you would take time to be a part of our website. We really appreciate you and everyone at WWE for making us a part of this publicity tour for your book. We're certainly delighted to help spread the good word to the Mid-Atlantic community about Ric Flair: To Be the Manbuy.

Ric Flair: Thank you. Thank you very much, David

This interview originally appeared at http://www.midatlanticwrestling.net/Resource_Center/interviews/flair/flair01.htm